5 shows I'm watching in October

Gay vampires, a Star War, Hurricane Katrina, and a reboot (kind of).

5. Party Down (Starz)
My score: 70/100

Party Down has been inching its way to the top of my watch list since Starz announced a reboot with the original cast, and it’s very slowly coming our way. No one warned me that the show’s humour is somewhat crass and the jokes are often low hanging fruit, though—including some iffy race/gay/gender jokes in a very specific late 2000s kind of way. In that sense, it’s reminiscent of 30 Rock/The Office humour in those early seasons.

That said, the cast is stacked (Lizzy Caplan, Jane Lynch) and I realized while watching that it offers a narrow window into The Great Recession of 2008-2009. It’s perhaps ironic that the show will return right at the beginning of our upcoming recession.

Is it gay? A little bit? In a “Jane Lynch is in it kind of way.”

4. Five Days at Memorial (Apple TV+)
My score: 72/100

Critics warned that the first five episodes of this miniseries, detailing five days at a hospital in the middle of Hurricane Katrina, were much stronger and more defined than the last three. Turns out they were absolutely right. The first five episodes are harrowing, thrilling, depressing. You can practically feel the hospital’s thick humidity through the screen, bodies rotting in the aftermath of the hurricane, and the desperation of the hospital staff as days roll by and resources dwindle.

Unfortunately the denouement, although still crucial to the real-life story, strays away from some characters and never gives them a proper conclusion (where did Cherry Jones go!). I still think it was worth the watch, though.

Is it gay? Listen, Cherry Jones is a gay ICON, but there are no gay storylines here unfortunately.

3. Reboot (Hulu)