Blogocentric Formulations

World Television Day

Tomorrow (the 21st) is "World Television Day," and since my last blog entry was on my most anticipated movies of 2024, I thought I should probably do a post about television too. Television doesn't have quite the advanced notice that movies do, so instead of anticipated future series, I'm going to post today about the current shows I'm watching that I really enjoy. I'm only going to pick current shows, nothing that's been canceled, ended, or is in reruns. In no particular order:

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. As the spiritual successor to The Daily Show (which is weird to say since it's still on), this is one of my favorite entertainment news shows. I love the format of doing a deep-dive on a particular topic rather than a sweeping overview of a lot of stories, and John Oliver's brand of humor is perfect for the often heavy topics that the show covers. It's one of the few shows that I can honestly say entertain me while also teaching me something about the world, and I try not to miss an episode.

The Boys. An irreverent, gross, and disturbing send-up of superhero culture, this show is not for the faint of heart, but it's brilliant in the way it shows superheroes behaving badly and taking advantage of their supernatural abilities. The acting is great, and the show always comes up with really clever ways to shock and surprise the audience. I haven't seen the spinoff Gen-V yet, but it's at the top of my list of new shows to watch.

The Bear. Both seasons have been amazing character studies, and it's about the world of restaurants and good food, so this is right up my alley. One of the episodes in the second season ("Forks") is one of my favorite episodes of television in the past five years. It's so well written and so emotional and everything I aspire to be able to write myself as a screenwriter.

Only Murders in the Building. This show is just delightful. It's an old school murder-mystery show and it's great to see Martin Short and Steve Martin together again. Selena Gomez is an unexpectedly great addition to the cast, and each season has had a really intriguing mystery that's kept me guessing in the best way.

The White Lotus. At first I wasn't really into this show, but I love the anthology approach to it, where each season is a different "White Lotus Resort" somewhere in the world, with a different cast of characters. That keeps it fresh and interesting and, of the two seasons its had so far, there have been some amazing characters to root for (and against).

Selling Sunset and Selling the OC. This is my guilty pleasure reality show. Hot people selling hot real estate and getting into super-petty drama. It's a fun show to watch when I just want to mentally check out and watch something.

There's a whole bunch of other shows that I've enjoyed that are limited series and therefore not eligible for this list, as well as some old shows that I'm just now getting around to watching and really enjoying. I'm trying to watch a handful of seasons of new (or new to me) television every month, so this list is always evolving.