Over the summer we put the best grocery store vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry ice creams to the blind taste test in an effort to rank the very best. That’s a whole lot of scoops and now that we’re through the classics, what’s left? A lot actually, in fact, there are too many flavors to hit in a single summer, so who knows how long it’ll actually take us to get around to ranking popular flavors like Chocolate Chip, Cookies and Cream, or Rocky Road. But with the big three out of the way, we figured we’d take a break on the single flavor focus and show some love to the brand new flavors of 2021 before the summer ice cream eating season is over.
Of course, ice cream is good at any time of the year, but there is something special about serving up a refreshing scoop of ice cream on a hot day.
These ice cream flavors aren’t your average flavor blends, you likely won’t find these chilling at Baskin Robbins or the freezer aisle of your local grocery store, most of them are unique to the brands we’ve chosen. So grab a bowl and a spoon — or a cone if that’s your vibe — and let’s dive into the best new ice cream flavors of 2021.
Salt & Straw — Maple & Bacon Streusel (Dane Rivera)
Salt & Straw
The idea of bacon in ice cream is something that I initially scoffed at when I first came across this flavor from Salt & Straw’s Camp collection. I’m on board with the winning flavor combination that is salty meets sweet, but the smokey quality of bacon just isn’t something I want to experience in a sweet scoop of ice cream. Or so I thought. As soon as a spoonful of this ice cream hit my palate my tastebuds were transported through a flavor journey that brought me a harmonious combination of brown sugar streusel, maple, and the occasional burst of savory bacon.
Salt & Straw’s Maple & Bacon Streusel doesn’t try to balance salty and sweet qualities, instead this ice cream’s major focus is on that brown sugar maple blend and it’s better for it. When the flavors all come together that combination of classic breakfast flavors answers the question, “What if breakfast was a dessert?” No one has ever asked for that, but Salt & Straw gave it to us anyway and we’re thankful for that.
The Bottom Line
The consistency is fantastic here, it’s dense and creamy and when the occasional bacon bit hits your tongue it’s like having breakfast in a bowl. Start those hot summer mornings off with this over a traditional breakfast meal and your day will be off to a great start.
Cool and complex, Van Leeuwen’s Earl Grey Tea manages to capture the distinct flavor of the tea blend it shares its name with perfectly. It tastes exactly like what you’d get if you tossed a scoop of cold ice cream directly into a hot freshly brewed cup of Earl Grey. Only without melting all over the place.
Flavors of vanilla mingle with bergamot producing a rich and complex flavor that is enhanced by Van Leeuwen’s always velvety smooth consistency. It’s hard to eat a scoop of this and not feel refreshed, so save this one for those early mornings or late nights that are a bit on the warmer side. If we have any of those left. To get the flavor, Van Leeuwen harvests real organic Rishi tea from the Yunnan Province and infuses it with bergamot citrus oil, which is what makes it Earl Grey and not just regular old black tea. Then Van Leeuwen steeps a bag in whole milk before adding cream, sugar and eggs and turning it into ice cream. Like a cup of Earl Grey with some milk in it, the ice cream itself has a milky grey appearance to it.
The Bottom Line
Complex and rich, a single scoop of Van Leeuwen’s Earl Grey Tea ice cream completely unaltered feels like a restaurant-quality dessert. Matcha ice cream doesn’t compare to this.
McConnell’s — Honey & Cornbread Cookies (Dane Rivera)
Dane Rivera
Apparently this year I’ve been obsessed with ice creams that capture the experience of eating foods that aren’t ice cream. Salt & Straw gave me breakfast in a bowl, Van Leeuwen turned tea into ice cream, and now here we are with Honey & Cornbread Cookies. This flavor from Santa Barbara-based ice cream parlor McConnell’s brings together chunks of sweet and salty cornbread cookies with a honey ice cream base made from real California honey, and it’s f*cking fantastic. Yes, it’s so good that it deserves a “f*cking.”
The best feature of this flavor is those cornbread cookies. Using real cornbread would’ve only made this ice cream mushy, instead, the cookies used in this thing have a better consistency that soaks up ice cream perfectly but still provides a great mouthfeel and texture. The subtle inclusion of salt acts as a nice counterbalance to that strong honey flavor but doesn’t get in the way or distract from the overall sweet quality of this ice cream.
The Bottom Line
You won’t find a better experience than scooping up and eating that final piece of cornbread cookie that has been soaking up all the ice cream at the bottom of your bowl.
This one fills a bit more fit for fall than the summer so as the weather starts to change be sure to pick up Talenti’s new Honey Graham Gelato. Beginning with a vanilla gelato base, the Honey Graham has clusters of graham cracker cookies deep inside each scoop with ribbons of wildflower honey wrapped throughout the pint, offering the occasional burst of earthy goodness between licks of refreshing vanilla gelato.
It’s subtle and while we would’ve preferred bigger chunks of graham crackers, and more honey evenly spread throughout Talenti has landed on something truly great here. This flavor was apparently voted to be Talenti’s next flavor by the brand’s fans on Instagram and Twitter, so credit to Talenti fans for having some pretty good taste.
The Bottom Line
Sweet without ever being overwhelming, Talenti’s Honey Graham is refreshing and offers a different flavor experience with each spoonful.
I don’t even like Rosé but put it in ice cream and I’m fully on board! Häagen Dazs has some of the best ice cream consistency in the game, it’s smooth like butter, dense and creamy, melting in your mouth in the most decadent way. Consistency is an important part of what makes an ice cream good or bad, but it’s even more important when you’re mixing alcohol with ice cream.
Boozy ice cream is a great idea, but alcohol changes the consistency of ice cream in a way that makes it more of a slush than a cream, but that’s not a problem here, this is just as buttery smooth as anything else you’d expect from Häagen Dazs. Probably because it doesn’t go too heavy on the alcohol, it leans heavily on its sweet cream base with the subtlest hint of tart rosé swirled throughout. If you’re looking for a boozy ice cream that is going to give you a head change, this isn’t that, the whole pint has less than 0.5% alcohol but that faint kiss of rosé adds a lot of depth and complexity.
The Bottom Line
I haven’t tried it but I imagine this would pair nicely with a glass of rosé at the end of a hot summer night. This is definitely a flavor geared for late nights as a closer for your home-cooked meal.
If our previous entry sparked a craving for boozy ice cream but left you wanting more this is one that actually delivers on the alcohol front. It’s still not strong enough to give you a buzz, but it does contain 8% alcohol per pint, which is considerably more than what Häagen Dazs offers. Because of the higher alcohol content, the consistency does suffer as a result, it’s a little airier and slushy than I’d like it to be, but the flavors are rich and the vanilla and alcohol really comes alive with the inclusion of a healthy dose of chocolate syrup poured over the top.
Hell, if you’re feeling especially dangerous go ahead and pour a shot of rum over the top of that with a good sprinkling of cinnamon and then blend it up with ice in a blender! If it’s too early for a rum ice cream smoothy, go ahead and pour a shot of coffee over a scoop and make yourself an affogato. That’s one of the things so great about this ice cream, it constantly inspires new ideas!
The Bottom Line
From the second you scoop a spoonful from the pint, you’ll be able to smell the booze, which should inspire some ideas on how to take it to that next level. The best ice cream from the experimentally minded.
THROWBACK FLAVOR: Van Leeuwen — Royal Wedding Cake (Dane Rivera)
Van Leeuwen
Eating this ice cream makes me feel so damn fancy. That’s not because it’s called Royal Wedding Cake, it’s because I ate this after experiencing Van Leeuwen’s Kraft Macaroni & Cheese ice cream, which made me feel downright trashy. The Royal Wedding Cake has a thick and creamy consistency (which adds to the luxuriousness) and combines a sugar, vanilla, and lemon base with real chunks of airy, chewy lemon spongecake and swirls of elderflower frosting.
There isn’t a single scoop of ice cream that I’ve found all year that is more refreshing than this. Right now it’s a limited edition pint from Van Leeuwen so I’d stock up on as much of this as possible before it’s all gone. I have absolutely no interest in the business of the royal family, but if Harry and Meghan can inspire ice cream this good, I say God Save The Queen!
The Bottom Line
A luxurious consistency with a refreshing flavor. It tastes like springtime in a bowl.
What We Do in the Shadows is back for a third season, which is terrific news on a number of fronts. It’s terrific because it’s always nice to have good shows back. It’s terrific because I can’t wait to see what kind of antics the Staten Island Vampires get up to this time around, especially after the season two reveal that their human lackey Guillermo may actually be a vampire slayer from the Van Helsing bloodline. And it’s terrific because it gives me a solid excuse to ask a question I’ve been pondering for a while now, one that resurfaced yet again while I was zipping through a season two rewatch last week: Is What We Do in the Shadows, at present, given everything we know about it and where it’s been and might be going, the funniest show on television?
I know this is a bad idea. Nothing dooms a show in the court of public opinion quite like too much hyperbolic praise from writers. Look at what happened with the Ted Lasso Discourse in season two. After a full year of everyone generally agreeing that it was a sweet and good show that did the thing it does very well, everyone suddenly went full-on thunderdome about it all. It was weird. It’s still weird. I do not want that to happen to this show. I am begging you. I know I’m poking the bear here but I swear my intentions are good. And to prove they are good, I’m going to try to present both sides of the argument, fairly, so everyone gets a voice. Do not write a thinkpiece on this. Please. Just let us have our fun and leave us alone.
Okay, here we go. The Case For and Case Against What We Do in the Shadows being the funniest show on television.
CASE FOR
FX
It is so funny. Like, all the time, in a million different ways, almost all of them powerfully silly. Look at that screencap up there. You’ve probably seen it a million times and chuckled at the sheer audacity of the phrase “Jackie Daytona: Regular Human Bartender,” but have you actually gone back and watched the episode again recently? I really recommend you do that. It is so damn goofy and delightful all the way through. The whole reason he’s on the run is because Mark Hamill shows up as a rival vampire in the opening and accuses Laszlo (Matt Berry, perhaps the world’s finest comedic actor) of skipping out on a month’s rent for a beach house in San Diego. That’s it. That’s why he flees and leaves his life behind. And his entire disguise is a toothpick in his mouth. It’s so stupid and so perfect. I can’t believe anyone is allowed to be this silly as a profession. It’s kind of inspiring, really.
