Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Here are 5 things you should be watching RIGHT NOW

Well, not RIGHT NOW RIGHT NOW, but RIGHT NOW when you are in front of or near a TV.

1. 11.22.63, on Hulu Plus

Hulu, best known as a repository for mediocre network TV shows, got into the original content game with this miniseries based on the Stephen King book of the same name about the classic time travel question: Would you go back in time to try and stop the JFK assassination?  James Franco would.  IT'S GREAT.  Totally intriguing premise, of course, and Franco does a great job, along with Daniel Webber as a creepy, totally believable Lee Harvey Oswald, along with pretty much everybody.



Instead of just dumping all 8 episodes, Netflix-style, Hulu is dribbling them out once a week and it's making the experience simultaneously more fun and more excruciating.  It's the show we look forward to most every week.  So much fun.  Next week is the finale.  Get Hulu Plus so you can watch this.

Hopefully next they make 4.20.1889 about someone going back in time to kill baby Hitler.  Wait, Hitler was born on 4/20!!!!  How does somebody not mention this EVERY FUCKING DAY?!?!!!!

2. Girls, on HBO

Now that it's in the 4th season and everybody's pretty much moved on and it doesn't have to represent Something Important to everyone, Girls has settled in as a fun little slice of life show about a few insane people in New York and Japan.  Don't get me wrong, many of the characters are repellent monsters you wouldn't want to be stuck next to in coach, but watching them interact with the humans is a good way to pass a half hour.  The Marnie-centric episode last Sunday was particularly good but I'm not sure why.

3. Happy Valley (season 2), on Netflix

OH MY GOD TELL ME YOU WATCHED SEASON 1 OF HAPPY VALLEY.  You didn't?  The fuck is wrong with you?  Go watch it right now.  OK good.  Now you can watch season 2.

Are you sick of brooding dude antiheroes?  Yes, we all are.  Then enjoy the hell out of Sarah Lancashire's performance as Sgt. Catherine Cawood, an ordinary-looking middle-aged police sergeant in an uncool part of England.  She is so, so good but everything about this show is good, from the uniformly excellent performances to the tautly conceived plot.  Total bingewatch.

Also, poor Mr. Moseley.  He just can't catch a fucking break.

4. The People v. O.J. Simpson, on FX

If you're as old as me and you actually remember this happening in real time, your reaction might have been the same as mine: "No fucking way do I want to relive that."  WELL WE WERE ALL FUCKING WRONG because this show is like 1000x more fun than it has any right to be.  NOT ONLY does John Travolta stage like his 5th or 6th comeback as a literally oily Robert Shapiro, BUT ALSO you've got David Schwimmer doing a perpetually nervous Robert Kardashian and Courtney B. Vance KILLING IT as Johnnie Cochran.  The only miscasting is Cuba Gooding Jr. as O.J. himself and that's just because he is physically too small to be O.J.  Plus, all the period details are just right.  Check out all those baggy as fuck suits!

5. Better Call Saul, on AMC

I know, I'm not really stirring up a hornet's nest of controversy by recommending a show that's gotten the critical acclaim of Citizen Kane crossed with the Beatles but it's still a damn good show.

BONUS CONTENT: Jonathan Banks - Mike Ehrmantraut on this show and Breaking Bad - was in "Airplane!".



Yep, he's the guy opening the microwave. Weird.

7 comments:

  1. thanks TK. also, I am loving Occupied -- Norway stops exporting oil, the EU gets pissed, and allows Russia to do a soft takeover to restart production, which slowly but certainly increases in scope and undercuts Norwegian government, police, army, courts, families -- believable and OMG STRESSFUL

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  2. "The People vs. O.J. Simpson" is my favorite thing on TV right now. There is so much about the people involved in the trial that I never knew. So cool to learn more about them, especially Marcia Clark and Chris Darden.

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  3. Burrito - I have heard good things about "Occupied." We'll give that a shot once our schedule opens up a little more.

    Sonia - DID THEY OR DIDN'T THEY

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  4. Okay, will get working on this list once we're done engaging in the masochistic enterprise known as "watching The Walking Dead."

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  5. excellent choices, haven't seen the OJ show yet but thanks to the , um, "DVR" I shall try it out. I just finished Daredevil S2 so I'll check out Happy Valley (which everyone says go see this NOW) lol

    Occupied is good but omg hell yeah it's stressful too! word is there might be an americanized version coming to NBC...you can guess how well that will work...

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  6. I totally never expected People v. OJ to be so good. What an awesome surprise. The most unbelievable thing is that I like Marcia Clark now.

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  7. I'm here to say -OMG CHECK OUT BASKETS-
    Zach Galifianakis plays TWO characters. Double the ZG is never bad.
    Produced by Louis CK never bad.

    love,
    miche

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