THERE'S TOO MUCH TV - Roundup November 2022

“What are you watching?” is pretty much the automatic question I get when I tell people what I do for a living.

I don’t have time to do full conversations on everything I’m watching but here are some stray thoughts on everything I’ve watched in the last month. I’ve also been requested to include content warnings for shows that need them, so you can see those beneath each title!

I’ll keep spoilers to a minimum unless otherwise marked.

The White Lotus (Season 2) — HBO
CW: Nudity, Sexism, Drug use, Killing people and taking their land—you shouldn’t do that.

With a show like The White Lotus, it’s hard to judge before the finale. It presents a number of very flawed characters operating in the dysfunctional system that is the relationship between rich and poor, but until that finale we won’t know what kind of judgment the show has decided to pass on those individuals. Still, The White Lotus was my #2 show last year, and season 2 is every bit as impressive. It is expertly performed, living in the small micro-emotions between characters. Aubrey Plaza’s Harper and her relationship with Will Sharpe’s Ethan are my favorite place to see this dynamic—particularly in the way Ethan always sheepishly makes eye contact with her, at first diverting his eyes and then glancing back like a child in trouble.

Andor (Season 1) — Disney+
CW: Star Wars, Star Wars fans, mild Star Wars violence

For the most part, I’ve stayed away from Disney+ shows. They are always pieces in large fandom puzzles in a way that makes them hard to evaluate individually, and I’m often not a big enough fan of that franchise to enjoy it for simply existing. I’ve never been a big Mandalorian fan, Obi-Wan Kenobi was fun but bad, and I didn’t even bother trying The Book of Boba Fett. But I decided to give Andor a try because it’s one of the most popular shows out there right now, and I saw both Thomas Flight and Just Write make videos about it and I felt left out. Halfway through the season, I’ve been pleasantly surprised. It is a much more nuanced and interesting show than Star Wars deserves, commenting on the nature of imperialism, prisons, and rebellion. There’s a non-zero chance that I’ll be making a December video about it.

The Shield (Season 7) — FX
CW: Racism, Homophobia, Sexism, Violence, Police, Baldness

“You’re still talking about The Shield? Two videos and now another post? Do you have any idea what you’re putting us through?” I’ve done worse. As a prominent Shield evangelist, I’ve done my part and grabbed another convert, and now that my friend is on the final season, I insisted that we watch together. For those of you who have heard me talk about The Shield before, you know that a special part of my brain will always belong to Farmington. Outside of The Wire, no other show in the Copaganda series has challenged me the way The Shield did. It isn’t a perfect show by any means, but its unflinching portrayal of a ruthless and villainous police force—and the challenges we face in removing this essential part of our policing system—remains as relevant as ever.

True Blood (Seasons 1-2) — HBO
CW: Nuuuuuuuudity, blood, and excessive amount of camp

I started watching True Blood around Halloween as a decompression show, but now I’m totally sold. Every actor has completely bought into the preposterous tone—equal parts camp and horny—and the result is such a fun time. I especially liked how they worked into the plot, a nod to how bad everyone’s fake accent is. After every episode, I can’t help but mutter “Sookeh” to myself. Delightful.

Inside Job (Season 1: Part 2) — Netflix
CW: Language, sex jokes, conspiracy theories

Inside Job is not everyone’s cup of tea, and I often find myself wondering who else is watching this show considering the sheer amount of conspiracy theories that it covers and the way so many of those conspiracy theories can eventually link back to antisemitism (as my NBA fandom has made it hard to forget over the past 2 months). That being said, Inside Job makes me laugh more than most shows have this year, a wonderful mix of political references that point out the absurdity of our online political lives in the modern age.

The Other Two (Seasons 1-2) — HBOMax
CW: Language

The Other Two is a sitcom that follows the two older, largely unsuccessful siblings of a teenager who has gone viral on the internet and is becoming the next Justin Bieber. The show feels like a very standard modern sitcom, but the show does a great job of laying out small kernels of information before having them pay off at the end of a season in an emotional catharsis. At first watch, you might feel like you’re missing something (I did) but the show will reward you for paying attention. It reminds me a bit of You’re the Worst, and that style of dark sadcom, although less sad and more com.

Big Mouth (Season 6) — Netflix
CW: Graphic animated nudity and sex, some of the grossest jokes you’ve ever heard

I’m not sure there’s much to be said about Big Mouth that hasn’t already been said. Nick Kroll seems primed to have a similar career for Netflix that Seth MacFarlane has with Fox, pumping out his own endless animated extended universe (there is already one spin-off). In its sixth season, it’s comforting to see the show reach out beyond the cishet paradigm of gender and sexuality, exploring asexuality and nodding to trans people in “Vagina Shame.” Although, at this point in the show, you would hope that we’d be a bit more inclusive and expansive in perspectives considering how many times we’ve gone over the fact that Andrew is a masturbation extraordinaire.