Latest news with #GovernmentCheese
Los Angeles Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
'Government Cheese': Crafting a Fantastical Family Saga on Apple TV+
On May 15, 2025, at The Culver Theater, Maira Garcia, television editor for the Los Angeles Times, moderated an insightful Q&A session delving into the unique world of Apple TV+'s 'Government Cheese.' The discussion featured Paul Hunter, the co-creator, writer and executive producer, and the series' star and executive producer, David Oyelowo, who shared the inspirations and creative processes behind the new show. 'Government Cheese' offers a vibrant and unconventional journey, born from Paul Hunter's desire to share something personal, drawing deeply from his own family experiences and upbringing. Transitioning from a celebrated career in music videos, Hunter brings this intimate narrative to the screen. 'I wanted to create the show to express something personal and tell the story about my family and my dad,' Hunter shared. The story itself evolved significantly; what began as a feature film idea transformed into a compelling short film script. It was this short film that captured David Oyelowo's attention and convinced him to become involved in what would eventually become the series. Oyelowo, an acclaimed actor, was immediately drawn to the series' quirky, fantastical tone and the unique opportunity to center Black characters in a way that is rarely seen on screen. 'I just hadn't read anything like this before,' Oyelowo said. 'It was so quirky, so weird, so fantastical, so surreal, but so relatable, so cinematic, so ambitious, all at the same time.' He highlighted Hunter's vision to portray Black characters through an artistic lens often associated with filmmakers like Spike Jonze or Wes Anderson. 'It was Paul as well, just as a person, as a creative, his passion for the story,' Oyelowo explained. The series establishes a strong sense of place, filmed in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley. This setting, Hunter emphasized, was crucial to ground the show's whimsical tone, describing Chatsworth as their 'Twin Peaks' and a visual anchor. The distinctive visual style supports a narrative eager to break stereotypes. The characters, particularly the father figure Hampton (played by Oyelowo and inspired by Hunter's father), are intentionally portrayed as complex and flawed human beings. Hunter compared his on-screen family to the 'Addams Family,' aiming to 'capture who we were as a family and how normal we were, at least to us.' Interwoven throughout the narrative are prominent religious and spiritual themes, notably Hampton's journey paralleling the biblical story of Jonah, alongside the symbolic use of animals, which adds another layer to the storytelling. 'I really related to this idea through Hampton of a complicated relationship with God,' Oyelowo noted. 'There is no faith without doubt.' Music also plays an undeniable role in shaping the world of 'Government Cheese.' The show features a diverse soundtrack that reflects the personal experiences of its creators, with Hunter drawing from his eclectic childhood auditory landscape, blending artists like Elton John with Earth, Wind & Fire. This, along with a theme song by Pharrell Williams, underscores the show's distinctive rhythm. Ultimately, 'Government Cheese' emerges from this discussion not just as a new series but as a vibrant testament to the power of personal storytelling and bold artistic vision in a crowded television landscape. With its heartfelt narrative and distinctive style, the show, as detailed by Hunter and Oyelowo, is poised to leave a memorable mark, inviting audiences into a world that is as wonderfully peculiar as it is profoundly human.
The Review Geek
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Review Geek
Government Cheese – Season 1 Episode 8 Recap & Review
An Evening with Abraham Cohen Episode 8 of Government Cheese begins with Hampton and Harrison heading back home after their fishing trip. Harrison winds up seeing the temple flyer on the backseat but doesn't think much of it. Hampton meanwhile, crashes on the sofa. He waits for Harrison and Astoria to leave before grabbing the stash of money in his pocket. The whole encounter with the catfish is still playing on his mind, and this brings more surreal visions to life, including Bootsy who has been suspiciously absent for a few episodes. The crux of the issue here stems from that money, which Hampton knows he shouldn't have taken but his greed got the better of him. In the morning, Hampton drives to the temple and intends to give the money back but the rabbi shows up and stops him. With the money hidden behind his back, the Rabbi knows that he's a man in crisis and convinces Hampton to pray with him, ending with 'all will be forgiven'. Hampton leaves the wad of money on the podium before leaving, but it doesn't take long before word of the safe break-in spreads. The police show up to investigate the area, although they dismiss the neighbour talking about her fireplace. When the Rabbi finds the money on the podium, he wants to rescind his police report, believing all has been resolved. Despite the window latch being broken (thanks to Eli breaking it just before) it turns out Hampton took the building fund fees, not the charity funds. The police do leave but naturally, the female detective is not in the mood to just turn the other cheek, so they decide to look around the neighbourhood. They head over to the neighbour's place and find a shoe in the fireplace, which is a big clue. Meanwhile, Astoria shows off her designs to her boss, Mr Briess, who's impressed by her work. The position is opening up in San Francisco though so it means she'd need to move. However, she's confident that her husband will be able to look after the kids in her absence. Hampton thinks he's out the woods but the reality is he's far from it. Despite giving the money back, the detectives find Bootsy, dead, stuck in the chimney above the neighbour's place. Without a drill or tools with him though, the detectives realize that there may be another suspect. The Episode Review So Hampton's life is about to be completely upended and to be honest, he only has himself to blame for it. 8 episodes in, we've heard very little about his drill or RocketCorp which is pretty amusing because this is the entire crux of the situation and its just been brushed aside here in favour of the familial drama and the temple incident. All of this could have been avoided if Hampton just sold his drill and to be honest, given what we've seen, he's barely using it anyway. Its been a prop to break into the safe but he's not progressed in any way with the RocketCorp angle. And with 2 episodes left, it's unclear if he'll even circle back to this. The surrealism angle is a nice touch that continues to enhance this one, but the series is struggling to balance all these characters and actually flesh out their journeys in a meaningful way, which is a shame. Hopefully this one ends with a bang though. Previous Episode Next Episode Expect A Full Season Write-Up When This Season Concludes!
