Hello, friends. Happy Friday! I have Monday off for Presidents' Day, so I am ecstatic to be headed into a long weekend.
The good news about upcoming TV shows and movies just keeps coming. I love updating this list each week. Here are some things to keep on your radar:
- Today - The fourth season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is now live on Amazon Prime. Actress Rachel Brosnahan shared that the cast is already filming season five, which will be their last. I could cry thinking about saying goodbye to Midge.
- Monday, February 21 - Below Deck: Sailing Yacht returns to Bravo on Monday.
- Thursday, March 3 - Top Chef returns! I am elated. This time, the chefs will be stationed in Houston, TX.
- Friday, March 11 - Season four of Formula 1: Drive to Survive hits Netflix. I can't believe I'm addicted to a show about racing, but I am.
- Wednesday, March 16 - Bad Vegan, the story of vegan restaurateur Sarma Melngailis, hits Netflix. This documentary series follows the rise of her vegan restaurant in New York City, and its dramatic downfall once she started dating a man who derailed everything.
- Friday, March 25 - I was already excited because this is the day season two of Bridgerton drops on Netflix, but now it is also the day that Lizzo's dance competition show premieres on Amazon Prime. It's called Watch Out for the Big Grrrls. You can watch the trailer here.
I did a lot of binge watching this past week, so I have quite a few recommendations for you.
1. Inventing Anna (Netflix) - If you aren't familiar, this Netflix series was created by Shonda Rhimes, based on an article written by Jessica Pressler for New York Magazine about Anna Sorokin, a woman who pretended to be a German heiress. Fun fact: Pressler's piece about a group of strippers drugging and ripping off clients was also the basis for the movie Hustlers starring Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu.
I would watch anything that comes out of Shondaland, but I was particularly intrigued about this show because she cast Julia Garner (best known as Ruth on Ozark) as Anna.
The supporting cast includes Anna Chlumsky (forever Vada from My Girl), Anders Holm, Laverne Cox, and about half the cast of Scandal. Seriously.
Chlumsky plays Vivian, a reporter trying to recover for an incident of bad reporting. To redeem herself, she throws herself in head first to covering Anna's life and upcoming trial. She travels to Rikers Island repeatedly to meet with her, and sets up interviews with as many people who knew her as possible.
There are nine episodes and each one focuses on a different person in her life. There's Val, her friend who worked in the fashion industry. There's Neff, the concierge at the hotel where she stayed for months. There's Kacy, her personal trainer. The final episode centers around Todd, her attorney. This set up allowed us as viewers to understand Vivian's line of questioning for each person, while also watching flashbacks to the moments they're describing.
For me, the major takeaway here was that Anna completely consumed the mind of anyone in her orbit. Whether they were with her flying private, staying at lavish resorts, or calling her endlessly to be paid back - she was inescapable. Everyone she met felt deep loyalty to her, even if she burned them. That was her super power.
My only complaint about the entire show was Anna's accent. Garner based that off of Anna Sorokin's actual voice, but man! It was like listening to nails on a chalkboard.
If you're curious how much of the show is real vs. dramatized, check out this interview with Jessica Pressler in Vulture.
2. Love is Blind (Netflix) - If you don't watch Love is Blind, what are you doing with your life? This show is one of the most fascinating things I've ever seen.
If you haven't watched (yet!), the way it works is there is a group of men and a group of women and they "date" without ever seeing each other. They sit in pods that look like living rooms. They are separately by a wall. They can hear each other, but they never see each other until they decide they want to get engaged. Stay with me!
Once the proposal happens, they get to meet in person for the first time. Then, if they're still in, they travel to Mexico (with the other couples) to start hanging out face-to-face. If that goes well, the show culminates in their weddings.
Netflix just released season two last week and I couldn't wait to start watching. I flew through the first few episodes. The second batch gets released today.
If you are wondering if any of these couples actually stay married, the answer is yes! A few couples from season one are still married.
3. I Want You Back (Amazon Prime) - There is nothing better than heading into the weekend knowing that a brand new rom-com is waiting for you. I watched this movie last Friday and it was such a delightful way to easy into the weekend.
Jenny Slate and Charlie Day play Emma and Peter, two people who work in the same office building. They meet in the stairwell, when they're each taking a break from work to deal with the emotions stemming from their break ups. Emma is trying to get over Noah (played by Scott Eastwood) and Peter is missing his girlfriend of six years, Anne (played by Gina Rodriguez).
To lift their spirits, they head to a karaoke bar (including an epic scene where they sing Alanis Morisette's "You Oughta Know") and it's there that they hatch a plan to help each other get their exes back.
For me, Charlie Day was the star of this movie. His attempts to befriend Noah were hilarious, and his chemistry with Emma (Slate) was palpable. There was also a hilarious performance by Manny Jacinto (Jason from The Good Place) as Anne's new boyfriend Logan.
The movie is two hours long and it feels like it. Towards the end, all four characters travel to Savannah, GA for a wedding and that change of location just felt random and unnecessary.
If you're looking for something easy and fun to watch, this will do the trick. You may find yourself on your phone toward the end, as those final 30 minutes definitely could have been edited more tightly.
4. Book of Love (Amazon Prime) - A friend had alerted me to this new movie on Amazon and last Sunday while I was waiting for the Super Bowl to start (and then Euphoria), I decided to give it a try. The movie stars Sam Claflin as Henry Copper, a writer whose new book is failing. Despite miserable sales in his home country of England, his agent lets him know that the Spanish translation of his book is flying off the shelves in Mexico. She encourages him to fly there and do a press tour.
When he arrives, he learns that the translator, Maria (played by Verónica Echegui), has taken serious liberties with her assignment and basically turned the book into 50 Shades of Gray.
As you can probably guess, after some initial anger, Henry and Maria fall for each other. The final 15 minutes of the movie has a telenovela-like feel and was the highlight of the entire film.
5. Ali Wong: Don Wong (Netflix) - I loved Ali Wong as the writer and star of Always Be My Maybe, but in the past I've found her stand up too crass. When I saw she had a new comedy special out, I decided to give it a whirl.
Wong takes the stage for a full hour and does a routine all about sex, dating and marriage. For the first 20 minutes or so, I was smiling, but I never really laughed. Then somewhere around the 21-minute mark, I let out a huge cackle. From that point on, I was consistently laughing out loud.
If you're looking for a mood booster, definitely make time to watch this. The jokes are funny on their own, but when you pair them with Wong's facial expressions, hand gestures and overall stage presence, they really deliver.
There you have it! This week's top picks.
*Images courtesy of Unsplash, TV Line, Entertainment Weekly, Salon, Amazon and Entertainment Weekly.
