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.
