Stuff Worth Checking Out in 2023, Part Deux.
In Part 2 of this List of Stuff I Need To Write Down So I Don't Forget What I Liked, I'm listing my favorite shows on TV and streaming, as well as a bonus list on audio/podcast stuff, as there was some great listens in there.
As ever, in alphabetical order...
TV/STREAMING
BLUE EYE SAMURAI (NETFLIX)
A half Japanese-half Western girl, who is an outcast to all, pretends to be a man so she can train to become a world-class deadly killer and get her revenge against the horrific monster who destroyed her life. Which she does. Beautifully written, beautifully animated, brutally violent, great voice talent. Episode 5 was one of my favorite animated things of the year.
EXTRAORDINARY (HULU)
In a world where everyone gains super powers when they reach puberty, our hapless heroine Malread Tyers doesn't, and it sucks. Across the board the comedic chops of the acting and the writing is sharp. Particular shout-outs to Luke Rollason as a man who gets stuck transformed into a cat, and the one nerdy dude who causes orgasms with a single touch, but just wants someone to love him for him, man. Also, if you watch DERRY GIRLS (and my god you should), this features Siobhan McSweeney, who plays Sister Michael, in a completely different role.
FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (NETFLIX)
It gets derailed here and there, but this is a really fantastic horror series that did many things well – give the Sackler family the villainous portrayal and the comeuppance they deserve, infuse a SUCCESSION-like story with murderously higher stakes, and also be a very clever adaptation of several Edgar Allan Poe short stories and poems. All while giving great scenery-chewing parts to Bruce Greenwood and Carla Gugino. I've never been a Mike Flanagan stan, but this one was great.
GEN V (AMAZON PRIME)
This college-set spinoff of THE BOYS is honestly just as good as the original recipe. At the country's only college specifically for superheroes, there is all sorts of over-the-top sex and violence to be navigated, and dark secrets to be uncovered. This is not a good "gather the whole family together" watch, so prepare accordingly.
THE GREAT - FINAL SEASON (HULU)
Learning this one was getting cancelled in the midst of the Hollywood strikes was a real gut punch, particularly because the latest (and last) season was so strong, and so funny. Elle Fanning, Nicholas Hoult and the rest of the cast do effortlessly great work across the board. If you liked DEATH OF STALIN, IN THE LOOP, or VEEP, but wish they had much more sex, violence and fine dining, then binge this show.
THE HISTORY OF THE MINNESOTA VIKINGS (YOUTUBE)
A nearly 9-hour in-depth decade-by-decade retelling of the history of the team that creators Will Buikema and Jon Bois describe thusly: “Without a doubt, the Minnesota Vikings are, by far, the best team in NFL history at not being bad.” This recommendation is not for everyone, I know — it’s mostly narration, news headlines and game clips, and tons and tons and TONS of charts. Seriously, so many charts. But the stories behind this team are amazing, and the writing is incredibly clever and funny. If this sounds like something you’d like, I can guarantee you will really like it.
JURY DUTY (FREEVEE/AMAZON)
A masterpiece of hidden camera comedy pulled off with a virtuosity that I almost cannot comprehend, the mad geniuses behind this one set up a whole fake trial and fake jury, that all have to be fake-sequestered for two weeks due to the participation of juror James Marsden (playing himself, hilariously). Everyone is an actor except for one man – Ron Gladden. And in fact, the entire trial is about him – how many ridiculous situations can they throw at him, how many moral quandaries can they put in front of him? Watching him rise to every occasion while remaining stunningly clueless is heartwarming and fucking hilarious. JORF!
JUSTIFIED: CITY PRIMEVAL (FX/HULU)
Did smashing together JUSTIFIED and a completely different Elmore Leonard book into a combo mystery set in Detroit work? No, not really. But having Timothy Olyphant back was awesome, even if having his real-life daughter play his daughter in the show never really pays off. And holy crap the work done by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor was perhaps the best performance of the year on TV for me.
KILLING IT (PEACOCK)
Having finished the second (and last?) season of this Craig Robinson satire of capitalism, I feel comfortable saying it was one of the best and funniest commentaries on our current effed-up system I've ever seen. Somehow in every episode, they manage to pack in an insane amount of jokes and also take on every broken piece of late stage capitalism, from health care to gig work to addiction. Just as an example, there is a mafia of extortionist backwoods crooks who put the squeeze on Robinson and company not for protection money, but to get them put on their company's health plan. So clever-funny.
MAKE OR BREAK (APPLE TV+)
This literally and in every way mimics the structure and style of DRIVE TO SURVIVE, the awesome documentary series on F1 that tracks the teams, personalities and races that make up the Formula One racing tour. Only in this case they apply it against world pro surfing. And it absolutely works. Even with less cars, more hard-partying surfers, and a few actual shark attacks.
RESERVATION DOGS - FINAL SEASON (FX/HULU)
What else to say about this series? It's another almost perfect season to cap off one of the best runs of a show I can remember. Everyone gets a chance to shine, there are no easy answers, it balances drama and comedy impeccably, it takes detours that all seem random until they tie together in the end. I'd argue the finale of Season 2 is still the true emotional heart of the show. But this ending is still great. Excited to give it a year and then do a complete re-watch.
SAS ROGUE HEROES (STARZ)
What a stupid, preposterous show, claiming to be the true story of the formation of the British SAS regiment by a bunch of drunk, horny rebels out in the North African desert during WW2. But it really had so many fun moments, and the needle drops were so stupid-awesome, that it was irresistible not to put it on the list.
