five shows you should watch, just in case you haven’t yet.
There are more great shows on now than there ever have been. It is well documented that we are in the golden age of scripted television… or I guess I should just write ‘shows,’ because ‘television’ is less and less accurate all the time.
With all these great shows, it gets harder and harder to keep up with all new things there are to watch, and to keep up with the shows you already love.
The last thing you need is some asshole trying to add even more to your “to watch” list.
Here are some more shows to add to your “to watch” list.
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1. Moone Boy
This Irish show, now available in America thanks to Hulu, is based on the childhood of creator and co-lead writer Chris O’Dowd, who also stars in the series as the protagonists imaginary friend. The entire cast is charming, I sort of wish I was a member of the Moone family. The setting of a small Irish town as the 80’s turn into the 90’s is a delightful blend of alien and familiar, since I grew up at the same time, just a few years behind young Martin Moone.
Moone Boy is a unicorn, one of those rare shows which is simultaneously light and sweet and still smart and well-written.
I’m so sad this the show only has one episode left ever. Please give us a movie, or at least a Christmas special!
The first two seasons are available on Hulu.
2. Man Seeking Woman
The latest in the FX (and FXX) hit parade of comedies, Man Seeking Woman is a show about the pressures, anxieties, social rules, and oddities of being a single man in 2015. What sets it apart is the fact that it takes all those elements and exaggerates them into ridiculous metaphors. Louie has always done this really well, but Man Seeking Woman takes it to another level on the crazy meter.
It’s awesome.
Getting set up by his sister with an actual troll, finding out that most other guys were taught “spiral eyes” by a wizard when they hit puberty to make talking to women easier, drinking a dram to fake his own death when a series of casual hookups gets too serious, getting too drunk and forgetting his penis at the bar before taking a woman home, finding out his ex is dating Hitler, strategizing in a war room to craft the perfect text… just a few of the crazy metaphors Josh finds himself living in that make this such a winning show.
The first season is available on Hulu.
3. Attack on Titan
I’m still slow getting into anime. Not because I have an aversion to it, but more because the genre is so huge and varied. It’s hard to know where to begin, or at least where to go after mega-classics like Akira and Ghost in the Shell. Attack on Titan is a great step into that world. Crazy visuals and concept, over-the-top emotional cues, harrowing odds, bad-ass leads… all the things I expect from anime, as a novice of course.
I liked the early episodes, but for some reason it was when I got to episode four that the show really clicked for me.
Obviously, this is the most particular recommendation on this list, because anime is most certainly not everyone’s particular brand of whiskey.
The first season is available to stream on Netflix.
4. Justified
I know I’ve been banging this drum for a while, but that’s because no one is listening! I still don’t know anyone outside of Emily who watches this show, which is just stupid. Stupid, I tell you!
Perhaps it is because all of my friends are liberal intellectuals who either grew up on one of the coasts or in another country altogether, and thus have trouble getting excited about a US Marshall from the remote hollows of Kentucky. I don’t know if that’s really the reason, but I can’t think of other reasons why folks would be hesitant about this show.
Well, set your mind at ease liberal whackos, here are some fun facts to remember:
1. You know who else is a crazy, liberal, intellectual, from New York of all places, but still really loves this how? That’s right, ME!
2. The show is based on a character created by celebrated crime writer Elmore Leonard (Get Shorty, Out of Sight).
3. The collection of liberal whackos known as television critics also love Justified. The final season (only two episodes left!) is the second highest rated show of the current television cycle (tied with Broad City and behind the third season of The Americans).
I can’t find a promo that does the show justice, so instead, read what Matt Zoller Seitz (New York Magazine/Vulture) has to say, which feels like it was lifted from my own soul: “Every conflict or showdown is emotionally or physically concrete yet at the same time metaphorical, the stuff of future legends. And the My Dinner With Andre and His Guns dialogue is so off-the-charts lyrical that you can hear the writers chuckling.”
The first five seasons are available to stream with Amazon Prime.
