This Week’s Binge 5.28.21

Cruel Summer

Hulu

Am I a little embarrassed that I’m obsessed with a show about teenage girls in Texas and what may or may not be a revenge story? No! Because everyone deserves a guilty pleasure, and this is it.

I love a good flashback/flash forward story and this is not only a unique story but a unique way to tell it. Each episode covers the same exact day during three consecutive summers, but from the very first episode you’ll see that a lot has changed in the span of those three summers. Every other episode is told from one of the two main characters perspective.

Cruel Summer is a weekly series but I binged 6 episodes in one day and I can’t wait to see how it ends. Do not sleep on this!

I am: Obsessed

The Things We Cannot Say

Kelly Rimmer

Historical fictions are one of my favorite genres in any form (movies, series, books), and I’ve read a lot that take place during WWII. This is one of the best.

Set in Poland at the beginning of the occupation, I couldn’t put down The Things We Cannot Say. Told from the perspective of a young woman in occupied Poland and the perspective of a mother in modern-day Florida. While reading of the unspeakable things that the Polish girl endured and discovering the complicated life of the Florida mother whose child is on the autism spectrum, you eventually learn how their two stories intertwine.

Yes, there will be tears, lots of them. But that may be one of the best reasons there is to consume historical fiction, we cannot let the tragedies of the past be repeated in the future. Especially with what is happening in today’s current environment, I feel this in my bones.

I knew with absolute certainty that small problems in a country can become immense tragedies when left unchecked. It started small in Germany. It even started small in Poland, long before the occupation. It started with a small group of people harassing and vandalizing and desecrating, and it ended with trainloads of my countrymen shipped to furnaces and dumped into a river.

The Things We Cannot Say

I am: Obsessed

The Deep Dive

Jessica St. Clair & June Diane Raphael

I first became familiar with Jessica St. Clair & June Diane Raphael as great podcast guests on Bitch Sesh, of which they are frequent guests.

Of course, most of us know June Diane Raphael from her brilliant portrayal of Brianna Hanson on Grace & Frankie, but she’s also Casey Wilson’s best friend, pop culture commentator, and funny as hell. So when I first listened to this new podcast I was expecting something lighthearted and funny, although it’s called ‘The Deep Dive’. This isn’t that. It’s better.

June Diane and Jessica St. Clair (don’t ask me why I put the last name on one and not the other, it’s just the way it is) bring a breath of fresh air. As early/mid-40-somethings they are textbook Xennials, they’re old enough that they’ve lived through things but young enough where they definitely prefer a text over a phone call. It me!

This is like having a conversation with a friend, a conversation that may not be super pleasant, but one that you know that you need and you’ll feel better after having. Even tackling heavy issues (cancer, the loss of a parent) they are there to support each other and find humor along the way.

I am: Entertained