Bonkers Mini Golf and Hilarious Midlife Grief
Karen watches & recommends two very different television shows & cries a little 📺
Oh my goodness, it’s actually slightly cool outside here in Western Massachusetts at last. I might have to put on a jacket later when I venture out?! Loads upon loads of pumpkins and other gourds are spilling over each other festively in wagons on the side of the road and in front of grocery stores and when Holly and I went to Trader Joe’s last night she got two limited edition treats: Caramel Apple Mochi AND Salted Maple Ice Cream!!! I’m not ready for it to start getting dark at 4:00 PM, which is snapping at our collective [fetching suede boot] heels but for now I’m just going to reach into the back of my closet, give a cashmere sweater a little pet and intone “sooooon, soooooooooon” and hope it’s not full of moth chomps.
I recently watched two excellent television shows in their entirety. Have I told you about Holey Moley at all? I don’t think I have. It’s an ABC show but there’s four seasons of it on Netflix and my mental health is honestly a little too reliant on it right now. It’s a competition game in which people play miniature golf on an enormous obstacle course, alternating taking putts with getting absolutely clobbered by the holes, which are like Double Dare’s Physical Challenges amped way, WAY up and involve terrifying log rolling, malevolent windmills, sarcastic mimes, mascots leaping out of porta potties, the infamous Polcano (you climb a volcano and zip line off it into a giant pole that you are supposed to grab inevitably whack into and plunge into the water), and so much more.
Amid the slapstick and mayhem is color commentary from actual sports announcer Joe Tessitorie and comedian Rob Riggle, who do the funniest example of this sort of humor since Fred Willard and Jim Piddock in Best In Show (RIP, Fred Willard and his “own, much larger organ,” my gawd) while wearing genuine ‘70s sports commentator jackets. Jeannie Mai is the sideline reporter and I am now in love with her and finally there’s one of the greatest basketball players of all time, executive producer and “resident golf pro” Stephen Curry, who squares off against a robot on every episode as well as awarding the winner their own golden putter and custom plaid jacket alongside Sir Goph. Oh, and the Muppets are on several episodes and have their own dramatic story line. Can’t recommend enough.
At the opposite end of the television entertainment spectrum is Somebody, Somewhere, which I just finished today and I wish I could watch it all over again for the first time. Someone recommended it to me years ago but I was still freshly mourning the loss of my best friend at the time and didn’t think I could handle it. It’s loosely based on the life of comedian and cabaret star Bridget Everett who plays Sam, a woman who returns to her hometown of Manhattan, Kansas to take care of her terminally ill sister.
As the show begins, Sam is still in the throes of grief when she meets a former high school classmate, Joel (Jeff Hiller), who she doesn’t remember but he remembers her — he was a huge fan of hers in high school, particularly her singing voice. It’s not a romance, though (she’s straight, he’s gay), which is just one of the many refreshing aspects of the show. It centers adult friendship in a way that’s rare. Their relationship is so funny and loving and just beautiful to watch unfold. Furthermore, the entire cast consists of people who look entirely average, as opposed to television actors attempting to look semi-average, which feels revolutionary in a way it absolutely should not. (As Everett said in the LA Times, “The point of the series is to show how we’re all people and we’re all getting by and we’re all doing the best we can. It’s not snarky, and it showcases some people you might not normally see on TV. We’re all kind of 40s-ish. None of us are top models. And it shines a light on the Midwest in a way that I think is pretty cool.”) It’s also full of rural queer representation, another rarity, and explores the actual, complicated, messy meanings of faith and family as opposed to the shorthand, smug, often pointedly homophobic sloganeering of the term as seen on shabby chic signs next to Live Laugh Etc. and such. And it’s so funny. I get tired of the ol’ “laughing through tears” set up but this is the absolute best version of that I can imagine.
Per this article from The New Yorker, which I actually don’t recommend you read before watching the show, as it gives away a lot that is a pure pleasure to encounter as it happens on the show, Sam is the person Bridget Everett might have been had she not left Kansas for New York as a younger person. I’ve had a rough few weeks professionally and mood-wise and when I’m feeling particularly low I think I’m living the “you never left” version of my life while there’s some alpha version of me on some alternate time line who didn’t wait to start writing in public until her very late 30’s and doesn’t feel like she’s still learning everything, poorly, and failing most of the time and living like she’s still just getting started despite being almost 50. But there’s still joy and friendship and family and occasional reasons to feel proud of myself and glorious tiny moments of hilarity and grace and gratitude amid the slog and just general heartbreak of life in 2023 and watching Somebody, Somewhere helps me remember. It was renewed for a third season, too!
Dames Nation: Keeping It Classy-fied
A tote bag that reads "NORMAL HUMAN ITEMS"? 🤖 A t-shirt that inspired the 2011 cult classic film "CABIN IN THE WOODS?" 🐺🦄 Bumper stickers for people whose lives are basically one continuous existential crises? 😨 All this and much, much more can be found at Cousin Wigu's TopatoCo Shop!
Always dreamed of writing for TV? Room Snacks Live is a series of workshops on the art & craft of TV writing led by Emmy-nominated writer/producer Leila Cohan to turn your ideas into scripts! Sign up now!
Writerly Dames — are you seeking representation for your literary masterpiece? You only get one chance to make a first impression! Hire novelist Louise Miller to critique your query letter and the first 5 pages of your manuscript. She will help you strengthen your pitch to literary agents!
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Um, The Pioneer Woman’s in laws own a good portion of the land stolen from the Osage Nation aka the subject of Killers of the Flower Moon?! The HELL?!
New season of The Dream!!!!!! It’s about LIFE COACHES! Get ‘em Jane Marie! AND the Erotic ‘90s season of You Must Remember This is back with a LESBIAN CHIC episode, no less!
15 Actual Wardrobe Essentials from my fav stylist, Lakyn Carlton of True Style — thinking about this as I consider Fall Looks aside from the aforementioned black turtleneck.
“My readers must fancy themselves spirits, capable of living in a medium different from our atmosphere, and so pass with me through a wonderful brazen tunnel, with crystal doors at the entrance.” From Drops of Water: Their Marvellous and Beautiful Inhabitants Displayed by the Microscope (published 1851) by Agnes Catlow, available for perusal at the Public Domain Review.
Shana Tova to all celebrating!
