Young Adult Binges: Primo, XO Kitty, American Born Chinese

I have binged a LOT of TV this month (what else is new) so it is now time to pass my recommendations on to you. First up, a bunch of shows about young high schoolers that are thoroughly delightful and distinct.

Primo: Created by Shea Serrano and co-executive produced by Michael Shur, this is the story of young Rafa (Ignacio Diaz-Silverio), a 16-year-old Mexican-American boy growing up in San Antonio, Texas, who lives with his mother, Drea (played by the charming Christina Vidal), and her five brothers who are always popping in and out of the house. His uncles are different brands of wacky, but they love their nephew and offer up all sorts of conflicting advice when he needs help with anything. As you can imagine, their house is loud and chaotic, but it is also full of love and support, and over the course of eight episodes, you will get a well-written family sitcom that is brimming with heart and humor.

The show is a semi-autobiographical look at Serrano's upbringing, so there is a lot of loving attention to detail and a great deal of specificity about this boy and his world. This is not some broad sitcom - it is well-observed and laugh-out-loud funny, and I eagerly binged my way through it. The cast of characters is fantastic, and they can all pair up and play off of each other in interesting and varied combinations that ensures this is a show that could go on for many more seasons. There's a lot of excellent material here and it never gets stale. So settle in - you're going to enjoy this ride.

XO, Kitty: This show was not remotely on my radar, but I decided to give it a try. And then I couldn't understand how it hadn't been on my radar, as it's yet another spin-off from writer Jenny Han, in her To All the Boys I've Loved Before Cinematic Universe. I haven't read any of Han's books, but man, these adaptations of her work are light, frothy, delicious confections that delight me to no end, and XO, Kitty is no exception.

Anna Catchcart stars as Kitty Song-Covey, a high schooler who has been missing her long-distance boyfriend/pen pal Dae (Choi Min-young) who she met a few years ago on a family vacation to South Korea. When she gets a scholarship to spend her junior year abroad in Korea at the same boarding school that Dae attends, she leaps at the chance. This is also what her mother did when she was a teenager, and Kitty feels like this is an opportunity to follow in her dead mother's footsteps and get a better sense of who she was as a person. Of course, when she shows up on campus and tries to surprise Dae, it turns out he might be harboring some secrets, and there are a lot of complications that will need to be untangled.

The show has a fantastic aesthetic, and is shot like a K-drama. The writing is full of soap operatic twists and turns; I could see a lot of the twists coming from a mile away but that didn't stop me from being thoroughly entertained nonetheless, and then in the final few episodes, things took a turn that I truly hadn't expected. This show is full of really diverse and fascinating characters that you don't ordinarily get to see in an American high school show, and it's funny, warm, and charming. One you start, the cliffhangers will ensure you simply can't stop.

American Born Chinese: Based on the graphic novels by Gene Luen Yang, this show is a sci-fi-fantasy that basically reunites the cast of Everything Everywhere All at Once: what's not to love?! Ben Wang stars as Jin Wang, a Chinese-American tenth grader who is trying to fit in at high school, has a crush on a girl, wants to be on the soccer team with a bunch of bro-y boys, and is dealing with some family trouble at home with a mother who is loving but pushy, and a father who is being worn down by microaggressions at work and has lost all sense of ambition. However, then a mysterious boy named Wei-Chen (Jimmy Liu) shows up at school and Jin's life is suddenly thrown into chaos. Turns out Wei-Chen is the son of the Monkey King and he has come down to Earth to find the Fourth Scroll, a magical item that could help mend a rift between the gods in Heaven. Bet you didn't see that coming.

What follows is a fantastical quest that is replete with Chinese mythology, kung fu, and nerding out. The special effects can be a little wonky at times, but it's just a TV show, so you can be more forgiving about the low budget. And the cast, that includes people like Michelle Yeoh as the Goddess of Mercy, and Ke Huy Quan in a great but odd role that will leave you wondering for eight episodes how it ties into the rest of the show, is fantastic, really rallying around this cause for better Asian representation on American TV. This is not a perfect show, but it's perfectly entertaining, and it's certainly not like anything you've seen before. 

June Movies Part 1: Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse, The Blackening, Elemental

June is proving to be a busy but fruitful month at the movie theater. So gather round while I tell you about all the amazing movies you need to be checking out!

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: What a visual spectacle. The original film was an absolute revelation in terms of the animation style and this sequel has levelled up into a whole other stratosphere. It still feels like you're watching a comic book, with so much color, humor, action, and emotion bursting out of every frame. It's indescribably beautiful and even though I did find myself getting a little squirrelly towards the end of the 140-minute runtime, I was never able to tear my eyes away from the screen. 

