The April Deep Dive
TV, movies, books! A real quickie!
It’s 8:30 on a Tuesday night, I’ve just poured myself a cheap glass of red after sweating out my demons in a slippery hot yoga class. The incense is lit. My phone is on DND and I have a power-hour writing timer on.
Let’s get into what I read and watched this month!
Television 📺
Dying For Sex (FX/Hulu/Disney+)
Michelle Williams acts her ass off in this absolutely stunning, complex, masterful unravelling of friendship, desire, trauma, marriage, and death. Dying For Sex was released all at once, but I’ve been chewing it slowly — it’s a heavy show that’s lacquered with profoundly awkward kink explorations, sex scenes, a lot of dick and a supporting cast of genius, namely, Jenny Slate, Esco Jouley, and Rob Delaney. This show…. watch it if you have the heart! ❤️
Hacks (HBO/Crave)
My friends are back!!! I am loving that we are entering the next era of Deborah’s career, with more Megan Stalter screentime and the addition of Robby Hoffman. There’s something about the pacing that isn’t sitting right with me (I don’t know if it’s landing that Deborah is being so difficult with her writers, and also why have they hired such duds?), but I think I’m just getting settled into the Hacks groove and I’ll acclimate soon. In any case, I love to laugh with this quick, whipsmart show!
Apple Cider Vinegar (Netflix)
Kaitlyn Dever plays Belle Gibson, a former Australian influencer who duped the internet and everyone around her into thinking she had brain cancer. I’m chewing this one slowly, but I am surprised by how much I am enjoying what I’d normally write off as just another piece of Netflix junk.
The Studio (Apple)
Everything they are saying about Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s Hollywood comedy is true: whipsmart, goofy, and beautifully shot, I am gobbling up the weekly Studio episode drops with ease. I like that every episode is a new endeavour, and a new opportunity for Seth Rogen’s Matt Remick to look like the biggest idiot in LA. A very light and fun show, sprinkled with incredible guest stars (that Sarah Polley episode though!), and Kathryn Hahn playing “head of marketing” (genius).
Wrapped: The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (wooo, girl that reunion was nasty work. Justice for Garcelle!!) and the pungent and unsettling, Adolescence.
Wanting to start: Black Mirror (Netflix), and Say Nothing (FX/Hulu/Disney+).
Forever palate cleanser: Abbott Elementary, of course
I’m sorry, folks — but I don’t watch The Last of Us!
Books 📚
I’ve been a slow reader this year—starting Q1 with Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten (a memoir about undiagnosed ADHD, doing whatever the hell you want, being really into your husband, and living a thriving life without children) and No Fault by Haley Mlotek, which, unfortunately, I found very boring (no tea).
Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte is 258 pages of chaotic discomfort. I don’t know if I’d actually recommend it to anyone, but I do need to unpack it with any other poor, demented souls who did read it and survived to tell the tale. For lovers of novels-in-stories with intertwining storylines, obnoxiously verbose diatribes, miraculously complex explorations of contemporary relationships, and dissections of internet culture…read at your own risk!
Next on my TBR stack: Prophet Song by Paul Lynch, gifted to me by a friend.
Other reads 🗞️
My friend Mandy Len Catron has a new, beautiful, thoughtful newsletter on love, patience, and how to reach across the divide.
My bestie Sean is back on Substack, with his brilliant newsletter GHOST FROM THE PAST. I urge you to subscribe for essays and other non-fiction stories about, well, ghosts from the past.
Movies 🎥
Since Awards season wrapped, I’ve been slow to the cinema, but I caught a few goodies this month, right under the wire.
As for new, topical films, this month I saw The Wedding Banquet, Andrew Ahn’s 1993 remake starring Lily Gladstone, Bowen Yang, Kelly Marie Tran, Han Gi-Chan, Joan Chen, and my favourite: Youn Yuh-jung. It was silly, unserious, and fun, but still balanced some lovely learnings about chosen family and the umbrella of queer joy. Go see it if you want some giggly light fare!
We are in a horror renaissance, folks! This week, I went to see what the hype was about re: SINNERS, and boy was I in for a treat. Ryan Coogler’s new horror film, it turns out, is a total feast.
Set in 1932 in the Mississippi Delta, Coogler’s ethreal and haunting period-horror stars Michael B. Jordan in a thrilling, dual performance (I am already awarding his biceps for their own contributions and performance) as twin brothers who return home from a stint as gangers seeking a fresh start—only to find themselves entangled in a battle with a lurking supernatural force.
There is action, there is blood, there is delicious, glowy lighting, shot on film! Oh yeah, and there’s a much-talked-about, ghostly, feverish, ritualist dance sequence that transcends anything I’ve ever seen on screen before.
If you want to take away one thing from Sinners, it’s that Indigenous people do be warning us. And also:
Part historical fiction, part-fantasy, part-Black horror with a dash of Afro futurism, I implore you to get your ass to the movie theatre now, and spend your hard earned pennies on the first Oscar movie of the year.
For the Vancouverites: Later this week, I’ll be checking out The Encampments at VIFF, and hopefully a few more documentaries at DOXA.
For those who resonated with my Sunday Scaries about the perils of being just a girl, I have a playlist for you. Enjoy!
xox See you next month!
Omg how do you write this in an hour!!! Can’t wait to see Sinner. Ok likely unpopular opinion, but Hacks is starting to remind me of A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (currently #1 on my all-time hate reads list). Characters stuck in a self-destructive behavioural loop they can never grow past or escape from, until the whole thing becomes a neverending cycle of misery porn (though at least Hacks has jokes haHA!). Of course I will keep watching to the end but…thoughts?
I'm reading Rejection! Or was, lol. I don't like to read short stories all at once and it's more of an in between books kind of thing, so currently on Martyr but will dive in again. So far it's made me feel deeply uncomfortable but I really enjoyed the last story I read of the girl who goes down a wild hole after getting rejected after a hookup with her friend. The crow!!!