Or what about this? What about the thing where the show did an entire episode about Laszlo and Nadia being musicians whose crude and innuendo-laden songs from centuries gone by have apparently been stolen and co-opted into popular hit songs like “Come On, Eileen” and “Kokomo,” or the thing where they apparently just discover this in the present-day, over 30 years since both songs were all over the airwaves. Don’t click on this video if you’re somewhere where repeated lascivious utterances of the word “cream” are acceptable. Or do. Go ahead and get weird. I’m not the boss of you.
This is what the show has been for two full seasons now, just one hilarious flight of fancy after another, all starting from the also-silly premise of “What if four vampires lived in Staten Island but made no effort to blend in with the modern world?” It is so good and so surprising throughout, with twists like the vampire-slaying business coming out of nowhere and being somehow flabbergasting and perfectly sensible at the same time.
And that’s before we even get to Colin Robinson (played by Mark Proksch, in a perfect bit of casting), the show’s energy vampire, who gets his power not from sucking blood but from quite literally draining the energy from those around him by being boring and frustrating in any number of ways. Watching him do this — say, troll people online, or tell awful stories, or whatever — and then seeing the glee in his face as he explains it to the fake documentary crew that’s following him around is maybe my favorite thing on the show. Maybe. It’s certainly up there with “everything Matt Berry says and does,” which is just about as high a compliment as I know how to give.
It’s a good show. And it’s so funny. I might be willing to give you “other shows are as funny,” but I don’t know if I can get to “another show is funnier.”
Unless, of course…
CASE AGAINST
FX
Comedy, more so than any other genre, is a subjective thing. Things that are funny to one person might be a complete zero to another. Things that were funny to you five years ago might be a zero to you today. It’s all so weird and fluid that it makes it almost impossible to make firm declarative statements about any of it. A fool’s errand, really, says the fool who pitched the very piece you’re reading right now.
Also complicating matters: there are so many funny shows on television. I Think You Should Leave is a riot, one that actually has about two or three different avenues of being funny, starting with the actual sketches and moving on into the next-life memes that develop around various screencaps from those already funny sketches. Shows like Mythic Questand Hacks are really funny, even if the humor there is sometimes punctuated by surprise bursts of feelings, which is not a complaint in any way. They might be better “shows” than What We Do in the Shadows, like as complete and well-rounded pieces of art, just not, like, funnier. Again, there are booby traps like this everywhere in this discussion.
There’s also the thing where there are about five or six different kinds of humor. I love a good long-developing, well-crafted bit. I love it when a show makes me think about a goof a little, or makes me feel like I earned it by knowing enough about the world to get a laser-focused specific punchline. I also like to watch a never-ending supply of bozos get walloped by obstacles on Holey Moley. Like this.
ABC
What I’m saying here, really, if we want to summarize things in a way that both gets me out of this trap I have waltzed myself into and satisfies absolutely no one, is that comedy is a land of contrasts.
You’re welcome and I am sorry.
Let’s try to wrap this up with a final decision on the matter.
VERDICT
Well, I was fully prepared to weasel out of giving a firm answer on this. I was going to throw my hands up and give all of you a perfectly unsatisfying “Who’s to say what humor is as long as you enjoy it?” like the most insufferable weenie you’ve ever seen. But then I remembered the thing where Colin Robinson held a seance to bring his deceased Nana back from the dead for the sole purpose of extracting energy from her via the worst Updog joke you can imagine.
FXFXFXFX
Yes.
Yes, fine.
I’ll just go ahead and say it…
What We Do in the Shadows is the funniest show on television.
At long last, after nearly seven years, the world has received new music from Bobby Shmurda. The rapper’s last official release came at the end of 2014. Soon after, Shmurda was arrested and sentenced to prison for conspiracy to commit murder and weapons charges.
In February, after nearly seven years behind bars, the rapper was released from jail which opened the door for him to make an epic comeback to the hip-hop world. After taking some time to get reacclimated to the world and deliver some performances like the one he did at Miami’s Rolling Loud festival, Shmurda is back with new music.
The rapper returns with a “No Time For Sleep” freestyle. The track presents him as a wide-eyed hustler who’s on a constant grind to earn his riches and survive, even if it means missing out on a doctor’s order of eight hours of sleep per night. The track also comes with a fiery matching visual that finds the rappers posted with a heavy collection of weapons and women who are down to fire away if necessary.
Shmurda’s “No Time For Sleep” freestyle comes after he teamed up with J Balvin and Daddy Yankee to remix Eladio Carrion’s “Tata.” Shortly after that was shared with the world, the rapper opened up about his post-prison mindset in a recent interview with the New York Times. “I ain’t mad about going to jail, because my mind-state now versus my mind-state before — I probably would’ve been in jail for life before,” he said. “The stuff that’s going to get you in trouble or put you in that situation, you can see that from miles away.”
You can listen to the freestyle in the video above.
When our last ranking of grocery store marinara sauces ended up doing really well, my editor Steve piped up with another request. “You should do Alfredo sauces next.”
I let out a long, pained groan. If I had been disapproving, but mostly agnostic about store-bought marinara (I don’t buy it, but I don’t consider it actively harmful), Alfredo sauce is closer to an abomination before God. Jarred marinara sauce is a little lazy; jarred alfredo is a product that maybe shouldn’t exist. Whereas pre-made marinara mostly has the same few ingredients you’d use at home, making a shelf-stable jar of dairy and cheese would seem to necessarily involve a lot of weird bullshit — reverse engineering a very simple sauce using all manner of thickeners, stabilizers, and various space-age polymers (I can only assume).
And… for what? Alfredo sauce is easy. Like, really easy. Even easier than marinara, which is already super easy. Contrary to the assumptions from certain parts, it’s also really good.
When I was growing up, alfredo sauce, in the form of the ubiquitous “Fettucini Alfredo,” was one of those orders that instantly marked you as a bumpkin — the Italian food equivalent of going to a fine steak house and ordering your meat well done and slathering it with A1. I have a weirdly enduring memory of my cousin slumming it with some Fettucini Alfredo over the objections of the rest of the family at a nice red sauce joint and then puking it up later that night.
This is, naturally, somewhat unfair. FA’s poor reputation partly stems from the fact that most of us were raised on this cream-heavy, Americanized perversion of the original dish (I call it a “dish” rather than a “sauce,” because ideally, noodle and condiment should be inseparable like that). Zach has already written about the history of Fettucini Alfredo. To make a long story short, the good news is, there’s a better Alfredo, and it’s really easy.
Again Zach has the whole recipe here, but even that is sort of the date night version, if you want your Alfredo to turn out absolutely perfect. It’s only a few ingredients, and I’ve made it without using a sieve on the cheese like Zach did and it seemed to work just fine.
Cooked Pasta
Pasta Water (about a third-ish cup of the salted water you just used to cook your pasta)
Softened Butter
Parmesan Cheese
Black pepper to garnish.
You just combine your cooked pasta with softened butter, lots of grated parmesan (a younger parmesan melts better and probably works best for this), and add just enough pasta water to create a creamy emulsion. You should end up with noodles individually coated in a creamy, cheesy sauce. Add black pepper and you’re done. There’s your Alfredo sauce. It’s a one-pot meal! And a total crowd pleaser.
Of course, the “real” Alfredo is time sensitive, and most of these jarred Alfredos seem to be attempting to recreate the old, 1980s Italian-American restaurant version of Alfredo sauce, with onions and garlic and flour, with enough crap in them to make them shelf-stable and pourable (everything from vegetable stock to dehydrated milk to powdered egg yolks). Their flavor usually lands somewhere in the vicinity of ranch dressing, bechemel sauce, New England clam chowder, and French onion dip. Not great, Bob! (Spoiler: There were many weird aftertastes in this tasting.)
So, now that I’ve done my best to debunk the idea that anyone would need jarred Alfredo sauce, here is my ranking of every Alfredo sauce I could find on the shelves of my local grocery stores for some reason. Let this be a lesson: every popular thing inevitably warrants a sequel, and sequels are never as good as the original. If my marinara ranking is Michael Corleone, Alfredo is Fredo.
Just as a little slice of my life, I should add that as I was checking out of the grocery aisle with my cart full of gross Alfredo sauces that I didn’t want to eat, one of the jars rolled out of plastic bag and shattered on the floor. I watched helpless as a big glop of nasty white sauce flew from the shattered bottle and landed on a bagger’s black shoe and pant leg in slow motion, as if a giant seagull had gotten loose inside the store. I apologized profusely and scurried out of there like an insect.
METHOD:
Just like I did with marinara, I tasted all of these sauces blind, dunking my cooked pasta in them after a short nuke in the microwave (again, using a separate pot to gently warm jarred sauce felt contrary to the spirit of the endeavor). I rated them on look, smell, and taste.
THE COMPETITORS:
I tried to limit this just to sauces labeled “Alfredo” with as few modifications as possible, but I did throw a few vegan ones in there just for fun. In my head, vegan ones have more of a reason to exist than the non-vegan ones, considering how easy it is to make non-vegan Alfredo yourself.
Dave’s Gourmet Aged White Cheddar Alfredo
Classico Four Cheese Alfredo
Sonoma Gourmet Creamy Alfredo
4 Newman’s Own Alfredo
5 Rao’s Homemade Alfredo
6 Bertolli Alfredo Sauce
7 Sonoma Gourmet Creamy Cauliflower Alfredo
8 Primal Kitchen No Dairy Alfredo Sauce With Cashew Butter
9 Ragu Classic Alfredo
10 Whole Foods Alfredo With Roasted Garlic
11 Victoria Vegan Alfredo Sauce
12 Botticelli Alfredo
12. Whole Foods Alfredo With Roasted Garlic, $8.99
Whole Foods
Looks: More like bechemel than queso, clearly a thickener in there, probably flour.
Nose: Not much, just pepper and flour.
Taste: Oh God, what is that? What IS that? This is awful. Reaching for the water.
The Whole Foods marinara was one of my favorites in the marinara competition, and this was clearly another attempt at a premium product. It just had a very strange aftertaste that I found off putting, like maybe the garlic was over roasted and bitter? I generally like garlic, so I’m scratching my head a little bit at my reaction to this one. Something about it tasted very off though.
11. Victoria Vegan Alfredo Sauce, $5.99
Victoria
Looks: Greyish and presumably vegan. Has that liquidy pasty texture, like tahini. Micro droplets of oil on the surface.
Nose: There’s a jolt of some perfumy herb that I can’t identify. Spice forward.
Taste: All kinds of lemon and pepper and spices. Weird. Definitely doesn’t make me think “Alfredo.”
