the friday five | 10 04 24

Every Friday, a new Montage will recommend five things that I, Brad, am currently enjoying. “Things” is an ugly word, but it’s the best word here I think.

This is the Friday Five for Friday, October 4, 2024. Thank you!

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Note: I have been varying degrees of sick for the past six days, so I did a lot more televisual intake than usual. Sorry if all these recs are just…things to watch.

1. The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience

A few weeks ago, a clip was going around the internet of Andy Samberg and Akiva Schaffer in costume as Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire rapping about doing steroids and playing baseball. Unfortunately it dovetailed perfectly with how much I’ve been enjoying the Lonely Island & Seth Meyers Podcast, so I listened to the Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience album while doing some chores around the house. Unfortunately I liked this album so much that I began semi-obsessively listening to it, cuing it up at the gym…on the way to work…on the way home from work…walking down the street to get a burrito…basically all the time. I was amazed from the jump at how well produced the thing was, like legitimately well produced for once, and by how skillfully Samberg and Schaffer rhyme throughout it—I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that they became better emcees after 15 years of making fake raps, but take it from someone who used to fake rap: it’s harder than it seems. Then unfortunately I got sick and decided to finally just watch the actual thing (30 minutes long…ideal movie length) on Netflix. It’s basically perfect and I have a lot more to say about how lovingly it represents Oakland and the East Bay, so I will save that for an actual montage. Weirdly the Lonely Island’s most personal project, and also their stupidest. But most importantly: FUNNY.

2. Directors Commentary / Ready or Not (2019)

Mike Flanagan seems like a very nice person and I begrudge him nothing. I do, however, wish that he made better stuff because he sure gets a lot of opportunities to do so and basically none of them work for me (“basically” meaning Doctor Sleep good). He’s mostly dedicated himself to the Netflix farms, where he continues to pump out miniseries that don’t really seem to have a…hm…purpose…or vision…sorry. A real “quantity over quality” guy, from where I’m sitting, which is a fascinating way to make art. I often wonder what would happen if he spent three years on a project instead of nine months… Anyway! He’s got a podcast now called Director’s Commentary, where he interviews horror directors about their path and craft, and then together they watch one of the director’s films and commentate through it. I love a good commentary track, and these work especially well because Flanagan, being a director himself, leads the way with direct questions about the filmmaking process that are specific and technical. The benefit of trying out this new podcast is I got to rewatch 2019’s superb Samara Weaving showcase Ready or Not, so already I’m winning (are we far enough away from 2011 that “winning” is ok to say again?), and when you pair it with directors Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin getting wonky on mic about location, angles, color grading, and how to make art within a mandated budget, there’s a kind of magic there!

3. English Teacher

If you’re like me, you likely know Brian Jordan Alvarez from his Instagram, where he spent the past few years building a stable of face-filtered characters who spoke directly to camera with gradually evolving backstories that added strange depth to their stream-of-consciousness updates (“Welt…I been on an elegant walk…through the town…where my internshit is taking play…” - if there wasn’t a month-long stretch where this was constantly on replay in your head then we are not the same). If you’re cooler than me, you have possibly been aware and a fan of Alvarez for much longer as a longtime writer and director of niche no-budget comedies with varying levels of rich camp and a recurring cast of friends and collaborators. Probably thanks to the overnight and crazy success of last year’s “Sitting,” a song he improvised in character as bug-eyed wife guy TJ Mack (<3), BJA has been given his shot at a cable TV show, a fact that still almost seems to good to be true since the right people don’t ever seem to win. English Teacher is on FX/Hulu and midway through its first season I can already feel it hitting its stride (all of the episodes are good, but “Field Trip,” to me, feels like the ecstatic tipping point into greatness). Alvarez stars as a high school English teacher dealing with gen Z and ~wacky coworkers~ and if that sounds like a familiar sitcom setup: yes! Part of the magic is watching him and his writers find exciting ways to play within a familiar structure, but more importantly it’s actually funny as fuck (there is another school-based show that I think is far less successful at this essential part of making a comedy (actually being funny)…sorry…). Give English Teacher your attention so it can keep running! Plus I just think you’ll like it :)

4. Timothy Simons on Netflix

I won’t be here long because the show in question is not necessarily “worth your time,” but currently you can watch the great Tim Simons on Netflix, where he gets to have all the best lines on the thoroughly mid (and possibly antisemitic?) show Nobody Wants This. Tim Simons is, of course, Jonah from Veep, a character who feels more and more presciently terrifying instead of just “silly” or “insane” as time goes on, and he runs the table on this new show so thoroughly that every time he’s not in a scene it’s almost literally painful to get through. There was an episode that Lena watched without me the other night, for example, and the next day she fast forwarded to all the Tim Simons scenes just so I could see his little B-plot nonsense. What a star! I don’t recommend Nobody Wants This (it’s about a podcaster choosing between getting sponsored by Spotify and dating a rabbi…I don’t know I’m sorry…), but I do support Tim Simons: TV Star.

5. Over the Garden Wall

It’s October! Happy October :) Time to rewatch Over the Garden Wall :) What’s everybody’s favorite Over the Garden Wall line? I’m basic so I’m partial to anything Greg says, but “We’re here to burgle your turts” does flash through my mind a lot throughout the year so it was fun this week to see it said out loud again on my TV screen.