Michelle Buteau’s Netflix Comedy ‘Survival of the Thickest’ Is Too Little of a Good Thing: TV Review

Survival of the Thickest creator Michelle Buteau and lead costume designer Keia Bounds worked hard to create looks to remember. 

Alison Herman TV Critic For “Minx,” the show, it’s been a rocky path. Despite strong reviews, good word of mouth and even a swift Season 2 renewal for the period porn comedy, the show became a casualty of upheaval at its parent company. Scrambling to pay down debt from the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery, Inc., CEO David Zaslav took a series of drastic steps that alienated creatives and consumers alike. Entire back catalogs disappeared from streaming services; “Batgirl,” a big-name superhero project,  was scrapped for a tax break despite completing production; and “Minx” had its renewal rolled back while still shooting Season 2. But for Minx, the fictional magazine within the show, things are looking up. We know this because, this week, the show makes a miraculous return on Starz, a network that’s capitalized on its competitors’ hot-and-cold decision making by picking up both “Minx” and “Three Women,” the limited series nixed by Showtime before it even premiered. The new episodes, all eight of which were shared with critics in advance, resolve some of the cliffhangers that could’ve left fans wanting if “Minx” were truly cut short: what editor Joyce Prigger (Ophelia Lovibond) will do with ownership of her ascendant publication, or whether Tina (Idara Victor) will choose business school over sleaze kingpin Doug Renetti (Jake Johnson), her boss-turned-boyfriend. Before long, however, the season starts to feel like wish fulfillment — a turn that sometimes saps the show of conflict, but also hits especially hard given how close “Minx” came to the brink. If our time with these characters is precious, why not see them happy?

Netflix stands to benefit from the dual strikes underway in Hollywood while competitors like Disney and Apple will get “weaker,” in part because of the streamer’s vast international production pipeline, a top media-stocks analyst said Wednesday on the brink of earnings season.“The strike plays to their advantage,” Michael Nathanson, founding partner of SVB MoffettNathanson, said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “I’ve not been a Netflix bull, but their setup for this quarter and the next 12 months is incredibly strong.”Co-host Andrew Ross-Sorkin seized on that notion, seeking to clarify whether Nathanson meant Netflix would get stronger merely relative to its competition – or if it could help the streamer overall. The answer seemed to be: a bit of both.“I think relative, clearly, right?” Nathanson said.

At a time when the industry is suffering through historic dual strikes by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA, the motion picture industry is poised to see an enormous weekend at the box office with Warner Bros./Mattel’s long awaited toy feature adaptation Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s World War II era three-hour adult drama Oppenheimer reaping a combined $260M+ global start.

BreAnna Bell Season 2 of “The Lincoln Lawyer” has taken the top spot on Netflix’s Top 10 English-Language TV chart following the release of Part one on July 6. During the July 10-16 viewing window, the first half of the season earned 8.3 million total views and 35.3 million hours viewed. Netflix recently began sharing the total views data in the official top 10 chart, which is calculated by dividing the hours viewed by total run time — which in this case, is 4.14 hours. Season 1 also joined the list of titles at No. 5 with 3.4 million total views. The second half of Season 2 is expected to arrive on Aug. 3, meaning the show could experience another momentum next month. “The Witcher” Season 3 led the list of titles consecutively over the previous two weeks following its June 29 debut. During the June 26-July 2 viewing window, the newest season raked in 15.2 million total views. (Netflix calculates total views by dividing hours viewed by the total runtime). Seasons 1 and 2 also rejoined the Top 10 list at No. 6 (2.6 million views) and No. 7 (2.4 million views) as fans revisited or discovered Geralt, Ciri and Yennefer’s journey. The title came in at No. 2 this week with 6.7 million total views and 32.1 million hours viewed and a run time of 4.49 hours.

The Armed have shared a video for their latest single, "Everything’s Glitter." The song will appear on the band's forthcoming album Perfect Saviors, due out on August 25, and is accompanied by a video in which their live skills are on full display and captured in pastel colors. "This track uses Bowie’s famed first US appearance in 1971 for a 3-week press tour as a framing device to consider the razor’s edge between icon and clown," the band's Tony Wolski says in a statement.

Fans are warning Jordyn Woods about reuniting with former (and future?) bestie Kylie Jenner!

EXCLUSIVE: The UK has a new South Asian-focused film talk show.

Claud has shared a new video for their single ‘A Good Thing’, which stars Paul Rudd – check it out below.‘A Good Thing’ is lifted from ‘Supermodels’, the singer-songwriter’s second studio album, which came out yesterday (July 14) via Phoebe Bridgers‘ Saddest Factory label.Discussing the new video, which was directed by Christina Xing, Claud said: “Over the last couple months, I’ve revealed the more intimate parts of ‘Supermodels’, but now I’m really excited for everyone to hear the windows down radio up moments of my album. Songs like “A Good Thing” and “Paul Rudd” capture an anthemic, everything works out in the end type feeling.