I’ve had things with cashew butter or cheese that I’ve enjoyed, but this one was just a strange lemon-herb bomb. Too many flavors going on.
10. Sonoma Gourmet Creamy Alfredo, $5.99
Sonoma Gourmet
Look: Beige, with some visible microdroplets of oil on the surface.
Nose: Again, very ranch like. What is that smell? Cauliflower?
Taste: Legit gagged on my first bite of this one. Just tastes like straight up ranch. Really gross. I would use this for wings, maybe, but absolutely not pasta. Nasty.
Oddly, of the two Sonoma Gourmet sauces, the one that reminded me of cauliflower was this regular Alfredo, not the vegan one made with actual cauliflower. Anyway, this one was really ranch dressing-y tasting. In retrospect, I think the ranch dressing flavor I detected in some of these might come from dried onions and/or dried garlic. This one’s ingredient list includes vegetable stock and dehydrated vegetable stock which might account for the ranch dressing qualities. In any case… not good.
9. Primal Kitchen No Dairy Alfredo Sauce With Cashew Butter, $7.99
Primal Kitchen
Look: Like grey baby puke. With pepper flakes. I assume this one is the cauliflower one. (Truly the most disgusting looking of all the sauces).
Nose: Herbs, pepper, inorganic matter.
Taste: Oh God, why is it so gelatinous? This one looks like a jellyfish just shit a chia seed smoothie. It tastes quite a bit better than it looks, I’ll say that for it. More sort of just savory and very herb forward.
If I was full on blindfolded and hadn’t been expected something that resembled Alfredo, this might not have been so awful. It was just hard to overcome that bizarre color and texture.
8. Sonoma Gourmet Creamy Cauliflower, $6.99
Sonoma Gourmet
Looks: Weird and chunky. Looks a little like New England clam chowder.
Nose: Sort of ranchy again.
Taste: Like lemony and grainy? What even are those chunks? It tastes like lemon juice thickened with drywall paste. I think there’s dried onion in there?
In retrospect I assume those chunks were the cauliflower, which is much less gross when you know what they are. But as with their non-Vegan sauce, all that veg stock and dried veg made it taste like ranch dressing.
7. Rao’s Homemade Alfredo, $8.99
Rao
Look: Pastier, almost tahini-like in appearance. A little more grey than the others, with micro oil droplets on surface.
Nose: Smells like what I imagine alfredo to smell like. Nothing too unnatural smelling.
Taste: Gross. Not the worst one, but not natural in texture or flavor, despite the welcoming smell.
Rao’s was my favorite marinara, but their dominance apparently doesn’t extend to the realm of Alfredos.
6. Newman’s Own Alfredo, $2.99
Newman
Look: Whiter, with more pepper flakes. Very uniform texture.
Nose: Not much going on. Just savory plainness.
Taste: Thick, coats my mouth, with a foul, unnatural aftertaste. I actually said “Yuck” and had to drink water right afterwards.
This one definitely wasn’t good, but the phrase “Newman’s Own Alfredo” makes me giggle.
5. Boticelli Alfredo Sauce, $6.99
Boticelli
Looks: White with whiter specks in it, very gelatinous. Looks like it has some weird thickener like guar gum or tapioca paste. Almost a barbecue sauce texture.
Nose Lemon pepper.
Taste: I taste mostly parmesan, but also some kind of slightly disconcerting herb and/or preservative.
“Tasting mostly parmesan” is a big win for jarred Alfredo sauce.
4. Classico Four Cheese Alfredo, $2.50 on sale, regularly $3.49
Classico
Look: Whiter and more ranch dressingy.
Nose: Kind of even *smells* ranch-like. Can’t tell if I’m imagining this.
Taste: Guessing this is one of the vegan ones. It doesn’t taste awful, it just has that odd, processed texture.
Is it bad when a non-vegan Alfredo reminds you of vegan Alfredo? Probably.
3. Bertolli Alfredo Sauce, $3.15
Bertolli
Looks: Very white, kind of like queso dip. Thick like queso too.
Nose: Cream cheese.
Taste: Comes on sort of normal in a processed cheese way, like velvetta or Kraft singles. Not bad, though with a sort of processed aftertaste.
2. Dave’s Gourmet Aged White Cheddar Alfredo, $7.99
Vince Mancini
Look: Beige? Three isolated pepper chunks. Some skin on top.
Nose: Mostly cream, with a little flour.
Taste: Very nutmeg forward, with flour aftertaste. Basically like a bechemel with a pepper aftertaste. Much more reminiscent of bechemel sauce than Alfredo sauce. Don’t hate it, don’t love it.
This one doesn’t have nutmeg on the ingredients list, so maybe it was just the black pepper and I’m insane. It didn’t taste too badly of thickeners or stabilizers though, which was nice.
1. Ragu Classic Alfredo, $2.00
Ragu
Looks: Another one that’s very white with pepper flakes, kind like queso dip.
Nose: Barely there. Flour?
Taste: Very cream forward, but the least processed tasting so far. No weird aftertaste.
It turns out, not having a weird aftertaste is about the best you can ask of jarred Alfredo. Go figure, the two-dollar sauce was the big winner.
“Winner” being somewhat relative in this case. Maybe I’m just not creative enough to have thought of a situation in which these sauces might be useful yet. For now I’ll just say… make your own Alfredo, folks. Hell, buy your parmesan pre-grated if you have to. I think the moral of the story is that cheese you melt yourself is probably always going to taste better than a cheese product that stays liquid at room temperature.
Welcome to another installment of Ask A Music Critic! And thanks to everyone who has sent me questions. Please keep them coming at [email protected].
After Pitchfork’s recent reviews of albums by Foxing and Lorde went up and fans of the artists were predictably disappointed that they were less-than-positive, there seemed to be a pretty immediate backlash among music writers that amounted to “fans shouldn’t get mad online about a negative review of an artist they like because negative reviews are Good and Important, and it’s boring to have the same opinions about everything.” I agree that negative reviews are necessary (I wish we got them more often!) and I’m obviously against fans harassing music writers. But the idea that it’s somehow tacky or inappropriate to post that you disagree with a negative review strikes me as strange and kinda backwards. Isn’t the point of talking about art to, you know, talk about art? Why are we doing this if not to have a conversation about it? If fans aren’t supposed to react to music writing, then who are critics writing for besides other critics? — Maff from Austin, TX
This is difficult to answer for me as a music critic who is universally regarded as such a genius that nobody could possibly disagree with my takes. Are there music critics who actually make people mad because readers think they’re wrong? Again, I’m having trouble wrapping my head around this. Have I ever been wrong? But I’ll attempt to answer your question anyway.
When you see music critics on Twitter get defensive about whoever is on the hot seat that particular day for writing a negative review, whether it’s about an act with an intense cult following (like Foxing) or one of the world’s biggest pop stars (like Lorde), understand that they’re doing it because they feel threatened, literally and figuratively. Literally, in the sense that it’s fairly common now for writers to hear from lunatics who want to do them actual harm because the wealthy stranger they have an irrational love for got a 6.7 on a music website. Figuratively in the sense that music criticism seems in perpetual danger of being wiped out of existence because millions of people — let’s just say most people on planet Earth — don’t appreciate or even understand it.
Also, let’s acknowledge the obvious: Nobody likes to be criticized, not even critics. Imagine someone calling you a moron over something you wrote. I’m guessing you wouldn’t like it. You would probably feel hurt, or at least annoyed. You might even feel like punching that person in the face. Or you might go on a 10-tweet thread about the sanctity of music journalism and how poor beleaguered critics are the most righteous martyrs since Joan Of Arc. (Later, you’ll realize that punching someone in the face is less embarrassing.)
Now, let me just say that I agree with you 100 percent. Readers have an absolute right to get P.O.’ed when they read a review they don’t like. And it’s an unavoidable reality that if a writer is on the same social media platform as the people who read them that the writer will face some abuse at some point. (Myself included, no matter my joshing a few paragraphs earlier.) If you don’t want to hear from angry readers, don’t be a critic or at the very least avoid Twitter. (Or, if you must use Twitter — you kind of have to use it if you work in media — then take advantage of the mute and block buttons.)
So long as it doesn’t tip over into actual threats, doxxing, or other forms of harassment, of course it’s okay for you to yell at us. I would even say that a backlash to a review is a good thing for a critic because it shows that people actually care about what you have to say. An irate reader who tries to put a critic down by calling their opinion irrelevant is owning themselves. The critic proved that person wrong as soon as the reader pushed “send” on their mean tweet.
My question is about concept albums, which were much more prevalent in the ’60s and ’70s, but what are your favorite contemporary concept albums? A couple of modern ones that stand out to me in terms of being so committed to the story/concept are The Antlers’ Hospice, Deltron 3030’s Deltron 3030, and The Good Life’s Album Of the Year. — Matt from London, UK
First of all, I am thrilled that this question came from a British person, as I tend to immediately think of English rock groups as soon as I hear the phrase “concept album.” I think it’s appropriate to actually speak the words “concept album” in a British accent, like you’re Rick Wakeman or Ray Davies.
As you said, concept albums were more common in the ’60s and ’70s, but there’s more of them now than there might seem. It just depends on how you define the term. Typically, we think of concept albums being centered on a narrative, like The Who’s Quadrophenia or Pink Floyd’s The Wall. But those albums can also be classified as rock operas, whereas a concept album can also be a meditation on a theme or guise. In that sense, I would suggest Taylor Swift’s 1989 is a concept album, as the music is inspired by the sounds of her birth year. Sturgill Simpson has referred to all of his records as concept albums, and even said that his overall discography is one long interconnected piece. Even the most popular album in the country this week, Kanye West’s Donda, is sort of a concept record about his late mother and his inability to self-edit.
When I think about contemporary concept albums — let’s define contemporary as “since 2000” — the records that come immediately to mind fit the rock opera mode of Quadrophenia and The Wall: Drive-By Truckers’ Southern Rock Opera, Titus Andronicus’ The Monitor, and Fucked Up’s David Comes To Life. Then there are the records that don’t have a “story” per se but still operate with a central theme: Queens Of The Stone Age’s Songs For The Deaf, Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs, and Mastodon’s Leviathan.
Those six would probably be my favorites. I should also mention Green Day’s American Idiot, which has to be the most popular concept album of the last 20 years. As for me, if I had to pick one, I’ll go with Southern Rock Opera.
