Overrated/Underrated: Embrace holiday dysfunction with ‘Bonus Family’; ‘Juliet, Naked’ is too painful

UNDERRATED

“Bonus Family� on Netflix: Sure, maybe a subtitled Swedish TV show isn’t the easiest sell if you’re entertaining out-of-town guests over a long Thanksgiving weekend. But once you’ve exhausted “Incredibles 2� and other crowd-pleasers, give this comedy-drama series a shot for a funny and reliably heartfelt look at the volatile yet very real combinations of families by marriage and divorce. Led by Vera Vitali (“Grand Hotel�) and her character’s oafish ex (Fredrik Hallgren, who resembles a Nordic Rob Corddry) and their partners, exes and children, this series shows that for all their cultural values for order Scandinavians can be dysfunctional too.

David Dominique’s “Mask�: Born in New York City but with ties to the Los Angeles indie rock and improvised music scenes, this composer-bandleader’s new album carries a high-octane, hard-swung pace that at times recalls the controlled chaos of the late Charles Mingus in exploring a sound that touches on big band swing, new music and metal. Specializing in a valve trombone dubbed a “flugabone,� Dominique calls on a roster of talent from L.A. jazz label Orenda Records to help distill a time of recent personal upheaval into an exuberant, even joyful record that’s as unpredictable as it is approachable.

OVERRATED

“Juliet, Naked� (2018): Lauded as one of the few solid romantic comedies released in recent years, this movie adapted from the 2009 novel by Nick Hornby has a promising cast that includes Rose Byrne, Ethan Hawke and Chris O’Dowd. But the results are a predictable slog through the lives of music-obsessed men and the women who must inexplicably endure them. Aiming for awkward charm and a piercing critique of record collecting man-splainers, the movie is mostly an exhausting exercise in watching Byrne’s character endure both O’Dowd and Hawke as the undeserving pieces of a love triangle that’s far more painful than sweet.

“Bodyguard�: Not to be confused with the 1992 Whitney Houston movie, this Netflix series led by Richard Madden — last seen being murdered on his wedding night on “Game of Thrones� — follows a well-worn path through prestige British crime TV. While there are interesting moments, particularly in Madden’s title character struggling with PTSD as an Afghanistan war vet charged with protecting a politician who sent him in harm’s way, the series is quickly mired in tired doomsday terror-attack scenarios that flirt with Islamophobia before settling into a final villain’s reveal so contrived it should come with a twiddled mustache.

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