, , and are all game-changers in their own right, and what the brand's latest launch—the Airstrait wet-to-dry flat iron—can do is pretty remarkable. It's essentially a giant straightener meant to style hair from just washed to dry—except it does it with hot air rather than hot plates.

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big #Megxit to Montecito, California shortly after, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex released a slew of projects where they disdainfully discussed their time in “The Firm.”Royal expert Tom Bower now claims the former actress, 38, and the Invictus Games founder, 41, “know they’ve probably gone too far” with combative content after their 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, the Netflix docuseries “Harry & Meghan,” and Harry’s bombshell memoir “Spare.” “All she’s got is the baggage of the Oprah Winfrey interview and her damnation of the royal family in various successive interviews,” Bower told OK about Markle. “That’s why she’s been so quiet the whole year.

BreAnna Bell Season 3 of “The Witcher” continues to reign over Netflix’s list of English-Language TV titles during the July 3-9 for the second consecutive week. Earning 66.5 million hours viewed, Season 3: Volume 1 of the show experienced a slight drop from its opening figures — but maintained a solid performance. “The Witcher” Season 3 lead the list of TV titles during the June 26-July 2 viewing window, taking down “Black Mirror” Season 6, with 73 million hours viewed. Running for a total of 4.49 hours, the new season raked in 15.2 million total views. (Netflix calculates total views by dividing hours viewed by the total runtime). Seasons 1 and 2 also rejoined the Top 10 list at No. 6 (2.6 million views) and No. 7 (2.4 million views) as fans revisited or discovered Geralt, Ciri and Yennefer’s journey.

Greta Gerwig was planning to work with Timothée Chalamet and Saoirse Ronan again in the Barbie movie but that ultimately didn’t pan out.

Robert Downey Jr. is reflecting on his film career and, the films he considers most prominent may come as a surprise.

Selome Hailu Sasheer Zamata has set a new comedy special titled “The First Woman,” which will be released for purchase via 800 Pound Gorilla on Aug. 15 before arriving on YouTube on Aug. 29. “The First Woman” was taped at Union Stage in Washington D.C. Per the logline, the one-hour show sees Zamata discuss “getting scammed by dates, masturbating in cars and being visited by witches in her sleep.” “The First Woman” is executive produced by Sam Saifer, Ian Adkins, Ryan Bitzer, Damion Greiman, and Anthony Leo. Producers include Zamata, Scott Moran and Matt Schuler. On the 800 Pound Gorilla site, the special will be available with a pay-what-you-wish model.

Charna Flam Comedian Mark Normand has announced his first hourlong special for Netflix, “Soup to Nuts,” which will hit the streaming site on July 25. Since he was a kid, Normand knew he was interested in comedy. But once his mother doled out VHS tapes of the Marx Brothers, it became an integral part of his life. After watching it, he soon discovered comedians, films, shows and specials from the past, all due to his mother’s suggestion. “I thought, ‘This is great. It’s all jokes. This is hilarious. Still holds up.’ Then I went into a deep dive, where you find Jerry Seinfeld, George Carlin, Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy,” Normand told Variety. “And then it was my whole world.”

Some of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s joint business ventures are “falling apart” and they are facing some of their biggest problems, a royal expert has claimed to OK!. Royal biographer Tom Bower said since Harry and Meghan’s Spotify podcast deal has abruptly come to an end, the pair are going to find it a struggle to keep their brand “reputable”.

release the kraken.And she’ll need it, as she’s got to do battle with a cute, popular girl who is also an evil mermaid. (Like Disney’s fabled mermaid, she also has red hair.) This leads to an unexpectedly epic kaiju battle between mermaid and kraken that is pretty amazing.TheWrap spoke to director Kirk DeMicco, who helmed “Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken” (with co-director Faryn Pearl), shortly before the movie’s splashy (get it?) premiere at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. DeMicco previously directed (with Chris Sanders) “The Croods” for DreamWorks and last directed “Vivo,” which began life as a DreamWorks project before moving to Sony Pictures Animation.

The Prince of Wales has frequently acknowledged the numerous ways he is following in his late mother's footsteps - be it in his choices of charities to support or the way he is raising his three children. With his recent launch of the homelessness project Homewards, Prince William is succeeding in continuing Diana, Princess of Wales' work that she did with homeless charities such as The Passage and Centrepoint. As well this, Prince William works hard to raise the profile of mental health charities and, like his mother, is an advocate for LGBTQ+ causes.This, royal expert Jennie Bond feels, is something which suggests Prince William "intent" on completing Diana's work.