Nile Jarvis shares more than a few passing traits with Bob Durst. On the series, Jarvis is the son of a New York City real estate tycoon Martin Jarvis, played by Breaking Bad’s Jonathan Banks. In the series, Martin runs Jarvis Industries, a massive real estate conglomerate that owns multiple skyscrapers in New York City and is under attack from a progressive political candidate calling out Jarvis Industries for monopolizing the city.
In reality, Durst was also the heir of a New York–based real estate dynasty. His grandfather, Jewish tailor Joseph Durst, emigrated to the US in 1902 from what is now Poland and founded the commercial and residential real estate company The Durst Organization in 1927. Joseph proceeded to purchase commercial buildings and skyscrapers across Manhattan. Robert Durst’s father, Seymour Bernard Durst, inherited the company in 1974 and helped grow it into a multimillion-dollar organization. According to Forbes, the Durst family’s real estate holdings were estimated to be worth more than $8 billion in 2020; as the eldest son, Robert Durst was once expected to inherit the throne and run the company.
Robert Durst appears in court during opening statements in his murder trial on March 4, 2020 in Los Angeles, California.Etienne Laurent -Pool/Getty Images)
This would never come to pass. Born in 1943, Robert Durst had a turbulent childhood in Scarsdale, NY, despite—or perhaps because of—his immense wealth. When he was seven years old, Robert’s mother, Bernice Herstein, died after either falling or jumping off the roof of their Scarsdale home. Robert would later claim that he witnessed his mother commit suicide, having been brought to the window by his own father to watch it happen. (In a 2015 New York Times interview, Robert’s younger brother, Douglas,denied that ever happened). A psychiatric report of Robert at age 10 mentioned the possibility that Robert might suffer from “personality decomposition and possibly even schizophrenia.” In 1992, Seymour ultimately chose Douglas to run the company, due to his eldest son’s erratic behavior—exacerbating a rift that already existed between Robert and his family.
On The Beast in Me, Nile Jarvis also has a fraught relationship with both his real estate mogul father, Marvin, and his extended family. Unlike Durst, whose father passed him over for the top job in favor of his younger brother, Nile considers himself the brains of the family business. “For all his kicking and screaming, I pulled my father into the future,” he says in episode three. “Got him to take a couple of big swings and grew the business tenfold.” But according to Jarvis, his father Marvin was a self-made man who “shoveled cow shit before school”—making him more like Durst’s paternal grandfather, Joseph, who emigrated to the US with just $3 in his pocket before amassing his fortune.
Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan re-teaming as the body-swapping mother and daughter duo in “Freakier Friday” and albums from 5 Seconds of Summer and the rapper NF are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.
Also among the streaming offerings worth your time this week, as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys team up for the new limited-series thriller “The Beast in Me,” gamers get Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Apple TV’s star-studded “Palm Royale” is back.
New movies to stream from Nov. 10-16
— Richard Linklater’s love letter to the French New Wave and the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless,” “Nouvelle Vague,” will be streaming on Netflix on Friday, Nov. 14. In his review, Associated Press Film Writer Jake Coyle writes that, “To a remarkable degree, Linklater’s film, in French and boxed into the Academy ratio, black-and-white style of ‘Breathless,’ has fully imbibed that spirit, resurrecting one of the most hallowed eras of movies to capture an iconoclast in the making. The result is something endlessly stylish and almost absurdly uncanny.”
— Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan re-team as the body-swapping mother and daughter duo in “Freakier Friday,” a sequel to their 2003 movie, streaming on Disney+ on Wednesday. In her review, Jocelyn Noveck writes, “The chief weakness of ‘Freakier Friday’ — an amiable, often joyful and certainly chaotic reunion — is that while it hews overly closely to the structure, storyline and even dialogue of the original, it tries too hard to up the ante. The comedy is thus a bit more manic, and the plot machinations more overwrought (or sometimes distractingly silly).”
— Ari Aster’s latest nightmare “Eddington” is set in a small, fictional New Mexico town during the coronavirus pandemic, which becomes a kind of microcosm for our polarized society at large with Joaquin Phoenix as the sheriff and Pedro Pascal as its mayor. In my review, I wrote that, “it is an anti-escapist symphony of masking debates, conspiracy theories, YouTube prophets, TikTok trends and third-rail topics in which no side is spared.”
