Yes just announced a release date for its new series, Wonder, which will premiere on Yes Drama on June 26. The series stars pop superstar Noa Kirel as a girl killed in a car crash, whose father, a retired military officer (Moris Cohen), investigates her death and learns she was part of a gaming cult. This will be Kirel’s first major dramatic role, and it was produced by Yes and Ananey Productions.
Speaking of fathers, if you ever wondered where Sarah Silverman got her sense of humor, you’ll know after watching her new Netflix special, Sarah Silverman: PostMortem, that it came from Schleppy, her father.
The show, which was recorded live at the Beacon Theater in New York, is a tribute to his off-kilter sense of humor and his outrageousness, and to her stepmother, Janice, as well as a look at her entire close-knit family after her father and stepmother died within days of each other in 2023. It’s an affectionate and funny look at what must have been a hellish time for the Silverman family, but also a tribute to the love that they the Silverman sisters have for each other and how they came together to make her parents’ last months as good as they could be.
Silverman, who admits in the special that she has been something of a judgmental mean girl in the past, allows herself to be more vulnerable than ever here. It plays more like a Spalding Gray monologue than the usual stand-up routine. While it may not feature enough punch lines for some of her ardent fans, she may find a new following with this. A gifted mimic, Silverman really creates the characters of her parents here, and you feel as if you knew them. Her mother emerges as an odd combination of artist and bohemian and a very proper lady, whose last words to her daughter were, “Your hair – it’s so dry.”
Silverman kills in new special, new season of 'The Bear'
But it’s Schleppy who is the real star here. Some of the highlights include Silverman reading aloud one of the voice messages he sent her, when he expressed his amazement that he could call her from inside a car wash and then realized he had left the window open. Another great moment that will make you wish you knew the man she called her best friend is his crazy Yelp review for his beloved dentist.
Schleppy ran a discount women’s clothing outfit, called Crazy Sophie’s, in New Hampshire, and at the end of the special, Silverman plays his jingle: “This is Crazy Sophie’s husband/I could just vomit when I see all the stuff department stores pull/To get you into their overpriced emporiums/Spend your time at the mall/Spend your money at Crazy Sophie’s.”
Silverman’s sister, Rabbi Susan Silverman of Jerusalem, gets a moment in the show, with Silverman sharing how she couldn’t help laughing hysterically at a tragic moment when she thought of a joke her father liked to tell.
FOR ANYONE caring for aging relatives, Roz Chast’s superb graphic novel on this subject, Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? will bring moments of joy and recognition and could be a great book to read after watching the Silverman special. A visually effective, moving animated short film, Survivor, about the experiences of Ivor Perl, a Hungarian-born Auschwitz survivor, just became available on Netflix.
Perl, who moved to England after the war and was awarded the British Empire Medal, was just 12 when he was sent to the death camp with his entire family but lied and said he was older in order to escape the gas chambers. The story is told with simplicity and stark animated puppets drawn by director Zoom Rockman.
Rockman said in a statement on his website that he drew inspiration from the works of David Olere, a Holocaust survivor whose drawings detail the Sonderkommando at Auschwitz.
Perl told of his experiences in the book Chicken Soup Under the Tree. As of this past International Holocaust Remembrance Day, he was still alive, and he worked with Rockman and his team to make the film as authentic as possible.
FANS OF The Bear – who tend to be fanatic in their love for the show about a family-run Chicago restaurant led by Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), a very talented and very troubled chef – don’t have long to wait for season four, which will be released in Israel on Disney+ on June 26.
The third season was about how the perfectionist Carmy painted himself into a corner with his new restaurant as he decided that all the dishes served must be different every night, antagonizing everyone around him. The new season, the trailer for which has just been released, ends with Carmy saying, “There’s one really true thing about restaurants. You are never alone.” So, it seems he is going to embrace his colleagues and family once again.
The trailer shows that the season picks up just after season three, with Uncle Jimmy (Oliver Platt) setting a clock and saying when it gets to zero, the restaurant will be out of money and will have to close. The entire cast is back, and everyone will gather at some point for what looks like a wedding but which could be a party for the baby that Carmy’s sister, Natalie (Abby Elliott), gave birth to in season three.
The best news to be gleaned from the trailer is that Jamie Lee Curtis, who plays Carmy’s clinically insane but intermittently well-meaning mother, is back, and giving out advice, which sounds surprisingly sensible. Curtis’ appearances were among the highlights of seasons two and three, and perhaps she will have an even more important role in the upcoming season. In any case, fans can set their own clocks now.
THE AVERAGE AGE of the actors portraying high schoolers in Grease (2023) – which is now available on Disney+ and can be seen on Apple TV+ – is about 27, and the movie isn’t quite as much fun now as it was when it first came out.
Whenever John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John sing and dance together in the original 1978 movie, their chemistry and star power are off the charts, and it’s perfect escapist entertainment. If Travolta and Newton-John had lived decades earlier, Hollywood would have paired them in another half-dozen musicals. That would have been something to see.
The rest of Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies, which was a sort of nod and a wink from the 70s back at the more repressive 50s, is extremely sexy by today’s standards, even with the jokey tone. The subplot about the cool bad girls having sex but then needing dangerous, illegal abortions is so depressing, it threatens to derail all the hi-jinks at times. Nothing in the stagey plot is as suspenseful as waiting for the moment when Newton-John emerges with teased hair and tight black pants. You may want to fast forward from song to song, and “Summer Lovin’ ” and “You’re the One I Want” are still good.
