What We're Seeing While Taking COVID-19 Precautions:'Roswell,' N.M.', MSNBC and...'The West Wing'
OK, let's admit it, the Venn diagram of those of us who write about film and TV for a living and those of us that have a Vitamin D deficiency just looks like two big overlapping circles. But in our attempt to flatten the curve and mitigate the effect of COVID-19 in our communities, IndieWire's staff is spending much more time in front of our screens than usual.
Between progress screeners provided to press, enormous libraries of TV content on DVD sitting on shelves, and our own fiscally reckless number of subscriptions to streaming solutions, exactly what are we watching? Why? And should you see it too? After all, it's just considered self-isolation if you don't consider TV your buddy.
We'll be updating this during the coming days as both a manual, a diary, and a forum. We are living in fascinating times, and sharing our coping mechanisms will help.
Additionally, it must be said at the outset, of course, that to our own mental health we should Switch off the goddamned news, but that's why we have instant displays:
Tyler Hersko, TV business reporter:"Better Call Saul" has been the gift that keeps on giving and I have found myself actually looking forward to Mondays to see what happens to Jimmy McGill, Kim Wexler, Mike Ehrmantraut, and the remainder of the show's lovable and complicated characters. I have loved every component of Season 5 so far and will probably wind up rewatching a lot of the series for the umpteenth time after it finishes.
Though I seen it for work-related motives (expect an article on it tomorrow!) I genuinely enjoyed the movie, which focuses on the human cost of fake news and disinformation campaigns. I consider myself fairly well-versed on the subject, but even I learned over a few fascinating new things by watching the documentary.
Hideo Kojima's"Death Stranding" video game is just another project I recently completed. It's an undeniably flawed but completely original movie-game hybrid vehicle and its topics of cooperation and community are certainly relevant right now. IndieWire's David Ehrlich wrote a intriguing article concerning the game's artistic merits last November, which could be a fantastic read for anybody on the fence about buying it. Additionally, it is a very long game, which might be ideal for bored individuals that are in dire need of a time sink. As for upcoming projects, I'd be lying if I didn't say the entertainment release I am most excited about is anything besides"Animal Crossing: New Horizons" on the Nintendo Switch, which is shaping up to be a superbly relaxing and much-needed reprieve in the going-ons at the real world.
Kristen Lopez, TV Editor: Should you would like to know the very first show I ever got obsessed with -- I'm talking lived, ate, breathed each and every thing about the show, I must point to"Roswell." This show from 1999, according to the what was then called the WB Network, followed a group of teenagers going to high school in Roswell, New Mexico. Of course, a story about adolescent angst happening at Roswell could only mean one thing: aliens. Yep, no superior series to get an 11-year-old to move onto as she was dreaming about high school than just about a star-crossed romance and literal adolescent aliens.
This is to say that, due to my deep love for the show I was hesitant to watch The CW's reboot of the franchise,"Roswell, N.M." But what started out as only one episode blossomed into bingeing the whole series. Like its predecessor, the show still revolves around a star-crossed romance and aliens, but the high school atmosphere is substituted by twentysomethings and the aliens, in this scenario, also bring into question the character of immigration. The series is a dazzling mixture of typical CW melodrama with great acting and societal opinion. Thank goodness I finished this just as Season 2 begins this week -- because I wouldn't have been able to make it through the past couple of months!
Ryan Lattanzio, Weekend Editor: In those dark times, I've for whatever reason chose to go darker. The current reports of Harvey Weinstein's experience at Rikers Island -- that he is left for Bellevue Hospital -- motivated me to check out a documentary show from a few years ago I missed:"Time: The Kalief Browder Story" out of 2017. It still stands, and with about 7,000 offenders.
The documentary centers on Kalief Browder, a shameful Bronx teen arrested for a petty crime he didn't commit -- stealing a backpack -- with no evidence or witnesses to support the fee. He ended up spending three years at Rikers, where the corrupt hierarchy of correctional officers operating in tandem with abusive inmates (known colloquially as"The Program") crushed his spirit and drove him into terrified psychosis. Shortly after being released from Rikers, he killed himself. Much like the Oscar-winning"O.J.: Made in America,""Time" uses a high-profile case for a microcosm for bigger social issues -- such as the indifference of their justice system and the futility of a"due process" that wrongly incriminates the innocent since they're made to endure the punishing rigamarole of a soulless legal process. Notably, the 2016 fiction series"The Night Of" also plunges you into the adventure of the hell that's Rikers Island.
Kalief Browder
Spike TV
Leonardo Adrian Garcia, Creative Producer: Like Ann I've already exhausted my"Devs" and"Westworld" screeners, and similar to Christian I also have seen a 1,000percent uptick in the amount of 24-hour news coverage I'm consuming. Speaking of that, please Have a Look at MSNBC's set design from before today, or what I referred to as the world's scariest game series:
MSNBC
Leonardo Adrian Garcia
However, I digress, after viewing the meandering hour and our present president spent at the Rose Garden spreading misinformation (and probably, as he has not as of yet been tested, the coronavirus), I'm certainly craving a few executive escapism in the shape of the too-good-to-be-true Josiah"Jed" Bartlet. That's right, this weekend whilst self-quarantining and burning all my perishables, I will probably settle in for many hours of"The West Wing." Aaron Sorkin's fictionalized accounts of an executive branch which cares about its own citizenry and works tirelessly in an effort to better the nation it serves should act as a welcome respite in the walking, speaking punchline currently occupying the Oval Office. Though, I must sayit would be fun/cringe to watch anybody in the current administration effort a C. J. Cregg and lip-sync the words to Ronny Jordan's"The Jackel."