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5. The Mind of a Chef
Narrated by Anthony Bourdain, The Mind of a Chef focuses on some of America’s best chefs (with a few jaunts abroad) and examines all the things that make them great. Their inspirations, culinary philosophy, the science of cooking, as well as the relationships and stories that make them who they are as a chef is all explored in a style that is funny and engaging. The show follows the brilliant, hilarious, and charming David Chang (Momofuku) through the entire first season, then for seasons two and three each year is split between two chefs.
Every episode I laugh, find inspiration to strive above mediocrity, and learn something new.
The first two seasons are available to stream on Netflix.
shows, and books, and negronis… oh my! [five things – 2.22.15]
I think today is a good day for a quick five things post, because my brain might not be up for a single sustained assertion. Instead, a few shorter ones might be just right. Normally I do five things I’ve already enjoyed, today I’ll sprinkle in some things I’m about to try. I’ll even make it double what the challenge calls for to make up for Friday.
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1. Shows
I say shows because it’s less and less accurate to call it television as time passes. We stream, we rent, we torrent… fewer and fewer watch “TV” on monitors that include a tuner inside, or even through an external tuner in a box.
I’m not one of the folks abandoning ship on films in favor of shows, which I realize now is an entire post I should write. However, the talk of the new golden age of television isn’t overstated. Technically inaccurate for how most critically acclaimed shows reach their audience, but not overstated.
Shows like Justified and Parks and Rec are calling it quits, with Mad Men to follow in a few short months, which is sad, but there is still an overwhelming amount of content out there to enjoy. Shows like Archer, Bob’s Burgers and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia are in the midst of great seasons; Last Week Tonight is back; even a weak season of American Horror Story (as seen in the most recent season) is still pretty solid; The Walking Dead is still the most successful show on actual television sets; Game of Thrones returns soon… even as I write this paragraph I realize that trying to list even a fair sampling of the worthy shows is futile. There are just too damned many that I love, and even more that I haven’t had time to devour as part of my media diet.
Great storytelling is possible within any medium or framework, and the time for this particular type of serialized storytelling is most certainly on the rise.
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2. House of Cards – Season Three
Speaking of great shows… Friday!!!
3. Ulysses by James Joyce
And from one form of serial storytelling to another. Yesterday I wrote about the past, when many novels were published in installments, one of those was Ulysses. Considered by many notables to be the greatest novel of the 20th Century, considered by a majority to be the most important modernist novel in existence. It’s called difficult, genius and mad, often in the same sentence. I’ve never read it, and it’s time to remedy that fact.
My friend Josué and I plan to read it bit by bit throughout the year, but we got off to a late start so I’m only about 50 pages in. Fortunately I only need to read around 17 pages a week to get through the whole thing between now and the end of the year.
Here’s to a wild, challenging ride!
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4. Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch
And in a book that is far less challenging but most certainly enjoyable, Red Seas Under Red Skies. I mentioned this a bit ago when I started the book, while talking up the first book in the series The Lies of Locke Lamora. This was another fun read for anyone who likes heists and/or fantasy. This book also makes it abundantly clear that when you are trying to figure out what to add to the second installment in a series to up the ante after a great debut, the answer is pirates… always pirates. I’m looking at you True Detective.
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5. Stave-aged Negroni
It’s pretty amazing that we live in a time where it’s so easy to get the bits you need to make delicious, well-crafted drinks and meals at home. For around 30 bucks you can get everything you need for the aging part: namely, a bottle and a stave of charred American Oak. Then all you need to do is prebatch the appropriate amount of whatever cocktail you want to age, pour it into the bottle with the stave, pop the top back on, and wait a couple weeks.
I started with some delicious negronis, because the barrel-aged negroni is one of my favorite cocktails, and it is also made with ingredients I usually have at my house. Next up I’ll do another negroni, as well as a vieux carre.
Then you have premade cocktails sitting around just waiting for ice and some lemon peel.
Basic science is magic!
justified, or, talk crowder to me.
“I love the way you talk, using 40 words when four will do.” A character says that about Boyd Crowder in an episode of Justified. It may be most true about Crowder, but it goes for many of the villainous characters on the show. Hero Raylan Givens lets his swagger do most of his talking, but the varying degrees of bad guys are fond of monologues and long, well-crafted threats, explanations, and all manner of verbiage.