I’ve been listening to a lot of late-period Sonic Youth recently, and I always find it a bittersweet experience, because I feel like the band was on the cusp of figuring out their next step when news broke of Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore’s divorce following Thurston’s affair. I’ve dug what Kim, Thurston, and Lee Renaldo have all done since separately, but of course, it’s not like having the band together; there’s a lot of “all that could have been” there. So, my question is: If you could undo or “fix” one musical event from the last, say, 30 years, what would you pick? I’m excluding deaths from this question since otherwise it’s kind of a downer. (Plus, who do you choose to save? Gets real bleak real quick.) But band breakups, album flops, trends that didn’t catch on — what do you pick? I’m undoing Thurston Moore’s affair. — Blake from Cincinnati
Great question. I’m also going with a band breakup that was sparked by a family dispute. At a show in Paris in 2009, Liam and Noel Gallagher got into an argument backstage. Certainly, this was nothing new for Oasis, but during this particular fight, Liam threw a plum at Noel. And this apparently so enraged Noel that he stormed out and declared that he was leaving the band.
Here we are 12 years later and Oasis, like Sonic Youth, remains disbanded, with little hope of a reunion. So, if I had the power to undo one famous rock mistake from the past three years, I would stop Liam Gallagher from throwing a plum at Noel Gallagher.
The world is just hours away from finally receiving the music industry’s most anticipated album: Drake’sCertified Lover Boy. It’s a project that was supposed to be released back in January before the rapper opted to delay it after knee surgery and recovering from it forced him to take time off from placing the finishing touches on it.
Finally, after eight long months, Certified Lover Boy will soon be available for everyone to press play on, but before that happens, Drake unveils the official tracklist for the album.
Drake previously revealed the cast of guest acts for the album Certified Lover Boy, but did not share how they would be paired or grouped up until now. Altogether, the rapper’s new album boasts 21 tracks with features from Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Travis Scott, Young Thug, Future, 21 Savage, Lil Baby, Giveon, Ty Dolla Sign, Lil Durk, Yebba, Project Pat, Masego, Tems, and Kid Cudi.
You can read the full tracklist for the project below.
1. “Champagne Poetry”
2.” April’s Home”
3. “Girls Want Girls”
4. “In The Bible”
5. “Love All”
6. “Fair Trade”
7. “Way Too Sexy”
8. “TSU”
9. “N 2 Deep”
10. “Pipe Down”
11. “Yebba’s Heartbreak”
12. “No friends In The Industry”
13. “Knife Talk”
14. “7am On Bridle Path”
15. “Race My Mind”
16. “Fountains”
17. “Get Along Better”
18. “You Only Live Twice”
19. “IMY2”
20. “F*cking Fans”
21. “The Remorse”
Certified Lover Boy is out 9/3 via OVO Sound/Republic.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Wonder Woman 1984 was one of the biggest new releases to make its debut on a streaming service when it debuted Christmas Day on HBO Max. The film didn’t have the best box office showing for a number of reasons, starting with a pandemic and its simultaneous release on a streaming service.
The film’s director, Patty Jenkins, has publicly called that release after a lengthy delay “heartbreaking,” and that apparently wasn’t the only criticism of streaming and movies made for that platform. Jenkins spoke at length about Wonder Woman and the current state of movies, and she had much more to say about movies that were meant for streaming first.
“All of the films that streaming services are putting out, I’m sorry, they look like fake movies to me,” Jenkins said. “I don’t hear about them, I don’t read about them. It’s not working as a model for establishing legendary greatness.”
Seeing a huge blockbuster filmed in IMAX get pushed to HBO Max due to global catastrophe can’t be easy, but the comments may come across to some as sour grapes. There is certainly a difference in quality for some movies made exclusively for streaming, of course, but that’s not been the case with HBO Max releases thanks to Warners. Still, Jenkins certainly caused a stir as her comments made the rounds once again on Thursday.
There are plenty of good TV series on Netflix. Too many, in fact.
It’s a good problem to have but if mindlessly scrolling through streaming platforms is taking up too much of your time these days, and, well, we’re here to help. We’ve curated over 65 of the best shows on Netflix right now (including some of the best Netflix original series) and we’ll be updating them regularly, adding new seasons, removing expired titles, and dropping the latest offerings you’ll want to add to your queue. If the goal is to constantly be binge-watching great TV, you’re in the right place.
Even if you didn’t catch the original films, you’ll probably still enjoy this series which picks up 30-something years after that infamous Karate Tournament with Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) deciding his path to redemption involves opening up a dojo, reigniting his rivalry with Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio). It’s much better than it has any right to be.
Intimate, funny, warm, and kind, Master of None confidently tackles issues of sex and race from a perspective original to mainstream television. Creator, writer, and star Aziz Ansari loads the sitcom with smart observations and wry humor, and when it comes to dating as a thirty-something, Ansari just gets it. Sweet, sentimental, but never sappy, the mold-breaking Master of None may be the most thoughtful and well-considered dating sitcom on television.
The first creation to come from Netflix’s partnership with prolific TV show creator Shonda Rhimes is this Regency Era romance series that flouts tradition and goes all-in on sex, fashion, and instrumental covers of today’s biggest pop hits. It’s a bit campy, but the talent of its fairly unheard-of cast (especially leads Rege-Jean Page and Phoebe Dynevor) and the refreshing diversity of its characters more than makes up for it. Warning: You will binge this thing in one sitting. Set aside the appropriate amount of time now.
Intimate, funny, warm, and kind, Master of None confidently tackles issues of sex and race from a perspective original to mainstream television. Creator, writer, and star Aziz Ansari loads the sitcom with smart observations and wry humor, and when it comes to dating as a thirty-something, Ansari just gets it. Sweet, sentimental, but never sappy, the mold-breaking Master of None may be the most thoughtful and well-considered dating sitcom on television.
In the early 2010s, you couldn’t have a conversation about favorite TV shows without someone in your friend group mentioning Downton Abbey. The British series about the inner workings of an aristocratic English family and their manner full of servants became the biggest thing to invade America from across the pond since The Beatles. Watching the crusty Crawley family navigate historic events like the sinking of the Titanic and the First World War while their servants dealt in gossip, intrigue, and scandal below stairs was as entertaining and juicy as any good British drama should be.
You don’t need to love chess to get obsessed with this drama from Scott Frank. That’s because the board game is just the setting, the battlefield where all the real maneuverings and suspense take place. Anya-Taylor Joy and her mesmerizing stare are front and center here as she plays Beth Harmon, an orphan and chess prodigy whose quest for greatness is only eclipsed by her life-destroying addictions. It’s a coming-of-age story wrapped disguised behind pawns and Sicilian defense tactics and it’s one of the most captivating, thrilling series to land on the streamer in a long time.
Even though this sports-centric docuseries was just released earlier this year, it already feels like a defining entry into the genre. That’s because over the course of 10 episodes, this show peers behind the curtain of one of the biggest sports dynasties in history: The Chicago Bulls, but it doesn’t take the path you might expect. The battles off the court, the complicated player relationships, the media’s influence, and the backdoor dealings of executives within the organization all come into play here, but the most gripping part of this series is how it humanizes a God-like figure in basketball for the generations that grew up in his shadow.
Netflix is giving this true-crime series a reboot which is good news for all the murder mystery junkies out there. UFOs, missing husbands, and a murderous French count still on the run are the highlights of the show’s first six episodes. Get your sleuth hats ready.
James Brolin narrates this surprisingly heartfelt DC comic adaptation from Robert Downey Jr.’s producing team. The series is set in a post-apocalyptic world where human hybrids are being born and no one really knows why. Of course, that makes them targets and we follow one little boy’s journey, a half-human, half-deer hybrid named Gus as he tries to uncover the truth about his past.
Has there ever been a sitcom as downright clever as Community? Aside from the gas leak year, Community was quicker than nearly every other comedy out there, with jokes flying fast but also taking seasons to reach a punchline. After getting caught with a phony degree, former lawyer Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) heads to Greendale Community College to get a legitimate degree. There he gets into increasingly hilarious hijinks with his Spanish study group. Between paintball wars, zombie outbreaks, and the increasingly ridiculous presence of Senor Chang (Ken Jeong), Community is never, ever boring. Quit living in the darkest timeline and get to watching.
Comedian Mae Martin stars in this feel-good dramedy series about a stand-up performer (named Mae), who falls for a young woman named George. Mae’s a recovering addict; George has just emerged from the closet. Sparks fly between the two, but Mae’s past drug use and George’s reluctance to come out to her friends and family threatens to break them up.
There are stories too bizarre, too mind-boggling to be true… and then there’s this seven-part docuseries. Cults, queer romance, exotic cats — this true-crime binge has it all. Is Joe Exotic, a gay, gun-loving conman running an exotic zoo out of his home in Oklahoma, a criminal or an American hero? Did animal rights activist Carole Baskin murder her husband and feed him to her tigers? Why are so many zoo employees missing limbs? These are just a few of the questions you’ll ask while watching this train wreck. Have fun, kids.
Good news: Narcos is back. Even better news: Mexico is basically an entirely revamped show, which means you don’t need to be familiar with past installments to enjoy the wild ride. Diego Luna plays the new big bad, a drug lord looking to expand his reach, while Michael Pena plays the fed tasked with busting his operation. Luna looks to be thoroughly enjoying playing the sleazeball gangster-type, and since this installment is set in the 1980s, expect plenty of decadence, a killer soundtrack, and a ton of cocaine.
Henry Cavill leads this fantasy epic based on a best-selling series of books and a popular video game franchise. The expectations are high, but they’re more than exceeded by Cavill, who plays a mutated monster hunter named Geralt. Showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich laid out for us the changes she made from page to screen, introducing key characters like the sorceress Yennefer and the destined princess Ciri early on, changes that take this show to the next level. It’s a cross between a police procedural and a Lord Of The Rings-style adventure. You’ll love it.
The only thing better than a series starring Paul Rudd is a show starring two Paul Rudds. The funnyman leads this new original series while playing a man named Miles, who seems pretty dissatisfied with his life so far. After agreeing to participate in a mysterious spa treatment that promises a better, more successful life, Miles is left with a practically perfect doppelganger intent on taking his life from him. It’s dark and weird, and did we mention the two Paul Rudds?
Director Ava DuVernay’s limited series about the wrongfully accused men in the Central Park Five case is an emotionally heavy reimagining of a truly tragic event in our history. The series sheds light on racial profiling and corruption in the NYPD as a group of young Black men are targeted for a heinous crime and put on trial with little evidence. It’s a gripping, heartbreaking retelling, but one that feels sadly relevant.
