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tv_talk2025-01-18 09:18 am
misbegotten) wrote in tv_talk2025-01-18 09:18 am
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Rec Fest: Miscellaneous
Welcome to the final day of Rec Fest! Today please recommend shows which do not fit into other genres we’ve mentioned. These might include unscripted shows, game shows, competition shows, news shows, or documentaries, etc.
Please include in your recs the following information:
Show Title:
Audience Rating: Young Children/All Ages/Teen and Up/Mature Content
Warnings: (Could include gory content, raunchy situations, explicit sex, offensive content, etc.)
Length of Episodes: (30 minutes/1 hour/Other)
Length of Series: (Number of seasons or number of episodes)
Why you recommend it: (What draws you to it? What niche does it fill/mood is it good for?)
You can copy and paste the following code into your comment.
Feel free to include any other information you’d like, such as what year(s) the show was originally broadcast, standout cast members, or what other shows it may connect to or be like. You can also include outside links to Wikipedia, Fanlore, IMDB, your favorite review etc. which contain more show information.
If someone else has already recced a show you were planning to rec, please include your own rec as well! People have different takes on shows and it can also help people if they see a number of people find a show to be a must-watch.
If you have questions about what to post or how the Rec Fest will run, please ask them at this link, not in comments below
The Daily Show
Audience Rating: Teen and up
Warnings: Strong language and adult jokes
Length of Episodes: 22 minutes
Length of Series: 4 days a week since 1996
Why you recommend it: The show has changed a good bit over the years, especially since 1999 when Jon Stewart took over. I particularly liked the broader global viewpoint brought in by Trevor Noah during his years on the show. The show's long history is available via the Comedy Central website, but chances are most people will be watching current shows rather than going into the archives, so I won't go into the many and shifting correspondents over the years. A number of very prominent or at least steadily working actors and comedians got their big break via this show.
The current format has Jon Stewart hosting (most) Mondays, with the remaining 3 weekly shows hosted by one of their continuing correspondents from the Trevor years. The veteran correspondents also continue to do second act segments though most of the field pieces are assigned to the three newest correspondents. My favorite recurring bit is the sports chat segment (especially with Ronnie Chieng and Jordan Klepper) but that's probably because some of the other regular ones ended with Roy Wood Jr.'s departure.
The show has an opening section with 'news of the day' coverage, then a second act with either a field piece or a focus on a particular topic. Then there's an interview and the show wraps with the "moment of Zen" end piece, usually a goofy or particularly hypocritical segment of political coverage.
I find the interviews weak and they have rarely been memorable, so it's been a very long time since I watched any. However the news segments are never without some great insight or zinger. I first started watching Daily Show as an antidote to awful political news, and it's continued to serve that purpose well ever since.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Audience Rating: Teen and up
Warnings: Adult jokes
Length of Episodes: 1 hour
Length of Series: 5 days a week since 2018
Why you recommend it: This show had a pretty shaky start in its first years, trying very hard not to duplicate The Colbert Report. But once they let Colbert focus on politics as he always had, it found its stride.
After the opening monologue on current news there is almost always a second segment, which might focus on specific areas such as science, technology, international stories, or returning to some issue in the news; the Meanwhile segment which is a catch-all for absurd news bits; or recurring features. The least interesting of those is, to my mind, Colbert's segments with kids or the Deep Thoughts one (which has been largely abandoned). The most fun, though rarely ever done, is having celebrities read out the Community Calendar of their hometown.
I've also enjoyed the Colbert Questionnaire, where the same set of questions are addressed to a celebrity guest. It's rather interesting to see the diversity of replies and really does reveal something about their personalities. Since the pandemic, Colbert also brings his wife on to do a segment about greeting cards which has become more of an excuse for them to chat.
Very popular, I suspect, is the Rescue Dog Rescue segment where Colbert and a celebrity guest try to get puppies (and now older dogs too) adopted. You can't go wrong with puppies!
