New Year's Binge: Blockbuster, Wednesday, Bad Sisters, Fleishman Is in Trouble

I am not a fan of New Year's Eve and believe the best way to celebrate this "holiday" is on the couch bingeing some great television. If you are similarly minded, this post is for you!

Blockbuster: If what you're seeking is a funny, half-hour, workplace sitcom in the style of Brooklyn Nine-Nine or Superstore, then this is the show for you. Randall Park stars as Timmy, a man who loves movies and runs the very last Blockbuster Video store on the planet. For many reasons, this is a losing proposition, but the man is determined to make this video rental store succeed and with his motley staff by his side, we can cheer him on in his hapless quest. Over the course of ten episodes, you will be able to watch the usual sitcom tropes unfold - troubles with corporate overlords, employees whose ambitions don't line up with their current jobs, and of course, some flickers of romance.

The best part of this show is the specificity of its jokes. There was one line about how if someone wanted to listen to The Fray, they should just watch an episode of Grey's Anatomy. This is a show that will probably make sense to 1% of the population, but I am in that 1% and I cackled like a loon. This show is a broad and hearty comedy, full of warmth like a nourishing stew, but one in a while there's a surprise ingredient that pops up out of nowhere. It's a great cast of people who are clearly having a fun time working together and playing off these scripts. Creator Vanessa Ramos was a writer on Brooklyn Nine-Nine so she brings that show's warm, gentle, familial tone to this workplace. And of course, what is the thing I find funniest about a show about the last Blockbuster store, a place we all went to rent videos if we needed to see movies or TV? It's streaming on Netflix.

Wednesday: If you don't want something too sweet and saccharine, then you need to be watching Wednesday. The brilliant Jenna Ortega stars as Wednesday Addams, the moody, death-obsessed, teenage daughter of the Addams Family, and in this show, she is shipped off to Nevermore Academy, a private boarding school for outcasts after she is expelled for her extreme behavior at the regular high school she was attending. This is where her parents went to school, and she is furious with them (Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzman play Morticia and Gomez, in a pitch-perfect piece of casting), but over the course of eight episodes we will get to see our heroine make her stamp on Nevermore and go from social pariah to the belle of the ball.

The main story arc involves a murder, so this show is a mash-up of genres as a horror mystery comedy, with lots of spooky and supernatural elements. But of course there are also many love interests to deal with and teenage hormones flying about the place. Wednesday's roommate, Enid (Emma Myers) is an exceedingly cheerful werewolf, and the school principal is played by the marvelous Gwendolen Christie, who certainly has her hands full trying to contain all these rebellious teens under her roof. Christina Ricci also stars as a teacher at the school, which is a beautiful bit of casting as she originally played Wednesday Addams in the 90s movies. While the show was created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, Tim Burton is an executive producer and directed four episodes, so the show also has that feel of a spooky and inventive Burton movie, with gorgeous production design, costumes, and plenty of gothic humor. It's a compelling and eye-popping watch, and while you may need to close your eyes at some scary bits, overall, it's a hell of a ride. 

Bad Sisters: If you want a black comedy mystery without actual horror, then this is the show you seek. Once I started, I voraciously ate up all ten episodes with a spoon. Set in Ireland, this is a remarkable mystery that opens with the funeral of John Paul "JP" Williams (Claes Bang, who I was shocked to learn was Danish!). John Paul was married to Grace (Anne-Marie Duff), who has four sisters, Eva (Sharon Horgan, who also developed this show with Dave Finkel and Brett Baer), Ursula (Eva Birthistle), Bibi (Sarah Greene), and Becka (Eve Hewson). The sisters are all very close, and as the show progresses, we discover just how close. Because it turns out that JP was a horrible and abusive man, and every single one of the sisters hated their brother-in-law. Until they finally decide that they should murder him.

Brian Gleeson (who I just discovered is son of Brendan and brother to Domhnall! Yay Irish actors!) and Daryl McCormack (who earlier this year starred in the amazing Good Luck To You, Leo Grande) also star as Tom and his half-brother Matt, who run the insurance company that would have to pay out JP's life insurance policy. While his death has been ruled an accident, the brothers have reasons of their own to not want to pay out the claim, so they start investigating for possible foul play. Which means that this show takes place in flashbacks where we track what the sisters may have been scheming, and then we see the present day investigation where everyone is freaking out about getting discovered. This whole time you have no idea how JP died, whether or not he was actually murdered, and if so, which sister(s) did it. It's such a brilliantly inventive, funny, and captivating script, and the conclusion is rich and satisfying and ties up all loose ends. The tone is dark but hysterical and these actors do a brilliant job of bringing their characters to life and making you root for them every step of the way. You will not be able to stop until you see how it all ends, and then you'll be desperately hoping that someone else dies so we get another season of watching the Garvey sisters and their shenanigans. 

Fleishman Is in Trouble: I loved Taffy Brodesser-Akner's 2019 novel, so I was very excited to learn she had adapted it into a miniseries for FX. Starring Jesse Eisenberg as Toby Fleishman, Claire Danes as his ex-wife Rachel, and Lizzy Caplan as Toby's college friend Libby, who also serves as the omniscient narrator of the series, this is a show about middle-age, marriage, gender norms, and just how self-absorbed human beings can be when beset by their problems. 

It's hard to say much about this show without giving away vast swathes of plot so I won't even try. Instead, I'll just exhort you to go along for the ride. These actors are doing some incredible work, and Brodesser-Akner has written impeccable scripts that fully capture the spirit of her novel. This is a brilliant translation of page to screen and there are stunning visuals and narrative devices to keep the story engaging, and twisty, and surprising. The first half is very focused on Toby's perspective of his divorce and subsequent dating life, but oh boy, just wait until things turns around and you get to hear what Rachel and Libby have been going through. This show perfectly captures how you should never just listen to one person's side of the story when trying to determine what went wrong with a relationship and also gets at the very different experiences men and women can have on either side of coupledom. It's a wonderfully executed show, and a beautiful portrait of the joys and pitfalls of human existence. And since it's all set in New York, I had many moments of pointing at the screen and saying "I know that street!" This is not a show for everyone, and many will moan that it's just about a bunch of rich, white, privileged assholes who don't have real problems. So if you can't stand that sort of thing, stay away. But as a psychological study and examination of the patriarchy, this is an incisive and riveting piece of television, and I fell for it hook, line, and sinker.