TV & Movies

📺 Bad Sisters: Sharon Horgan’s dark comedy/murder mystery series is back for a second season! If you loved Veep, Fleabag, and Catastrophe, this show is for you—and if you haven’t seen the first season, stop what you’re doing and watch it now! At the beginning of season 2, the Garvey sisters have happily moved on from the untimely death of Grace’s husband, JP, but it’s not long before a body is discovered in suspicious circumstances linked to the sisters, and yet another man in their orbit goes missing…

📺 Martha: I watched the first half of this documentary about the life and career of Martha Stewart, homemaker and businesswoman extraordinaire, in the most perfect of circumstances: late at night with a group of women friends, during a 2-night getaway/sleepover. We collectively felt sorry for young Martha during her childhood with a cold, uber-disciplined father who played favorites; gaped at her dismissal of her bad behavior during her marriage and blunt rudeness to her staff; scoffed at James Comey’s blatant ambition, and marveled at Martha’s tenacity and longevity. If nothing else, this woman is fascinating, and like so many other recent documentaries (Beckham comes to mind) it’s illuminating to review 80s and 90s culture through the lens of today’s cultural and gender standards.

📺 Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story: this week, I’ve had a nightly date with Lyle and Erik Menendez, the two brothers who became tabloid fixtures after brutally murdered their wealthy parents in Los Angeles in 1989 in this limited series recreation of their story. Starring Chloe Sevigny as their mother, Kitty, Javier Bardem as their father, Jose, and Nathan Lane as journalist, Dominick Dunne, the show is well-acted and produced. I enjoyed this as (gruesome, gripping, shocking) entertainment, with the understanding that it takes many liberties in telling the story of the brothers, and what led them to kill their parents.

📺 Territory: if Succession, Crocodile Dundee, and Yellowstone were to have a baby, this Australian TV series would be it. Set on the “largest cattle station in the world” in Australia’s remote and rugged Northern Territory, it’s the story of a family dynasty in crisis, battling to hold on to their land and prestige after a sudden and shocking death. Like Yellowstone, there are plenty of guns, injuries, and peril; like Crocodile Dundee, there are bold men and women engaging in daring exploits; and like Succession, there are helicopters galore and a manipulative patriarch who refuses to give up control of his empire. It’s a soap opera at heart, and I am enjoying it as an escape from my much more tame everyday life!

📺 Disclaimer: I would watch anything with Cate Blanchett in it and immediately clicked Play on this new limited series on Apple TV. Blanchett plays Catherine Ravenscroft, an award-winning British journalist whose glamorous life is thrown into chaos when copies of a book that exposes a long-buried secret are sent to her husband and son. Directed by Alfonso Cuarón and also starring Sacha Baron Cohen and Kevin Kline, who are both excellent, Disclaimer is a beautifully filmed, taut, domestic thriller. I was gripped by the first two episodes and am eagerly awaiting episode three…

Books

📖 What Goes With What: Julia Turshen’s new cookbook is an instant classic for home cooks. It’s truly unique: Julia has interwoven moving personal essays amidst the recipes, done away with meaningless traditional portion sizes, and included 20 whimsical, hand-written charts that beautifully illustrate what goes with what! It’s a keeper!

📖 Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts: by Oliver Burkeman, who wrote the wildly popular, Four Thousand Weeks, this is a practical guide to embracing the finite nature of our lives as humans, and what Burkeman calls “imferfectionism.” The book promises to help readers step “into a more meaningful, productive, absorbing and energizing life – not later, but right here in the midst of the overwhelm, the distraction, and the anxiety-inducing news headlines.” It’s intended to be read over a period of 4 weeks, one day at a time, and I found it a gentle and useful reminder that life is short and the time to prioritize what’s most important is now; and I appreciated the practical tips for letting go of perfectionism and procrastination.

Newsletters

📨 Look For the Good...and 8 other things I've learned this year in 22 years of marriage by Tsh Oxenreider: this is a heartwarming reminder of what’s most important in sustaining a healthy marriage. Each of these tips is gold, but 5: “Let your spouse be themselves, and let yourself be you, too,” is one of my favorites: “Be cool with the dumb dad jokes. Let him chit-chat with the neighbor longer than you would. Shrug your shoulders at how often he re-watches The Lord of the Rings. Roll your eyes with lighthearted affection when he loses that one drill bit for the 4,596th time. Power through those mouth noises he makes next to you every morning while he eats his muesli and sips his coffee. You have your own proclivities, too. You like that one 80s song he’s dying to skip. You have that annoying throat-clearing thing you have to do in the morning. You forget you’ve already told that story to him three times. You, too, lose your earbuds 4,596 times.”

Podcasts

🎧 Finding the joy of service with Milk Bar's Christina Tosi and restaurateur Will Guidara; WorkLife with Adam Grant: I loved this conversation with the married couple who are responsible for some of New York’s most iconic restaurants (Milk Bar, Eleven Madison Park) and are united in their dedication to over-the-top hospitality. They chat with organizational psychologist, Grant, about building their businesses, how they collaborate as a couple, and the deep pleasure and meaning to be found in serving others.