Here's a very brief plot description. Miles Morales, aka Spider-Man, is going about his day in Brooklyn, on his version of Earth, trying to fight bad guys and still keep up his grades in high school to appease his loving but clueless parents. But Gwen Stacy, aka Spider-Woman, shows up, and there's lots of inter-dimensional drama that leads them into a world with a Spider-Society composed of all the different Spider-Man iterations, some of whom me met in the last movie, and many of whom are brand new to this film. It's all twisty, inventive, and mind-blowing, particularly during one particular escapade that takes place in Mumbattan, an Indian version of Manhattan that felt like it was written just for me. When you've got an Indian Spider-Man berating people for saying chai tea and naan bread, you've made all my wildest dreams come true. So watch this movie right now and get hyped for the sequel.

The Blackening: The minute I saw the trailer for this film, I knew I was going to watch it on opening day. And now I have, and boy was it worth it. As longtime readers know, the only horror I like to watch is comedy horror, and this film delivered in spades (it literally does involve a lot of characters playing Spades). The premise is that a group of Black college friends turn up to a house in the woods that their friend rented out as an AirBnB so they could have a ten-year reunion on Juneteenth. There's a game room in this house, and it contains a very racist-looking boardgame called The Blackening. Turns out that when you play this game, the stakes are quite literally life or death. 

What follows is a raucous 90 minutes of these people trying to play this game that requires them to outdo each other in Black-themed trivia and prove whether or not they are the "Blackest person" in the friend group. Some of them are biracial, some are married to white folks, some have parents who are actually from Africa. They are dark-skinned and light-skinned, straight and queer, and they need to band together to fight against this creepy killer. I will confess, many of the jokes in this movie sailed right over my head, but the two Black women sitting next to me were quoting lines and hooting with appreciation at a number of references that I clearly was not privy to. So if you're Black, this movie is a must-watch, but if you're not, you must still prepare for a thoroughly entertaining time at the movie theater.

Elemental: Set in Element City, this is the tale of Ember, a woman made of Fire. Ember's parents immigrated to Element City from their homeland and had a rough time adjusting to this new place that was never built with Fire in mind. They faced a lot of discrimination, but her father persevered and started his own shop, which he hopes Ember will take over when he retires. However, one day, some pipes burst in the basement, water starts leaking into the shop, and things are looking dire. Ember ends up meeting Wade, a man who is made of Water and serves as a Water inspector (natch) for the City, and they have to team up to help save the shop. Ember has always been raised to believe that "Elements cannot mix," but as she spends more time with Wade, that message starts to feel less true.

As you can tell from that description, this is a movie that is dealing with a lot of themes. There's an immigrant story, there's a love story, there's classic Pixar parent-child dynamics. And the animation is so wildly colorful, inventive, and fun. Every frame of this movie is winsome and clever, and while yes, the plot is fairly predictable, it's never boring. The music by Thomas Newman (aka my favourite movie composer) is also rather gorgeous, a weird blend of Indian and Middle Eastern influences to try and capture the foreign background of the Fire people that made everything start to feel very Bollywood. Which is probably why I liked this movie way more than most critics. If you've liked other Pixar movies, this one should be a slam dunk because it has everything you've come to expect - great animation, inventive storytelling, and plenty of heart. 

Past Lives: A Heartbreaking Romance

I saw Past Lives yesterday. And it made me cry while I was watching it and then I kept on crying as I walked out of the theater. So if you're looking for some catharsis this week, perhaps this is the movie for you. This post is going to be pretty spoilerific, so believe me now when I say you must watch this film, and then come back to read this after you have done so. 

Written and directed by Celine Song, this is the story of Nora/Na Young (Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), who were childhood sweethearts in South Korea. They lost touch at the age of twelve when Na Young's family immigrated to Canada and she changed her name to Nora. Twelve years later, they reconnect (thanks to Facebook, of course), with Nora now living as a playwright in New York City, while Hae Sung is going to college after completing his mandatory Korean military service. They spend some time excitedly reconnecting over video chats despite the vast time difference until Nora realizes she is investing too much time in a man she will not be able to meet for a long while and abruptly calls things off. Shortly thereafter, she meets Arthur (John Magaro) at an artist's retreat.

Twelve years after that, we find Nora and Arthur are a happily married couple, living in a cramped apartment in the East Village as writers, living out their bohemian dreams. But Hae Sung, who is now a typical Korean businessman, is coming over to New York for a week's vacation, and has plans to meet up with Nora. What follows is a dreamy few days where these two childhood sweethearts reunite and contemplate what could have been. But these are also days where Nora always comes home to her husband, who frankly shares his insecurities and thoughts about whether Nora is happy and their married life is what she wanted.

