Andy Samberg's record-breaking Sundance hit Palm Springs is the latest entry in the storied genre of time loop movies.
These now-familiar stories involve one or more characters becoming trapped by mysterious forces that cause them to relive the same stretch of time (usually a single day) over and over and over again. The phenomenon was made iconic by the 1993 film
Groundhog Day, in which Phil Connors (Bill Murray) is a jaded TV weatherman who becomes trapped in the small town of Punxsatawney, Pennsylvania for an endless recurrence of the titular holiday.
It's such a bizarre, nonsensical premise that it's hardly surprising it took until 1993 for someone to give it a feature film treatment. What's much weirder is the fact that the trope has since become such a mainstay of TV and movies. It has appeared in recent years in
Before I Fall, Edge of Tomorrow (AKA Live Die Repeat), two Happy Death Day movies, the Netflix series Russian Doll, among countless lesser-known works.
Each new approach tends to add its own twist to the formula, with 2020's
Palm Springs trapping two people (Andy Samberg's Nyles, and Cristin Miloti's Sarah) in the same time loop at their friend's wedding in Palm Springs, California. But beyond these little tweaks, the characters are largely guaranteed to go through much of the same process we've seen in every other iteration of a Groundhog-style loop.
They're trying to convince others of what's happening, they're running from their mistakes, and taking advantage of their knowledge to manipulate people and events. It can begin to feel like we're watching the same movie over and over and over…
Cristin Miloti and Andy Samberg in "Palm Springs" Limelight/Neon/Hulu/Kobal/Shutterstock
For a start, the formula is a good one.
Groundhog Day is a classic movie, one of Bill Murray's best, and I could personally watch it every day for at least a decade or two without getting sick of it. Adding some variations and some new characters while treading the familiar, satisfying path that Harold Ramis established for us isn't so bad. But there's definitely more to it than that.
For a start, it exaggerates the absurd and empty repetition of modern life—in which the routine of each day, each week, each year tends to blur and blend into the next in a uniform mass of cyclic mundanity that slowly wears us down until we're too old and decrepit to be of value to our capitalist overlords.
By magnifying the drudgery of carrying on, a time loop has the potential to become the sort of prison and punishment that the
ancient Greeks loved to imagine for the afterlife. Every day, Ned Ryerson—Needlenose Ned, Ned the Head—is going to try to sell you insurance. Every day, the radio replays the same drivel. Every day, we are doomed to repeat the mundane tortures.
And yet there is something about the time loop that is also freeing. You can say whatever you want and do whatever you want without consequence. One of the first things Bill Murray does when he realizes that he's trapped is to get wasted and get into a high-speed chase with the police, all with the assurance that he'll wake up in his bed with no hangover and no criminal record.
The idea of speaking your mind and acting on impulse—of courting danger, excitement, and casual sex without risk of lasting consequences—is a potent fantasy. But that still doesn't quite cover the explosive appeal of this new genre. It is tapping into a broader addition to media and culture that involves that same consequence-free excitement: video games.
In the early 90s, the video game industry was in its adolescence.
SEGA and Nintendo had brought it more fully to the mainstream, and facile attempts to convert that success into box office sales were already underway. But what movies like Super Mario Bros. overlooked was what people actually liked about video games.
It wasn't so much about a character with a mustache fighting lizard people — or a
drunken Bob Hoskins hiding his broken hand—people liked the experience of incremental improvement. We want that sense of getting to try the same task over and over again, getting slightly better with each attempt.
Video games give us that experience in an environment in which the fear of failure was reduced to a trivial concern. As the phenomena of Let's Play videos and Twitch streaming have proven, people can even enjoy that experience vicariously, and that's what these time loop movies tap into.
The most obvious example of this is
Edge of Tomorrow, which draws on many of the aesthetics and objectives of a sci-fi action game. Fight the aliens until you die. Figure out how to fight them better. Eventually make it to the boss alien and save the day with a climactic explosion.
The centrality of the death-respawn mechanic is the most common alteration these stories make to
Groundhog Day's original formula. While Phil Connors could live or die and still wake up to Sonny and Cher each morning for unexplained reasons, a number of newer versions — Russian Doll, Happy Death Day — have embraced a clearer narrative goal of not being killed.
The loop resets each time the character dies, and they only need to survive/defeat their killer(s) in order to escape. Just like a video game.
There is a more frightening way in which video games have altered our culture, which these movies also point to: the gamification of life. While Groundhog Day doesn't specify how many times Phil Connors relives the same day, there's reason to believe his temporal captivity lasted multiple decades, if not much longer.
That explains how Connors achieves a godlike knowledge of every person and event in the town — though not how he manages to maintain any semblance of sanity. He also becomes an accomplished pianist, a talented ice sculptor, a fluent French speaker, an expert at performing the Heimlich maneuver and CPR, and really good at flicking playing cards into a hat.
Why Doing Nothing Is Our Most Important Form Of Resistance | Think | NBC Newswww.youtube.com
The concept of having all the time in the world to develop those skills is alluring, but there are far too many influences telling us that accumulating skills like an RPG character is exactly how we need to spend the little bit of free time we have.
Relaxation is for the lazy. Only the hustle is real.
According to this perspective, you need to turn personal and professional development into your full-time hobby — while also working your regular job and not tripping up on that endless loop of drudgery. But that's garbage.