Saturday Night Live and Detroiters alum Tim Robinson creates and stars in this 15-minute sketch comedy series that is perfectly happy to offer up a few irreverent laughs without all of the post-comedy commentary that weighs down other funny shows in 2019. It’s a mixed bag of unconnected stories about toddler pageants and old men out for revenge and how Instagram has warped our social interactions in hilariously bizarre ways. What each of these skits has in common is Robinson’s particular brand of comedy and his unrivaled ability to make you laugh.
Ali Wong and Tiffany Haddish voice the stars of this animated comedy from BoJack Horseman artist Lisa Hanawalt. Wong plays Bertie, a 30-something songbird thrush with debilitating anxiety, a knack for baking, and a truly toxic work environment. Haddish plays her best friend Tuca, a loud-mouthed toucan who loves to party and hates the thought of settling down. The friends try to hold on to their single days, even as Bertie takes the next step in her long-term relationship and Tuca struggles to find her place in the world. It’s a more colorful, comforting world than BoJack, but it’s got the same great humor and surprisingly-thoughtful musings.
Christina Applegate returns to TV with this grief-com about a woman trying to pick up the pieces after her husband is murdered in a horrible hit-and-run accident. Applegate plays the angry, grieving widow with equal parts humor and empathy while Linda Cardellini plays her sunny, optimistic best friend. The two meet in a grief group and navigate the challenges of moving on after loss while also solving a murder mystery. There’s no way you’ll know what to expect here, which is half the fun of watching and the show dispelled any worries that it couldn’t keep up its cliffhanger-heavy intrigue with a second season that saw Applegate and Cardellini involved in a new, just-as-illegal cover-up.
Natasha Lyonne stars in this Groundhog Day-from-hell remake about a woman who’s forced to relive the last day of her life over and over again. It’s been done before, but this series stands out thanks to its mix of dark humor and a tinge of the supernatural. Lyonne is one of the often-overlooked OITNB stars, but it looks like this series is giving her a chance to show off her comedic chops as her character, Nadia, endures a constant loop of partying, dying, then waking up to do it all over again. As bleak as the premise is, Lyonne manages to find a silver lining, a universal message that basically read, “The world is sh*t, let’s help each other out if we can.”
Superhero team-ups are a dime a dozen, but the TV adaptation of this award-winning comic series created by Gerard Way — yes, the lead singer of My Chemical Romance — feels wholly unique and thus, totally refreshing. The show follows the story of seven kids, all born on the same day to mothers who didn’t even know they were pregnant. They’re adopted by a mysterious billionaire and trained to use their supernatural abilities to fight evil in the world, but when they grow up, their dysfunctional upbringing catches up with them, and they’re left struggling to live normal lives. In season two, that means time-jumping to the 60s, starting doomsday cults, and seriously f*cking with the assassination of JFK. It’s all kinds of weird, which is exactly what the genre needs right now.
Kiernan Shipka stars in this witchy revival of a sitcom classic. This Sabrina Spellman is darker than what millennials are used to. As a half-mortal, half-witch, Spellman is an outcast with the magical community and the first season explores the cult-like fervor of magic users, their worship of Satan, and why Sabrina is being pressured to sign her name over to the Dark Lord. The show also tackles issues of romance, friendship, and sexism in clever, crafty ways with a season two storyline that put Sabrina in a darker version of Hogwarts and explores her familial ties to Lucifer. The show’s latest installment sees her teaming up with Satan’s mistress — that isn’t a dig, she’s literally working with Lilith — to balance her duties in hell with the pressures of teenage life. It’s all weird, gothic, Craft-like nonsense and it’s addicting to watch.
The UK’s most popular new drama has made its way across the pond. The procedural thriller stars Game of Thrones’ Richard Madden as David Budd, a military vet turned police officer tasked with protecting a high-profile politician during a, particularly dicey time. There’s plenty of suspense and action to string you along, coupled with a vulnerable performance by Madden, who ditches his King of the North swagger to play a man conflicted by his past and his present duty to his country.
Mike Flanagan knows how to do horror, and his latest series for Netflix, The Haunting of Hill House, is proof of that. The show, like the book off which it’s based, follows the fractured Crain family as they try to make peace with their dark and twisted path. Of course, through some carefully-timed flashbacks, we see why the Crain siblings are so messed up: They lived in a haunted house as children, a house that eventually caused the death of their mother. There are plenty of frights to keep horror fans interested in this thriller, but the real point of this show is investigating trauma and its lingering effects. Makes sense that horror is the best way to do that.
Not just the best series on Netflix, Breaking Bad is the best series of all time. There’s no debate about that. Unless you’ve caught onto the Better Call Saul hype. Then there might be a debate to be had. Still, this series proved what a dramatic powerhouse Bryan Cranston was and launched the b*tchin’ career of Aaron Paul, two good reasons to give it a re-watch — or a first watch. No judgment.
Not enough people on the Internet have explained that BoJack Horseman is not what it might seem like. Not enough people raved that it was an often very funny, often very heartbreaking meditation on depression. It’s an animated sitcom about a washed-up horse, and somehow, it’s also an incredibly profound look at deeper themes. It’s amazing, but it may also leave you in a depressive funk for days afterward. Its fourth season even placed it among our best TV shows of 2017, and it’s just never left that list, not in its fifth or final sixth season, which ended as poignantly and darkly funny as you’d expect it to.
A throwback and love letter to the early 1980s movies of Steven Spielberg and John Carpenter, the Duffer Brothers’ Stranger Things feels both familiar and new. It’s about a boy named Will (think E.T.‘s Elliot) who is captured by a The Thing-like creature and trapped in a Poltergeist-like world. His mother (Winona Ryder) recruits the local sheriff to investigate Will’s disappearance. Meanwhile, Will’s dorky, Goonies-like best friends take to their bikes to do some sleuthing of their own and eventually befriend an alien-like girl with telepathic powers (the E.T. of the series). Season two continued that vibe as the show dove deeper into government conspiracies and alien monsters intent on wreaking havoc on small-town Indiana while the show’s latest season let its magnetic young cast grow up a bit, giving them more complicated villains to fight and a Soviet conspiracy to uncover. It’s great PG horror/sci-fi, like the blockbusters of the early ’80s, and even if you didn’t come of age in the era, there’s something for everyone to enjoy.
Opening theme song or no, Netflix dropping this beloved teen drama is exactly what we need right now. Dawson’s Creek is the reason shows like The O.C., One Tree Hill, and Gossip Girl even exist and yet somehow, it still feels fresh and timely. It gave us an epic love story, likable characters, Katie Holmes, an unhealthy obsession with a young Joshua Jackson, and of course, the James Van Der Beek crying meme that just keeps on giving.
AMC’s 80s-centric tech drama is a seasons-long look behind the invention of the World Wide Web and the tech boom that came to define that era. Lee Pace plays Joe MacMillan, a smooth-talking salesman who worms his way into more than a few tech ventures over the course of four seasons. He’s joined by a couple of married computer engineers and a gifted programmer (Mackenzie Davis) in his bid to control (and make money off) the invention of the internet. Even if the more technical aspects of this series fly over your head, watching this kind of tangible human drama play out amidst a backdrop of Silicon Valley start-ups is more than enough reason to watch.
The series lost some of the mystique it had gained after its cancellation because Netflix’s season four wasn’t to everyone’s satisfaction — though it flowers with repeat viewings, especially with the recut version of it. Arrested Development still stands as one of the funniest, most inventive, and most influential sitcoms of the generation however and it’s got an unbelievably watchable cast in Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, Will Arnett, Jessica Walter, and David Cross. Seriously, you can’t go wrong here.
One of the best original shows on Netflix, this prison dramedy is a deeply human, funny, moving, realistic, progressive show about life and the bad decisions we’re all destined to make. OITNB humanizes the dehumanized, transforms labels — felons, thieves, murderers, embezzlers — into real human beings and reminds us that, even in prison, life isn’t put on hold. Life is being led. It’s a remarkably excellent series, and addictive as hell.
In its first season, Better Call Saul quickly put to rest any fears anyone might have had about a spin-off from arguably the greatest drama of all time, Breaking Bad (which sits atop this list). Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould return as showrunners, and they continue to bring the same level of complexity, intensity, and character development to Saul as they did for Breaking Bad. What’s most remarkable about the series, however, is that they managed to transform the Saul character into someone humane and sympathetic while staying true to the same character in the original series. Indeed, Saul is the most detail oriented and perhaps the smartest show on television, and one hell of an intense, suspenseful drama, which is all the more impressive because we know roughly where it will end up.
Ryan Murphy’s horror anthology on FX is an unpredictable tour-de-force that, when it sticks its landing, is one of the best shows on TV. The series chronicles truly terrifying, mind-warping plots across multiple seasons, connecting some, ignoring others. What grounds these outrageous storylines involving haunted hotels, murder houses, insane asylums, cults, and covens is the cast, most notably Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, and Evan Peters. Murphy relies on their visceral portrayals of individuals unhinged to sell this whacky, nightmare-inducing rollercoaster and sell they do.
At first glance, this bodice-ripper from Starz reads like the television adaptation of a dime-store paperback romance novel. It’s got time travel, sexy Scottish men in kilts, an arranged marriage, even a bit of witchcraft. But the show, starring Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan, elevates itself beyond those tropes, touching on everything from love and loss to the politics behind some of history’s most infamous conflicts. From the highlands to the French court and eventually the New World, the series delivers awe-inducing visuals, career-making performances, and the kind of drama to keep you hooked.
Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, and Seth Meyers have created something truly unique with their riff on our culture’s obsession with docu-style TV series. The SNL alums mock the stylistic choices and subjects of other shows of its ilk, with episodes dedicated to everything from Grey Gardens to The Thin Blue Line. And the guestlist for this thing is unbelievable.
In Mindhunter, Jonathan Groff plays Holden Ford, a character based on the real-life John E. Douglas (the inspiration for Jack Crawford in the Hannibal series). The series itself is based on the origins of an actual behavioral science unit in the FBI used to study serial killers in the 1970s and 80s. Ford is a young FBI Agent who takes a keen interest in psychology which, in turn, grows into an interest in the psychology of sequential killers. It’s a fascinating exploration into the origins of what now seems commonplace, a science that has inspired dozens of police procedurals. What’s more interesting here, however, is that while Ford is studying serial killers (all of whom are based on actual serial killers from that era), Ford develops his own obsession with serial-killers that mirrors the obsession serial killers have with their victims. It’s engrossing and fascinating. The series comes from Joe Penhall and executive producer David Fincher (who also directs several episodes), and fans of Fincher’s Zodiac will appreciate Mindhunter for its same attention to detail, and the same dedication to character and research over surprising twists and reveals.
