From left, Ricky Staffieri, Jeremy Allen White and Matty Matheson in “The Bear.” Chuck Hodes/FX
On Wednesday, David E. Kelley’s new adaptation of Scott Turow’s legal thriller “Presumed Innocent” arrives. It stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a prosecutor suspected of murdering his lover, played by Renate Reinsve from the film “The Worst Person in the World.” I’m willing to forget that I know how the story ends (you’ll recall the 1990 movie version, starring Harrison Ford) if the show proves entertaining enough. Kelley’s recent addictive shows include “Big Little Lies” and “The Undoing,” so I feel like this one has promise.
In July, Natalie Portman stars in a screen adaptation of Laura Lippman’s novel “Lady in the Lake” as a newspaper reporter in the 1960s investigating two mysterious deaths. The show also stars Moses Ingram (“The Queen’s Gambit”), Y’lan Noel (“Insecure”) and Mikey Madison (“Better Things”) and it’s written and directed by Alma Har’el, who directed “Honey Boy,” that very good Shia LaBeouf movie from 2019, images from which still pop up in my mind with a curious frequency.
Another book-to-screen project I’ve got my eye on for August: Carl Hiaasen’s 2013 novel “Bad Monkey,” which Janet Maslin called a “comedic marvel,” is getting new life as a series by Bill Lawrence, a co-creator of “Ted Lasso” and “Shrinking.” It stars Vince Vaughn as a detective turned restaurant inspector who’s pulled back onto the beat by a fisherman’s grisly discovery of a severed arm. Vaughn is one of those actors who seem to make everything they’re in a little cooler, a little funnier, a little daffier. I look forward to spending time with him.
Speaking of daffy, I’m back and forth on the madcap appeals of “Only Murders in the Building,” but I watched the trailer and it seems the trio of accidental gumshoes are headed to Hollywood for the fourth season. Perhaps it’s just my fond memories of “L.A. Story” and “Bowfinger,” but I am excited to see Steve Martin bumble his way into the star-making apparatus of Los Angeles. The new season arrives at the end of August.
Oh, and it’s not suspenseful per se (although those elaborately choreographed montages of the kitchen staff assembling orders with virtuoso precision do make me hold my breath), but I will tune in for the third season of “The Bear” on June 27, and I think you should, too. This is one of those shows that it seems everyone loved when it first came out — it won a lot of awards, its stars became megastars — and now I’m hearing lots of critical grumbling about how it’s overrated. I’m going to ignore this, not only because I’m desperate for something to watch, but also because I maintain that the show’s earnest depiction of the rewards of collaboration makes for extremely satisfying viewing, and Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri are so quirky and compelling I can’t stay away.
