Hi there. I’m working on compiling a “Best Read” list, but this one came to me first, because – for obvious reasons – I watched a lot of TV this year.
Hope you enjoy and find something new to watch over the holidays.
10 Best Watched of 2020
I May Destroy You
This was the year we bowed down to the storytelling prowess of Michaela Coel, the influential creator, writer, and star of HBO’s I May Destroy You. Her lens on complex issues of consent was so needed. In a post-Me Too world, she illuminates how everyone can be a “me,” how we can even betray ourselves. (Mindfucked yet? Yeah, you just have to watch it).
That said, it is hard to watch, unsettling in how much time the camera spends in uncomfortable sexual situations – some blatantly awful and wrong, some less obviously so (the ambiguity of which only adds to the disconcerting mindfuckery). But it’s also hilarious at times. I really enjoyed the commentary on the occasional shittiness of influencing.
If you get really into it, you might enjoy Coel’s meticulous breakdown of a pivotal scene in episode 8 in this fascinating video for British GQ.
Vida
I’d long heard of Vida tangentially through podcasts and knew it was a very “for me” show, but it was on Starz, which felt like such an inaccessible network (at least for cord cutters like me), so the starz never aligned, so to speak. Turns out you can try a free trial of Starz via Prime, which was my gateway to the palm tree-lined, Spanglish-infused, sexy universe that is Vida.
The Latinx drama follows the story of two Mexican-American sisters (I’m listeniiing), and their very distinct personalities and ways of interacting with the world (hmmm more relatable still). The pair are called back to East Los Angeles when their mother dies, and are forced to face their collective past and future. As someone with three sisters (two of us Mexican-American), I find the closeness and complexity of sisterhood fascinating. Not to mention the reckoning of identity and individual experience of being of two cultures.
It’s such an absorbing take on place-setting, too. Don’t worry, I won’t refer to East Los Angeles as one of the characters (a la New York in SATC), but creator/showrunner, Tanya Saracho, succeeds in entrenching the viewer in a very distinctive East L.A. neighborhood. The storylines become a bit more soapy as the series develops, but I was completely there for it. I also loved this cast and that the series focuses on queer characters of color.
Normal People
Whether you read the Sally Rooney novel or not (I did, and recommend!), this Hulu series is horny, emotional, and beautiful to look at. I really don’t know what more you could want. Zombies? Nah. Stop that nonsense. This story of a class divide between two modern, young people is simple and beautiful and regular as hell.
And yet somehow, we don’t consider that tension enough. Sure, there’s the popular-character-falls-for-nerd trope, but we don’t often get a closer look at the role of class. In a year where we’re finally looking more closely at caste, it’s a refreshing take on a troubled romance story. And beyond being hot, I loved watching something that spent so much time (almost 5 consecutive minutes in one particularly long sex scene!) on what it means to be intimate.
I’m also not mad at Marianne’s many bewitching bang moments.
Industry
This engrossing office drama took me by surprise – its bleak exploration of abusive workplace culture was actually bordered by many soft edges. I was pulled in by the juxtaposition of humanity creeping into the harsh lighting and cold attitudes of a competitive investment bank. That, and I was intrigued when something big happened at the end of that first episode (directed by Lena Dunham).
The series, which centers on a group of young grads competing for permanent positions at a fictional London bank, explores what factors into workplace loyalties – common ground, values, gender – and it’s a hell of a ride to watch just how complex those relationships can be.
Heaps of drugs, cringey sex, workplace politics – it’s a severe landscape these characters find themselves in, all to aspire to their perception of greatness and status.
Insecure
This show’s fourth season provided me with so much comfort early on in the pandemic. I have loved these characters since episode 1, and simply loved spending time with them again. They feel incredibly lived in and flawed and loveable to me.
The series follows Issa, as she navigates friendship, love, and career (sort of in that order). On a distilled level, it explores the very individual experience of what it means to be happy, and how getting there is a series of humbling missteps. I love the jokes, L.A. iconography, music direction, and wardrobes. Pretty sure I’ve said “love” three too many times at this point. This is clearly one of my favorite shows.
