Chew's Reviews - HBO's Here and Now

By Gary Chew | February 12, 2018 |  

HBO has allowed Alan Ball to bring further accounts of all our American foibles to the fore. 

Ball came out of the shoot early with the great film AMERICAN BEAUTY; then he damn near thrilled us to death with SIX FEET UNDER, also on HBO. Last night his HERE AND NOW premiered on the "box office" cable net. Such neuroses we have again ! 

And all seem to be NOT far-fetched by any stretch. There is a solid cast starring Holly Hunter, Tim Robbins and younger actors who appear to have caught on... quickly to the current malaise in our nation. 

HERE AND NOW "smells" a bit like BIG LITTLE LIES, but it deals with a mixed-race family headed by Robbins, who's a terribly depressed, yet successful philosophy professor in Portland, Oregon. Robbins' character met his wife (Hunter) when they were at UC-Berkeley. Just how liberal could a highly educated, uh, upper middle class family get, I ask. 

Episode # 1 played quite engrossingly at my house Sunday evening. If you can handle the expense of HBO, as well as the rest of cable they tack on that's always, pretty much, sucking loudly, I'd check out HERE AND NOW ... pretty soon.