We're in the Golden Age of Television, people. Even I'm being pulled more toward TV than movies these days, and that's saying a lot.
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Catastrophe
In a year of "meh" movies (with the exception of February's Get Out), the number one pop culture item I've felt the most connection to and have recommended to anyone who will listen is Catastrophe.
Created by and starring comedians Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney, the (very short and binge-able) series starts when American businessman Rob meets Irish teacher Sharon in a bar in London. Although Rob doesn't drink due to his history of alcoholism (more on this later), he buys Sharon a drink and the two almost immediately return to his hotel to fuck. They proceed to spend the entire week Rob is in London banging each other like crazed weasels.
I'll start by saying that Catastrophe is INCREDIBLY REFRESHING in how it portrays middle-aged people and sex. This is an anti-slut shaming show in which people have sex because it's, I don't know, FUN and because they're grown-ass people.
But, even though they're 40ish, the crux of the show lies in a surprising twist: Sharon gets pregnant and decides to keep the baby. After she tells Rob, he moves to England to try to actually make it work with her and have a role in his child's life.
I really don't know what it is about Catastrophe that makes it so damn good, but it's easily one of the best comedies...maybe one of the best shows, period, I've ever seen. It's hilarious, it's realistic, it's heartwarming in a non-sentimental way. It WILL make you cry, especially the end of the third season.
Delaney and Horgan are very charismatic leads--they are people you would definitely want to know in real life. Bucking the trend of proudly "unlikeable" characters in shows like Girls and It's Always Sunny, Catastrophe tries a different angle: characters who have flaws and are *at times* unlikeable, but are generally pretty cool people. You know, like how real life is?
Some of the topics covered in the three short seasons of the show (each season is 6 episodes long, and each ep is 25 minutes, meaning the entire run of the series is shorter than the Lord of the Rings trilogy) include: "geriatric" pregnancy, adultery, dealing with an aging parent, and alcoholism. Rob's story line where his drinking problem flares up after years of sobriety is based in part by Delaney's real life struggle with the disease, which lead him to nearly kill himself in a car accident in his 20s. It's a very potent storyline since it shows how helpless one can be--even a successful, strong, intelligent adult--when faced with an addiction.
And yet, these heavy storylines come with a large dose of humor and forgiveness. Catastrophe is one of the few shows I've seen that realistically deals with life issues without crushing or destroying the characters that face them.
I really can't recommend it enough. If you watch one show this year (and again, the time commitment is minimal), watch Catastrophe.
Grade: A+
PS: Did I mention that Carrie Fisher is in it? She plays Rob's mom. It's one of her final projects before she passed.
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Master of None, season 2
After a nearly perfect first season, Aziz Ansari returns with a much more personal and uneven season 2 of his show about an Indian guy named Dev trying to make it in Hollywood and also deal with dating, parents, etc.
When I say that this season is "uneven", I mean that with the success of the first season, Ansari took artistic and personal liberties with this season--with results that will thrill some and annoy others (one friend of mine said she hated the first episode and couldn't watch any further).
Indeed, I found myself incredibly impressed with some aspects of the season and "meh" about others. The episode "Thanksgiving", co-written by Lena Waithe, who went on the win an Emmy for it and became the first black female to win an Emmy in the comedy writing category*, is possibly one of the best episodes of television I've seen this year. But the later episodes with Dev pining over an engaged female friend seem to verge on artistic masturbation, as if Ansari is trying to take a personal (and self-flagellating) story and layer artistry over it to make it seem more important than it actually is.
But despite the ups and downs, the second season of Master of None still has Ansari's signature goofy wit and keen eye for the everyday absurdities that Millennials in particular have to deal with--for example, being close to our parents (good!) while still feeling a bit under their thumb (bad!), as Ansari highlights in the funniest episode of the bunch, "Religion". Also: the hamster wheel of online dating that becomes so repetitive it's no longer fun.
I've never much cared for Ansari's stand-up comedy, but he seems to have found the right outlet for his unique voice with Master of None. If you liked season 1, you will probably also enjoy season 2.
Grade: A-
* Fucking get it, girl!
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Westworld
After finding out that I have 4 months of free HBO on account of being "a loyal Verizon customer", I went straightaway to the first season of Westworld and I was not disappointed.