This Tina Fey-produced sitcom — which was originally supposed to air on NBC before the network agreed to give it to Netflix — is as dense and irreverent as 30 Rock, but it’s also immensely life-affirming. It’s funny, fast-paced, chock-full of pop-culture references and maybe the easiest Netflix original series to binge-watch. And, like 30 Rock, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt also includes a lot of fun — and unexpected — celebrity cameos and pop culture references throughout its four seasons.
The Walking Dead is an up-and-down show. When it’s good, it’s phenomenal; when it’s not, it can be a slog (especially in the earlier half of the series, when Frank Darabont was showrunner). Greg Nicotero does fantastic work, and the series is particularly compelling because no one — no matter how high they are listed in the credits — is safe from the zombie apocalypse. Some of the binge-watching value, however, is lost because it’s so difficult to avoid being spoiled to plot points of one of the most talked-about series on TV. Nevertheless, unlike almost any television drama, up until the sixth season, The Walking Dead improved with age, Beware of the cliffhangers, however, in season six, and a precipitous fall off in quality thereafter.
Although the original trial took place 20 years ago, and despite the fact that anyone watching the series already knows the outcome, The People vs. O.J. Simpson somehow remains a tense, suspenseful watch. Buoyed by incredible performances (the season was nominated for over 20 Emmy Awards, winning 8), The People vs. O.J. Simpson recreates the events following the murder of Ronald Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson and recasts them in the light of what we know now. In its second season, the shows moves focus on the assassination of design legend Gianni Versace by Andrew Cunanan. While not as strong as the amazing ensemble in Season 1, Season 2 boasts memorable portrayals of conflicted, complex figures by Darren Criss, Penelope Cruz, Édgar Ramírez, and (surprisingly) Ricky Martin.
Few comedians are as influential to the world of stand-up and sketch comedy as Dave Chappelle is but it’s been a minute since the icon headlined his own series. If watching his kill it on SNL recently got you jonesing for more Chappelle characters on screen, then revisiting this variety series that really cemented Chappelle’s status as a comedy legend is a must.
Packed full of hairspray, ’80s nostalgia, leotards, and neon eyeshadow, GLOW surprised us all with a comedy about a group of unconventional women wrestling with stereotypes in and out of the ring. Led by Alison Brie and Marc Maron, the show is both a subversive commentary on issues of gender equality and sexism, and a raucous imagining of what goes on behind the scenes of an adult women’s wrestling league. In other words, it’s a damn good time. Brie carries the series, playing a struggling actress forced to take a “role” in this televised nonsense, but she’s by no means a heroine. In fact, it’s her battle to find her character and herself (while making amends for her bad behavior along the way) that’s so entertaining. Well, that and some good ol’ fashioned body slamming. Season two focuses the spotlight on the supporting cast as the women ready for their television debuts and contend with sexual harassment and misogyny in the workplace and the show’s third season felt like it was setting up a satisfying conclusion to the rich story these women share. Unfortunately, it looks like the pandemic has taken that away from us too.
Riverdale is a dark teen comedy based on characters from the Archie comics. It mixes in elements of a conventional teen drama — romance, small-town life, and the high-school ecosystem — with a compelling, adult murder mystery. The series takes place in a small-town with a 1950s vibe (despite being firmly set in the present) where a high-school teenager is found dead under mysterious circumstances that implicate much of the community as suspects. Riverdale is powered not just by the mystery, but by characters who are instantly likable (Betty, Veronica, and Jughead are all standouts) and easy to invest in. The mystery is so incredibly intriguing that it’s almost impossible not to get wrapped up in it as the storyline guides us through numerous red herrings. It’s a madly addictive series, occasionally campy, and just self-aware enough not to take itself too seriously.
5 seasons, 22 episodes + interactive film | IMDb: 8.8/10
It cannot be stressed enough how amazing Britain’s Black Mirror is. It’s severely biting social commentary about the current and future technological age in the form of twisted, dark Twilight Zone episodes. It’s an incredible (and incredibly short) five seasons of television, and episode for episode, perhaps the best series on this list boasting a wide-ranging list of talent and digging into some heavy sh*t with increasingly futuristic sci-fi storytelling. Trust us, one episode, and you’ll be hooked.
Netflix’s original series Dear White People builds on the foundations laid by Spike Lee’s drama of the same name. The show kicks off during the aftermath of an event that happened in the film – a blackface party held by a white fraternity on a fictional college campus. Sam, a radio personality and student at the school, covers the fallout for her listeners and serves as a pseudo-narrator to all the goings-on at school. There are brief moments of humor and plenty of satire, but watching these kids deal with racist learning institutions and police brutality and ignorance from the privileged peers feels uncomfortable real and relevant. It’s a must-watch, not only because the acting is superb, and the storylines are rich, but because you’ll probably learn something you didn’t know but should.
Omar Sy stars in this gripping, deliciously fun mystery thriller about a man hell-bent on revenge. Sy plays Assane Diop, a master thief who seeks payback when his father’s wealthy employer accuses him of stealing a valuable diamond necklace. Assane’s dad commits suicide because of the shame, but the con-man decides to wreak havoc on his enemy’s life, inspired by the adventures of master thief Arsène Lupin, a character created by Maurice Leblanc in the early 1900s.
Exec produced by Steven Soderbergh and written, directed, and created by Scott Frank, who wrote Logan and Out of Sight, Godless, is equal parts a feminist Western and s a show about fathers and sons. The series is set in the 1880s in the small mining town of La Belle, where nearly all of the town’s men have died in a mining accident. Enter Roy Goode (Jack O’Connell), a charming gunslinger on the run from the mentor he double-crossed, Frank Griffin (Jeff Daniels), who — along with his crew out desperadoes — had already murdered everyone in another small town for harboring Goode. The series ultimately pits a town of mostly women against a brutal, merciless outlaw gang. Scoot McNairy, Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Sam Waterston play lawmen, but the standouts in Godless are Downton Abby‘s nearly unrecognizable shotgun wielding pioneer woman Michelle Dockery and Merritt Wever, a bisexual woman all out of f–ks to give. It’s a tremendously good series buoyed by beautiful cinematography, poetic language, a few great shoot-outs, and fine performances from the entire cast. It’s one of the best Netflix series of 2017.
Daredevil is unquestionably the best superhero series of all time. It has the addictive qualities of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it’s darker and more intense than any of those films. It’s harsh, with brutal eye-popping fight sequences. It has an excellent cast (led by Charlie Cox as the title character) with tons of chemistry, and nails the tone of the source material. It’s a shame Marvel’s deal with Netflix ended because the show’s third season was a masterclass in how to act like a tortured hero from Cox and it set up some interesting storylines we’re still dying to see play out.
The animated, coming-of-age comedy from Nick Kroll is full of familiar voices and even more familiar life problems. Centered on a group of pre-pubescent friends, Kroll voices a younger version of himself, a kid named Andrew who’s going through some embarrassing life changes like inconvenient erections and strange wet dreams and bat-mitzvah meltdowns. All these traumatizing and hilarious happenings are usually caused by Maurice, Andrew’s own Hormone Monster (also voiced by Kroll) who takes pleasure (literally) in abusing the poor kid. As painfully accurate as the show is, if you’re lucky enough to be removed from that angst-ridden era of life, you’ll probably appreciate the humor in all of it.
As an episodic series, Jessica Jones occasionally falters in its three seasons-run but it always provides an unfiltered, refreshingly honest look at trauma, its aftermath, and choosing to do better. Jones is a private detective with certain special powers, but the series doesn’t put her P.I. talents to much use, instead focusing on one storyline surrounding the big bad, Kilgrave (David Tennant) for the show’s first season before pivoting to flesh out the character’s backstory and family ties in its two follow-up installments. Still, it’s a captivating, thematically-rich series that covers ground no other superhero series would dare to explore, and while that doesn’t make it the most entertaining Marvel series, it is the bravest and most unique among the Netflix originals.
In theory, American Vandal sounds silly and sophomoric, and it is, but it’s also a genuinely brilliant, incredibly clever, smartly written satire of true-crime documentaries. It plays just like any other true crime docuseries — interviews, investigations, multiple suspects, and numerous conspiracy theories — only the crime here is not a murder. In its first season, it’s a high-school student who has been accused by the school board of spray painting dicks on 27 cars, a crime that threatens his ability to graduate. It’s a brilliant whodunnit that just happens to also be the best parody of 2017, and it even took home a Peabody Award. The show’s follow-up season trades dick picks for explosive diarrhea which is just as fun, if not ten times as gross.
Maybe the wittiest, pop-culture rich drama ever, Gilmore Girls has nevertheless managed to hold up incredibly well over the years. It’s a great show to watch with a new generation of television viewers, it’s a great show to watch while bingeing on food, and it’s a great show to re-watch many times. The relationship between single mother Lorelai and her daughter, Rory, never gets old.
A young boy is found dead in a seemingly idyllic small town, and the detectives charged with solving the case turn up twist after twist in tracking down the murderer. Despite its familiar premise (see also: Twin Peaks, The Killing), Broadchurch relies on its ensemble cast — specifically the impeccable David Tennant and Olivia Colman — to keep viewers caring after each red herring is tossed back into the ocean. The first series centers on the hunt for the killer while the second is on both the suspect’s trial and a reopened case from the past, but they both don’t let up in intrigue. A word of warning, though: This isn’t one of those TV dramas you should binge even if you want to. It gets heavy and emotionally exhausting, and unrestrained streaming kinda negates the effect of the show’s mysteries.
Set in the afterlife, The Good Place sees a lazy, entitled selfish, Arizona woman Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) enter into “Heaven” only to discover that — due to a mixup — she was incorrectly assigned. With the help of her new friends and, Shellstrop endeavors to be a better person and earn her place in Heaven. In the early goings, the high-concept premise feels like it’s going to run out of runway, but Mike Schur (Parks and Recreation) continually finds new directions to take the show and the characters, as the show humorously and sweetly tackles an array of moral dilemmas before arriving at a surprising twist ending. It’s a charming, clever and delightful series with a freshly-imagined approached that only improves as the season progresses and new wrinkles are explored, while Ted Danson is his usual remarkable self. It’s a fantastic comedy, one of the best TV shows on network television in recent years.