Just as you are never going to compete with a
19-year-old from South Korea who plays League of Legends professionally, you will probably never speak as many languages as Pete Buttigieg or learn as many household skills as Martha Stewart. And that's okay.
Until you actually get stuck in a time loop, you are not a video game character. You should not feel compelled to optimize every aspect of your life for some imagined future success. As much as any skill, your ability to be comfortable doing nothing can greatly improve your happiness.
Whatever the message of
newer iterations Groundhog Day makes its message clear: All those skills Phil picks up are not the key. Treating his time in the loop as a game to be perfected doesn't save him. It's not until he truly engages with his life — and with Rita — and finds love that he is able to escape the prison of mundane repetition.
Skill and success are both nice, but they cannot be goals in and of themselves, because life is not a video game. All that work is empty without human connection. Love is the only real goal… Which is probably something Andy Samberg should have kept in mind before he decided to rip off the concept of
his wife's fourth studio album.
Thanks to streaming platforms like Netflix and Hulu, it was suddenly possible to watch multiple episodes of a single TV series in one sitting without the interruptions of commercials. As the way we watched TV changed, so too did the kind of shows we watched. Gone was the overabundance of vapid, sugary-sweet sitcoms, and in came the era of political satire, dramatic comedies, and searing commentaries on everything from abortion to Hollywood. Summarily, the 2010s saw a golden age of television. Here are our 50 favorites, with the top 25 and bottom 25 listed in alphabetical order.
The Top 25 TV Shows of the 2010s
Atlanta
Atlanta first aired in 2016, with Donald Glover's Earn learning that his cousin Alfred has released a hit song under the stage name Paper Boi. Since then, the show has followed Earn's struggle to navigate different worlds as he takes over managing his cousin's burgeoning music career while also trying to be a good father to his daughter, Lottie, and to prove himself to Van, his ex-girlfriend and Lottie's mother. The show uses varying perspectives to flesh out the city of Atlanta and the complexities of being black in America with surreal touches that highlight the real-world absurdity. Yet despite the heaviness of much of its subject matter, it frequently manages to be among the funniest shows on TV.
Barry
For anyone who ever wondered whether or not SNL-alum Bill Hader could carry a serious TV show, Barry answers with an overwhelming "yes." To be clear, Barry is technically a dark comedy, or perhaps a crime comedy-drama, but Bill Hader brings a level of unprecedented seriousness to his titular character that oftentimes makes the show feel like a straight tragedy.
Playing a hitman who wants to leave his life of crime behind in order to pursue a career in acting, Bill Hader imbues Barry with an earnestness that makes us as an audience truly want him to succeed. This likability serves to make Barry's violent acts all the more disturbing. Barry's greatest success is its ability to effortlessly fluctuate between the quirks of life as a struggling actor in LA and the violent inclinations of a man who murders for a living and can never really escape that truth. It's one of the best character studies currently on TV and is sure to cement Bill Hader as an extremely versatile A-list talent.
Baskets
Baskets premiered on FX in 2016, telling the story of Chip Baskets, an aspiring clown played by Zach Galifianakis, who is moving back to Bakersfield, California to live with his mother after a failed stint at clown school in Paris. Galfianakis' talent for melancholy slapstick makes the show by turns hilarious and touching, but it's his mother Christine Baskets—artfully portrayed by Louie Anderson—whose simple enthusiasm for small-town life makes the show one of the best of the decade. Watching Christine, Chip, and his twin brother Dale (also Galifianakis) heighten relatable family drama to exquisite absurdity never gets old.
Black Mirror
Nothing would be the same without Black Mirror. Though its later seasons have been inconsistent in quality, its earliest contributions were digital horror at its finest, with some of the episodes being downright visionary in terms of how accurately they predicted the near future. From the nostalgic visions of virtual afterlife in "San Junipero" to the eerie foresight of "Nosedive" and its digital ranking systems, Black Mirror made an indelible impact.
Bob's Burgers
Whatever you've heard about Family Guy or South Park, Bob's Burgers is the true successor to the golden age of The Simpsons. The Belcher family offers an update to The Simpsons' satirical view on middle class family life that reflects how America has changed since the 90s—slightly more urban, with less overt child abuse and a lot more economic precarity. And just as with the best seasons of The Simpsons, Bob's Burgers maintains a touching core of familial love and solidarity amid the absurd hijinks and veiled political commentary. Throw in the added value of the frequently hilarious, occasionally moving musical numbers, and Bob's Burgers easily secures a spot as one of the best shows of the decade.
Bojack Horseman
In terms of the quality of its writing, BoJack Horseman outdid itself season after season. What began as a parody of Hollywood's excesses quickly turned into a searing, and boundary-pushing meditation on depression, addiction, and what it means to change (or to be unable to). Increasingly self-aware and conscious of its hypocritical tendency to obsess over the misadventures of an evil but sympathetic celebrity, thereby glorifying them while criticizing them, BoJack Horseman is the political, devastating, timely, often hilarious show about an animated horse that none of us knew we needed. It's buoyed by the strength of its secondary characters, from the workaholic Princess Carolyn to asexual Todd to self-loathing Diane, and altogether the show takes deep-rooted fears that many share and refracts them in a funhouse mirror that's impossible to look away from.
