Great TV to kill your late-summer ennui
'This Fool', 'The Resort', and 'Paper Girls' prove the sun never goes down on streaming
Usually I kick off one of these⊠at this point *clockwork* absences with some long-winded apolog-ation (thatâs an apology x explanation, the ultimate collab) but in a stab at âself-care,â which everyone from Jonah Hill to Ezra Miller is promoting this week, Iâm just going to skip it. Anyway, no one cares!
Hark. Dost thou heareth?
âTis the faint chimes of Mariah Careyâs âAll I Want for Christmas,â about to make its triumphant/horrifying return to the speakers of CVS, Target, and Wal-Mart. Thatâs right, fam! Fall is JUST around the corner, which means the end of summer. And what a summer itâs been! From monkeypox to âTop Gunâ, historic drought to Dirty Shirleys, Summer 2K22 had something for everybody.
But with the Hypehouses covering their pools and Europe closing its borders to Instagrammers for the season, weâre all beginning to ponder our hibernation routines. And you know what that means: TV, and copious amounts of it!
âHouse of the Dragonâ has of course flown onto HBO and everyone you know, including your grandmotherâs live-in boyfriend, has now told you to watch âThe Bearâ. But maybe youâre looking for something a little less think-pieced to death? Something with more off-the-beaten path energy? My friend⊠I have gone down that path, and I return bearing RECS.
This Fool (Hulu)
Funniest show of the summer, hands-down, and that includes âHarley Quinnâ and âWhat We Do in the Shadowsâ, both of which more than hold their own in their advanced seasons (three and four, respectively) but feel to some extent like theyâve now read, absorbed, and weaponized the cultural conversation theyâve generated to the point that youâre not just watching a show, youâre watching a show conversing with itself about what shows are. âThis Foolâ on the other hand arrives with no meta-textual baggage, just impeccable joke-writing and a window to the LA Mexican-American experience that never sacrifices story for political points.
The gist: Julio (show creator Chris Estrada) works for Hugs Not Thugs, an LA prisoner rehabilitation program much like Homeboy Industries, and becomes his cousin Luis's (Frankie Quinones) case manager upon his parole. Julio is an uptight control freak, by his own admission a âpunk-ass bitchâ; Luis is a blustering man-child, emotionally stuck in 1997, desperate to prove his masculinity wherever possible. Would you believe that this odd couple pairing gets into wacky hijinks??
On top of Estrada and Quinonesâ effortlessly funny dynamic, the show managed to snag Michael âChristufahâ Imperioli for a surprisingly meaty role as Minister Payne, the head of Hugs Not Thugs. Does he scream âmuuuuttthhaaaa fuccckkaaaa!â at some point? Of course he does, heâs the Once and Forever Chrissy Moltisanti. Expertly deployed here, alongside one or two other guest stars who only add to the South LA1 world without distracting from it.
The Resort (Peacock)
In a perfect world, this would have premiered on NBC (not Peacock) in early July, heralding the glorious intersection of âPalm Springsâ, âHigh Maintenanceâ, and âMr. Robotâ (not to mention the wildly undersung acting chops of Cristin Milioti and William Jackson Harper). But that didnât happen! I will attempt to correct NBC-Universalâs marketing mistakes now.
âThe Resortâ is nominally about a young married couple on vacation, spark dwindling, whose relationship is reinvigorated when they stumble on an old cell phone in the jungle that re-opens a missing persons case. Youâve got a little âOnly Murders in the Buildingâ there, a little âWhite Lotusâ. (Like I said, this should have been easy as shit to market!)
The show manages to take high-concept stuff â multi-timeline mysteries! A character suffering from âmemory leakageâ! â and ground it in the beautiful mundanity of life, which if youâve seen âPalm Springsâ will feel very familiar (âThe Resortâ was created by that movieâs writer, Andy Siara). I can understand not getting on this showâs very particular wavelength, but if any of the references above do work for you⊠fire this one up.
Paper Girls (Amazon)
Amazon is possibly the worst mainstream streamer (mainstreamer), so itâs understandable if not only have you not watched this show, youâve never heard of it in the first place. Based on a Brian K. Vaughan comic book series2 about four time-traveling 1980's newspaper delivery girls, 'Paper Girls' is... about four time-traveling 1980's newspaper delivery girls. It's a science-fiction show, to start, as the girls jump to 2019 and then back to 1999, interacting with their older selves all while trying to right the timeline they've flubbed by jumping through it. But it's ALSO a sometimes heartbreaking story of dashed expectations, contending with life's obstacles and revelations, and the degree to which we have any agency over who we become.
Itâs not a perfect show, even in an eight episode first season. Three-dimensional characterization gives way to occasional girl-boss speechifying, and the sci-fi elements â from CGI that makes an already cheap-looking show look even cheaper to a terribly miscast Jason Mantzoukas â feel at this point perfunctory at best. Still, the core humanity rings true, and thereâs enough going right here to imagine a tighter, more confident season two.
Better Call Saul (AMC / Netflix)
This oneâs a cheat because 1. itâs completely over now and 2. could hardly be considered âoff-the-beaten-path,â descended as it is from one of the most celebrated (and memed!) shows of the mid-aughts, but âBetter Call Saulâ stuck the landing in a way few others have of late â with such narrative and emotional clarity that Iâm tempted to begin an immediate, almost grad study rewatch of the whole series.
Itâs just so thoughtful, this show, and I donât mean that in the strict thematic sense. âBCSâ has⊠lighting, shot composition, visual references no oneâs beating you over the head to acknowledge but whose presence only deepens the story theyâre supporting. Every camera move is considered; every frame adds up. Itâs a TV show that makes you feel smarter watching it, something really highlighted for me when I tried to watch the latest episode of âIndustryâ, a show that makes you feel dumber (and hornier!), right after. Itâs possible âBCSâ has ruined me for all âprestige dramasâ to follow.
So there you go! Four unique shows, all stamped with the Hendog Seal of Approvalâąïž and ready to binge provided the right combination of logins. If you happen to think these TV recommendations are ass, let me know in the comments! But Iâll only engage if you watched remembering to do these three things:
put your phone away
pay attention
Thank you reader @omgbren for correcting my geography here!! Iâd originally written East LA when âThis Foolâ very clearly takes place in SOUTH LA
Most reviews will tell you âPaper Girlsâ is âbased on a graphic novel,â which I suppose is not technically incorrect but misses the distinction between âmonthly installments, now collectedâ and âreleased from the jump as one story.â I will not let nerd-dom be gentrified so easily!