Ten things to cram into this three-day lockdown
We can do this, you guys, and there's plenty of good stuff to help us get through it...
Anyone else experiencing deja vu? Yep, me too. In fact, I wrote something like this last time we went into Level 3, all the way back in August last year. But this list is all new, and it’s all good stuff. Once you’ve got your food bags ordered and your toilet paper stashed, add these to your to-do list and the time will fly. Let’s go…
Have you seen I Hate Suzie yet? You haven’t? Remedy this immediately! It’s the smartest, funniest and best written show I’ve seen in ages, eight episodes of troubled marriage angst starring Billie Piper in the role of her career. It starts out good, gets even better, and then you get to episode six and realise you’re watching greatness unfold. Afterwards, go read this New Yorker piece about how it was made. (Watch it here)
Binge the shit out of It’s a Sin. It’s shaping up as one of the best TV shows of the year, a Russel T Davies-helmed five-parter set in 1980’s London that follows four youngsters exploring their sexuality as the Aids epidemic bears down on them. It’s equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking. Consider yourself warned (and read this excellent New York Times piece on the show’s creation). (Watch it here)
Blitz through The Apology Line, my favourite podcast in ages that explores in detail how a New York art project involving an answering machine spiralled out of control. Five of six episodes are out now, and they’re so good they’re worth listening to twice. (Listen to it here)
Put on your headphones, go for a walk and experience Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides, the 2018 album by SOPHIE, the trans Scottish pop star and producer who died two weeks ago. Once you’ve done that, go binge everything else she’s ever done, because it’s incredibly awesome. All of it.
Netflix has a new true crime caper called The Vanishing at Hotel Cecil that is super sordid and spooky. Since it opened in 1924, all kinds of weird things have happened in the hotel’s 299 rooms, including 16 deaths, and this doco, executive produced by Ron Howard, will certainly raise the hair on the back of your neck.
If you’ve got a Playstation 4 or 5, you should sign up for Playstation Plus, the annual subscription that gets you free monthly games that you can keep. This month, the ultimate edition of Control is the freebie, a fantastic action game from the guys who made Alan Wake and Max Payne. It’s a goodie, one of the best games I played last year - and you’ll need at least three days to finish it. (Watch the trailer here)
Look, you could fit everything I know about golf inside a golf ball. I can’t play it, I don’t understand it and I hate watching it. But you’re damned right I sat there and binged all four hours of Tiger, the HBO documentary that dives deep into Tiger Woods’ successes and doesn’t ignore any of the dodgy stuff. His Kiwi caddy Steve Williams is interviewed - and he’s pissed. (Watch it here)
Search Party’s fourth season has just dropped, and it’s a mystery why this show isn’t being considered among the greats. It’s full of strange stories, ridiculous characters, constant tonal shifts and Alia Shawkat is just ridiculously good in it. Warning: Search Party is so bingey it’s hard to turn off. (Watch it here)
Check out the new Split Enz compilation True Colours, New Colours - The Songs Of Split Enz, which includes some of the Kiwi group’s most famous songs reinterpreted by Shihad, The Beths, Ladyhawke and Stan Walker. It’s a good time, and a great warm-up for that upcoming Crowded House tour. (Try it out here)
From midday today, you can head to ThreeNow.co.nz and watch Framing Britney Spears, the controversial doco that is raising all kinds of questions about the teen pop queen. I’ll have more on this later this week, but good on Three for fast-tracking the movie here just in time for lockdown 3.0. If anyone can help us get through this quickly, it’s Britney.
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