Everything we canât stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture.
[View in Browser]( [Subscribe]( [Image] with Kevin Fallon Everything we canât stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture.
This Week: - The best show you should watch RIGHT NOW.
- I watched a lot of Sundance things and hereâs what was good.
- The Golden Globes is embarrassing and we say ENOUGH!
- Our fairy godmother is bringing some important streaming news.
- I laughed at that Chrissy Teigen tweet. Pushing Daisies Is Finally Back From the Dead We are closing in on the one-year anniversary of the last time I went into an office for work. I remember scoffing at the inconvenience but looking forward to working from home for a change of pace, [whispers this part] thinking it was maybe a bit of an overreaction, and stocking up on frozen pizzas like I was hunkering down for a snow day and this was all going to be just a few-weeks-long ordeal. In those 11 months, I have watched a lot of television. We all have watched a lot of television. So. Much. Television. Some of it good. Some of it bad, but distracting enough. Some of it [Emily in Paris](. ([Now a Golden Globe nominee](, should you have been deluded into thinking that 2021 would not continue to exist in last yearâs upside-down-and-backwards surreality.) Eventually COVID entered the picture, with series that were either conceived during and in direct response to the pandemic or shows that decided to incorporate the new normal into their plots. As a general rule, [they were terrible](. Really bad! That is important context for the following revelation: I have found it. I have discovered the perfect pandemic TV show and, starting this week, you can watch it, too. It just so happens that this TV show is about 14 years old. [Alternate text] Pushing Daisies debuted on HBO Max this week, where you can watch its two tragically shortâbut now blessedly bingeableâseasons. The visionary series ran from 2007 to 2009 to extreme critical acclaim. But it was one of the victims of the WGA strike shutdown, which effectively killed buzz and ratings for the show during the long stretch between its Emmy-nominated, shortened first season and its eventual return after a year-long hiatus. (Back in pre-streaming broadcast TV days, that was a really long time.) Is there a pandemic in Pushing Daisies? God no, thankfully. But thatâs strangely makes it even more resonant. The series centers on Ned, played by Lee Pace, a pie shop owner whose side hustle is bringing back people from the deadâfor no more than 60 secondsâso he can ask them who killed them and then collect the reward money. (Thereâs a balance between the whimsical and the macabre that the show manages to strike that allows you to harbor an almost unbearable crush on Ned despite this one biographical detail that would otherwise render him a sociopath.) You see, Ned has a gift, or a curse, depending on your perspective. He has the power to resuscitate the dead, as mentioned, by touching the corpse. If he touches them again, they revert to death. But if he keeps them alive for longer than 60 seconds, another person in their vicinity dies in their stead. If well-managed, which Ned is meticulous about, it can be a useful tool in endeavors like avant-garde murder-solving. But it also drives him to a life of retreating from intimate human touch and connection, for fear that the worst might befall a loved one and heâd be ethically compromised about what to do. That is exactly what happens when his long-lost childhood best friend and first love dies and he arrives to solve her murder. Only this time, he canât bring himself to let her revert back to death. He keeps her alive. Now Ned and Chuck, played by Anna Friel, are in a rough spot. Sheâs enamored by the gift he gave her: life again. Heâs in love with her. But they canât touch, or sheâll die. So how do you navigate a relationship when physical closeness is deadly? How does that manifest in extreme loneliness, and, more, how do you grapple with that loneliness and attempt to manufacture fleeting bright spots of happiness where you can, in spite of impossible circumstances? Do I have to spell out for you how this is all so timely for today? Rewatching the first few episodes this week, it struck me that the reason it seems so immediate today is that, outside of the obvious parallels, itâs still escapist. Creator Bryan Fuller imagined a world of lush CGI landscapes, curious and comedic camera angles, Scooby Doo-like whodunnit diversions, fairy tale sets, and Kristin Chenoweth occasionally breaking into song. (Chenoweth [won an Emmy for her performance](, and it still ranks among the most deserving âthey actually got it rightâ Emmy wins in the last 20 years.)