— An incurable cancer diagnoses might not be the most obvious starting place for a funny and affirming film, but that is the magic of Ryan White’s documentary “Come See Me in the Good Light,” about two poets, Andrea Gibson, who died in July, and Megan Falley, facing a difficult reality together. It will be on Apple TV on Friday, Nov. 14.
— There’s nothing worse than a band without a sense of humor. Thankfully 5 Seconds of Summer are in on the joke. Their sixth studio album, “Everyone’s a Star!,” sounds like the Australian pop-rock band are having fun again, from The Prodigy-esq. “Not OK” to the self-referential and effacing “Boy Band.” Candor is their provocation now, and it sounds good — particularly after the band has spent the last few years exploring solo projects.
— The R&B and neo soul powerhouse Summer Walker has returned with her third studio album and first in four years. “Finally Over It,” out Friday, Nov. 14, is the final chapter of her “Over It” trilogy; a release centered on transformation and autonomy. That’s evident from the dreamy throwback single, “Heart of A Woman,” in which the song’s protagonist is disappointed with her partner — but with striking self-awareness. “In love with you but can’t stand your ways,” she sings. “And I try to be strong/But how much can I take?”
— Consider him one of the biggest artists on the planet that you may not be familiar with. NF, the musical moniker of Nate Feuerstein, emerged from the Christian rap world a modern answer to Eminem only to top the mainstream, all-genre Billboard 200 chart twice, with 2017’s “Perception” and 2019’s “The Search.” On Friday, Nov. 14, he’ll release “Fear,” a new six-track EP featuring mgk (formerly Machine Gun Kelly) and the English singer James Arthur.
— Apple TV’s star-studded “Palm Royale” is back just in time for a new social season. Starring Kristen Wiig, Laura Dern, Allison Janney, Leslie Bibb, Kaia Gerber, Ricky Martin AND Carol Burnett, the show is campy, colorful and fun, plus it has great costumes. Wiig plays Maxine, a woman desperate to be accepted into high society in Palm Beach, Florida, in the late 1960s. The first episode streams Wednesday and one will follow weekly into January.
— “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” cast member Heather Gay has written a book called “Bad Mormon” about how she went from a devout Mormon to leaving the church. Next, she’s fronting a new docuseries that delves into that too called “Surviving Mormonism with Heather Gay.” The reality TV star also speaks to others who have left the religion. All three episodes drop Wednesday on Peacock.
— Thanks to “Homeland” and “The Americans,” Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys helped put the prestige in the term prestige TV. They grace the screen together in a new limited-series for Netflix called “The Beast in Me.” Danes plays a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who finds a new subject in her next door neighbor, a real estate tycoon who also may or may not have killed his first wife. Howard Gordon, who worked with Danes on “Homeland,” is also the showrunner and an executive producer of “The Beast in Me.” It premieres Thursday.
— David Duchovny and Jack Whitehall star in a new thriller on Prime Video called “Malice.” Duchovny plays Jamie, a wealthy man vacationing with his family in Greece. He hires a tutor (played by Whitehall) named Adam to work with the kids who seems likable, personable and they invite him into their world. Soon it becomes apparent that Adam’s charm is actually creepy. Something is up. As these stories go, getting rid of an interloper is never easy. All six episodes drop Friday, Nov. 14.
— “Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints” returns to Fox Nation on Sunday, Nov. 16 for a second season. The premiere details the story of Saint Patrick. The show is a passion project for Scorsese who executive produces, hosts, and narrates the episodes.
— Billy Bob Thornton has struck oil in the second season of “Landman” on Paramount+. Created by Taylor Sheridan, the show is set in modern day Texas in the world of Big Oil. Sam Elliott and Andy Garcia have joined the cast and Demi Moore also returns. The show returns Sunday, Nov. 16.
