Karl Puschmann's July TV picks

Karl Puschmann joins Culture 101 with his monthly picks. He calls Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Happiness, the new Larry David sketch series on HBO Max, a disappointing misfire despite a cast that includes Samuel L. Jackson, Bill Hader and Barack Obama in an intro sequence. He recommends Elle, the Legally Blonde prequel on Amazon Prime, for fans of the original. And he gives a strong early endorsement to Westies on Neon, an 80s mob thriller with J.K. Simmons as an Irish-American gang leader holding territory against the Italian mob in Hell's Kitchen, describing it as confident, brutal and very good.