Byte Size: Idiot Box – Part II
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Byte Size: Idiot Box – Part II
A scattershot selection of newish TV programming.
With the first half of this diabolical year well and truly done and dusted, it’s time for another installment in my ongoing Idiot Box series.
This particular sampling of streaming paraphernalia has many ups, downs, and curious asides: alternate history and gritty urban realism, absurd reenactments and meticulous recreations, inner mysteries and outer unknowns, cerebral mindfuckery and cephalopod intercourse. It’s all here, folks. Enjoy!
For All Mankind (Apple TV+)
Synopsis: “In an alternative version of 1969, the Soviet Union beats the United States to the Moon, and the space race continues on for decades with still grander challenges and goals.”
“With the Moon now the site of an uneasy détente between world superpowers, the series wisely sets its sights on a new destination, promptly taking its generational space drama to the Red Planet with thrilling results. As hinted at the end of Season 2, we know that humans walk across the surface of Mars in 1995, so the question quickly settles around who will get there first. […] While the Red Planet presents a host of challenges to be overcome by the show's intrepid explorers, Season 3 continually ups the ante with grit, determination and painful verisimilitude, proving why For All Mankind is one of the best and most consistent sci-fi series in living memory.” (Exclaim!)
The Bear (FX)
Synopsis: “A young chef from the fine dining world returns to Chicago to run his family's sandwich shop.”
Many years ago, one of my first jobs fresh out of high school was working in a boutique restaurant in a popular city suburb as one of their shit-kicker kitchen “dish pigs”. It was super stressful and easily one of the most intense jobs I’ve ever worked. With help from real chefs (including a cheeky cameo from executive producer Matty Matheson), FX’s The Bear is the closest I’ve seen media come to capturing the white-knuckled, everything-is-about-to-fucking-blow tension of a busy kitchen. The story cooks along with flavourful characters and the notes… Folks, the notes are very, very savoury. Big notes guy over here.
Gaslit (Starz)
Synopsis: “A modern take on the 1970s political Watergate scandal centring on untold stories and forgotten characters of the time.”
I know what you’re thinking. “Owen, seriously. Another tedious period-specific dramatic reenactment of the Watergate scandal? Is this really your idea of a good time?” And, my retort to you, dear reader, is this: Do you want to watch Sean Penn in a ridiculous fat suit scream his lungs out at Julia Roberts while she does a pantomime version of a haughty, gossip-hungry Southern belle/drunken lush? Put another way: If you don’t want to… well, what exactly are you doing here?
The Rehearsal (HBO)
Synopsis: “Nathan Fielder gives people a chance to rehearse for their own lives in a world where nothing ever works out as expected.”
Much as I like to pride myself on being able to string words together in ways that are compelling and (mostly) enjoyable to read, I’m also sitting here in an attempt to describe the full range of emotions I experienced while watching The Rehearsal, becoming acutely aware of just how clumsy, incomplete, and woefully inadequate written language can be. This show is, quite simply, insane, and believe me when I say that that single descriptor cannot possibly convey the true gravity and psychic import with which it is intended. Watch this show and meditate on it. Embrace the Fielder Method, and may it radicalise you forever.
Outer Range (Amazon Prime)
Synopsis: “A rancher fighting for his land and family discovers an unfathomable mystery at the edge of Wyoming's wilderness.”
Here’s one I prepared earlier:
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Paramount+)
Synopsis: “A prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series, the show will follow the crew of the USS Enterprise under Captain Christopher Pike.”
This may come as a surprise to you (editor’s note: it won’t), but as a youth, I was a very devout Trekkie. I had few friends and spent most of my spare time hanging out with my mother and watching VHS copies of Deep Space Nine and Voyager each week. I say this not to illicit bizarre forms of parasocial sympathy but merely to note that when I say Strange New Worlds is the best Trek series since those products of late 90s/early 00s media culture, I really and truly mean it. Forget Discovery or the utter trainwreck that is Picard, this one is the real deal. It’s smart, funny, earnest, and ruthlessly committed to boldly going where some may have once kind of but also not really gone before.
Severance (Apple TV+)
Synopsis: “Mark leads a team of office workers whose memories have been surgically divided between their work and personal lives. When a mysterious colleague appears outside of work, it begins a journey to discover the truth about their jobs.”
You know those people at the office who always seem resolutely chipper and stoked to be there, even when everything around them screams bureaucratic maleficence, corporate ineptitude, and a steadfast culture of anti-worker capitalist propaganda couched in pointless, timewasting group activities and “inclusive” language? Well, Severance is like that, but with those people in a retro basement and their brains now have on/off switches. Through in some good ol’ murder shenanigans, and you’ve got a recipe for a great workplace thriller mindfuck on your hands.
The Boys (Amazon Prime)
Synopsis: “A group of vigilantes set out to take down corrupt superheroes who abuse their superpowers.”
Considering The Boys is in its third season, I find it kind of superfluous to explain the premise in detail. So, for season three, the supes still suck, and our good guys struggle to keep the faith against their increasingly gory and selfish activities. There are plots within plots, little people crawling in and exploding out of various orifices (yes, you read that correctly), and Antony Starr’s Homelander is still the evilest and most endlessly fascinating character portrayal on television. For fans of blood, guts, swearing, and casual drug use.