“What are you watching?” is pretty much the automatic question I get when I tell people what I do for a living. Usually I lie to people so I don’t get into a massive debate about the police while I’m trying to hang out. But to you, dear patron, I shall never lie!
A little late I know, but I did just put out that longass Yellowstone video so I figure we’re even. Here’s what I watched in March in between editing sessions.
Secret Lives of Mormon Wives (Season 4) — Hulu/Disney+CW: domestic violence, religious extremism, mormonism
Yeah, let’s start with my guiltiest pleasure. So for those of you who don’t know, I’ve been obsessed with this show for the past couple years, writing about it here and here. To make a long story short, the show fascinates me for three main reasons.
First, I can’t remember a reality series where the show is just about them being reality TV stars. Usually, there’s some sort of conceit where we pretend that we’re watching these people for a reason (they’re kooky bartenders on Vanderpump Rules or searching for love on The Bachelor, etc etc.). But on SLOMW, the entire point of us following these women is because they’re on a reality show. Half of recent seasons have literally been about them doing the press junket for the previous season, which we as an audience have already seen. It’s very trippy.
Second, the show’s approach to gender is fascinating. While all of these women ostensibly come from a super patriarchal upbringing, they have all become the breadwinners for their households, often by playing into their sexuality. This inverts the traditional gender roles and creates a ton of tension, but often it is left unsaid.
Third, it is the most capitalist series I’ve ever seen, in that the entire point of the show is to try to force you to engage with it on other platforms. Most of the drama that happens on the show actually happens off-camera, either on TikTok where these women still have a large following, the “soft-swinging” scandal that threw them all into the spotlight, or the other shows that SLOMW cross-promotes, namely Dancing with the Stars and The Bachelorette.
I had planned to make a video this year about the show to explore all these ideas, but wanted to wait until The Bachelorette had aired, since the main star of SLOMW — Taylor Frankie Paul — was slated to star in that show as well, and I wanted to see which show’s DNA would come through more.
But then, this happened. ABC shelved the entire season of The Bachelorette, despite having already filmed it all, due to a leaked video of her being violent towards her baby daddy and infant child. The video is disturbing.
The future of the franchise is very much up in the air now, although the other cast members have been attempting to be as messy as possible in order to demonstrate that there’s more to this series than Taylor.
What is wild about this entire thing is that none of this is news. The leaked video is from 2023, from before SLOMW ever aired, and something that Hulu definitely knew about. The first season begins with Taylor wearing an ankle monitor since she was on probation for domestic violence. ABC had definitely seen the video before committing millions of dollars into her being The Bachelorette.
While the Bachelor franchise has been notoriously AWFUL at background checks, we’ve never seen this kind of problem with their star, just contestants. And I’ve certainly never seen an entire show get shelved for it at the height of its popularity.
The Pitt (Season 2) — HBOCW: gore, triggering hospital issues, ICE
I finally got caught up on The Pitt and I’m here to tell you that it’s ALMOST as good as ever. It remains the best show on television, blending real life social and political issues into a dramatic, hour-by-hour story. This season has seen the inclusion of ICE, ransomware attacks, antisemitism, islamophobia, and the rising costs of healthcare and insurance. I think it is still one of the most indispensable shows on TV, one that teaches us to live with empathy in a violent and chaotic world that tries its hardest to beat that empathy out of you.
I have loved the second season arcs for Langdon and Whitaker in particular, with the former trying to change and atone for his mistakes and the latter coming into his own and giving out the same advice he got in season 1. Robby and Dana have been assholes this season, but it feels earned and explored. I’ve really liked the addition of Al-Hashimi and both new interns.
Other characters have had more frustrating developments. Abbot being a medic for the SWAT team rubs me the wrong way. I keep waiting for the shoe to drop with Mohan and understand what’s going on with her, but I’m not convinced we’ll actually get there. Javadi has had very little development this season.
The season’s ICE plotline is probably not finished, and was infamously watered down, but I’ve been a little frustrated that much of the emotional beats of that story have asked the audience to focus on the abduction of a nurse, rather than the people ICE is targeting.
I’ll have more to say about this season when it ends and I can get all of my thoughts together.
One Piece (Season 2) — NetflixCW: violence, blood
One Piece should not work. Like, it shouldn’t work at all. Even more than other anime, One Piece is cartoonish. It’s over the top. It’s childish. It has absurd character designs.
And somehow, despite all odds, the live action adaptation really works. I can’t really explain it, but the show strikes just the right tone between silly and sincere. The process of adapting to live action tates toning down some of the more outlandish elements, but One Piece is unafraid to still go over the top and lean into camp. But at the same time, Iñaki Godoy’s performance of Luffy brings a childlike awe to everything that lets you know that there’s nothing wrong with both taking this seriously and not seriously at all. At the same time.
I’m not really a One Piece fan outside of the live action adaptation, and remember trying to check out the anime after enjoying the first season. But those early episodes are very kid-friendly, something that makes the live action show even more impressive, targeting an older audience without losing any of the whimsy that has made the series so iconic.
Industry (Season 4) — HBOCW: nudity, excessive drug use, banking, sexual harassment
The fourth season of Industry was definitively its best. That’s not just because the show found interesting ways to tell the stories of side characters like Rishi, Dycker, and Henry (the episode about Henry’s birthday was a real standout for me), but also because it found a way to focus the story around specific bets.
Whereas the first two seasons focused on its characters and the goings on of Pierpoint, seasons 3 and 4 shifted the focus to specific investments like Lumi and Siren, which I think was a good change. It shifted the emphasis from the human toll of the industry on its workers (burnout, moral erosion, dysfunctional living) to the industry itself (who it works for and how). There’s a renewed interest in the inherent lying and speculation of capitalism, and how it can take over government institutions and public money. And the show has done this while also digging deeper into its characters than ever before.
Harper’s development has been fascinating, going from an industry grunt to an investor who only shorts stocks, under the guise of trying to call out fraud and waste, while really just trying to win bigger and bolder bets for her own ego. Eric Tao’s arc this season as a father, mentor, and criminally flawed human was the best use of his character yet. Yasmin’s drift rightward as a means of survival is as eerie as it is believable.
I never would have thought I’d be this interested in a show about capitalism and banking, but I was genuinely very impressed with the back half of this series.