What I’m Watching: Hollywood

Hollywood: Season 1, Episode 4 “(Screen) Tests” (B+)

This was a more grounded hour, one that changed things up by putting Avis in a real position of power. Ace demonstrated just how despicable he was by listing the things that were much more important to him than winning more Oscars, and he was so angry to discover that there was a black writer who had been hired as part of the pitch Dick made to him. After he was incapacitated, Avis being put in charge of all things creative should have been a positive since she could help screw her husband over once and for all by doing the things he most hated, but that didn’t seem to be her priority. Henry blackmailing her with photos from the gas station didn’t seem to stick after she was shown Jack’s screen test after watching the painstaking excerpts of Rock’s sixty-seven takes that repeatedly involved him confusing pronouns. Eleanor Roosevelt, who I now realize was played by Harriet Sansom Harris from “Desperate Housewives,” is one of the few people more powerful than a studio head on this show, and she seems to have inspired Avis to go for it and make a movie written by a black writer with a black leading actress. Jeremy Pope was the MVP of this episode as Archie, refusing to be replaced and not standing for Jack complaining about wanting to achieve his big dream for even a moment. This show is likely to be a big player at the Emmys and could really dominate the acting categories.