Look, we all agree, it's been a weird year; and while no area has been untouched, it is sad and terrifying to realize just how deeply the performing arts has been up ended by a pandemic. Movies, obviously. But live theater, dance, classical music, indeed, pretty much all live performances of music... with performances spaces largely dark, it's been a horrific moment for those who love and care for life upon the wicked stage.
As i started reading year end summaries, I've been caught in up how fruitless and pointless the whole exercise can be: pretending we've had anything like a normal year at the movies, for instance, watching film critics assemble "best of" lists has been both frustrating for us and, well, embarrassing for them. What is that job, again, and why are you doing it?
For my part, I'm not here to clue you into obscure unseen projects; and I am surely not here to pretend Tenet is a "best of the year" when there wasn't really a year to speak of. This list, well, is what I made it... what most of us made -- a year primarily built on TV and streaming services, when we all just had to admit we were moving into a brave, new, somewhat uncharted, not entirely better, world. These, then, are the bright spots I found:
- The Boys in the Band (Netflix) - I was leery of seeing the Broadway revival, even for it's Glorious Cast of Major Names, too afraid they'd be too easy star turns that lost the beauty of Mart Crowley's nuanced, challenging work. And I avoided the (re) filmed adaptation, at least at first... until my best friend peppered me with questions and I figured I would have to, if only for completeness sake (and theoretical loss of my Gay Card). What I found was... a happy surprise: a still nuanced, well done look at pre Stonewall Gay Life in the Big City, a reminder that new ensembles bring out new insights. Sure, Jim Parsons and Zach Quinto did sound work as the bickering Michael and Harold (and I dreamed of reversing them, just for actorly research), but Matt Bomer turned Donald into a revelation, and Andrew Rannells' Larry was such a fresh rethink of the role that much of the play's final third sang in a way I'd never even noticed. Even Charlie Carver managed to flip The Cowboy into a sweet, unforced charmer. Which isn't to say it was perfect: Robin DeJesus does what he can, but his Emory feels less essential, and Michael Benjamin Washington's Bernard just felt wan. But watch Rannells tear into the second verse of Heatwave for an actor living in a moment he was born to play. A real labor of love, that pays off, handsomely.
- American Chaos (HBO via Max or Streaming) - Alex Gibney's 4 hour deconstruction of the "Russia Hack" and the story of the 2016 election puts fresh eyes on the familiar and, from everyone I know, brings a kind of clarity that's thrilling and scary and depressing all at once. From the assured lies of the head of Russia's RT to its unraveling of the Internet Research Agency to its revealing presentation of "Fancy Bear" and the Russian Intelligence operations behind it... American Chaos takes complicated topics and gives them the room needed to make sense. And none of your preconceived notions, whatever side you're on, will be quite the same after taking all of this in. For better, and worse.
- Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich (Netflix) - A multipart unraveling of the "Epstein Story" that makes fools of us all, for ever not seeing, or believing, that Epstein was anything other than simply a monster who molested large numbers of women and trafficked them around the world to other powerful men. Told largely by the women and the law enforcement folks who tried to help them, Filthy Rich is mostly one horrifying and depressing turn after another, but in the end he's dead and they're alive and they have come together to support one another in a way that just has to provide some measure of hope. Lord knows, that's all we have to hold onto.
- The Undoing (HBO - Max and Streaming) - I'm with those who call it "Big Little Lies on the Upper East Side" and for whatever reason, watching Nicole Kidman swan abut Park Avenue penthouses (and yes, her fabulous coats!) is less immediately aggravating than watching her and others swan about Marin County. Kidman's wealthy psychotherapist heiress struggling to process the possibility that her pediatric oncologist husband might be a cold blooded killer was every bit as fascinating as her Big Little Lies performance, even when the scars are fully internal. Kidman's TV work has been profound, quality acting, ably assisted here by Donald Sutherland's complex portrayal of her patrician father and Hugh Grant turning his charming rakish qualities inside out.
- Bosch, Season 6 (Amazon) and Bosch generally (Amazon). Back when "they dropped another season this week" was more main event than pandemic last hope, the penultimate run of Michael Connelly's grizzled LAPD detective was just another great addition to a strong series run, this time unraveling a potential terrorist plot, a perplexing murder and Chief Irving's run for Mayor while allowing a host of other great roles (Honey Chandler, J. Edgar) to shine. And the performances, anchored by Titus Welliver in the role of his lifetime, remain first rate. As does the writing. Pandemic rescreening isn't just recommended. It's required.
- The Crown, Season 4 (Netflix) - The Crown crashed into modern memory, up aging its main cast and taking us through the twin poles of the Thatcher years and the Diana years on a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs. On the one side was Gillian Anderson's (brilliant) Thatcher, discovering that her sense of mission hadn't entirely anticipated that she was less enamored of Royal Toffs than her royalist ways suggested, and Diana discovering that her dreams of a fairytale romance didn't square with the hard realities of a deeply dysfunctional family. From Dickie's assassination to Fagan in the Queen's bedroom, the eighties as remembered by The Crown is darker and harder than one we may have gotten on TV at the time. But knowing how we got here, and why this is happening, infuses Season 4 with a knowing sadness that makes the tragedy more heartbreaking - everything happens for a reason, and could hardly have been otherwise. And The Queen soldiers on.
