Your streaming equivalent of a Hollywood Holiday Gift Guide
When you go to a holiday party this season, whether virtual or remote, you can sound knowledgeable and smart with these recommendations. Or at least try to.
Spoiler alert courtesy: If you haven’t yet seen Sex and the City: And Just Like That - Episode 1, come back to this after you’ve watched.
Not that you need to be performative or that I’m instructing you to be, but often during the holiday season, companies will hold holiday parties where you and/or your partner are obliged to engage in small talk. TV and films are a great leveler and neutral topic and bridge connection swiftly and effectively. Even when you don’t agree with someone’s views about politics, religion, and something as potentially contentious such as the office pet policy, you can usually get around it by calling upon a using a benign 3rd party entertainment vehicle, like Cowboy Bebop and its premature cancellation (UGH!) on Netflix or why the new Sex & The City reboot, And Just Like That…, felt the need to have Big killed off at the hands of the nefarious Peloton and if that plot device was really just a cop-out because simply put, showrunner Michael Patrick King didn’t know what do to with The Big Problem because he didn’t neatly fit into a Marie Kondo box set which felt on point and relevant in a post-me too, post-Trump world.
In 2021, Big is the guy in the room we all cringe at and makes us feel uncomfortable. Sure, he protected Carrie and swept her off her feet but he also had a way of not committing and not really being a standup guy, and every time I heard about this guy in the late 90s and early noughties, I felt like I do after I eat Chinese food - empty and bloated at the same time, but either way, not good. And why was it acceptable to feel like he was a knight in shining armor? Why couldn’t Carrie do that for herself? Even in my 20s, this felt like a stale, outdated story and not a trope I desired for myself.
Fast forward, 20+ years and Big feels like a relic of an older time that represents a less evolved, less conscionable, and definitely more troubling time and place in which we all ascribed to a faith in certain truths which we later debunked around what landed as acceptable in the female-male relations realm. And maybe it was easier to write him out of the story than to address that “F*ck the patriarchy” element. To that point, I’m still fangirl-ing big time on All Too Well. Forever a Swiftie here.
Moving right on to your holiday viewing guide or the stocking stuffers for your social obligations…
For the cinephile with diverse and eclectic interests in social history, morality, the feeling of “otherness” and human behavior (aka that person in the office who either occasionally flaunts their French, their doctorate in Psychology, their love of Jean-Paul Belmondo or does a remember when time capsule moment back to when Netflix used to be known for its foreign film DVDs)
Voir on Netflix. Executive Producer: David Fincher (think Fight Club, Se7en, Mank)
Why? Each bite-size vignette is between 17 and 20 minutes, captivating and narrated by different storytellers with varying styles and areas of interest. A constant however is how a particular film or genre of film or protagonist affected their outlook or view of the world and shaped them.
From a female storyteller growing up in Topanga Canyons in the 70s who recalls how seeing Jaws on repeat in a Valley cinema over the Summer of 1975 helped her cope with her chaotic home life to an Asian film producer who questioned how the genre of revenge films, made him honor his own complicity in evaluating what is a worthy punishment for someone who harms others and made him confront his own ethical dilemma discomfort in Park Chan-wook’s Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, each story has you thirsting for more.
For the female co-worker who came of age in the 90’s, participated in a team sport in high school, and enjoys thrillers with a hint of the supernatural
Yellowjackets on Showtime. Executive Producer(s): Ashley Lyle and Jonathan Lisco. A good interview with them about the show, can be found here.
Why? First off, the cast is fantastic and incredibly talented. We have 90’s child stars - Juliette Lewis, Christina Ricci, Melanie Lynskey joined by Tawny Cypress (last seen on the 2006 show Heroes). Secondly, the music playlist in each episode, posted here, is so fun. Paloma Faith, PJ Harvey, Smashing Pumpkins, Hole, Liz Phair, Wilson Philips, Portishead, Salt-N-Pepa, The Cranberries, and that’s just to name a few.
The show is a series of flash backs (90’s) and forwards (present day) as we try to piece together the mystery of a girl’s soccer team plane that went down in the wilderness and where a select number of them survived. Hints of cannibalism (think ego/id and “Lord of the Flies” vibes), definite trauma, and the dynamics of the girls’ social hierarchy shifting in the wilderness as they adjust from suburban life and wrestling over who will eat the last SnackWell’s cookie to the skills you need to survive outdoors (like hacking off a leg), are all food for fodder here.
For the pensive, thoughtful types who are underneath it all, calculating, discerning and have a strong but perverse sense of justice and indulge their revenge fantasies actively
Dexter: New Blood on Showtime. Executive Producer: Scott Reynolds.
Why? Our favorite serial killer, Dexter Morgan has resurfaced 10 years since we last saw him. This time, there’s a new locale (upstate New York, though the series is filmed in central Massachusetts), and Dexter goes by a different name and has been trying to live a clean life away from his addiction and need for the kill. For anyone who enjoyed Dexter the first time around, this reboot doesn’t disappoint.
For the 80’s child who stayed home on Saturday mornings in lieu of playing with his little sister and neighbor (I’m looking at you, brother)
Saturday Morning All Star Hits! on Netflix. Executive Producer: Who knows but SNL’s Kyle Mooney is the driving force behind the show.
Why? Admittedly I haven’t watched this. It just came out but love the comedic dissection of the toyistic marketing approach to the cartoons of the 80’s. In the realm of the Behind the Music (VH1) type approach to documentaries but with a similar 80’s exploration of the clash of kids’ media meets consumerism, a series I also recommend is The Toys that Made Us on Netflix.
For the consummate family person with small humans who is looking for age-appropriate holiday fare that is entertaining, semi-wholesome but not boring and inclusive and not too improper
8-Bit Christmas on HBO Max. Executive Producer: A bunch of dudes.
Why? Ok, so by now you’ve picked up on my child of the 80’s or 90’s themed holiday gift guide here, so don’t be too surprised that the premise of this movie is Neil Patrick Harris, playing a wise dad, bequeaths to his smartphone-hungry daughter the story of his quest for the ultimate holiday tech gift when he was a kid in the late 80’s - a Nintendo Entertainment System, while they wait for the rest of their family to join them. There’s a moral in there about the quest and what that was really about, apart from quasi-lovable Steve Zahn (of That Thing You Do and The White Lotus, of late) having hidden talents and building a damn good treehouse. While the end the film feels rushed and seizure inducing in its pace, the film is good and worthy.
Other stocking stuffers:
Tick, Tick…Boom! on Netflix - Read here my comprehensive review and ode to the 90’s.
The Morning Show on Apple TV+ - Season 2 wasn’t as strong as Season 1 but it will give you plenty to discuss and digest.
Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings on Disney+ - Marvel Studios’ - At over 2 hours, it’s a commitment, but this movie was enjoyable by the whole family - well-paced, acted and a good enough story. Loved the introduction of Asian superhero, especially as Simu Liu was and will always be Jung, from Kim’s Convenience for me.