New York Times
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
David Oyelowo Considers Oprah ‘Chosen Family'
'Government Cheese' began as what David Oyelowo called 'a beautiful experiment.' He had long admired the fantastical storytelling of Wes Anderson and the Coen brothers. But he hadn't seen that applied to a Black family. Then the filmmaker Paul Hunter approached him about playing a version of his own father — an ex-con eager to reunite with his family and make his fortune — in a short film with absurdist elements set in the San Fernando Valley in 1969. Eventually they spun it into a television series for Apple TV+, taking care to leave that tone intact. 'We were very keen to make something that we knew might not be for everyone, but was very unique in its nature,' said Oyelowo, who is an executive producer on the show in addition to its lead. 'It's very rare that people of color get to make things where they are not feeling the need to explain their existence.' Oyelowo lives in the San Fernando Valley, where the series was shot, which meant there was little danger of violating the 'no more than two weeks apart' rule that he and his wife, Jessica, established early in their relationship. And which they've broken only once, by 11 hours. In a video interview, Oyelowo elaborated on why his rambunctious dogs, going to the movies and Oprah Winfrey are essential to his life. These are edited excerpts from the conversation. I was brought up in the church, but it never really meant much to me because I was sort of piggybacking my parents' faith. Then I had what can only be called a spiritual awakening at 16. And all of those stories that I grew up reading suddenly took on different meaning and have remained that way. It's where I learned the true definition of love. We've now known each other for 30 years. When we met, she was 17, I was 18, and she just hijacked my heart. There was a moment where I realized I couldn't picture a single day of my life going forward without her in it. Selfishness is an occupational hazard as an actor. But the greatest gift my kids have given me is selflessness. What being a father has afforded me is the opportunity to gain a new habit, which is to constantly be thinking about others. That's a mental health thing for me. I need to sweat. I need to get those endorphins going. I need to shake things up. I remember in playing Dr. King in 'Selma,' I had to gain about 30, 35 pounds, so I couldn't be in the gym for several months. I hadn't appreciated just how difficult it is to stay mentally sharp when you are not as physically active. We have a Bernese mountain dog, a Siberian husky and a Cavalier King Charles. They're too rambunctious. Two of them are very big, and I wish they didn't jump on us the way they do — but I also love the fact that they jump on us the way they do. Oprah and I met in 2011 during 'The Butler,' playing mother and son. I've lost both of my parents now, and they were massive in my life. Oprah has kind of become my chosen family, which has been a profound reality. I call her Mama, she calls me Son O. I just love the communal experience of going to the movies. Between being a storyteller and being a lover of community and being a real believer in the fact of the healing ability that story has as a mirror to humanity, I can't imagine my life without that privilege. It coincided with the #BringBackOur Girls movement for the Chibok schoolgirls who were kidnapped in Nigeria. As much as I love being a Nigerian, it's a very patriarchal society, and I'm a big believer that one of the ways to bring peace on earth is to have more female leadership. We started with three girls and we're now at 44 girls, and we pay for all of their education, all of their mental health needs, all of their menstrual health needs. That is where the contract between actor and audience is cemented. We are going to go on a journey together, and I am going to do everything I can to tell the truth. Giving a performance hundreds of times to an audience, you start to understand what it costs to tell the truth. I'm a bit of an A-type personality, but there is simply no way from a capacity standpoint that I could do as much as I'm doing without Darnell Rhea, who is carrying in her body about 25 to 30 percent of my brain. She is the GOAT. I've told Darnell that, at the very least, she has to give me seven years' notice if she's thinking of quitting because she's that good at her job.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Government Cheese' on Apple TV+: Why Quebec brothers are the crime family in David Oyelowo show
