August Binges: Mr. Throwback, The Decameron, Taskmaster

I always find myself discovering a slew of new shows in the summer, free of the pressures of regular fall/spring programming. This summer has been no exception, with streaming services releasing a string of intriguing offerings. Here's a round-up of what I've been watching over the past month!

Mr. Throwback: This is a story about a man named Danny Grossman (Adam Pally), who used to be a basketball phenomenon in middle school and then had it all taken away from him and fell from grace. As a kid, NBA superstar Stephen Curry (playing himself!) was Danny's best friend, along with Kimberly (Ego Nwodim), who now run's Stephen's media company and manages his entire life for him. They fell out of touch after Danny was banned from playing middle school basketball, but 25 years later, Danny has re-entered the picture because he needs some money. He is hoping that he could leverage his friendship with Stephen to get out of trouble. But one lie snowballs into another, and what follows is a six-episode mockumentary as Danny furiously tries to maintain a giant lie, gets his ex-wife and daughter to play along, and has to deal with the naive Curry, who is willing to believe the best of everyone and the suspicious Kimberly, who can only assume the worst. It's a pretty basic sitcom with some fun cameos and jokes, but the premise does go stale pretty quickly. However, it's an insignificant time commitment and a perfectly pleasant way to while away an afternoon, so why not give it a shot?

The Decameron: Created by Kathleen Jordan, based on the 14th century short-story collection by Giovanni Boccaccio, this is a delicious little miniseries about what happens when a bunch of Italian nobles and their servants are trapped in a beautiful Italian villa outside of Florence, which they have fled to so they can avoid the plague that is raging through the city. The cast is stacked with people like Zosia Mamet, Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Tony Hale, Tanya Reynolds, Leila Farzad, Karan Gill, etc. and the entire thing has a distinctly British sensibility of heightened silliness and deeply dark humor. Every character has their own nefarious plots afoot and ambitions to get by in this plague-ridden world - some nobles are trying to make an advantageous marriage, others are trying to land a job, and meanwhile the servants are trying to decide if they need to revolt or just keep maintaining the ridiculous status quo even under these extraordinary circumstances. It's a lushly produced, extremely engaging series, just eight episodes long, and it will keep you thoroughly entertained from start to finish. Some people will die, others will thrive, but at the end of the day, I think we can all agree that this is the most oddly hilarious story about the Black Death.

Taskmaster: There have been 17 series of this game show to date, and I watched Series 5 months ago as it is widely recognized as the best series to date. Subsequently, I have now made my way through several more series, each one delighting me to no end with its absurdity and the charming relationships that develop between contestants over time. Created by Alex Horne, each series takes five comedians (usually British ones, but occasionally you'll get a Canadian or Australian thrown in there) and over the course of (usually) ten episodes, they have to do a series of "tasks" that have been set by Horne and will be judged by the Taskmaster, British comedian Greg Davies. The tasks range from the sublime to the ridiculous - they might win points for popping a balloon from the further distance away, or creating a work of art out of toilet paper. The inventiveness of the tasks is one reason to watch, but the contestants' befuddled reactions to the tasks is the main reason to watch. Sometimes they have an absolute flash of brilliance as they discover a secret loophole and complete the task perfectly, while most of the time, they blunder through in abject cluelessness, cursing Alex throughout. It is utterly joyous and one of the best ways you could spend an afternoon. Every series is available for free on YouTube, so honestly, you cannot complain you don't have a thing to watch this summer. Endless fun awaits you!