Weekend Watchlist, 7/10: Discovery

Happy Friday, PV Guide readers! I hope you have a great weekend ahead of you.

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Here are this week’s picks!

Pantheon

Where to watch: Netflix

With my Ken Liu interview out, it’s a great time to check out a Ken Liu project. I highly recommend his books (especially his Dandelion Dynasty series, starting with The Grace of Kings, or his new sci-fi thriller All That We See or Seem), but I’m using this as an opportunity to finally watch Pantheon, an animated adaptation of a collection of Liu’s short stories from The Hidden Girl and Other Stories. I’ve heard great things about the AMC show, and both seasons are streaming on Netflix.

Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos

Where to watch: Netflix

I was recently housesitting for a neighbor, and I used the opportunity to catch up on some of the new releases that I’d missed so far this year. By far the highlight was the farcical Hindi spy comedy Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos, an absolutely ridiculous Bollywood parody that combines Undercover Brother, Austin Powers, and Bollywood tropes for a riotously fun good time. The movie follows Happy, the adopted Indian son of two British secret agents, who finds out in adulthood that he is Indian and returns to the country undercover. Hoping to blend in, he undergoes rigorous MI7 training to pass as Indian, with mixed results. Happy Patel is constantly bordering on good taste but rarely fails to be funny. It helps to have a working language of Bollywood tropes and references, but the movie is funny enough that it works either way.

30 Coins

Where to watch: HBO

Like many other people, I’ve been quite enjoying the horror/mystery/comedy series Widow’s Bay, and it has me thinking about the somewhat similar Spanish series 30 Coins. It follows an exorcist and ex-con who lives in a small Spanish village, and the supernatural occurrences that start happening there – seemingly related to magical coins. The show is full of conspiracy, religious iconography, spooky paranormal stuff, and some goofy comedy by way of the stressed-out mayor Paco (played by Sense8’s Miguel Ángel Silvestre). 30 Coins got only two seasons on HBO before being cancelled, but creator Álex de la Iglesia says he’s written the third and final season and is looking for a way to get it produced. (An extra push: Paul Giamatti guest stars in season two.)