- Perry Mason (HBO - Max and Streaming) - HBO's reimagining of Perry Mason's origins is a return to, and squarely in the resurgence of, pulp noir, America's dime store book legacy of postwar darkness and deceit playing in our fervid imaginations. Miles from Raymond Burr's upstanding jurist, Matthew Rhys plays Perry as a down and out drunken PI with a decency streak hard up against the worst of Depression era LA. A brutal child kidnapping/murder, the involvement of an Aimee Semple MacPherson like faith healer and a set of compelling back stories eventually pulls Perry Mason into the stratosphere... but the early episodes are about as grim and dark and unpleasant as Peak TV can get. The payoffs, and the promise of of more, makes the journey altogether worth it.
- Watchmen (HBO - Max and Streaming) - Damon Lindelof's reimagining of the seminal comic book series (and disastrous feature film) as a fresh way to reexamine the American moment was bravura television, exploding our past and present while blowing up its own preconceived comic conventions, a shining example of how our newfound interest in diversity, fresh casting and telling the unheard stories can result in our best art, not just bromides and easy answers. Regina King is a revelation in a cast full of stars and surprises. And each episode is its own mini movie of masterful storytelling. While it may be sad to see it as a one and done... the series is so ultimately satisfying that there really is nothing left to tell.
- The Hunt and The HIgh Note (Streaming) - The last film I saw in a theater, and the first film I went out of my way to see opening weekend online have no real connection... except that what's happened to movies, and moviegoing, breaks my heart. The Hunt, the long delayed comic horror pic that offers (very) wry commentary on the Trump era was a surprisingly witty slasher flick, enlivened by strong performances and a series of faintly inspired twists. The HIgh Note offered Tracee Ellis Ross the role she was kind of born to do as an aging pop diva looking to reinvent her career and Dakota Johnson as the musical savant who could do it for her. Glorious visuals, and some inspired musicianship lifted a fairly standard music biz flick into the upper echelons, and a pleasantly surprising plot twist really does make the film sing.
- The Plot Against America (HBO, Max and Streaming) - Philip Roth's foray into "what if" reimaginings of World War 2 posits Charles Lindbergh as the candidate capable of defeating FDR, sending America headlong into its own creative fascism and all that would up end. Set in a New Jersey all too familiar to my mother, The show reminds that the Depression and and waves of European immigration are not the hazy tale of a Greatest Generation we like to tell ourselves, but a messy melting pot of prejudices and old scores. All the more terrifying for its analogues to the Trump years, The Plot is a reminder that anti Semitism isn't as hard or as farfetched as we might like to believe, and the skilled, unnerving performances make everything all too plausibly possible. Sure, it's got Roth's familiar bugaboos of randy boys and stereotyped women, but the adaptation is sharp enough to see beyond even Roth's flaws. Between this and the Man in the High Castle, I think we've pretty much covered all the dystopian alternatives. Now do The Civil War!
- Designated Survivor
- Madam Secretary
- The Blacklist (all, Netflix and/or Hulu) - my three choices for Pandemic binge redux, but fill in with your own comfort foods. For my money, watching Tea Leoni's work with greater care both restored my faith in our American government and the show's real skill in crafting worthwhile plots. Designated Survivor's "what if" scenario of rebuilding government after a massive attack had its charms (even Sutherland seems surprisingly understated). And giving The Blacklist a chance opened up some tasty spy thriller storytelling, if tinged with a bit too much violence and gore; but James Spader's scenery chewing turns out to work better than it really has any right to. And all 3 have enough episodes to make the trip worthwhile.
- Titans (Season 1, Amazon; Season 2 DVD). DC's clever reworking of the Teen Titans franchise (and even cleverer kickoff via Teen Titans Go) is long on dark muttering and tortured beauties, and maybe a bit thin on avoiding plotted preposterousness... but the result is Saturday morning live action cartoon TV for growups, or at least overgrow kids. From its multiple Robins (Dick Grayson and Jason Todd) to origin stories for almost any Teen Titan you can remember, Titans provides just the right mix of lore and legend to give its less plausible turns a comic universe to call its own. Here's hoping pandemic production schedules don't throw it off kilter.
What didn't make my list? Ma Rainey's Black Bottom was nice but meh, Ryan Murphy's too preposterous for belief Hollywood insults any true Golden Age film lover, FX's "yeah but you should have been there" Mrs. America just didn't do it for me, the less than essential second season of Big Little Lies and the BBC's one too many Christie's of The ABC Murders on Amazon (which, by the way, don't get me started on how Branagh's Death on the Nile is either bravura or a disaster, no in betweens). And no, I didn't watch Tiger King or any reality TV (and that includes RuPaul's Drag Race trying to pretend a pandemic can be business as usual).
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