THERE'S TOO MUCH TV - Roundup May 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!

Some mild spoilers for shows that are not in season 1, unless otherwise noted.

Atlanta (Season 3)
CW: Racism

When I think back on this season of Atlanta, I’ll think of two things. The first is Donald Glover tweeting about how it would be some of the best TV ever, rivaled only by The Sopranos. The second will be how much the show leaned into the same impish, trolling spirit. The show took direct aim at its audience over and over, turning the mirror on people who watch the show to interact with black culture. In the fallout of George Floyd’s murder in 2020, there was a conscious effort to highlight black creators, and Atlanta was frequently named. Glover and crew seemed all-too-aware of the commodification of the black experience, creating multiple episodes focused on white people (big Toni Morrison energy), and never setting its main characters in Atlanta. Atlanta refused to be boxed in to a set of expectations, and while I think the back half of the season was weaker, it was still as interesting and essential as ever.

Barry (Season 3)
CW: Violence

I made a Barry video just an episode or 2 into this new season, and boy am I relieved it’s still relevant to the show’s themes! This season is a major pivot from the show’s original premise and at moments, it’s been a clunky transition. There’s been a lot of table-setting for the season’s endgame that ultimately vindicate or condemn this legwork, but I remember feeling similarly about in previous seasons halfway through, as the show moved from one idea to the next. One thing Barry does that has impressed me over its run is its ability and willingness to move to the next conversation. It went from “Is Barry Bad?” to “Yes. Can he change?” And now I think they’re setting up a new framing, and it’s probably just a bit too early to tell what that new question will be. We gotta let this cake bake.

Better Call Saul (Season 6)
CW: Violence

Boy I’m going to miss this show when it’s gone. Last month I raved about how it might possibly be the best show ever made, and the end of the season did not disappoint. At the risk of spoilers, I’ll keep this short, but Better Call Saul’s great magic trick is turning what was perceived as its weakness when it was announced (uhhh, we know what’s going to happen) and turning that dread into its greatest strength. We know exactly what has to happen, but that doesn’t make anything any easier.

Hacks (Season 2)
CW: Scathing Insults

One of my favorite new shows of 2021 is back and as good as ever. It is currently very much in the process of making the delicate pivot from “good premise” to “good TV show,” focusing on its characters and drifting away from a streamlined plot. The biggest potential pitfall in this age-old dance is that you wear out your plot device and don’t have characters who are interesting enough to keep the show going. Luckily, Hacks is powered by the incredible chemistry of Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder, so I think we’re in good hands.

Ozark (Season 4 Part 2)
CW: Violence

**Spoiler Alert**
While I found a lot to respect about the finale of Ozark, there were parts that didn’t quite work for me. I liked how the richest Americans got away with crime and that the biggest costs were the collateral they used and discarded. I liked the show’s tie-in to that political message, although I would have preferred it being set up and foreshadowed a bit more strongly. I was left scratching my head about what the Marty-Wendy marriage ultimately had to add to this decades long genre conversation about masculinity that I touched on in my Barry video.
**Spoiler Alert**

Stranger Things (Season 4)
CW: Potent nostalgia for a time never experienced

I’ve only seen the first 3 episodes, but I’m enjoying Stranger Things right about the same amount that I have for years. It’s good, not bad, not great, and better than fine. It is consistent, thriving entirely on vibes, sampling nostalgia from the 1980s—a time most of its fans never lived through. It reminds me heavily of something I’ll be touching on in my upcoming video…

The Wilds (Season 2)
CW: Bad dialogue writing

I love this terrible show. It’s terrible, and I love it. The Wilds is like the CW version of Yellowjackets, the bones of something edgy but so on-the-nose so as to be completely edgeless. Its dialogue and music choices are so awkward, so as to border on performance art. Season 2 upped the ante, incorporating an iconic actor from one of my other favorite shows in this genre of pulp: The Society. Incredible stuff. Bad stuff, but incredible nonetheless.

We Own This City (Season 1)
CW: Police brutality, nudity, drug use

We Own This City is incredible—an unflinching look at why American policing is so systemically broken. It is a very fitting follow up to The Wire, but with the focus being police corruption and brutality rather than the drug trade. Both stories touch on both subjects but this one is very focused on how systemic, cultural, and political vectors make policing so awful. The way David Simon and his team lay out the systems of a city, the way politics and policy and economics and social pressures interact, is unparalleled, and what I think TV is uniquely situated to explore. And on top of everything, it’s aimed at the same HBO liberals, who are probably exactly who need to hear this.