we're back, baby!
Just in time for summer TV: Gentleman Jack, The Bold Type, Billions, and KEANU!
Hi friends!
You might have noticed that A Waste Of Time took a year-long hiatus. A toxic combination of imposter syndrome, avoidance tendencies, and pure old-fashioned laziness congregated last May to halt this weekly(ish) endeavor after two excellent editions. I never stopped thinking about writing it though or about the nice people who read it and wrote back (thank you). So it’s time to stop avoiding, get over my guilt, and get back to writing. I do still watch an absurd amount of TV after all.
If you’re wondering what the hell is going on or don’t remember subscribing, read the first issue here to catch up. TLDR: This is a Grub Street Diet-style TV diary and my name is Delia.
Thanks for being here. Please forward to a friend. Let’s get started.
Sticker is by World Famous Original.
Here’s what I watched last week - the good, the bad, and the embarrassing:
Friday, May 31
I work from home on Fridays so in the late afternoon, I caught up on my new surprise fave Gentleman Jack. You might have seen ads for this HBO period drama (also running on BBC One) about a lesbian living in 1800s England. I put on the first episode a few weeks ago as background entertainment while I cleaned. 5 hours later, I had realized I’d caught up on all the current episodes.
The extremely cool part is that the entire story is based on a real person!!! Anne Lister existed IRL. So did her love interest Ann Walker. They actually exchanged secret wedding vows and took symbolic communion together during Easter mass in 1834 as a sort of make-shift wedding ceremony. We know all of this because Lister wrote a 6-million word, 24-volume diary describing every aspect of her life in ultimate detail. Part of it, she wrote in a code she made up because it’s about things that were completely scandalous at the time - like ladies sleeping with each other.
The show is great on two fronts: for people like me who love all period dramas, it pushes the genre forward with a crisp self-awareness; for people who’d rather not with the petticoats and the big dumb curls, it allows its characters to speak in plain English.
I can’t praise it enough. I love everything about it and highly recommend doing your own Googles about this “lesbian rebel.” Meanwhile, do watch the show.
Where to watch it: HBO
Saturday, June 1
I had a lovely group of ladies over for a beauty swap in the afternoon. It was a hit and everyone went home with great, “new” goodies. Yay for saving the planet and spending less money. (Reach out if you want in for the next one or tips on how to host one yourself.)
After my guests left, I cleaned up and had a wild Saturday night alone watching Always Be My Maybe in bed. It’s a very cute/fun rom-com, like candy you forget having eaten 15 minutes later for your eyeballs. And while it isn’t the best movie in the world - there can only be one Igby Goes Down - representation is important and I’m in support of Ali Wong getting more platforms for her pointed yelling.
Plus, the entire thing is worth it for the now-infamous Keanu Reeves cameo alone.
Thanks to this movie, I am embarrassingly the very last person on planet Earth to jump on the “Keanu is cool” train, having stood by as it left the station and made several trips around the internet for last…several years.
But I made up for it in the past week by consuming A LOT of Keanu content. If you, like me, missed the Keanu boat (it’s a boat now, deal) the first dozen times around, I recommend the following starter meal:
Start with an aperitif in the form of this Keanu Reeves Walking To Music Twitter account which confirms that every single song in the universe is the perfect soundtrack for K-dog’s confident strut. (Email me your favorite.)
Then enjoy this appetizer interview from E. Alex Jung at Vulture about what it was like to cast Keanu.
Follow it up with this main course profile from Alex Pappademas at GQ that gives some insight into what he might actually be like in real life.
Finish it with this dessert piece via Naomi Fry at the New Yorker about how we don’t deserve Keanu’s pure, enlightened soul.
And for your after-dinner mint, really process the part at the end of this Stephen Colbert interview where Keanu answers the question, “What do you think happens when we die?”
Fun thing I learned this week: Keanu is Asian-Canadian/American. I did not know. Did you know? Also, apparently he was born in Beirut. Amazing.
Where to watch: Netflix
What to watch next: “Destination Wedding,” streaming on Prime
Sunday, June 2
I had a very lazy day and spent most of it finishing the final season of You’re The Worst. The series is excellent, although it spent its life as a sleeper cult hit relegated to FXX. It’s about two awful people who steal gifts from and hook up at a wedding. Then, despite being total pieces of shit in skin suits, they fall in love. The show is a really excellent exploration of what it means to be a person, be broken, fuck up, fuck up some more, and still be worthy of love. The final season is really well done. I can’t recommend it enough.
