For me, this coronavirus pandemic has been both 1) a surreal intrusion of world events into my daily life and 2) a fantastic excuse to indulge in good television.
I consider television a form of “productive laziness.” If you’re putting in several hours of time and mental investment into well-produced, thought-provoking art, then finishing a season (or an entire series) will at least feel like you’ve fulfilled a meaningful commitment. Obviously, at the end of the day you’ve just sat on your ass for some twenty hours. But when sitting on your ass becomes a public-health mandate, you might as well make it entertaining.
If you know me, you’ve very likely realized that TV and movies are often the only things I can get myself to talk about. So instead of turning my conversations with my friends into another Hollywood Reporter round table discussion, I’ve decided to write it down instead. Here are five TV recommendations to make this quarantine season go by a little faster.
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Westworld (HBO)
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like Westworld’s first season. The series is set in a wild west-styled theme park populated by android “hosts” that look and behave identical to real people. The hosts are programmed to not harm humans, and their memories are reset at the end of their character narratives, which means the obvious: with a lot of money, the guests of Westworld are free to live out their every fantasy within the park without consequence. That is, until some of the hosts start to remember their experiences…
There’s infinite places you could go with a premise like that, but Westworld uses its elaborately detailed story to take on dense, challenging questions about the ethics of artificial intelligence, our relationship with violence, and the nature of consciousness itself. Imagine if all the video game characters we routinely subject to suffering and death were real-world creatures with their own feelings and desires, and the moral catastrophe that would create. Westworld, in essence, is that story.
It goes without saying that this is not a show for casual viewers. In fact, it’s the most attentive, obsessive fans that will be the most confused by this series and its endless twists and layers of plot. Nonetheless, it has something for everyone: Psychology buffs will be drawn to the uncanny interactions between the humans and near-human AI. Video game nerds will have an absolute field day unpacking the park’s narrative mechanics. Philosophy students will find all the thesis material they need in this show. And anyone who enjoys good TV will be absolutely stunned by its production values, visuals and acting.
But regardless of what audience niche you fit into, if you’re willing to give Westworld your full attention, you will be rewarded over and over again with its rich emotional and intellectual payoff. The show also happens to be a unique combination of sci-fi, Western and action thriller, so you’re never going to get bored with all the thinking you’ll have to do to appreciate it. Just brace for a lot of blood and nudity courtesy of HBO, and you should be fine.
Ozark (Netflix)
If a hugely complicated and philosophical show about living robots is a bit much for you, then Netflix’s underrated crime drama Ozark should be a far more straightforward watch. Basically, the guy from Arrested Development is laundering money for a Mexican drug cartel, and after he pisses them off, he has to move his entire family from Chicago to Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks so he can repay his debts to the cartel, which ends up involving even more criminals! Fun, right?
Ozark is a clear attraction for the Breaking Bad market, since it’s also a show about a seemingly ordinary dude who gets sucked into the gritty world of organized crime. But there are several important differences, the biggest one being that in Ozark, the whole family is in on it from the beginning. Instead of being a story of one man who turns into a monster in the name of protecting his family, Ozark is about how an entire family changes (for better or worse) as they enter a new life running from the law.
I’ve always been a fan of Jason Bateman’s versatility as an actor. His deadpan style of comedy is unfailingly hilarious, but I’ve been waiting for another dramatic performance from him ever since 2015’s excellent psychological thriller The Gift. Ozark not only delivers on this, but also reveals Bateman as a capable director with quite a talent for building tension. The tone he’s set for this series is so strong that it’s easy to overlook the flaws in its writing in favor of that dark, addictive quality of Netflix’s most binge-able shows.
Succession (HBO)
I’ll admit I’ve been on a dour streak of TV these past few months, but I wanted to make room in this post for at least some comedy. Thankfully, I just started HBO’s brilliant media-industry satire Succession, and it’s perfect if you want something to make you laugh and think at the same time.
