Double Issue: The Best Things I Saw in March and April
You thought you were rid of me that easy??
Poker Face’s Joy Ride of Surprise
Back in March, Poker Face wrapped up it’s first season. The penultimate episode was incredible, because this formulaic show somehow managed to simultaneously follow and break it’s own formula. The usual Poker Face episode has three distinct parts: The Crime/Murder, The rewind, and then The Scooby Doo moment when Natasha Lyonne’s character puts it all together thanks to her unique detective skill (yes, singular skill. Go watch it if you want to know what it is, because it’s another way the show keeps playing with the audience’s expectations).
This episode starts off with a white-collar criminal, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, living out a home arrest. A power outage happens which renders his ankle monitor useless for one night only, so naturally he goes joyriding through a blizzard in one of his sports cars and-surprise-something bad happens. Very relatable. From there, Natasha’s character gets a brief love story and then a murder mystery within a murder mystery also kicks off. I won’t go any further but I had so much fun watching this episode!
*As an aside, Poker Face is absolutely worth your time. It works perfect as a once a night, once a week, or even once a month show. There isn’t a complicated story to remember and each episode is self contained. In short, it’s damn good television.
Life, Death, and Succession
I haven’t talked about Succession yet on this blog but i’m a big fan. I can only add a little more to what every other publication and person tweets about it and that’s this: I’ve never seen better acting and writing in my entire life. When you boil it down to it’s basic ingredients, every scene is just people in rooms talking to each other, but i’ve never felt more engaged then when these people are in rooms talking to each other with these writers. The characters sneer, gawk, laugh, and stab each other in the back (figuratively) each week all while making you root for them, despite their obvious flaws.
Earlier this month, the show-runners took a huge swing and delivered an episode so emotionally resounding that I spent the next few days half-grieving for what happened on a television show. I hadn’t done that since I watched The Red Wedding, and I didn’t think that could happen again—which is probably also what my wife thinks about me getting back in shape.
Anyways, go watch Succession. There’s great TV, and then there’s Succession.