Time Off Reviews QUICK TALK Neil Patrick Harris Theformer HOW I Met Your M0ther star returns tO television as Count 0 工 0 ma れ scheming after three orphans' vastfortune, ⅲ 0 new Netflix ad 叩 t 砒 i0 れ可も emo ア Snicket's d gh ザリ macabre children's 0 た s , A Series ofUnfortunate Events. Yo hadn't read 亡 e b00 s before. What made yo 収 want tO dO the series? I was looking forward t0 acting as a character again and not as mys elf. l'd spent a large chunk ofthe year before on a variety shOW, Best Time Ever, that was all-encompassing. I was proud Ofit, but it was exhausting. I was just anxious tO get back tO acting. Since 数 03 ー Met Your Mother, you've taken on some villainous roles: ⅲ Gone Girl, American 数 0 ″ or Story and now this. HOW does Olaf compare evilness-wise? He's prob ably the most dastardly, but he's villainous ⅲ a family-friendly way. So he can be over-the-top terrible. You don't have tO spend a 10t Of time with motivation or backstory. There's an absurdist freedom to Olaf. 、 Any theories as tO why kids love this 盟 n 臧 of darkness? I think kids are fascinated by the morbid. I know my kids are. Harper, our daughter, likes us t0 tell her scary storie s. l'm thinking back now to Grimm's F ヮ TaIes. Kids are told a lot how to behave well, so I think creatively, it's んⅡ t0 indulge in the sinister. You're a big fan ofJim Henson, and it's striking that both The Muppets and A Series 0 工 U ー 0 れ ate Events are children's tales that so wink at adults. Totally. Over the holiday, we were playing the "Who would you want tO have a conversation with, living or dead? ” game. I said Jim Henson. Something like Sesame Street or The Muppet Sh0W is brilliant because it plays on 20 levels: it teaches you the alphabet, and then makes ajoke for the parents. The kids know it's there but don't quite get it. NOW that l'm a parent, I really value that. This show does that tOO. —ELIANA DOCKTERMAN Brown—presaged abushel ofhairpin reversals, including the death ofVentimiglia's Jack Pearson. Brown's Randall Pearson seems t0 exemplify the show's attitude toward its characters: their lives are an endless struggle, allergic tO resolution. RandaII finds his father (Ron Cephas Jones), only t0 learn that Dad is a mortally ill recovered addict and that he collude d with Moore 's character to hide his identity t0 preserve Pearson family unity. Also, he is bisexual. Amid all these discoveries, Randall talks a co- worker out Of committing suicide and has a revelation about his relationship with his mother while on mushrooms. Fogelman, SO creator OfFOX's This surplus Pitch, has seen This ls Us grow intO 0 social-media sensation of plot make s This Us compulsively watchable, ifonly to find out what h 叩 pens next. The performances are strong, p articularly that 0f Brown, an E mmy winner for The People v.. 0.1. Simpson. And each episode is careful tO provide momentary catharsis, a scene uniting various Pearsons in a moment ofbonding before they plunge intO new insanities. At times, the show can't get out ofits own way. Many Ofits stories twist potentially interesting subject matter intO the merely upsetting—with briefuplift at the end. lts handling of Metz's Kate, for example, is just unfair. A woman who's struggled with body image her whole life, Kate endures endless p10t ditherings about weight (culminating, recently, with her boyfriend committing t0 diet with her, then collapsing from a heart condition) that leave no room for an inner life. We suffer with her, but we have no idea who She iS besides a number on a scale. The characterization matters less than the suffering, maybe making This ls Us the perfect ShOW for a national audience more more certain that things are on the wrong track. The scenes that matter aren't the unconvmcing bonding moments—they're the ones in which the characters marinate in their own private hell, dealt with a jazzy élan by the show's writers. After a few episodes, the amount OfplOt became SO great that we Ⅱ 0 longer really need to recall why each character is sad. We just feel that they are. THIS 博 US airs Tuesdays at 9 p. m. E.T. on NBC 44 TIME January 30 , 2017 ON MY RADAR AWARDS SEASON ℃加 e れ the mus 0 地 0 工 La La Land, l'm excited to see the 0 e れ g numbers. Godspeed tO them. I'II be home 山 atc 厖ⅲ 9 ーれ my 可 s. ' FOGELMAN, 工 ARRIS: GETTY IMAGES

