#5

Podcast

Tie: The B.S. Report (Bill Simmons) and The Nerdist (Chris Hardwick)

It seems like I'm already trying to cheat on the first entry out of the gate, doesn't it? I mean, a tie? All this blather about Top 5's and you cant't whittle it down to 5? Bear with me.

The B.S. Report and The Nerdist are essentially the same show, one for nerds, the other ostensibly for jocks, or more like wanna-be jocks. They both created their own small, but well-respected media empires (grantland.com, nerdist.com) by sticking with their passions and being funny, interesting and - most important of all - relatable to the common fan. 

Their podcasts often sound like conversations between friends that you happen to listen in on (and often they are just that), but they also features celebrities of the highest caliber. Simmons' highest profile guest undoubtedly was the States sports-fan-in-chief President Obama, while Hardwick's most famous interviewee was probably Tom Hanks. As is typical for sports fans and nerds alike, they are both extremely emotionally invested in their respective subjects, but they never lose their sense of humor over it. There's very little negativity in either of these shows, both going for laughs as their primary source of entertainment.

If you consider yourself a sports fan whose interests are not restricted to a particular sport or team or are interested in all things nerdy, these podcasts will most likely make you laugh and may even point you towards things you didn't know you would enjoy.


TV Show

Mad Men (Matthew Weiner)

Perennial Emmy contender and critical darling Mad Men aired its 5th season in 2012. If conventional genre fare where a doctor treats a patient, a cop or PI catches a criminal, or a lawyer defends or convicts someone is what you want out of your hour of TV entertainment (and as you will see, I'm a fan of well-done genre), the stories of the advertising executives of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce are not for you. This is not for binge watching on a rainy Sunday afternoon. An episode of Mad Men is like a good piece of literature, that you must digest, that you can return to for a second time which will be as rewarding or more as the first. It is what's nowadays usually called a slow burn. There is no obvious and easy gratification of what we have been taught to expect as consumers of TV. There is no spectacle, only the lives of these men and women in the changing climate of the 60's. If you are not interested in seeing these characters struggle with themselves and their changing world, then this is not for you. If this is for you, then you have found a rare gem.

Book

The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)

I rediscovered my love for genre fiction in 2012, primarily by reading books I had previously seen on TV or in the movie theater. I finally picked up George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones, but it was the much slimmer and faster paced Hunger Games that made my list. Like most readers, I think I like the first installment of the trilogy best. The story of young Katniss Everdeen hurtles along at breakneck speed as she first volunteers for the annual Hunger Games, a gladiatorial spectacle that allows only one survivor, to save her sister and then through cunning, strength and luck manages to survive and save fellow contestant Peeta Mellark in the process. Sure, you sometimes wish to find out a little more about this post-nuclear war US, but the story allows for no lengthy world building as every chapter ends in a cliff-hanger and just pulls you along as it races towards the finish line. This is not a ponderous piece of epic fantasy, that explores even the remotest corners of a whole world. This is a piece of YA literature and the love triangle is therefore unavoidable but it embeds this quintessentially adolescent trope in a particularly brutal context that doesn't afford its protagonists the time or luxury to wallow in the delicious misery of heartbreak. I was thoroughly entertained.

Movie

The Silver Linings Playbook (David O. Russell)

The David O. Russell film starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence is based on Matthew Quick's novel of the same name, which I have not read, so unlike The Hunger Games, where I had seen the movie before I read the novels, I came to this film with only my experience with the romantic comedy genre to inform my viewing. What makes this film work beyond Cooper's and Lawrence's engaging performance is that it is not purely a romantic comedy, it's a look at how two people come to terms with and deal with their in these cases serious issues. Pat has just been released from an 8-month stay in a mental hospital and is determined to win back his wife, Tiffany is dealing with the death of her husband and is determined to compete in a local dance contest. Their paths cross and the inevitable hi-jinks ensue, but their story is intertwined mainly with the craziness surrounding Pat's family in a manner that nicely camouflages the rom com plot. Of course, the audience is aware of Tiffany's interest and eventually Pat catches on, too, but the film ends up more of a look at how we live with our obsessions, depressions and our less serious everyday ticks and quirks. If the film creates the impression that 'all we need is love (bah-bada-badaah)' to cure serious mental illness, then that I think is more due to the conditioning that the audience of the rom com genre undergoes rather than anything inherent in the film. Cooper's and Lawrence's characters are not magically cured, they will face their problems together. Or at least that's how I chose to view it.