April This'n'Thats

Catching up on TV (MOSTLY thrillers), assorted brain worms, 101 salads and more

Hi everyone - apparently April is basically over so I figured I’d hustle this post in on a Tuesday (which I am kind of into - no one expects a little email treat on the 2nd day of the week?) so that this weekend can still be the reading recap and whatnot.

I managed to get some TV in this month, so lets start with a mini recap of that consumption.

THRILLERS, FIRST:

• The Residence (Netflix) - best, jauntiest time you’ll have streaming this month.

• Blackshore (Acorn)- If you, like me, sit around refreshing Acorn and Britbox in anticipation of new murders produced in the UK (I know you’re probably not, this is a very exclusive club) - this show is sit-up-and-pay-attention news, because it is actually quite good. DI Fia Lucey returns to her small town in Ireland and is swiftly thrust into a murder mystery involving her former high school summer job employer, all the while potentially unravelling the real truth behind her family tragedy (when she was 12, her Father killed himself, her mother and her brother while she was away on a sleepover). Nothing here is particularly groundbreaking but I found myself binge-ing it because the lead (Lisa Dawn) is great - tiny and flawed and whip smart, and the small-town-with-dark-secrets vibe is vibing, as it tends to in Ireland.

• Caught (Netflix) - whoever got Harlan Coben his Netflix deal is hopefully retiring somewhere very nice as we speak, because this is the 11th (!!!!) Coben novel they’ve adapted on the streamer and while none of them have been truly great, it is very nice to know they are there. This one (a Spanish production, because the Coben cottage industry IS GLOBAL) is about a journalist behind a “To Catch A Predator” style column who maybe or maybe not catches the wrong guy as part of her latest sting. As per usual, the build is more fun than the pay-off but, again, I keep watching.

• The Glass Dome (Netflix) - Camilla Lackberg, who is as close to Harlan Coben as Scandinavia has to offer, apparently has a deal with Netflix too and the first offering is this pitch dark story of a FBI profiler who was kidnapped as a kid and kept in a (yep!) glass dome and now, back home in freezing Sweden, the history seems to be repeating itself.

• The Stolen Girl (Hulu/Disney+) - very fun, over the top, well cast (Holliday Grainger as the villain! Jim Sturgess as the maybe shady Dad! Always-ready-for-a-TV-meltdown Denise Gough as the Mom, One Day’s breakout Ambika Mod as the journalist, stalwart Bronagh Waugh as the detective! It is ok if you don’t know any of these people! Working steadily in British TV is my personal Jeopardy category!). A harried working Mom drops off her daughter at a new classmates for a playdate (the book this is based on is called “The Playdate”, which would be a better/less-on-the-nose title but I’m not in charge of Disney+ / Freeform development deals - YET!), only to show up to pick her up and be told no one lives in that house. Worst nightmare - unlocked!

• Also on the agenda: I am catching up on seasons 3 & 4 of “You” (the first book remains one of my all time favorite reads, but they did do a very good job of keeping this exact-same-story fun over and over) so I can see season 5 as part of the cultural moment, and am excited for Agatha Christie’s “Towards Zero” but am waiting for more episodes so I can really let it was over me.

NON THRILLERS:

• The Pitt (Max) - this show CONSUMED ME. It was a perfect post-”White Lotus” teamwork palate cleanse. Truly, don’t watch it unless you can block our 3-5 hours at a time around it (I learned the hard way). Also, apparently Noah Wyle, apart from basically being an actual Dr at this point, is a voracious reader and set up a little lending library on set so - yeah.

• Studio (Apple) - very fun and stressful. Kathryn Hahn’s character kills me every time she shows up (and apparently the same goes for the rest of the cast)

• Hacks (Max) - they are back and I was worried but I am not worried anymore and feel slightly ashamed that I questioned Paul and Lucia (we’re on first name terms now). It is also a great time to revisit my D.Vance homage post.

• Righteous Gemstones (Max) - they are back and I was not worried, but we stopped watching S4 in order to not sully the positive memories of the previous three seasons.

• Dying For Sex (Hulu) - Obviously heartbreaking but if all of television can just be Michelle Williams (elegantly)dying and Jenny Slate being (hilariously) supportive and a mess - I’d be ok to live in that world.

Misc links etc:

• It is SPRING so it is a perfect time to bookmark (again) that Mark Bittman 101 salads link - truly, one of the most useful things that exists on the internet, imo.

• Keith McNally Spotify profile is all you need for dinner party aural curation this season. (pairs well with previously VERY BREEZY promoted Ina Garten and Ralph Lauren official Spotify accounts - there should be a mini think piece somewhere that this is the one place where the boomer generation shines in terms of online content)

• the one physical print magazine I bought at Hudson News this month is the Directors Issue of W Mag. Luca Guadagnino directs Ayo Edebiri, Randall Park gate crashes the Sean Baker/Mikey Madison LA Donut party, Kyle MacLachlan guest stars in Dennis Villaneuve + Chalamet fever dream - this is the kind of stuff that made me fall in love with editorial.

• Economy is a disaster and I will literally read any think piece on Quince because it is a perfect metaphor for consumption today. Speaking of - I love this essay on what is missing from the Money+Manifestation category (in general, as someone who hates reading about money,

  Ariel LaFond
  is really turning me around)

• I am reading my first (and maybe last?) Freida McFadden book and am all in on unpacking the phenomenon.

• This Bowen Yang New Yorker interview is 7 months old (the print copy took my breath away - just PAGES AND PAGES on Photos, like it is 1997 Vanity Fair or something), but a great revisit as we anticipate the “Wedding Banquet” remake. Which, btw, WHY IS THE OG ANG LEE VERSION IMPOSSIBLE TO STREAM?

WHAT ELSE? WHAT ELSE?