The Best in BEVP Boob Tube: 10/2
The Best in BEVP Boob Tube: 10/2
It's the opposite of the Razzies. Recos include TV and film, Pt.1
This is Part 1 of a 2-parter on recent TV/Film recos. I will be back next week with the next edition.
I’m going to keep this post pithy. Recently I started a proper “Watch List” on Notion in which I include all of the programming I want to see and then once I’ve seen it, I rate it. The goal is to be able to keep track of monthly viewings and ratings so I can compile a list of recommendations for you all.
I joked about the Razzies but if you do want me to include the bad stuff too, I’m happy to. Leave me a comment.
I’d start it off with talking ad infinitum about how the last 4 episodes of the final season of Physical on Apple TV+ almost ruined a nearly perfect show. And then there’s the whole Justified: City Primeval and oh, Velma catastrophe too. That show got renewed, btw, but Reboot didn’t. There is no justice. However, you can sign a petition to try and get the show back. I started one on Change.org.
And Now for the Good Stuff
Starstruck, Season 3 is streaming on Max.
Format: 6 episodes, < 30 mins each
Grade: A+ (Delightful rom-com, top notch writing and acting, strong chemistry between romantic leads and quite funny)
Bottom Line: Kiwi comedian Rose Matafeo and her writing partner and co-director (Season 3) Alice Snedden are comedic geniuses. The nuanced way in which they carefully construct connection and estrangement between friends and lovers reflects a maturity and grace that is felt poignantly in each episode. It’s beautiful.
Who’s it For: Anyone with half a funny bone, but truthfully folks that love and laugh hard.
Premise: Jessie (Matafeo) and Tom (Nikesh Patel, Four Weddings and a Funeral) have been broken up for 2 years. As Jessie’s good friend, Kate, and Tom’s good friend, Ian are now getting married, the two are brought together unexpectedly and with surprising consequences.
Guest star Lorne MacFadyen as Liam is a welcome addition to any cast. Just putting it out there for future romantic lead castings.
Not to be confused with this Macfayden (also known as Tom Wambsgans):
Theater Camp is streaming on Hulu.
Format: 1:33 film
Grade: A (Sweet and Absurdly funny in a very Christopher Guest, A Mighty Wind way, but updated for today’s context, good musicality, fun cast, cute story, inclusive)
Bottom Line: Molly Gordon, most recently seen in The Bear as a friend of Carmy’s and her screen partner Ben Platt (Dear Evan Hansen and the real life BFF to Molly Gordon and Beanie Feldstein) have more talent in their pinkies than most folks have in their entire bodies and they aren’t even the standouts here. That’s a credit to this entire cast, not a slight to them.
Who’s it For: Families of all kinds and friends. Anyone who went to a theater camp, anyone who was excluded or marginalized for being different and allies of theater camp people. Oh and Christopher Guest fans because this movie feels like an homage to him with all the eccentricities of the characters.
Premise: A beloved founder and director of a theater camp called AdirondACTS in upstate NY (Amy Sedaris) has a seizure during one of her camper’s performances and slips into a coma causing her son, a very entrepreneurially minded, but not artsy guy, played by comedian Jimmy Tatro to have to take over the nearly bankrupt camp. Hijinks ensue. The staff don’t respect Tatro. He doesn’t get them or the campers. Tender bittersweet moments reveal that more lies beneath the surface.
Only Murders in the Building, Season 3 is streaming on Hulu.
Format: 10 episodes, ~ 30 minutes each
Grade: B+ (Excellent production value, stellar chemistry with the cast, ingenuity of putting on a musical within a show, and creativity oozes from the show)
Bottom Line: Martin Short makes everything funnier and holds his own on this show, per usual. Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep are such welcome additions to the already fine cast this season. That coupled with fun musical numbers, good storytelling, and chemistry with the leads, Selena Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short makes it a win. I’m here for the Short-Streep love story too.
Who’s it For: Really everyone, but naysayers may put out there, “How many seasons can the show realistically bank on if every season details a murder at the Arconia, the building where Martin and Short live?” Like at some point, they will need to shut down the building.
Premise: In season 3, Martin Short finally gets to stage his Broadway comeback but it’s not all coming up roses, especially with Ben (Rudd) wreaking havoc on the entire cast with this “CoBro” ‘tude. Will “Bloody Mabel” (Gomez) and her dynamic duo (Martin & Short) be able to figure out who killed the guy everyone loved to hate? No spoilers here.
Final episode of S3 drops on 10/3.
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is streaming on Netflix.
Format: 39 minute short film
Grade: A (Aesthetically stellar, beautiful cinematography, host of eclectic UK talent and wonderful story with heart and purpose whose telling unfolds like a matryoshka doll)
Bottom Line: Watch this. It’s spectacular. It’s the longer film within a collection of Roald Dahl shorts - each are 17 minutes - (The Swan, The Rat Catcher, Poison) which just dropped on Netflix directed by Wes Anderson. Between Benedict Cumberbatch, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Dev Patel and Rupert Friend, we’ve got the entire British fleet of top tier Brits coming out to do Anderson right and it shows. The film is pretty much told verbatim from the original Roald Dahl 1977 short story.
Who’s it For: The real question is, “Who is it not for?” It’s a story of a wealthy gambler (Bumbersnatch - sorry can’t resist and honestly I want to spell it this way every time) and on the surface that concept alone may bore, but the real story is the story within the story within the story (yes, I kid you not).
Premise: Fiennes as Dahl tells the story of Sugar who one day, on a whim, decides to read a book about Kinglsey, a chap living in India in the 1930s who had the ability to see through objects with his eyes shut. Cumberbatch decides it’s time to learn the ways of Kingsley. Yes, agreed.
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I’m so excited to start season three of starstruck! I loved the first two seasons, and for some reason thought it wasn’t coming back, but I am delighted that it is! And I am happy to hear that Wes Anderson is back to making fun films that don’t reek of self indulgence the way his last two films seemed to. Regarding the only murders in the building, my wife did not like this one, so I will have to finish season one and find time for seasons two and three without her, which is always a challenge when you just have one TV. Yes I know there’s laptops. But I prefer the old school boob tube method.