What To Watch While Quarantined - #4 Avenue 5

Series #4 – AVENUE 5

Streaming Service- Crave TV

Seasons – 1 (2020 - ???)

Starring -  Hugh Laurie, Josh Gad, Zach Woods, Lenora Crichlow, Suzy Nakamura, Kyle Bornheimer

Tone and Feel – Star Trek meets Gilligan’s Island

Memorable Quote – “It was true when I said it. Like marriage vows.”

— Matt Spencer (Zach Woods), Avenue 5, Season 1: He's Only There To Stop His Skeleton Falling Over

Avenue 5 is the newest of my recommendations having debuted only earlier this year, and yet, it is quickly becoming appointment television for me. The series stars Hugh Laurie as Ryan Clark, the Captain of a futuristic ‘Love Boat in Space”. (Note: If you’re too young to know what the Love Boat is, go away, I don’t want to know you)

Captain Clark is there mainly to glad-hand and schmooze the passengers of a luxury cruise ship in space during its three-week voyage. However, when an accident knocks them off of their flight path and delays their return window to earth significantly, it soon becomes clear that the Captain may be in over his head. The reason for this becomes evident as the pilot unfolds.

Laurie is surrounded by an all-star comedy cast led by Josh Gad, (perhaps best known as the voice of Olaf in the Frozen movies) who is amazing as Herman Judd, the clueless, arrogant, and narcissistic billionaire whose company owns the cruise line. Gad plays Judd as the perfect combination Richard Branson and the White House guy.

Zach Woods (Gabe from The Office) is always delightfully weird in everything he does, and he is never better than as Matt, the guy in charge of passenger liaison. His best lines are often in promotional videos for the ship’s amenities, “Be sure to try our amazing five-star buffet. “If you’re not completely satisfied – you’re wrong.”

The fun in the series comes from watching a crew of mostly inept cruise line staff deal with crisis situations in space better suited for the crew of the Starship Enterprise. One of my favorite running gags is the fact that people can’t tell is Captain Clark is American or British because the accent keeps oscillating between the two. It is hard to imagine but there would be a sizeable chunk of the viewing audience who recall Hugh Laurie as the American Dr. House and don’t realize he started out as part of the British comedy team Fry & Laurie. It’s clear Laurie hasn’t lost a comedic step over the years.

As the first season is still in progress, I can’t say for certain the long arc of the series will build to a logical and gripping season finale. It is possible the show, like the ship, could be lost and adrift. What I can say is I finish each episode, wanting to watch the next one, which is really all you can hope for at this point.

For this reason, I strongly recommend you watch Avenue 5 while quarantined.

And millennials, do yourself and Google the Love Boat. Come on board, they’re expecting you. That will be much funnier after you Google it. Okay…marginally funnier.

What to Watch While Quarantined #3 - OZARK

What To Watch While Quarantined

Series #3 – OZARK

Streaming Service- Netfilix

Seasons – 3 (2017-2020)

Starring – Jason Bateman, Laura Linney, Julie Garner, Jordana Spiro, Esai Morales

Tone and Feel – Breaking Bad

Memorable Quote: “If I want to put all $7,945,400 into a hot tub, get buck naked and play Scrooge McDuck, that is 100% my business. Now, where’s my money?”

— Marty Byrde S01E01

Ozark is the first pure drama/suspense series on the list, and it is definitely a must-see. I wanted to write about it now because season three will be released on Netflix in ten days (March 27). That should give you just enough time to power through the first two seasons. Unless, of course, you’ll be busy at the office, gym or maybe travelling overseas.

Too soon?

Ozark tells the story of Marty Byrde (Jason Bateman), a Chicago-based financial advisor and family man who happens to have one special talent. He’s the best money launderer in the region and has used this gift to enrich both himself and a Mexican drug cartel for quite a while. As cartel drug money launderers go, he is a fairly straight arrow.

Without spoiling too much, let’s just say things go a bit off-kilter for Marty and his operation and the ensuing circumstances lead him to the Lake of Ozarks. Sometimes, known as the ‘Redneck Riviera’, the area is a holiday destination resort for people from all walks of life from the Midwest and southern states.

Marty has been tasked with uprooting his family and setting up a new, higher volume money laundering operation in this bizarre new land. What makes the series special is it is both a family fish out of water story along with the most gripping crime drama in recent memory.

Ozark likes playing in the grey zones with its characters which is what makes the show so compelling. It’s not a good guys versus bad guys dynamic but rather a really complicated group of people stuck together in a difficult and stressful situation. Jason Bateman has never been better (sorry Arrested Development fans but it’s true) playing Marty, the moral centre of this universe. When you consider the moral centre is a money launderer you begin to see what makes the series so interesting. Laura Linney plays Marty’s wife Wendy who has her own checkered past that complicates their façade as a typical happy family.

As the series evolves, Julie Garner’s character Ruth Langmore begins to steal the series. Ruth is part of a notorious family of local petty thieves but unlike her kinfolk, she strives to be better and years for something more. She attaches herself to Marty because she sees a class and dignity in him that she hasn’t seen in her family. Garner won an Emmy for her season two portrayal of Ruth Langmore this past fall. I believe Ozark has the strongest ensemble cast of any series in the past 20 years.

The hillbilly locals are just one side from which Marty and his family are being squeezed. It seems at all times, he is feeling pressure from the cartel, law enforcement, and the locals, all while trying to keep his family from unraveling at any moment.

The pilot episode is a masterclass in setting up a drama series. There is so much I want to say about it, but I fear I may have given away too much already. I’ll just say this – watch the pilot episode and if after that, you aren’t completely hooked on this series, then Ozark was never your bag in the first place.

If you love suspenseful crime dramas, I highly recommend watching Ozark while quarantined.