Broad City
Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson began producing an independent web series about their struggles to "make it" in New York City in 2009. Soon, Amy Poehler took interest in the series, and it moved to Comedy Central in 2014. The smash hit comedy was not only laugh-out-loud funny, but a beautiful portrait of a genuinely healthy, supportive female friendship—something TV has historically seen little of. Broad City can be credited for helping to usher in a new generation of female comedy creators and has become a cultural touchstone for millenials.
Catastrophe
Catastrophe, created and written by the show's stars, Rob Delaney and Sharon Horgan, is one of the realest, grossest, and funniest takes on love and the mess of life. Two people entering middle age meet and hit it off, they spend a reckless night together, and when she gets pregnant, they decide to make things work—not realizing how complicated that will be. It's a simple enough premise, but the cutting dialogue and the absurd comedy that plays out as two near-strangers build a life together make Catastrophe one of a kind.
Fargo
Anthology series like True Detective and American Horror Story can be really hit or miss, but in the three seasons that have aired on FX since 2014, Fargo has been consistently great. Maybe it has to do with the leisurely production schedule, the all-star cast, or the near-perfect movie that forms the basis for its tone, but whatever the cause, Fargo delivers murderous midwestern tragicomedy better than any show on TV—and nearly as well as the original. Season three, which followed the rivalry of the Stussy brothers—as played by Ewan McGregor—deserves a particular call-out, with season four due next year and featuring Chris Rock, Timothy Olyphant, and Jason Schwartzman.
Fleabag
Phoebe Waller-Bridge's stage-play-turned-two-season-TV masterpiece took the world by storm at the end of the 2010s. In the series, the viewer is made into the protagonist's (an unnamed woman played by Bridge) confidante as she uses sex to cope with grief and complicated family dynamics. As the show progresses, the closely protected inner life of the protagonist begins to reveal itself. Many consider the second season to be an essentially perfect season of television, in large part because of the hot priest (played by Andrew Scott). Fleabag is a funny, searing commentary on what it means to exist as a sexual, complicated being in a world with ever-changing expectations of women.
Grace and Frankie
70 is the new 30, or 20, or whatever arbitrary year of life we as a culture are deciding to glorify for no reason, because age is just a number. If you weren't aware that Jane Fonda glowed with money or that Lily Tomlin is our collective spiritual mother, then Grace and Frankie enlightened you. When two septuagenarian women are told that their husbands are gay and in love with each other, the best phase of their lives begins.
Haikyu!!
It's almost 2020, the world is upside down, and yes, an anime about high school volleyball is genuinely one of the best shows of the decade. Haikyu!!, literally "Volleyball" in Japanese, is about the trials and tribulations of the Karasuno High School Boys Volleyball Team. Unlike pretty much every other high school sports anime out there, Haikyu!! takes a relatively realistic approach to...well...high schoolers playing sports. In doing so, Haikyu!! translates the genuine passion that goes into high school sports and the real dynamics of teamwork, better than any other show I've ever seen.
The protagonist, Hinata, isn't a superpowered Volleyball God; he's an extremely short boy who can't reach the top of the net, but works his butt off because he loves the game. Likewise, all the other boys in Haikyu!! have realistic strengths and weaknesses (both on and off the court) that they work to overcome with help from their teammates. Haikyu!! is an exercise in wholesomeness––there are no villains, just other kids at other schools who love the same sport our boys do––and in a decade full of so much bitterness, it's a much needed dose of medicine.
Hunter x Hunter
For anyone who likes long-running shonen anime, Hunter x Hunter is, without a doubt, the pinnacle of the genre. While the original manga began publication in 1998, and a previous anime adaptation ran from 1999-2001, the 2011 adaptation re-started the series from scratch and, most importantly, covered the Chimaera Ant arc (or season––kind of––for you non-anime watchers).
The entirety of Hunter x Hunter is fantastic, featuring likeable protagonists, dastardly villains, and a brilliantly creative power system called "Nen." But there's a reason the Chimaera Ant arc is often considered the greatest shonen arc ever, and that's because it's a total deconstruction of the genre's tropes and conventions. Everything from the "always optimistic protagonist" to "the ultimate evil villain" is turned completely inside-out. The Chimaera Ant arc is intensely brutal and ultimately poignant, making us question the very nature of what makes us human.
Killing Eve
Phoebe Waller-Bridge can do no wrong, and even if she could and did, I'd probably still clap. The combination of Waller-Bridge's cutting wit and Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer's flawless performances makes for a TV show that never quite lets you find your balance before sending you spinning again. It's dark and surreal, while managing to still be deeply human.
Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Being a professional stand-up comedienne is hard, but being Midge Maisel is wrapping chaos in a designer dress. Created by the fast-talking husband and wife behind Gilmore Girls, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel created a stage for Rachel Brosnahan to showcase her comedic timing and Alex Borstein to be a solid, deadpan pillar within Mrs. Maisel's world of quippy, fast-talking, energy. Also Michael Zegen (Joel) is dead cute.
Mob Psycho 100
While One Punch Man might be manga artist One's best known series (and is fantastic in its own right), his other series, Mob Psycho 100,is profound in a way quite unlike anything else I've seen. The show revolves around Mob, an awkward, unconfident middle school boy with god-like psychic powers. Any other shonen anime would use this premise as a gateway to epic battles (and there are a few, and their animation is absolutely incredible), but Mob Psycho 100 focuses far more on the coming-of-age angle instead.
