What Wednesday #9
Today I laugh at a depressed horse, OD on the 80s, and take a trip to SC (thanks HB2) for a high school throwback.
What Wednesday is where I talk about what I’m watching, reading, playing, etc, because for some reason I think you’ll find that interesting. If you have recommendations, I’d love to hear them :)
What I’m Watching: BoJack Horseman
Who knew an animated show starring a talking horse, set in a world where people and animals live together, would end up being the greatest show ever made about depression? Netflix, I guess. BoJack Horseman is one of the most daring shows I’ve seen. This season alone has an episode with almost no spoken words, an insanely offensive music video celebrating an abortion, and a mystery around the death of a family friendly orca stripper. But the bravest thing it does is take a show about depression and make it a comedy. In a way, though, that shouldn’t be so surprising, since so many comedians, like Jim Carrey and the late Robin Williams, battle with depression.
Emily Nussbaum of The New Yorker calls it “one of the wisest, most emotionally ambitious and — this is not a contradiction — spectacularly goofy series on television.” It’s incredible how quickly the show alternates between the serious and the absurd — where heavy drug use and statutory rape coexist beside silly physical jokes and terrible animal puns (like kangaroo bellhops or a family of donkeys that brays before meals). Emily also smartly points out how the show uses a sitcom’s greatest weapon, repetition, to amplify BoJack’s falling deeper into depression. Just like Urkle saying “Did I do that?” over and over, BoJack self-destructs over and over. It’s depressing, but, somehow, also funny. Emily’s an incredibly insightful critic, and her article is well worth a read. All of her stuff is.
Like many ambitious things, BoJack is somewhat an acquired taste. The first season is a little slow, so give it a few episodes before it grabs you. Unlike this next show, which if you’re not hooked after the first 10 minutes, you hate everything that’s good in life.
What I’m Also Watching: Stranger Things
What do you want me to say? That this show is as amazing as everyone says it is? That it perfectly captures 80s sci-fi adventure movies like E.T. and The Goonies? That it’s a swift kick to the nostalgiaballs without being manipulative or a cash grab like so many unnecessary remakes? Fine, it’s all those things and more. But you didn’t really need me to tell you that, did you?
This is the first show since Breaking Bad that my wife and I have binged — it’s so well paced. If there’s one knock on it, it’s that it’s pure entertainment — there are no larger themes or meditations on society. Just bad guys, synthesizer music, creepy monsters, and friends sticking together. So yeah, the 80s. But there’s nothing wrong with that when it’s done as well as this.
What I’m Hearing: blink-182
While I was a touch young for the Stranger Things era (I still had nap time in school by the time the 80s ended), blink-182 was right in my wheelhouse. One of my favorite all-time concerts was the Green Day/blink-182 Pop Disaster tour back when I was in high school. Blink was great. Green Day was amazing. So when two of my best college buds asked if I wanted to go see blink in concert last week, it was a no brainer (though, unfortunately no Green Day this time).
I had my doubts going in. The lead singer, Tom DeLonge, is out chasing aliens and is no longer with the band. He’s been replaced by Matt Skiba, lead singer of Alkaline Trio, a well liked pop punk band. Plus, the Pop Disaster concert was 15(!) years ago, so who knows if they still have it. I kind of felt like my parents going to see a Def Leopard concert.
Turns out, I was worried for nothing: Matt did a fine job replacing Tom; the concert was as high energy and well produced as the one in 2002; Travis Barker is still a freak of nature on drums. All in all, well worth the trip down to Greenville, South Carolina.
(Side note: Mark Hoppus took time out of the night to explain the concert was originally going to be in North Carolina, but they moved it because of, you guessed it, HB2 (the bathroom bill). Whatever side you’re on, it’s been an unmitigated disaster for the state, financially and optically. When South Carolina is seen as the more accepting state, you’re doing something wrong.)
