What’cha Watchin’?
Screens Editor Richard Whittaker heads to Canada
Fri., Jan. 4, 2019
Letterkenny (Hulu)
How are you now? Welcome to the town of Letterkenny, population 5,000. There are hicks (the local farmers), skids (goth meth heads), hockey players (the local lunkhead jocks), and Christians (usually screechingly repressed), plus the sometimes volatile relationship with the local reservation. That sounds like Hee Haw meets Sons of Anarchy, but this Canadian gem is actually the most whip-smart, vulgar, scripted comedy doing the rounds today. As Wayne, the toughest guy in Letterkenny, series co-creator Jared Keeso – along with co-writer Jacob Tierney (who plays scarcely closeted Pastor Glen) – breaks every rule about how much dialogue you can cram into a half-hour, single-camera show and just trusts the audience to pick up on where the plot is going. Pitter patter, let's get at 'er!
Deadwax (Shudder)
Vinyl collectors can be – shall we say – a little obsessive, but the lines they'll transgress for 12 inches of vinyl in Deadwax are positively demonic. Graham Reznick, indie horror's go-to sound engineer, is writer/director here, and he dives headlong into the realm of sinister sonics with his eight-part series about record hunter Etta Pryce (Mindhunter's Hannah Gross) searching for a mysterious recording that should never, ever be played. This evil goes up to 11.
Wrestle Kingdom 13 (New Japan Pro-Wrestling World/Fite TV)
Every Jan. 4, New Japan Pro-Wrestling holds its biggest event of the year. Wrestle Kingdom is their WrestleMania – minus the stupid celebrity appearances and awful musical acts; plus the greatest wrestlers working today. Last year saw matches so astounding that Dave Meltzer, the doyen of wrestling reporters, broke his five-star rating scale, and this year's main event of "The Cleaner" Kenny Omega versus NJPW legend Hiroshi Tanahashi will be one for the ages.
– Screens Editor Richard Whittaker