To be honest, Succession is more of a very funny drama than a straight-up comedy. It follows a dysfunctional family of billionaires who are all fighting for control over their global media conglomerate after the family patriarch’s health begins to decline. That sounds like a perfect formula for an Arrested Development-style sitcom, but the series is clearly a bleak evisceration of media empires like Fox News. I’m only three episodes in, and Succession is already using its dry humor as a magnifying glass for the greed, corruption and moral emptiness of America’s ultra-rich.
If you follow political comedy (i.e. John Oliver and the like), enjoy some smart and hard-hitting satire, or are just fed up with the state of the world today, Succession is a must-watch. The script is hilariously profane and sharp with its wit, the acting performances are strikingly authentic, and the whole thing is filmed with the nervous energy of a documentary. You’ll feel like you’re getting a forbidden peek at the inner lives of those with the most power and influence in this country, and it’s every bit as sickening, pathetic and - above all - hilarious as it sounds.
Dark (Netflix)
Here’s another one for the nerds and obsessive types. Dark is Netflix’s first German-language series (do yourself a favor and watch it in German, not the horrendous English dub), and it centers on a small town that’s plagued by the mysterious disappearance of several children. Oh, and there’s time travel involved. Lots and lots of it. This show was made to be confusing. Actually, you’ll want to use a flowchart to keep up with it.
Dark happens to follow four families all at once, and shows the repercussions of these bizarre tragedies on each of its characters at various points in time. In fact, the show’s family tree is itself a spoiler, since time travel is both the cause and effect of every event and relationship between the characters. So yes, a flowchart helps, but you’re gonna have to make one yourself and update it as you go.
Like Westworld, Dark is also a meticulously detailed, ambitiously plotted series that’s unlike most other shows you’ll watch. It bears a lot of surface-level similarities to Stranger Things - a missing child, a small-town setting, a shadowy science-fiction element that’s wrapped in secrets - but all it takes is one episode to realize this is a much deeper (and yes, darker) series with a more long-term endgame in mind. The writers actually planned all three seasons in advance of the show’s debut, which means they know exactly where they’re going with it. Based on the incredibly impressive first two seasons, I trust their vision completely.
I normally wouldn’t suggest two “mindfuck” shows in the same breath, but we’re living in special times right now, so it’s worth the shot. Only two seasons of Dark have been released so far, and the third is set to drop this coming June. It’s clearly worth viewing as a complete story once it’s all out, but I also don’t think it’s worth missing out on now.
The Boys (Prime Video)
…And finally, we have something colorful to close off this list. The Boys is the first “superhero satire” I’ve seen in mainstream film and TV. By that I mean it’s an honest-to-god superhero show that, at the same time, brutally mocks the cynical corporatism of the superhero genre itself within the entertainment industry.
See, in The Boys, the superheroes are actually a bunch of corrupt, arrogant, power-abusing assholes that are owned by a company that markets them to the public as heroes and profits off of their activities. The good guys are a group of ordinary people who have fallen victim to these abuses of power in the past, and team up as vigilantes to take on the injustices perpetrated by the superhero corporation.
If that sounds like a corny metaphor for the very real superhero industry, it’s because that’s exactly what The Boys is, and the show clearly knows this. The series never takes itself too seriously and feels like an acerbic parody through and through, yet it still uses its Amazon budget to embrace its superhero-genre thrills in all their R-rated glory. It’s violent, hilarious and unapologetic, and scratches the itch left behind by Kick-Ass all those years ago. If you came to this post looking for nothing but pure entertainment, The Boys is absolutely the show you should watch first.
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There are of course countless other shows I enjoy that I didn’t include on this list, but I wanted to keep things simple and start with five. After all, TV is bottomless blogging material for me, so I considered it important to pace myself. If you’re a fan of any of these shows, please feel free to reach out, because I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Thank you as always for reading! If you enjoyed this post, go ahead and share it out to your social media!
