What I'm Watching: American Nightmare, the Emmys, classic Star Trek, and More

William Shatner, Angelique Pettyjohn, Star Trek: The Original Series, Paramount Television

Here’s a quick rundown on everything I watched, read, and wrote about last week:

The shows:

• I’m a little short on TV recommendations this week, but I was pleasantly surprised by American Nightmare, a Netflix true crime docuseries that was deeper and better than much of the streamer’s recent bottom of the barrel fare has been. The story itself is bonkers (it involves the veracity of a man’s bizarre kidnapping claim) and it plays out in an interesting way thanks to a multi-perspective structure. Plus it interrogates the systems that fell short in this ultimately upsetting case, as I think all good true crime should. Luckily, my friend Chris Campbell just brought back his documentary site, Nonfics, in the form of a Substack, so you can read his more eloquent thoughts about American Nightmare here.
• I’ve been rewatching a lot of Star Trek: The Original Series for an upcoming project and man, I love this ridiculous show. I marathoned it for the first time during a formative era of my life and it seems like my opinions on the show will never mature, which is honestly fine. No matter how old I get, goofy costumes and “just blend in” missions will always delight me, allegories about war and unity will always stop me in my tracks, and Spock will always be the most special and precious guy in the universe (and my heart).

The movies:

• My Criterion Challenge continues with Tampopo, a rich and wonderful watch that left my stomach growling and my heart hungry. In case you’re unfamiliar, this Japanese classic is about a group of strangers-turned-collaborators on a quest to make the perfect bowl of ramen. It’s also about food as love in every sense of the word. Funny, creative, referential, and cinematic, it’s a true feast for the senses and a well-rounded, winning watch.
• I didn’t actually get around to watching any other films this week, though I kept up my tradition of throwing on whatever is on my hotel TV by catching roughly 80% of Lifetime’s Woman With The Red Lipstick. It was…exactly what you’d expect from a Lifetime movie with an “inspired by real events” tag that seems impossible to verify with a rudimentary Google.

The reads:

• If you’re not already reading Sydney Urbanek’s Mononym Mythology, you should be. Sydney embodies everything I hope to as I figure out next stages of my career: she’s impressively offline, qualified and passionate in her area of expertise, curious and prone to dabbling in new things, and guaranteed to blow everyone away whenever she pops up with new writing. The fact that I’m being this effusive after simply reading her personal year in review post goes to show she’s talented as hell.
• Speaking of talented folks who are impressively offline, I’m so happy to have new writing from Lindsey Romain to recommend! Lindsey’s been active on Substack for a while, but I’m especially taken by her most recent post, a deep-deep deep dive into Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 6. The penultimate season of Buffy gets a bad rap, and given everything we now know about Joss Whedon, it’s hard to talk about the show in general, but Buffy remains one of my all-time favorite hero’s journey stories in any medium. Here, Lindsey gives the thorny, painful, upsetting sixth season the room to breathe it deserves, ultimately getting to the heart of the show while sharing more than a bit of her own.
• I listened to the audiobook for Jill Gutowitz’s hybrid memoir-essay book Girls Can Kiss Now during a long drive, and it made me laugh more than any other book had in quite a while. The author’s terminally online schtick wore me out at times, and a comedic few bits went on too long, but her letter to her younger self is gutting and powerful, and her pop culture insights were golden.
• This is a wild, dystopian read from Matt Singer, about how someone’s making money off an AI-generated dupe of his new book. AI isn’t going to come for our jobs – it already has.

Odds and ends:

• It feels invigorating to be writing about a show I love every week again, and True Detective: Night Country has already given us so much to chew on in just two weeks. After you’ve caught the second episode, you can read my take on the show’s exhilarating season 1 connection (which I noticed mid-writing this piece, leading to a frantic, thrilling reworking of it) and my two cents on why we should trust the show to go full supernatural.
• I covered the Emmys less than 24 hours after getting home from the Critics Choice Awards, and while I was too burned out to have much of an opinion on anything, I did take a minute to lament the voting body’s bizarre, history-making, years-long shutout of Better Call Saul.

It feels great to write again after only working one day this past week. I spent the rest of the week driving up the West coast with a car full of moving boxes, which was both a planned trip (my lease is up) and an unplanned one (my grandma caught COVID after breaking her hip, and I wanted to spend time with her ASAP). I’m so thankful for everyone who’s helped me get through the seemingly endless onslaught of Stuff Happening recently, including all of you for bearing with me whenever my release schedule gets a little wonky. I’m on the precipice of multiple big life changes, and I can’t wait to tell you all about whatever TV I end up watching along the way.

NOTE: Pending a platform change in response to Substack’s unethical policies, this newsletter is currently not offering a paywalled version. All upcoming issues are free until we blow this popsicle stand.