Everything we canât stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture.
[Manage newsletters]( [View in browser]( [The logo for Daily Beast's Obsessed] Everything we canât stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture. with Kevin Fallon Presented by: [Paramount +] Everything we canât stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture. with Kevin Fallon Presented by: [Paramount +]
New this week: - Steve Carell is acting his tush off. - The reason I wonât watch the new Lord of the Rings show. - Thereâs drama in the country music world! - Serena Williams <3. - Not this Winnie the Pooh⦠Steve Carell: Great! The Patient: Also great! It is one of our greatest failings as a nation, a garish blemish on modern society, that [Steve Carell]( never won an Emmy Award for [The Office](. There are endless examples of âitâs so outrageous that this performer never won an award!,â but it is unforgivable that he never took home the trophy. Especially as the series [resurged in popularity]( during the streaming eraâsuddenly the youths are wearing t-shirts advertising the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper CompanyâCarellâs brilliance as Michael Scott has only become more appreciated, and the fact he doesnât have an Emmy trophy all the more egregious. (Having something in common with the youths has been entirely unnerving.) Even just when seconds-long clips and moments show up on TikTok or Instagram Reels, itâs impossible not to laugh hysterically. To be so funny, so unusual, so wacky, and yet still so emotionally grounded: Itâs so hard. Thatâs what she said. This is all to say that it shouldnât come as a surprise that, in so many roles since Carellâs [run on The Office ended](, he is often incredible. And yet, at least from my vantage point, there does seem to be shades of amazement each time he is, once again, very good. Case in point: his career-best [performance in The Patient](. OK, career-best dramatic performance. We just rewatched the âDinner Partyâ episode of The Office. Nothing is ever topping Michael Scott. The Patient is, in an almost unfathomable description, as if Misery met In Treatment. In other words, itâs kidnapping meets therapy. Or, âWhat if Stockholm Syndrome, but mentally healthy?â The first two episodes premiered this week on FX and are available to stream on Hulu. Theyâre riveting. Not since Dr. Melfi and Tonyâs sessions on The Sopranos has watching two people talk in therapy left me so terrified. The premise is that Carellâs Alan Strauss, an accomplished therapist, is kidnapped by one of his patients, played by Domhnall Gleeson. At first Gleesonâs character goes by the name of Gene and claims to need to talk through childhood trauma. When Alan wakes up dazed and groggy in an unfamiliar bed in a strange house, he later discovers that Gene is actually named Samâand happens to be a serial killer. He kidnapped Alan and locked him in a basement in order to talk through those impulses. On the one hand, itâs relatable. Like, sure, who among us who have been in therapy havenât wished their analyst was at their constant beck and call? On the other hand, obviously this is deeply disturbing and horrifying to watch, as Alan grapples with the reality of the situation and must make (understandably) stressful decisions about how to react and handle this whole thing. Itâs the best thriller thatâs been on TV this yearâ¦and itâs about therapy. Whoâd have guessed? (Itâs from the minds of The Americans creators Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg, so we should have expected it to be surprising, dark, and gripping. But still!) The series, refreshingly, abandons the trope where the serial killer is brooding, charismatic, and sexually mystifing. (Maybe there are just some characters that donât need to be sexy!) Sam is certainly captivating, but heâs also pathetic, damaged, delusional, and unappealingâeven at the moments when he is slightly empathetic. That youâre able to see him as all of these complex things is because youâre viewing him through Alanâsâand Carellâsâeyes. Speaking of sexy: Hello, silver-fox-daddy era Steve Carell as a nice man who wants to talk about feelings while wearing sensible cardigans, and all the confusing thoughts accompanying that. But thatâs besides the point here. The point is he has a challenging job in The Patient. The series flashes back and forth between his captive situation and ensuing therapy sessions with Samâif you can call them that, when heâs being imprisoned against his willâand his life before they met, which happened to be right after Alanâs wife died. The confidence and assuredness he has in sessions with other former patients is in stark contrast to the fear he feels with Sam. He is frightened, which he is tempering as a survival tool. But it also is too visceral to bury. His interactions with Sam are like watching a bomb expert trying to dismantle an explosive. Plus, heâs an expert at his job. Despite the outrageousness of the circumstances, he canât help but to try to work through Samâs problems. At times, there even seems to be a tenderness between them. Iâm not sure the reason that Iâm so struck by how remarkable Carell is in this series is because itâs such a departure from Michael Scott or the comedy work that made him so famous. (Steve Carell, forever on the right side of history for screaming on screen, âKelly Clarkson!â) Heâs almost exclusively done dramatic work since The Office. I think it might be that, even in that space, his career choices have been so unexpectedâmaybe even strange. Disguising himself both in prosthetics and with an eerie, breathy voice in an intense performance in Foxcatcher was something many people never saw comingâas was the Oscar nod that went with it. His earnestness in dramas like Beautiful Boy and Welcome to Marwen was as committed as his blowhard bloviating in Battle of the Sexes and [The Morning Show](, a TV series Iâm still not sure Iâve watched as much as experienced as an acid trip I was unaware I agreed to go on. Thereâs Gru in the Despicable Me movies, which is just plain fun, and then thereâs the [Netflix series Space Force](, which is noteworthy for how bold it is to star in a comedy series that is not even in the least bit funny. And now, his great work in The Patient. Itâs hard to pin down who Carell is as an actor, or what a âSteve Carell roleâ might even be. We love an unpredictable performer. Thatâs what she said. (Iâm sorry.) My Sincerest Apologies to