Three recs, jet lag edition
A different kind of gangster TV series, a book about games, a podcast about the strike(s)
Friends, I am jet-lagged this week and it is objectively awful. My brain functions for about half the hours of a normal week, and even during those I still feel like a zombie. Getting to travel is worth it, but every so often it does make me wonder what it must have been like to travel across time zones a bit more slowly.
Sure, you’d have to be gone longer – you couldn’t just pop over somewhere for a long weekend – but then the travel would be an experience in and of itself. I know I’m not alone in slightly glamorizing long train and ocean liner journeys – it’s easily done when those experiences are now lost to us. A few days of being thrown together in society with people whom you’d never otherwise encounter, and whom you might never see again.
In those cases, your travel limbo isn’t just the length of a flight – a relatively brief time to be endured. Rather, it’s an extended liminal space that you actually have to – get to? – live. If it’s days of your life rather than hours, ideally you’d be able to do more with that time than simply get through it.
Maybe this is also why I like making friends on flights. A callback to those temporary travel encounters. It’s strange how we now usually ignore each other in transit, as if we’re not all going through the same experience together. But then, I suppose that having other people acknowledge the experience makes it more real – and what is more humiliating (and thus ideally forgotten) than being a human experiencing commercial economy air travel?
Anyway, as I said, I’m a zombie. On to the recs!
Rec 1
The Offer (TV)
Despite my complaints about commercial air travel, there is one distinct benefit: free TV. In this case, my flights to/from/around the US had a bunch of shows from Paramount+, a streaming service that I cannot bring myself to add to my pantheon of streaming subscriptions, despite its great shows. Which meant that I finally had the good fortune of getting to watch this 10-episode limited series from last year that people keep recommending to me.
This scripted series is essentially the story of the making of The Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola’s iconic cinematic masterpiece. Apparently it’s based on the experiences of the producer, Al Ruddy – the last person to win a Best Picture Oscar as a solo producer (for The Godfather, naturally). That said, I’m pretty sure it’s not all true – but, honestly, I don’t care, because it’s a great story and really good time.
This being The Godfather, you naturally get plenty of mafiosos – and, perhaps surprisingly, they’re not always fans of the film. You get some killer 1970s sets, costumes, and music. You get some very entertaining and timely storylines where the (non-creative) studio execs are the villains. But what really spoke to me about The Offer is how it’s about the desire to tell a story and the lengths one might go to for that. And it’s about how creativity is fundamentally collaborative – no one, even in less collaborative mediums, can create alone. Sure, it’s a bit inside-baseball (you’ll learn a lot about the film industry if you don’t already know!), but I do think it will speak to anyone who’s ever cared about stories.
One final thing: I can’t wrap this up without shouting out Matthew Goode, who gives what may be a career-best performance as Paramount studio head Robert Evans. He’s utterly magnetic, and loads of fun. This is a stacked cast – Miles Teller, Juno Temple, Burn Gorman, the list goes on – but Goode steals every single scene he’s in. Fortunately for us, he’s in a lot of scenes.
Where: Paramount+ (sorry), or a free trial through Amazon
Rec 2
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (book)
Look at me catching up on all these hits from last year! This is one of those books that everyone’s been recommending to me pretty much since the moment it came out – literally, two people have recommended it in the last week alone, while I had it out from the library. Several of you have even recommended it! I’m pleased to say that you were all correct.
On paper (lol), this is a story about the relationship between two childhood friends and lifelong gamers who, together, become renowned computer and video game creators. Despite the appealingly Shakespearean title, if that was all I’d known, I probably wouldn’t have read it – I have a lot of respect for games as a storytelling medium, but have never gotten into them.
So, good thing the book is about way more than that. It is (naturally) about storytelling and creativity, and how creating with someone is one of the most intimate, vulnerable things you can do. It’s about why we love stories and how they are both escapism and the truest manifestation of reality. It’s about growing up and pain, the randomness of life and the stupid mistakes we make, and how hard it is to ever really know someone else. It’s got enough Shakespearean and literary references to keep this book nerd happy, and it’s honestly made me far more interested in gaming than I ever have been. (Oregon Trail references will do that, I guess!)
Where: Reserve it at your library or order from your non-Amazon bookseller of choice (like Bookshop US or Bookshop UK).*
*(In the name of full transparency, I’ve included affiliate links to Bookshop.org – if you’re going to order from them anyway, please use my link so I can make a little extra cash! If you want to see/order any/all of my book recs, I’ve made lists on Bookshop, too: US version, UK version.)
Rec 3
Strike Talk (podcast)
As you should all know by now, I don’t usually rec interview or talk-y podcasts. In the name of giving you stories, I usually go for scripted ones, whether fiction or nonfiction. However, because somehow the AMPTP still appears to not be negotiating in good faith with the WGA and SAG-AFTRA after more than 100 days, I thought I’d share with you guys one of my favorite podcasts for getting info on the strike and the issues around it.
Somehow, Strike Talk is sponsored by Deadline, the famously infuriating Hollywood news outlet – but they’ve got one of the most experienced and thoughtful American screenwriters doing it, so I guess they’re doing something right. Billy Ray has been working in the industry for more than 30 years (you may know him from The Hunger Games and Captain Phillips), which means he not only knows the industry inside and out, but he also knows people doing every job within it.
He starts each episode with a little history, politics, or other relevant background to the issues of the week. Then, he dives into interviews with everyone from union leaders, academics, and congresspeople to independent producers, actors, and showrunners. He even interviews AI! I don’t necessarily agree with all of his perspectives, but I certainly leave each episode significantly more informed. And I appreciate that he does an excellent job showing how these strikes are about so much more than the entertainment industry – they’re about the future of our society, and the roots go back a long time.
As of now, there are 17 episodes, all about 40 minutes long. You could definitely pick and choose the ones that sound interesting, or you could listen to them sped up while cleaning your house this weekend and blast through quickly.
Where: Your podcast-listening app of choice (I use Apple)
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
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