Time Travel, Empathy, and Shyness
It's our month in review
Every month on Together, Alone we look back at the pieces we published and share reader reactions and our own further thinking on the matter. Here’s a lineup of what we published in November, and what we heard about it.
‘Are You Using This Camera Because You Don’t Want To Be With Us?’
Discussed: How To with John Wilson, The Rehearsal, Sherman’s March, “An Incomplete List of What the Cameraperson Enables,” therapy memes, Going Deep with David Rees
Gabe:
commented “As a big fan of John Wilson, yet totally unaware of The Rehearsal... thank you!” This led to a connection of threads not mentioned in the piece. The essay focused on How To With John Wilson and The Rehearsal. Nathan Fielder is executive producer of the former and creator of the latter. One show that wasn’t discussed was Important Things with Dimitri Martin. This show had a similar type of explanatory humor (the 21st century equivalent of the ‘80s and ‘90s wave of observational humor?), though the show veered from the how-to-live-daily-life model of the others. But it’s notable that Fielder was a writer and director on Important Things, and one of that show’s writers is Michael Koman, who also writes on How To and wrote for Fielder’s previous show Nathan For You.Thomas also mentions another documentary-comedy show: Problem Areas with Wyatt Cenac. Problem Areas was a great show that brought a documentary approach to the news explanation style of Last Week Tonight (whose host Jon Oliver is a producer on Problem Areas). Its two seasons are available through HBO (or Max). While looking up streaming information, I found a good article on the show’s ending, in which Dave Itzkoff writes: “What happened to Problem Areas was the result of several factors: choices made by its host and HBO but also the inherent difficulties of its subject matter and the systemic challenges faced by Black performers in late-night TV.”
The Limits of Ted Lasso Television
Discussed: Ted Lasso, BoJack Horseman, The Bear, kindness, empathy, antiheroes, prestige TV, moral complexity Since it came out in 2020, Ted Lasso has gained a reputation for being one of the nicest shows on television. Fans rave that Ted’s sunny disposition is a welcome respite from “doomscrolling” and that the show’s emphasis on kindness is a balm for …
How TRL Captured the Y2k Zeitgeist
Editors’ Note: Every month on Together, Alone we choose a piece of culture to discuss. This month, we’re talking about the one-thousandth episode of Total Request Live. It is available for free on archive.org.
Tim commented: “I recall the show existing at two points in my adolescence. One where I was enthralled and one where I was feeling ‘edgier’ and frustrated at the ‘commercially viable rebels’ and wondering what they were doing there.”