Hello! And welcome to another round of things on my recent radar I think are worth sharing.

Apropos of everything happening in the world right now, if you’re looking to comfort watch “classic” rom-coms here’s where a bunch are currently streaming:

Netflix: 10 Things I Hate About You (9/28) | Sweet Home Alabama (9/28) | Dirty Dancing (10/1) | Clueless

Peacock: Miss Congeniality | Coming to America

HBO Max: Ghost of Girlfriends Past | Notting Hill

Starz: It Could Happen to You | Because I Said So | The Wedding Date

Click 🖱️

Happy 30th anniversary to Showgirls

I was hoping that there would be a few great cultural critique pieces but I’ve only found 30 Years Later, Showgirls’ Impact Is Everywhere—From Taylor Swift to Euphoria. Maybe the useless algorithms are hiding them? Maybe it’s due to the fact that so many of the brilliant voices across media have been fired?

Freeforms 31 Nights of Halloween

If you’re of a certain generation it is probably tradition to have The Christmas Story marathon play all day on Christmas Eve, watch on Thanksgiving all the Friends’ Thanksgiving episodes, and watch Halloween films on Freeform leading up to Halloween. The latter has put out this year’s schedule because, yes, it is almost October.

Nuevos futuros

I really like the layouts Rolling Stone does for these kinds of posts: Hispanic Heritage Month 2025, The future of Latin music is wide open.

Watch 📺

Lovebirds (Netflix)

If you’re a fan of rom-coms and crime thrillers with the trope of civilians being dragged into a criminal plot on accident, this film is a fun watch. Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani start off as a couple living together who have a fight (about The Amazing Race) which spirals into their frustrations with each other and they break up. But their car gets hijacked and used in a crime and in the fear of being blamed for the murder they go on the run to “solve” who was killed in order to figure out their enemy and clear their name. Nothing about this is a smart plan which is where the humor comes in for all the truly ridiculous situations these two get themselves into while, of course, arguing their way through all their problems. It has a great blend of physical comedy, action, and banter!

Long Story Short (Netflix)

As soon as I heard that the creators of BoJack Horseman had a new animated series I was 100% in, regardless of what it was about. While Long Story Short is not in the same ballpark of cynical and bonkers as BoJack—and follows a real human family rather than an anamorphic horse— it definitely has the same humor bone (ranging from silly to dark), interesting characters, exploration of the threads that connect us, and high entertainment value.

It follows a Jewish family with three children that jumps around timelines to tell the high and low points in their lives, with an incredible balance of poignant and absurd (the path of IVF and asking your brother-in-law for sperm). It truly hits all the emotions and applies a lot of storytelling techniques (including an episode of satire with wolves in a high school) as you watch the siblings as children, teens, and now decades into adulthood grappling with their own life, who they are and who they want to be, and how it intertwines with their family members. I love a strong creator(s) voice that stands out and writers who can balance the absurdity of life by showing the comedy and tragedy of it all.

@foodnetwork

we will never look at anise seeds the same #halloweenbakingchampionship

Halloween Baking Championship season 11 (Food Network / HBO Max)

The stars of this very fun reality baking competition are the three judges: Carla Hall, Stephanie Boswell, and Zac Young. Their banter, chemistry together, and how each is ridiculous in their own way makes this show super fun and a great escape. Before David Zaslav started ruining HBO Max you could stream every season of the show but, as of me writing this, only seasons 9 and 10 are now up and the current season 11 is dropping a new episode once a week. It does appear like this current season got a budget cut and the very elaborate and amazing costumes the judges critique in don’t compare but I’m still enjoying the show as a nice momentary escape.

That’s all for now! Thanks for reading, and as always feel free to shout out anything you’ve been loving lately!

Some recent bookish pieces I’ve recently written:

• Hate 2025? Look Forward To These 2026 Mystery & Thrillers!

• The Best Cozy Mysteries To Read This Fall

• My Last 3 Mystery Reads