What to watch, listen to, play, and read this weekend
The show to watch
BoJack Horseman
“Throughout the series, former ’90s TV star BoJack Horseman (Will Arnett) has been trying to redeem his worst actions, and also get back on top in the entertainment game. This season, it looks like both of those things might just happen, as he gets cast as brooding alcoholic anti-hero detective Philbert—a type that hits way too close to home. BoJack not only tackles addiction, mental health, and the #MeToo movement, but it does so in a way that’s often very, very funny, and more inventive than most series.”
Read our recaps of the current and past seasons of BoJack here.
The podcast to listen to
Backtalk, “#MeToo Is Here To Stay”
“Bitch Media editors Dahlia Balcazar and Amy Lam have an easy and playful chemistry. They kick off each episode of Backtalk arguing about things like the worst Mark Wahlberg film, yet they’re still able to tackle serious and complicated issues like the #MeToo movement when necessary. This episode finds them discussing the movement’s integrity in the face of allegations against one of its leaders, Asia Argento.”
Read about the rest of the week’s best podcasts here.
The movie to watch
Mandy
“[T]his is a movie that features a chainsaw duel and [Nicolas] Cage, in full bug-eyed-and-grimacing mode, snorting scoops of cocaine and lighting a cigarette off a vanquished foe’s flaming severed head. Its central conflict is between different meanings of ‘cult’: the kind that oppresses, embodied by Jeremiah (Linus Roache) and his brainwashed followers; the kind that brings pleasure, embodied by Mandy’s love of sword-and-sorcery fantasies, Cage’s hypnotic overacting (now in its ‘fat Elvis’ phase, for better or worse), and by [director Panos] Cosmatos’ mannerist reinterpretation of midnight movies and high-grade ’80s supercheese.”
Read the rest of our review here.
The game to play
Destiny 2
“Destiny games are at their best when you find an unexpected surprise while stumbling through a dark cave, whether it’s a new gun or some lore reveal, but vanilla Destiny 2 made the path through the cave too clear. Forsaken makes it all less obvious, requiring you to actually do some critical thinking to figure out how to get to most of the new stuff.”
Read more of our thoughts on the Forsaken DLC here.
The book to read
Moderan by David R. Bunch
“In story after story, the author continually returned to his fictional world of Moderan, a future version of Earth through which he satirized mankind’s worst and most foolish impulses… Through his Moderan stories, the author creates a world wherein the ugliness of our desire for strength, glory, and certainty stands in stark contrast to the occasional reminders that it didn’t need to go this way. Anyone living through the past few years in this country is getting an abject lesson in how satire can become freshly relevant long after the real world it originally lampooned went away.”
Read the rest of our review here.
The album to listen to
Spirit Of The Beehive, Hypnic Jerks
“On Hypnic Jerks, Spirit Of The Beehive has finally found a way to merge [its divergent] fascinations. Songs like ‘Poly Swim’ and ‘Hypnic Jerks’ more concisely show the band’s power, and how it can turn three-minute songs into dense, expansive works. Given that Hypnic Jerks was crafted to play as a mixtape, it’s impressive how it’s the most purposeful and focused record the band’s yet to make.”
Read the rest of the week’s music reviews here.