Binge-r #203: 10 Shows From 2019 Worth Reconsidering

Mulholland Dive: Chris Pine (Jay Singletary) in I am the Night

DEAD TO ME

Female friendship and criminal conspiracy (Netflix)

“The distance between someone who is good for you and someone who is not, the show observes, is never as great as we convince ourselves it must be… You can call Dead to Me a soap opera, or a thriller, or a comedy, but in reality it folds them all into a series about truth and deception that keeps you on the hook.” [full review in BINGE-R #138]

FOR ALL MANKIND

A Cold War space race alternate history (Apple TV+)

“Co-creator Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica, Outlander) is intrigued by astronaut lore, with The Right Stuff never far from reach, but he’s also willing to look at the period detail and compromises with a questioning eye.” [full review in BINGE-R #164]

I AM THE NIGHT

Murky Los Angeles noir mystery (Stan)

“Set in 1965 – with the odd occult orgy flashback – it’s blunt about the flashpoints of race and corruption, but the underlying menace and individual will for the truth creates an obsessive energy that lifts the slow burn plotting upwards.” [full review in BINGE-R #125]

I THINK YOU SHOULD LEAVE WITH TIM ROBINSON

Bananas American sketch comedy more relevant than ever (Netflix)

“The writing’s forte is characters who can’t comprehend or simply accept social norms and angrily attempt to defy them, to the blistering discomfort of those around them.” [full review in BINGE-R #137]

ON BECOMING A GOD IN CENTRAL FLORIDA

Scathing black comedy about the American Dream (SBS on Demand)

“It’s the story of a family consumed by FAM – Founders American Merchandise, an Amway-like multi-level marketing scheme cloaked in patriotic greed... The season’s crux is just how far Krystal [Kirsten Dunst] will go when she realises she can actually make FAM work for her.” [full review in BINGE-R #165]

The Young Ones: Asa Butterfield (Otis) and Emma Mackey (Maeve) in Sex Education

PEN15

Excruciating adolescent comedy with a grown up twist (Stan)

“Even though the duo’s performances have the awkward physicality, hormonal whiplash, and rash judgments of adolescence, you think there’s a safe distance to what will transpire. That lasts all of a few minutes… You realise that the flipside is we carry those still raw scars from turning 13 with us today.” [full review in BINGE-R #129]

RAMY

A comedy bro of a different kind tries to do good (Stan)

“It sticks to the specifics of Ramy’s life instead of making wide-ranging observations about the pitfalls of being Muslim in contemporary America. Youssef has a guileless voice, and even as different episodes focus on the capable supporting cast, there’s a sweet undertone. The profanity and ribald encounters come from openness, not defiance.” [full review in BINGE-R #156]

SEX EDUCATION

Teenage kicks topped by Gillian Anderson (Netflix)

“Creator Laurie Nunn has made something consistently surprising and idiosyncratic: it has a sex-positive outlook, with dissatisfaction and embarrassment as the threat instead of sexual trauma, and is often witty, updating the high school comedy while nodding to the genre’s past with an alternate John Hughes soundtrack.” [full review in BINGE-R #122]

TOON

Dutch comedy about a recluse gone viral (Netflix)

“The show comments on our obsession with self-promotion. The title character is neither an idiot savant nor, as a television host describes him, an “uber-loser”, and the mix of grace notes and laugh out loud ramifications is enjoyable without demanding cynicism.” [full review in BINGE-R #162]

UNDONE

Bittersweet and beguiling animated sci-fi drama (Amazon Prime)

“This mix of trippy science-fiction and wrenching personal anguish uses rotoscoping animation – where live action footage is traced over and recoloured to create life-like but distinct images – to form pocket universes that fragment and reform in line with the protagonist’s perspective.” [full review in BINGE-R #157]

>> Missed last week’s BINGE-R? Click here to read about Stan’s unconventional period drama Little Birds and SBS on Demand’s acerbic comedy Difficult People.

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>> Check the complete BINGE-R archive: 251 series reviewed here, 148 movies reviewed here, and 35 lists compiled here.