The long-running Showtime series understands better than any other drama on television what it’s like to be poor in America. Set in Chicago, Shameless follows the lives of the Gallagher family as they struggle beneath the poverty line to make ends meet. The family is afflicted with alcoholism, drug addiction, mental illness, poor decision-making skills, and the kind of terrible luck that so often follows poor families, but they’ve also got each other, their resilience, and a determination to break the cycle, but in Shameless, impoverishment is the boogeyman that always comes back, hilariously and heartbreakingly.
Another British import, Peaky Blinders is roughly the Netflix UK equivalent of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, taking place in the same time period and covering similar terrain. Peaky has one thing that Boardwalk does not, however, and that’s the piercing, intense Cillian Murphy. The show also features Tom Hardy as a phenomenal recurring character debuting in season two (along with Noah Taylor) and it manages to seamlessly blend roughly-accented melodrama with historical events so everything feels timely and modern.
At once intimate and sweeping, The Crown presents an inside view of the ascension of Queen Elizabeth II, played by Claire Foy, and the first few years of her reign. John Lithgow is featured as the indomitable Winston Churchill, struggling with the ignominy of age at the end of his career. Churchill’s support and mentorship of Elizabeth, despite his limitations, creates an important emotional center around which various historical events turn. Elizabeth’s relationship with her husband, Prince Phillip (Matt Smith) is also wonderfully explored; his role as consort is one that he by turns delights in and rebels against. And because the show has committed to exploring Elizabeth’s length reign, we’re treated to different versions of these characters throughout their lives. In season 3, Olivia Colman picks up the crown while Tobias Menzies plays Prince Phillip and Helena Bonham Carter comes on board as Princess Margaret.
The Great British Bake Off (and this slightly retitled American version) is guilty pleasure binge material for so many that it’s no wonder it shows up here. If I watch other cooking shows to travel to exotic places and vicariously experience strange foods, GBBS is kind of the opposite of that. Its strength is that it’s goofily charming. And we’ve become so accustomed to camera-hogging reality villains and performative not-here-to-make-friendsing that a show featuring charming grandmas and shy Brits is really a breath of fresh air. It almost works more like a mockumentary than a cooking show.
Based on a Spanish telenovela, Jane the Virgin plays more like a brilliant but genial satire of conventional telenovelas. Gina Rodriguez plays the virgin here, who is impregnated through an accidental artificial insemination. Matters are complicated, however, because she has to break the news of her pregnancy to her deeply religious family, as well as her fiancé, with whom she has never had sex. Jane also develops feelings for another man who just so happens to be the baby’s father. It sounds like a premise that could not sustain itself beyond 5 episodes, but the writing is so good and the characters so delightful that Jane never gets bogged down by its premise. It’s a genuinely delightful, heartwarming show, and Gina Rodriguez lights up the screen every second she is on it.
Fox’s comedy about a quirky girl who moves in with three male roommates quickly evolved from a pretty straightforward premise to become one of the best shows on TV. Zooey Deschanel plays Jess, a teacher who’s forced to room with three other guys, Nick (Jake Johnson), Schmidt (Max Greenfield), and Winston (Lamorne Morris) after she discovers her boyfriend’s been cheating on her. For the next seven seasons, the gang grows to become close friends — getting married, having babies, experiencing sympathy PMS, and getting stuck in Mexico, among other disasters. Still, it’s the chemistry between the four mains that makes every outlandish episode work.
House Of Cards, Netflix’s first major foray into original programming, is worth every cent of its $100 million production budget, featuring searing performances, a droll sense of humor, slick writing, engrossing plot-lines, and Kevin Spacey chewing the face off the scenery. The first season is phenomenal, but the show rapidly goes downhill with some sparks of life in scattered seasons, with the final season focused on Robin Wright’s Claire Underwood being cluttered at best.
A musical series about a woman who leaves her prestigious job in Manhattan to follow an ex-boyfriend to a small town in California, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is like no other show on a show on television. The premise is not unlike that of Felicity, but the tone is unique: Quirky and hilarious on the surface, but dark and subversive underneath. As co-creator (along with Aline Brosh McKenna) and star, Golden Globe winner Rachel Bloom provides catchy songs with irreverent lyrics that offer dark meditations on depression, insecurity, and the challenges of balancing careers and love lives. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is funny, feminist and infectious.
Once the Wachowskis’ underappreciated sci-fi series establishes its characters, there’s at least one profoundly moving moment in every episode. Sense8 is rich with brilliant ideas, and, though they’re not always executed with perfect logic, the chemistry between the characters is undeniable. It’s impossible not to root for them, to feel and experience their ups and downs, their confusion and heartbreak, and, most of all, their love. The Wachowskis first foray into television is at once romantic, life-affirming, and thought-provoking.
It’s rare that older women get a chance to shine on a half-hour comedy series, but if your stars happen to be Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda, you’d be insane not to have all the action center on them. Grace and Frankie follows the pair as they discover that their husbands have been carrying on an affair with each other. The news throws life into chaos, forcing Grace and Frankie to room together and pick up the pieces. Along the way, there are family squabbles, online dating drama, and a battle over the ladies’ organic lube company but at the heart of the show are these two women who bond after a devastating ordeal and support one another during a time of change and growth. Did we mention organic lube? There’s that, too.
Travelers is a sci-fi series co-produced by Netflix and a Canadian television network Showcase starring Eric McCormick (Will & Grace). It’s a light sci-fi drama about people from hundreds of years in the future whose consciences are sent back to the present day to take the place of others who are already about to die. They’re sent back, a la Terminator, to prevent a bleak future from taking place. In the present day, this group of people is tasked with missions to prevent the future dystopia from happening, but they also have to acclimate into the lives of their host bodies. It is a quintessential Netflix show: Easy-to-binge, madly addictive, fun as hell, and immediately engrossing. While it certainly borrows heavily from other sci-fi shows and movies, it does an excellent job of shaking it up and bringing fresh life to the genre.
A remake of a 1970s sitcom produced by 94-year-old iconic television producer Norman Lear, One Day at a Time manages to not only match its predecessor but miraculously improve upon it. This new version centers on a Cuban America family headed by a single mom (Justina Machado) raising three kids with the help of her mom (Rita Moreno). It’s broad jokes and laugh track feels somewhat out of place on the streaming service, but the jokes still land and more importantly, the characters connect in an honest way as they attempt to live on a modest nurse’s salary and maintain their Cuban heritage while adapting to modern progressivism (much like Fresh Off the Boat). It’s more poignant sitcom than it is funny, but it’s a warm, loving look at difficulties of single parenting that resonates as much today as it did in the ’70s.
Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara star in this Canadian sitcom about a wealthy family forced to scale down their extravagant lifestyle with hilarious results. Levy plays Johnny Rose, a rich video-store magnate who loses his fortune when his business manager fails to pay his taxes. O’Hara plays his wife, Moira, a former soap opera star who, along with her husband and their two pampered children, must move to a town called Schitt’s Creek. The show finally started to get the critical attention it deserved in later seasons so rest assured, the quality of humor and storytelling never drops with this one — nor does the outlandish verbiage of its leading lady.
Ryan Murphy’s fashionable ’80s drama imagines the rise of the world of ball culture. Murphy focuses on warring houses in the scene, painting a myriad of queer portraits about gays, lesbians, and trans warriors, forging their own path amidst bigotry and hatred in New York City. There’s couture, there are catfights, and there’s plenty of vogueing, but there’s also nuanced, heartfelt portrayals of figures who paved the way for the acceptance of this fringe community.
Vampire roommates, a star-studded murder mystery, and several new installments of currently running TV shows. The streaming game belongs to Hulu this week as the indisputable champion of several genres. The service offers a new series starring Selena Gomez, Steve Martin, and Martin Short, which will appeal to so many target audiences that it’s incredible. In addition, Hulu has the return of FX’s What We Do In The Shadows along with a John Cena comedy and Nicole Kidman’s new show about a wellness resort gone very wrong. New episodes of Reservation Dogs and Archer and American Horror Story: Double Feature in one place mean that there’s no contending with the king.
Meanwhile, Netflix continues to stack the coffers high, too, even if they don’t have the highest profile selections of the moment. Don’t count out Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, or HBO Max this week, either. Here’s the best of the new streaming selections for this weekend.
Hulu
Hulu
Only Murders In The Building: Season 1 (Hulu series) — Only a few short years ago, Selena Gomez stood awkwardly in a designer gown alongside t-shirt clad co-stars Adam Sandler and Kevin James at a photocall, and let’s just say that her current co-stars would never. Here, she stars alongside the legendary Steve Martin and Martin Short, and the three portray NYC neighbors who aim to unravel an apparent murder inside their apartment building. Yes, they’re all podcasting because everyone does it (duh), and before long, the killer might be after them, too. Martin hasn’t written a feature film since the Pink Panther movies and Shopgirl, and I don’t wanna come out and call this trio a “much cooler Three Amigos” update, but Martin wrote that, too, so why not?
What We Do in the Shadows (FX, 10:00 & 10:30pm) — Well, well, well. Guillermo turned out to be a vampire killer, which sure as heck came as a surprise to Nandor, Nadja, and Laszlo, and Colin. The four Staten Island roommates must figure out how to handle this conundrum, along with tackling the other challenges of this season. Those include dealing with wellness cults and gym culture, along with gargoyles, werewolves who play kickball, casinos, and more. In addition, the vamps also receive a higher level of powers while Nandor experiences an eternal-life crisis, which forces him to examine whether he should be a bachelor for eternity or embrace love.
Vacation Friends (Hulu film) — If you can’t get enough of John Cena’s entry into mainstream movies, then this will be a raw, raunchy treat for you. The WWE star portrays a party guy who shows up uninvited at a wedding of former “vacation friends,” who happen to be a mild-mannered couple portrayed by Lil Rel Howery and Yvonne Orji. Enjoy the chaos, and let’s all be thankful that romantic-esque, Frat Pack-esque comedies still exist for us to enjoy for a much needed break from reality. This film’s directed by Silicon Valley‘s Clay Tarver, who also co-writes here.
Archer (FXX, 10:00pm) — Season 12 continues with a trip down memory lane for Malory while it’s British history time for Pam during a voyage across the pond.
