This week:
- The best shows to watch right now.
- The Office turns 20.
- Marvel goes too far.
- Unrelatable Sundance ennui.
- A perfect photo.
The Office Nostalgia
I measure my own life in the age of TV shows I love, which is why I’m feeling particularly creaky and geriatric this week.
It’s the 20th anniversary of the first episode of The Office. I remember the watch parties we had for it in my freshman dorm building. I remember later seasons when my best friend lived across the street and on Thursday nights, she would see when I got home from work and turned my light on in the window, and would know it was time to come over so we could watch the new episode together. Somewhere in a moving box, there is my boxed set of DVDs of the series.
We published a piece on Obsessed this week gauging what fans said were their favorite episodes and moments. I wondered what I would choose. Is it “Dinner Party,” unequivocally one of the funniest episodes of television ever written? Is it “Casino Night,” which gave the Jim and Pam moment I had been yearning for? What about “Niagra,” which makes me cry each time I watch it?
I think my answer for my favorite episode would be “Beach Games,” because not only was it hilarious, but it was a major evolution moment for my favorite character, Pam. Pam, in my mind, is the true hero of the series, as it’s her relationship with the other main characters—Michael, Jim, Dwight—that drives the show forward. I’m immediately putting that episode on once I stop typing this.
Was This Necessary?
Love and light to everyone so invested in Marvel movies that they watched a five-hour casting announcement that was live-streamed on YouTube. We covered the announcement, of course, but it was exhausting and incredibly annoying. Are Marvel movies even enough a cultural phenomenon anymore that people would think a stunt like this was warranted or fun?
It forced me to think what I would watch such a ridiculously long announcement for. I arrived at an answer: the casting of the Broadway production of Mamma Mia! that’s coming this summer. That’s my Avengers: Doomsday.
How Are Things in Colorado?
Once a year for many, many years, I put on my long johns, wrap the world’s biggest scarf around my neck, and head outside in Park City to watch the movies at the Sundance Film Festival. I have fond memories of the suffering: subsisting off Cliff Bars and the one Burger King that is the only place for food open when the last movie of the day ends, walking two miles in the 5-degree cold while it’s snowing because the bus to the theater is stuck in traffic, sitting next to Real Housewives at lunch, waiting in a two-hour line for an exclusive party sponsored by Spotify and Pizza Hut.
The Sundance organization announced this week that the 2026 festival will move from Park City to Boulder, Colorado. Everything about the move makes sense. It will probably make life easier for journalists like me; Park City is expensive, has terrible food, and is a pain in the a-- to get to. And yet, it feels wrong to have the festival anywhere else.
Cut to me in 2026 saying Boulder is the best city of all time. Still, a moment to mourn.
The Dream Team
You can tell a gay millennial’s age but how meaningful this photo of Andy Cohen, Ellen Pompeo, and Debra Messing together on Watch What Happens Live is to them.
What to watch this week:
Dying for Sex: This is a magical, unusual show. A must-watch. (Friday on FX and Hulu)
The Friend: A great movie to watch if you want to cry about a dog. (Now in theaters)
The Studio: Easily the funniest new show of the year. (Now on Apple TV+)
What to skip this week:
Death of a Unicorn: Everyone involved in this needs to be tried for their cinematic crimes. (Now in theaters)
Paul American: If you’re a person interested in a Kardashians-style show about Jake and Paul Logan, take a long look in the mirror. (Now on Max)