Although the news jokes are sometimes predictable, the best value of the monologues is the sense that Colbert is a companion in trying to get through the latest political disaster. But every once in a while the writers hit it out of the park. My favorite one lately was him roasting Fox news, which claimed Trump buying Greenland was not a new thing and that the U.S. tried to do so in 1867 under Harry Truman. "“Yes! President Harry Truman tried to buy Greenland in 1867 — a mere 20 years before he was born! FDR also tried to buy Greenland in 2004, by sending his vice president the Erie Canal! A Democrat! But luckily that deal was halted by President Genghis Khan two years before the big bang."
Critical Role
Audience Rating: Mature Audiences
Warnings: Descriptions of violence/gore, strong language, raunchy situations
Length of Episodes: 180-300 minutes per episode
Length of Series: 3 "seasons" (campaigns), 375 episodes (and counting)
Why you recommend it: Critical Role is a TTRPG streaming webseries where "nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons". It started in 2015 as a continuation of their home game (campaign one) and has been ongoing ever since. They are currently in their third campaign, which is nearing its end.
Critical Role was my first exposure to the long-form actual-play style of TTRPG games, as well as my proper introduction to D&D and how the game is played and the storytelling elements that are featured. I remember getting into it because of Ashley Johnson, and I quickly ended up becoming enamored with the rest of the players/cast. They are professional actors/voice actors so their role-playing comes more from experience, but witnessing their improv skills has been a treat to behold since it creates such interesting dynamics and moments within the story being told. Plus it's a fun way of looking at role-playing games, and seeing them having fun at the table, telling a story while also making each other laugh.
To anyone new it would sound overwhelming since every episode is about four hours long and all three campaigns have over one hundred episodes, never mind all of the extras including one-shots they've done. There are abridged versions of the episodes along with a podcast version where you can just listen to them playing rather than watching, but overall it is an experience in itself to watch/listen to them play and get immersed with the storytelling. Each campaign features a different set of characters, all set within the world of Exandria. There have been some special guest appearances from other actors/voice actors across all three campaigns as well, including Felicia Day, Wil Wheaton, Will Friedle, Patrick Rothfuss, Deborah Ann Woll, Brennan Lee Mulligan, just to name a few.
(While they have expanded by creating an animated show, The Legend of Vox Machina, which is a retelling of the first campaign, and are later going to be doing an animated show for their second campaign, that is a much more condensed version of the game they've played and has since changed and altered parts of the story in later seasons.)
Dimension 20
Audience Rating: Teen and up/Mature Audiences
Warnings: Descriptions of violence, strong language,
Length of Episodes: 60-180 minutes
Length of Series: 24 seasons, 257 episodes (and counting)
Why you recommend it: Hosted by Brennan Lee Mulligan, Dimension 20 is an TTRPG webseries on Dropout, consisting of multiple different campaigns of various fictional stories and settings, and different players rotating throughout.
For anyone who feels overwhelmed by the sheer number of hours and episodes of Critical Role, I think Dimension 20 might be a better starting point since I think it's easier to digest. While there are many seasons, every campaign is quite short. The longest a campaign has gotten to is about 20 episodes, and while a lot of them are one-shot mini-campaigns some are continuing stories. I first got into D20 through watching clips on YouTube, and I was immediately hooked by the chaotic nature of not just Brennan Lee Mulligan's DMing style but also the players and the stories that were being told. Every campaign is different, so there is something for everyone.
Most of the campaigns are available to watch for free on YouTube, although some select campaigns can only be watched by subscribing to Dropout.
Moosemeat & Marmalade (2014-present)
Audience Rating: TV-G
Warnings: n/a beyond the premise
Length of Episodes: 22 minutes
Length of Series: 7 seasons of 13 episodes
Why you recommend it: Moosemeat & Marmalade goes beyond a cooking show into laid-back but insightful documentary television about culture, community, conservation, and Indigenous sovereignty as it pairs up Salteau First Nations bush cook and performer Art Napoleon with English chef Dan Hayes to explore cooking, hunting, foraging, fishing, and farming traditions across Canada and the United Kingdom, with a focus on their shared home region in British Columbia. Their dynamic and approach to the communities they visit makes for prime comfort watching, and there's not just always something delicious on offer, but something neat to learn about the relationship between people and the environments that provide our food.