Snarf Zagyg
Notorious Liquefactionist
Greetings and Salutations!
Have you read the first part of the guide? Well, have you punk?
www.enworld.org
You can find a lot of good stuff there! So if you haven’t seen them, watch The Leftovers, the Shield, Alias Grace, Rectify, The Night Manager, Justified, The Patriot, and Sense8. Okay, so the question is ... that’s all good and stuff, but it's Labor Day Weekend (not guaranteed to apply to all countries), so what else have you got for me?
That’s right- there is nothing like a holiday devoted to the glory that is childbirth!
Checking .... Oh. Oh! Nevermind. There's nothing like a three-day weekend devoted to getting good and drunk, avoiding your family and friends, and binge-watching massive amounts of television from the comfort of your sofa where the bad people can’t hurt you. At least, um, that’s how I celebrate the holiday! So, here’s some suggestions for you to celebrate your Labor Day Weekend the Snarf Zagyg way- alone, terrified, and with a distinct lack of sobriety.
You love inside Hollywood jokes, but more than that, you really think that the true spirit of Labor Day is crippling depression and poor life choices.
Watch BoJack Horseman (Netflix).
This show can be a tough sell for many reasons; it’s animated, it has anthropomorphic talking animals, and it’s more “inside baseball” Hollywoo(d) references- especially at first. But perhaps because of the “ha ha funny animals,” this show gets darker and more real than almost anything on TV. That's right- this is a show that can look at opiate addiction and the crippling abusive patterns of Pennsyltucky in Mare of Eastotown and say, "Hold My Beer." Sure, Bojack is often one one of the funniest shows ever- the background visual gags alone are worth the price of admission. But few shows have ever even attempted a dementia episode as tragic and beautiful as the one BoJack Horseman pulled off.
You need to laugh, because Uncle Goober just launched into his five-hour, “The Real Cause of COVID is Millennials Eating Avocado Toast instead of Horse De-wormer” diatribe that will only end when he passes out due to over-consumption of rum, beer, and more rum.
Watch American Vandal (Netflix).
Dick. Dick. Dick. Dick. Dick. Dick. Dick.
There were only two seasons, because Netflix is moving everything in-house. But the two seasons are ... perfect. After you watch it, you will never listen to Serial or any of those 5,184,954,104 true crime podcasts in the same way again.
Dick. Dick. Dick. Dick. Dick. Dick. Dick.
You don’t have time to commit to a full series, because you need to pre-order an Elf on the Shelf for the holidays. .... I’m just saying that this is preparing children for a surveillance state. I’m not judging, I’m just saying.
Watch the Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Netflix).
If you had told me, five years ago, that the Coen Brothers would be releasing movies straight to Netflix, I would have laughed, and then killed you. Because five years ago? I was a bad, bad man. Killed a man in Reno just to watch him die.
Where was I? Still, surprising to see this! Is Buster Scruggs the best Coen Brothers movie? No, of course not. But is it The Ladykillers? Ahem. It is a solid, fun, enjoyable collection of vignettes. And ... maybe one of the best direct-to-Netflix movies. Okay, Roma. BUT STILL!
Again, it’s not their absolute best movie (Barton Fink, fight me). But it is an enjoyable 2+ hours.
You just miss out on the zeitgeist, and want to know what everyone has been talking about.
Watch the Americans (Amazon Prime) and Halt and Catch Fire (Netflix).
Remember that halcyon era of not-too-long ago (if you're, like, old and stuff), when there was a show on TV called The Wire, now generally thought of as one of the best tv shows of all time? Well, let me tell you a story- I remember when the first season of that show came out, with no fanfare, and I happened to catch it late at night, and I loved it. Because I loved Homicide, Life on the Streets, and this was similar, but better. And I can tell you that while critical reception increased over the next few years (except the last season), this was never a “water cooler” show. Sure, people later caught up to it- but people weren’t talking about it at the time like, say, Game of Thrones. Everyone talks about how they loved The Wire, but almost no one actually watched it.
Anyway, that brings me to two of the most criminally underrated shows that finished in the last few years- The Americans and Halt and Catch Fire. You can’t make people watch something ... but if you’re going to watch something that is both good and entertaining, you’d be hard pressed to top these two shows. My only advice is that while The Americans starts strong and stays strong (from Tusk on!), Halt and Catch Fire’s first season is a little more uneven, especially if you aren’t as familiar with computer history. Bear with it- the payoff is extraordinary.
You realize that the central fallacy of Acid Culture is the desperate assumption that somebody... or at least some force - is tending the light at the end of the tunnel.
Comrade Detective (Amazon Prime).
Explaining this show does it a disservice. Hear me now and believe me later- watch Comrade Detective. Why? Because you haven't seen it. And even after you've seen it, you're going to doubt that it exists.
Have you read the first part of the guide? Well, have you punk?
