Welcome to Culture Hound, InsideHook’s deep dive into the month’s most important cultural happenings, pop and otherwise. Note: Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, release dates are highly tentative.
RETURNING: Fargo
Bumped from earlier this year, the much-delayed fourth season of Noah Hawley’s excellent anthology series features two crime syndicates at war in 1950 Kansas City; the one led by Chris Rock consists of black migrants who fled the Jim Crow South. (9/27, FX)
Other returning TV series and specials: AP Bio (9/3, Peacock); The Boys (9/4, Prime Video); NFL season kickoff (9/10, NBC); Archer (9/16, FX); The Simpsons and Bob’s Burgers (9/27, Fox)
WATCH: I’m Thinking of Ending Things
Charlie Kaufman (Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) takes on Iain Reid’s short but creepy horror novel, turning a meet-the-parents road trip from hell into even more of a meta mindfuck of a thriller. (Netflix, 9/4)
More new films coming to the small screen and big: Tenet (9/3, theaters); Mulan (9/4, Disney+); The Devil All the Time (9/16, Netflix); Antebellum (9/18, VOD); Enola Holmes (9/23, Netflix); The Boys in the Band (9/30, Netflix)
PLAY: Legends Ultimate Arcade
If you’re gonna go retro, at least get a full-size arcade cabinet so you can play more than 300 licensed games. The new Legends release is expandable, too; you can play online, add more games via built-in USB and HDMI ports and also get a kit to add pinball.
More new/retro games this month: Marvel’s Avengers (9/4); NBA2K21 (9/4); Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 (9/4)
STREAM: Utopia
Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl) helps remake an acclaimed 2013 British conspiracy series for an American audience. The show is about a comic book that seemingly predicts epidemics (hmm) and a shadowy agency that’s out to find some kids who have a copy of a new sequel manuscript. (9/25, Prime Video)
New TV series and specials: Raised By Wolves (9/3, HBO Max); Away (9/4, Netflix); Woke (9/9, Hulu); We Are Who We Are (9/14, HBO); Ratched (9/18, Netflix)
DISCUSS: Agents of Chaos
Documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney (Going Clear) examines Russian interference in the 2016 election in this two-part special. (9/23, HBO)
More thought-provoking viewing: A documentary based on Errol Morris’s A Wilderness of Error (9/25, FX); the recent-events dramatization The Comey Rule (9/27, Showtime)
READ: Eat a Peach
Momofuku chef David Chang explores his unusual road to success, from his childhood as the youngest sibling in a deeply religious Korean American family to his struggles with mental illness. (9/8)
More recommended new fiction and non-fiction: Rapture by Toronto Raptors’ head coach Nick Nurse (9/1); Disloyal by Michael Cohen (9/8); The Invention of Sound by Chuck Palahniuk (9/8); Rage by Bob Woodward (9/15)
LISTEN: The Rolling Stones
The expanded two- and three-CD reissues of the band’s 1973 album Goats Head Soup features demos, rarities and previously unreleased music — including a track with Jimmy Page — along with a live album. (9/4)
More new music: The Flaming Lips (9/11); Marilyn Manson (9/11); Deftones (9/25); Sufjan Stevens (9/25); Tim Heidecker (9/25); plus expanded reissues of Prince’s Sign o the Times and Lou Reed’s New York (9/25)
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