Your winter binge-list has landed

Everything you should have seen and heard in 2021 by now...

Jun 28, 2021

Hello and happy Tuesday!

Things have been a little miserable around these parts lately, what with the closure of the Logan Campbell Centre, horrific demon cats destroying my house, and this whole iMax situation. So I’ve decided to switch up the mood for today’s newsletter and deliver something that’s 110 per cent positive.

As it’s nearly the middle of the year, I’ve compiled a handy list of every TV show, album, movie and podcast that’s become a firm Boiler Room favourite over the past six months. Some of this has been talked about here already, hopefully you’ll find others you haven’t yet investigated.

Consider it a binger’s guide to surviving winter, all in one handy cut-out-and-keep place.

Some other news: later this week I’ll be sending out my first subscriber-only newsletter. Paid subscriptions are the only way I can keep this thing going, so it’s time I spoiled those people with something exclusive. The first post is a doozy. If you’d like to read it, and all future paid subscriber-only posts (guaranteed good stuff!), you can sign up here.

See you then. And thanks for reading. Seriously.

Chris

Sweet Tooth (Netflix)

For the past week, my entire family has a perfect evening schedule. We eat dinner, the kids get ready for bed, then we all cram on the couch to watch an episode of Sweet Tooth together. This delightfully dystopian post-pandemmy comic book caper about sugar-craving cross-breeds was shot in New Zealand last year and is beloved by all of us - including a seven-year-old cuddled up in her Frozen blanket. You won’t find a more perfect family show, I guarantee you. (Binge it on Netflix now)

60 Songs That Explain the '90s

It started out as a pure nostalgia piece. Along the way, Rob Harvilla’s podcast 60 Songs That Explain the '90s became something else: a time portal to another dimension, one in which songs that formed the backbone of my musical knowledge are portrayed in an entirely new light. A couple of dozen episodes have already been released, covering everything from Biggie’s Juicy to The Smashing Pumpkins’ Mayonnaise, but if you’re wondering where to start, look no further than the astonishing story behind Third Eye Blind’s Semi-Charmed Life. It’s, ahem, eye-opening.

Bo Burnham - Inside (Netflix)

No one has captured the insanity, intensity and insecurity of a never-ending lockdown better than Bo Burnham. Ever since the actor and comic’s movie-length musical special Inside hit Netflix, hooks and snippets of it keep blasting around my head like moon rockets: White Woman on Instagram, Welcome to the Internet, the absolute brilliant insanity of his Jeffrey Bezos outbursts. As a marker in time, Inside will go down in the history books. Let’s hope he never has to make a sequel. (Binge it on Netflix now)

Tyler, the Creator - Call Me If You Get Lost

It was only released on Friday, but this is going to be on many best-of-the-year lists. Tyler, the Creator seemed to have given away rap in favour of the sinister pop of Igor, his 2019 masterpiece. Yet Call Me If You Get Lost is a hip-hop album in the purest sense: DJ Drama’s old school mixtape shout outs, a massive guest list that includes monster verses from Lil Wayne and Pharrell, and absolute genius-level bars. Tyler could knock down small buildings with what he does here. Tour, please. Now.

Creamerie (TVNZ OnDemand)

Penis pumps! They got penis pumps onto TVNZ’s prime time schedule! Everything about six-part Kiwi comedy-thriller Creamerie was brilliant, from Tandi Wright’s creepy performance as a feminist guru gone waaaay too far, to the show’s storyline, which saw all of the world’s men disappear. But it was that super-rude finale that really made me gasp. Season two please. Immediately. (Binge it on TVNZ OnDemand)

Mare of Easttown (Neon)

I have to be honest: I didn’t like the finale of Kate Winslet’s small-town murder mystery. Until then, it had been gripping viewing, a grisly whodunnit in which literally anyone could have committed the crime. That’s not easy to do. You know what else is hard? Making another Game of Thrones-style watercooler show, one we’re all talking about on a weekly basis. Communal viewing experiences are the best. But will Mare of Easttown be the last one? Maybe… (Binge it on Neon now)

Oxygen (Netflix)

I’m not usually claustrophobic, but this film gave me the heebie-jeebies. Oxygen, or, as it’s called in France, Oxygene, features exactly one actor, one location and one mouse. It must have been the cheapest film set ever. Yet, from those restrictions, producers craft an insanely tense sci-fi film. All you need to know is that a woman wakes up in a cryogenic chamber. That’s it. That’s the movie. And it’s awesome. (Binge it on Netflix now)

It's A Sin (Neon)

This hurt - and it was entirely by design. Screenwriter Russell T Davis poured his life into It’s A Sin, a five-part series about the Aids epidemic sweeping through ‘80s London. A time of raves, music, bodies mashing together. A time of expanding sexual awareness, challenging sexual norms. And a time of death. The fact this landed during Covid-19 just made it all the more poignant. (Binge it on TVNZ OnDemand)

Oprah with Meghan And Harry: A Primetime Special

A master. A genius. A living legend. Oprah Winfrey has been doing these interviews for years. Yet, at the age of 67, she snared her biggest fish yet, nabbing the first post-Megxit interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. It was like watching a conductor work at the peak of her powers: the pregnant pauses, the loaded questions, the way she asks, “Were you silent? Or were you sileeenced?” It’s a masterclass in journalism that I’ve watched, in its entirety, twice, and will probably watch again.

The Mitchells vs. The Machines (Netflix)

If you’re looking for kid-friendly content that adults can also fall in love with, you can’t go past this. The Mitchells vs. The Machines is beautifully animated, lovingly crafted and features more gags-per-minute than many stand-up specials. That it’s from the Oscar-winners who got the boot from Solo: A Star Wars Story just makes you wonder what they might have done had Disney just left them alone. (Binge it here)

Mach-Hommy - Pray for Haiti

If you’re a hip-hop fan, you could spend this year listening to nothing but New York’s Griselda crew and be very happy. Their output is insane: in the past 12 months, rappers Westside Gunn, Benny the Butcher, Conway the Machine and Boldy James have released at least a dozen albums and mixtapes between them, many already classics. Mach-Hommy, another Griselda affiliate, may have the best yet on his hands with Pray For Haiti, a bruising, clattering record that sounds different with every spin.

For All Mankind (Apple TV+)

I’ve been critical of Apple TV+ in the past, and I still find the app a logistical nightmare to navigate. Content, though, trumps everything, and For All Mankind is good enough to make me jump through hoops to use Apple’s streaming service. A reimagined history in which Russia beat America to the moon, season two took one great leap forward for mankind and delivered the kind of show season one only hinted at. Calling all Battlestar Galactica fans: you might have found your new fave show.

Crime Show

The last thing I thought I needed in my life was another true crime podcast. That genre’s been done to, uh, death. But Crime Show isn’t really a podcast about crime. It’s crime adjacent: some of the episodes I’ve listened to recently involve a woman who sang a Billboard chart topper without knowing about it, and a guy who turned the tables on some phone scammers. But the one that’s really got me hooked is a two-parter about an MMA fighter called Lee Murray. That’s all you need - just go listen.

You made it to the end of my horrifically long list! Congrats! I had real trouble editing this down. If you’d like to share your own favourites, or remind me of things I might have missed, please do so in the comments below.

Boiler Room