Oh hi. Thank you for signing up to In Case You Missed It, the newsletter that brings you really good, surprising and delightful recommendations about what to read, watch and listen to next.
With a frankly overwhelming number of books, TV shows and podcasts in the world (but, er, not newsletters, so please do keep reading!) I thought it might be helpful if I do some of the work for you and discern the delights from the dross.
Having worked as a writer and editor in magazines and newspapers for a really long time, my MO has always been to seek out and discuss what’s new. And I still love all that but actually, there’s so much of everything now that it’s basically impossible to keep up.
Therein lies the premise of this newsletter. I’m here to tell you that it’s fine to be fashionably late. Some of my endorsements will be shiny and new but mostly they will be brilliant things that I can’t wait to tell you about that may have been a bit under the radar or you just happened to miss first time round. Some may even come from the recesses of time and just really merit a revisit.
I haven’t been alone with my own thoughts since about 2003, such is my devotion to cultural distractions. Is this healthy? We’ll never know, but the upside is that I consume a lot of entertainment.
I may go off on the odd tangent. If the thing I’m recommending resonates with something that’s been preoccupying me, this will be the place to explore it. And it’s not just podcasts, books and telly. I’ll cover films, Writing On The Internet, other great newsletters. Anything that’s worth a recommendation.
I spend A LOT of my time recommending things to my friends – sometimes solicited, sometimes not. And I’m always being asked for reading lists which is both flattering and a genuine pleasure to provide. In fact I swear, if I could hack into the metrics, you would observe significant sales spikes in certain areas of North West London where friends have bought that book I’ve been banging on about. They recommend really great things to me too so I’ll be shamelessly pilfering their ideas and passing them off as my own for your benefit.
I’ll try not to state the bleeding obvious (“Have you ever listened to this little show called Desert Island Discs?”) but I also won’t be suggesting you watch really obscure, esoteric foreign language films. That’s not my bag. I just want to tell you about things that are really fun, interesting, all-consuming or even thrilling that you, in turn, will want to tell all your friends about.
With that in mind, if you like what you read, please recommend my recommending to your friends and do give me a taste of my own medicine in the comments by sharing how you’ve been entertaining yourself (in a cultural capacity, I don’t want to know where you had dinner on Saturday night. Actually I do. How was it? What did you order?)
A little taste of what’s to come…
Do you need something fun to watch? Please try Girls 5 Eva, a comedy series about a late 90s girl group of the same name who are unexpectedly resurrected from obscurity in their 40s.
I’m not sure why but this show really passed under the radar when it came out last year. Possibly because it’s hidden on a really random channel but don’t worry, I’ll help you find it in a sec.
Executive produced by Tina Fey, it has the same rapid-fire joke density as 30 Rock. It’s not just the kind of funny where you observe it’s funny but don’t really laugh much. It's the kind of funny where you honk out loud and then have to pause it because your laughter is obscuring the next joke 4 seconds later. The best laughs are in the cutaways and flashbacks a la 30 Rock.
This is the group’s first (and only) hit from the early 2000s, ‘Famous 5 Eva’.
Honestly, the silliness of the 5eva/3gether joke never gets old. We also learn that their follow-up single, Quit Flying Planes at My Heart and was released on 10 September 2001. Reader, it was not a success.
The series stars Sarah Bareilles (the singer), Busy Phillips (Dawson’s Creek, Cougar Town, Michelle Williams’ Red Carpet Best Friend), Paula Pell (SNL) and Renée Elise Goldsberry (the brilliant Angelica in the Broadway production of Hamilton which I’ve listened to approximately 14,000 times. She also played the very hot Geneva Pine in The Good Wife, the show that got me through my first maternity leave).
Goldsberry plays Wickie, the diva of Girls5eva, pretending to be an influencer but actually scraping by as an airport employee. When she is forced to admit she’s a fraud to her reunited band mates, she cries,
“I shoot geese at the airport. I get paid by the goose!”
Honestly, it’s funny. Maybe you have to be there. So go on, watch it, be there. And tell me what you think.
Little disclaimer: I loved the first few episodes but didn’t think it held up the whole way through the series. It’s worth it for the early episodes though. And look out for the extremely well observed New York Lonely Boy song. Ok, I’ll stop now.
You can watch it on Now TV or on Sky: go to Catch Up TV – Peacock – Girls5Eva.
Finally: What is life (but also, hire me!)? The influencers paying “book stylists” to make them look like readers
See you next time.
And do tell your friends!
Hannah
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