This Week: The Year So Far

In which the Agents of DOUX discuss what they’re watching, what they should have watched but haven’t, what they're reading but can't talk about, and bathing in shame.

Josie Kafka: I'm wrangling this week's "This Week" post, so I thought I'd get the ball rolling and ask: what have you watched so far this year? What are your viewing goals for 2023?

I finally watched She-Hulk, but I didn't like it as much as Banshees of Inisherin. (Weird comparison, I know.) I'm trying to decide whether to watch Under the Banner of Heaven before my Hulu subscription expires.

What about all of you?

Mark Greig: Thanks to a bout of insomnia I finally got around to binging the final season of His Dark Materials, which has certainly been the show's strongest. I gonna trying and finish off the Willow series this week, which has been more enjoyable than the film.

My main goal for 2023 is to get through a lot of the anime on my list. I gave Hunter x Hunter another go and found it a lot more fun once I got past the tedious first arc. I should be all caught up with Attack on Titan by the time the last part of the final season is out. Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War has been amazing so far. I started watching Spy x Family and fell head over heels in love with it. Right now I'm watching Raven of the Inner Palace, The Ancient Magus' Bride, and the 1997 Berserk series, but think I'll drop the last one because it is just too grim.

Adam D. Jones: Willow is a blast. I love it for the same reasons I loved the original: it's a fun story with magic, monsters, and fun friends. I'm easy to please.

Gilmore Girls continues to be a love/hate relationship. Lorelai Gilmore is the patron saint of anyone who learned that humor can be a coping mechanism for troubled times. And Luke seems to be my alternate world self, a flannel-wrapped grouch who begrudgingly allows human contact. Kirk is my favorite. But Rory is boring and I don't really pay attention to her. She's going to Yale instead of Harvard, and I can't figure out why I should care.

Of course, the only thing that really matters in 2023...is season three of The Mandalorian. This is the way.

Billie Doux: Josie, I tried the first episode of Under the Banner of Heaven this week, and found it so uncomfortably creepy that I don't think I want to watch the rest. Has anyone else seen it?

I am watching Elementary for the first time, and John Noble just arrived. I'm very fond of John Noble.

Victoria Grossack: Other than slowly making my way through The Crown, I only have the emotional energy for reruns these days.

Billie: Woo hoo! Ghosts (US) just got early renewal for a third season!

Shari: Thanks to my Star Trek-obsessed fellow Agents, I checked out Star Trek: Prodigy. So far, so good. Like I expected anything less...

I've also binged the latest season of Jack Ryan. I love the way the show marries political gamesmanship with pulse-pounding action. It helps suspend my disbelief that Jack Ryan can travel all around Europe in such a tight timeframe or hang out with the President of a sovereign nation.

For more highbrow fare, I finally got around to watching Downton Abbey: A New Era. I love these characters and I love this world and I'll gladly keep watching anything they put out. However, I'll be the first to admit, the movie was completely unnecessary.

I also watched My Policeman. Calling it an unexpected pleasure seems wrong for such a tragic story. But the acting was wonderful.

In book news, I'm reading The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu which is an Asian-inspired fantasy that subverts the Chosen One trope by having the prophecy turn out to be wrong. It's inventive and snarky and the worldbuilding is amazing.

I've also been listening to Ocean's Echo by Everina Maxwell which is a sci-fi political LGBTQ romance. I'd like to say more but to explain anything else would start giving the plot away. I can say it deals with questions of identity, privacy, and agency, although that probably doesn't help much.

Mikey: I have two confessions to make. Not only have I not seen the new Willow TV series – I've never actually seen the original movie. I know, I know. I just totally missed it.

My other confession was that until this week I had never read Coraline (one of the very few things Neil Gaiman's written that I hadn't read). Oh my lord, it's delightful! Is the film adaptation good, or should I stick with my memories from the book?

TV wise, I finally finished all of American Horror Story and after a few nights of very disturbing dreams have moved on emotionally. Right now I'm about halfway through the run of Barry on HBO max, which is well worth your time. Anything with Stephen Root is well worth your time, of course.

I'm thinking next I'm going to go with either Legion, or The Marvelous Ms. Maisel. Anyone have a strong case one way or the other?

Shari: Legion is a wild ride but I highly recommend it. I’ve heard nothing but great things about Ms. Maisel but I haven’t seen it myself.

Billie: I've watched The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel twice and I love it. It's by the same crew that gave us Gilmore Girls.

Mikey: OK, that makes three confessions. I've never seen the Gilmore Girls.

I am bathing in shame.

Billie: I should add that The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel isn't at all like Gilmore Girls, except for the fact that the leads in both shows are women. Mrs. Maisel is about a comic and her snarky manager back in the 1960s. It's just not like anything else.

One last thing. Has anyone else seen Avenue 5? It's a strange sci-fi comedy on HBO Max about a luxury spaceship cruise that gets pushed out of its trajectory, trapping several thousand tourists on board. It leans heavily on the absurd. It stars Hugh Laurie as an actor who was hired to play the ship's captain because he looks the type.