Everything we can't stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture. |
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This week: What to watch while dissociating. A second season that is GOOD. Lady Gaga, always flawless. Samantha speaks. The worst opinion I've ever seen.
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What to Watch While the World Burns |
So…this week sucked. I had fun, rejuvenating plans. I had dinner with my brother, sister-in-law, and their two kings, the reason to live, the explanation for why we keep breathing: the three-year-old twins whose cuteness might save this world. (They kept singing the "Happy Birthday" song to each other, if you have a heart that needs to melt.) But there was that night. I was as excited to come down from my birthday cake high and fall asleep scrolling through Met Gala dresses. I wasn't prepared for what Twitter would show me. The darkness crystalized immediately. Sarah Jessica Parker looking fabulous in Christopher John Rogers? Roe v. Wade is going to be overturned. Blake Lively stunned in a Versace dress inspired by the Statue of Liberty. Gay marriage is next. Lizzo played the flute while decked out in a Thom Browne ensemble. What a riot! I love her! Any civil right you take for granted is up for grabs. If healthcare was actually a thing in the U.S., I would file a claim for the emotional whiplash of this week. My neck hurts. My heart hurts. I'm not the person to talk anyone through that, but I can do my civic duty. So let me distract you. |
I can't tell you how much I love the new show I Love That For You on Showtime. It stars Vanessa Bayer and Molly Shannon. Shannon plays a veteran star of a home shopping network, and Bayer is someone who idolized her. After championing her book recently, I feel like I'm the CEO of the Molly Shannon Deserves Everything company, but she's so good in this. She gets to do the silly physical comedy we crave, but she ingrains that in a very human, relatable character. You're not watching a bit. You're watch a performance, someone you recognize, There's a darkness to the show's premise. Bayer's character tells a huge lie that she has to grapple with perpetuating. But it's so delicately handled, and anyway, the show is so fun. Vanessa Bayer's smile is the kind of overwhelming, toothy beam that might threaten to shatter your screen. Jenifer Lewis, an icon, is doing her version of Miranda Priestly, which is to say that tuning in for her doing that is worth it alone. But it's also such a funny show. It's bright. The colors are bright, the performances are bright, that Vanessa Bayer smile, again, is so bright. I'm sorry I don't have anything more profound to say about it, but I can tell you that watching it these last weeks has been a balm. I would follow Molly Shannon to the end of the earth, and if she said leap off the edge, I would. But this is a show that is so interesting (the secret I won't spoil) and makes good on what we all suspected: Vanessa Bayer was always going to be a star, if she could finally land the material that understood her brand of comedy.
Do you need further distraction? Might I point you to Heartstopper? My colleague Fletcher Peters did a brilliant rundown of why this will be your new favorite show. But in the wake of recent news—I won't detail it again, at risk of spending more days moaning in a cardigan while refreshing MSNBC.com—I concur.
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There is a sensitivity and yet also a seriousness that the show takes to a story about high school boys falling in love (GAY!!!!) that is incredibly sweet. And I'm very grateful to add Olivia Colman to my YouTube video playlist of "Coming Out to Parents and Make You Cry." But there's also a beautifully heightened optimism to the series—that the world can be better because we can also be better. I can't think of a better time for a message like that. I can't imagine one emerging from a Heartstopper watch with any complaint other than dehydration—you will cry—but we all deserve more joy. Depending on your age (you'll find out mine when I die, and then all the people I have paid to lie about it also die), you might bask in the nostalgia and drama of The Real World Homecoming: New Orleans. I'm a broken record at this point, but it nails what should be a gimmick. Getting together a reality TV cast should be silly and dumb. But this is a searing portrait that speaks to how we got to who we are, 20 years later, while still being entertaining as hell. In any case, do you still need cheering up? Did you know that the final episodes of Grace and Frankie are up on Netflix? They are as beautiful as you would hope. I love the fact that a sitcom about elder friendship is now the longest-running show ever on Netflix, and so far ahead I can't imagine another series beating it. The last episodes are a wonderful showcase for Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. And it's not a spoiler, but hopefully a tease, that Dolly Parton also appears. Because the Emmys are happening soon, there are a lot of Very Serious Shows coming out now. I'm just so glad that these series are in the mix. We all need to feel right now. But we also need to feel good. |
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I'll Love This Show Five-eva |
In my mind, there is no greater line in TV comedy than the button on the Girls5eva theme song. At the beginning of each episode, the group, a former Y2K pop act, sings, "We're gonna be famous 5eva, because fourever's too short." That alone is clever wordplay. Then comes the kicker. "So what are you waiting…five?" |
It's so dumb. But so brilliant. I cackle at the start of every episode. It might be the perfect piece of comedy writing. If you watched the first season of Girls5eva, then you're unimpressed, given the conveyor belt of clever quips that made the show more of a meme than a comedy series. Those kinds of lines are in full force for the new season. "#AlbumMode is a state of mind that began when our album was announced and ends when I'm at the Met Gala in a catheter because my dress is too complicated," is one of Wickie's (ReneƩ Elise Goldsberry) first lines. But what's so gratifying about the second season is that, while never losing those whiplash, drive-by, weirdly specific pop-culture jokes, it has the space to dive into the humanity of these characters. It's all layered, and the satire is even better. They are talking about motherhood. Divorce. Dating. The music industry. Middle age. Desperation. Feminism. Sexism. Ego. Double standards. And it all feels important, while hilarious. These are characters who were the first women to wear thongs to the White House, but they're also rewriting the rules of the industry as they make a comeback in it. And they get to wear a coat from the Nicole Kidman Undoing Collection while doing it. |
My poor office chair suffered a dramatic tragedy this week. Lady Gaga released a new song. "Hold My Hand" is cheesy as hell. But it's so good. It is "Live Laugh Love" interpolated as a classic rock song; Michael's having an open mic night. But the thing is, it's also brilliant. Gaga realized a genre, and perfected it. She's not flirting with a certain kind of song, she's perfecting it. All of this is to say that I bored a hole in my chair by twist-in-my-seat dancing to "Hold My Hand" all week. Now there is footage of her arriving in a helicopter dress to the film's premiere. Fantastic. |
There was so much ugliness in the media's version of whatever back and forth there might have been between Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Cattrall that led to Cattrall turning down a third Sex and the City movie and also not appearing in the sequel series And Just Like That… Whatever was said or unsaid between them became distilled to headlines or soundbites. So it's really interesting to arrive here. I've been fascinated—and very supportive—of everything Parker has said to justify the existence of the new series. And, in doing that, I think I dismissed Cattrall's point of view as petty.
But reading it as a Q&A that underlines how smart and considerate she is, in this Variety piece, makes you think about everything differently. (Read it here.)
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The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills returns this week. It may be the most scrutinized season, with fans figuring out who is on the right side, whatever the right side is, in terms of Erika Jayne and her scandal. I have no opinion on any of that. But this should be enough to get her fired: |
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: I had to type those words, so now you have to see it. (Fri. in theaters) Candy: Jessica Biel axe murderer in a perm wig. Of course we're watching! (Mon. on Hulu) Sheryl: Pay some respect to the Crowe. (Fri. on Showtime) |
The Circle: Who is forcing you to watch this? (Now on Netflix) |
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