Thereās been such a flood of amazing shows this seasonāitās been hard to keep up with everything, but I thought Iād share what Iāve been watching in case youāre looking for some new entertainment as we approach the holidays.
⢠ANDOR ā¢
The show Iāve been enjoying most this fall has definitely been Andor (Disney+) which feels weird to say, because Iām generally not a huge Star Wars fan and although I thought The Mandalorian S1 was fun and entertaining, nothing within the franchise has really gripped me (and if Iām being honest, that includes the original trilogy). But I very much enjoyed Rogue One back when it came out, and Andor has been a huge breath of fresh air within the modern media landscape; it doesnāt feature space wizards, or laser swords, or magical aliensāitās instead the story of the non-chosen people, without special powers, who have always existed in the background of the movies, shows, and games, but have never been the sole focus of any other Star Wars story.
It asks questions about how real rebellions are formed and funded, what level of sacrifice is required to resist a tyrannical empire, and what kinds of people are capable of leading a genuine partisan effort. The costume designs are on a whole other levelānot only do they feel ārealā and lived-in, theyāre aesthetically beautiful (not to mention interesting), and they also do a ton of heavy lifting in supporting narrative story elements and character development. The writing is incredible, the acting is 100% on point, and on top of all of that, itās got the best droid in the entire Star Wars galaxy, B2EMO:
B2EMO, better known as āBeeā, is a droid well past his primeāwith a battery that runs down quickly and a stutter that has developed no doubt as a result of an outdated operating system. I love that this show raises the question of droid mortality. Anyway, even with 2 episodes still left in the first season, I canāt say enough good things about Andor and highly recommend checking it out!
⢠HOUSE OF THE DRAGON ā¢
I, like millions of people in the mid-2010ās, was an avid Game of Thrones watcher and, like millions of people, was heavily disappointed in the direction of the later seasonsāespecially S7 and S8. House of the Dragon (HBO) is not GoT, and I think itād be a mistake to tune in expecting it to fill that same exact void, but it does feel in many ways like GoT walked so HoTD could run.
The show takes place roughly 200 years before the events of Thrones, and is based on the book Fire and Blood, which is a fictional history book about the Targaryen dynastyātold through accounts from several unreliable narrators. What I find most interesting about it is that because of the nature of the book itās based on, one could interpret the show as the actual, canonical, ātrueā history of the Targaryen civil war. Because of this, even if youāre a book reader, thereās no way youāll know every single thing that will happen in the show, which adds a really fun and interesting dynamic.
The first season has ended and we wonāt be getting more HoTD until 2024, but it was heartening to see folks make a return to live-tweeting episodes and fervently creating episode reaction memes every Sunday while it was airing. Just like with GoT, the fanbase is hilariousāand some of the memes have been absolutely stellar. The one thing I need to stress though, is that just like Thrones, HoTD is a show featuring a high number of grey characters; it doesnāt really make sense to pick a side, because every character is probably gonna end up being a war criminal to some degree. And that includes the dragons. So if youāre gonna watch it, just enjoy the ride and donāt worry so much about picking a favorite character (at least, not based off of their moral values, lol⦠because spoiler alert: theyāre all pretty bad in one way or another.)
⢠INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE ā¢
I am such trash for the original 1994 movie, and when the trailer for this show dropped I immediately got myself an AMC+ subscription just for it. It was a short first season (only 7 episodes), but they established a ton and made some really interesting changes to the source material that make the show feel like a fresh take on an old story. Also itās unbelievably gay. If youāre trashy like me and not squeamish about blood/vampire violence, itās well worth a watch.
⢠THE SANDMAN ā¢
The Sandman (Netflix) came out back in August, so it isnāt technically something from my āfallā watch list, but I had to mention it regardless because it was just so good, especially since it was recently announced that the show will be getting a second season. The casting was brilliant, and I always appreciate a comic book adaptation that actually allows the creator of the source material to have some say-so in how the final show turns out. Canāt wait to see what they do with the next season!
⢠THE RINGS OF POWER ā¢
It feels a little weird recommending The Rings of Power (Amazon Prime) because Iām not sure I actually⦠liked it, lol.. but I will say this: itās hard not to at least be curious what the most expensive TV show of all time looks like. I believe the budget for this first season was just over $700 million, and with marketing expenses, overall spending for it came close to $1 billion, which is absolutely insane. There are certainly scenes that look stunning, especially some of the wide shots of new environments, and obviously the CG is all very impressive, but despite this itās still a little hard to wrap my head around why each episode cost $60 million a pop. I donāt think throwing more money at it necessarily made it better.
Iāve seen all of the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies, but I wouldnāt call myself a fan of the franchise. Itās.. fine. Itās fine! Itās entertaining enough. But Iāve always found the heavy reliance on āfantasy tropesā to be kind of boring and The Rings of Power certainly doesnāt stray from that model whatsoever. Itās overly predictable, and the story payoff is pretty lackluster, if Iām being honest.
All that being said, I still think itās worth a watch if youāre into high fantasy spectacles, and itās super family-friendly (unlike a lot of the other shows Iāve recommended in this post) so if you have kids who have the attention span to stick with long episode run times, Iād wager they might enjoy it.
⢠THE PATIENT ā¢
Iāve basically seen no one talking about The Patient (FX) but itās been an absolutely wild ride and I havenāt been able to peel myself away from every single episode. Itās probably the most opposite to TRoP in that it clearly has a very low budget, short episode run times, and a limited cast, but good grief itās gripping. I donāt want to spoil anything because I think the less you know going in the better, but I highly recommend this one if youāre into suspense and/or psychological thrillers.
What have you guys been watching this season? Any recommendations for me?
Not exactly the same type of show as the ones listed, but I've got to recommend Abbot Elementary if you haven't seen it yet. It's the funniest show on TV right now.
Pantheon on AMC+ is one of the best near-future shows I've seen in a long time. The show deals with uploaded intelligence (rather than artificial intelligence) and really dives well into problems with UI/AI and other computational issues. It's got an anime feel to it but it's a western studio. It's an absolute shame that no one watched it (which I think partially has to do with the fact it's gated behind AMC+) but it's honestly an incredible show I can't talk up enough.
On a similar near-future Sci-Fi note, The Peripheral (Amazon Prime) is also good but I deals more with the action-y stuff rather than the philosophical. It's produced by Jon Nolan and Lisa Joy of Westworld fame and based on the book by William Gibson.