Our TV critic recommends checking out a new tidying-up show, a darkly comic crime series and an Italian cartoon about a cartoonist.
By Margaret Lyons
This weekend I have … an hour and a basement.
‘The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning’
When to watch: Now, on Peacock.
If you like “Queer Eye,” “Tidying Up With Marie Kondo” or other supportive makeover shows, try this eight-episode series narrated by Amy Poehler. In each installment, three encouraging Swedish hosts (Johan Svenson, Katarina Blom and Ella Engstrom) coach an American participant through a purging and organizing process. Some participants face a terminal diagnosis, while others are merely retired, and the “death cleaning” process is meant both to prevent one’s heirs from having to deal with all their stuff and to empower people to find joy and meaning in their possessions and in the distribution thereof. “Death” does not shy away from mortality, but it’s not gloomy: The show’s approach is frank, warm and wise.
… an hour, and I like screaming, ‘Call a lawyer!’ at my television.
‘Average Joe’
When to watch: Sunday at 11:30 p.m., on BET, BET Her and VH1.
Joe (Deon Cole) is a Pittsburgh plumber grieving his father’s recent death when he discovers that his dad had a side thing going with the Russian mob, which means now he does, too. Whoops! Joe and his immediate circle are suddenly sucked into a violent, seedy underworld — horrified, fascinated, implicated. If you get squicked out by improper care for dead bodies, this is not the show for you, but otherwise it’s a tense, fun, fish-out-of-water crime show. After its cable preview on Sunday, new episodes arrive on BET+ on subsequent Mondays, starting with Episodes 1 and 2 this Monday.
… a few hours, and I like foreign comedies.
‘This World Can’t Tear Me Down’
When to watch: Now, on Netflix.
This Italian cartoon (in Italian, with subtitles or dubbed — but dubbed really well) is a follow-up to the 2021 series “Tear Along the Dotted Line” and continues the saga of the Roman cartoonist Zero and his pals. The show is blisteringly quick, cynical but not miserable. Autofiction comedies are often slow, perhaps dreamy or meditative, but “World” combines its self-reflection with zippy asides and bouncy animation; it’s the rare show that captures the sensibilities of a web comic while also imbuing it with televisual liveliness. If you like “Ladhood,” or if Diane is your favorite character on “BoJack Horseman,” watch this.
Margaret Lyons is a television critic for The Times. She previously spent five years as a writer and TV columnist for Vulture.com. She helped launch Time Out Chicago and later wrote for Entertainment Weekly, among other publications. @margeincharge
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