SLOW HORSES S3 (APPLE TV+)
Each season of this show gets better and better. Gary Oldman has found the role of a lifetime as the disgusting, flatulent godfather of a house full of wayward, failed spies, who are once again pulled into a vast conspiracy and try desperately to survive and not screw it all up. Once again, there are shocking deaths and amazing set pieces and a complete undermining of the suave spy image you would expect. As ever, you can almost smell Oldman through the screen. Can't wait for S4.
STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS (PARAMOUNT+)
Returning STAR TREK to its roots as an episodic space western continues to pay dividends with weekly new adventures, particularly because the cast led by Anson Mount and Ethan Peck are so fun. This show will try anything, including a crossover with equally fun animated show STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS, and a musical episode that was both hilariously bad (half the cast clearly refused to learn how to sing), and also glorious (a bit involving Klingons turning into a boy band was legitimately one of the funnier bits I saw this year).
STATION ELEVEN (MAX)
Everyone kept telling me to watch this, and I kept saying no because it was so damn depressing. And then I went ahead and did watch, and yes it was hopelessly depressing, so I got that right. But the heights it reaches in certain episodes are so high, it stuck with me. I will never hear A Tribe Called Quest's Excursions quite the same way again after this series.
SWARM (AMAZON PRIME)
An obsessive fan of a thinly veiled Beyonce-clone superstar snaps after her stepsister dies, and goes on a cross-country killing spree while trying to meet her idol. Lead Dominique Fishback is extremely disturbing, the filmmaking is grimy and super-cool, and there are individual episodes that are some of the best of the year – particularly one featuring a dreamy cult led by Billie Eilish, and one involving a gang of murderous strippers. It's uneven, and the last couple episodes aren't really worth the journey. But I really dug it.
AUDIO
BLOWBACK: AFGHANISTAN
As they did in previous seasons on Iraq, Korea and Cuba, hosts Brendan James and Noah Kulwin burst all of your preconceived notions of what the hell happened in Afghanistan, how America's policies starting decades ago led to where we are now. There are so many shocking and infuriating twists here, you just have to listen to it. I think they are stretching a bit to try and make connections to the current situation in Ukraine – it's a parallel that doesn't really work – but that's a quibble. Great journalism and scholarship, great sound design, great show.
EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF AND GOD AGAINST ALL
Werner Herzog narrates his own memoir, telling the stories of his adventures in life and film, and the insane spots he repeatedly put himself into to make his movies – almost dying on rivers, in jungles, in African war zones, and on the peaks of mountains in Patagonia. Honestly, I'd listen to that voice read off his weekly grocery list, but this is much, much better. What a great wierdo.
IF BOOKS COULD KILL
Veteran podcasters Michael Hobbes and Peter Shamshiri take on a different shitty airport bookstore bestseller in every episode, and completely destroy it. HILLBILLY ELEGY, RICH DAD POOR DAD, THE SECRET, FREAKONOMICS, THE END OF HISTORY, NUDGE, they're all there, and so many more. Just a deliciously catty takedown and every episode is a ton of fun.
LIFE OF THE RECORD
Each episode of this show breaks down a classic rock album, with the band and producers themselves guiding you through it song-by-song. Episodes on the making of the Pixies' SURFER ROSA, the first Violent Femmes album, GIVE UP by the Postal Service and CHUTES TOO NARROW by The Shins are all great.
MOTHER, NEIGHBOR, RUSSIAN SPY
This podcast, hosted impeccably by Rosamund Pike, investigates the true story of a couple in the leafy suburb of Montclair, NJ (yes, my town!!) in the 1990s and 2000s who turned out to be deep cover Russian spies. This is the same story that inspired the show THE AMERICANS, but Pike uncovers all sorts of great new angles. I know a bunch of the neighbors of this couple who were close with them when it all went down, and getting this outsider take on it is very cool.
REIGN OF ERROR
This podcast is a hilarious deep dive onto the disastrous ownership of the Knicks by failson James Dolan, recounting every wrong turn, bad bounce and idiotic decision that led the fan base to despise the man. It also works as a great dissection of how this spiteful guy got this way, and what drives him to make such bad choices. In the end, in a way I can't fully understand, you grow to sympathize with him, as you learn that he will never get to lead the life he probably really wanted.
REVOLUTIONS – THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
Every season of this podcast is great, as host Mike Duncan takes on a different revolution in history and goes step-by-step through how they happened, and how they succeeded or failed. His season on the Haitian Revolution is revelatory. But this final season was his epic conclusion, a 100-odd episode recounting of the big kahuna, the Communist Revolution in Russia. He starts way back in the 1860s with Marx and Engels, and follows every twist and turn until Stalin. An amazing and absorbing feat.
THINK TWICE: MICHAEL JACKSON
Leon Neyfakh and Jay Smoove reassess the King of Pop from all sides, ten years after his death, and it's a searing ride. Even that name, the King of Pop, didn't come to be the way you think of it. And the way his legend was curdling long before you remember it is really fascinating. In an era where separating art from artist is getting hard and harder, this podcast really dug into the question.
YEARBOOK
Seth Rogen narrates his own audiobook of remembrances and funny stories of his childhood, his life in comedy and his love of weed, but narrating seems like too small a word. This is more of a radio show or a comedy album, with multiple friends coming on board to re-enact key moments. His recounting of the Sony hack from his POV, and his retelling of his one and only meeting with Tom Cruise, are worth it all on their own.