That New Years’ Resolution? Just the tip of the iceberg, baby!
I pride myself on being an expert on all things television. It truly is a pastime for me! Arguments about lowbrow vs. highbrow culture have no place here. In this day and age, if you don’t have SOME kind of streaming service (it’s wild if you have ALL of them, I salute you if you do), you are truly out of the zeitgeist. I won’t go into which ones I pay for personally, but let’s just say I “have access” to HBOMax, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, Peacock, and Netflix. I feel like the only one I’m truly missing out on is AppleTV. Here’s why that matters:
I like knowing what everyone is watching. TV is an easy way to connect with people. It’s different than watching a movie; we may all have our favorite films, actors, and directors. There’s something different about TV, though, in that television happens in the home. You invite this… paper company, or space travelers, or criminal justice system, into your home every week. It’s on loop when you need comfort. You plan your Thursday nights around it.
While I love my consistent comforts, like “How I Met Your Mother” or anything that’s been part of the NBC comedy lineup in the past… twenty-six years, it’s important to stay current! We have to evolve with the times when it comes to television consumption. The 2010s were based almost entirely on “binge-watching,” now more and more shows are opting to release the first one or two episodes of a season, then dropping a new episode each week, similar to standard cable television.
There’s the real ticket: None of us want to watch the ads.
I am not alone in this, which is a comfort, in that I have an extensive list of shows I want to watch, and yet never watch any of them because I’m too busy rewatching a show I’ve seen fifty times, for the fifty-first time. However, I feel like this is a year of growth, of change, of sitting down and finally burning through this list. Let’s take a look at it, shall we?
- Ted Lasso, Apple TV. This one feels like an underdog show that everyone with taste has already seen. The premise is based off a character Jason Sudeikis (former Saturday Night Live cast member) created for a series of NBC Sports commercials, in which Ted Lasso, a former football coach takes on coaching for a UK “football” team. Joining forces with Scrubs (my first true love) creator Bill Lawrence, a full length comedy series was born. The series continues the commercial bit, with Ted’s affable American spirit startling the more cool-tempered UK sports arena. His genuine enthusiasm and borderline ignorance is charming and endearing, and downright hilarious… or so I’ve heard. I’ve got to make that call, don’t I?
- Dickinson, Apple TV. I don’t really WANT to get Apple TV, I already “pay too much” for every other streaming service. That said, I think Jane Krakowski is too iconic for me to pretend this show doesn’t exist. Dickinson is a depiction of writer Emily Dickinson that takes place during the mid-late 1800s, but uses a more modern tone in dialogue than that you’d be expecting to see in any number of Keira Knightley’s best hits. At the helm is Hailee Steinfeld, who is in fact too cool for school and I think has the potential to have a career as illustrious as Natalie Portman’s. Jane Krakowski plays Emily’s mother, and after seeing her in both 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, she really becomes a selling point!
- Elite, Netflix. This one wasn’t on my New Years Resolution list, but it should have been. My sister has been begging me to watch this show for the past year, maybe even two years! She describes it as a Spanish speaking version of Gossip Girl. That should be enough for me to say, “Oh, okay. So, I should sell my soul to it, yes?” I know that when I watch the show, I’m going to watch it in Spanish and with Spanish subtitles. That way, I can work on my Spanish at the same time! Speaking of Spanish…
- Narcos, Netflix. Another edition of “Let’s put it in Spanish and see if I can watch without getting confused!” The show’s first two seasons are about Pablo Escobar, famous Colombian drug lord. It circles around the chase, heralded by Javier Peña, portrayed by Pedro Pascal. Pascal is fine. Did I say fine? I meant FOINE. I wanted to start this a month ago, but still haven’t. It’ll happen. I promise.
- Los Espookys, Hulu. More Spanish! More fun! This show features Fred Armisen, who is similar to Jane Krakowski, in that if they’re on board, so am I. This show is about comedy and horror, both of which are my wheelhouse. There’s only six episodes of this one, so far! I really should just binge this in a day and tick it off my list. Why not this weekend? Hm?
- The Boys, Amazon Prime. The people I’ve talked to about this show say it’s too violent for me to enjoy. THEY DON’T KNOW ME. The show is a satire on the superhero genre, in which the eponymous “Boys” are superheroes that are revered by the public, and are disgustingly corrupt in private. Apparently it is funny, biting commentary, and entertaining as heck. There are currently two seasons available, and season three has just started filming. Season three also includes a Captain America adjacent character named Soldier Boy. Jensen Ackles, who I
would risk it all for on any given dayfind really talented, has been cast in the role. I have at least a year to catch up before then, though! Probably. If filming just started, will they have it out by December? No, right? Maybe. I don’t know. I’m gonna watch it. - Invincible, Amazon Prime. ANOTHER show that people say I’m too soft to enjoy because of the violence! I actually don’t know anything about this, other than that it’s entertaining, dark, and features JK Simmons. Ads for the show have sprung up on my TikTok feed, so I think it’s kind of my destiny to figure out if I can stomach a little bit of cartoon violence. YEAH. IT’S ANIMATED. WHY COULDN’T I HANDLE ANIMATED CARTOON VIOLENCE? Okay, a Vietnam flashback scene from “American Dad” that appeared for two seconds haunts my nightmares, but that’s just a SIDE thing.
- Ratched, Netflix. Ryan Murphy, ya old bastard. First you sucked me into Glee, then American Horror Story, and now you give me Sarah Paulson as a twisted asylum nurse. Apparently the show is inspired by a character from “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” which I have never seen (though I’m sure it’s on the 1001 Movies list!). It’s dark, intense, and keeps you on the edge of your seat. There’s one season. Weekend binge? Weekend binge!
- Little Fires Everywhere, Hulu. Finally! The last show on my resolution list. I’ve burned through the rest, and only this little fire remains. See what I did there? Starring their royal highnesses Kerry Washington and Reese Witherspoon, this show is about two mothers from different backgrounds, exploring the trials of tribulations of motherhood in suburbia. The show takes place in the nineties, so I’m hoping for good commentary and great nostalgia hits. It IS a drama though, so I hope it’s not too much of a bummer.
- I May Destroy You, HBO. Let’s end things across the pond! This show landed on the top ten lists of 2020, even securing the #1 spot more than a few times! It is a biting, brutal look at the life of a woman (played by Michaela Coel, who also wrote and produced the show) who is a novelist/Twitter icon who becomes the victim of a violent assault. It’s a dark story but it seems to have a lot of humor. Most millenials tend to laugh at their pain, even when their pain is something so terrifying as assault you physically cannot remember.
This list has laughs, languages, and different stories from different perspectives. As each year passes, we see more diverse stories being told, and I think that’s special. People say Hollywood is all sequels now, and has nothing original. To be fair, a few of these shows are based on books, but I think that’s different. It’s an entirely different media to be taken from the pages of a book and onto a silver screen. There’s a right and a wrong way to do it! As it is, the most acclaimed series are the ones about real people. What’s that they say: reality is stranger than fiction?
I intend to get through all of these series this year. Unless, of course, they want to get off their butts and give me a new season of Black Mirror. I DESERVE IT, DANGIT.