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Jekyll (UK)

Before Sherlock, Steven Moffat developed a different piece of British literature for the BBC. Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde became Jekyll, produced in 2007. Have you noticed a pattern, yet?

Jekyll was billed as a modern-day sequel to the Stevenson novel, and it is delicious television. Darker than Sherlock, Jekyll stars likable film and television star James Nesbitt, soap opera actress Michelle Ryan, and comedic actress Gina Bellman (Coupling). All three are playing against type. And it is quite jarring and effective to see these beautiful, mainstream "television people" spiraling down into this dark and twisted maze of a story.

This is fun, engaging, and dark television. Released just as Steven Moffat's star was ascending, it has since been wrongfully overshadowed by Moffat's work in Sherlock, Doctor Who, and the Spielberg film The Adventures of Tintin. Jekyll can stand with any of those titles.

In December 2016 it was announced that Lionsgate films is making a feature film version of Jekyll starring Chris Evans (Captain America). 

Ooglies (UK)

Ooglies is a stop-motion animated children's television series produced by BBC Scotland. These people are presumably adults, yet they stick googly eyes on food and household items and create amazing adventures. It is as twisted as it is violent.

Doctor Who For People Who Hate Doctor Who, Part One: The Girl in the Fireplace

I know what you're thinking: Oh, god! Please don't try to make me watching Doctor Who happen. It's never going to happen.

And don't worry. If you're not a fan, I'm not going to even attempt to make you a fan by petulantly retelling the entire history of the Daleks from 1963 to the present day and Who-splaing about how the Daleks are really just thinly veiled metaphors demonizing collectivism and socialism.

That's right out.

Instead I'm just going to point out that there have been a fair number of top-notch writers contributing to the show since the reboot in 2005. And every once in a while an amazing episode emerges that can stand completely on its own as great storytelling. You can come at these episodes without any knowledge of the Whoniverse whatsoever and still completely follow along. These also tend to be my favorite episodes.

The Girl in the Fireplace is one such episode. Forget the backstory of who, what, and why. The Girl in the Fireplace consists of one great story by Steven Moffat (Sherlock) and two great actors, David Tennant and Sophia Myles. In this episode the science fiction takes a backseat to the core relationship between two star-crossed people who meet across a lifetime.

Please note that this is not your typical Doctor Who story. If you watch another random episode expecting to find a poignant story of personal connection across space and time, you're going to be sorely disappointed. This episode takes a break from sonic screwdrivers and guys in rubber monster suits to examine what it's like when two humans connect, even if one of them happens to be a two-hearted alien from the planet Gallifrey.

Sherlock

Steven Moffat (Doctor Who, Coupling) and Mark Gatiss (The League of Gentlemen, Doctor Who) co-created a reboot of Sherlock Holmes set in the modern day. 

Clever, funny, and smart, this reboot ran for four series, each consisting of three episodes which are much more like feature films than television episodes in length, production values, and ambition. Like the Conan Doyle stories, each episode is a standalone story—often a modern-day update of an original Sherlock Holmes short story. Recurring characters develop over time, and maybe it all gets a little too much like a soap opera by the final episode. But the overall result is the product of two great storytellers pushing each other to create fun and satisfying television.

For my tastes, the series hits its high-water mark in series two. It was a little too self-aware and too much of a cultural phenomenon by series four to say anything fundamentally new. But there are no bad episodes here. They just range from great to phenomenal.

Duck Soup (1933)

Growing up in Chicagoland, Christmas Eve always meant that It's a Wonderful Life would be shown on the public television station, WTTW. Reverent and pious, the Jimmy Stewart/Donna Reed film reminded us that "No man is a failure who has friends." New Year's Eve, however, meant watching the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup, a non-stop, raucous poke-in-the-eye to the establishment, governments, high society, and just about anyone else whose sanctimonious indignation has ever gotten in the way of a good time. Upstart?!

Duck Soup is pre-code Hollywood at its best. So what if there's a bit of innuendo here ("I could dance with you 'til the cows come home. On second thought, I'd rather dance with the cows 'til you came home.") or a Raquel Torres nip-slip there? We're all just having a good time. One of my favorite gags involves Harpo as Paul Revere, a Minuteman's wife, and a horse.

Watching Duck Soup now, it's not difficult to understand why the 1960s counter-culture embraced the all-but-forgotten Marx Brothers. Pompousness is timeless, which explains why there's always a need for jesters and fools. And the zeal with which the brothers skewer every aspect of polite society can truly lighten your heart—especially in the darkest of times.

Heavy Trip (2018)

This is basically a Finnish, heavy metal version of The Blues Brothers. I laughed out loud. You will laugh out loud. If you know any heavy metal band guys, you'll laugh out loud even louder.

Follow the trials and tribulations of small-town Finnish heavy metal band, Impaled Rektum, while they try to play the biggest heavy metal festival in Norway. This film is small, and funny, and sweet, and witty... oh, and Sätän!

1959: The Year that Changed Jazz

This BBC Four documentary examines four jazz albums released in 1959, Miles Davis's Kind of Blue, Dave Brubeck's Time Out, Charles Mingus's Mingus Ah Um, and Ornette Coleman's The Shape of Jazz to Come. Honestly, I can take or leave the latter two records, but the reverence that Davis' and Brubeck's albums receive here genuinely allows you to better understand the records.

This is just the coolest music ever made.

Logorama (2009)

Winner of the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, Logorama is just 16 minutes long. Even though it's animated, it's not for kids.

Just trust me and watch it. 

Nathan Barley

Charlie Brooker (Black Mirror, Dead Set) and Chris Morris (The IT Crowd, Brass Eye) wrote this six-part sitcom focusing on "the rise of the idiots" who sit at the intersection of technology, fashion, and media. While this series was produced in 2005, you know these kinds of idiots today as the hipsters who try to mow you down while riding their Lime scooters on crowded sidewalks. It seems that every age has its quota of idiots.

The show stars Julian Barratt (The Mighty Boosh) and features Richard Ayowade (The IT Crowd, The Mighty Boosh), Noel Fielding (The Mighty Boosh), and includes a small role for then-unknown Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock, Doctor Strange).

This is funny, dark stuff. Exactly what you'd expect from the minds of Brooker & Morris.

Keith Jarrett - The Köln Concert (1975)

The best-selling piano album of all time is a live recording of an improvisational solo piano performance by Keith Jarrett in Cologne, Germany on January 24, 1975. In a concert organized by 17-year-old Vera Brandes, Jarrett took the stage of the Opera House in Cologne at the unusually late hour of 11:30pm, after the regularly scheduled opera had finished.

Jarrett, exhausted from travel and excruciating back pain which had kept him awake for several previous nights, arrived at the venue to find the wrong piano. Instead of the concert grand piano which he had specified, a baby grand piano used for opera rehearsals had been delivered. The piano was of inferior tone and timbre, and the sustain pedals were malfunctioning.

Performing in a back brace, Jarrett adjusted his style to fit the qualities of the piano. You can Google around for more musically learned descriptions of what transpired next—it is truly the stuff of legends. ECM Records recorded the concert and released it that year. 

The Köln Concert has has sold more than four million copies to date.