Three recs, series finale edition
A historical feminist TV series, a historical feminist novel, a football comedy series
Happy Friday, friends!
Three of my favorite shows of recent years ended this week, so the emotional roller coaster continues. Lots of tears and feels. And I haven’t even gotten to season 2 of Barry yet!
I already wrote about Succession, so I won’t get into it again too much, but suffice it to say that they stuck the landing. I read an interesting piece by Lucy Prebble (one of the brilliant Succession writers), wherein she talks about mourning all the different Successions they could have made.
I’ve been thinking about that a lot the last few days. Even the creators imagined different versions of the show. So often when we read or watch something really good, we think how inevitable it feels, how they really delivered on the promises set up at the beginning. Even when screenwriters pitch TV shows these days, we’re often expected to know the ending before we’ve even written the story, as if there is one right answer to it all.
But it’s bullshit. There is no right answer, no inevitable ending. As a writer, you can have a thematic idea that should keep you on track, but you’re going to face a lot of decisions along the way that might land you somewhere else. In some cases, you can even reverse engineer your beginning based on a good ending – but long-running TV shows or book series don’t have that luxury. They’re stuck with the beginning that’s already out in the world, even as their choices have taken the characters further from that.
To me – and I think to a lot of other people – the Succession ending felt right. It delivered on the promise that this was a show about a family broken by unfettered billionaire capitalism. But maybe you read the ending differently. Or maybe you wanted more of a boardroom drama, or something less realistic (see also: when everyone thought Kendall had drowned in s3), or you had a different idea about what “winning” means in the context of this series’ world.
I suspect that the show’s writers imagined all those versions of the show, too.
A quick piece of admin!
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Rec 1
The Marvelous Mrs Maisel (TV)
And for our second series finale of the week…
If you follow me on Insta, you may remember me saying I did not want to love this show when I first watched it. It won a bunch of Emmys in a year I thought other shows that I had already watched deserved recognition. As much as I loved Gilmore Girls, I just wasn’t sure that kind of bright, snappy melodrama was right for this moment in time. It also just looked a bit kitschy and self-satisfied.
And then I watched it and I don’t know what to tell you other than that it won me over and then some. It’s hard to make a show about a stand-up comedian that’s actually funny, but this show made me laugh out loud every episode. The actors are so incredibly impressive, the costumes and sets are gorgeous, it’s smarter and sharper and more realistic than I anticipated, it’s got my favorite will-they-won’t-they in years, it explores ambition and feminism (without ever saying the word) in fascinating and unexpected ways, and it tugs on your heartstrings without getting bogged down in melodrama. It’s the kind of show that’s just so much fun to watch.
This final season went strong. I felt s3 was a bit more up and down, but s4 mixed things up in a big swing sort of way. While I always love a show that takes big swings, whether or not they work, these almost all paid off. I especially appreciated all the things they decided we didn’t need to know. And yes, of course, I cried.
Bonus: Any other Hacks fans out there want to join me in imagining an alt universe where Midge and Deborah are frenemies in the 1970s/80s?
Bonus bonus: Watching this right after Succession meant I noticed some hilarious crossover casting. Hit me if you want to discuss.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime (only 4 10-ep seasons!)
Rec 2
Great Circle (book)
A vivid, epic tale about a pioneering woman aviator (aviatrix!) in the early/mid 20th century who disappears while trying to circumnavigate the globe. Intercut with the story of the disgraced contemporary starlet who’s been cast to play her in a biopic.
This was essentially how a friend who knows my tastes (and subscribes to this newsletter!) pitched me this book by Maggie Shipstead. Sounds like it was written for me, right? I thought so, too. Which then, naturally, induced an anxiety that it might not live up to that expectation.
I needn’t have worried. Shipstead is a skilled storyteller, and this was one of those rare books that’s quite long (just over 600 pages) and yet I still dreaded ending. There were a lot of surprises – in so many ways, it didn’t go the way I would have expected based on the setup. At first I wasn’t on board with the contemporary storyline – I love me some historical literary fiction – but it paid off beautifully. I subsequently read an interview with Shipstead where she talked about how she felt the book needed something sharp and a bit off-kilter to make it really feel whole, and that was where the contemporary storyline came from; that somehow makes sense to me.
Great Circle is about women who want things in a world that doesn’t always want to give it to them – and wants to take other things in the process. But it’s also about the past and what we remember – and what we lose – and the process of mythologizing, as people and stories no longer belong to themselves. It’s an evocative, immersive read, and the only book that has ever prompted me to reach out to the author, cold, to tell her how much I loved it.
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
Ted Lasso (TV)
Look, I’ve never recced this before because I assumed that you didn’t need me to. And I probably still don’t – most likely, all of you who wanted to watch Apple TV+’s biggest show already have. But it finished this week (3rd finale!) and I cried through the last 10 mins (they cheated with that song!), so I’m going to eulogize it real fast.
Ted Lasso started out as a joke. Seriously, the character is IP from a commercial. The first season was an earnest, heart-warming half-hour comedy that was exactly what we all needed during peak covid. It even won over my cynical British husband who thought the trailers looked trite and dumb, and was highly skeptical of an American show about UK football. It was kind and funny, but had an edge to it that kept it from being saccharine.
Because it was so successful that first season, the show had the runway to evolve. I’m not going to lie, the second season was up and down for me, and I don’t think everything it tried landed. But I love a show that tries new things, that doesn’t just rest on its laurels and repeat ad nauseam its successful formula until it’s ruined everything you once loved.
By season 3, it had become a one-hour comedy-drama about mental health and how hard it is to work on yourself as a person. It also had a lot more football (soccer) to it, which I personally liked. Honestly, I’ve seen a lot of reviews hating on this season, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn’t expect it to be earth-shattering, but I did expect it to be heart-warming and hopeful and entertaining, and it was always that. To hearken back to what I said about Succession up top, I’m not sure if the way it evolved was the inevitable ending – I think all the people who didn’t like this season felt like they’d started out watching a different show – but it felt right to me.
If you watched: What did you think?
Where to watch: Apple TV+
That’s all for issue 6! 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?
the way I cried throughout Ted Lasso..