Ben Is Back Has Good Performances But Derivative Screenwriting

MILD SPOILERS FOR BEN IS BACK BELOW

On a seemingly routine Christmas Eve, Holly Burns (Julia Roberts) returns home to discover that her son, Ben (Lucas Hedges), has come home. Ben, the titular lead of Ben is Back,  has been away at a rehab center trying to get clean from his drug habit and now he's returned out of the blue into Holly's life. Holly is at first overjoyed just to see her son back in her life but Ben's siblings and Holly's husband, Neal (Courtney B. Vance), don't like this situation and want Ben to return to the rehab center. Holly proceeds to make her son a deal: he can stay with the family for the next 24 hours but she'll watch him like a hawk, he is to never leave her sight. A task already immensely difficult only increases in how arduous it is as the 24 hours march on and some figures from Ben's past re-emerge to threaten Ben and his family.

"You Couldn't Get Away With This Plot Twist In An Airplane Paperback": A Look At The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story

By now, the level of hyperbolic praise slathered onto The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story from both critics and audiences has reached the level of inescapable. Allow me to toss in my voice to such a chorus of rapturous commentary, because good Lord was this some excellently crafted television. Ten straight episodes that managed to be a riveting crime thriller in their own context and a fascinating rumination on race and gender related hardships. Sure, we all knew when we first strapped in for the first episode of this show exactly how it would end, but did any of us know The People v. O.J. Simpson was going to be this exemplary in every sense of the word?