[Alternate text] Thereâs something somber, dark, and melancholy about the show, but itâs also fanciful, eccentric, and visually romantic. It allows you to access the feelings of dread, isolation, and longing that weâre all grappling with now, but still retreat to a fantasy world where youâre not suffocated by them. I remember watching the series when I was in collegeâlike Doogie Howser, I was in college by the age of six, obviouslyâand just swooning over it: the sweet relationship between Ned and Chuck, the playful aesthetic, the Chenoweth songs, and the 6â5â hulking frame of Lee Pace in a tight black shirt being incredibly cute while baking pies. I wished it would run forever and was devastated when it was canceled. But Iâm grateful that itâs available again and people can visit it anew. It just gets the vibe of today. A little lonely, a little wistful, a little confused and anxious, and a lot of desire to be surrounded by copiousâendless, if possibleâamounts of pie. The Sundance Movies Youâll Actually Care About For many entertainment journalists and critics, myself included, the last âBefore Timesâ major event many of us attended was [the Sundance Film Festival last January](. A year later, the return to the fest was quite different. In lieu of zipping around Park City to make it to buzzy premieres in the nick of time, I was screening the films from my living room and on my own schedule. In place of the thrill of spontaneous movie-star sightings on the snowy sidewalks of Main Street, I made conversation with the stuffed penguin on my bookshelf, just to hear my own voice and feel alive. Last year, the Sundance slate of films included current award-season mainstays like Minari, Promising Young Woman, The Father, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Palm Springs, Miss Juneteenth, The Nest, and documentaries Time, Dick Johnson Is Dead, Crip Camp, and Boys State. But the biggest question this year was whether the festival would feel muted by comparison. [Alternate text] In other words, without the energy and hoopla of Park Cityâand in the midst of a pandemic and movie theater shutdownâwould anyone care about this yearâs films? My short answer: They should! The [biggest story out of the festival is CODA](, the touching and certain-to-be crowd-pleasing coming-of-age story that demolished the Sundance sale record, going to Apple Studios for $25 million. While âa symbolic gesture to save the movies, baby!â might as well be written in the memo section of Appleâs check, CODA is a gorgeous film. CODA is about a teenager with deaf parents who is the only hearing person in her family. She causes a rift when she decides to pursue her interest in singing, an interest her family cannot participate in. The film hits all the familiar beats of a âteen desperate to be understoodâ narrative, but in destabilizing times, the conventionality is crucial to its appeal. I would never be so basic as to use the dated circa-2017 phrase âall the feels,â except that this is the one movie in which such a cringey phrase may actually apply. If I were going to give Sundance acting prizes, Iâd be hard pressed to choose between Martha Plimpton and Ann Dowd, who together are A C T I N G in the play-like drama Mass, as mothers who both lost sons in a school shooting. Oneâs son was the victim; the otherâs was the shooter. But a Best Actor prize undeniably belongs to Clifton Collins Jr., a veteran character actor given a rich leading-man showcase in Jockeyâand, in fact, the Sundance jury did award him that exact Special Prize. There are fun ones on the documentary side that I think have mainstream crossover appeal. [Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It]( is absolutely irresistible, as you would expect from a film on the life of the vivacious EGOT-winning legend. [Playing With Sharks]( is a fascinating portrait of Valerie Taylor, who might be best described as the Jane Goodall of sharks. And [Questloveâs Summer of Soul]( about the 1969 Harlem Cultural FestivalâBlack New Yorkâs answer to Woodstock, the footage of which, until now hadnât been seen for 50 yearsâwill be the best, most rousing live concert youâll attend from the couch this pandemic year. Flee takes a visionary and stirring approach to telling a refugee story. Passing, the directorial debut of actress Rebecca Hall, chronicles two mixed-race childhood friends (Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga) who reunite, one of whom has spent the last decades âpassingâ as a white woman. And Together Together, the most Sundancey thing I watched at virtual Sundance, would have heralded Park Cityâs new It Star in Patti Harrison. Who knows when you will get to actually watch any of these. But at least I can say youâll enjoy them when you do? The Golden Globes Must Be Stopped The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the group that votes on the Golden Globes, is a wackadoodle consortium of journalists who have been around long enough to share fond memories of when the first âtalkiesâ began playing. They wield little influence outside of the one time a year we gripe about their pick-a-name-out-of-a-hat awards choices, which should have us all ignoring this yearâs [typically chaotic list of nominees](. [Alternate text] This is a group that demands Hollywoodâs most powerful kotow to and flatter them. Theyâre the kind of people who would see an A-list movie star sobbing with grief at a funeral and have no qualms rushing up to them and asking them for a selfie and to record their outgoing voicemail message. So when they do things like nominate Emily in Paris and Jared Letoâs The Little Things performance, or snub I May Destroy You and Da 5 Bloods, we should laugh at their obvious lack of taste and dismiss them full stop. But hereâs the thing! The show is a big deal. Who they nominate generates buzz that can boost a show or movieâs popularity. A great speech or key win can juice an underdogâs Oscar chances. And it can even anoint the next exciting crop of Hollywood stars, like when Gina Rodriguez and Rachel Bloom both won Globes for CW series that the Emmys ignored. Thatâs why we complain. Thereâs a reason to care, so they should also be good. Enough giggling about those lunatic Golden Globes. Hold them accountable to their influence! This is to say that it is crucial I infiltrate the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Do you think my new headshot will fool them? Disney+ Is (Finally) Giving a Ball For far too long, the 1997 version of Rodgers and Hammersteinâs Cinderella starring Brandy and Whitney Houston has not been available to stream. In this case, it has not been available to stream since the dawn of streaming itself, as I cannot imagine a more magical and revolutionary film that would merit 24/7 access for all who want to watch. (Presumably that is the entire human population.) Even when Disney+ launched with its library 476 million movies, this version of Cinderella was not among them. While I still do not understand how that was not a FCC violation of some kind, it did make it seem like it was going to be [impossible...impossible...imPOSSible...IMpossssss-i-BLE]( to ever have streaming access to this movie. [Alternate text] But, as it turns out, impossible things truly are happening evâry day! Cinderella will be available on Disney+ starting February 12. Cut Chrissy Teigen Some Slack Chrissy Teigen got a lot of flack for [this tweet thread](: âprivileged,â âout of touch,â and all that predictable yawn-inducing stuff that people need to get over already; itâs a celebrity tweeting, just calm down. But as someone who is physically incapable of sending food back to the kitchen or correcting a wrong order even if Iâm allergic to what is being served to me and might die from politely eating it, I actually thought it was very funny. [Alternate text] [Alternate text] - Framing Britney Spears: Iâve been radicalized. #FreeBritney, bitch. (Friday on FX and Hulu.) - The Equalizer: Queen Latifah as an action star gets an automatic yes from us. (Sunday on CBS.) [Alternate text] - The Super Bowl: What if we just didnât do this this year? (Sunday on CBS.) - Malcolm and Marie: It turns out Zendaya is not perfect. Weâll get through this difficult time together. (Friday on Netflix.) Advertisement
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