What We're Watching, Vol. 10

At The Attic on Eighth, we are clearly a multimedia bunch, with our regular reading discussions and film lists. In fact, some of our very first interactions as friends were excitedly messaging scene for scene reactions to shared shows across oceans and time zones. In this monthly series we gather to chat our most recent views. Nothing keeps us close like binge-watching together, even if we’re not in the same room.

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February has finally arrived after the longest January on record, and with it comes many things to excite us — romance, the last few bright days of winter, the hope for a calmer spring, and all of the shiny new television we could hope for. The theme this February seems to be heartwarming joy, with shows we can watch over and over again without tiring of their depth or wholesomeness, and recommend to anyone who will listen. It is the month of love, after all, and we live for it in all of its forms, so forgive us if we gush.

Here’s what we’re watching this month:

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Raquel Reyes

Continuing my desire for lighthearted, easy watches from last month, I finally got into the hype around Derry Girls while dealing with what I’m still not sure what illness it was at this point. Flu, cold, depression, hay fever... toss in a hat and take your pick. Regardless, Derry Girls cured me at least in the emotional sense, with its hilariously nostalgic 90s antics. I too, would like to be a Derry Girl, and wouldn’t mind my own emotional support English boy for good measure. I enjoyed it so much I immediately started over and watched the whole thing a second time after finishing it’s all-too-short pair of seasons, and hope we’ll get a third sometime soon. 

In newer things, our beloved Grace & Frankie are back and if you’re not already in love with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda I don’t know what you’re doing with your life but please correct it immediately. With only a final season slated sometime in the future, this penultimate outing of our beloved divorcée BFFs and their hyper relatable extended families finally saw things start to come together, while not falling short on any new challenges or gratifying moments. To quote my brother, whom I had to wait upon to recover from his own hallucinatory flu to finally watch together a week after its premiere, “They just all really have each other’s backs, and there’s something really wonderful about that.”

Next up, I’m hoping to finally get started on the final (SOBBING) season of our beloved Schitt’s Creek, and also get back to Sex Education, which I began when it first premiered last year? but forgot to keep watching past the first episode. And possibly a re-watch of The Witcher, to see if I can finally make any sense of that chaos.

Annie Jo Baker

Last November, I mentioned inhaling Josh Thomas’ Please Like Me, when binging TV isn’t something I really do. Well now, Josh Thomas has come out with a new Freeform/Hulu sitcom—Everything’s Gonna Be Okay. I’m still catching up on what’s been released so far, but it feels in many ways like a continuation of the older show. Josh Thomas was 25 when Please Like Me first aired and is now 32. The protagonist of Please Like Me (played by Josh Thomas, with whom he shares a first name) was a directionless university student and barista taking care of his mentally ill mother, interested in little more than baking and boys. His Everything’s Gonna Be Okay character, Nicholas, is an established entomologist, a young professional at the confused stage of his life where he has the opportunities to settle down but hasn’t yet. When Nicholas learns that his dad is dying, leaving his two teenaged sisters without a guardian, he offers himself up to be their guardian, insisting he’s the natural choice.

Nicholas is, like Josh of Please Like Me, just as shallow and self-absorbed as a regular person but still ultimately obsessed with doing what’s right. Everyone on the show does bad things, even things that can’t necessarily be forgiven, but they’re presented with such sincerity and empathy that you can’t hate them. I’ve rarely seen a showrunner who creates characters this real. And knowing that this showrunner also plays the incredibly selfish protagonist makes it all the more real—you don’t have to be a saint to care about others.

Olivia Gündüz-Willemin

This past month has been about the new season of one amazing Netflix series followed by another for me. The second season of Sex Education came out midway through January, and I think I can safely say that it’s the best show airing at the moment. The story of a sex therapist (Gillian Anderson) and her teenage son who accidentally becomes a(n unlicesnsed) sex therapist at his high school when he starts to give his contemporaries much needed advice, Sex Education tackles issues that no other show is doing at the moment, and it’s doing so with openness, tact, and so much genuine emotion. It’s so intelligent, so well-written, so funny, and does such an amazing job at representing human relationships in general that it’s a joy to watch. I’m recommending it to everyone I know at the moment, including you.

Like Raquel, I’ve also zoomed through the latest season of Grace & Frankie, albeit at an even greater delay. (I texted Raquel asking if she’d seen any of the new season yet when I started the first episode, and she replied that she finished the whole thing a full week before.) There isn’t much to say that Raquel hasn’t already said other than to chime in to agree with her and her brother. The unconditional love the characters on the show have for one another is beautiful, and I love them for being one of the best modern families on television. 

Next up: finally finishing the latest season of Sabrina. I watched the first episode the night it came out a couple of weeks ago, and I hated it so much that I haven’t been at all rushed to finish it. I kind of wish the show could be all about Hilda and Zelda and not about Sabrina and her friends at this point…

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