See, Mob doesn't like his psychic powers because they make him feel weird. So instead of focusing on the one thing he's innately talented at but doesn't like, Mob tries to improve himself in the ways he actually cares about improving––making friends, talking to girls, working out with his school's Body Improvement Club. If anything, Mob's incredible psychic powers are a backdrop for the show's larger message––that no person, no matter what natural abilities they may have, is better than anyone else. Mob Psycho 100 shows that everyone has their own struggles, and that the only person you should ever hold yourself up in comparison to is the person you were yesterday.
The OA
Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij's labyrinthine show only ran for two seasons, but it managed to earn a cult following during that time. Deeply weird, profoundly earnest, and full to the brim with observations on the connections between the environment, parallel universes, and technology, the two seasons that we do have are irreplaceable and paradigm-shifting examples of what TV could become, if we let ourselves believe.
Orange Is the New Black
Piper Kerman's post-grad rebellious stage went from a felony to a cultural touchstone. As Netflix's most-watched original series, OITNB boasted a female-led cast and cutting commentary on race, class, and the industrial prison complex.
PEN15
Those who didn't have a gruelingly awkward middle school experience are, by scientific evidence, simply inhuman. Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle tell it best in Hulu original PEN15, which co-stars the real-life BFFs (who also wrote and executive produced together) as 13-year-olds. Here, there's no sugarcoating the calamities of tweenhood, whether they're as trivial as thongs and AIM messaging or as weighty as race identity. All delivered with Erskine and Konkle's razor-sharp wit, it's absolutely hysterical to anyone who's lived past the seventh grade.
Rick and Morty
"To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty. The humour is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical physics most of the jokes will go over a typical viewer's head."
Okay, so first things first, we need to separate Rick and Morty from the Rick and Morty fandom. The Rick and Morty fandom is so annoying that memes making fun of them are barely distinguishable from the things they actually say. But, to be fair, Rick and Morty really is a great show full of smart writing, surprisingly deep characterization, and the exact kind of bizarre, abstract humor that lends itself perfectly to endless memes. No doubt, Rick and Morty will be the defining animated comedy of the 2010s.
Russian Doll
This tightly-wound and big-hearted thriller stars Natasha Lyonne as a jaded New Yorker who gets caught in a loop in time and has to relive the night of her 36th birthday party over and over again. A perfect blend of humor and seriousness, and riddled with quantum leaps and profound connections, it's as satisfying as it is provocative.
Shameless
We fell in love with the trainwreck family the Gallaghers when it debuted on Showtime in 2011. William H. Macy brought so much toxic charm to the abusive and neglectful father Frank Gallagher that we actually found him, if not likable, then good television. Emmy Rossum managed to cause tears and laughter within the same scene, and the entire cast was as impressive as their characters were appalling.
Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan)
After the first season of Attack on Titan premiered in 2013, it received so much hype that even people outside of the anime community were raving about it. The show featured an incredibly high-concept premise, following the last surviving humans as they tried to fight back against giant, man-eating monsters called Titans. Had Attack on Titan stuck to that premise, it would have been top-notch action-horror, albeit not necessarily one of the best shows of the decade.
But Attack on Titan turned out to be so much bigger than its initial premise. As the seasons progressed, Attack on Titan reshaped itself time and time again, leading viewers through an increasingly complex, expertly plotted narrative featuring some of the most compelling characters and intensely emotional moments that I've ever experienced in fiction. At its core, Attack on Titan is a deeply thematic contemplation on war, othering, and humanity's will to survive against impossible odds, alongside the moral sacrifices they oftentimes make to do so.
Shrill
It shouldn't be revolutionary for a show to feature a fat female lead, but it is. Shrill, the brilliant Hulu adaptation of Lindy West's memoir, Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman, gave audiences a badly needed narrative about a woman who is actively seeking to change her life for the better, in ways that have nothing to do with her body. It's funny, it's heartfelt, and it shows a woman getting an abortion and finding it empowering. Woah. Hell yes.
Steven Universe
When Steven Universe first aired on Cartoon Network in 2013, it was a light-hearted and silly children's show with some super-powered action from the Crystal Gems and a lot of silly jokes from their sidekick—the childish titular character. Since then an entire galaxy has been fleshed out around the boardwalk of Beach City where much of the show takes place. Along with the alien gem creatures and their elaborate history, the show has introduced us to a cast of characters that have grown and changed—overcoming insecurities and facing complex questions of love and identity. While Steven matured and developed into a hero worthy of his last name, the show evolved to become one of the best of the decade.
Brett Gelman, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Sian Clifford of FLEABAG
Photo by Todd Williamson/January Images/Shutterstock
The 2019 Emmy Awards will take place on September 22nd, meaning you only have a few more days to re-watch all of Fleabag before it sweeps the awards.
If you're anything like us, you've probably been sleeping and living in your Fleabag jumpsuit for the last few months, so it's probably time to give that bad boy a quick dry clean in time for your Phoebe Waller-Bridge-themed Emmy watching party! To get you ready for Fleabag's big night, we've compiled a list of the expected winners in the major categories!
