Image via Complex
It's amazing that we made it out of this week alive after partying hard over Parasite's Oscar wins, but we're here, celebrating love (or the lack of it) at the end of another week. It's All-Star Weekend, but it's also Valentine's Day Weekend (which sounds confusing but kanye-shrug.gif), and a long weekend. 'Nuff time to take in some quality TV and film.
This week, there are some solid bits; we're still keeping up with HBO's The Outsider and a long AF episode of Curb, and LaKeith and Issa put black love on-screen in the long-awaited The Photograph. Should be more than enough to keep you and bae busy.
You know what to do; follow along for our reasons WHY you should be up on these shows, then get up on these shows. Simple.
'The Outsider' -“The One About The Yiddish Vampire” (Season 1, Episode 6)
Where to Watch: HBO Now
“You keep your mind open. I’m just gonna look out for facts and evidence. You know, dump cop shit like that.”
So says Ralph Anderson to his colleague when he discovers what Holly’s been up to. In his eyes, she’s lost her mind. But, when he’s so desperate to exonerate a deceased man that he once knew, can we blame him?
So far in the series, The Outsider explores how grief slowly infects an entire community. After its first two episodes, the series commits to the slow-burn effect, as its characters silently and gradually piece together a murder case that unveils a larger catastrophe at hand. In its sixth episode, “The One About The Yiddish Vampire,” we see grief transforming into madness—driving all stakeholders of the Terry Maitland investigation into an emotional abyss of pain and delusion. Particularly, with Jack Hoskins—who is now fully a servant of the murderous creature. He’s forced to lure Holly to divulge what she’s discovered in her investigation in order to thwart any advancement in the case. Holly, the most omniscient character in the series, is immediately skeptical of his motives.
When Holly presents her theory to the police department, she tactfully details the connections among the cases of Terry Maitland, Heath Hofstetter, and Maria Canales. No one takes well to her inexplicable theory, with the exception of Jack, who is tortured by the creature in real-time to stop Holly (the blood inscriptions on his hands are not the most subtle hint from the creature’s end). The reality is that, no matter how right Holly is, the information is useless in a world that’s fixed in the reality that is just like our own. In our real world, if a private investigator suggested that something as mythical as El Cuco was caused a series of superficially unrelated murders, we’d all be grossly insulted that she wasn’t taking the case seriously. If anything, Holly only exacerbated the police department’s frustrations that they cannot determine any logical explanation to their true crime situation.
If the Terry Maitland case were to survive solely on facts, Holly is slowly gathering them. She learns that the van that Terry’s dopplegänger used also contains the DNA of the two sisters murdered by Heath. It’s enough to confirm her theory and encourage her to keep going. As Holly gets closer to putting together the connection between the murders, she also finds an ally in Jeannie, Ralph’s wife. After being visited by the creature from the other night, Jeannie is more than willing to consider the possibility that something supernatural is at play. Like Holly, she takes on her own solo investigation—interviewing Terry’s daughters about the creature that’s visited them and drawing sketches of his deformed face based on their description. Upon seeing the drawings, Holly posits it morphs slowly into its victims (Heath, Maria, Terry) every three weeks, which is exactly the time in between the three murder cases.
Holly is the biggest threat to the creature—it knows to be worried about her progress. She has the mental stamina to not only digest the impossible but withstand its efforts to gaslight her. The episode’s cliffhanger with her and Jack put her in a position of danger, but we know that she will figure out a clever enough way to survive it. She’s the strongest asset on the show, so determined to reckon with the unknowable—hopefully determined enough to stop it as well. —Andie Park
'Curb Your Enthusiasm' - "You're Not Going to Get Me to Say Anything Bad About" (Season 10, Episode 4)
Where to Watch: HBO Now
Every week, episodes of Curb keep getting longer and longer; I'm not sure I ever thought this show, which always felt like it was made to be consumed in tight 30 minute intervals, would be touching ~45 minutes of a single episode, but if they are as solid as this week's episode? I'm OK with it. With the over-arching story being a trip abroad for a wedding, we get a lot of zaniness from Larry and company, from Larry's chance meeting of a woman that he can take as a date to then find out that she might be "yo-yoing" in weight to how that weight issue plays further with the whole group going in the private plane is classic Curb genius. The toothbrush sequence might've gone on a bit long, but having it culminate with Ted Danson popping in suddenly, after everything that's already transpired between him and Larry over Cheryl, is, again, genius. The end shot, which included Larry's coffee beans, was perfect.
Look, when you have to watch as much television as we do over here, it helps that you're given what's best described as a masterclass in comedy writing on a weekly basis. Shows like Curb can be forever content and should be treated as such. —khal
'The Photograph'
Where to Watch: In theaters
Look, it's Valentine's Day weekend, so if you're boo'd up, you need some kind of romance to watch on date night, right? If you're into that sort of thing, and want to see something new, Stella Meghie's The Photograph is the obvious choice. Too often when it comes to romantic films with anyone other than white leads, you're beat over the head with THIS IS A BLACK FILM ABOUT TWO BLACK PEOPLE WHO ARE FALLING FOR EACH OTHER. True progress is a film like The Photograph, where you know how "black" these folks are by the situations they are in; the music playing when their homies roll up, the conversations they have about music, the beauty of that speakeasy in New Orleans. LaKeith Stanfield stakes his claim as in-demand romantic lead in this as a journalist searching for one story but falling into a completely different one. His chemistry with Issa is wildly apparent; if you told me right now that these two had linked up off-screen, I wouldn't be surprised. Recent Watch Less guest Lil Rel does what he does best: provide fire lines and plays your best homie with perfection. What's dope is that while the love stories in this film are the hook, it's what Stella does behind the camera that's truly captivating, from the jazz floating throughout the film to the way these stories bounce back and forth with ease. It's not a film that's designed to floor you; it's more of a mixtape that came with a hand-written letter, giving you just enough of a vision and the right hint of mood-setting to help you catch a vibe. And based on what happens here, we can't wait to see what Stella has for us next. —khal