"The West Wing"
Bros TV/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock
Steve Greene, Associate TV Editor: The most normal TV release schedule doesn't leave much room for a continuous diet of those classics, so one of my non-work jobs is catching up with all the 1976 BBC miniseries"I, Claudius." It is a 12-episode adaptation that's also a fun time capsule not only of where TV creation ambitions were four and a half decades before, it's a opportunity to observe a cast including Derek Jacobi, Brian Blessed, John Hurt, and a spry young Patrick Stewart gnaw on the immediate scenery as only they can. It's unapologetically theatrical in a way that taps into the same"palace intrigue" DNA that is powered shows set at the White House, Buckingham Palace, and everywhere in between.
Nevertheless, the twin motivation behind digging into this series now is that, to see something which can still result in some sense of community, this happens to coincide with the ongoing release of"I, Podius," a companion podcast about the Maximum Fun network. Hosted by John Hodgman and Elliott Kalan, the series is bringing the ideal combination of reverence for the set the show holds in the TV pantheon while engaging with all the sections of it that have not aged nearly as well as Stewart has. After a very"Hunters"-esque 90-minute opening chapter, the remainder of"I, Claudius" plays out at about hourlong chapters, right in that general sweet spot between"impossible triple-digit incident catchup" and then"take a nap and you'll miss it" viewing experiences. It's only enough time for somebody to capture 17 episodes of"The Podsoner." (For anyone in the larger L.A. area with a library card,"I, Claudius" can be a opportunity to make the most of Hoopla, which will be streaming the series at no cost. It's also on Acorn and readily available for purchase elsewhere.)
Libby Hill, TV Awards Editor In times of trial or, because of late, everyday, there's nothing that brings me more relaxation than community comedies, specifically ones I've already watched a million times before. Back when coronavirus was a tricky small insect a sea away, I went ham on one of TV's greatest shows ever and a personal (if problematic) fave,"30 Rock." It was my very first revisitation of the show because it left the atmosphere over seven decades back and I am pleased to say it totally holds up. So successful was my rewatch that, upon concluding, I immediately started over, which is the real problem with the show, since it boasts a pitch ideal final season that functions primarily to remind the viewer why they love the show. This week, but fearing the ruling of friends and family if I started a third"30 Rock" binge, I have moved on to"Bob's Burgers," which features likewise goofy antics in another bite-sized 22-minute bundle. Plus, you will find almost 200 episodes so I'm good for, like, at least three times of social distancing.
"Bob's Burgers"
FOX
Ann Donahue, Executive Editor, TV: What I need to be watching are shows that are going to be contenders from the Emmys race this year. I'm an Academy voter, and I have been caught up in the tsunami of summit TV I've missed a number of those standard-bearers: the most recent period of"The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,"; I am behind on"Schitt's Creek"; I watched one-and-a-half episodes of"McMillion$" and very much wish to finish it out. But what I'm instead watching is creepy, end times TV. I adored"Devs" and I'm working my way through the"Westworld" screeners. Are you currently looking for survival examples or strategies of tenacity in tough times? Maybe. But I may also just be looking for comfort in shows where the answers are not always apparent.
Kate Erbland, Deputy Editor, Film: In these fraught and perplexing times, there is nothing quite as refreshing as unfettered honesty, which is this: The vast majority of my at-home watching (and you better believe I'm quite at-home today ) is pure, insistent, easily readable comfort food. Yesterday evening, but I took a little detour and watched the Patrick Dempsey- and Michelle Monaghan-starring rom-com"Made of Honor" on HBO. My first thinking (rom-coms are almost always good to make you feel much better!) Was soon waylaid by something maybe better, or at least much more distracting (these people are hateful morons and deserve each other, what a freak show that is, however God bless Busy Philipps for being the best part of anything she is in).
"Chopped"
Food Network
Tambay Obenson, Staff Writer, Film, TV: Other than screeners for the next season of"Black Monday," I have to write a review of earlier Sunday night's premiere, it has been a steady diet of alternative news media for me. That means a lot of YouTube and very little real television. Once those are tired, it is horror films (my favorite genre) on Hulu or Netflix till I fall asleep. In the last couple of days, I re-watched"The Descent," as well as the first two films in the first"The Omen" franchise (that the 2006 remake was awful!) , and Guillermo del Toro's"Mimic," because, well, have not you heard? Exotic predators which have a taste for human flesh, the Antichrist, also human-sized, mutated cockroaches are sort of in right now! But seriously,"Monos" is now flowing on Hulu. See it!
Kristen Lopez, TV Editor: I am a nerd previously, so I spend a large portion of my entire day watching TCM in general. With the cancellation of this TCM Classic Film Festival, I am planning to see my black-and-white movies while weeping. I've been fortunate to watch a good deal of great films over the past couple of months, from Fred MacMurray's"An Innocent Affair" into Esther Williams in"Neptune's Daughter" and as things shake out during the month, my TCM membership is gont be exactly what gets me through. On the TV front, I can't recommend"Guy's Grocery Games" enough. Who does not want to watch someone create culinary gold without a more than Velveeta mac and cheese? I'm also catching up on NatGeo's"Serengeti" series and if you want the attractiveness of a nature show together with all the high drama of"Desperate Housewives" (Will Bakari, the baboon, be in a position to raise his adopted infant on his own?) , this can be for you!