Outstanding Comedy Series
Barry (HBO) Fleabag (Prime Video) The Good Place (NBC) The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Prime Video) Russian Doll (Netflix) Schitt's Creek (Pop TV) Veep (HBO)
Our Pick: While there are some stellar series on this list, it's really a no brainer who will be taking home the Emmy: Fleabag. While the other series may be funny, nothing can really compare to the funniest, most heartfelt show ever made. If you aren't convinced, just watch the opening scene of Season 2. Praise be to our lord and savior, Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
Christina Applegate, Dead to Me Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep Natasha Lyonne, Russian Doll Catherine O'Hara, Schitt's Creek Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Fleabag
Our Pick: Are you even paying attention? It's embarrassing I even have to say it: Phoebe Waller-Motherf*cking-Bridge. How many times have you watched her monologue at the salon about the importance of hair? WRONG. The answer is not enough times.
"Hair is everything." Excerpt from Fleabag episode, Season 2.www.youtube.com
Outstanding Drama Series
Better Call Saul (AMC) Bodyguard (Netflix) Game of Thrones (HBO) Killing Eve (BBC America) Ozark (Netflix) Pose (FX) Succession (HBO) This Is Us (NBC)
Our Pick: Okay, so this one is a really difficult call; after all, Waller-Bridge also wrote Killing Eve. But we're gonna have to go with...Fleabag.Yes, I recognize Fleabag isn't actually nominated in this category, but do you remember the scene between Fleabag and Belinda at the bar? DO YOU REMEMBER? Show me a more brilliantly well-crafted dramatic scene than this one. I'll wait.
Why You Should Look Forward To The Menopause | Fleabag Series 2www.youtube.com
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series
Anthony Anderson, black-ish Don Cheadle, Black Monday Ted Danson, The Good Place Michael Douglas, The Kominsky Method Bill Hader, Barry Eugene Levy, Schitt's Creek
Our Pick: I know, I know. Neither Phoebe Waller-Bridge nor Fleabag are in this category, and it wouldn't have even been possible for them to be nominated. In light of that, our official pick is...Hugh Skinner! Skinner plays Harry, Fleabag's meek boyfriend/ex-boyfriend, and is undoubtedly one of the funniest parts of the show. Remember when Fleabag tried to prank him in the shower? Watch it again, anyways.
Jason Bateman, Ozark Sterling K. Brown, This Is Us Kit Harington, Game of Thrones Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul Billy Porter, Pose Milo Ventimiglia, This Is Us
Our Pick: Everyone knows This Is Us is one of the most dramatic, cry-inducing shows ever made, and it's hard to compete with anything Billy Porter does, but that's not gonna stop us from picking Andrew Scott! No, yes, Fleabag is technically not a drama series, and no, Andrew Scott is not eligible in this category, but I'm honestly tired of your negativity, so just shove it, okay? Watch the final scene of Fleabag season 2 and then try to tell me Andrew Scott doesn't deserve this award. Also, KNEEL.
Fleabag 2x06 - "I Love You" - Ending Scene (1080p)www.youtube.com
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series
Emilia Clarke, Game of Thrones Jodie Comer, Killing Eve Viola Davis, How to Get Away with Murder Laura Linney, Ozark Mandy Moore, This Is Us Sandra Oh, Killing Eve Robin Wright, House of Cards
Our Pick: Look at me. Look at me. "Are you alright, Father?" "Oh, look at you calling me father like it doesn't turn you on just to say it..." Sorry, had to get that out of my system real fast.
Anyways, the Emmy goes to Phoebe-Waller Bridge! Also, can we throw a few of those golden statues Olivia Colman's way? She's just the best.
If you have ever questioned whether Fleabag was the best show ever created, let this revisitation of Waller-Bridge's confessional monologue set your mind at ease.
This year's Emmys nominations list has made headlines because many of the selected shows are actually really high-quality television.
It's noteworthy for another reason: Women (whether female actors, writers, creators, or otherwise) are at the forefront of the majority of the shows under consideration.
Leading the pack is Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the writer and creator of not one but two Emmy nominated shows: Killing Eve and Fleabag. Another show in talks for a win is Russian Doll, the breakout Netflix hit created by and starring Natasha Lyonne. Naturally, Beyoncé also scored six nominations for her Netflix Homecoming special.
Not only do all these shows have female creators: they also star women above the age of 30. Amidst a Hollywood crowd that notoriously snubs this demographic, or writes them into restrictive roles, it's refreshing to see women so well-represented in the nominations list (which could perhaps use more diversity in general).
Don't worry, though: Men were still represented in this year's nominations. Craig Mazin's disaster drama Chernobyl scored 19 nominations, and Game of Thrones scored an incredible 32, despite terrible reviews of its last season. On the other hand, Julia Roberts was snubbed for her role in Veep, while Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and (thankfully) The Big Bang Theory received almost no recognition.
Whatever happens, this means that more people will be prompted to bask in the glory of Russian Doll, Fleabag, and Homecoming, and that's a blessing for everyone.
Here's the full list of nominees, via CNN:
Outstanding lead actor in a limited series or TV movie
Mahershala Ali, "True Detective"
Benicio del Toro, "Escape at Dannemora"
Hugh Grant, "A Very English Scandal"
Jared Harris, "Chernobyl"
Jharrel Jerome, "When They See Us"
Sam Rockwell, "Fosse/Verdon"
Outstanding lead actress in a limited series or TV movie
Netflix binge-watchers have gotten to know Charlie Barnett quite well this year.
