Lorena Bobbitt is the focus of Amazon Prime Video's new series, Lorena.
Lorena Bobbitt is the focus of Amazon Prime Video's new series, Lorena.
Wondering what to binge? Here are four shows you need to watch over the weekend.
Lorena (Amazon Prime Video)
It's about time the extraordinary relationship between John Wayne and Lorena Bobbitt was turned into a documentary. Debuting on Amazon Prime Video this weekend, Lorena, a four-part series, dives into theinfamous 1993 incident in which 24-year-old Bobbitt cut off Wayne's organ as he slept. The doco dives into the ensuing court cases, which became all-consuming battles of he said, she said, and are still discussed, and joked about. Executive producer Jordan Peele has said he hopes Joshua Rofe's documentary "engages in a critical conversation about gender dynamics [and] abuse". Let's hope it does exactly that.
Anyone alive in the 80s knows what the term Black Monday means. On October 19, 1987, the stock market suffered a massive worldwide crash, one so big it took years to recover from. Has enough time passed for us to laugh about it? The creators of Black Monday hope so. The comedy focuses on employees at The Jammer Group, a second-tier Wall Street trading firm led by Don Cheadle, in the days leading up to the crash. Co-produced by Seth Rogen, reviews are promising ahead of its launch here on Neon. "Rapid-fire dialogue and brilliant performances from a stellar cast," wrote the Colorado Springs Gazette.
Larry Charles' Dangerous World of Comedy (Netflix)
Can you be funny in Iraq? How do female comics in Liberia turn rape culture into comedy? And how do former child soldiers who live in abandoned cemeteries find themselves on stage telling jokes? If there's one person who can help find out, it's Larry Charles, the screen comedy veteran with credits on everything from Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm to Borat and Bruno. Here's, he's investigating how jokes can emerge from the bleakest situations. Or, as he calls it, the "honest and harrowing and heartbreaking story of comedy in the face of war and violence and death". The four-part series is on Netflix from Friday.
The Umbrella Academy (Netflix)
Gerard Way has come a long way since his time in My Chemical Romance. The former emo star turned his hand to comics since the demise of his band, and the series has done very well - so well, it's earned its very own TV show. Not much is known about the show, but it's following similar themes as the comics: 43 infants are inexplicably born to random mothers who weren't pregnant. Yes, they have superpowers. Yes, there are mysteries to solve. And yes, there's a global apocalypse looming. Sounds like the kind of stuff My Chemical Romance used to write songs about.
