What’cha Watchin’?
Editorial Intern Charlie Mangan hangs with hit men and heavy hitters
By Charlie Mangan, Fri., Sept. 20, 2019
Barry (HBO)
Co-created by Bill Hader of SNL fame (who also plays the titular role) and former Seinfeld writer Alec Berg, Barry evokes both tears of laughter and despair all within each 30-minute episode. Barry is an ex-marine turned hit man who has a bit of a midlife crisis and begins to spend as much time in the company of Chechen gangsters as he does in an overpriced L.A. acting class led by an actor well past his prime (Henry Winkler). Trying to leave the hired killer life behind but continuously being roped back in (a famous Al Pacino quote comes to mind), Barry struggles just as much with remembering his monologues as with trying to carve out a normal life for himself.
Best of the Worst (YouTube)
If you love Mystery Science Theater 3000 and discovering weird VHS tapes, then check out this series from Red Letter Media. Rather than watching and rehashing the same infamously bad movies as everyone else, the team – which sometimes includes celebrity guests like Patton Oswalt and Macaulay Culkin – watches old tapes from their outrageously large collection. It's not always feature films: sometimes it's instructional and/or training videos that would have otherwise been lost in the ether ("Surviving Edged Weapons" is a personal favorite). A great way to get the bizarre hidden gems shown to you, rather than slogging through the actual bad films yourself.
"The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience" (Netflix)
If the Beastie Boys met Beyoncé's Lemonade, this "lost" visual rap album from 1989 Oakland Athletics players Jose Canseco (Andy Samberg) and Mark McGwire (Akiva Schaffer), aka the Bash Brothers, would be the result. Cardboard cutouts of Kathy Ireland, silk robes and kimonos, dances in IHOP parking lots, and lots and lots of steroids are just some of the things you can expect when you watch this delightfully absurd short.
– Editorial Intern Charlie Mangan
