Instant Picks of the Week 6/3/16
Gone are the days of scrolling mindlessly through your queue! No longer will you have to sift through the vastness of what’s coming to the instant viewing wastelands this month! Whether you’re looking for a stellar film or an exciting new show to binge, here are the hottest releases in film and television on instant viewing platforms that we know you’ll love, or at the very least not despise.
MAKE HAPPY – BO BURNHAM (Netflix)
Comedy is supposed to make you laugh, right? Not necessarily for 25-year-old musical comedian Bo Burnham, whose second Netflix standup special premiered today. Similar to Burnham’s previous work WHAT. (also on Netflix), MAKE HAPPY teeters between standup comedy and performance art with a strong tendency toward the latter. MAKE HAPPY is developed; Burnham’s musical talent, delivery, and execution of theme have clearly benefitted from the two-year gap between this and his original special. One moment Bo’s farting into a microphone or singing about the woes of being a “straight white man,” the next he’s not-quite-jokingly admitting his unhappiness despite his fame and success. He adopts an almost hateful attitude toward his audience, yet admits that he needs them as much as he fears them. Burnham deconstructs the disingenuousness of entertainment both through form and his personal threads of truth strung through an air of irony and sarcasm. While it may not make you happy in a lifelong sense, it will definitely make you laugh and offer a crushingly intimate peek into the mind of one of the earliest victims/products of YouTube celebrity. [Kate Brogden]
CHEF’S TABLE – Season Two (Netflix)
Guest contributor Tansu Philip said it best in last week’s article: “CHEF’S TABLE is easily the most beautifully shot food show I’ve ever seen.” And that goes without saying. After all, it’s by the creators of the equally mouth-watering JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI. Featuring the same lavish design and meticulous attention to detail, CHEF’S TABLE has all the ingredients for the perfect TV recipe: finesse, polish, charm, and heart… of palm. If you watched last year’s season and loved it as much as we did, then you’re surely beyond ecstatic knowing that the series has returned for a second round of lavish entrees. Boasting exciting and equally tear-jerking portraits of the world’s greatest cooks, the now 12-course series spans a global reach from South America to Northern Europe, and engages its audience unlike any other food show, veering from the all too familiar path of how-to shows in order to dissect the philosophy behind each unique chef, opening up the debate of whether or not cooking deserves to be viewed as a serious art the same way literature or painting is. If it’s three PM and you don’t know what to cook for dinner, CHEF’S TABLE won’t be of any use, but by God will it inspire you to figure it out on your own. [Sergio Zaciu]