It’s simply the show’s writing style, and I love it. Even less wordy Raylan still has a very particular and well-worded way about him. He may use the four words instead of the 40, but those four words are usually perfect. When you combine that style with the remarkably solid casting, you get magic. To use a cliché, some scenes are simply a joy to watch for the dialogue alone (both the writing and the delivery). Which is a special bonus, because there is plenty to like about Justified in addition to the diction.
That’s why Season 6 has left me in a serious good news/bad news situation. The bad news is that this is the show’s final season, and I will be relegated to the world of rewatching favorite episodes when I need a fix. Tragic. The good news is that with the addition of Garret Dillahunt, Mary Steenburgen, and Sam Elliott to this year’s recurring cast, the show is going out with a bang… probably literally considering Raylan’s tendencies. Those actors are exactly the sort of folks I want delivering that trademark Justified discourse.
Now if only I can find a way to convince the appropriate parties that there need to be a few Justified movies after the show wraps up, and we can all enjoy a happy ending.
john oliver returns tonight!
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver makes its triumphant return to HBO tonight.
As I write this, I still haven’t watched tonight’s premier, but I can’t wait to watch it later as a reward for an evening of getting shit done. There’s something beautiful about an intelligent, funny, well-articulated rant against unfairness, injustice, inaccuracy, and all their ilk. John Oliver and his writing staff do it as well as anyone I’ve seen, and he is a necessary balm on the irritating rash of nonsense that is constantly clogging the airwaves, campaign trails, corporate offices, advertising, and general conversations (I can vouch for the conversation part based on the inane things people say on the other side of my bar). Someone needs to call bullshit what it is, and comedians like Stewart, (formerly) Colbert, and Oliver seem to be the only ones willing to take the job most of the time, or at least they are the only ones any of us seem to listen to when they do. It makes what they do a pretty important job.
Too often we seem to forget that things don’t become true just because we wish they were, and conversely don’t cease to be true because we wish they weren’t. Convenience isn’t a precondition for facts. Thus, a man waving his arms and yelling is exactly what you need when what he is communicating to you is that your house is, in fact, on fire. If he can be funny while he does it, all the better.
One of the things I love most about Last Week Tonight is that I genuinely learn something most episodes, things I probably never would have learned anywhere else. They do a brilliant job of breaking down situations and educating viewers about insane things happening under our noses, while still remaining entertaining.
Here’s to hoping this season is the second of many to come, and that the quality and fearlessness continue!
wet hot american summer.
It was already really exciting Tuesday when this teaser came out revealing that everyone is returning for the eight episode Netflix series. Then news came that Jason Schwartzman, Jon Hamm, Kristen Wiig, and Chris Pine are coming along for the ride!
Is this a dream? Am I going to wake up any minute?
bojack horseman.
I don’t know about everyone else, but I love BoJack Horseman. A Netflix original about a horse-man who was a huge tv star on a shitty family sitcom in the 90’s, who now spends his time attempting to distract himself from his own self-loathing. Will Arnett voices BoJack, along with a cast that also includes Alison Brie, Amy Sedaris, Aaron Paul, Paul F. Tompkins, Kristen Schaal, Patton Oswalt, and Stanley Tucci.
The show is clever, funny, and the stacked voice cast is as solid as one would expect. Like the many animal-human hybrids, the show is half witty irreverent cartoon for adults, and half smart, droll, bleak HBO comedy.
Also, I think the opening credits are up there with Mad Men and True Detective.
five and five. [five things i’ve been enjoying and five things i hope to enjoy very soon]
I’ve been in the mood to do this again. I’d like to do it as consistently as I used to, but needs must and whatnot. Maybe my schedule will allow it, maybe it won’t.
For my first post back in a while I decided to share five things I’ve been enjoying, along with five things I still really want to try soon.
Five Things I’ve Been Enjoying
1. Kurt Vonnegut.
Loving a writer like Vonnegut is pretty obvious, especially for someone with my particular sensibility. Still, before this year I had only read Slaughterhouse-Five, or, The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death. As some of you know, this year my goal was to read every Vonnegut novel. I’m through six, and he is everything I’d hoped he would be and more.
