What I'm Watching: Succession, Boston Strangler, Ganja & Hess, and More

Brian Cox, Matthew Macfayden, Succession, HBO

Here’s the rundown on everything I watched, read, and wrote about this week:

The shows:

• HBO’s epic satire/tragedy of the uber-wealthy, Succession, is back this week for its fourth and final season, and it does not disappoint. It’s hard to talk about why the new season is so good without getting into too much detail about what’s up next, but suffice it to say that this show is not going gentle into that good night – it’ll easily keep up the “best drama on TV” praise for these final chapters. You can check out my review of the first four episodes, and if you’ve already seen tonight’s premiere, I also wrote about how Gerri continues to be the best (even when she only has 4 lines).
• After savoring every moment of the show as my sporadic comfort watch for the past few years, I’m finally caught up on Bob’s Burgers. It was so exciting to get to season 13 and find out that not only has the sweet animated sitcom not declined in quality over the years, but it’s actually gotten better – like with the most recent Christmas episode, which had me crying happy tears.
• I’m trying to fill the Bob’s Burgers void by getting into some other animated shows that I can put on during transitional time. So far, I’m starting with Gravity Falls, the beloved Disney show about two siblings hanging out in what’s basically a town full of X-Files. I’m into it so far, and I especially dig the voice cast!

The movies:

• This week’s movie from a mug was Ganja & Hess, the vital experimental 1973 Black vampire film that came from my “you’ve been meaning to watch this forever” list. While I’ll admit that the film’s purposefully unnerving sound design did not gel with my sound sensitivity (another example of that pesky old moviegoing subjectivity in action), I appreciated every second of the film’s artful, politically resonant visuals and its heady mood.
• I ended up nixing my plans to watch John Wick 4 this weekend, but I did finally catch John Wick 3 (or John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, as it’s officially called) and really enjoyed it. I’m not sure if I like it better than the first installment, but there’s something endlessly fun about the way this franchise incorporates so many side characters and bits of assassin mythology into its runtime. Each successive movie feels more and more like the action film equivalent to a long, weirdly beautiful, multi-clause sentence.
• I also watched Boston Strangler, a true crime movie starring Keira Knightley and Carrie Coon that seems to have hit Hulu with very little fanfare. It was a fine movie in both the well-made and “eh” sense of the word; extremely by-the-book but still interesting thanks to a case with Zodiac-like levels of uncertainty surrounding it.

The reads:

• This is by no means a new interview, but my friend sent me this 20th-anniversary retrospective about A Knight’s Tale as a pick-me-up today and it definitely did the trick. A delightful movie with delightful behind-the-scenes anecdotes.
• Not pop culture-related, but I’m also weirdly transfixed by this absolutely bonkers interview Slate did with a Florida charter school’s school board chair who allegedly fired an art teacher for showing students a picture of the statue of Michaelangelo (for real). When historians someday try to figure out what the hell was happening in America in 2023, I hope they use this mind-boggling exchange as a primary source.
• I zipped through Robert Bloch’s Psycho this week, as in the book that inspired the Hitchcock classic. It’s a rather talky thriller but I like how modern its references to psychology, sexuality (to an extent, obviously), and even true crime obsession feel despite being 60+ years out of date by now. It’s a pretty good book, but it makes me appreciate what Anthony Perkins’ masterful performance added to the film even more.

Odds and ends:

• Did anyone else catch the Yellowjackets premiere yet? It’s pretty wild that it and Succession (aka two of the very best shows on TV) both returned on the same day, and both might be better than ever. I already told y’all last week that I loved it, but I’ll be writing about it weekly as I did with The Last Of Us, so prepare yourselves. For now, I’ll start by sharing my review of the season, a list of some film and TV amuse-bouches that I think pair well with season two, and an essay about how the show’s premiere subverts our expectations for “mystery box” shows in a way that I really appreciate.
• I also wrote a bit about how there should really, really be a stunt category at the Oscars by now, a sentiment John Wick filmmaker Chad Stahelski is enthusiastic about, too.

Hey, listen, if any of you want a taste test of a paid Substack subscription for Hey, What Are You Watching? (if you’re a free subscriber now, 1/3rd of my posts are paywalled), it looks like I can actually give out free “paid” subscriptions! Hit me up if you or a friend want one and I’ll toss the first 3 people who ask about it 3 months free. It’s also worth noting that Substack’s help page indicates it won’t auto-bill you at the end of that period.

Regardless, let me know what you’ve been watching, reading, or listening to in the comments! I’ll be taking a small-ish road trip this week so I especially appreciate any audiobook or podcast recs. Cheers!