Time 0 Reviews TIME PICKS TELEVISION Lifeti m e 'S contem- porary remake Of the 1988 Bette Midler classic Beaches ( 」 an. 21 ) starsldina MenzeI and Nia Long as decades-long friends from starkly different backgrounds. Annette Bening is radiant in 20t れ Century Women STORIES ABOUTWOMENAS TOLD BY MEN GET A BAD RAP these days—we hardly need our lives mansplained t0 us. But does that mean women shouldn't be allowed tO peer intO the minds Ofmen either? Maybe we need tO regaln trust in a mode ofthinking that has served the world ofart for centuries: the sympathetic imagination. ln 20 市 Century Women, writer-director Mike Mills tells aversion Ofhis coming-of-age in late -1970S Santa Barbara: Annette Bening's 50ish Dorothea is raising her sonJamie (Lucas Jade Zumann) in a ramshackle Victorian house. The tWO have always been close, and as Jamie hits adolescence, Dorotheawonders ifthey're not t00 close. She enlists two young family friends —Abbie ( Greta Gerwig), a photographer whO has justkicked cancer, and precocious sprite Julie (Elle Fanning) —to help raise Jamie, figuring they can teach him things about the world that she can't. The picture is a companion piece to Mills' 2010 Beginners, also a semiautobiographical look at the ways adult children come t0 understand their parents as people. The Mills touche s —vintage-photo and news -clip montages, matter- of-fact voice-overs—are all there. But 20th Century Women has a more melancholy resonance. And Bening is superb, portraying the way middle-aged loneliness and contentment can be so intermingled that it's almost impossible to tell which is which. Dorothea doesn't "need ” a man, but her aloneness isn't a perfect state either. With both her girlish laughter and her furrowed brow, which announce s itself with the 仕 ow Ⅱ lines that haunt us all as we age, Bening captures this state Of being perfectly. Mills deserves credit, t00 , for daring t0 wonder what this magnificent character was feeling in the first place. —STEPHANIE ZACHAREK 46 TIME January 30 , 2017 MUSIC Front woman Katie Stelmanis sings chilling songs about injustice and division on Toronto synth-pop group Austra's third album, F ′ e Politics ( 」 an. 20 ). BOOKS 」 ournalist Stephen Kinzer brings American imperialism in the early 20th century tO life using Theodore Roosevelt and MarkTwain as main characters in a lively nonfiction account, ー The True Flag. MOVIES A young married couple's relationship sours during a theater performance in The Salesman ( 」 an. 27 ). The lranian- French thriller made a splash atthe Cannes Film Festival. MOVIES FURTHER WATCHING Director Mike Mills' 20t わ Century Women and his previous film Beginners share themes Of aging parents. Christopher Plummerwon a 2011 Oscar for his Beginners ro , an elderly dad whO reveals tO his son that he has terminal cancer and that he's gay.

TimeOff ・ WESUFFER WITHHER, BUTWEHAVENOIDEA WHO SHEIS. ' —NEXT PAGE Ventimiglia 0 れ d Moore with their children—before their lives spiral into 00S and was nominated for a Golden GIobe THE TITLE THIS IS US IS ALMOST perfectly meaningless. Together, the for Best Drama. lt's easy tO see why given the broad strokes with which three words signify nothing beyond the shOW paints the pearsons. The a vague concept 0f uplift and unity. pilot, which aired last fall, introduced A show with that title could be a show three plotlines: a husband and wife about anything. That's exactly what This Us on NBC is: a hazy attempt (MiIo Ventimiglia and Mandy Moore) expecting triplets, a man ( Sterling K. tO confront a number of human Brown) seeking his biological father, experiences gradually approaching and a brother and sister (Justin Hartle infinity. Skittering across decades tO and Chris sy Metz) who deal with his tell the story ofthe fraying Pearson distaste for his fame and her struggle family, This ls Us is fluent in the language ofempathy. lt's addicted with obesity. Any ofthese plotlines alone would tO narrative twists and tO suffering, have plenty ofpotential. Combined, and its piling on Of incident is pure they make for a shock-and-awe soap opera—and that ludicrous campaign. The first episode's twist— excess accounts for the show's that Ventimiglia's and Moore's stratospheric success. characters are expecting the babies This Us, created by Crazy, Stupid, that will become Hartley and Metz Love writer D an Fogelman, is among and adopt the baby that will become the highest-rated shows on television TELEVISION This Us metes 0 t darkness in search Of a moment's delight 3 By DanieI D'Addario 08N ー」」 00ZIV9 NOH 43