"Westworld" is a playground for rich people who want to do immoral things with no consequences. It is a park inspired by the American West: saloons, brothels, cowboys n' Indians, shoot-outs, and rugged adventure. There are a variety of "hosts" in the park--robots designed to look and act perfectly human--for the visitors ("guests") to interact with and, if we're being honest here, to fuck, rape, and kill without facing the consequences of hurting a "real" human.
But, as we all know, the singularity is imminent and some of the hosts begin acting up--likely because they were programmed to experience "reveries", that is, memories. This is NOT a good thing in a place like Westworld, where hosts' memories would be filled with the most horrific shit you can imagine.
We see two sides of the park: inside the park, we have Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood, insanely good in this plum role), a cattle rancher's daughter who feels compelled by a voice in her head telling her to "remember"; Teddy (James Mardsen), a cowboy with one motivation: protect Dolores; Maeve (Thandie Newton), a brothel Madam whose intelligence level allows her to begin "waking up" outside the park when she's in for repairs; and many others. Outside the park, we have a battle of wills between Bernard (Jeffrey Wright), Theresa (Sidse Babett Knudsen), and park founder Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins) over how much sentience the hosts should be allowed to possess and how to deal with hosts that go rogue and have the potential for violence.
Westworld is, of course, about what it means to be human. From the host side, the question lies in consciousness and will--the ability to develop and follow your own voice. From the guest side, the question lies in human capability for violence/apathy vs. kindness/caring. Over and over, guests tell other guests, "this park will show you who you truly are"--i.e. are you a person who, given a chance, could kill in cold blood? Rape a screaming woman? Kill a bad guy?
I once briefly dated this guy who was very much an insecure asshole (he's married now, to a very lucky girl 😎) who told me that all humans are motivated by one (or more) of these three things: money, sex, and power (he then asked me which one of those was most compelling to me and I answered "sex" without thinking twice, and he answered "power". We were not together much longer). The guests at the park already have the money...so what they seek inside the park: pleasures of the flesh, or the intoxication of total power over another being, tells us about their character. And it might tell YOU something about your character, based on which host or guest you find yourself rooting for and identifying with. I'm Team Bernard, for the record.
Grade: A-
PS: Westworld also stars that guy who Laura Linney did NOT fuck in Love Actually, like a damn fool.
Laura Linney...your character in Love Actually, sucks, actually.
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Big Little Lies
It starts as trash and blossoms into something more. Big Little Lies is an HBO miniseries based on the novel by Liane Moriarty and produced by one Reese Witherspoon who also stars as a very, very Reese Witherspoon-esque character.
The series stars out with a very trashy, pulpy flavor: someone is killed during a fundraising gala for a public school where the children of Monterey, CA's wealthiest attend. We don't know who got killed or who did it and the series backs up a few months to the first day of school, with high-strung, super-nosy Madeline Mackenzie (Witherspoon) dropping her first grader off at school and making the acquaintance of young, definitely NOT wealthy single mom Jane Chapman (Shailene Woodley).
The series also introduces us to Madeline's best friend, Celeste Wright (Nicole Kidman), a once high-powered lawyer and now a stay-at-home mother of twins and wife of the much younger Perry (Alexander Skarsgaard).
Secrets and drama abound. Did you guys know that being obscenely rich doesn't automatically make you happy in life?!
While I fully expected Big Little Lies to be a high-gloss soap opera (and, in many ways, it is), many of the problems the characters have are actually "real" problems, not just gossip and petty power plays (although there are those as well). The series tackles domestic violence, rape, bullying, divorce, and many more difficulties that people both rich and less rich face. The series also has a strong, grounded anchor in Shailene Woodley who is easily the most relateable character and serves as a counter-point to the other women who live in insanely gorgeous mansions while Woodley lives in a one bedroom apartment with her son.
Big Little Lies is, above all things, stupendously entertaining. I couldn't wait to get home from work and watch the next episode. And at 6 episodes total, it was all over much too quickly. The only thing I didn't like was the conclusion which I found a little too predictable and convenient. The show is certainly not perfect, but it does give you the best of both worlds in terms of juiciness and weight.
Grade: B+
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