TV Shows To Watch While #FlatteningTheCurve
Normal People
If you’ve read this book (and if not, don’t wait any longer, it is one of our favourites from 2019), I promise you will not be disappointed by the BBC depiction. The Brits just know how to do TV. Do you remember your first love? Your first heartbreak? For a lot of us, I think this show will bring back the remnants of those searing firsts, those stomach-in-your-mouth kinds of feelings at both ends of the spectrum. It is a really special story about two people who grow up together, in life and love, from high school to young adulthood - who’s path cross again and again, like they’re meant to be but just can’t figure it out. It is stunningly casted and beautifully shot.
Hollywood
Imagine 1940s Hollywood - the civil rights movements that had not yet occurred, the advances not yet made, the dialogues that had not been had. What about Hollywood today? Ryan Murphy (of Glee, American Horror Story and the Politician fame) comments on this staggeringly slow progress with a razor sharp new show, a revisionist history of the Golden Age of Hollywoodland, welcoming characters of diverse race, sexuality, religion, and gender to the stage. These characters of 1940s La La Land explore questions of inclusion and opportunity, a glamorized analysis of where Hollywood stands today - the conclusion? We still have a long way to go, but we should start today.
Love
This Judd Apatow series about a dorky aspiring TV writer (current on-set tutor) and a too-cool-for-school daytime radio show manager (nighttime alcoholic) is a super cute, cringey love story. If you are familiar with Apatow’s work, I would definitely say this series is a bit more genuine and sincere than most of his portfolio but with the same unvarnished comedy.
Never Have I Ever
Mindy Kaling’s new show is the cure to quarantine crabbiness with her mastered balance of humour and commentary. Focused on a young Hindu Indian-American girl living in California, the lead character Devi has suffered a pretty rough year after her dad died at her orchestra performance and she subsequently became paralyzed from the waist down in a strange, stress-induced bodily reaction. But things are looking up - her legs are back in action, it’s a new year, and Devi has plans for how her and her two best friends can turn things around for grade 10. On top of great writing, NHIE is an easy watch with quirky humor, a captivating lead (from Mississauga too!), and a wonderful soundtrack that will ensure your Shazam is close at hand throughout each episode..
The Goop Lab
God bless Gwyneth Paltrow - she is a major girl crush of mine and I will forever be fascinated by all things Goop (the site, the podcast, the products… even the Vagina Candle, goddamnit, that is self-aware humor if I ever saw it). This short-series on Netflix is the newest gem on the content crown GP is building with her Chief Content Officer Elise Loehnen. Each episode explores a different theme related to self-optimization - drugs as a catalyst to addressing trauma, the Wim Hof method and the power of the cold to heal, sex and female pleasure, diet and its relation to aging, intuition and energy healing.
High Maintenance
I’ve really been enjoying the resurgence of mini-series and stand-alone episodic television. It alleviates the stress and pressure I feel to binge a show; the commitment issues when it comes to starting a longer series. High Maintenance is a Crave show along these lines, following a weed dealer in Manhattan, played by the writer of the series, who pops into the lives of various New Yorkers for minutes at a time. It is a glimpse into the windows of wildly different lives and challenges, with a loosely threaded (sometimes high as a kite) string to tie it all together.
Modern Love
Following the theme of the previous show on this list, Modern Love is an Amazon Prime series adapted from the NY Times Column and podcast of the same name. Each episode focuses on a new love story - platonic, romantic, exploratory and otherwise - and the way those relationships or moments can impact us as a person. The cast is loaded - Tina Fey, Anne Hathaway, John Slatterly, Andrew Scott - but it is near impossible to choose a favourite, they are all so special and interesting in their own way. The one with Dev Patel and Catherine Keener is probably my favourite because of the way the friendship they develop is as much the ‘Love’ as the love stories they’re discussing.