」 APAN Deteriorating relations between China and the U. S. could leave 」 apan stuck in the middle : 、、 PHILIPPINES 3 : THE Le Pen's opponents fear the country 's borders , on developments inside success depends more of the E. U. Though her a bid to lead France out elected, she will launch has promised that, if leader, Marine Le Pen, this spring. The party's tional Front in elections choose the far-right Na- embolden voters tO ロ around the world? struck fear intO leaders the promises that have now is: Will Trump keep abroad. The key question ings both at home and aroused such strong feel- a new U. S. President has years since the arrival Of lt has been many cybermischief. tO bOOSt her candidacy via blind eye if Russia works that Trump would turn a tum. They're also worried Viding crucial momen- back her candidacy, pro- that Trump will publicly ALLTHE P 旧胱 N ド MEN By Gretchen Ca SO れ I'VE RECENTLY BEEN ASKED A LOT ABOUT WHAT A Donald Trump presidency really means for the state of women in our country. The prevailing view has been that women tOOk a hit when Trump won. lt's been character- ized as "women feel despair,: ” women think there's no hope anymore ” and "women feel like they've gone back in time. ” Those sentiments are understandable, consider- WOMEN HAVE A PROBLEM, N0 MAITER WHO N OVAL 0 田 C [ ing the Access W00d tape re- vealed in Oct0ber and something that was much more personal for me: his suggestion that women facing sexual haras s ment in the workplace should just "find an- Other career. But I tend tO be an optimistic person who tries to find the good in almost everything. SO let's start with what else Trump has said about women. He's said that he loves women and that he's one ofthe biggest supporters of women out there. Ever since Election Day, l've been wait- ing tO see ifhe would live up tO those comments. HOW many women would he appoint tO top-tier positions? s 0 , RE WE A Trump is the President, and whO has he nominated for his top Cabinet positions? ( DrumroII, please … ) Mostly older white men. Are these picks the only qualified candidates out there? Couldn't he have tried for abit more balance? lflvanka did the choosing, would she have come up with the same roster? Here's the list, SO far, for positions requiring Senate con- firmation: Senator Dan Coats for Director ofNational lntel- ligence, R0bert Lighthizer for U. S. Trade Representative, Rex Tillerson for Secretary ofState, Governor Rick perry for Secretary ofEnergy, Andrew puzder for Secretary of Labor, GeneralJames Mattis for Secretary ofDefense, Sen- atorJeff Sessions for Attorney General … You get the point. Of the 20 Cabinet-Ievel appointees Trump has named that require Senate confirmation, just four are women: Elaine Chao for Secretary of Transportation, Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education, Governor Nikki Haley for U. N. ambassador and Linda McMahon for head of the SmaII Business Administration. (For the top jobs that don't require Senate confirmation, Trump has SO far named seven men and one woman: Kellyanne conway as couns elor. ) Feeling uncharacteristically dej ecte d, I thought it might be interesting t0 compare Trump's female picks with President Barack Obama's picks when he first came int0 0ffce ⅲ 2009. And boy, was I surprised. Yes, Obama's most savvy political pick was Hillary Clinton as his Secretary of State— a woman and a sometime adversary. But for Trea- sury, Defense, lnterior, Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, E nergy Veterans Affairs, chief o staff, Offce ofManage- ment and Budget, し S. Trade Representative and Attorney General, Obama picked men. SO I went backjust alit- tle bit further to the begin- ning Ofthe 21St century, when there was much talk about progressive change in SO manyways, tO the year George 、 A,T.. Bush won the hanging-chad elec- tion over Al Gore. Bush assembled a Cabinet many hailed for its diverr sity. Still, like Trump and Obama, he included only a handful ofwomen. SO AS OPTIMISTIC as I d love tO be, it seems this kind ofwomen problem isn't Just a Republican or a Democratic thing Women not being selected for more than a few high-level posts should be a bipartisan concern. Which means whether you'll be glad or sad on lnauguration Day when our next President IS sworn intO Offce, I suggest you 100k at it this way: we still have a problem and there is much work tO be done, no matter whO's sitting in the Oval 0 伍 ce. I, for one, plan to roll up my sleeves. Car 0 れ , aformer anchorfor FOX News, is れ advocateforfemale empowerment 0 れ d は columnistfor TIME'S Motto 39