Snarf's Superior Syllabus for Binge Viewing: New Lockdown Edition (Part 1)
Delta delta delta, can Snarf help ya help ya help ya? That's right, as we round the bend toward Labor Day in the United States, Labour Day in Upper United States (sometimes referred to as, uh, Canadia?) and September in the remainder of the god-forsaken parts of the world that believe...
www.enworld.org
You can find a lot of good stuff there! So if you haven’t seen them, watch The Leftovers, the Shield, Alias Grace, Rectify, The Night Manager, Justified, The Patriot, and Sense8. Okay, so the question is ... that’s all good and stuff, but it's Labor Day Weekend (not guaranteed to apply to all countries), so what else have you got for me?
That’s right- there is nothing like a holiday devoted to the glory that is childbirth!
Checking .... Oh. Oh! Nevermind. There's nothing like a three-day weekend devoted to getting good and drunk, avoiding your family and friends, and binge-watching massive amounts of television from the comfort of your sofa where the bad people can’t hurt you. At least, um, that’s how I celebrate the holiday! So, here’s some suggestions for you to celebrate your Labor Day Weekend the Snarf Zagyg way- alone, terrified, and with a distinct lack of sobriety.
You love inside Hollywood jokes, but more than that, you really think that the true spirit of Labor Day is crippling depression and poor life choices.
Watch BoJack Horseman (Netflix).
This show can be a tough sell for many reasons; it’s animated, it has anthropomorphic talking animals, and it’s more “inside baseball” Hollywoo(d) references- especially at first. But perhaps because of the “ha ha funny animals,” this show gets darker and more real than almost anything on TV. That's right- this is a show that can look at opiate addiction and the crippling abusive patterns of Pennsyltucky in Mare of Eastotown and say, "Hold My Beer." Sure, Bojack is often one one of the funniest shows ever- the background visual gags alone are worth the price of admission. But few shows have ever even attempted a dementia episode as tragic and beautiful as the one BoJack Horseman pulled off.
You need to laugh, because Uncle Goober just launched into his five-hour, “The Real Cause of COVID is Millennials Eating Avocado Toast instead of Horse De-wormer” diatribe that will only end when he passes out due to over-consumption of rum, beer, and more rum.
Watch American Vandal (Netflix).
Dick. Dick. Dick. Dick. Dick. Dick. Dick.
There were only two seasons, because Netflix is moving everything in-house. But the two seasons are ... perfect. After you watch it, you will never listen to Serial or any of those 5,184,954,104 true crime podcasts in the same way again.
Dick. Dick. Dick. Dick. Dick. Dick. Dick.
You don’t have time to commit to a full series, because you need to pre-order an Elf on the Shelf for the holidays. .... I’m just saying that this is preparing children for a surveillance state. I’m not judging, I’m just saying.
Watch the Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Netflix).
If you had told me, five years ago, that the Coen Brothers would be releasing movies straight to Netflix, I would have laughed, and then killed you. Because five years ago? I was a bad, bad man. Killed a man in Reno just to watch him die.
Where was I? Still, surprising to see this! Is Buster Scruggs the best Coen Brothers movie? No, of course not. But is it The Ladykillers? Ahem. It is a solid, fun, enjoyable collection of vignettes. And ... maybe one of the best direct-to-Netflix movies. Okay, Roma. BUT STILL!
Again, it’s not their absolute best movie (Barton Fink, fight me). But it is an enjoyable 2+ hours.
You just miss out on the zeitgeist, and want to know what everyone has been talking about.
Watch the Americans (Amazon Prime) and Halt and Catch Fire (Netflix).
Remember that halcyon era of not-too-long ago (if you're, like, old and stuff), when there was a show on TV called The Wire, now generally thought of as one of the best tv shows of all time? Well, let me tell you a story- I remember when the first season of that show came out, with no fanfare, and I happened to catch it late at night, and I loved it. Because I loved Homicide, Life on the Streets, and this was similar, but better. And I can tell you that while critical reception increased over the next few years (except the last season), this was never a “water cooler” show. Sure, people later caught up to it- but people weren’t talking about it at the time like, say, Game of Thrones. Everyone talks about how they loved The Wire, but almost no one actually watched it.
Anyway, that brings me to two of the most criminally underrated shows that finished in the last few years- The Americans and Halt and Catch Fire. You can’t make people watch something ... but if you’re going to watch something that is both good and entertaining, you’d be hard pressed to top these two shows. My only advice is that while The Americans starts strong and stays strong (from Tusk on!), Halt and Catch Fire’s first season is a little more uneven, especially if you aren’t as familiar with computer history. Bear with it- the payoff is extraordinary.
You realize that the central fallacy of Acid Culture is the desperate assumption that somebody... or at least some force - is tending the light at the end of the tunnel.
Comrade Detective (Amazon Prime).
Explaining this show does it a disservice. Hear me now and believe me later- watch Comrade Detective. Why? Because you haven't seen it. And even after you've seen it, you're going to doubt that it exists.
