My Favorite Things This Week #114
🖐 The Friday High 5: New treatments for depression and anxiety
Shrinking: S2
Vibe: Grumpy Harrison Ford busting sad sack Jason Segel’s balls.
Deets: Recently picked up Apple again and now I need to catch up on everything worth seeing. Starting with Shrinking season 2, a delightful and heartwarming comedy about psychiatrists and the people they try to help.
I’m only a couple of episodes in, but Jimmy (Segel) is already spinning out of control in neurotic fashion. The show gets a lot of mileage out of Jimmy counseling his patients and meanwhile his own life is a hot mess. Realistic, maybe, but also slightly terrifying?
As I said when talking about season 1, Ford has always had the grumpy bone but his comedic timing has been a late stage revelation. It may be too “Eric and his Star Wars” to call Ford the best part of the show, but it doesn’t make it any less true. Though Gaby is a close second.
Also: Watch out for a Roy Kent cameo. (Not really, but Brett Goldstein will always be Roy Fucking Kent to me.)
Streaming on Apple TV.
Star Wars
Vibe: 🎶 Star Wars. Nothing but Star Wars 🎶
Deets: This week ended up being Star Wars heavy. I know what you’re probably thinking: Isn’t that every week? Fair point. But this isn’t me just being on my normal bullshit.
I recently finished Skeleton Crew and also recorded an hour-long Star Wars podcast with my friend Jeff at The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. And I wrote the first words of a long-contemplated story about a general who goes into hiding after democracy falls to fascism. The general is based on my fascination with the period of Obi-Wan’s life when he is forcibly retired. I assume the rest of the inspiration is obvious but just in case: look out the window.
Paradise
Vibe: A nesting doll of delightful mysteries.
Deets: I mentioned Paradise in last week’s edition. I’m mentioning it again because I finished it this week and it merits another plug. The show kept me guessing right up until the very end and mostly landed the plane (that’s absolutely a pun if you’ve seen the show), which happens far less than you’d think. The conclusion was satisfying while also propelling the show into something new. I’m definitely intrigued enough to tune in for S2.
Also: Sterling K. Brown has basically made a career out of manly crying—stoic in the face of anguish, eyes alight, a single tear running down his cheek—and does not disappoint here. Love to see it.
Streaming on Hulu.
Steve Jobs
Vibe: A curated tour of ego and genius.
Deets: Yes, I also mentioned this last week. It’s a 600-page book. It’s a great read but I also have to eat and like, sleep, and stuff.
What’s interesting is how my opinion of Jobs has changed as I’ve gotten into the back half. He’s still often breathtakingly rude. But his genius and drive for perfection strangely acts as a counterbalance.
The one thing I keep wondering is how Jobs would’ve reacted to 2025. Would he have bent the knee, like Tim Cook did (or Tim Apple, as Trump calls him). Hard to say, and harder yet to make a judgment call based on a biography. But I don’t think he would’ve. For all his faults, Jobs wasn’t motivated by money or power. If his life had any one unifying theme, it was found in the creation of beautiful things.
Anyway, here’s a quote that struck me:
Your thoughts construct patterns like scaffolding in your mind. You are really etching chemical patterns. In most cases, people get stuck in those patterns, just like grooves in a record, and they never get out of them.
And another:
If you want to live your life in a creative way, as an artist, you have to not look back too much. You have to be willing to take whatever you've done and whoever you were and throw them away.
The more the outside world tries to reinforce an image of you, the harder it is to continue to be an artist, which is why a lot of times, artists have to say, "Bye. I have to go. I'm going crazy and I'm getting out of here." And they go and hibernate somewhere. Maybe later they re-emerge a little differently.
Andor: S1
Vibe: Prestige TV comes for Star Wars.
Deets: That’s right. More Star Wars.
I started rewatching Andor in order to prepare myself, body and soul, for season 2. It’s just as good as I remember. Better, actually, which seems impossible. Really hard watch in America 2025, though. This is not the escapism you’re looking for.
What I’ve been thinking about while watching is all the background people just going about their lives. Do they realize the Empire is slowly squeezing their life away? Do they care? As we’re newly discovering daily, apathy and ambivalence are hard to overcome.
Streaming on Disney+.
Good Links
Murderbot trailer: I seriously love the Murderbot novels, a hilarious and often moving series about a cyborg for hire. Apple is releasing an adaptation next month. The trailer doesn’t feel quite like the books—looks like it’s leaning heavily into the gonzo, and sidestepping the existential angst at Murderbot’s heart—but this is also just a trailer. So we’ll see!
It’s bleak, says the handyman: nothing you don’t already know, but you should read it anyway. Reaffirming, funny, hopeful.
The Disney Star Wars LARP experience: article about a documentary on the actual experience of LARPing at the Disney Star Wars hotel. (LARP is Live Action Role Play, something I’ve never actually done despite never shutting up about D&D; obligatory link to one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.) The article is behind a paywall but you can see the trailer before it kicks in. This is different than Jenny Nicholson’s 4-hour investigative video into failure of the hotel, which I still haven’t finished because it’s a 4-hour video.
Shea Serrano on Se7en: I’ve been following Shea for years, back to the Grantland days. So I had a bit of a fanboy moment when he recently started a movie newsletter.
Grantland ruled. I was really bummed when it wound down.
I discovered Shrinking earlier this year and just binged both seasons. I loved it. It's just heartwarming in a Ted Lasso kind of way.
I have to agree with you though that Brett Goldstein will always be Roy Kent for me. As far as I'm concerned, Roy Kent just lived 2 lives as a Pasadena guy who accidentally ran over a woman and a British football player.