Armistead Maupin's
Tales of the City just debuted, marking Barnett's third show on the streaming service. He also surprised fans of Russian Doll when he appeared as a second time looper with Natasha Lyonne, and he'll appear in the upcoming season of You.
Popdust spoke with Barnett by phone before the premiere of
Tales of the City. The drama explores the lives of characters in San Francisco, including Ben (Barnett) and his partner Michael (Murray Bartlett). Netflix also just announced that Russian Doll will return for a second season, news that Barnett was waiting for at the time of our talk. Stream all three series on Netflix now.
What has this year been like for you with You, Russian Doll, and now Tales of the City all coming out?
Charlie Barnett: I mean, it's incredible first and foremost. I'm incredibly thankful and honored and feel like I'm getting an opportunity to play different and diverse characters, which is a dream for any actor. I've seen the community support me now, and I'm excited to see where it all goes and start maybe creating my own stuff. It seems like it's a new world out there of celebration of the artist. So I'm really happy to see a lot of people's arts surging.
What kind of community support?
CB: So many communities. My own intimate family and my friends. My loved ones from Juilliard, from classmates to teachers and professors. Then it expands on even to the world of theater in New York and the world of film and television in Los Angeles. Going into casting rooms, it's a different kind of presence when I think people know your work a little more and trust you a little bit. It's kind of funny to see how different the energy is. I'm just honored to be feeling it and hope that I can do service.
Are fans recognizing you now?
CB: It's funny, I've always had a weird balance with that. I was on Chicago Fire for four years, and that was a very big show. We were in Chicago, so within Chicago, we were recognized all the time. It was really fun, but I noticed even there [for] a lot of people, it takes people a couple seconds. I think I look very different, or maybe it's just because my energy is so different from the -characters I play, but people don't really recognize me. Or if they do, it takes a couple double-takes. and then I've usually walked on by. Every now and then I get somebody and I'm really awkward. I stutter and I stumble over my words, but I really like to have conversations one-on-one with people more than group panels or any of that junk. When a fan stops me and we get to talk, I feel like most of the time I'm the one talking their ear off and they just want to get away. So I still enjoy it.
Who is Ben, your character on Tales of the City?
CB: I hate to kind of diminish him to something as just an extension of his love, but he's a solid partner. I think the audience is really going to take notice of him and him traversing through this relationship with Michael. So I reflected on him so much as this strong partner and how he finds his identity and allows his own voice to be a part of this relationship and how he also comes to balance with what Michael's world is and what he is entering into, which is so encapsulating and amazing. Ben has hard points with it and a lot of acceptance to it, as well.
Was Ben a character from the book?
CB: Ben is a character from the book, and funnily enough, Ben is loosely based off of Armistead's partner. His partner's white and I'm black, so that was a big running joke, because we're both lovers and sweethearts. But he is a really, genuinely incredible person as well, so it was great to have him on set and to kind of reflect on. We created a friendship out of it, which was really nice.
What challenges are coming for Ben and Michael?
CB: It's hard to sum up as relationship angst, but it is. There's a lot of partnership battles. I think, funnily enough for Ben, I don't believe that the age is a really big issue, but it is for Michael. So that's another major figuring out point for the two of them. The history that Michael has been through with his struggle with HIV and AIDS—the community and going through the loss of more than half of his community. It's such a big reflection point for a couple of episodes. So it's a lot of young meets old, two lovers trying to figure it out, and I think a new person finding his footing or his space within this beautiful and incredible family, which is the home of Anna Madrigal (Olympia Dukakis).
Ben and Michael are exploring the possibility of having unprotected sex. Is that an issue lots of couples with one HIV positive partner deal with?
CB: Oh, absolutely. Straight, gay, both. There's always ramifications to taking that kind of step with your partner. Specifically with Michael; he's positive, and it's got to be a conversation that both people come to and find a place that they're both comfortable and feel safe and able to explore, because sex can be incredible. It shouldn't ever have to be limited. I don't want to give anything away, because it is definitely a plot point. It's more of a challenge, I will say; this comes back to the generation gap. A younger LGBTQ community has come up in a new wave of PrEP. There's a variety of different kinds, but it's definitely created a different kind of conversation with HIV/AIDS for a younger generation. Hopefully not to be forgotten is the struggle that came before, but for someone like Michael who saw it and lived it, there's definitely a fear and a guilt I think.
How different was San Francisco to Chicago?
CB: Every city is so different. I love them both. I hate the expense of San Francisco. I can put that down in writing, but San Francisco is such a rich, incredible city. They're both cities that have American history. They're integral to the creation of our country. It's so hard to say which one I would like better, but San Francisco has more maybe freedom, because it isn't under snow for half the year. Chicago, I feel like, is a little more industrial, and they encounter that in their arts in a lovely kind of way. San Francisco is much more light and freeing, but there's a dark, twisted history as well that feeds into the people's work there. I'm an art fanatic: visual arts, music, anything and everything in all forms. When I think of people and I think of the city, I always try to relate it back to the work that comes out of it. I think it's a really good reflecting point.
You don't need to choose, but how did filming in San Francisco inform Tales of the City?
