The October TV Preview!
And the first four episodes of Travis Kelce's acting debut
Everyone is watching Nobody Wants This, and so did I! But I’m packaging it with a few other romance recommendations and rants soon….
My friend Angelica sent me a TikTok this week with the simple leading question: “Satire?”
It was a video of a woman explaining her incredibly witchy theory that if we “give back” our menstrual blood to the earth, we can prevent wars. It has to be satire [!?!], but this woman is METHOD with it? Her whole account and website are built around this character — if it is, indeed, a character.
When it comes to TikTok, my approach is: When in doubt, assume it’s not serious. To grossly stereotype an entire generation, these Gen Z kids don’t take a single thing seriously. The world itself is deadly serious, goes the Gen Z mindset in my head, so let’s just acknowledge we’re all living in the Clown Show we call Reality. The only measure of success is clicks. People make “cooking” videos that are just nasty food combinations that will get the most reactions. People make “advice” videos with patently the worst idea you’ve ever heard because it’ll get reactions.
But then there’s also plenty of incredibly outlandish content that is 100 percent sincere. After all, the first time I saw “Ballerina Farm,” I thought it was a bit! I thought #TradWives was a satire from the Exvangelical community, not a modern way of life from completely sincere grown women!
So, are these “end war with your menstrual blood” videos a joke??? Or is she free-bleeding into her house plants while she listens to her news podcasts?? Does it matter? In the end, the thing about TikTok and the internet in general is that it DOESN’T MATTER. People who think it’s satire will watch it; people who think it’s serious will watch it. Nothing means anything.
So anyways, that’s my new game on TikTok: Is It Satire? Have you had any experience recently where you were watching something you thought was sincere and realized it was a joke? Or vice-versa? Does it make you laugh or feel hopelessly gullible [me]?
Watching: Grotesquerie (Currently releasing, FX)
Travis Kelce makes his acting debut. Swifites unite!
What do you call the level of religious where you don’t believe in hell, but you’re also not about to leave the door cracked open for the devil? Can’t be too careful, even if you’re a modern woman who thinks she’s “past all that ‘hell’ stuff”! [Pride goes before The Fall, I mutter to myself.]
In short, I’m pretty suspicious and jumpy around certain types of horror. I can tell myself it’s not real, but a little sliver of my brain is like, “Is that you, Beelzebub??”
Well, spoiler alert: I cracked open the door. This week, I ignored the remonstrations of my shoulder angel and, like a raving lunatic, started watching Episode 1 of Grotesquerie while cooking ground beef. Within five minutes, I had given up cooking and was standing inches away from my TV screen with my mouth hanging open like Kermit the Frog, trying to get a closer look at the very-ground-beef-adjacent horrors before me. [Much like Ben does when the Cleveland Guardians are losing.]
Takeaways so far: This show gets GRUESOME—and sloppy. It is saying: ABANDON ALL HOPE [of not feeling decidedly nauseous], YE WHO ENTER HERE. It is, as advertised, grotesque. As befits the creator of American Horror Story, Ryan Murphy has made something almost trolling in its ghastliness, tacky in its sensationalism. It’s an unsubtle, doomsday tale full of religious themes, sexual profligacy, prophetic warnings, and morality plays sketched in parables and images. “The world is different now. Nothing is sacred, and nobody is safe,” whispers the horny little doll-eyed nun who is obsessed with true crime.
It’s a picture of the apocalypse as equally populated with traditional fire and brimstone as it is with winks to a saucy modern view of the end times with pretty-faced Catholic priests leading SoulCycle classes. It’s also full of dreadfully overworked and melodramatic line readings like: “God didn’t just leave, Father. He left the keys to the candy store to the devil.” Like, who wrote this, Wednesday Addams’ melodramatic little blonde BFF?? Or, me at 13??
Anyways, it *kind of* works for the first two episodes, but by episode four, we’ve gone off the rails. The tone careens wildly from gruesome horror to jangly circus to moral pontificating. It’s like creator Ryan Murphy had a fever dream where all the genres of TV he’s made1 came alive as his sleep paralysis demon.
And YET… I’m all in! I’m ready to see if there’s a reason for all this mess. It seems like we’re building up to some big reveal that we’re trapped in some kind of layered apocalyptic hallucination, which would account for the characters that seem beamed from another world and the tone shifts that seem pointlessly capricious.
Also, there are some real acting standouts: Niecy Nash is carrying this whole sick demonic menagerie on her shoulders, Nicholas Alexander Chavez — who recently broke out as an incredible force in Ryan Murphy’s other show “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” and Micaela Diamond, a broadway AND TV star.
Oh, and Travis Kelce? He might be the perfect example of this possibility. I can’t tell if he’s doing an incredible job as a figment of the main character’s imagination, delivering a nearly pitch-perfect rendition of a comic-book/pulp fiction Charismatic Hunk — or if he’s just actually a bad actor delivering the most overdone and yet flat line readings of all time. [“Hey, detective sassy pants” is a real Travis Kelce line from this show.]