the Shire I donât think Iâll be watching [The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power](. Itâs not because I find the sheer amount of [money spent to make it]( to be borderline crass. (Give $1 billion to the causes or people who deserve it, like charity, student-loan borrowers, or me.) Itâs not out of a moral protest of Amazon. (Though, screw Amazon. Well, screw Amazon, and also please leave my recent Prime order at my door. Weâre all conflicted/complicit/lazy at heart.) Itâs not even because, as is Fallon Family Legend, I have never successfully made it through an attempt to watch one of the original Lord of the Rings movies without falling asleep. It is because I have an extreme aversion to TV shows and movies with characters that have pointy ears. I donât know why this is, but I do know that it has only escalated over the years. Itâs become an extreme aversion. Whenever there are characters with these sharp razor blades on their heads, I get so preoccupied with staring at themâattempting to reconcile if I am actually put off by them, or merely confusedâthat I canât concentrate on anything else. I donât like to think that I am nauseated by a body abnormality, because that would make me, I believe, a terrible person. Even though I know itâs fantasy, I canât get over it. Sorry to the elves! Itâs not just while seeing the promo materials for The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power that I noticed this. A recent attempt to catch up on the various Star Trek series on Paramount+ was a trauma. I canât with the Vulcans. Good luck to James Cameron with Avatar 2 and all his future endeavors with the Naâvi. The elves in the Harry Potter Cinematic Universe fare no better than those in Middle Earth. You: Dobby is adorable! Me: Ah! Help! And donât get me started on Yoda. Then there are all those various devils, draculas, goblins, and other movie monsters for whom these kinds of ears are meant to look creepy, to which I say: a rousing success! While I was shocked to find that my Google search for âfear of pointy earsâ auto-completed with âin movies,â it turns out this is not an actual thingâand now Iâm even more terrified of Googleâs mind inception. The search engine did point me to the Wikipedia page for aichmophobia, which is a fear of sharp things. As a person who used to routinely prick his thumb with the end of a safety pin when he was bored in school, itâs not that. Itâs certainly not aftiphobia, a fear of ears. I like most of yâallâs ears just fine. It is an unsolvable mystery, I suppose. And now that itâs publicly out there, a solid excuse to get out of having to cover the new Lord of the Rings series for work. THE DAILY BEASTâS OBSESSED GOT BIGGER Obsessions were never going to be contained by an inbox: The Daily Beastâs Obsessed has a new site, with launch partner Paramount+, the streaming home for your great reality escape. All the odes to Ryan Goslingâs Ken, Jinkx Monsoon's Judy Garland impression, and more have a home. [Feed your fascinations here!]( Marren Morris Delivered the Greatest Insult of the Week I donât really follow country music, so that whole universe is a mystery to me. But, as is required in the âBeing Gayâ bylaws, I do follow [Marren Morris](, who has transcended into our universe. That is how I discovered a surprisingly juicy celebrity story and learned such things as what a âJason Aldeanâ isâand that his wife is allegedly transphobic. [Tipped off by a headline]( I came across that said Morris had called someone âInsurrection Barbieâ (!!!!!), I read all about a controversy in which Aldeanâs wife, Brittany, shared a post that was, again, apparently transphobic. It immediately earned her backlash, including from Morris and fellow country star Cassadee Pope. Itâs rare for major stars to publicly come after each other like this, even for such righteous reasons. The drama of it all! OK, country music! Brittany Aldean [posted a video]( in which she said, âIâd really like to thank my parents for not changing my gender when I went through my tomboy phase. I love this girly life.â Jason co-signed with the comment: âLmao!! Iâm glad they didnât too, cause you and I wouldnât have worked out.â Pope [expressed her dismay]( in hearing âsomeone compare their 'tomboy phase' to someone wanting to transition.â Morris [replied to that](: "Itâs so easy to, like, not be a scumbag human? Sell your clip-ins and zip it, Insurrection Barbie.â Insurrection Barbie references Aldeanâs [controversial posts about Jan. 6](, and, beyond that fact, is an absolutely glorious read. Aldean responded to both stars, and now, apparently, I am a country music fan, because I desperately need to follow how this unfolds. Loving All the Serena Williams Love As someone who recently had a back spasm while dancing at a Lady Gaga concert and had to leave the stadium early because I was in so much pain, I am forever in awe of the athleticism and power of Serena Williams. (Not that the admiration needed that context, but it really underlined the point.) Her victory lap at the U.S. Open has been profound to watch, as has seeing her really appear to take in the celebrationâand own her talent. Case in point was [her charming reaction]( when asked if she âwas surprisedâ in herself for pulling off her Round 2 win earlier this week. Her cute smirk. The giggle. The roar of the crowd that followed. Then the way she says after, âI mean, Iâm just Serena.â ([Watch it here](.) An absolute delight. Just a really fun moment in whatâs been a really fun Serena Williams week. Tubby Little Cubby All Haunting Your Nightmares Winnie the Pooh is now in the public domain and [a new horror movie is coming out]( based on the character. (Yes, really.) This is what Winnie the Pooh looks like on the poster. All the heffalumps and woozles in the 100-Acre Wood found shaking. [Obsess over it!]( [See This] - The Good Fight: My beloved kooky miracle of a show is coming to an end. I am sad! (Thurs. on Paramount+) - Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul.: Regina Hall never misses. (Now in theaters and on Peacock) - Queen Sugar: Reliably one of the best actedâand forever undersungâseries on TV. (Tues. on OWN) - Chefâs Table: Pizza: Netflix apparently now makes content explicitly for Kevin. (Wed. on Netflix) [Skip This] - Who Really Killed Michael Jackson: I canât imagine a scenario where this is not in poor taste. (Tues. on Fox) Like our take on what to watch?
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