One of TV’s Best Reboots: Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Plus, music is the new monoculture?
Just bought my Dune: Part Two IMAX tickets, y’all! March 1, here we come!
Well, friends, Awards season rolls on and the Oscars are a mere three weeks away!
I’ve now seen all the Best Picture nominees except for The Zone of Interest, which I shall not be watching because I have one life to live, and that does not include 106 minutes of a Jonathan Glazer film about a Nazi family going about their laundry while horrors soundtrack the air around them. [The only Glazer film I’ve seen was Under the Skin, and I’ve talked about how I was not strong enough for that experience.] I’ll have final reviews — especially of Poor Things, oh lawdy! — in the coming weeks.
The BAFTAs [the British one!] were last night, with an emotional standing ovation for Michael J. Fox, big wins for Oppenheimer, glitzy fashion, and the zealous dedication of Margot Robbie’s stylist to absolutely NEVER serve. And yet, all I can really think about is this photo from the night:
What do you think Prince William said to elicit these expressions from Ayo Edebiri and the woman from the good season of Bridgerton??? If only we were flies on the wall, dear reader. Caption this!
Anyhoo, this week’s Table of Contents:
A few things I’m watching this week
Beyoncé’s Country Music Era
Mr. & Mrs. Smith, the Donald Glover reboot
Lightning Round: I’ve Been Watching
Mean Girls. We watched the new musical-movie reboot and immediately went home and rewatched the original from 2004. All respect to the new cast — which has SOME 👏🏼 STANDOUTS 👏🏼 [especially Reneé Rapp though she was gonna be big regardless] — but Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams did it on a level that will never be done again. Here’s a take: The real Mean Girls successor? Bottoms.
Taylor Tomlinson’s stand-up special “Have it All.” It was…fine. I liked but didn’t love! I laughed but also felt bummed out! I enjoy comedy with an edge, but this seemed cynical in a way that often wasn’t fresh. [We’ve heard jokes about how dating apps suck.] Regardless of my thoughts, she’s having quite the year at just 30 years old with three Netflix specials and a gig as late-night TV’s only female host. She’s a talent! Her two previous specials, “Quarter-Life Crisis” and “Look at You,” were outstanding.
If you want to laugh your ass off AND feel stricken to the heart AND feel amazing about what humans are capable of, watch Mike Birbiglia’s newest stand-up special, “The Old Man and the Pool.” (trailer above) Like a lot of modern comedy, it’s heavy, it’s literary. And so, so good.
THE TRUE DETECTIVE: NIGHT COUNTRY FINALE!!! WHO IS WATCHING THIS. WHO CAN THERAPIZE THIS SHOW WITH ME!!?!??!?!
What are you watching, listening to, or reading? What should we get into?
Music: The Monoculture
If you’re not familiar with the term “monoculture,” perhaps think of early 60 Minutes or Johnny Carson. Every single household in America had one channel, and when a show was on, everyone was watching it, and when nothing was on, there was *actually nothing on.* [Or something like that, lol I wasn’t alive, ask a Boomer!]
In our world of absolute media SATURATION, “monoculture” is discussed as an endangered, or even extinct, species: We’re more often debating what qualifies as the “final” monocultural event than looking forward to a new one. Some say it was Friends. Some say Game of Thrones. The Super Bowl, Olympics, and World Cup are like the final survivors shielded from poachers in a protected habitat.
BUT! I would posit that this year, Music is Monoculture. And by “music,” I do mean Taylor Swift and Beyoncé.1 Taylor is coming out with a new album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” on April 19, and you’d have to be out of radio signal of Earth not to have heard about that.
And then came That Beyoncé Commercial. She dropped the details on a new album along with two new singles, “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages,” which I have been listening to nonstop ever since. And on that note, I now must devote an entire segment strictly to….
Beyoncé’s Country Era
The Queen of Pop/Hip-Hop/R&B is about to become the Queen of Country. She’s already charting on country radio and vaulted to the top of Apple Music’s country charts with “Texas Hold ‘Em.”
As a gal raised in a stew composed of “The South” and “Flint, Michigan,” who did her chores tuned to the country radio station, and whose most recent Spotify Wrapped was almost exclusively Maren Morris and Olivia Rodrigo, I feel I was born for such a time as this. The square-dancing girlies are locked and loaded; it’s time to brush up on your slutty Electric Slides!
