Three recs, festive binge edition
An OTT spy romp, that show about the Troubles, the warmest-hearted comedy series
Somehow, it’s our last issue of the year. Time, man.
Fortunately, I’ve actually read and watched a lot of late, so I’m ready to set you up with some recs for your time off (I hope!) the next couple weeks. Since they get a bit long – I’m quite enthusiastic, what can I say – I’ll keep this bit short.
But I do want to thank you all for coming along for the ride this year. I write this newsletter for myself as much as anything – I like talking about what I’m reading/watching/listening to – but it makes it all the more rewarding to know that some people I know and a bunch of people I don’t are out there expecting my recs in their inboxes every other week. Every time you reach out or comment or even just like an issue, I appreciate it more than I can express.
So much of my work feels like I’m shouting into the void. Like most screenwriters, I don’t have much to show publicly for the sheer volume of words I write. So, it’s nice to have something that, at the very least, a few hundred people get to enjoy. Thanks for being those people.
And now, onto the recs!
Rec 1
Black Doves (TV)
When this Ben Whishaw and Keira Knightley spy series from Giri/Haji writer/creator Joe Barton was announced at the beginning of the year, my reaction was actual anger. Okay, maybe not actual anger, but definitely frustration. See, Whishaw and Knightley have long been two of my faves (for the root of my love of Ben Whishaw, I refer you to The Hour, as well as his turns in the Brideshead Revisited remake and as Keats in Bright Star) and spy shows are sort of my bread and butter. So, basically, despite the fact that, unlike Barton, I am not an internationally celebrated screenwriter, it felt like he’d gotten to make the show I wanted to make.
It’s fine. I’m fine about it. Everything is fine.
Since I had the dubious luck of getting a stomach bug two days after the Netflix show dropped, I naturally binged it while lying on the couch feeling sorry for myself. Perhaps it was good luck, really – I haven’t had a full day to watch TV in ages.
Anyway, turned out, Black Doves was exactly what I needed. It’s a ridiculous, over-the-top romp of a spy thriller, with cartoonish violence and only the thinnest grounding in reality. Someone else called it the best possible version of Netflix’s “gourmet cheeseburger” and I couldn’t agree more – don’t come looking for substance or meaning, do come looking for a good time if you, like me, enjoy a twisty, fun espionage story that’s elevated by its excellent cast and clever banter.
I mean, come on, Ben Whishaw as an elder Millennial gay Hackney hipster assassin? I’m now wondering if every Toast-clad man I see at the coffee shop is moonlight killing international criminals. Knightley is the best she’s been in years as the cynical operative in deep cover as the wife of a (way too principled to be a real) Tory politician. And I’ll never be disappointed to see Sarah Lancashire on screen, though I hope they do more with her character next season (yes, there will be a next season). Ella Lily Hyland as a snarky Gen Z queer Hackney hipster assassin (hey, gotta represent) is definitely my breakout fave, too.
Oh, and I almost forget: The whole thing is set at Christmas. So it definitely counts as a Christmas watch. Just like Die Hard.
Where: Netflix
Rec 2
Say Nothing (TV)
Remember when I recced Say Nothing the book a few months back? The brilliant, award-winning Patrick Radden Keefe book about the 1972 murder of Jean McConville and the experiences of a cadre of IRA members in Northern Ireland at the same time. Well, I’m delighted to now get to rec the scripted series. But it comes with the caveat: If you’re going to watch this, you have to promise me you’re going to read (or audiobook) the book, too.
The series is inherently a different beast from the book, of course. The book is nonfiction, the series is not. Sure, Keefe’s writing often reads like a thriller, but he never veers from the truth – or his subjects’ versions of it. About the series – on which he was a hands-on executive producer but not a writer – he’s said that he felt his job was to make sure everything on the screen felt like it could have happened, and was true to the characters as he knew them. But a fictionalized TV show’s job is not to tell facts, but rather to entertain, so if you’re looking to really understand the history, allow me to refer you to the book.
Now that that’s out of the way… The series is also excellent. Watching actors portray these people brought home for me – in a way the book couldn’t – just how young IRA volunteers like the Price sisters, Gerry Adams, and Brendan Hughes were, and how their activity fits into the 1970s wave of youth radicalization. Similarly, seeing actors portray the McConvilles conveyed the reality of being a mother of ten in a city undergoing a civil war. Watching a bomb go off (though I presume it was CGI) on a London street I’ve walked down couldn’t help but be more impactful than reading it on the page. Seeing actors grapple with their characters’ consciences and trauma adds layers of nuance that an investigative journalist bound to the stated facts can only hint at.
For me, though, where the series succeeded most of all was in its ability to depict the way we change as we age. The way the experiences of our youth shape us, and how we can never escape them, for better or worse.
Spoiler alert, I suppose, but it does this most effectively by, in the last few episodes, using the later timeline to call into question everything we’ve seen before. Just like in the book, we know all along that we’re seeing the past through a few characters’ eyes. But it’s not until we understand the context behind them telling the stories that we start to realize they’re editorializing. The so-called truth we’re watching is the truth they’re telling themselves so that they can live with their pasts – and they are not neutral. Everyone has their own agenda, to the bitter end. That the show manages to pull this off is, in my book, a stunning coup.
There’s so much more to Say Nothing – powerful performances, gorgeous cinematography, its dialogue with reality, and plenty more themes to meditate on – and I’d honestly be happy to talk about it for hours. (Hit me up or comment below if you want to!) It’s not a light, easy watch, but it’s magnetic and captivating. I couldn’t look away.
Where: FX/Hulu/Disney+
Rec 3
A Man on the Inside (TV)
If what you really want on your holiday TV agenda is something warm and cozy that’s going to make you smile and laugh and maybe tear up just a bit, have I got the show for you.
The latest series from Michael Schur – of Parks and Rec, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Good Place, and practically all your fave sitcoms of the last 15 years – this sitcom-ish Netflix show stars Ted Danson as a retired (and recently widowed) professor who goes undercover at a San Francisco retirement home to help solve a crime. I know, right? It’s based on a true story and is just as delightful as it sounds.
Naturally, Ted Danson’s character is lonely and seeking purpose, which he finds through both his new job and the vibrant community he’s suddenly immersed in. The place is packed with some of your fave character actors, all clearly having a blast. His relationships with his daughter, his private investigator boss, and the director of the retirement home – all women in their 30s and 40s – are both complicated and fun to watch. Yes, it forces us (and the characters, tbh) to look both aging and death in the face, in such a heartfelt, honest way that I can’t help but think it’s good for us as a society.
I recently heard a critique of Schur’s work that he tends toward the optimistic, always steering into the best in people. In this cynical day and age, I struggle to see that as a negative. I can find pain and horror and hate in the news; it’s nice to have some entertainment that believes in humanity.
Bonus: This is definitely one you can watch with your extended families, parents, in-laws, and whoever else you’re hanging out with this holiday season.
Where: Netflix
That’s all for this week! What are you reading/watching/listening to that I should be aware of? Drop me a line (or comment) to let me know if you check out any of my recs and what you think.
Please spread the word and I’ll see you in a couple weeks.
xo
Kate
Did someone share this with you?
Man on the inside was so warm and fuzzy! I wasn’t sure from the pilot and then really fell for it after that
Ooooohhh la la! All going on my must see list. Thank you, Kate, for once again providing the perfect answer to “what shall we watch / read next?”