Every Monday and Friday, we offer hyper-specific viewing recommendations in our Watching newsletter. Read the latest picks below, and sign up for the Watching newsletter here.
This weekend I have … a half-hour, and I want to sing along


‘High School Musical: The Musical: The Series’
When to watch: Season 2 arrives Friday, on Disney+.
A mockumentary-style adaptation of the “High School Musical” movies, this peppy show (I like to think of it as Baby “Smash”) ended its first season a year and a half ago. During the hiatus, its star, Olivia Rodrigo, released a single, “Drivers License,” widely interpreted as a sideswipe of her maybe ex, Joshua Bassett, who also stars. Bassett then released his own song and maybe dates a different Disney star, who also has a song. (Find the teen or tween in your life and pay them to explain it to you.) Can the second season upstage this offscreen drama? It promises new frenemies, new romances and — tale as old as time — a whole new Disney-approved musical. Be their guest.


… another half-hour, and I’m an uptown girl


‘Run the World’
When to watch: Sunday at 8:30 p.m., on Starz.
An “Insecure” for the East Coast crowd, this new comedy from Leigh Davenport and Yvette Lee Bowser is set among four 30-something friends in Harlem. Actually, these women — a writer (Andrea Bordeaux), financier (Amber Stevens West), brand strategist (Bresha Webb) and grad student (Corbin Reid) — seem fairly secure. They traffic in brunch dates, relationship drama and chic threads, plus a startling amount of nudity. On the upside, the eight-episode season has a robust sense of place with deep affection for its neighborhood and the strivers, queens and trifling men who populate it.
… five hours, and who needs bras?


‘Halston’
When to watch: Arrives Friday, on Netflix.
This five-episode Ryan Murphy drama — a show about genius, fame and licensing agreements — traces the rise and elegantly draped fall of the fashion designer Halston. (Did we need a Halston series two years after a meticulously researched documentary? Depends how you feel about plunge jumpsuits and cocaine.) Ewan McGregor, a straight actor, plays the gay Halston, which will likely stir up controversy similar to that surrounding the casting of James Corden in Murphy’s movie version of “The Prom.” See it if you like Ultrasuede, Studio 54 nostalgia and people who speak in aphorisms.

Source: New York Times

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