What to Watch While Quarantined - #2 Lovesick

Series #2 – LOVESICK

Streaming Service- Netflix

Seasons – 3 (2015-2018)

Starring - Johnny Flynn, Antonia Thomas, Daniel Ings, Joshua McGuire, Hannah Britland

Tone and Feel – The Office (UK) meets How I Met Your Mother

Memorable Quote: “I want kids, but I don't want to have to raise them. I want visitation rights, not custody. Even if I'm married to their mother.”

— Luke S01E02

Over the coming weeks and months, I will write about 30 of these streaming series recommendations and if you only take my advice on one, it has to be this one. I’ll put it as clearly as I can. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this show! It is my favourite show I’ve discovered in the past 10 years.

Lovesick is a laugh-out-loud, raunchy yet heartfelt, series about four single friends in the UK looking for love and relationships in both the short term and long term varieties. In the opening scene of the series, we discover Dylan (Johnny Flynn) has been diagnosed with an STD and is instructed to contact his former lovers to let them know they need to be tested.

This serves as the engine of the series where each episode Dylan contacts a past lover to break the news. What makes the show so effective in its storytelling is the way it cuts back and forth in time within each episode and between episodes in the series. After his diagnosis, Dylan decides to tackle his list alphabetically which takes us back three years to the day he met Abigail.

The pilot does a great job of introducing us to the rest of the cast. Dylan’s best friend is notorious womanizer Luke whose views on love and relationships run opposed to everything Dylan holds dear. I compare this to How I Met Your Mother because, in many respects, Dylan is a British Ted Mosby, yearning to find the one, constantly cursing his ineptitude with women, and often messing up what could have been a really good thing. If Dylan is Ted then Luke is his Barney Stinson, only looking for love in overnight doses at most.

Then there is Evie (The Good Doctor’s Antonia Thomas) who is the true object of Dylan’s affection. If you were captivated by the storylines of Ross and Rachel, Ted and Robyn, or Jim and Pam, you will quickly fall for Dylan and Evie. This ongoing will-they-won't they romantic tension is the glue that holds everything together.

Rounding out the main cast is Angus, an impulsive and often foolish little man who always seems to find the crap end of the stick. Watch the first episode which centres around Angus’ wedding and you’ll know all you need to about this character. He is the source of a tremendous amount of comedy in the series.

You may have seen the show on Netflix when it was first released under its original name – Scrotal Recall. That was the title when it ran in its first season on Britain’s Channel Four. Series Creator Tom Edge picked it as a working title that they liked as an inside joke. Unable to come up with a better one, they stuck with it. Unlike Cougar Town which desperately wanted to change its title but never did, Scrotal Recall jumped at the chance to change it when Netflix picked up the series for season two. They found that people loved the show but refused to recommend it to friends because they were embarrassed to say the title out loud. This could explain why it didn’t get the word of mouth it deserved.

Lovesick is sweet, funny, raunchy, and an overall brilliant ensemble comedy. If you enjoy those types of TV shows, you must, must, must watch Lovesick while quarantined.

What To Watch While Quarantined - #1 Red Oaks

Series #1 – RED OAKS

Streaming Service- Amazon Prime Video

Seasons – 3 (2014-2017)

Starring -  Craig Roberts, Paul Reiser, Richard Kind, Jennifer Grey, Ennis Esmer, Oliver Cooper, Alexandra Socha

Tone and Feel – Caddyshack meets The Wonder Years

Red Oaks is a comedy series set in the mid to late 1980s that pays homage to everything great about movies and TV of the time. Set at a New Jersey country club where the one percent spend their leisure time, Red Oaks features themes of the little guy versus the mucky-mucks which were a staple of the time. But just when you think it’s going to be a poor man’s Caddyshack reboot, Red Oaks proves to be so much more genuine, honest and raw than the early 80’s comedies were. It shows flashes of the sincere yet awkward coming-of-age moments that were so prevalent in the John Hughes movies of the time.

The series is centred around  David Frye played by Craig Roberts, a teenager who is working at the Red Oaks Country Club through the summers to pay for his education. His father Sam (played brilliantly by Richard Kind) wants David to follow in his footsteps and become an accountant. David, however, dreams of moving to New York and going to film school after which he will become a successful film director. This generational conflict is a common theme throughout the series and is set up beautifully in the very first scene of the pilot. Just when you think you’ve seen this same scene a hundred times before, you quickly find out that you haven’t.

The supporting cast is nicely rounded out by David’s best-friend Wheeler, his girl-next-door girlfriend, Karen, his tennis-pro boss Nash who vacillates between immature playboy and sage mentor, and Skye, the mysterious teenager who catches his eye.

For a series that is centred around teenagers, the older generation of actors almost steals the series. Paul Reiser is both convincing and compelling as a master-of-the-universe a-hole. David’s parents, played by Kind and a sexually confused Jennifer Grey, are laugh-out-loud funny while serving as an appropriate foil for David as he longs to break free from his crazy household. The ongoing theme of chasing after what you want versus going the safe route is as apt for the older generation as it is for David and his friends.

The three seasons of the series are set in the summers of 1985, 86, and 87 so if you are close to my age, there will be a bonus appeal to watching Red Oaks. There is something ultimately satisfying about seeing characters living in a time when you were that same age. This explains why TV creators seem to want to write about when they were young. Think Happy Days in the 70s, Wonder Years in the 80s, and that 70s show in the 90s.

More than just great 80s nostalgia, Red Oaks boasts fully developed characters, romantic subplots, and story arcs that feel genuine with endings that are well-earned, not merely tacked on.

If you enjoy period dramedies with as much heart as laughs, you should do yourself a favour and watch Red Oaks while quarantined.