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Grayson Perry's Big American Road Trip (UK)

Grayson Perry is an English artist, and his Big American Road Trip is a three episode documentary filmed in 2019 where he traveled to a few locations in the US (Atlanta, the East Coast & Wisconsin) to examine the issues of race and class in the United States. The documentary was broadcast on UK's Channel 4 in September 2020.

He comes to the subjects from a different perspective than domestic examinations of the subjects. And while the people he chooses to interview may be a bit more extreme (in every direction) than "average" Americans, he does bring up some compelling questions about these issues which are tearing our country apart.

If art is about making you see the world differently and ask new questions, then this is definitely art.

The Goes Wrong Show (UK)

The Mischief Theatre is a British theater company which has put on several successful West End productions in the last decade. After two successful BBC television specials, Peter Pan Goes Wrong (2016) and A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong (2017), they have begun a six episode half hour weekly show on BBC One simply called The Goes Wrong Show.

In their plays the actual actors (Mischief Theatre) play amateur actors from the fictitious Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society. These actors in turn play roles in generally dreadful adaptations of famous famous plays in various genres. As the title would suggest, many things go wrong each week.

Each episode starts fairly slowly as the stage is set. But once things really start rolling, foul ups and mistakes build in a way that's reminiscent of the best Fawlty Towers scripts. The Goes Wrong Show owes much to both Fawlty Towers and SCTV, and it easily hold its own among those giants. It's just that funny.

Viewings pair well with large, boisterous groups and a couple rounds of drinks. My son has accurately stated that, "it's funnier with friends," which is indeed is true.

My Favorite Shapes by Julio Torres (US)

Saturday Night Live writer and co-creator of Los Espookys, Julio Torres, has an HBO special where bric-a-brac is delivered to him via a conveyor belt that he controls with a foot pedal. Torres then gives you the back story, the hidden secrets, and the drama behind each object. Sometimes these objects have interior monologues which are voiced by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. Also, Torres is dressed as some sort of gay alien, and apparently he has the ability to teleport around the stage.

There are exactly two kinds of responses to this comedy special. There are those who will enjoy it precisely because they are unable to fully understand it. And then there are those who will hate it precisely because they are unable to fully understand it. Which are you?

Los Espookys (US)

I don't remember who recommended Los Espookys to me. But if you're reading this, Thank You! This new HBO comedy series is delightfully off kilter in a relaxed kind of way. It's mostly in Spanish with English subtitles, except for the English parts, which have Spanish subtitles.

Los Espookys is, I don't know, Latin American millennial Scooby-Doo? Except the kids in the Mystery Machine are now the ones creating the deception rather than solving it, because millennials. Los Espookys works on its own logic. And to attempt to describe it further would just be excruciatingly boring -- like that office coworker who insists on telling you all about their dreams. The bottom-line is that Los Espookys is refreshing and different and fun. And highly recommended.

This Way Up (UK)

This Way Up is a six-episode series staring Aisling Bea and Sharon Horgan (Catastrophe). It would be unkind to call this "Irish Fleabag," but it does work in the same dramedy genre. Kinder and less biting that Fleabag, This Way Up finds its footing in the relationships between characters. I am struck by just how thin the plots are, and how much emotional depth can be found in the day-to-day goings on of two Irish sisters living in London. It's kind of like real life, that way.

Bea and Horgan have a sisterly chemistry that is wonderful to watch. And they are both genuinely funny, entertaining people. This Way Up is definitely worth you time.

Years and Years (UK)

This is a new show from Russell T. Davies (Casanova, Doctor Who, The Second Coming) that, as of this writing, has just completed its six-episode run on BBC One and is just about to be broadcast on HBO in America. 

Davies creates shows which are both deeply engaging and quirkily English. And with Years and Years he has created an ensemble drama that follows an extended family through the technological, social, and political changes coming in the next 15 years. Part Black Mirror, part The Day After, and part Eastenders, this show poignant, funny, and always very British. It reminds me quite a bit of the 1984 post-atomic war drama, Threads.

I've only watched the first of the six episodes, so far, and I'm hooked. Davies deftly creates well-formed, real characters that we can relate to, and then casts them into the world identify politics and populism. The result is a fuller picture of the motivations and attractions of our current political landscape. This can be dark stuff, but nothing as dark as the first season of Black Mirror, so far.

Fleabag (UK)

Series two of Fleabag just finished airing in the UK. So the caveat here is that I've only watched series one so far. But I love it.

I hesitate to call this a comedy. It is funny and vulgar and moving and at times deeply disturbing. And it is absolutely riveting television. How have I survived this long without knowing about the work of Fleabag's creator and star, Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Killing Eve, Crashing)? 

And since I'm already recommending a television show that I haven't finished watching, I'll also recommend an article about it that I haven't finished reading. The Guardian's culture writers have compiled a list of what to read, watch, and listen to after you have finished watching Fleabag. Liz Phair is counted among the cultural touchstones that vibrate on a resonant frequency with Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and for good reason. Phair's profane debut album, Exile in Guyville, struts with the same raw emotional honesty as Fleabag.

Fleabag covers difficult, intimate material without sugar coating or pulling punches. It's always funny and never cringey. But I will need a few more days to recover before I start series two.

Update: I've finished series two, and it stunning. I never binge-watch shows, but I binged-watched this one because the episodes flowed together so seamlessly. It's more like a play than a TV show. The complexity, intelligence, and emotional depth of the characters really comes through in the second series. These are interesting people doing interesting things. It's a year later, and Fleabag has matured.

There is a wonderful bit of criticism of series two over at FilmSchoolRejects.com, but please watch series two first, as article this necessarily discusses many of the plot twists.

Summer of Rockets (UK)

I have been describing this six-part BBC Two drama as a "six and a half hour documentary about the creation of the pager," which isn't completely facetious. Set in England of 1958 when the cold war was beginning to heat up, Stephen Poliakoff's drama centers on the family of Samuel Petrukhin, a Russian jew in England who owns an electronics business that builds high quality hearing aids for high-profile clients such as Winston Churchill. 

This is a gripping story that builds tension and suspense around sometimes trivial and absurd plot twists. Sometimes it feels like a staid BBC drama and at other times it feels like a Monty Python sendup of a staid BBC Drama. But at the end of the day, it is well-written, well-directed, and well-acted. Which translates into the fastest six and a half hours of television that I can remember watching.

Cast standouts include the always wonderful Keeley Hawes (Spooks (MI-5 in the US), Ashes to Ashes),Lily Sacofsky (who I've never seen before, but I'll be watching out for), and the always entertaining Mark Bonnar (Castastrophe).

So take a chance on this one, really. 

I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson (US)

This is a Netflix sketch comedy show with recurring situations, much like That Mitchell and Webb Look. The brilliance of this show is that just when you think you understand the premise of a sketch, they amp it up and change direction. Honestly, I think they missed the boat by not calling this show "Well That Escalated Quickly."

Still, this is genuinely funny stuff. And I can think of no higher praise than to say, "This is the stuff that memes are made of."

Ghosts (UK)

Ghosts is a new comedy series currently airing on BBC One. The premise, which is established in episode one (no spoilers), is that a modern couple inherit a dilapidated English manor house that happens to be haunted by some previous inhabitants.

This is silly, light-hearted fare that's appropriate for the whole family. But it is so incredibly well done that it appears effortless. Give it two episodes to really get rolling. Then it is laugh-out-loud funny, especially on repeated watchings. Highly recommended.