CB: Oh gosh, I hate to admit this, but I think we're allowed to: We filmed a majority of Tales of the City in New York, in Yonkers, New York and the Bronx, because mainly for Olympia. She can't travel that far that much back and forth, and her whole home, her base, and her life is in New York. We wanted to honor that. But, we did shoot for about two weeks in San Francisco, and it was a frigging blast. It's a hard city to shoot in. The expense of it is really a lot different from shooting in Chicago. We were filming in the lake in February, and half of our stunt crew almost lost their fingers because of frostbite. They're very, very different, but both have exciting challenges.
For Russian Doll, would you shoot every scene in a single location at once?
CB: Oh yeah. It was all block shot, which is what that's called. It's really difficult because you'll be shooting for one, eight, four, six, and three. We would maybe not have the full script for episodes six and eight. You've got to do these scenes where I'm breaking up with Beatrice all day, because we're in the apartment where I break up with Beatrice and let's just film it out because it's a lot cheaper. To the credit of the producers, Leslye [Headland], Amy [Poehler] and Natasha [Lyonne] and everybody else that was behind it figuring out the logistics, 1,000 hats off to them, because they did it and they did it really well. It was difficult, don't get me wrong, but if we hadn't done it that way, I don't think it would've been successful.
Where do you see Nadia and Alan after they break free of that loop?
CB: I have no clue. Everybody keeps asking me that. I don't know what they're going to do. I have no clue, just like my character in the show who is just going along for this ride with this woman. I'll help keep her in balance as much as I possibly can, but we're on this ride. I've talked to Natasha, had a great time at her birthday, and we just had a really lovely kind of come-to-Jesus about the work and how happy we both are. This is so personal for both of us. To see it flourish and, more than anything, people from all walks of life understand it and relate to it, and it trigger thoughts of what are male feelings of depression and how do I handle myself? Am I communicating enough to maybe get help from my friends and my family and my loved ones? That is a million dollars in the bucket. We had a little come-to-Jesus, and I asked her where she thought it was all going to go. I don't think she knows. She just finished Orange [Is The New Black], and I know that her and Leslye are going to get into writing, but they both are coming off of a lot of other stuff. I think they need time to really do it and do it right, and I want to give them that space. I think I'd wait another year if they needed it.
But you will be involved in a second season?
CB: I hope so. I don't know. I was only signed on for a year contract. I wasn't even a series regular, actually. Initially, we had talked about it going into a whole different world. We had talked about other characters. They talked about us going and doing a whole different thing. There was also mention of just a new story, so I have no clue where they're at at this moment. That was all early, early in the beginning. I'm excited to see it just as much as everybody else.
Did you film a movie this year too?
CB: Yeah, I have no clue when it's coming out, but it's a movie with Drew Barrymore. It's called The Stand-In. I'm really excited about it. It's a comedy and I have a little, itty bitty part in it, but I had a lot of fun working on it.
(This article contains major spoilers for both Black Mirror's Bandersnatch and The OA Season II.)
For a moment, the camera remains focused on the protagonist's bewildered face.
Then it pans out to reveal that the entire world of the show we've just been watching was nothing more than a TV set. Cameramen and directors scurry around; the actors fix their costumes. The main character stares, open-mouthed.
If you make a particular series of choices, you'll arrive at this scene in Black Mirror's
Bandersnatch. You can also see it in Season II of The OA, when—extreme spoiler alert—detective Karim Washington finally peers out the mysterious Rose Window, and sees a dimension in which everyone he knows is only an actor in a movie set.
In
Bandersnatch, this revelation occurs in a therapist's office, and in The OA it happens on the top floor of a San Francisco mansion, but despite these immediate differences, the two scenes are uncannily similar.
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch -- Neflix Fight Scenewww.youtube.com
The OA: Part II - 2x08 - Ending Scene (1080p)www.youtube.com
This is only one of the many major parallels between two of Netflix's most mysterious, mind-bending shows. Initially, they start with very different premises. Charlie Brooker's
Bandersnatch is a two-hour-long roller coaster, notable for its "choose your own adventure" feature, which allows viewers to design their own plot by making various decisions at different points. (Choices range from which kind of cereal to choose to whether the protagonist should kill his father). The protagonist in question is a young computer game coder named Stefan, and the show follows him as he descends into madness while designing an ever-more complex computer game.
The OA is Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij's ambitious, fourteen-episode brainchild. Its first season follows Marling's character, Prairie, as she tells the story of her near-death experience and subsequent abduction by the show's villain, Hap, a scientist who has become obsessed with studying the brains of people who have brushed close with death. The first season ended on a major cliffhanger; the second begins in a new dimension, when Prairie awakens to find herself inside the body of Nina Azarova, a Russian socialite and medium living the life she would have if not for her NDE.
Objectively, the shows aren't that similar—after all,
Bandersnatch takes place in the '80s and mostly focuses on an isolated Stefan as he descends into homicidal madness. On the other hand, the ultra-modern cast of The OA includes everyone from Zendaya to a massive, talking octopus named Old Night.
Still, upon closer inspection, the similarities are undeniable. Here are some of the most notable places where the two shows' universes meet.
