Insecure

HBO's Insecure created and starring Issa Rae is wonderful. She plays a vulnerable and edgy young woman dealing with work and love. Her character is so great and funny. And the scenes are marvelous. Very awkward. I can't wait for the next season.

Silicon Valley

The HBO series Silicon Valley is very funny and engaging. About the socially awkward founders of a startup, it features a mix of deadpan characters and witty dialogue. I liked them very much. As the series progresses the plot gets kind of convoluted and exhausting and I found myself wishing it were more like a traditional sitcom, like Cheers, where you can just enjoy your favorite characters interacting without having to remember a whole series of events from previous seasons and episodes. I didn't care that much about the trials and travails of the company as much as the characters.

Dr. Thorne

Dr Thorne is a totally enjoyable miniseries on Amazon written and produced by Julien Fellowes who did Downtown Abbey (which I wasn't crazy about). This four-part production of a Trollope novel has some cheesy aspects (mainly the music, some of the lighting, directorial things like that; and the acting isn't particularly special with one exception). Some of the plot elements are a little predictable. But really it was just what the doctor ordered (HAHAHA!) for my mood. A perfect distraction. Plus it had my favorite Allison Brie (maybe slightly miscast?). The only performance that stood out was Ian Mcshane as Sir. Roger Scratcherd.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is a little ridiculous and schticky, but there is so much I enjoyed by it. I usually don't like movies/tv where the hook is finding the lead charming. Other than Annie Hall that hasn't really worked for me. So Mrs. Maisel grated slightly. But I loved the larger than life story, the exuberance of the series, the bright colors, the caricature of bourgeois Jewish life, the Forrest Gump run-ins with Lenny Bruce and Jane Jacobs. In spite of the corniness it's really something enjoyable and special.

Will and Grace

I watched all the episodes of all 8 of the original seasons of Will and Grace. It was so fun. At first I found the constant gay jokes to be homophobic, and it seemed like the gay characters were allowing us to make fun of gay people. But then I just grew accustomed to it and could enjoy the whole thing. The show did a lot to bring queer people into mainstream awareness, and the characters are drawn with nuance so they are not caricatures. Even Jack, the "stock stupid character", has important moments where he speaks about pride and acceptance.  The characters are written and played with great affection and respect.

Mainly I love the chemistry between the four of them. I think they are a blast to hang out with and I'm jealous of the actors. I try to pick a favorite but it always changes, because they are all so great and they work so well together.

The last season gets quite serious as it gears up for the final episode. I cried at the ending and thought it was successful. This fall they started a new season, 11 years later, and they ditched the ending from 2006. They just pretended it didn't happen. Even though I was so moved by the ending, I think it was a good choice to have them start fresh.

Gypsy

Over the summer I watched a horrible Netflix TV show that thankfully was canceled after one season. Gypsy, starring Naomi Watts seems like it is interesting, sexy, complex, and sophisticated. It has all the right production and aesthetic elements. It looks and feels so contemporary. It looks and feels like it should be great. But it sucks. It's about a therapist who starts following her patients and gets involved with people in their ives under an assumed identity. There are double lives, erotic lesbians, classy professionals, downtown artists, infidelities, and a possible transgender child. The scenes are scored, directed, filmed in ways that seem cutting edge. But the plot and dialogue are so ridiculous. The whole thing is a laughable mess. It was impossible to care about the characters. Blech. I'm embarrassed that I watched the entire season.

Harlots

Harlots is a ridiculous show that recently aired on Hulu. It's just one season and in spite of how dumb it is I watched the whole thing. It is basically a soap opera taking place in 18th century London brothels and focuses on a silly rivalry between two madames. The trials and tribulations of different prostitutes are part of the drama, particularly the family of the madame played by Samantha Morton (who I love). There is tons of sex, and gorgeous costumes, but it isn't sexy at all. It isn't funny even though the drama is laughable. Still, I bet if they make a second season I will watch it.

More Veep!

After binge watching the first two seasons of Veep in 2013, I began watching it as it aired, episode by episode. I love this show so much that when this season ended I went back and watched them all from the beginning. It's so good. Watching them back to back you have a clearer sense of some of the plot twists. The humor is so biting. Selina is so mean that after a while it became a little difficult to watch, but I still loved it. The performances all amazing and Julia Louis Dreyfus does an incredible job.

House of Cards S5

Season 5 of House of Cards is not that compelling. The narrative arc surrounds the Underwood's struggle to remain in power and it becomes rather convoluted. Because there is no ideology and no motivation other than power for power's sake there isn't any real meat there. It's stylized and moves in a way that kept me watching, but I'm sort of over it and don't know if I'll even bother with the next season.

Orange is the New Black S5

Orange is the New Black S5 was HORRIBLE. I really hated it. It all takes place moments after the intense cliffhanger ending of S4, and the 13 episodes span a three day riot.

