Friday open thread: It’s a repeat!

Happy Friday! Hopefully you’re heading into a three day weekend, but if not, hope you enjoy your Friday regardless. Any fun plans for the weekend?

Today’s question is another pop culture question. There is, as you know, an almost overwhelming amount of pop culture to consume. There’s more TV than ever, there’s films, there’s books, there’s music...it’s a lot. It’s so much, in fact, that at least for me, I’m not a big re-watcher of things, even things I love - there’s so much to watch/read and only so much time to do it in that I prefer to watch things once, which gives me the space to watch new stuff.

Occasionally, though, there’s something that I like so much that I can be convinced to re-watch it in between watching whatever new thing is coming up. Right now, in fact, we’re re-watching two things:

The Good Place
If you’re not watching The Good Place, you’re missing out. The show that most of the people on it, including its creator, call “the smartest dumb show on TV”, is one of those shows that rewards re-watching. In preparation for the fourth and, sadly, final season which starts in late September, we’re re-watching season three. I can’t describe the show, really - if you haven’t seen it, there’s no way to talk about it without ruining literally everything about it. All I can say is that it’s a show about four people who die and end up in heaven (“the good place”, duh), and the show is about how they navigate what heaven is. But it’s neither religious nor particularly heavy on the messaging - it’s about the four people and how they interact, mostly.

If you’ve ever been curious about it, or thought it’d be worth checking out, all three seasons are on Netflix now, and it’s definitely worth your time. It’s a half hour, so on Netflix they’re 22 minutes - you can get through all three seasons in a few days, and then you’ll probably want to watch them again, because they’re awesome.

Friday Night Lights
(mild spoiler ahead: if you haven’t seen the show and want to, maybe skip this)
I don’t like football. But this show...wow. It’s so good, the performances are all great, and it’s the first place we ever saw Michael B. Jordan, who shows up in later seasons. We just re-watched the first episode last night, and I was yet again struck by what a bold move it is to make the first episode all about your team’s star QB and his college, and ultimately pro, prospects...and then paralyze him.

I love this show so much and I’m glad we’re watching it again, even though there are some cringeworthy moments in its run. Most of those moments were during the season there was a Hollywood writer’s strike, though, so I’ll give it a little leeway because of that. But overall, even if you’re not a football fan, this is an amazing show. I even like the football game sequences - they’re very realistic, and as the lovely mrs. pdb pointed out last night, it’s not a series where the team the show’s about wins all the time, and they somehow make that OK.

What about you? Are you a re-watcher (or re-reader)? What are some of the things you go back to, either once or often?