A Computer Game as a Portal to Multiple Realities
In
The OA's second season, children lose their minds as they attempt to win money by playing a computer game, which leads them into a mansion that's actually a portal to other universes. The mansion itself is designed to work as a continuation of the game, which allows winners to reach the Rose Window and its mind-bending, reality-altering view.
Similarly, in
Bandersnatch, Stefan loses his mind while designing a game that leads him to question every aspect of his reality. While attempting to understand these games, both the kids in The OA and Stefan draw cryptic illustrations on their bedroom walls, isolate themselves, and wind up harming themselves and everyone around them. In each show, the central game lures characters in by promising greatness and wealth—but instead leads them towards either a state of enlightened understanding or paralyzing madness.
Ultimately, both shows use games and technology as vessels that can be used to leap between worlds. Both identify alternate realities that run alongside each other and that intersect at certain points; and both claim that—through deep science, communion with nature, or a few well-placed dance movements—it might be possible to cross from this world to the next.
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A Charismatic Tech Guru with Dangerous Theories
One of the most memorable moments in
Bandersnatch is the scene where Stefan drops acid with Colin, the Steve Jobs-esque brains behind the tech company Tuckersoft. As soon as the drug kicks in, Colin delivers one of the trippiest monologues in modern television history.
Colin is a prophetic source of wisdom throughout the show—just like
The OA's leading tech guru, Silicon Valley 'prophet' Pierre Ruskin, orchestrator of the game that leads children to the house. Ultimately, both gurus are firmly convinced that there is more than one reality, and both are dedicated to reaching it, no matter the cost.
Childhood Trauma as a Point of Divergence
At the heart of
The OA and Bandersnatch—amidst all their static and science—are specific instances of childhood trauma, which are identified as the points where the characters' lives began to diverge into multiple pathways. In The OA, that moment is Nina/Prairie's NDE, an experience she's forced to revisit when trying to re-access Nina Azarova's memories. In Bandersnatch, that moment is when the young Stefan spent too long searching for his toy, causing his mother to miss her train and catch a later one, which derailed.
Prairie lost her father and her vision in her traumatic event, and Stefan lost his mother, but both shows give their protagonists the ability to revisit these traumas and, effectively, to undo them, to experience lives in which these moments had never happened. Prairie's moment of recollection and reversal is in a bathtub, where she relives her own drowning; Stefan's is in the reality in which he has the choice to accompany his mother on the fatal train ride.
An Extremely Meta Ending
Bandersnatch not only breaks the fourth wall—it shatters it. In one scene, viewers are literally able to choose whether or not to tell Stefan that his actions are being controlled by something from the future called Netflix.
Then, of course, there's that television set-scene, the moment where the whole illusion collapses and we're faced with the reality of what's happening: all that we're seeing has been filmed in some Hollywood studio. Stefan's therapist is an actor. Stefan himself is an actor. Nothing is real. That same exact idea is at the crux of
The OA's finale; in its final scene, Brit Marling and Jason Isaacs call themselves by their real names, effectively annihilating the line between our reality and the one(s) onscreen.
So, Is Netflix Using the Same Algorithmic Plot for Many Shows On Purpose?
Though
The OA and Bandersnatch might be particularly alike, they aren't the only shows on Netflix that revolve around the concept of other realities and alternate, interconnected universes.
Recently, Netflix's
Russian Doll made use of a nonlinear view of time, giving its protagonist the ability to transcend death in order to correct her mistakes and—you guessed it—make peace with a childhood trauma, which had to do with blaming herself for her mother's death. The show also uses concepts based on quantum physics to explain its multiple timelines.
— (@)
Another hit —
Stranger Things—also relies on quantum physics-based ideas to explain its Upside Down, a parallel universe that operates similarly to the alternate dimensions in The OA.
Millie Bobby Brown's character Eleven is also a startlingly similar figure to Brit Marling's Prairie/Nina; both were trapped by scientists for many years, and both emerged from their imprisonment endowed with the ability to create portals between dimensions (and sometimes, to levitate). The list goes on.
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It's not that these shows are copies of each other. They all seem to utilize similar plotlines, ones that revolve around suppressed childhood traumas and a quantum-physics-inspired tangle of dimensions. In a way, the shows themselves seem to be parallel universes to each other. In each, the traumas and the multiple realities both unveil themselves about three-quarters of the way through, sparking climactic endings that, ultimately, imply that the bonds between humans are strong enough to transcend time and death.
So what's the draw to the multiverse idea? Is our era of catfishing, fake news, and mediated simulacra making us feel like we're living in many realities once? Are we all just seeking ways to escape our linear lives, to escape the passage of time, or to change the past? Can we all sense that this isn't the only world, that we're not the only ones here (after all, what's religion other than a poetic promise that other worlds and greater forces exist)? Does this subject just make for great television?
Regardless, people are into it.
YouTube just announced that it will be creating interactive content like Bandersnatch; Season 3 of Stranger Things will officially drop on July 4, 2019; and Black Mirror's fifth season will also be released this year. It seems like TV's journey through interconnected parallel universes has just begun. (Though of course, it's probably already finished in the universes next to this one).
Eden Arielle Gordon is a writer and musician from New York City. Tweet your best conspiracy theories to her @edenarielmusic.
Cristin Miloti and Andy Samberg in "Palm Springs" Limelight/Neon/Hulu/Kobal/Shutterstock
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