I expected the gallows humor, the irony, the cleverness, and the imagination that he is known for. What I didn’t expect was the beautiful tenderness in his writing. Sure, the writing is darkly hilarious and honestly realistic about the world, but for all Vonnegut’s ability to see humans for the absurd beings we really are, he also seemed to love us in spite of it all.
Vonnegut’s work is hopeful, but in an eyes-wide-open way that results in the only hope that’s worth a damn.
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2. Justified
The contemporary western series based on characters created by Elmore Leonard is one of my favorite things of late. I’ve been careful not to start episodes most days because it too often results in binge watching multiple episodes in a row.
I only just finished the second season and it was outstanding. What could easily be a purely formulaic affair is elevated by great camerawork, satisfying and thrilling season-long story arcs, phenomenal acting by recurring players, and two of my very favorite characters on television in Raylan Givens [Timothy Olyphant] and Boyd Crowder [Walton Goggins]. Like Eastwood’s various protagonists, these characters give us those moments of delightful badassery, complete with smart-ass one-liners and love/hate banter.
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3. Silicon Valley
I started watching because it was created by Mike Judge and Kumail Nanjiani is in it. I kept watching it because of how great it is.
Relevant, original, hilarious, and smart. This and True Detective are the best examples of why HBO is still in the company of Netflix, et. al. as the future of serial storytelling.
Also, the eureka moment in the series finale is probably my favorite ever, but I won’t explain why and spoil anything.
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4. Seattle Sounders
The trick with sports is that your team is going to have a season that ends in defeat significantly more often than in victory. Being a sports fan, even a relatively realistic and rational sports fan like myself, is often a painful affair.
Thus, the Sounders could break my heart sooner rather than later.
Right now, though, it sure is fun to be a Sounders fan! In the 15 games before the break they are literally running away with the entire league. Hopefully after the World Cup break the boys in Rave Green will get right back to providing a non-stop highlight reel.
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5. Last Week Tonight
The first two or three episodes were good. Certainly good enough to keep me coming back. Yet, as the show hit its stride it became downright brilliant. The writing is improving every week, and Oliver continues to get his legs doing a job he’s done before but never in this context.
At this rate, Last Week Tonight, a show that in its initial episode looked to be merely clever and funny, will become one of the more important weekly events on television. John Oliver’s rants smack of a special kind of truth-telling this world needs a shit-ton more of.
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Five Things I Hope to Enjoy Soon
1. Child of Light
A video game that follows a young girl who finds herself unable to awaken in her real world, but is instead trapped in a dark world where the sun, moon and stars have been stolen by the Queen of the Night.
From what I’ve read, which isn’t much because I don’t want everything spoiled for me, the game uses the fairy tale structure to engage deeper themes of sadness, isolation, connection, and hope. So, basically, the description you’d give if you were trying to catch me hook, line, and sinker.
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2. The Edge of Tomorrow
So far this weekend, people aren’t going to see this. However, I hope that before the week is out I can be one of the few who have bought a ticket. The premise looks exciting and fresh, Tom Cruise continues to make entertaining movies even if he is apparently a psycho IRL, and critical reaction has been overwhelmingly positive.
Oh yeah, and Emily Blunt.
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3. Her
I’ve already seen it, but it becomes available as a Netflix mailer on Tuesday and I can’t wait to enjoy it again. So far, Her is my favorite of the films I’ve seen this year.
I am still baffled that one of the storytellers I cherish the most for his insight, tenderness, and honesty helped create Jackass. Oh, Spike Jonze, you beautiful enigma.
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4. Chef
I’ll actually be seeing this later today, so, WIN!
It’s good to see Favs writing something smaller again. Did I mention some friends and I used to watch Swingers once a week in freshman and sophomore years of college? Occasionally we would take breaks and watch Made once a week instead.
Plus, the cast looks fantastic. I really wish there were more Bobby Cannavale performances in the world.
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5. The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
Technically, I’ve already started enjoying this because I’m 50 pages in. I hope to have time to enjoy the other 650something pages later this week, because so far it seems to be exactly the kind of book I want to be reading right now.
Lynch’s first novel, and the first book in the ‘Gentleman Bastard’ series (which is up to three books thus far), is apparently a well-written crime caper in a beautifully realized fantasy setting. So far, I agree with the consensus assessment that the book is awesome. I can’t wait to get back to it!