Type Click Mailbag: What Are We Watching?

Hello and welcome back to the Type Click Mailbag. It’s been a long time since we did one of these. And we’re doing them differently now. Here’s the rundown:

— There’s a whole special email address for the mailbag that I’m only giving out to paid subscribers because I am always trying to think of ways to provide value to the people who help make this sucker sustainable 

— I still like hearing from people in the comments and I do try to respond to most of those, too, so don’t be a stranger

— If you want to send in emails for these things going forward, you can subscribe…

Okay, email time. 

From Nick:

My question is actually two questions. The first question is “What are you watching?” I ask this because I am in a rut right now and need suggestions, and also because, as a paying subscriber, I feel I am entitled to know everything you are doing with the time I am bankrolling. (Just kidding.) 

The second question is “What should I be excited about that's coming up?” I’m always getting to stuff too late, and it seems like you have a good feel for these kinds of things. 

Please help me. I don’t want to have to develop an actual hobby. 

Okay, good news and bad news. The good news is that I will happily run down a bunch of the things I’m watching right now, some of which I’ve written about here and some of which I’ve just been enjoying in silence. The bad news is that I, also, am a bit behind on some things. One of the nice parts about doing this newsletter and being out of the daily content grind is that I can actually do that now, just watch things I like at my own pace and dive back into things I want to watch again and not feel pressure to watch 600 screeners of crap I don’t care about. Which, I suppose, makes the bad news actually good news. For me. Less so for you.

But here we go. I am watching…

Shrinking — A very good show in the middle of a great third season. Ted McGinley is a king. 

DTF St. Louis — A very weird show from the creator of Patriot that just debuted this week and features a love triangle gone bad and a surprise twist and some moments of comedy so dark you’d need a flashlight to see them. I have no idea if it’ll be good or veer off the rails but I’m in so far. 

Soul Power — Prime Video sports docuseries about the ABA. Extremely my jam. 

Ponies — Cold War spy series on Peacock that I’m inching through slowly. Pretty fun so far. It’s nice to see Emilia Clarke have a good time. 

Shoresy — Ripped through the new season in like 36 hours. It’s a blast. We’ve discussed this. 

Peaky Blinders — I kicked off a full-on rewatch a couple weeks ago and I am waist-deep in it now. Might start smoking cigarettes. 

The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins — I don’t know if it’s good or if I just like hearing Tracy Morgan say things with his voice. We will monitor this going forward. 

Young  Sherlock — I’m a sucker for a Guy Ritchie series. I’m sorry. 

As far as what I’m excited about that’s coming up… the big one isn’t even a television show. It’s the movie Project Hail Mary, which hits theaters in a couple weeks. I loved the book, which is by Andy Weir, who also wrote The Martian and really seems to have the “dudes stranded in space” genre locked down. It stars Gosling, who rarely misses. It’s from the team of Lord and Miller, who also rarely miss. Here’s the first trailer, which doesn’t give away too much. Some of the later ones do. I will say that I enjoyed the way the twist was deployed in the book quite a bit so it might be nice to avoid having it spoiled by the previews if you’re going in without that knowledge. 

I think that about covers it. I probably missed something somewhere. But those feel like the biggies. 

From Sarah:

I hope this isn’t weird, but: how do you handle it when you see someone park in a handicapped spot even though they’re not disabled? I think of you every time I see it happen, and it makes me furious. I bet it makes you want to scream. Do you say something to the person? Do they apologize and look like they want to die? How satisfying is that on a scale of 1-10? Again, I hope this isn’t weird to ask. I’m just so curious, and I feel like you might be able to put this into words in a way that could help able-bodied people understand. 

This is a good question! It’s not weird! My answer probably won’t be very satisfying but it will get to something worth discussing anyway, I hope. 

The short answer is that I almost never say something. The main reason I don’t is because not all disabilities present as obviously as mine and someone might have a very legitimate reason to use that spot that you or I can’t see on a first glance. My general rule is that if they have the designated license plate or the placard hanging from the rearview, it’s all good. I know there are people out there gaming the system and that sucks, of course, but I’d rather have a few bad eggs get away with something than have a situation where someone who actually needs the accommodation is denied — or is even just afraid to use it because someone might yell at them — because their disability isn’t something you can see a mile away. 

That said, I have caught a few people. It’s usually someone who was “just running in” or is sitting there idling while they wait for someone. The funny thing is that I don't have to say anything there either. Usually, I just spit out the ramp of my van and smile at them and say hi as I pull my chair in or out and they tell on themselves by apologizing 500 times and/or moving their car. 

To answer this part of your question, yes, that moment is very satisfying. I’ll go as high as an 8 out of 10. 

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STUFF I CLICKED ON

— Mike Ryan wrote a good blog about the problem with SNL’s Trump sketches

— Defector covered the plight of Nikola Jokic

— long lost robot movie

— 15-minute recap of all six seasons of Peaky Blinders if you’re too much of a fraud to do a full rewatch like me before the movie drops later this month

— Dolly Parton might be the greatest living American, no sarcasm

— Harrison Ford gave a great speech

— Giamatti hive thriving

— Tom Holland and Zendaya are married, probably

— dammit they made Will Forte sad

— DAMMIT Bruce Campbell has cancer 

— I swear it was not me who stole the stones from the wheelchair curling competition 

— combination Applebee’s and pancake house

— Triceratops auction 

— scientists made tomatoes that smell like popcorn 

— new deer dropped

— “Kevin Bacon, Ted Danson, Tom Selleck and Dolph Lundgren to Host History Channel Shows”

— “Squirrel blamed for government Internet outage in Ohio county”

— wiener dogs on ice

Okay, that's it for this week. Please share and subscribe and do not park in my spots.