Obviously, we wouldn’t be here without our community of readers and subscribers, so we want to include you on the recommendations that our team loves trading with each other. Let’s get right to it.
From executive director Neil Bardhan:
I leaned into comfortable shows this year but also discovered I get a thrill from a particular subgenre of British thriller, a mix of espionage and underdog protagonist squads. Slow Horses and Down Cemetery Road had me on the edge of my couch this fall. They each come from a separate book series by Mick Herron. Both shows have witty dialogue that had me barking laughing paired with horrific crime and despicable malfeasance by public servants. I'm eager for both to have new seasons available. Speaking of British thrills, I've found unspeakable joy and wonder with every episode of Taskmaster I've seen. For the uninitiated, it's a panel show that's intent on being funny through wacky mental and physical challenges endured by a set of comedians. The ways that the comedians roast each other and also navigate absurd instructions? Top tier. I have one YouTube channel recommendation: Miles In Transit. Miles is a public transportation enthusiast, to put it mildly, and he creates well-researched, beautifully shot, videos of explorations around the country. He's a Penn grad and you can find love notes to the Philly area throughout his works. My final recommendation is a stand-up special that's cozy and whip-smart simultaneously, Positive Reinforcement from Boston's Josh Gondelman, available on YouTube. He's an incredibly thoughtful writer and the special hits all the comedic notes it needs to.
From editor-in-chief Alaina Johns:
Out of all the recommendations I make at year’s end, movies and TV are the hardest, because these don’t usually sink in for me like other forms of media. I’ve lost count of the entertaining but forgettable TV thrillers I’ve streamed this year while trying to distract myself from real-world stress (Zero Day, The Beast in Me, Wayward), none of which I particularly recommend. But I’ll dig in and offer my picks.
Sinners was my favorite movie of the year (it’s now streaming on HBO Max). I love its slow-burn beginning, the double dose of Michael B. Jordan, its scares, its allegory, and its music. Honorable mention goes to 28 Years Later (now streaming on Netflix), which trades the grainy kinetics of its scrappy 2002 original for stylish, arresting visuals, but is just as unpredictable. My bonus was discovering the hard-to-define Scottish music group The Young Fathers, who did the strange, exciting soundtrack, equal parts foreboding and ecstatic.
The Pitt on HBO Max was a TV favorite, and not just because I grew up watching Noah Wyle on ER in the 90s. I love a well-done medical drama, and this one, set during one long, dramatic shift at a Pittsburgh emergency room, is great. Season 2 is coming January 8!
I also got super into Netflix’s nine-episode medical documentary Lennox Hill, an engrossing look at the real lives of four doctors (two neurosurgeons, an ER doc, and an OB-GYN) and their patients. It’s a mix of jubilant and devastating stories, and with lots of real footage of brain surgeries, it’s not for the squeamish, but I found it fascinating, and an amazing reminder of what curious, big-hearted humans can accomplish. It originally aired in 2020, and I have to admit that I am still unable to watch the epilogue episode, in which the hospital grapples with the early days of the Covid pandemic. It brings me back too painfully to those awful days.
I’ve been decompressing this month with a rewatch of the three seasons of Masterpiece’s Victoria, a lush historical drama about the long-reigning queen (all seasons just popped up on Netflix). My favorite thing about the series is the way it deals with issues like nascent democracy and the role of government, class struggle, eugenics, 19th-century foreign relations, and even topics like sanitation and epidemiology. The series is well-characterized and well-written, with a charming cast. I recently downloaded the Victoria biography it’s all based on, and am looking forward to reading it.
Earlier this month, I streamed the recent movie One Battle After Another. I was reluctant—I didn’t know much about it, but I thought it’d be too violent for me (I don’t like guns, war, punching, murder, that kind of stuff). But it surprised me. The story (following a family caught up in a contemporary revolutionary movement against openly white supremacist government forces—ring any bells?) is propulsive, exciting, and weirdly hilarious.
