We’ve done this before, talked about the books we’ve liked. Here are our lists from years gone by. And if you should be so moved, we also offer books we ourselves have written.
Cameron: Maybe this is boring, but I liked a lot of the new seasons of Netflix series this summer. Especially Lupin (Omar Sy!!!!!!!) and Never Have I Ever (high school love triangles, which I love almost as much as Omar Sy as Lupin!!!!!!). Also: Loki. I guess I’m a target audience? Or several target audiences?
Ann: Yes, I liked the Netflix series too. I watched The Two Popes twice because those actors are such that I am totally convinced I’m watching Benedict and Francis real life; I’ll watch it again. I also watched Queens Gambit twice, mostly for the impeccable visual artistry in the colors, costumes, wallpaper, and the main character’s makeup — which somehow work together to create the unreal, intense, windowless focus that must be a chess champion’s mind. Plus, The Dig which I’ll watch again to see if those actors can make me get obsessed with the Anglo-Saxon treasures all over again; and the book is just as good.
Ben: I recently watched Squid Game, and was disappointed to learn that it was not, in fact, another captivating documentary about cephalopod play-behavior. I didn’t love it; Hunger Games has a similar plot but more heart (not to mention better games!), and Parasite explores class warfare in South Korea much more cleverly. One thing I did appreciate about Game of Squids, though, was its careful attention to the role of labor on its little island. We see the infamous pink-costumed guards sleeping in their cubicles, stirring sugar into big vats, washing away blood, and disposing of bodies. It’s all gruesome, of course (well, not the sugar part so much) but it does seem like the show’s creators put a lot of thought into the mechanics of their grisly world.
Jane: Forgive me if I’m being presumptuous, but I would be willing to bet that the esteemed readers of LWON are not the kind of people who are into reality television. But did you like Bad Art Friend? If so, I invite you to join me in watching terrible shows like The Bachelorette and Selling Sunset. At heart, they deal with the same theme: people treating each other horribly while trying to make meaning in their own, silly lives — all while the story is told through a seemingly omniscient, “objective” lens, but one which is in itself biased and telling about its creators and about US culture in general. I particularly enjoy looking for moments of accidental authenticity in the show; if you get sucked in, too, let’s discuss the rich text of these reality stars’ Instagram accounts (as some sociologists have done!).
Helen: The confluence of a large selection of great TV and a freaking pandemic means that I’ve enjoyed many series over the last year and a half. It’s hard to even know where to start. So I’ll just stick to my most recent love: Only Murders in the Building on Hulu. It stars Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez as New Yorkers who decide to create a podcast when someone in their building is murdered. It combines cozy mystery and physical comedy and avoids the obvious jokes about young people these days. (Selena Gomez: 100% holding her own.) Nathan Lane is in it, and Sting, and Tina Fey. It’s just a delight. Worth a one-month subscription to Hulu.
Cassie: So before I recommend shows, a caveat. Since about January 2016 I have not been able to watch anything dark, scary, or stressful. Tried Ozark. Failed. Couldn’t do it. So my picks will be lighthearted, fun, funny, catty, or all of the above. Here goes.
Has no one recommended Ted Lasso yet? GO WATCH TED LASSO. This is good clean fun. A delight! Worth a temporary Apple TV subscription. And if you haven’t watched Sex Education, there’s a new season. More for your binging pleasure. I also enjoyed Cameron’s pick, Never Have I Ever. Is it odd that I’ve been watching so many shows about teenagers having sex? Don’t answer that.
I also enjoyed The Morning Show. Bradley (Reese Witherspoon) and Alex (Jennifer Aniston) are sometimes friendly, sometimes back-stabbing co-hosts of a popular morning news show. But Billy Crudup, their boss, is sort of the best thing about it. The incessant whingeing of Chip Black, Alex’s producer, might be the worst thing about it.
Craig: I’m reaching back for this one, and it’s got some serious scientific glitches, but the 1983 film Never Cry Wolf has my vote for a re-watch. Based on the late Canadian author Farley Mowat’s book of the same title, billed as a nonfiction when it was actually fiction, the movie follows a young field researcher out of his element studying wolves in the Arctic. Wolves don’t subsist off of rodents, as this bassoon-playing fellow purportedly discovers. Let’s set that aside, and soak in the Arctic, flying in a bush plane over what looks like infinite mountain ranges to be dropped in the glorious middle of nowhere.
Never Cry Wolf is on my list for personal reasons. The summer of 1983 I was a high schooler backpacking with my mom in the Wind River Range in Wyoming, and when we came out of the backcountry we went to see this movie in Jackson, its theater stenciled with bear and elk. As a desert kid, I was transported. The landscape the movie portrays is immense, and running naked through a caribou herd in autumn light is unforgettable.
I’d follow that up with the 2001 Arctic film Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, which I’ve seen more times than Never Cry Wolf. This is closer to the bone, depicting an Inuit legend entirely in the Inuktitut language, where the landscape is woven with ancestry, a much deeper dive than my high school favorite.
If you’ve had enough of four walls and a roof, and you can’t get to the Arctic right away, I suggest these two films to open your senses.
______
photos via Wikimedia Commons