Where to watch: Seasons 1 - 4 are on Hulu. Season 5 is on the FXX app & site (I use my parents’ log-in).
Monday, June 3
I had dinner with my friend Veronica – who has her own very good shopping newsletter called “buy, bitch” (ahem…subscribe) – and got home late but still watched the newest episode of Billions. I’ve been enjoying this money crimes show from the beginning and am always surprised at how much I like it even though it feels like it’s specifically made for middle-aged dads with miscellaneous jobs at large insurance companies.
Now in season 4, the already-unrealistic dialogue feels like it’s getting a bit out of control. But because I read Nate Jones’ piece in Vulture about why the characters talk the way they do, I have a hunch there’s specific reason co-creators Brian Koppleman and David Levien are now having Chuck say shit like, “I myself will be doing my usual boogie - inducing mistakes through temptation, misdirection, obfuscation and conflation-slash-corruption of the ideals that built this great nation. For a good and noble purpose, of course.”
Sunday is the season finale and there better be a surprise twist cause a few things have not been adding up for me. (I forget where we landed on spoilers with this newsletter so we’ll avoid them for now. But if you want to talk about the shady shady on Billions, email me.)
Where to watch: Showtime (I took advantage of their $4.99/month for the first 6 months Instagram ad. Not sure I’ll keep paying after the promo ends. Definitely sure I’ll accept your free log-in details if you want to share.)
Tuesday, June 4
I had three drinks on a school night, felt dizzy, and still pressed play on the newest episode of Gentleman Jack. Then I took a 🔥 selfie and immediately fell asleep on the couch.
When I woke up at 4:00 am and got into bed, I made the dumb decision to open my laptop. The Hulu tab told me a new episode of The Bold Type was up so I watched the entire thing like the responsible adult I am.
I love this dumb show. And more than that, I love to complain about it. If you don’t know about The Bold Type, it’s a summer show on Freeform (the artist formerly known as ABC Family) about three friends who work at a magazine that’s basically Cosmopolitan but for the purposes of the series is called Scarlet. Former Cosmo EIC Joanna Coles is actually an executive producer on the show so I like to believe it’s at least more or less accurate about the ridiculousness of magazine life. The thing about The Bold Type is that it generally gets what it’s like to work in media - at least more than a lot of other “journalism” shows. The other thing is that it’s just a fun summer watch.
We’re now on Season 3 and things are getting serious for the girls. One of the women just ran for city council (serious AOC parallels). Another is investigating an abusive photographer. The third is navigating moving her career ambitions forward and still being a good partner to her hot older boyfriend and his tiny mouth (hi Richard).
We’ll talk about it more it next week after the season finale but here’s a quick breakdown: I love Sutton, I find Jane completely irritating, I think Kat makes questionable decisions and has a lot of her behavior excused for being a new lesbian even when she does things that would get anyone else accused of sexual harassment, and the Patrick character they hired to run “the dot com” is so fucking perfect as an irritating new media douchebag I want to eat my own hair.
Also I just found out The Bold Type will come back for Season 4 so there’s even more Jane infuriation in our future. Yay.
Where to watch: Hulu or Freeform online
Wednesday, June 5
I got home late from a writing class and watched something but for the life of me, I can’t remember what it was now. Must not have been too memorable.
Thursday, June 6
After my first Title Boxing class (!) and a weekly trip to my beloved Trader Joe’s, I came home and started watching Fosse Verdon. This was a limited series one-off on FX with Sam Rockwell and white Michelle Williams as choreographer Bob Fosse and his wife/lifelong collaborator Gwen Verdon. The couple’s daughter is an executive producer, which gives me confidence that it was done appropriately (not like the hatchet job Bohemian Rhapsody did on Freddie Mercury’s legacy). It hooked me from the beginning by showing us
1) how much work goes into becoming a Broadway star
2) behind-the-scenes drama of some cultural icons like “Cabaret” and “Chicago” and
3) that Fosse would have been actually nothing without Gwen’s brilliance.
Highly recommend.
Where to watch: FX website or app
And that’s all she wrote, folks. Stay tuned for this week’s TV diary where we WILL discuss The Bold Type season 3 finale.
xoxo,
-delia
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