While Government Cheese on Apple TV+, created by Paul Hunter and Aeysha Carr, starring David Oyelowo, brings us into this incredibly detailed world of the late 1960s San Fernando Valley in California, there's a Canadian reference that will likely pique your interest. In the series we meet Hampton Chambers (Oyelowo) while he's doing time for cheque forgery, leaving prison with an idea for a new invention: a self-sharpening drill. When he returns home, planning to sell his invention to a company called Rocket Corp, he hits a significant snag. He owes $2,000 to a French-Canada crime family, the Prevost brothers, and Hampton doesn't have the money. With Hunter basing the Chambers on his own family, there was an interesting connection that led to Hampton having to manage the threat of a Quebec mob family. "How that connected for me, my family is from New Orleans, so we kind of have a French vibe. And so I was thinking, how do you sort of connect that world," Hunter told Yahoo Canada. "We knew some family that was called the Prevost that we grew up in the valley, so it was just great to sort of dig into that." "I thought it would be interesting to have characters be in the San Fernando Valley, ... they kind of had finished whatever drama that they had going on out in Canada, so the next step was to come out to California. ... Got into the valley and dealt with the motorcycle gangs ... and now they have their little corner. And I just thought it'd be a lot of fun. You hadn't seen, for me at least, those kind of characters in the San Fernando Valley." With Hunter brining so much of himself, his family and his upbringing to this story, he was an incredible resource for everyone working on the series. "I asked him so many questions. I had to see pictures. I had to understand who all these people were," Carr said. "And so it was really a joyous, sometimes therapeutic process of just really getting to know each other." "Paul's whole family was all over all of it. His daughter was in our writer's room, she was one of our writer's assistants. With Paul, it's always a family affair." Additionally, Hunter's mother, who inspired the character Astoria (Simone Missick), Hampton's wife, was on set, and even makes a small cameo in the show. "Initially I was very emotional about it. ... She came around just before the set pieces actually, when we were just really building the set, and she walked through and it's like showing her, 'Hey, Mom. This room is inspired by you.' Purple was her colour that she loved, so we painted the room a lavender." "I think we really took a lot of time and care in the creation of Astoria, and I think we painted her beautifully, as she is such a beautiful woman, and really came to parenting in this left-from-centre approach," Carr added in a separate interview. Two things really stand out with Government Cheese. There is an unpredictability with the format, with each episode having a different feel to keep you on your toes as a viewer, and there is an incredible amount of detail put into this show, from the cars to the set pieces and costumes. As Carr described it, "clear lines" were established for the narratives of each character, "where they were coming from, where they were going, and all the things that needed to happen to them in between." "I think once you draw that story map, you can paint all the different segments a different colour, because you're very clear on what you need to get across in those moments," Carr said. "And so once stay true to that, you can have so much fun with the style and the tone a little bit, because you're very clear about what you need to get out of each episode." But Hunter also highlighted that he really wanted to "shake up" the traditional format of a TV series, while also playing with genres. "I resisted coming to the television space for a long time, just because of the way things sort of lay out. ... When the streaming came in, it allows you to have different time lengths, play with format. My thoughts coming in was to sort of inspire everyone to think, let's shake it up. And I wanted each episode to feel like a short film so that we could play with it and push it around. ... I directed the first couple of episodes and then some in the middle, and then I thought the other filmmakers would have fun to be able to play." When it came to the characters, the actors were drawn to the script, including Bokeem Woodbine who plays Hampton's friend Bootsy, who's instrumental in trying to help Hampton get the money he owes to the Prevosts. Woodbine initially turned down the project because his schedule wouldn't allow for enough prep time, but luckily things changed and he was able to join the show. "I felt like I knew who Bootsy was and I had an idea how to approach the character, so I called my agent ... and I said, 'Hey, man, this a drag that this isn't going to work out, because I really love this show, and I love this character.' And he said, 'Well, guess what? I've been on the phone with them and they decided to give you some more time to prepare, which was all I needed to hear," Woodbine said. "Bootsy is a veteran, a combat veteran from the Vietnam War, and I had worked in a few pictures prior to this that dealt with that subject matter, the Black experience in the Vietnam War, which is a very specific type of challenge. And there's a book called 'Bloods' that deals with that. And so I reread several chapters that spoke to me the most from the book 'Bloods,' and then I talked to Paul about his memories. And then I have my own interpretation of who Bootsy is, and I just kind of used that as my basis to prepare." There's one particular moment that stands out between Hampton and Bootsy, when the pair end up robbing Temple Hillel, ad it's a stand-out for Woodbine as well. "Working on that scene was some of the most fun I've had in my 30, however many years I've been doing this. It was so fun," Woodbine said. "I couldn't believe they were letting us do this." "If you've ever been a kid and got to stay up past