Gosh, I have so much to say about this, but also I recognize that nobody really cares what I — a de facto white girl — have to say about the Mother of the House of Renaissance, BUT—just two other notes lol:
Beyoncé’s country song from her genre-spanning album Lemonade — “Daddy Lessons,” featuring The Chicks — was turned down for consideration by the Grammys’ country music committee in 2016. I like to imagine Beyoncé going, “Oh, this isn’t country enough for you? How about an entire COUNTRY ALBUM!” Growth mindset!
There’s a lot of bad-faith criticism of Bey’s “move to country,” saying she doesn’t belong there — as if country music doesn’t have some roots in the same African and Black music that hip-hop and R&B do [just look up the history of the banjo?]. Even on a surface level, y’all, she was in Baby Junior beauty pageants in Houston, Texas, and I hate to say it, but what is more country than that!?? Anyways, if the argument is you can only sing about stuff you’ve personally lived, have we not HEARD country music? Should we arrest Reba for murdering her brother’s cheatin’ wife?! Be serious!
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2024) on Amazon Prime
At first, when I saw they were rebooting Mr. & Mrs. Smith, I thought: Wait, what? And also: Why? And also: How. How do you recreate the lightning-in-a-bottle that was Brangelina in 2005?
Then I saw the names attached — Donald Glover (Community, Atlanta), Maya Erskine (Pen15), John Turturro (Severance; O Brother, Where Art Thou?), Michaela Coel (I May Destroy You, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood, Little Miss Sunshine, The Batman), Sharon Horgan (Bad Sisters), Sarah Paulson (everything), Parker Posey (everything in the 90s') — and I decided to give it the ol’ college try!
This rendition of the classic was created by Glover and his frequent collaborator Francesca Sloane, who was also a producer on Atlanta and Fargo. Glover is a known entity to most of us thanks to his boundless on-screen charisma as Troy Barnes in Community. But he’s a true auteur, a seemingly never-ending fount of creative gifts: He started his career at 23 as a writer on 30 Rock; created Atlanta, one of the best [and weirdest] TV shows ever; built a music career under the moniker Childish Gambino; and broke the internet five years ago with “This is America.” His Wikipedia page calls him an “actor, comedian, singer, rapper, writer, director, and producer.” The dictionary entry for “multi-hyphenate” should just be a picture of Donald Glover.
Anyhoo. About this show…
The 2005 movie Mr. & Mrs. Smith, starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie at the apex of their physical [and, let’s not mince words, sexual!] appeal, is a really specific thing. Flashy, sleek, sensual, glamorous, high-octane, and sexy in a manifestly unattainable way.
The new reboot2 is something else entirely. It’s still got romantic heat — but it’s also about how sometimes you fart in your sleep, and your partner hears it. Maya Erskine, the brilliant comedic writer-actor who plays the titular Mrs. Smith, said, “I looked at Angelina Jolie and thought, well, I can’t be her.” Instead, they created something more three-dimensional, funny, and somehow relatable.
Unlike the Brangelina version, where two spies get married but don’t know the other is also a spy working for a competing agency, THIS version is about two spies working for the same agency who are assigned to a fake marriage. Instead of just asking how sexy that could be, it also explores how awkward it would be. It’s less like Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) and more like if The Americans was a rom-com. Two people with tons of chemistry just learning how to survive normal life stuff like dishes in the sink and naming the cat while also carrying out life-threatening spy missions. Awkward, sloppy, charming, slapstick, and—yes—still sexy!
The opening scene is also a fun wink to what people might be expecting from the show — and then they pull a 180 and make their own thing. Anyhoo, it’s creative, kooky, fun, explosive. :) Also: violent. Very violent.
That’s it for this week, folks! I’d love to hear what you’re watching, reading, or listening to — and your thoughts and opinions on all of the above. Drop a heart or a comment!
[JLo also entered herself into the monoculture conversation with her new visual album, which dropped Friday. But, y’all, I could not get past 10 minutes of it! Someone tell me if it’s worth it! Anyways, JLo is and always will be monoculture. She IS the culture!]
[The 2005 movie is a reboot of a 90s show, which is a reboot of an Alfred Hitchcock film.]
Okay but also did Mr and Mrs Smith (2024) ever make you think about how many real life spies you might have passed by🤔
SO excited to hear your review of Mr. and Mrs. Smith!!! I WANTED it to be good, but thought no way…. Eeeeeeek!!!!
Also yay to some new comedy recommendations! 😍