OK, here's the thing. I watch a lot of TV. A lot of TV. It raised me and I love it. Between my parents and TV, I like it second best on a bad day. But unfortunately, I don't live in LA, so no one I know is as fluent as I am in pop culture. I have, for the most part, found my home as so many have before me (through podcasts and reddit) but sometimes I just want to have a real-life conversation about my favourite things.
Seriously, this is a cry for help. I am so alone.
So, here are a few of my favourite shows of the moment (of course, by 'the moment' I mean - what I watch I while ago and have been rewatching). Full warning though: these shows in combination will make you question what kind of person you are KTHNXBYE.
THE GOOD PLACE
YQY
The Good Place is nothing short of amazing. From the team behind Parks and Recreation, it centres around a celestial error. Eleanor (Kristen Bell) has died and woken up in "the Good Place"... unfortunately she isn't who they think she is and most certainly doesn't belong there. The multicultural cast is a joy and it's one of the most consistently funny and surprising programmes I have ever seen. I need people to watch this. It is my Good Place.
Bonus points: for diversity, feminism and philosophy. What other half-hour comedy makes TM Scanlon's What We Owe to Each Other a plot point? It also gives good pun. Real good pun.
Sample episode: start at the beginning and end with the end for this one. Trust me. It builds.
YOUR PRETTY FACE IS GOING TO HELL
It's no secret that I love Henry Zebrowski (I even watched A-Z) and he arguably shines brightest on his show on Adult Swim. Your Pretty Face follows the exploits of the woefully inept salarymen demons (if you can count souls with no access to food, water or hope as salaried) as they try and fail to carry out their daily tortures and follow Satan's orders in trying to bring down about the end times (in theory). The very specific list of (overtly unfair) indiscretions that can land you in the pit with chill you to the bone. Watch together with the Good Place to be inspired to be better and avoid this hellish (and often scatological) fate...
Bonus points: for never forgetting the characters live in eternal torture and pointing out the inherent lack of logic of an exclusively Christian interpretation of goodness.
Sample episode: Season 2 episode 12 "Heaven". Your Pretty Face is at its best when it's mining the darkness of humanity and where better than in heaven? Don't we all agree pottery is for the women?
AMERICAN GODS
Yes, yes we are.
I love Neil Gaiman. He is the change I want to see in the world. I truly believe if I do really well in this life, I will be reincarnated as Neil Gaiman. So when I heard the announcement that they were doing a series of American Gods, I was pretty excited. When I watched the first episode starring Ricky Whittle of, let's face it, Strictly Come Dancing fame, I was still excited. But when I watched Orlando Jones (who was robbed on Sleepy Hollow and you will never tell me otherwise) deliver the speech of all speeches on a Slave Ship as a character I inherited from my family in Jamaica, during the first 10 minutes of the second episode I was no longer excited. This programme has me. There is a new American God called American Gods because I worship this show (jk Baby Jesus, jk). This. Is. Everything.
Bonus points: probably more evident in the book, but Neil Gaiman is still the only white man I have ever come across with the imagination and skill to portray the visceral horror of colonialism and slavery. Read the section in the novel focussing on a female slave watching her children fight for scraps at your own emotional peril.
Sample episode: even if you don't have energy for the series (although, why the hell not?) I believe in our strange and dark times, everyone should watch that Anansi speech.