How To With John Wilson
I covered this aggressively unique show in the first newsletter. So I’ll just paste those thoughts here:
HBO’s How to With John Wilson, is a hard-to-describe, slice-of-life docuseries that made me burst with wonder. The series is unlike anything I’ve seen on HBO, or anywhere. It’s hard not to become enchanted by Wilson’s eccentric storytelling and gentle point of view, a refreshing foil to the coarse New York streets he documents. I especially enjoyed how he employs a signature bumbling delivery in his voiceover to make peculiar punchlines and even enhance the impact/depth of thought.
He captures disparate New York b-roll – a lady stuffing a live pigeon in Duane Reade bag; a passerby piling yet another piece of trash onto an overflowing heap; an oversized, filthy teddy bear belly up on the sidewalk – and conducts offbeat interviews (thanks to his talk-to-anyone-and-everyone style) to tell one connective philosophical message each episode. The mundane, the strange, the undeniably human, it’s all there. The final, sixth episode is especially poignant in how it covers the beginning of the pandemic in New York.
High Maintenance
If you love character studies and realism and getting hiiiigh, this anthology series is for you. Well, about that last part – there are actually very few stoner antics; it’s more interested in how people experience pain, connect, overlap, get through and find joy in the everyday. I love raw drama like that, so every episode is delightful to me. “The guy” is the connective tissue of this series; we follow him as he delivers weed to (and becomes part of the lives of) various New York customers.
If you want to dip your toe in, or just watch some bite-sized content, you can start with their initial web series.
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark
Oof. This docuseries on tracking down the Golden State Killer was incredibly chilling, a testament to its storytelling ability as I already knew that a) these crimes had been committed decades earlier (not that that makes them any less horrific) and b) the killer had been caught. Beyond the mystery and pursuit of justice, the six-part series explores the survivors’ interior lives and how the closeted mindsets of the time hindered their healing. (Apparently people didn’t speak about sexual assault much in the 1970s).
Another dominant subject of the series is the talent and dedication of Michelle MacNamara, who wrote I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, the eponymous book that investigated the killer and helped crack the case.
P.S. This series was made all the more frightening by the proximity of it all – the series reenacts the GSK committing many of his crimes in a nearby Sacramento suburb. *Shudder*
Saturday Night Live
I’ve never been part of the camp that complains that SNL “hasn’t been any good” since the golden era, whenever that very subjective time frame may be. My feeling is if there are people onstage trying to make us laugh in real time, with myriad comedic sensibilities represented, that’s good TV. Some of the lo-fi sketches that were filmed inside the players’ homes at the height of lockdown were really intimate and fun, and indulged my relentless curiosity to see the interiors of people’s living spaces.
I can’t say exactly why, but I was truly delighted by Chloe Fineman’s impression of Timothée Chalamet in this spoof of a Master Class promo:
Superstore
The only network TV show to make it onto the list, this sitcom-done-right more than earns its spot. This bingeable, oddball show is as comforting and funny as The Office, and has a good ole fashioned will-they-won’t-they storyline too. A large cast of nutty characters give this series heart, and offbeat in-between moments make it really fucking weird and laugh out loud funny. Sometimes Andrew and I will rewind the throwaway moments that go down in the store aisles. (It’s usually a customer doing something gross and putting something back on the store shelf).
Honorable Mentions
The Queen's Gambit
The Vow
Lovecraft Country
Rupaul’s Drag Race
Ramy
The Undoing
Schitt’s Creek
Hope you enjoyed this tweener newsletter! I’d love to hear the TV/film y’all enjoyed this year.
The next newsletter hits your inboxes this coming Sunday. See you then.
Thanks so much for reading,
Vanessa
Such lively reviews on varied shows that share one key element: humanity. Will look out for Industry and How to with John Wilson. "Superstore" has the elements of a successful Israeli sitcom that follows whacky employees in a supermarket chain, loosely translated as "cash register."
The Good Lord Bird was excellent! Showtime