September means the Emmy’s (if you’re a TV junkie like me) and the beginning of the fall tv season. But before new shows began this week I found some great pop culture to keep me motivated…
Listening
I was chatting with my brother over Labor Day weekend and he suggested that I check out House of Carbs – and he was right. I had downloaded an episode to try before he mentioned the pod. It’s a great bit of food news and travel food news each week. If you wake up in the morning and the TV is on Food Network from the night before, this podcast is for you…
I hadn’t listened to much of the Nerdist this summer but the live show from ID10T Fest was great, as was the interview with Tatiana Maslany. My friend Mary Lou, with a fabulous podcast herself, mentioned her new favorite podcast – My Dad Wrote a Porno. Yup. It’s exactly what it sounds like. And it’s HYSTERICAL! The guy reads the “book” his dad wrote with two friends who make comments every other sentence. I haven’t listened as much as I want to because I can NOT listen while driving…
And for a complete 180, I really enjoyed the Pod Save America interview with Hillary Clinton and her interview on Fresh Air…
Reading
How do you make time to read each day? I have been on a string of books that are too easy to put down and not keeping me enthralled. Maybe it’s the books I’ve chosen, or maybe it’s that Twitter is such drama these days. I need a better system for reading.
Currently I’m reading What Happened, the Hillary Clinton book. I’m really enjoying it – her insights on being a woman in politics are fascinating to me. I’m learning and appreciating her a lot more than I have before.
My book and comic book piles are OUT of control – I need a power outage so I’m forced to read for about a week…
Watching
Why am I not reading? Because every spare moment there’s something to WATCH! This summer had a lot of great female characters – Huzzah!
I finally watched the final season of Orphan Black. This is a show best binge watched – too many characters and crazy plot lines to keep track of weekly. The final season wrapped up the story well, although I sort of wished I had watched the whole series at once, I had a few “wait, who’s that again?” moments.
I finished The Sinner last week and appreciated that they pulled it all together. My sister in law texted me a couple of weeks ago and thought I had finished the series – she asked if it ended well because it’s SUPER WEIRD. Neither of us knew at the time how it would end, but we were both satisfied with the ending – even it if took some very dark and twisted turns to get there…
A few years ago I watched Top of the Lake with Emmy favorite Elisabeth Moss. So when I heard that Top of the Lake: China Girl was happening AND it featured Brienne of Tarth herself – Gwendolyn Christie – I was IN. I tend to limit my dark/weird/creepy sex crime shows to one at a time but I ended up with Top of the Lake and The Sinner wrapping up at the same time. I’m glad I had The Good Place on Netflix to cleanse my palette. Anyway, TOTL: China Girl was really good, not amazing like the first season, but the intertwining of the season and plots was great. I’m a TV nerd not a film student, but this season felt like it needed one more run through editing – a lot of scenes just ended or transitioned awkwardly. And holy Nicole Kidman – she was a fantastic addition!
I loved The Good Place last year and am so happy it’s back! The premiere was fantastic and I’m so excited for where it will take us this season! AND I’m really enjoying this season of You’re the Worst which is the BEST and you should be watching it.
The Emmy’s
I didn’t really plan to write about The Emmy’s, but I have some opinions and a lot of I TOLD YOU SO’s.
First of all, if you haven’t watched The Handmaids Tale, please stop reading this and go get a free month of Hulu to watch it! Every award they won was deserved. And if you watched The Leftovers then you REALLY know what an amazing actress Ann Dowd is and that she deserved that Emmy for all her work in the past year.
I also was on board with Big Little Lies winning – that show was great and so was Nicole Kidman. (who you can see in a very different maternal role in Top of the Lake: China Girl) You should watch it. Also – one of the kids is Young Sheldon (which my husband predicts will have a short lifespan).
My favorite episode of Master of None this season was Thanksgiving which won Lena Waithe a writing Emmy (the first for an African American Woman). It was a wonderful bottleneck episode that you should watch.
Finally, if you haven’t watched The Night Of yet, you need to. It’s great.
What’s your pop culture consumption look like this month? What new shows are you excited about? How do you make time to read and not watch so much TV?
Leave a Reply