The Doctor Is In
You don’t have to be a wealthy mansion owner to understand the sheer delight of USA’s high-class medical comedy, Royal Pains, which is back for its second season starting Thursday, June 3. In fact, a certain contempt for the rich and well-heeled is essential to the show’s appeal; the main character, Dr. Hank Lawson (the charming Mark Feuerstein of Good Morning Miami, The Hustler, and The West Wing, who has finally landed a role perfectly suited to his plucky talents), moves out to the tony Hamptons after a Manhattan firing and soon becomes the private “concierge” physician to the super rich. Throw in a goofball accountant brother for comic relief, a ravishing Indian assistant to spice things up, and a love interest, who also happens to be the head of the Hamptons hospital administration (and Hank’s health-care adversary), and you’ve got an addictive summer show that beats just about any beach read. And if you can’t bear to start on Season Two without reliving Season One, USA has conveniently made several episodes available for free on Hulu. Guilty pleasures come cheap these days.
Ear Candy, Anyone?
It feels like Treats, the debut record from indie rock band Sleigh Bells has been out for months—the Brooklyn-based duo started steamrolling buzz back in the fall, when they were a breakout hit at New York’s CMJ Music Fest, and landed in a Styles story for The New York Times even before fully inking a record deal. Their story is, admittedly, like catnip for the press—he is a former punk rocker with musical prowess and a desire to make the kind of indie arena rock so loud it could blow out your eardrums. She is a schoolteacher and former tween girl band member who thought her singing career was over for good, until one night he waited on her table and mentioned he was a guitarist in search of a singer. The partnership of Derek Miller and Alexis Krauss was born, and now Krauss has quit teaching to focus solely on the record, which is getting even more hype with controversial artist M.I.A throwing her full weight behind it (her record label is the distributor). But while it does seem that Treats has been floating around for ages, it is actually available this week in physical record form—and in the case of this brutally energetic, head-bangingly loud album, we are surprisingly not sick of hearing it everywhere. Don’t fight it, just enjoy.
Scorsese Meets Picasso
Perhaps you never thought you’d see those names in the same place, but in director Arne Glimcher’s new documentary, Picasso and Braque Go to the Movies, produced by Martin Scorsese himself, the famed artist and filmmaker come into direct contact. Glimcher’s film covers the way that the technological revolution—from aviation and beyond—affected not only the way movies were made, but also the way painters worked. Glimcher’s film details the strong connection between movies and visual art, and featuring interviews with Julian Schnabel and Chuck Close and the guiding hand of Scorsese, it is bound to be an art house hit. It doesn’t hurt that most critics are quite impressed. The Village Voice’s Nick Pinkerton praises the film’s “archive-raiding evocation of the period,” while the New York Press’ notoriously prickly critic Armond White notes that “our culture need to be reminded that movies are an art form”—and that the Glimcher-Scorsese doc does exactly that. Read Paul Laster’s take on the complex relationship between Picasso, Braque, and the films they influenced.