— The Call of Duty team behind the Black Ops subseries delivered a chapter last year — but they’re already back with Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. The new installment of the bestselling first-person shooter franchise moves to 2035 and a world “on the brink of chaos.” (What else is new?) Publisher Activision is promising a “reality-shattering” experience that dives into “into the deepest corners of the human psyche.” Beyond that storyline there are also 16 multiplayer maps and the ever-popular zombie mode, in which you and your friends get to blast away at relentless hordes of the undead. Lock and load Friday, Nov. 14, on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S or PC.
— Lumines Arise is the latest head trip from Enhance Games, the studio behind puzzlers like Tetris Effect, Rez Infinite and Humanity. The basic challenge is simple enough: Multicolored 2×2 blocks drift down the screen, and you need to arrange them to form single-color squares. Completed squares vanish unless you apply the “burst” mechanic, which lets you build ever-larger squares and rack up bigger scores. It’s all accompanied by hallucinatory graphics and thumping electronic music, and you can plug in a virtual reality headset if you really want to feel like you’re at a rave. Pick up the groove Tuesday on PlayStation 5 or PC.
A few adjectives to describe Matthew Rhys’s portrayal of Perry Mason, the second season of which wrapped Monday night: Sad, tired, righteous, and certainly irascible—as Assistant DA Hamilton Burger (Justin Kirk) wonders about our sour antihero in the season premiere, “Does everyone feel Mason hates them, or just his friends?” Throw each of these descriptors back at Rhys, though, and they’ll elicit a knowing giggle. “That’s my wheelhouse!” the Emmy winner says over Zoom. “It’s a state very close to my heart, that kind of melancholy sadness. I’m like, that’s how I live 24/7. It’s not a stretch to me!”
The big shift this year occurred as the HBO drama welcomed some heavy doses of acerbity too. “They did say, ‘In season two, we want to open up that humor in him a bit,’ which concerned me slightly,” Rhys says with a smirk. “But just to see the sarcasm that sits so easily on his shoulders—it’s how I live my life.”
The second season of Perry Mason, which HBO initially ordered as a limited series, emerged as an unlikely watercooler smash these past few months, its comfort-TV procedural stylings enhanced by rich noir atmosphere, nuanced characterizations, and a stacked ensemble of top-shelf character actors. As a followup to 2020’s debut season, which was a hit but met with more mixed reviews, season two is sunnier—both literally, in the expansive ’30s Los Angeles locations, and in its protagonist’s new outlook. As the season begins, Mason has a bona fide law practice and a case that takes him and partner Della Street (Juliet Rylance) through the depths of conspiracy and absurdity.
Rhys’s utter affinity with every aspect of this character is evident both in his performance and in our conversation about the surprising success of this encore season. (Warning: Spoilers about Monday’s finale follow.) “Matthew is so incredibly funny—he’s got that inside of him,” says Michael Begler, co-showrunner of season two with Jack Amiel (The Knick). “And I feel that a show needs to breathe—if you’re just pounding it into somebody all the time, it’s exhausting.”
The relatively upbeat season saw Perry, Della, and friends untangle the mysterious murder of Brooks McCutcheon (Tommy Dewey), an oil scion with a very bad rap around town. Our heroes wind up defending two Mexican American brothers, Rafael and Mateo Gallardo (Fabrizio Guido and Peter Mendoza), who’d irrefutably pulled the trigger on Brooks—the question is why, and who put them up to it. A chain of red herrings and conflicting motivations lead to baroness Camilla Nygaard (Hope Davis), a business rival, as the big bad. “One of the earliest photographs that I saw while doing the research was of a couple on Venice Beach with this forest of oil derricks in the background,” says Begler. “I was just so taken by that—like, holy shit, this is an oil town. Imagine the power and the wealth that’s behind that.”
Perry’s shady tactics are successful enough to get Camilla caught and one Gallardo brother off—and, uh, illegal enough to get himself thrown in jail for a bit, marking our final shot of the season. The mood is strangely, appropriately content; maybe even a little comic. “To get to that final image of a guy who is now probably at his best as a lawyer, and as a human being, having done right by his clients, sitting in a jail cell—we just love that irony,” says executive producer Susan Downey. “It feels so perfectly Perry Mason.”
