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There are roughly 47,000—oh, wait, a new Netflix Original just dropped; make that 47,001—TV shows and movies coming out each week. At Obsessed, we consider it our social duty to help you see the best and skip the rest.
We’ve already got a variety of in-depth, exclusive coverage on all of your streaming favorites and new releases, but sometimes what you’re looking for is a simple Do or Don’t. That’s why we created See/Skip, to tell you exactly what our writers think you should See and what you can Skip from the past week’s crowded entertainment landscape.
See: Bottoms
Bottoms puts a nonsensical twist on the classic high school comedy, reaching new, parodic heights with every background gag and smear of bloody violence. That might make this lesbian fight club romp off-putting for some, but others will be struck by its bizarre hilarity.
Here’s Coleman Spilde’s take:
“I thought I knew what high school movies were. And I thought I knew what they could be. But nothing in my storied history of clamoring for cinema’s supreme dreams of teen queens could have prepared me for Bottoms. Audiences at SXSW were warned prior to the film’s start that it wouldn’t be what they expected.
The fired-up, late-night crowd had wrapped around city blocks and across intersections, quite literally vibrating with anticipation for one of the festival’s most buzzworthy films—and for good reason! Its stars, Ayo Edebiri and Rachel Sennott, have proven themselves massive players in the indie comedy scene with only a handful of big projects under their respective belts. And the film’s director, Emma Seligman, racked up critical praise in 2020 for her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, also starring Sennott.
Whether the audience were fans of Edebiri and Sennott’s Comedy Central web series, Ayo and Rachel Are Single, or just had the best claustrophobic episode of their lives watching Shiva Baby didn’t matter. Preconceived notions are thrown out the window shortly into Seligman’s sophomore feature, which only becomes more delightfully peculiar with each passing second. Bottoms harnesses the unique strengths of all three of its main players—Sennott, Edebiri, and their director, Seligman—and puts them on a volatile, highly hormonal collision course of gonzo teen comedy, unlike anything that has ever been seen in the genre.”
See: Ahsoka
Ahsoka wastes no time diving into the action that Star Wars fans crave from the galaxy far, far away’s live-action TV series. But the intense lightsaber battles and jaw-dropping plot twists will be fun for loyalists and new viewers alike.
Here’s Fletcher Peters’ take:
“Any new entry in the Star Wars universe is made better with a little creature. The world practically exploded over the cuteness of Baby Yoda (aka Grogu, or ‘The Child’) when he appeared in the first episode of The Mandalorian. Ewoks have always been menacingly adorable. Even bug-eyed Babu Frik had his time in the spotlight. Now, with Ahsoka, the white Loth-cat should be grabbing our attention.
Cuteness quota satisfied, there are more pressing topics to cover when it comes to the pilot episode of Ahsoka, titled ‘Master and Apprentice.’ For example: The New Republic has taken over after the fall of the Empire, but danger looms in the form of a potential new evil emperor lurking in a corner of the galaxy. Sinister agents like Baylan Skoll (the late Ray Stevenson) and Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) are jockeying for power. But for a second, can’t we just admire Sabine Wren’s (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) sweet, fuzzy Loth-cat?”
See: You’re So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah
You’re So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah joins the recent spate of charming coming-of-age films with its brisk pacing and appropriately awkward take on growing up, with an Adam Sandler performance that finally isn’t claw-your-eyes-out bad.
Here’s Nick Schager’s take:
“Stop the presses: After a nearly ceaseless stream of friend get-togethers and international vacations masquerading as feature films, Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions finally delivers a respectable comedy with You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah. An adaptation of Fiona Rosenbloom’s 2005 YA novel of the same name, this coming-of-age tale is both funny and charming, and consequently proof that Sandler still has the capacity to spearhead (as opposed to just for-hire headline) a competent movie—including one featuring those closest to him.
Rather than providing jobs for his best comedy buddies, You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah (out Aug. 25 on Netflix) is populated by Sandler’s actual family, beginning with younger daughter Sunny as Stacy Friedman, a seventh grader on the cusp of her eagerly anticipated bat mitzvah—which, in a concise introduction, is defined for gentile viewers as a rite of passage for all observant 13-year-old Jewish girls.”
See: Riverdale
Riverdale’s series finale was the perfect conclusion to one of the wackiest series this side of the millennium. Leave it to Riverdale to bring a YA show that devolved into time travel nonsense, angels, and serial killers to a stirringly emotional(?!) end.
Here’s Laura Bradley’s take:
“Even before its premiere in 2017, Riverdale wanted us all to understand one thing: It’s weird. It’s a weirdo. It doesn’t fit in, and it doesn’t wanna fit in.
For seven seasons, the CW drama has seized every opportunity to be as bizarre, campy, and often downright nonsensical as possible. We’ve seen musical episodes, and cults, and “Gryphons and Gargoyles.” Betty Cooper got the “serial killer gene,” and Archie Andrews got mauled by a bear—and still showed up for his SAT’s a few days later. Archie and the gang got super powers in Season 6, and this season they time traveled to the 1950s.”
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