your bedtime for whatever reason, ... you feel giddy. ... You don't even really do anything, but it's just the thrill of being awake past the time you were supposed to be asleep. That's what it felt like the whole time we were doing those scenes. ... I read several parts of that twice, like, am I reading this correctly? Let me put my glasses on. I know they're not going to let us do this. And then, sure enough, they let us get loose, and they let us express ourselves." But what remains at the core of Government Cheese is a story about this family, with Hunter pulling from memories of his own childhood. When Hampton first arrives home, his wife isn't particularly enthused by the events that led to his arrest, neither is his son Harrison (Jahi Di'Allo Winston). But Hampton's son Einstein (Evan Ellison) is that person who always sees the world with positive light. "One thing I wanted to make sure was [that it was not] one note the entire time, because he is very matter of fact, kind of off the cuff," Evan Ellison said about playing Einstein. "So there was that fine line of trying to bring nuances to the character and actually have an arc to the character, but I think ultimately, it was a blast kind of being that curious, optimistic guy in the room." "I think he was eager to have a fellow intellectual back in the house that he can invent things with together." A significant evolution in the show comes when Hampton takes Harrison on a fishing trip, where you really get deeper into this father-son relationship, which is different than what Hampton has with Einstein. It's where Hampton also talks about how, while Harrison doesn't understand the decisions he's made, he tells him everything is led by providing for his family. Thing then take another turn when Hampton leaves his son alone in a tent that night to go on the robbery job with Bootsy. "It was really like being on our own adventure, being out there," Winston said. "Up until that point Harrison, the way we see him, is sort of one-dimensional. He's very deadpan, very sort of jaded and closed off, but we finally get to see him soften and be that little kid that is just looking for that sense of affection from his dad. So it was really fun to shoot. And actually, I was fortunate enough Paul showed me a little short snippet, probably close to when we were done shooting, and just watching it, I felt the weight of the emotion watching just the little tidbit of footage that he showed me." Leaning into the absurdist quality of Government Cheese, Woodbine highlighted that it was appealing to see a Black family leading a story with this tone, instead of the more typical civil rights-related stories we usually see with a Black protagonist. "One of the things that might be kind of jarring, but in a positive way, is the depiction of the Black family in a kind of setting that is usually reserved for say a Wes Anderson picture, or Tim Burton-esque imagery," Woodbine said. "You generally don't see Black people depicted in that quirky, eccentric kind of surrealist manner." "So you're seeing elements and genre mashups that are disparate, but we brought it all together into this unique examination of a time period and a family. It has universal overtones and it's just not been done before."
The Review Geek
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Review Geek
Government Cheese Episode 8 Preview: Release Date, Time & Where To Watch
Government Cheese Government Cheese is a surrealist family comedy set in 1969, San Fernando Valley. At the center of this are the Chambers, a quirky family pursuing lofty and seemingly impossible dreams. When Hampton Chambers is released from prison, his long-awaited family reunion doesn't go quite as he'd planned. During his absence, Hampton's wife, Astoria, and sons, Einstein and Harrison, have formed an unconventional family unit, and Hampton's return spins their world into chaos. If you've been following this one over the weeks, you may be curious to find out when the next episode is releasing. Well, wonder no more! Here is everything you need to know about Government Cheese episode 8, including its release date, time and where you can watch this. Where Can I Watch Government Cheese? Government Cheese is available to stream on AppleTV+. This is an exclusive original series, meaning this is the only place you're going to be able to watch this show. Government Cheese Episode 8 Release Date Government Cheese Episode 8 will release on Wednesday 14th May at approximately 12am (ET)/(PT) and 5am (GMT). Of course, it's really dependent on how quickly Apple upload new episodes. Expect this to be pretty close to the release time though. Government Cheese is also available with subtitles from its release, with the chapters scheduled to clock in at around 30minutes long. How Many Episodes Will Government Cheese Season 1 Have? Season 1 of Government Cheese is scheduled for 10 episodes, so we've got 2 more episodes to go after this one. Expect the story to continue developing as this satirical look into Hampton's life continues. Is There A Trailer For Government Cheese? There is indeed! You can find a trailer for Government Cheese below: What do you hope to see as the series progresses? What's been your favourite moment of Government Cheese so far? Let us know in the comments below!