I trust Ryan Murphy — and Kelce’s performance skills — enough to believe there’s something more layered going on here. But hey, if Taylor Swift’s boyfriend ends up being a bad actor, he won’t be in terrible company! [JK, Taylor is a great comedic actress!]
Anyway, I can’t tell if Grotesquerie is a solid horror installment or a hot bungled mess, but … I kind of got hooked either way. Is that you, Beelzebub!?!
October TV Watch List
As I’ve said, fall means GOOD TV IS BACK, so this week, we’re doing a hand-selected list of the shows I’m interested in watching this October. I’d love to hear what you’re looking forward to or what you consider must-see TV!
Joan (Oct. 3, The CW)
Sophie Turner, freshly freed from her IRL marriage to a Jonas Brother, plays a jewel thief fighting to get her daughter back from social services. This is getting loosely positive but not rave reviews, with Turner praised for her performance but the show overall criticized as inconsistent. I might check out the first episode, but it seems like one of those shows that would’ve been fun to watch in a time when there was only one show on at a time.
Scamanda (Oct. 9, ABC)
The viral true-crime podcast about the woman who scammed the world into thinking she had cancer and giving her hundreds of thousands in money and kickbacks — is getting the docuseries treatment.
The podcast came out last year when my mom was going through a recurrence of non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and was preparing for a stem cell transplant. The foundation of Scamanda’s lie was that she had Hogdkins Lymphoma and needed a stem cell transplant. So let’s just say, in the words of Michael Jordan, “It became personal with me.”
FWIW: This is also one of the recent cultural touchstones that got people talking about Munchausen syndrome; another was the Gypsy Rose documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest. I feel really sad for Scamanda but also triggered as hell.
Abbot Elementary Season 4 (Oct. 9, ABC)
All your school friends are back!
Teacup (Oct. 10, Peacock)
More horror for your Halloween! Teacup is by the people behind “The Conjuring” [still recovering — years later — from that basement scene] and “M3GAN” [still have not seen this one!] and is a horror set in rural Georgia. Eeks!
This feels like a “could’ve been an email a 90-minute movie” situation rather than getting the full series treatment, but we’ll see.
Disclaimer (Oct. 11, Appl TV+)
Cate Blanchett in a project by Alfonso Cuaron?? Yes, please! Blanchett plays a famous journalist who has been hiding something definitely sexy but mysteriously dreadful in her past — until a book about her surfaces and reveals her dark secrets. It looks well-acted, well-written, and — I never hate this — a good bit pulpy!
Shrinking Season 2 (Oct. 16, Apple TV+)
I loved Season 1, so I’m thrilled for the return! Not to brag but I’ve been fangirling Jessica Williams since her 2 Dope Queens days.
It’s laugh-out-loud funny while dealing with everyone’s favorite casual topic: Grief. Even if it leans on some weaker stereotypes, the cast — including Jason Segel, Harrison Ford, and Jessica Williams — holds it together. If you’re looking for your next feel-good TV between episodes of Abbott Elementary, I highly recommend it.
What We Do in the Shadows — Final Season (Oct. 21, FX)
Nooooooo, the final season!!! 😭 You wouldn’t think a show about vampires wouldn’t be a cozy security-blanket comedy, but it is. Sure, it’s weird, but in exactly the right way, and boundlessly clever, good-hearted, and pure joy and fun. [One of my many early reviews of it.]
Before (Oct. 25, Apple TV+)
If What We Do in the Shadows takes a classic horror trope and turns it into comedy, Before appears to take a classic comedy trope [Billy Crystal] and turn it/him into horror. Before follows Crystal, a child psychiatrist, mourning his wife’s death and dealing with the appearance of an unnerving little horror-movie blonde child who seems to know something about his past. I’m skeptical about this but 10/10 will give it the ol’ college try.
Somebody Somewhere Season 3 (Oct. 27, HBO)
I have to catch up on Season 2, but this is just one of the most feel-good, beautiful comedies out there right now. As many of the best comedies are, it’s about grief. Season 1 felt like a revelation. Watch it.
The Diplomat Season 2 (Oct. 31, Netflix)
Full disclosure: I recommended the first season of The Diplomat and then didn’t even watch the last couple of episodes. But there’s something just so fun and easy and unserious about this on-the-surface serious show.
I wrote about Season 1: “The stakes are, on paper, as high as they can get: the cusp of international war. And yet somehow, they feel as gentle as an awkward British garden party — of which the show features several!”
This show is mostly about enjoying a great cast have a really fun time.
And that’s my October roundup! What did I miss? What are you excited about this month? What will flop? What will pop? I’d love to hear all your thoughts, or just a random “hi-hello!” in the comments. Thanks so much for joining!
Nip/Tuck (2003–2010), Glee (2009–2015), American Horror Story (2011–present), American Crime Story (2016–present), Pose (2018–2021), 9-1-1 (2018–present), 9-1-1: Lone Star (2020–present), Ratched (2020), American Horror Stories (2021–present), Monster (2022–present)
Just the roundup I needed!! 🤌🏼
Finish The Diplomat! Trust me, the show keeps getting better with each episode.