NYWIFT Blog

Goodbye, winter caps—hello, summer hats! It’s that glorious time of year where many of us can switch from content creators to content consumers. NYWIFT members Mellini Kantayya and Kathryn O’Kane have put together #SummerHours, a series of fun summer books, movies, and TV shows by or about women.

By Mellini Kantayya

If you’re like me, you eschew drama in your real life, but on screen?—you can’t get enough. Here are two very different, very bingewatch-worthy shows to check out this summer.

Collateral (Netflix)

Collateral:  Directed by S.J. Clarkson, Collateral is a mini-series about the murder of a London pizza-delivery man that launches a “state-of-the-nation thriller.” Though the show originally aired on the BBC, Clarkson is no stranger to American audiences. She’s directed numerous episodes of US shows, including Orange is the New Black, Jessica Jones, and The Defenders (where I had the privilege of working with her). Also notable, Clarkson will be the first woman at the helm of the Star Trek franchise—directing its next film. Clarkson has a striking cinematic style, yet her storytelling is deeply intimate—one feels like a fly on the wall observing profoundly private moments. With only four episodes, this procedural paves a short but satisfying path to ‘whodunit.’ Available on Netflix.

Claws (TNT)

Claws: Showrunner  Janine Sherman Barrois calls Claws “Florida Noir.” New Yorker  television critic Emily Nussbaum describes it as “a neon-pink crime comedy, streaked with ultraviolence and dirty banter.” While Vulture’s Jen Chaney calls it “Tonally…a little bit Orange Is the New Black and a tad Breaking Bad, dressed up in clothes a Real Housewife might wear if she were strapped for cash.” It is indeed hard to put a label on this this TNT show other than brilliantly addictive.

Desna (played by the absolutely captivating Niecy Nash) is a manicurist, and matriarch of the highest order to her autistic adult-brother and her four flawed-yet-gold-hearted nail technicians. Desna is also a low-level criminal—laundering a mobster’s money of her strip-mall salon as a means to the end of a better life for her and her motley crew (she hopes).

The icing on this multilayer cake?—the costumes! Created by costume designer and NYWIFT Designing Women honoree Dana Covarrubias, they are nothing short of “eye-popping” and are a key element in setting the show’s atmosphere and tone. Available on TNT and Hulu.

(Cover photo by Bridgette Matthews)