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HBO's "The Undoing" does the incredible: Make us nostalgic for lifestyles of the rich and bothered Rich people problems are so much sexier than poor people's pandemic problems, so let's watch this crazy thing Well, it's finally happened. Maybe this is the quarantine talking . . .  No, yes it's definitely the quarantine . . . but I've reached that point on the extended social distancing spectrum where I've realized how much I've missed  the zany exploits of fictional rich, entitled people. I know! Crazy right? But hear me out:  such characters are the stuff of American dreams . Take Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant's New Yorkers in "The Undoing," products of privileged white tragedy,  David E. Kelley -fantasy edition.   Advertisement: "The Undoing" is a limited series designed to be enjoyed with friends and box wine and cheap finger foods – sorry, canapes in this context, not finger foods. Maybe hors d'oeuvres, but prefer...

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Barbarians’ on Netflix, a German Quasi-Historical Action-Drama Series in Which People Kill and Have Sex With Each Other Barbarians  is a German Netflix series about ancient Germania, where tribes of, um, Germanians weren’t too thrilled to be under the thumb of the Roman empire. Like many shows before it, it has blood and sex and a tenuous grip on history — and probably a built-in audience of people who eat up this kind of stuff like NASCAR tailgaters at a pig roast. Now let’s see if it’ll stick to your ribs. BARBARIANS : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? Opening Shot:  A boy runs through the woods, playfully shouting, “The wolf is coming!” The Gist:  Teutoberg Forest, a coupla centuries ago. Thusnelda (Jeanne Goursaud) is instructed by her father to stop being happy and let him sell her to the chief of another Germanic tribe. Daddy will get five horses and an alliance; she’ll get a lifetime of subservience. Such is the state of feminism in 9 A.D. It’s also a ti...

Why ‘Borat’ Fan Favorite Luenell Isn’t in the Sequel but Got Paid Anyway “ Borat ” fans” tuning into the controversial sequel, “ Borat Subsequent Moviefilm ,” this weekend on Amazon Prime might be struck by a notable absence:  Luenell , the comedian and actress who was one of the few hired actors in the 2006 original. Luenell plays a fictional prostitute in “Borat” who is last seen marrying the title character (Sacha Baron Cohen) and returning with him to his Kazakhstan home. Luenell took to Instagram on Friday after she discovered that she is not featured in “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” despite being paid for the sequel. (The actress is listed as a credited star in Amazon’s metadata.) “Apparently my husband BORAT is giving out money for no reason because your girl did Not make the cut in the film (news to me) but I made the cut at the nank. Last time that I checked….we were married and had two biracial children but maybe he hooked up with Pamela Anderson,” she wrote, referring to ...

Lizzo talks Detroit roots, fat-shaming, and teaches David Letterman the flute on his Netflix series Six years after making  her network television debut  on  Late Night with David Letterman  as a virtually unknown hip-hop artist,  Lizzo  has found herself, once again, sharing screentime with the talk show legend — this time during a global pandemic with three Grammy awards under her belt. For the third season of Letterman's Netflix series  My Next Guest Needs No Introduction , which premiered Wednesday with guests Dave Chapelle and Kim Kardashian West, Letterman, 73, also pays a visit to Lizzo's home studio in Los Angeles. There, they discuss everything from her Detroit roots, fat-shaming, her father's death, her crystal collection, life-changing experiences in Minneapolis, the mysticism of Prince, and psilocybin mushrooms. When asked why her family left her native home of Detroit for Houston, Lizzo laughs nervously. “For a better life,” she said. “To ...

How Faithful Is the New Rebecca Movie to the Book by Daphne du Maurier? The newest adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 novel   Rebecca , which arrives on Netflix on Wednesday, follows the book’s unnamed female narrator—identified in the movie credits only as Mrs. de Winter, her married name—as she meets and weds a wealthy widower in Monte Carlo. While living at his gorgeous English coastal estate Manderley, she becomes consumed with jealousy of her new husband’s deceased first wife, the titular Rebecca, who seems to have been universally worshipped by all who knew her. Below, we break down all the ways the film, directed by Ben Wheatley, compares to du Maurier’s moody best-seller—including how its famous plot twist unfolds. Needless to say, spoilers ahead. Maxim de Winter In the film, the male romantic lead is played by Armie Hammer, who’s extremely handsome in a standard-issue hunk kind of a way, which is very different from how the narrator describes Maxim in the book: “He bel...