Three recs, missing key edition
Not your average spy show, an elder-Millennial-girl comedy, a historical trial novel
So, astute followers will notice that you were supposed to get an issue in your inboxes last Friday. I hope I didn’t throw off your watching/reading/listening habits too much.
You see, my E key stopped working.
I know, sounds insane. But my computer’s keyboard has been slowly kicking the bucket for a while now, and I’ve been figuring out ways around it. And then, in the middle of last week, the E decided its time was up. I’m pretty sure that E is the most common letter in the English language. It turns out you cannot write without it.
Which means that I wrote all of my work for the second half of last week on my phone. All 13,600 words or so. Could have been more, I’m not really sure.
Something had to give, and I’m afraid it was this newsletter.
It’s funny, because I’ve had this idea kicking around in my head for ages about how we’re so tied to our technological devices that it feels a bit like losing a limb when one of them just stops working. Our devices become extensions of ourselves. And when they die, we lose something. We can tell ourselves that it’s just planned obsolescence, but don’t we have as humans have planned obsolescence, too? Not to get too morbid about it, sorry.
A few years ago, I cleaned out my storage unit in New York and got rid of a few old computers that I’d been holding onto for years.
I’d thought it was because I hadn’t had time to back them up before I left, but it turned out that Past Kate actually had backed them up. She hadn’t wiped them, though, and I have a feeling it was sort of intentional. Those laptops had seen me through a lot. I had done a lot of work on them, written things I was proud of on them, lugged them across the country and around the world. They were inanimate objects, but they were also part of me.
And letting go of them was simultaneously sad and liberating. Which was akin to realizing that my current trusty computer was finally on its way out. I didn’t want to say goodbye – and so I pushed it until I finally had no choice.
Which is a very long-winded way of saying that I now have a working keyboard, and so you get some fun recs to send you into your weekend.
Let’s dive in…
Rec 1
Mr & Mrs Smith (TV)
When I first heard that the delightful 2005 film starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as married rival assassins/spies was going to be remade for Amazon, I was annoyed. It felt like the epitome of the remake/IP craze: no one had asked for this, it didn’t feel like the story needed expanding, there are so many great original stories that could take this space instead, etc. Sometimes, a fun film can just be a fun film.
When it was announced that Donald Glover and Phoebe Waller Bridge were going to write and star in it, I decided to reserve judgement. They’re smart, funny creators, so I should at least give them a shot. But I still wasn’t sure what the point of making this would be.
And then PWB dropped out and they cast Maya Erskine (most famously of the excellent PEN15) opposite Glover, and I became more intrigued. Both Glover and Erskine are weird and charismatic actors, and seeing them together on screen felt unexpectedly right.
And then I finally got to watch it. My high-level take: This show isn’t at all what I expected, and that’s a really good thing. Whereas the movie was an action-adventure spy caper hung on a loose romcom framework, the show is an exploration of a relationship masquerading as an episodic spy thriller. It might even share more of its DNA with The Americans (a show about marriage) than it does with the film it takes its name from.
Of course, it has all the fun espionage stuff, and I especially appreciated the case-of-the-week structure. Erskine and Glover are, predictably, a delight to watch together. The locations and cinematography are stunning, and, oh my god, the interior design. The guest stars are exceptional – Sharon Horgan, Paul Dano, Parker Posey, Michaela Cole, the list goes on.
I have heard from a few people that they didn’t love the ending, which is something I’m going to get into a bit in rec 3. I thought the ending worked really well, but it did make me wonder about the promise of the show, and I’ll be curious to hear from you guys how you feel about it.
Where: Amazon Prime
Rec 2
Girls5eva (TV)
Longtime Insta followers will remember me reccing the first season of this absolutely delightful NBC/Peacock show a couple years back, when it first came out. But it’s just moved over to Netflix and dropped s3, so I’m bringing it back around – even though I haven’t watched the new season yet. S3 might not be as fun – or it might be even better – I have no idea. But I recommend s1 enough that it’s worth the re-up.
The setup: Sara Bareilles (Waitress, her own musical career), Renée Elise Goldsberry (Hamilton, The Good Wife), Busy Philipps (the internet, idk?), and Paula Pell (SNL) play four women who were a one-hit-wonder girl group back in the early 2000s TRL era. Now, they’re a bunch of definitely-not-that-rich-and-famous women who, for reasons, decide to get back together and try to mount a comeback.
Since it was created by Meredith Scardino, who came up on SNL and in the Tina Fey/Robert Carlock school of television, the series has that same sharp, hilarious, self-mocking vibe – but also warmth and heart – as shows like 30 Rock and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Which is absolutely perfect for the story and characters. The early 2000s, D-list celebs, social media, and the music industry are rife with opportunities for loving mockery. And, as in those other shows, the leads are so likable that you’re always having a good time.
Of course, I am basically the target audience for this show. I was a teen in the early 2000s and grew up on this kind of pop group. I’m a woman over 35 in this cultural moment, and dealing with everything that means. And I love a fun, half-hour comedy (that happens to have catchy tunes – big ups to my faves Bareilles and Goldsberry for carrying the musical side of things) that I can binge on a weekend when my husband is out of town.
P.S. Can’t wait for you all to join me in enjoying this one-off gig they did this week to promote the new season.
Where: Netflix
Rec 3
The Fraud (book)
I actually read Zadie Smith’s latest (and her first historically set) novel back in the summer/fall, and I’ve been wondering about whether or not to recommend it ever since. Here’s my quandary:
I thoroughly enjoyed it. As we should all know by now, Smith is a brilliant writer. Her use of language is masterful, her depiction of characters and their internal lives is nuanced and powerful, and her ability to weave a story together is exceptionally clever. There’s a reason she’s considered one of our great contemporary scribes, and the experience of reading one of her novels is, predictably, an immersive joy.
Getting to see her tackle a fascinating real-life historical event is also a pleasure. The event in question is a Victorian-era trial of a man who claimed to be the long-lost heir to an aristocratic family. Those suing him claimed he was a Cockney butcher who’d stolen the dead nobleman’s identity. It was the trial of the century in the UK, and everyone had an opinion.
I especially loved seeing how Smith interweaves the trial and its personalities into the lives of ordinary people – especially her protagonist, a single older woman who keeps house for her failed writer cousin. By the end, I was nearly as invested in the debate as the characters, and felt the echoes of celebrity and social media-style news conversations. The past is never past, and all that. If literature is about the human condition, Smith is a master of it.
All of this said, I didn’t feel she stuck the landing. Which feels like a terribly presumptuous thing to say, but I guess we’re here for criticism of a sort. It wasn’t a bad ending, it just didn’t quite work for me. And that led me to spend the last six months or so wondering if I could confidently recommend it to you guys. Because an ending is important, right? There are some books/movies/shows/etc that can be ruined by a bad ending. And others that can be made by a good one. I have actively rescinded recommendations to friends once I finished a book and felt the ending ruined it.
In the case of The Fraud, I’ve ultimately decided that the ending didn’t ruin the excellent experience of the rest of the book. It just left me feeling a bit unfulfilled. But the rest of it has continued to sit with me, in ways I still appreciate, and I think that makes it worth it. As ever, I’ll be curious to hear if you feel differently.
Where: Borrow it for free from your local library, or buy it from your non-Amazon bookseller of choice. (Here’s the Bookshop US link, and here’s the Bookshop UK link.)*
*(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.)
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?
As always, you convince me to go watch something I've been on the fence about!