5 shows I'm watching in May

Including a docu-drama that has completely sucked me in.

Andor, season two (Disney+)

Announcements

It is with a heavy heart that I inform you the TV Scholar Awards have been rudely removed from IMDB. I emailed them for clarity and they told me my awards weren’t eligible. To meet their official criteria, the TV Scholar Awards would need a more rigorous jury process and would also need to be established for five years. But let the record state that I’m not the one who added them to IMDB in the first place! And they had been up for two years!

So I guess thank you to whoever was able to bypass their criteria originally. It was fun being, for some shows and actors, the only award listed on their IMDB (like Marisa Abela, until recently). I received a very sweet message from a TV Scholar Awards nominee who said they used their nomination in a pitch package they submitted for production funding, noting it as a point of legitimization. That alone warmed my heart and reminded me why I love doing this, even when I’m burning the midnight oil between long days at my day job and wondering what the long-term future holds for the entertainment coverage industry.

Nonetheless, the TV Scholar Awards will persevere! And maybe with a few new categories this year…

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5. Grey’s Anatomy, season 21 (ABC)

Grade: NA

I thought I would throw this one in since yes, it’s still on, and yes, I’m still watching. I don’t even have much to say about it, except that I watch it weekly (usually while I’m making my soup of the week), and I still love some of these characters who have been in my life for nearly two decades. Natalie Morales, Piper Perabo, and Lena Waithe have been fun recurring additions this season. It’s not good but it’s certainly comfortable. The rhythms are so well-established that when the show shifted showrunners this season, I did not notice a significant change. I hope it runs for another twenty seasons, when Meredith’s daughter Zola becomes a prodigy and takes over as the protagonist. The first few seasons of the show, though, will stay iconic forever.

Is it gay? There are always a few gays floating around at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital.

4. The Handmaid’s Tale, season 5 (Hulu)
Grade: D

I can tell a show has run out of gas when it begins retreading the same ground. The Handmaid’s Tale feels like The Walking Dead’s last few seasons: both shows that should have been axed way earlier in their run. We’re back at Jezebels, we’re back with another Serena-June betrayal, we’re back with another Lydia-Jeanine argument (realistically I’m shocked the character of Jeanine has been allowed to live this long in this universe?) — conflicts that felt fresh the first time around. I keep asking myself, out loud for only my cat to hear: Didn’t we JUST do this? Why are we here again? The earnest performances aren’t enough to save the last gasp of this torture porn with clunky writing and dialogue. I’m amazed it’s able to spin its wheels for another ten episodes. I hate that I’m a completist and just want to finish the season and move on. Whew, that felt good to get off my chest. Apologies to anyone actually enjoying this.

Is it gay? The gayness of the show really dropped off when Alexis Bledel left. Sad.

3. Forever (Netflix)
Grade: B+

What a charming watch. Punches way above its weight for a teen show, and it felt carefully made, which I appreciated (some Netflix shows feel so sloppy these days!). Here’s an excerpt from what I wrote in Appointment Viewing:

Teen dramas can be hit or miss. Luckily, Forever, inspired by the Judy Blume novel of the same name and under the helm of veteran showrunner Mara Brock Akil, it’s a worthwhile binge that will charm its way into your heart. Forever had me reminiscing on my late high-school experiences, the awkward tenderness of a first romance, and leaning into it all with the help of a well-directed and written show with an excellent soundtrack. The series takes its time to develop the relationship between Keisha (Lovie Simone) and Justin (Michael Cooper Jr.), two Los Angeles high-school juniors. Having lost touch since elementary school, they reconnect at a New Year’s Eve party and fall for each other instantly.

Is it gay? Unfortunately no 😭

2. Couples Therapy (Showtime)
Grade: A-

As I’ve gotten older and felt more rooted in my single identity, I’ve increasingly felt like my coupled friends who come to me for guidance or to vent about their relationship are expecting an electrician to do plumbing work (so to speak). I’ve felt so far away from the long-term relationship as a state of being, which is why watching Couples Therapy felt to me like watching Planet Earth, with psychotherapist Dr. Orna Guralnik as David Attenborough, my guide through the vulnerable, tender, heart-wrenching conversations and realizations that couples have in a therapeutic space at a time when their relationship is in crisis.

I got so locked into these couples and their dynamics over the last few weeks, and just how real it all is — at a time when there is *so much* television pouring out at us and only a fraction of it I think is actually worth my precious time as the sun comes out and I want to spend more of my weeks in the park or with friends over cold beers at a brewery. I keep picking shows up and putting them back down — I think I’ve started a dozen shows in the last two weeks that I haven’t continued. I can’t decide if I’m having a television-related existential crisis or there really is just a lot of mediocre television right now (aside from the tentpole shows). Or some of the health issues I’ve had recently require a show as rooted in reality as possible, making Couples Therapy my inoculation to all of the above.

The first season aired back in 2019, with a bonus finale episode that follows couples seeing Orna through the first summer of the pandemic. As opposed to Esther Perel’s “Where Should We Begin” podcast, which are isolated anonymized sessions, these are not just sessions dumped for the viewer’s consumption. We get b-roll footage of couples at home, in the waiting room before their sessions, and their ~dozen sessions are edited episodically to give us a sense of narrative in their lives and between the couples themselves. My favourite bits are when we get to sit in on Orna unpacking her sessions with her therapist, often offering a more unvarnished take on what she’s experiencing in these sessions, or poignant broader cultural observations about relationships.

I can’t necessary say that watching will make me that much more useful next time my coupled friends have conflict in their relationship, but it has been oddly grounding to watch. I’m taking mental notes!

Is it gay? Thankfully, Orna works with a very diverse range of New York-based clients — so yes, queer couples are present and accounted for.

1. Andor, season two (Disney+)
Grade: A

I keep getting spammed with comments under my Andor posts from zionists claiming the rebellion on the show represents Israel. Which…I mean…I have to laugh? It’s as funny as Tr*mp posting an AI-generated photo of himself on May 5th claiming the “Radical Left Lunatics” are like the Siths of Star Wars — when he’s holding a red lightsaber. Like…what? There are some very clear parallels going on, kudos to the writers of this show for going there without giving a fuck about the current climate of repression/regression/censorship/fascism.

I will do my usual disclaimer here to say you do not need previous Star Wars knowledge to watch Andor. It is one of the highest rated series of the year for a reason (at a 92 average on Metacritic). It is highly competent on every level. The writing, set design, score (by Succession’s Nicholas Britell) is all worth absorbing. The show tells its story through three-episode arcs, so binge accordingly.

Is it gay? LESBIANS IN STAR WARS! I mean, they kill off one of the two in the middle of this season, but is it any consolation that most of this cast dies this season?

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Upcoming releases:

May 15: Overcompensating (Prime, S1), Duster (Max, S1)
May 16: Murderbot (Apple TV+, S1)
May 21: Nine Perfect Strangers (Hulu, S2)
May 22: Sirens (Netflix, S1), Chaos (Viaplay, S1)
May 27: The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy (Prime Video, S2)
May 28: Adults (FX, S1)
May 29: The Better Sister (Prime Video, S1)
May 29: And Just Like That (HBO Max, S3)

June 3: Next Gen NYC (Bravo, S1)
June 4: Stick (Apple TV+, S1)
June 9: Art Detectives (Acorn TV, S1)
June 10: Call Her Alex (Hulu, S1), Divorced Sistas (BET+, S1)