📺 Shamrocks & Shenanigans
Top of the mornin’ and all that jazz. Quick question: what’s your favorite holiday-themed Disney Channel Original Movie and why is it Luck of the Irish?
In today’s edition:
The biggest cat in Boston
A hipster murder mystery?
Tiger King, again
Ice Princess with an edge
— Jenni Cullen and Jess Spoll
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Where we each choose a recent-ish show to review and feature every week.
If you’re looking for a quick light-hearted watch, try… Single Drunk Female
Keywords: alcoholism, dark comedy, drama
Watch if you like: Shameless, Mom, Fleabag
Jess’s Rating: B+
Is it possible to make a comedy about becoming sober without it being preachy or overly depressing? I would have said no, but then I watched Single Drunk Female.
Usually Hollywood loves a woman who drinks a lot and doesn’t have her shit together, but like, in a hot and quirky way. This show deviates from that cliché and follows a 28 year old woman, Sam, who drinks a lot and doesn’t have her shit together and is actually an alcoholic. After she’s fired for drunkenly assaulting her boss, she has to move back in with her overbearing mother.
It’s a half-hour “dramedy” and it’s unexpectedly upbeat given the subject matter. I would almost call it a feel-good show. While not a traditional comedy, there is a lot of joy and humor in the normalcy of Sam trying to cope with life. The characters are realistic and well-rounded and I’m reminded that I can find happiness in little victories.
My prediction is that most people won’t watch this show because 1. It’s a Freeform show and 2. it’s called Single Drunk Female. But I hope that you can look past those things like I did, because I guarantee you will be pleasantly surprised.
Length: 30-min episodes, 1 season / 10 episodes
Watch on: Hulu / Freeform
If you’re looking for a “new” cult classic that has a bit of everything try… Search Party
Keywords: weird, dark, funny
Watch if you like: Dead to Me, Veronica Mars, American Vandal
Jenni’s Rating: A
This is not going to sound like the start of a glowing endorsement, but I have to say it up front: everyone in this show is awful.
The actors are great, but the characters themselves? Selfish, petty, and self-absorbed across the board. If you’re the kind of person who has a hard time when there’s no clear-cut hero to root for (because everyone kind of sucks a little bit), this might not be for you. But if you can get past that, this show is one of a kind.
Search Party is a dark sitcom about four twenty-something friends who get caught up in an ominous mystery while trying to track down a missing acquaintance from college. Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development) leads the dysfunctional Scooby Gang as Dory Sief, a lifelong doormat who hasn’t been able to find meaning in her own life and seemingly hopes to get answers by locating a missing girl she barely knew.
The tone is hard to pin down and shifts season to season — from mystery, to courtroom drama, to surreal psychological thriller — but throughout, it’s always funny. I’d say this series is perfect for tv-enthusiasts that want something fresh: a little bit of everything rolled into one show about the absurdity of millennial adulthood.
Length: 25 min runtime, 5 seasons / 50 episodes
Watch on: HBO Max
Where we feature a show that you may have been tempted to check out, but we’re here to tell you…it might not be worth it. 🤷♀️
Joe vs Carole
Keywords: docudrama, CGI tigers
Watch if you like: Tiger King, Kate McKinnon
Jess’ Rating: C+
Do you remember Tiger King, the documentary about a guy who owned a big cat zoo and the big cat rights activist that he tried to have murdered? OF COURSE YOU DO. It was two years ago and it was a phenomenon.
90% of the problem with Joe vs Carole is that it is so absolutely unnecessary. I can’t even really say that it’s bad, in fact it would be great if it were an original story. The only reason to watch it is that Kate McKinnon and John Cameron Mitchell as Carole and Joe are truly incredible. They are so perfect in their portrayals that it was easy to forget that I wasn’t actually watching an extended version of Tiger King.
The other 10% of the problem is that the tone of the show is all over the place. Is it a campy parody? Is it the sympathetic view of Carole Baskin that we didn’t get from the documentary? The show doesn’t really tell us anything new, which is problematic given that LITERALLY EVERYONE watched the doc in 2020 and knows their stories inside and out.
If this weren’t a dramatized version of the already-dramatic source material, I would give it an A rating. It has entertaining moments, and again, really great performances by McKinnon and Mitchell. But it’s banking on people feeling nostalgic for their early-pandemic Tiger King watching days, and I just don’t think we’re there yet.
— Jess
Length: ~50-min runtime, 1 season / 8 episodes
Watch on: Peacock
Where we highlight shows that have long-since ended or been canceled, that are well-worth digging back up.
Spinning Out (2020)
Keywords: sports drama, emotional, soapy
Watch if you like: Make it or Break It, Skins, Grey’s Anatomy
Jenni’s Rating: B+
Cool Runnings…Go Figure…What is it about an ice sport drama that just gets me every time?
Spinning Out is no exception. The series stars Kaya Scodelario (Skins) as Kat Baker, a young, talented figure skater suffering with PTSD from a nasty fall during the competition season prior. Kat is given the opportunity to restart her career (and path to the Olympics) by becoming a pairs skater with a seemingly self-involved playboy of a partner, all the while hiding her family’s history of mental illness.
If you’ve seen The Cutting Edge, this is basically an updated, tv-show version of that gem of a movie, and I so wish it had not been cancelled. A bit campy at times, thoughtful at others, Spinning Out is the melodramatic skating drama of my dreams and has all the ingredients of an addictive weekend binge-watch.
— Jenni
Length: 50-min runtime, 1 season / 10 episodes
Watch on: Netflix
📺 Want to share an opinion about a TV show that we reviewed? Reply to this email! You may see your thoughts in an upcoming edition of Double Take.
Your shows, returned:
Call the Midwife, Season 11: Premieres March 20 on PBS
Call the Midwife, Season 10: Released March 21 on Netflix*
Riverdale, Season 6: Returns from hiatus on March 20 on The CW
9-1-1, Season 5: Returns from hiatus on March 21 on Fox
9-1-1: Lone Star, Season 3: Returns from hiatus on March 21 on Fox
Starstruck, Season 2: Released March 24 on HBO Max
Atlanta, Season 3: Premieres March 24 on FX
*This season has previously aired on network television and is now being released to a streaming service