Overrated/Underrated: Let’s remain guarded about ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’
UNDERRATED
‘Seed: The Untold Story’ on PBS: With the world struggling to navigate a crisis on seemingly every front, dedicating another hour to learn of another isn’t an easy proposition. That said, when the issue involves our food supply and roughly 94% of seed supplies vanishing in the wake of genetically modified, corporate-owned varietals that are less resistant to disease, then attention must be paid. Directed by Taggart Siegel and Jon Betz, “Seed” offers a grim look at a disaster in the making, but its lingering message remains hopeful in examining the characters dedicated to protecting our agricultural diversity and, to an extent, a 12,000-year-old legacy of civilization.
Ross Hammond’s ‘Follow Your Heart’: A restless, road-tested artist who has spent over 10 years of exploring and improvising with the likes of L.A. favorites Vinny Golia and Alex Cline, this Sacramento-based guitarist has dedicated his career to navigating various tributaries of jazz and unclassifiable music. For his latest recording, Hammond is backed by the reverberations of a more than 100-year-old church, taking the rich, ringing tones of six- and 12-string guitars through an improvised, intimate journey to where the acoustic Americana of John Fahey meets the spiritual. (Hammond performs at ETA in Highland Park on April 30 at 9 p.m.)
OVERRATED
The prospects for ‘The President Show’: Following in the footsteps of the 2001 faux-presidential sitcom “That’s My Bush!” and the animated series “Lil’ Bush” six years later, Comedy Central this week launched this series imagining President Trump as host of his own late-night talk show. While the network and the weekly series’ impersonator-in-chief Anthony Atamanuik deserve credit for going with such an audacious premise, is there a Thursday night you can imagine where after a full day of coverage of the Executive Branch on the news and elsewhere, then settling in for another half-hour, even in jest? It’s a fun stunt, but reelection seems unlikely.
Recapturing the magic of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’: In the next few days, the anticipated second installment of this franchise will become one of the biggest money-making machines of the summer. But is anyone else a little leery of an effort to capture its peculiar sort of lightning in a bottle again? Sure, it was impossible to not enjoy a film that brought a welcome sense of silliness to the Marvel universe on the strength of the goofy charisma of Chris Pratt, a profanity-spewing raccoon and the judicious use of a classic rock mix-tape. But sequels are a dangerous business, especially when comedy is involved, and once you’ve seen one talking tree, you’ve seen them all.
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