Month: July 2022

I Love That For You (2022)

Where to find it: Paramount+
Length: Eight 30-minute episodes
Synopsis: A young woman raised on QVC dreams of selling cheap trinkets
Recommendation rating: 4/5

What I like about it: Vanessa Bayer, Jenifer Lewis, great character work, satire/ exposé of home shopping and sales work
What I don’t like about it: it’s not unmissable, the characters are good individually but rarely click together into any kind of dynamic

Review:
The premise of this one didn’t interest me much but the pilot did. We’re introduced to a young girl who has clearly been a hospital inpatient for some time, the scene is dark and grey but she is captivated by a dull light from the corner of the room: the falsely happy, friendly and elegant world of a home shopping network. Being too young to understand the artifice, she idolises the one happy presence in her small, sad world. Smash cut to her as a sheltered young woman, retaining many childlike qualities and a strong desire to not be “the cancer girl” anymore, she auditions for a role as a sales-host at the network which she spent so many hours watching. She clearly has a talent – her bubbly, enthusiastic and friendly nature make her a natural fit for the role – but she anxiously stumbles over her words a lot. Nonetheless she is hired and excitedly goes to spend her first day in the TV world of her childhood, only to find that behind the scenes it’s all business and bitchy backbiting. We see her thrown for a loop for the rest of the pilot as her naïveté is shattered in real-time and at the end, she makes a really bad decision that creates interest for future episodes.

This is clearly very well-informed by creator/writer/star Vanessa Bayer, who herself went from having childhood leukemia to being in showbusiness and that lends a lot of heart to a show that otherwise would feel tacky and exploitative. It’s not the funniest comedy on modern TV/streaming but in an age when comedy shows are mixing a lot with drama, it’s not the worst balance and is even good for a laugh-out-loud moment an episode. It’s getting quite unfavourable reviews which I think is undeserved and likely due to the show’s rather feminine appeal.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): cancer comes up a lot, some ableist slurs

Good Omens (2019)

Where to find it: Amazon Prime Video
Length: Six hour-long episodes
Synopsis: an angel and a demon try to prevent the apocalypse
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: the two lead actors, quite fun, some good biblical/history jokes
What I don’t like about it: dodgy pacing and plot decisions, too many plotlines to follow

Review:
The chemistry and charms of Michael Sheen and David Tennant carry this adaptation of the Terry Pratchett/Neil Gaiman novel

Content notes (may contain spoilers): religious irreverence, fire

The Weeknd – Dawn FM (2022)

Length: 51:49
Synopsis: Synth-heavy atmospheric pop with R&B crooning
Recommendation rating: 4/5

What I like about it: easygoing pop with an intellectual undercurrent
What I don’t like about it: I could trim half a dozen tracks, personally

Review:
If the river Styx were a highway and the ferryman drove a shiny red Corvette, this is the album that would accompany you on your night drive into the hereafter. It’s hard to explain but the atmosphere it builds by the middle is quite remarkable.

Content notes (may contain spoilers):

Hercules & Love Affair – In Amber (2022)

Length: 56 minutes
Synopsis: Dark, atmospheric and reflective
Recommendation rating: 4/5

What I like about it: it’s complex and wonderful, gay without being dance pop
What I don’t like about it: it took a while to grow on me, it is downbeat and that’s not for every mood

Review:
Utilising industrial and darkwave sounds to harness a darker-than-usual sound for this act, this is a heavy album for heavy times. “Dissociation” is an absolute must-listen for anyone who has experienced such a state. “Contempt for You” is a gay wrath anthem. Half the album features beautiful vocals from friend-of-the-band ANOHNI, harmonising with usual singer and core-of-the-band Andy Butler over bassy lines and fascinating sounds

Content notes (may contain spoilers): homophobic slurs (“Contempt for You”), mental health, violence

Amber Mark – Three Dimensions Deep (2022)

Length: an hour
Synopsis: Cool bassy R&B
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: it’s good to play in the background, maybe as a barbecue is winding down
What I don’t like about it: it’s not exactly essential listening

Review:
Honestly I might have more to say about this one if I wasn’t stung by a bee while listening to it, that kinda diverted my attention but it’s a good record

Content notes (may contain spoilers): sex, deceased relatives

Vicious Fun (2020)

Where to find it: Amazon Prime
Length: 100 minutes
Synopsis: Slasher comedy
Recommendation rating: 2/5

What I like about it: competently made on a low budget, hammy acting
What I don’t like about it: grim, formulaic comedy

Review:
This film finds a horror movie fanatic stumbling upon a support group for serial killers and then having to evade them all movie. It was moderately preferable to sitting in silence.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): murder, vomit, gore

Lupe Fiasco – Drill Music in Zion (2022)

Length: 40:57
Synopsis: Surprisingly little drill
Recommendation rating: 4/5

What I like about it: conscious lyrics, some great tracks
What I don’t like about it: inconsistently ambitious, some underwhelming tracks

Review:
Opening with an amazing poem written and performed by his big sister, moving through reflections on violence in the hip-hop community and being a working artist, I liked this one a lot, especially Ms. Mural and On Faux Nem

Content notes (may contain spoilers): violence

The Big Conn (2022)

Where to find it: Apple TV+
Length: Four 1-hour episodes
Synopsis: Documentary series about a flamboyant lawyer who perpetrates a huge social security fraud
Recommendation rating: 2/5

What I like about it: it is an interesting story with real-life heroes and villains
What I don’t like about it: stretched way beyond the natural length of the story, cheesy re-enactments

Review:
Horrendously bloated by interviews with self-important journalists and juvenile re-enactments, this would have been decent had it been a movie.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): suicide

Guilt (2019)

Where to find it: BBC iPlayer (season one not currently available)
Length: 8 one-hour episodes
Synopsis: Darkly comic Scottish thriller about two brothers who commit a crime and try to cover it up
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: really strong pilot, good brother dynamic, stylish and well-made
What I don’t like about it: loses its way quickly, the second season is awful and loses a whole recommendation point, hacky writing

Review:
This BBC Scotland drama commission started out really exciting but soon spiralled into a scale too large to care about, they try to pack about four seasons of Breaking Bad-style escalations into four episodes and then season 2 is a boring, bog-standard dark BBC crime drama. It’s a shame because the pilot was wonderful but never gets as good again.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): death by dangerous driving, violence, drugs and alcohol

The Staircase (2022)

Where to find it: NowTV
Length: 8 one-hour episodes
Synopsis: Man murders wife, HBO spend eight episodes pretending he didn’t
Recommendation rating: 1/5

What I like about it: Colin Firth is really good
What I don’t like about it: it’s several degrees beyond ‘grim’, boring

Review:
This ridiculous drama, based on a biased documentary based on a true crime, spends several ten-minute segments bloodily re-enacting improbable explanations of a real woman’s death in order to avoid addressing the probable explanation that he fucking did it. Boooooooo

Content notes (may contain spoilers): awful bloody violent death scenes