This season was so sloppy, out of control, unrealistic, ridiculous, and tone deaf. I can't go into all the sprawling absurdities because of spoilers, but I will mention that the women had officers hostage and made  them do a talent show! So stupid. It was like that constantly.

I'm really disappointed. I had loved this show so much.

Orange is the New Black S4

Season 4 of Orange is the New Black is intense and disturbing in ways that seem to go beyond the previous seasons. As I've said before, this show gets better and better. Perhaps Season 3 is my favorite, but this one had me sobbing and terrified.

Litchfield is now run by a private prison company that is even crueler and more callous than previous administrations. The prison is now overcrowded and he guards are more sadistic. The dehumanization of the inmates is a consistent tension throughout the season.

In S3 I got annoyed at the panty ring thing, and it continues here a bit but takes on a much more combative and scary element. As the ring shuts down Piper has inadvertently created a race struggle between a new white power group and the Latinas. The excruciating scene of the Latinas putting Piper in it's place was gut-wrenching and almost impossible to watch. There is a long arc involving a murdered CO that illuminates some of the characters, particularly the sad and lost Healy.

Pentsatucky continues to grow in ways that are surprising considering her character at the beginning of the season. The depth of her performance broke my heart.

Caputo struggles with the impossibility of humanizing the monstrous system, and his conflicts not only gave him more depth but highlighted the ugly, unjust, and crushing nature of our punishment system.

The narrative reaches a crisis in the final two episodes, ending with a tense and dramatic cliff hanger. I'm glad S5 will be released soon.

Girls Season 6

ARGHH. I have been a stalwart fan of Girls. I enjoyed it and defended it when everyone else was criticizing it for various reasons which never felt important to me. I loved Season 5. But damn, the final season sucked. I was not at all into it.

The pregnancy plot line seemed desperate and grasping. Yes, there were scenes and episodes I liked. But the way they tried to wrap Hannah's story up was very unconvincing and unrealistic and they totally lost me. Parts were utterly preposterous. Very disappointed.

Master of None Season 2

I recently watched al of the second season of Master of None, Aziz Ansari's sweet Netflix series.

The strength of this show is Aziz -- his ebullience, his curiosity, his humor, and his wonderful good nature and seemingly genuine kindness. He throws light on various pervasive forms of racism, gives homage and dignity to the myriad people whose lives are ignored in mainstream storytelling, and performs a running commentary on contemporary upper-middle class urban life.

Both season have an off quality to me. Something awkward in the acting or timing that I can't quite adjust to. Season 2 is cinematically (and to a lesser extent thematically) sophisticated, but there is something amateurish in the execution that I can't quite put my finger on.

The narrative arc of Season 2 is Aziz's budding relationship with a charming woman he met in Italy (those episodes shot in black and white and sending shout outs to Italian movie classics). As this developed I felt myself growing a bit distant. The storylines and scenes with his friends and dates were crisp and fresh to me. But with the love interest it felt a little tired. It dragged a little. I think part of the problem for me is that she was SO charming. A caricature of charming. Hi growing fondness and love for her was understandable and relatable, but her her-ness seemed made up to me.

Fargo: TV Series

I watched the first two seasons of Fargo the TV series recently. It is a stunning, breathtaking, punch you in the gut show. Cinematic, violent, strange. The plot is layered and arresting. Tense. Over the top and beautifully balanced.

The first season distracted my by its similarity to the movie, particularly the character Lester's version of William H Macy's performance, as well as the tempo of the speech and accents. But it really drew me in. The plot kept thickening. Billy Bob Thorton was perfectly himself and the perfect villain.

I had trouble getting into the second season, as it takes place in the 70s and for some reason I just felt like ugh, I don't want to watch a 70s mob thing. But again, it drew me right in and the plot moved and twisted in engaging and surprising ways. I actually cried at the two scenes where you see the overlap between both seasons.

Both season 1 and season 2 of Fargo take place in the same vast and bleak winter landscape and play on similar themes: unwitting, naive nice-seeming people doing horrendous things surrounded by and contrasted with the openly evil and sociopathic. Each has solid, unshaken characters who stand at the moral core balancing the dim-witted and narcissistic bad guys, worse guys, and ill-fated dupes.

Homeland

Last month I watched all 6 seasons of Homeland on Hulu (I got a special subscription for it). It was so intense. I just loved it. There were several episodes in a row where I was sitting on the edge of my seat, literally.

The storyline with Brody in the first three seasons began to bore me and I fucking hated him. My favorite seasons were 4, which was set in Pakistan, and 5, in Berlin. So much happens in each episode that it is hard to keep up. I mean I would kind of forget what had happened just an hour previously. But I loved it. All the characters were great, solid performances. The plot is absurd at times, but also incredibly dramatic and entertaining. I was totally sucked in.