This is a movie about three adults having very grown-up conversations but mostly standing around and looking at each other with very grown-up feelings that you can palpably sense through the screen. It's hard to believe this is Celine Song's directorial debut but she does a masterful job of weaving in dialogue only when it's necessary, but otherwise letting these incredible actors tell us everything we need to know through their expressions. Cinematographer Shabier Kirchner also does his part, making New York look its absolute romantic best on 35mm film and imbuing every frame with an unsurpassable beauty that will make your heart sing. And the music by Daniel Bear and Christopher Rossen is pitch perfect, never overwhelming the scenes, but offering up a sumptuous accompaniment as we go on this emotional journey. 

Past Lives is dazzling and evocative on multiple levels and is sure to get at some core truth that you keep hidden away within you. You'll need to watch the film to learn more about the Korean concept of in-yeon, about how people are destined to meet after they accumulate layers of connections across multiple past lives. As someone who immigrated to both Canada and New York in her childhood and left behind many friends and a sweetheart that she has never spoken to since (hi Keith!) it felt like a true gut punch, and an exercise in contemplating the many lives I could have lived if things had gone a different way. But ultimately those are all past lives. And reckoning with your past is the only way to forge ahead to your future. 

Your Next Binge: The Diplomat or Mrs. Davis

The deluge of TV doesn't stop. Today I have two great shows (one utterly bonkers, the other a bit less so) that you could add to your queue. With impressive leading ladies taking the helm, this might be just what you need if you're jonesing to see some strong, intelligent women on screen.

The Diplomat: Created by Debora Cahn, the show stars Keri Russell as Kate Wyler, a career US diplomat who thought she was about to be posted to Kabul where she could do important work, but has suddenly been sent to the United Kingdom, as their new US ambassador, a position that is largely considered to be all about pomp and circumstance without much substance. Her husband, Hal (Rufus Sewell, who is playing an American here, rather than his usual British self), is a former ambassador who misses the limelight and is struggling to take a backseat as Kate gets mired in an extremely complex international crisis. The only thing more complex might be their marriage, which is decidedly on the rocks, but is limping along due to external forces that we will get to as the season progresses.

I want to be very clear that while this show deals in very serious subject matter and political intrigue, it is also EXTREMELY funny. It is sharply written and witty, and Russell and Sewell are having a grand time leaning into this Tracy-Hepburn dynamic of a couple that shouldn't be together but simply can't be apart either. And the supporting cast is tremendous, with folks like Ato Essandoh who plays her Deputy Chief of Mission, Stuart, and Ali Ahn as Eidra, the CIA station chief. And of course, we've got good ol' Rory Kinnear playing the British Prime Minister and doing it with a blustery blowhard energy that is always entertaining. 

Over the course of eight episodes, Keri Russell is a whirlwind, trying to keep nuclear powers from detonating the planet and using diplomacy and tact and her incredible intelligence to avert catastrophes while she is constantly thwarted by men who want to blow things up. The show takes many twists and turns and always keeps you on your toes. It is shot in great locations, the actors offer up effervescent performances, the writing is crisp, and overall, it's simply a stellar watch. It's an easy and compelling binge, and I am ready for Season 2.

Mrs. Davis: Hmm. What does one say about this show? It was created by Tara Hernandez and...Damon Lindelof. Lindelof makes objectively weird TV shows (he was responsible for Lost and The Leftovers), so it should come as no surprise that this show is quite possibly the most insane thing you will watch in 2023. 

Betty Gilpin stars as Sister Simone (before she became a nun, she was Elizabeth), a nun who gets roped into a quest to battle Mrs. Davis, a Siri-like algorithm that has taken over most of humanity. Mrs. Davis purports to be a compassionate AI that is only interested in helping humans, but Simone has never been a fan, claiming that the algorithm was responsible for the death of her magician father (played by David Arquette in some flashbacks!). However, when Mrs. Davis makes a deal with her, she embarks on an epic quest that takes her around the world to find the...holy grail. 

Man, I don't know what to tell you. The show is nuts, and it's very funny, and it's so inventive and pretty to look at, but also utterly incomprehensible. When I was a few episodes in, I was trying to describe it to my fiance, and I had to say the sentence, "I'm not sure yet if she is literally or metaphorically married to Jesus Christ." The show has much to say about technology and the dangers of artificial intelligence taking over our lives, but it also has much to say about a thousand other topics and you get this hodgepodge of science, philosophy, religion, comedy, and drama. Gilpin is a fantastic lead, gamely going for whatever the writers demand of her, and she is surrounded by a supporting cast who all seem to be equally entertained by the ridiculous things they are being asked to say and do. Like with all Lindelof joints, it is so full of ideas and ropes you in at the beginning, but by the end, I didn't feel like it stuck the landing. Thankfully this is just a miniseries, so you get eight episodes that will take you on a self-contained journey. You may not love the destination, but the ride is worth it. I think?