Well, here we are, quickly sinking into another winter when it kinda feels like the last one just ended. I mean, obviously it didn't; we had like two weeks of fall, after all. Still, I'm not sure that I'm ready for winter again already, so in my own indoor-cat sort of way, I'll prepare for hibernation by plotting out the stuff I'll listen to in case of/when I probably get snowed in and don't wanna/can't possibly escape. So, instead of writing about the stuff I'm listening to or watching this month, I'll instead mention a few of the things I'm looking forward to finally enjoying when I have enough time. There's just too much.
In Pod We Trust
I'm so far behind on podcasts that I feel like a bad fan. Prepping for the Bend Film Festival took away most of my free time, so I spent whatever time I did have watching the movies I needed to check out for review. I can't wait to finally dive back into Marc Maron's "WTF," which I haven't heard a new episode of since his interview with Paul Schrader in May. For those counting, that's an insane 49 missing episodes, including interviews with Joan Baez, Les Claypool and Cillian Murphy that I'm ridiculously excited to finally hear.
I also fell behind on "Revisionist History," which manages every week to be the most fascinating and enlightening history lesson I ever could have imagined. If you would have told high school Jared that he would be in love with a history podcast, he wouldn't have even put down the bong to tell you how wrong you were. But episodes focused on topics like the Osage Murders (recently explored in "Killers of the Flower Moon"), futurism and the best way to do your laundry, "Revisionist History" will give new context to most of the things you thought you knew in life.
Now Streaming
There are so many shows I haven't seen yet, that I'm not sure I'll ever get caught up. I still haven't watched the new Mike Flanagan Netflix series, "The Fall of the House of Usher," which is ridiculous since A) Poe is one of my favorite writers and B) Flanagan's last adult series "Midnight Mass" is an actual, perfect piece of cinema disguised as a television series. From what I hear, "Usher" is another deeply humanist and spooky creation from Flanagan and further cements him as one of the premiere voices of dark fiction.
I still haven't seen the brand-new Netflix adaptation of "All the Light We Cannot See," which I can't imagine being bad since the book is so incredible. Would I have chosen the director of "Free Guy" to have made it? Absolutely not. But this one has my faith. Speaking of adaptations, I'm behind an entire season of the AppleTV+ "Foundation" series which I'm hearing is the best sci-fi show since "The Expanse."
You all might judge me for this, but I've also never watched a single full episode of anything "Yellowstone" related. Not because I think it'll be bad or anything, just because it looks exhausting in its constant intensity and drama. Everyone seems to constantly be ratcheted up to a 10 and sometimes I just need a two.
New season of "American Horror Story?" Haven't touched it. Harrison Ford and Jason Segel's "Shrinking" still sits on my watchlist as does "Hacks" starring the great Jean Smart and the two most recent seasons of my current favorite romantic comedy on TV, Netflix's "Starstruck," starring the luminous and brilliant Rose Matafeo. Does this ever happen to you where you get so far behind on the shows that you love watching that it causes you anxiety to even try to decide what to watch next? So that's why we end up rewatching "The Office" or "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" for the dozenth time instead of something new and possibly groundbreaking.
If you can figure out how to narrow down all your choices more, let me know. If you can bottle that ability to choose from between 50 different things you want to watch, then you're ahead of the rest of us who spend an hour trying to make up our minds and then end up just choosing something safe and easy. Maybe our new year's resolution can be to watch more new things. Or maybe it's time to start another rewatch of "Parks and Recreation?" We'll see.