This feels like the season that the show figured out exactly what that means. The initial run of episodes, developed by creators Rolin Jones and Ron Fitzgerald (neither returned for season two), nicely set the case-a-season, noir-drenched template for Perry Mason, adapted from the character originally created by author Erle Stanley Gardner (and popularized in the 1957 series). Yet it also built toward Perry’s establishment from PI to lawyer, playing like a kind of prestige origin story. Here in season two, we got to see that legal operation in full effect, from the man himself leading the new firm to the vibrant worlds of those with whom he joins forces. Della begins a passionate affair with screenwriter Anita St. Pierre (Jen Tullock), while ex-cop Paul Drake (Chris Chalk) proves himself anew as he works alongside Perry for justice.
But of course, Rhys’s commanding, tragicomic turn remains the grounding force here. Nobody does downbeat crime-solver better. He rides his motorbike and endlessly chases down leads. He gets into the most gloriously pathetic fistfight with Shea Whigham’s frenemy, Pete. “Shea was smoking so hard,” Rhys recalls of that season highlight. “I was like, ‘Dude, stop smoking those cigarettes.’ It was, like, 97 degrees. It was so hot. We’re smoking and we’re fighting. At the end, we both wanted to puke.”
Into the wee hours of the night, Perry slumps around a whole lot too. “I worked on my body language to look kind of beaten,” Rhys says. “I wanted his shoulders to be slumped a little more, his heels dragged a little more. Just an overarching sense of defeated. That physical energy only changes really when the momentum gathers.” It’s no wonder, then, that Perry finds true peace only in that jail cell, after a job well-done-enough. Or why Rhys’s work builds to an unexpectedly rousing place in the finale’s closing arguments, as Perry orates the season’s themes concerning what justice actually looks like, between the “haves and the have-nots,” as Begler puts it. “He has a very basic but intense sense of right and wrong,” says Rhys, who’s also an executive producer. “There’s an unsentimentality to him.”
Rhys reveals that the closing-arguments courtroom scene went through “many, many different versions.” He and the producers would watch Paul Newman in The Verdict, which Rhys calls “the best version of Mason, right there.” The actor kept pushing for something a little smaller, subtler. “It was usually me going, ‘No, less, less. He can’t deliver some kind of dramatic number at the end,’” Rhys says. “It has to be true to who he is from episode one of season one. It was a lot of holding back.”
That balance—of honoring how Perry Mason began while pushing it in its second season—haunted Begler as he and Amiel got to taking over showrunning duties. “It was very intimidating,” he says. “It’s an aircraft carrier—there’s so much behind it.” The production is deceptively massive. Rhys remembers coming onto the show shortly after wrapping The Americans, the beloved FX drama on which he’d often film an episode within seven days. He learned that a Perry Mason episode takes three to four times that. “I was like, What the fuck are we waiting for? What the fuck is going on?” Rhys says with a laugh. “I was like, I’d have shot two, three scenes by now. I had to slow my own brain down and kind of go, Okay, this is the pace. It’s a big show.’”
Indeed, it’s an undertaking. You see that in the exacting cinematography and lighting, which not only recreates a period and a world, but an era of filmmaking; in Terence Blanchard’s gorgeously transporting score; in the remarkable company of actors, from Hope Davis’s imposing grandeur to Paul Raci’s ruthless tycoon; and in the range of story lines, which boldly explore racial and sexual tensions as a core part of the show’s tapestry of how intractable systems keep certain people down. The romance between Della and Anita marked a sweet, sexy highlight for viewers. “We won it in casting,” says Downey. “The minute we saw them together, we just knew it was perfect.”
Will the renewed word of mouth be enough to secure a third season for the HBO drama? While there’s some spilling on what would come next—don’t count out a Camilla return, but expect a new case to kickstart a new season and Perry to have finished out his brief sentence—Begler has some ideas to further build out the Perry Mason LA lore. “There are so many pockets of this city that have not been explored and go against expectation,” he says. And one senses, talking to Rhys, at least, that the feeling is they’re just hitting their stride. Or maybe that he’s just having too much fun to stop. “The motorbike was fun. The horses were fun. Fighting Shea, swimming in the ocean, being on boats—it was a lot of fun. Like a Boys’ Own adventure for six months.” All thanks to Perry Mason. Who knew?
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