Kashika: A Year in the Life (in TV)
Holding space for a rare new issue
If you are shocked to see this newsletter in your inbox after 15 months, know that it cannot match the shock to my system when it realised that I had to write. Devoted Continue Watching readers have asked me several times over the last one year if we’re ever going to write another issue, and that is one of the things that has kept me going in a year where the only things I can remember are moving houses, getting burnt alive in Sri Lanka heat, going to 20+ standup comedy shows, and downloading the Zerodha app (I will not be taking questions at this time).
Until a few months ago, I did not think that I had much to say in terms of TV shows in 2024. It was a lackluster year in television, and there were months where I had to be alone with my thoughts post office while scrolling through my phone. It was bleak, and one possible reason could be that I stopped watching K-dramas cold turkey at the end of 2023. I know!! A few things happened one after another and I couldn’t take it anymore. My Korean classes were ending, BTS was going to the military, and then My Demon and Strong Girl Nam-soon put the nail in the coffin with their shocking average-ness. I think we can safely say that I had a Korean phase and now it’s over, and I can completely put it behind me once I manage to vacation in South Korea.
So that leaves us with the Hindi and English shows, and it hurts my feelings how bad they largely were this year. I saw several shows that felt good at the time but didn’t stay with me at all and I can't even remember a single plot point or character name (Such Brave Girls, Under the Bridge, Extraordinary, English Teacher, The Morning Show, How to Die Alone, Call Me Bae). Then there were some that I knew were terrible even as I watched them and willed myself to forget ASAP (Maxton Hall, Big Girls Don’t Cry, Only Murders in the Building (I SAID WHAT I SAID), Cruel Intentions, Heeramandi). There were also some reality shows that were a great anthropological study (Love is Blind Habibi, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives). And then there was a weekend spent in Pune with friends where the only things we watched were true crime documentaries and which made us sleep with the lights on (House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths, Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God).
In total, I watched 60 TV shows this year so far and am currently watching two deeply average ones (No Good Deed and Black Doves) and two good ones (Shrinking and Bad Sisters). But it was not all bad. Let’s talk about the ones that made me put my phone down for longer than 30 minutes.
Somebody Somewhere (Jio Cinema)
I truly believe that this show was meant as a personal gift to me by Bridget Everett. When season one came out in 2022, I watched and complained that it was slow and I avoided talking or thinking about it. When season two came out last year, I didn’t watch it. When season three came out this year, I stayed away. Last month when I was really struggling, I just woke up one weekend and started watching it again from season one. I finished three seasons in three days because of how seen and understood it made me feel, while also telling me certain truths that I otherwise run away from in real life. I almost want to gatekeep it from everyone, but it’s such an authentic portrayal of loneliness and friendship and courage in your 40s, something my midlife crisis-riddled friends and I have been discussing ad nauseum these days, that it needs to be shared. It sounds really heavy but the show did it with a light, loving touch. HBO cancelled it after three seasons, but I think that’s okay. We’ll all be okay.
Raat Jawan Hai (Sony LIV)
It makes me sound insufferable but Hindi web series have not been hitting the spot. I started Raat Jawan Hai because of my undying love for Barun Sobti, and was blown away by what I have to say is the best Indian web series I have ever seen. It revolves around three young parents, a subject I do not care for, but is just the perfect reflection of urban life in your 30s. It offers no resolutions because that’s just life, yet every episode feels like it’s moving the story forward. It also has one thing going for it that most other Indian web series do not — it makes the characters sound like normal people who talk in a mix of English and their mother tongue instead of giving them cringe dialogue that seems like an alien wrote what they think an Indian person sounds like. The perfect slice-of-life show, and it’s a shame no one’s watching it.
One Day (Netflix)
Ambika Mod and Leo Woodall took my second favorite book, One Day by David Nicholls, and turned it into a beautiful, moving, devastating show that destroyed unsuspecting viewers who (weirdly) thought they were watching a rom-com. The magic of Emma and Dexter is in their very realistic struggle growing up and realizing two of the harshest lessons people in their 20s must learn only by making their own mistakes: 1) life doesn’t always turn out the way you want, and 2) timing is everything when it comes to love. One thing though, I didn’t cry as much as other people, maybe because this story is in my blood?
The Fosters (Get creative)
When Good Trouble unexpectedly ended in March, I was upset and not done with the characters. So even though I’ve never felt the urge to watch its parent show before, I started watching The Fosters immediately after. Its five seasons and 104 episodes sustained me for a couple of months, and I felt that old satisfaction of having a show you like waiting for you at the end of the day no matter what went down during it. The new brand of shows with 8-episode seasons two years apart are not it. The Fosters is like a daily soap so beware before you dive in, but it has one of the greatest marriages on TV (maybe even better than Coach and Tami Taylor? I’M SORRY) and the kids will break your heart.
So Help Me, Todd (Season 1 - Jio Cinema, Season 2 - Get creative)
The amount of joy So Help Me Todd brought me earlier this year when there was nothing to watch on TV is unparalleled. It was comforting to watch a show where, even though every episode was about a complicated legal case, the stakes were never high. In each episode, Todd and his mom would bicker nonstop while also being obsessed with each other, and multiple family members working in wildly different fields would somehow end up in the courtroom helping each other while getting on each other’s nerves. I couldn’t think of anything more entertaining. It’s a shame every Skylar show keeps getting cancelled (I’ll never forget you, Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist), because he really is a star.
Man on the Inside (Netflix)
Ted Danson is the shit and Mike Schur never misses, but the first four episodes were pleasant and nothing to write home about. But the last four episodes sneakily managed to do to a great extent what The Good Place did brilliantly — tackle big life lessons through comedy while also making you weep. Overall, it was a warm hug and you can never have enough of those.
Catastrophe (Get creative)
Another show I put off watching for the longest time despite Apoorva’s enthusiastic recommendation (I later blackmailed her that I wouldn’t tell her if I liked it until she told me a story she’d been putting off sending a voice note about for WEEKS). Another Sharon Horgan show that’s 10/10, Catastrophe has that British thing where the romantic couple is so mean to each other that it’s hard to imagine if there is any love. But of course there is, and it’s pretty realistic, so it works.
Nobody Wants This (Netflix)
I had to include the show that brought Adam Brody back into the zeitgeist because how can you not? I really enjoyed it while watching, but I don’t feel like it stayed with me, which is surprising, because it’s the kind of stuff I usually eat up! Nobody Wants This gets a lot of things right, but the one thing it gets really, really wrong is Kristen Bell’s hair. Sorry but what was going on there? It’s not like the rest of the show/appearance of the actors was made to be realistic, so why make her hair look like my fine, limp hair? Please add some extensions and continue to uphold the unrealistic hair beauty standards of TV protagonists.
That’s all for this year from me. This was torture and I have 100% forgotten how to write. I’m shutting my laptop now before the existential crisis from that statement can destroy my December.
Stay tuned for Shahana’s 2024 recap next week, and tell us what you’ve been watching. It’s been ages.
Oh and happy new year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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