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Neely Swanson

In “A Real Pain,” Kieran Culkin stars with Jesse Eisenberg, who also wrote and directed, as cousins trying to make a connection, both to each other and their family heritage.

He’s thickened a bit in the middle and he’s traded those skinny Levis for dad jeans but he hasn’t lost a beat and that voice hasn’t lost a note.

September and October were the traditional months when broadcast networks premiered their new shows. This week we discuss some of those new entries, but never fear, there are many more to come in November.

Each presents protagonists that are too rarely seen on screen.

The content machine never stops, and this summer is no exception. Get ready for fabulous series premieres with women front and center. 

“Janet Planet,” written and directed by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker, rotates around the mother-daughter relationship between Janet and 11-year-old Lacy.

Yorgos Lanthimos, the controversial critics’ favorite who directed “Poor Things,” lives by the statement “Sometimes you just need to be ridiculous in order to achieve what we’re trying to achieve.”

Expect sequels of your favorites, remakes and reimaginings of stories from the past.

On this, the 80th anniversary of D Day, it is appropriate to remember all those veterans who sacrificed for our freedom, whether in World War II or in the wars that followed.

Think of unicorns, big smiles, dancing, ladybugs, butterflies and all the colors on a bright palette, and you begin to approach the past joys of the television show “Reading Rainbow.”