American Horror Story: Double Feature (FX, 10:00pm) — Alma takes matters into her own hands while Harry meets up with an unexpected visitor, who’s attracted by his newfound talent.
Reservation Dogs: (FX on Hulu) — Taika Waititi’s FX on Hulu followup to What We Do in the Shadows brings us a comedy series that’s co-written by Native American filmmaker Sterlin Harjo. Yes, the lead quartet in this show rocks suits that look strikingly similar to the characters of Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, yet they’re four Indigenous teens who fight crime and also commit it. The show (which has some Atlanta vibes) was shot in and near Okmulgee, Oklahoma (the home of the Muskogee Creek tribal headquarters) — where excitement is lacking. Not for long, though. This week, Cheese is doing the ride-along thing.
Nine Perfect Strangers: Nicole Kidman’s one of several A-listers who’ve made themselves at home on the so-called “small screen” in recent years, and after a few Emmys and a Golden Globe for Big Little Lies and a Globe nomination for The Undoing, she’s not done yet. She portrays a wellness guru that might remind you of certain celebrities who shill bizarre products and claim that they’ll change your life with a dash of snake oil. Yes, the Paddington villain is here to shake up your little world again.
Netflix
Netflix
Worth (Netflix film) — This based-on-true-events movie follows the inception of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, as led by a Congress-appointed attorney, Kenneth Feinberg, who’s portrayed by Michael Keaton. He’s up against an antagonistic Charles Wolf (Stanley Tucci), who’s in mourning of his own accord and must come to grips with the value of compassion. Amy Ryan plays Feinberg’s most powerful executive attorney, and overall, the film examines how humans must come together to recognize the power of empathy.
Q-Force: Season 1 (Netflix series) — A misfit gathering of LGBTQ+ intelligence-agency geniuses come together at the behest of Steve Maryweather, AKA Agent Mary. He came out as gay within the American Intelligence Agency (AIA), only to be relegated to West Hollywood, where he showed everyone what happens when a fired-up agent goes rogue. Eventually, the whole Q-Force transforms into Active Secret Agents status, but first, they’re tasked with dealing with Agent Buck, a straight-dude within their ranks.
Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror (Netflix docuseries) — This five-part docuseries marks the 20th anniversary of 9/11 with a timely examination of the War in Afghanistan and what, exactly, really led the war on terror to our current moment in history. Expect interviews from U.S. military veterans and Afghanistan National Army soldiers, along with Taliban commanders, and government officials from both the U.S. and the Afghan government. As well, 9/11 survivor voices will reverberate as the world continues to reflect upon how that day altered the globe forever.
UNTOLD: Crime & Penalties (Netflix film) — A trash magnate who’s in deep with the mob decides to buy a hockey team as a gift for his teenage son, who’s obsessed with The Mighty Ducks. This really happened in 2004 at the hand of Jimmy Galante — allegedly the inspiration for The Sopranos — who launched the Trashers team in Connecticut. Somehow, hockey collides here with pro wrestling, and everything went off the rails to the point where the FBI had to shut things down.
Sparking Joy: Season 1 (Netflix series) — Marie Kondo’s here to help you throw out your sh*t with abandon and transform your life in the process. This time, though, Kondo’s moving past home organization and into businesses and relationships, in order to prove that throwing out your sh*t can have surprising results throughout all facets in life. She’ll also give us a glimpse into her own family life, which hopefully will have a slight touch of messiness to offer? You gotta live a little, Kondo.
Afterlife of the Party (Netflix film) — Victoria Justice portrays a social butterfly who dies during her birthday week, and she unexpectedly receives a second chance to make things right in order to secure her position (according to the Netflix synopsis) “into the big VIP room in the sky.”
How To Be A Cowboy (Netflix series) — Dale Brisby is, uh, keeping cowboy traditions alive through… the power of social media. Alright!
Apple TV+
Apple TV+
See: Season 2 (Apple TV+ series) — Apple TV+’s See helped launch the tech giant’s streaming service less than two years ago, and the show was so wild and wooly that it worked. Jason Momoa’s back in fur coats and in warrior mode as Baba Voss. This season, he’s antagonized by Dave Bautista, which should add enough drama to keep the (somewhat silly) story alive, in a world where no one can see, but everyone is beautiful to look at from an audience standpoint. One of those sighted miracle-twins needs rescuing, so that propels much of the action early this season, but mostly, it’s all about clashing egos and warring beards. A good time, in other words.
Truth Be Told: Season 2 (Apple TV+ series) — Octavia Spencer and Kate Hudson star in this show about a true-crime podcaster who achieves notoriety, although everything comes back to bite her in the butt after someone that she helped to convict was, well, wrongfully convicted. In this season, Spencer’s podcaster (Poppy) launches a new case that’s deeply personal, given that it involves Hudson’s media mogul (Micah), and soon enough, their friendship may be on the line, along with their reputations.
Ted Lasso: Season 2 (Apple TV+ series) — First thing’s first: Everyone who’s caught a glimpse of this Bill Lawrence co-created and developed series loves it. That’s a notable feat, considering that star Jason Sudeikis first portrayed the title character way back in 2013 for NBC Sports’ promos for Premier League coverage. Fast forward to the fresh hell that was 2020, and the show surfaced as one of the year’s lone bright spots. Ted Lasso is somehow both relentlessly and charmingly cheery, although there’s always the spectre of Led Tasso to consider.
Disney+
Disney+
Happier than Ever: A Love Letter to Los Angeles (Disney+ film) — Billie Eilish headlines this concert film that follows her newest album, Happier Than Ever, with an intimate performance from the Hollywood Bowl stage. Robert Rodriguez and Patrick Osbourne co-direct, and expect some dreamlike and animated elements as Eilish celebrates her Los Angeles roots with help from singer-songwriter FINNEAS.
Dug Days (Pixar series on Disney+) — Remember the tearjerking Up? Well, lovable dog Dug is back with a series of short features that take place in his very own backyard, and expect your heart-strings to be pulled, along with your funny bone. Your soul just might take off like a house attached to every balloon in the universe, too. Embrace it.
What If…? (Disney+ series) — We’re in the multiverse, baby. The MCU’s officially launching headfirst into that realm after Loki‘s season finale, and this show’s Twitter account clarified official participation as well. Enjoy this show full of alternate realities that stand separate from the existing canon (thus far), including Agent Carter taking the super-soldier serum, T’Challa materializing as Star Lord, and Black Widow and Nick Fury taking on a murder mystery while Tony Stark eats a donut. This week, Dr. Strange gets the tearjerking treatment.
Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime
Cinderella (Amazon Prime film) — Pop star Camila Cabello stars in this slight reimagining of the classic fairytale. Expect all of the familiar beats, however, with the royal ball, attended ty the evil stepsisters, and a changed fortune for the orphaned main character. Co-stars include Idina Menzel, Billy Porter, Minnie Driver, James Corden (who can’t avoid a musical), and Pierce Freaking Brosnan. Don’t turn into a pumpkin; instead, put this into your queue.
Annette (Amazon Prime film) — Adam Driver’s singing into a vagina for some odd reason in this movie that includes the most outlandish of setups for reasons that don’t make complete sense. Yet Driver’s stand-up comedian is accompanied by Marion Cotillard’s opera singer, and the pair falls in love before giving birth to the title character, who is gifted beyond belief with an exceptional destiny. Expect an examination of passion and fame and everything in between.
AMC+
AMC
The Walking Dead: Season 11A (AMC series) — This zombie-apocalypse universe’s flagship series returns for one final rodeo with two spinoffs still in motion, so it’s time to wrap this puppy up before the various shows’ timelines begin to intersect. Negan’s no longer the show’s villain, Alpha’s been vanquished, and Carol’s about to split from the group. When one really thinks about all the careers that this show has bolstered (Steven Yeun, Dania Guerra, Andrew Lincoln, Jon Bernthal, and so on), it’s impressive that Norman Reedus has stuck it out for the long haul, so Daryl and Carol must end this show by literally riding off into the sunset by motorcycle. We’ll accept nothing else.
HBO Max
HBO Max
The Other Two: Season 1 (HBO Max series) — Lorne Michaels of SNL fame executive produces this series that’s created, written, and also executive produced by Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider (formerly co-head writers of SNL). The cast includes Drew Tarver, Heléne Yorke, Case Walker, Ken Marino, and Molly Shannon, and the plot follows a showbiz family, in which a 14-year-old pop star decides that it’s time to officially retire. Meanwhile, the family’s 53-year-old matriarch (Shannon) is enjoying ubiquity of her own, so “The Other Two” will do everything they can to shine as well.
Adventure Time: Distant Lands – Wizard City (HBO Max series) — The original series that ran on Cartoon Network receives another (fourth and final) one-hour special that gets dark while following Finn the Human and Jake the Dog throughout their land-of-Ooo life and times.
Sweet Life: Los Angeles: Season 1 (HBO Max series) — The WarnerMedia streaming service is keeping up with its summer of unscripted content that also includes The Hype and FBoy Island. In particular, this show follows a group of young, Black, and ambitious mid-20 somethings while they pursue dreams. Of course, those dreams not only happen to be professional but also involve loyalty and love. The quarter-life mark is a milestone unlike any other, and in South Los Angeles, this group of long-time friends comes together for a three-episode drop, which will be followed by more episodes running through September 2.
Samantha Bee already has her own self-titled show to handle on TBS, but the Full Frontal host has officially thrown her hat in the ring to become the next full-time host of Jeopardy! Well, kind of.
The former Comedy Central standout shared a Jeopardy! “audition” video on Thursday that saw her basically riff her way through a mostly not real attempt at taking the recently vacated job after Mike Richards resigned from the show in shame. But while Bee is enthusiastic about the gig, she may not have as much experience with the job as some others who served as guest host earlier in the year.
“There’s a category for four-letter words?” Bee asked at one point in the rapid-fire video. “Are you allowed to say f*ck on Jeopardy!?”
The video is a brief joke about the topsy-turvy ride the show has been on in recent weeks thanks to Richards, the once-crowned new host to follow Alex Trebek after his death. Richards has resigned in shame now, both from his hosting gig but also his work as an executive producer, so maybe there’s a chance what’s left of the show’s leadership will actually give Bee a shot.
“All those people who’ve been saying “who is Samantha Bee?” for years were right!” the video’s description said.
What’s more, though, the video posted on YouTube also serves as a fundraiser for Planned Parenthood so the added attention on what’s been a very tumultuous job has at least gone to a good cause here.
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