NOW ENTERTAINMENT April 14 Month 00--20, 00,2024 2023
Your Weekly TV Entertainment Brought To You By Olean Times Herald & The Bradford Era
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Hoa Xuande and Robert Downey Jr. star in the limited-series adaptation of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s “The Sympathizer,” premiering Sunday, April 14, on HBO and Max.
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Hoa Xuande and Robert Downey Jr. star in “The Sympathizer”
Cover Story ‘Sympathy’ for the novel: Oh, Downey Jr. star in Thanh Nguyen novel-turned-series
By Dana Simpson tasked with gaining information When a person immigrates on the U.S. government and to the United States of Amerreporting his findings back ica, they come with their own home to the Communist-proset of experiences, for better pelled Viet Cong. or — as in the case of HBO’s “I am a spy, a sleeper, a newest series — for worse. spook, a man of two faces,” The new seven-episode limited says the Captain (also the series “The Sympathizer” benarrator) at the outset of the gins Sunday, April 14, on HBO 2015 novel and series’ source and HBO’s streaming service, material. “Perhaps not surprisMax. ingly, I am also a man of two Based on the Pulitzer minds, ... able to see any issue Prize-winning novel of the from both sides. Sometimes same name by VietnamI flatter myself that this is a ese-American professor and talent ... [but] I wonder if what author Viet Thanh Nguyen, I have should even be called “The Sympathizer” follows a talent. After all, a talent is young, French-Vietnamese something you use, not someman (played by Hoa Xuande, thing that uses you. The talent “Cowboy Bebop”), who had you cannot not use, the talent been placed in South Vietnam that possesses you — that is for the duration of the Vietnam a hazard.” War, working as a plant. As illustrated by the main As the war approaches its character in the very first lines end in the mid-1970s, the man of Nguyen’s bestselling novel, (hereafter referred to as “the duality is at the heart of “The Captain”) lands in the United Sympathizer.” Whether tackling States and begins intricate moral quandaries 26 Chestnut St., to live his HEARtheWHAT lifePa as•aSuite refugee in Los Angethat separate right from wrong, e, 200 MATTERS MOST les. Little do those around him the complex and imperfect 814-837-7475 know, the Captain has been biases of political lefts and
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rights, or struggling with one’s own parentage (as is, for the Captain, a hated French father and an adored Vietnamese mother), “The Sympathizer” always straddles the line between, at least, two possible outcomes. But if all this talk of dichotomy has you seeing double, don’t fret. You may just be seeing the same thing — or person, as the case would have it — twice. In fact, Marvel Cinematic Universe star Robert Downey Jr. (“Iron Man,” 2008) plays not just two roles, but four — so you could be seeing double twice! Downey Jr., who is recognizable in at least one of his four roles, often stars in heavy prosthetics and costuming alongside up-and-comer Xuande, whose credits to date included mostly Vietnamese film and TV content until his 2021 stint as Lin in Netflix’s live-action adaptation of “Cowboy Bebop.” While very little is shared about any of Downey Jr.’s characters, a quick look at
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the official teasers reveals that he is largely involved in nearly every step of the well-crafted plot. Joining Downey Jr. for “Sympathizer” star power is Canadian icon Sandra Oh, best known for her roles in ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” AMC/BBC America’s “Killing Eve” and Netflix’s “The Chair.” Oh stars as Ms. Sofia Mori, a California-born, Japanese-American secretary for Occidental College’s Department of Oriental Studies. Here she works with the Captain and finds herself drawn to him as they slowly get to know more about one another. “The Sympathizer” also stars Duy Nguyen (“The Night Logan Woke Up”), Scott Ly (“A Tourist’s Guide to Love,” 2023), Fred Nguyen Khan (“Transplant”), Toan Le (“Simply Fobulous,” 2005), Tien Pham (“Desperate Waters,” 2019), Tom Dang (“Z Nation”), Kieu Chinh (“The Joy Luck Club,” 1993) and Kayli Tran (“Ambulance,” 2022).
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Dr. Leslie Stone, AuD, F-AAA
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