Every SM hiatus I’ve had recently has been wonderful for all the reasons you can read in a good cultural essay, but I’m still watching and loving good stories and we’re blindingly far into 2020 already so I want to share some of my fave stuff:

TV:

CHEER accomplished what half a dozen Bring It On movies couldn’t, legitimize competitive cheerleading as a culturally-recognized sport. Hours of operatic physicality also legitimize this series as one of the great sports docuseries’.

You could make the case that KIDDING is Mr. Rogers Neighborhood for adults even if that’s understood as the show’s basic conceit. The primary influence introduced children to real life by using their imaginations. But to reach adults, KIDDING took the opposite road.

I have to be fair and note that OZARK’s third season was a knockout. But the show’s clear attempt to recapture the magic of family crime sagas like The Sopranos and Breaking Bad falls short of 15-20 episodes rusted by narrow plotting and lesser-developed archetypes.

MOVIES:

I’ve shared two whole tweets uttering my praise for THE ASSISTANT. That’s already double the praise I usually stop here to give. See it! (P.S., Ozark doesn’t get to hog Julia Garner’s greatness in this thread!)