If you’re like me, and I pray that you are, you watch TV. Also if you’re like me, an old person, you still watch most of your TV on an actual TV, but even if you stream to a laptop/tablet/phone, you still consume televisual entertainment one way or the other.
Back in the olden days, when I was a teenager, this was the start of the new TV season, and there were a whole bunch of new shows to look forward to - resumption of your favorites from past years as well as brand new things. Now, of course, there’s new stuff year round, which is pretty awesome, but fall is still that time of fresh seasons of old shows and new.
This summer, we watched both The Sinner and Castle Rock. The Sinner - both seasons - is a pretty interesting show, it’s a murder mystery but it’s more of a “whydunit” than a who, because in both seasons you see the crime being committed by the killer in the first episode. The rest of the series focuses on motivation, and it’s got some really cool twists in it.
Castle Rock was...interesting. I haven’t been a regular reader of Stephen King in decades, but I like his really old stuff, and this show kinda hits all the dopamine rushes of “I recognize that name” or a location is familiar or whatever. The story itself was not bad, but it didn’t end as well as I was hoping it would.
One summer show I’d highly recommend, if you have access to HBO, is Animals. It’s a very odd little animated show about animals (duh), but the two guys that do it have such a strange sensibility and out-of-left-field sense of humor that it’s well worth checking out. It needs to be watched from the beginning, because it builds on and references itself throughout, but if you’re in the mood for a low-key but hilarious show, check it out.
My last recommendation is almost an assignment. Can I assign things? Is this school? Well, whatever, I’m going to anyway. You need to drop what you’re doing and watch The Good Place. It is probably the best sitcom on TV right now, and probably the best in the last 5-10 years. Again, it needs to be watched from the beginning, but it is so incredibly well written and funny and smart and clever and it’s a Mike Schur show. If you liked Parks and Rec and if you like Brooklyn Nine-Nine, those shows - and I love them both - look like hack jobs compared to The Good Place.
The next season of The Good Place starts on the 27th, so you have time to watch the first two seasons before season three kicks off. It’s well worth your time.
What about you? What are you watching these days? Anything you recommend? Anything you started watching and just didn’t get into, even though people said you would? Anything you’re looking forward to this fall?
If you’re not a TV watcher, what’s on your mind? This is your Friday open thread. Let’s talk!