Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed
Title says it all - this one’s so fun. It’s funny, sexy, suspenseful, exciting, and surprising. I’m extremely late to the Tatiana Maslany party, but it’s a banger. She’s a revelation- a woman constantly on the brink of unraveling, barely keeping it together as she bounces from familial strife to soccer mom duties to a camboy’s murder-blackmail crime scenes which she’s found herself at the center of. Bonus points for my favorite White Lotus disgruntled manager Murray Bartlett delivering an absolutely lethal, transformative performance as a very good baddie and for JLD’s son Charlie Hall with pitch-perfect-like-mother-like-son biting, sarcastic remarks for comedic relief.
Seating Arrangements (Maggie Shipstead)
This is a very good book about very unlikeable people. Mainly told from the vantage point of an aging, white, east coast elite boomer dad over the course of the weekend leading up to his oldest daughter’s wedding on a Martha’s Vineyard-esque vacation island for the uber wealthy. We are granted access to his, and some of the other guests’ darkly funny, bitter, entitled inner lives. It feels like watching a car crash in slow motion as they make increasingly questionable life choices. Fun if you enjoy watching vaguely awful people self-implode, perhaps painful if not. His long-held crush on his daughter’s best friend-turned-bridesmaid, decades-long grudge with a family friend, unrelenting odyssey to join the island’s most exclusive country club, and excessive drinking/drug use all come to a head as he crumbles under the pressure that is the picture perfect WASP wedding. Fans of the beesting, among friends, and the banal nightmare : this one’s for you!
lonely island and seth meyers podcast
Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast is pure fun, joy, and silliness. As a millennial who grew up with the advent of YouTube, had her humor and sensibilities shaped by SNL shorts, laughed to “jizz in my pants” on repeat in dorm rooms, and had (has) a major crush on Andy - this pod’s a dream come true. I love getting to hear about the boys’ inspiration and creative process…and it’s very fun to get some behind the scenes gossip on the cast, hosts, and musical guests of SNL’s golden era. It feels like hanging out with your funniest friends. More than once I’ve looked like an absolute lunatic while listening as I’m walking down the street alone, in conversation with no one, shaking (and sometimes crying) with laughter. Well worth looking like the Joker for!!
family trips with the meyers brothers
Seth Meyers, serial podcaster extraordinaire, and his brother Josh have a fresh take on the celeb interview, asking each guest for tales of family trips from their youth. Through this lens, we have a fun “in” to learn more about celeb origin stories, their family dynamics, etc. It is worth saying Meyers bros could have chemistry with a rock, but they really do seem to bring out the best in their guests. They are total pros at creating a fun and cozy vibe, and get some truly funny and sweet family trips tales. It’s light, fun, funny, and just the right amount of edge. No notes. Pro tip: “Tiffany Haddish” and “Holiday Hangout w Ike Barinholtz and Timothy Olyphant” eps guaranteed to have you howling. Warning: You will fall deeply in love with both of these bros and eventually yearn to join their family trips.