The People vs OJ Simpson: American Crime Story

A couple of weeks ago I watched all episodes of The People vs OJ Simpson, and the entire time I was wishing I had just read the book instead. I like Toobin's style and his detail, and the TV version seemed miscast to me. I seriously thought John Travolta was playing for laughs and had to ask my brother if it was supposed to be funny. Cuba Gooding Jr. did not convey the style of arrogance that I remember OJ projecting at the time, and in his strongest emotional moments he seemed merely petulant. David Schwimmer spent the entire series with the same idiotic expression on his face.

Race and racial tension are a crucial part of the story, and the TV show did a good job of centralizing it. But I don't think it contextualized it as well as it could have. Scenes of people arguing on the streets, and newscasters expressing fears about riots helped convey the way this case tapped into so many nerves, but it still seemed TV-movie-ish, and fell flat for me.

Curb Your Enthusiasm

After watching Seinfeld, a turned to Curb Your Enthusiasm, a show that I watched more recently (last four years?). Like Seinfeld it totally holds up.

Larry David's persona and the shenanigans driven by his neurosis and self-absorption are both hysterical and fascinating. The supporting cast is perfect, the way they complement or foil or encourage him.

The only thing, as brilliant as Curb is, it's not a great "binge" show. There is a lot of yelling and the cadence of the show, if you're watching one after another after another, can be abrasive and grating. But one or two on their own is very entertaining. Smart, slightly mean-spirited, awkward comedy.

Seinfeld

Last month I watched the entire nine seasons of Seinfeld. I hadn't seen it in about a decade I think. I wasn't sure if it would hold up.

It totally did!! Very funny, consistently funny. It was enjoyable watching an old school sitcom, where there isn't any character development or too much of an larger narrative arc. The combination of broad physical humor with New York style neurosis works perfectly. I saw my own anxieties in some of the absurdities of the characters' annoying little concerns. The acting and the chemistry between the four of them is really just so fun. Great show.

The Office

 In October I binge watched all 9 seasons of The Office.  I started watching it just as something entertaining to have on while I did other things, but the particular humor of this show was not something I could only half pay attention to.

The Office depicts a mundane world of unexciting characters doing boring, almost pointless, work while held hostage by their self-absorbed, performance oriented boss. The interactions are awkward and uncomfortable, but also incredibly hilarious and even surreal. The characters have seemingly little in common, yet they must co-exist in a small depressing space hour after hour. The antics are largely based on situations where dominant aspects of one character clash with another, and in an amazing and special way, it is through these juxtapositions of flaws that a unique joy emerges. Dunder Mifflin is really fun. In small and silly ways, like when they all get swept up in betting about every little thing.  And The Office is often touching, as unlikely friendships form and awful behaviors are seen from a more compassionate perspective.

Steve Carell is incredible as Michael Scott, and the last seasons when he was gone seemed unfocussed and disappointing, but it was also during these seasons that the characters' narratives really took off. It became less about the office and more about their lives. I was shocked by how moved I was by the final few episodes, where the documentary about them over all theses years is finally aired. They get to see themselves, and, beautifully, while the viewer expected them to be exposed as petty and sad and crazy, their lives are instead shown as meaningful, and they get the unique opportunity to watch their past unfold before them.  As much as I laughed out loud during 8 and a half seasons, I was totally crying during those final episodes. I was caught off guard by how moving it was. Something that particularly touched me was the friendship that formed between Oscar and Angela.

I liked it so much it is possible I will soon start it again from the beginning!

Frasier

Over the past several weeks I watched I all 11 seasons of the 90s sitcom, Frasier.

I think I started it because I wanted something mindless and non addicting to watch now that school has started. But, because the episodes are only 22 minutes, it was quite easy to gobble up many episodes an evening.

At first I was incredibly put off by the laugh track, which seemed so jarring and disruptive. I eventually got used to it. So much so that by the end I really didn't notice it at all. I also remember that I used to find Kelsey Grammer's overacting in this show to be insufferable, but not only did I get used to it now, I began to see how it was effective.

I really like Frasier. I love how it mixes a bit of wry, verbal humor with very traditional broad physical humor, and classic wacky plot structures.  Niles and Frasier are great together. I was shocked to learn that they added Niles' character at the last minute, that he wasn't part of the original concept. I cannot see the show working without him. The PAIR of comically ostentatious snobs is somehow hilarious. And their similarities serve to enhance their individual characters by bringing their differences into focus.

There is also something sweet and endearing about the family dynamic -- The grouchy father and the two competitive grown boys. The other characters are good, and most of the episodes are pretty tight with many, many funny moments. The last three seasons are not as good, as Niles and Daphne get together, and some of the storylines wrap up. Oh well, it happens to the best of them.