Crime
Nocturne
Apple TV’s ‘Nocturne’ has all the elements of a prestige crime drama. But it comes with a significant case file of problematic content.
Jeanie is like a butterfly, flitting around everywhere, exploring everything she can. The middle school science teacher welcomes people into her life and invests herself in theirs. She has a pseudo bucket list of things she thinks would be fun to learn or do, such as picking a lock or climbing the Alps.
James is more like a gopher. As Jeanie puts it, “Gophers dig down deep and focus on one thing.” As a philosophy professor who’s been working on writing the same book for more than two years, James definitely falls into the gopher category. He likes doing things a very specific way. He grits his teeth at change. And frankly, the idea of hiking the Alps terrifies him.
On paper, Jeanie and James don’t work. But they’ve managed to fall in love. So somehow, some way, these two newlywed sexagenarians will find a way to figure it out.
NBC’s comedy Newlyweds stars real-life married couple Téa Leoni and Tim Daly in the lead roles—with special guest star appearances from Jamie Lee Curtis, who co-created the series.
The show is warmhearted and funny, reminding us that relationships don’t get easier with age: You still have to keep working at it and finding ways to pour into the ones you love.
Of course, there’s a bit of content involved: James is divorced, and his ex-wife, Claudia (played by Curtis), hasn’t quite accepted that fact. (They divorced after she cheated on him.) Jeanie’s husband passed away three years ago, and she has two teenage kids still living at home. Those dynamics can sometimes hint at the real drama that occurs in blended families.
Language is mild and infrequent, but sexual innuendos are not. Nearly half of the first episode’s dialogue is dedicated to flirtatious exchanges and double entendres. These newlyweds can hardly seem to keep their hands off each other, and we even see them in bed (nothing explicit is depicted) on a couple of occasions.
With a TV-PG rating, Newlyweds suggests a certain level of family appropriateness. However, this is not a show for younger viewers. And anyone uncomfortable with frequent talk about sex would be better served watching something else.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
After falling hard for each other on a blind date, sexagenarians Jeanie and James begin dating. But it doesn’t take long for the couple to decide to get married.
On their very first date, Jeanie is so smitten by James that she boldly decides to kiss him. She immediately invites him to follow her to bed. The scene picks up the next morning with the couple in bed together, both wearing shirts and underwear. Throughout the episode, they kiss and embrace. Nearly all of their verbal exchanges include some sort of reference to sex, even when Jeanie’s two kids are in the room. At one point, Jeanie sends a “sexy pic” to James via text (though we don’t see it)—an action that her daughter, Poppy, says is a mistake since anything you post online is there forever.
James’ ex-wife, Claudia, lets herself into his house whenever she wants. She suspects that James is dating someone much, much younger now (which, of course, he’s not). She asks James why they got divorced, and he reminds her that she cheated on him. When she first meets Jeanie, she mistakenly thinks Jeanie is the maid. Later on, after walking in on Jeanie and James making out on the couch, she calls James a pig, assuming that he’s cheating on his new girlfriend with Jeanie.
Claudia wears outfits that show off her figure and cleavage. Someone says a leather chair was made out of a whale’s genitals.
Poppy punches James in the nose when she mistakes him for a home invader. When Jeanie asks Poppy why she thought this, Poppy responds, “Why do men do anything?” Jeanie tells Poppy to get some ice for the injury, but Poppy thinks the ice is for her hand, not James’ nose. A man accidentally hits himself in the face while opening a door and then stumbles into several other objects, knocking them over. We hear that the same man has fallen into fjords several different times.
James jokes that if he says Claudia’s name three times, she’ll appear out of nowhere. Jeanie says that her late husband was “devoured by lions,” but she then admits he actually passed away from brain cancer. Jeanie jokes that the COVID pandemic messed up her kids. Jeanie’s son, Lolo, accidentally breaks James’ hot tub. Claudia calls herself “wicked.” Lolo says that Jeanie naps when her students are taking tests. A man admits he loves delivering bad news.
Characters drink alcohol on several occasions. James has a large wine rack in his home. We hear that a teenager would vape during class.
Jeanie adopted Lolo when he aged out of the foster care system so that he could have health insurance, and they seem to have a genuine mother-son relationship.
There are about six misuses of God’s name. We also hear single instances of “d–n” and “h—.” A man exclaims, “There is a God,” after seeing a sensual photo of his girlfriend.
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
Apple TV’s ‘Nocturne’ has all the elements of a prestige crime drama. But it comes with a significant case file of problematic content.
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