Stuff I watched in 2024

Top recommendations

I’m drawn to media that explores class, sexuality, technology, and Asian American identity. I can watch movie trailers for hours. (Try sitting next to me on an airplane!) Also see books here.

Television

Russian Doll (Seasons 1-2)

I’m rating it R for alcohol, tobacco, narcotics, and profanity.

Sardonic New Yorker (Natasha Lyonne) gets trapped in time loops and desperately tries to find her way out. Outstanding dialogue. Themes: metaphysics, the death drive, grief, mental illness, intergenerational trauma, intimacy, Jewish Holocaust, chosen family, healing and recovery.

Halt and Catch Fire (Season 1)

I’m rating it R for some sex.

An rebellious visionary, a weathered engineer, and a volatile prodigy (Cameron Howe) risk everything to build a computer that can change the future. Set in the early 1980s on the verge of the personal computer (PC) revolution. Themes: eroticism, engineering, identity, power, technology.

BEEF (Season 1)

Two strangers in Los Angeles (Steven Yeun and Ali Wong) get into a road rage incident that brings chaos into their lives. Badass 90s soundtrack. Themes: rage, racism, class, identity, intergenerational trauma, criminality, family, intimacy, contemporary Asian American cultures.

Warrior (Seasons 1-3)

I’m rating it R for violence, profanity, sex, and nudity 😳.

Martial arts prodigy Ah Sahm (Andrew Koji) arrives in San Francisco during the brutal gang wars of the 1800s. Based on the writings Bruce Lee. Features a strange number of mixed-race White/Asian actors. Themes: immigration, Irish vs Chinese class/race wars, criminalization and police corruption, labor politics, sex work, racism and class mobility.

Zainab Johnson: Hijabs Off (2023)

Zainab Johnson‘s debut stand-up comedy special. Topics include her identity as a Black female Muslim, having 12 siblings, and growing up in Harlem, NY. She stole the show in Upload! Great bits on gender performance, dating, and the “haram police”.

Sex Education (Seasons 1-4)

I’m rating it R for sex and nudity 😳.

A teenage boy (Asa Butterfield) with a sex therapist mother (Gillian Anderson) teams up with a classmate to run an underground sex-therapy clinic at school. Set in a fictional town in the British countryside. Themes: class, friendship, human and adolescent sexuality, relationships, divorce, trauma, intimacy and love. Season 4 takes a bizarre departure and I respect the risk.

Peaky Blinders (Seasons 1-6)

I’m rating it R for sex, nudity, drinking, and violence.

Mixed blood Gypsy Brit (Cillian Murphy) rides horses and develops his family to a powerful criminal gangster organization. Set in Birmingham, England after WWI, follows the age of industrialization and the rise of fascism. Themes: criminalization, class mobility, racism, violence, trauma, addiction.

Movies

Kajillionaire (2020)

I’m rating it PG for depictions of emotional trauma.

26-year-old Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood) was raised by con-artist parents to skim a living from the margins of modern Los Angeles. The family charms a stranger into joining a scam, only to have their entire world turned upside down. Themes: reality, relationships, family, transactionality, grifting.

After Yang (2021)

I’m rating it PG for depictions of death and loss.

A family’s android (Justin H Min) malfunctions, and Jake (Colin Farrell) searches for a way to repair him. Themes: racial identity, futurism, surveillence, sentience, memory, artificial intelligence, cloning. Slow but unforgettable.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

I’m rating it R for sex.

An eighteenth century painter (Noémie Merlant) is commissioned to secretly paint a portait of a young aristocrat (Adèle Haenel) to facilitate her unwanted marriage. Slow film with big ocean noise, set on an isolated island between France and England. Themes: class, gender and power, the artist’s gaze, love, power, and consent.

Honorable Mentions

• Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World (Miniseries, 4 episodes)
• Never Too Small (YouTube series)