Want to expand your mind without having to change out of your tracksuit pants? Got some downtime on your hands and keen for something truly entertaining to soak up? No problem. Jut sit back, relax and enjoy our hot picks of what to watch, read and listen to from home today.
Comedy: Schitt’s Creek (Netflix)
If you haven’t heard all about Schitt’s Creek over the last few weeks, you must be living under a rock. The Canadian comedy bagged an impressive seven Emmy awards last month for its sixth and final season, in recognition of its slow burn from so-so ‘fish out of water’ premise to a heartfelt, touching, hilarious and poignant series that has left fans begging for more.
The premise is simple – the wealthy Rose family, who made their money with their video rental stores, have lost their fortune thanks to a crooked business manager and are forced to relocate to the only asset the government let them keep, a town in the middle of nowhere called Schitt’s Creek that dad Johnny (Eugene Levy) bought as a joke for son David (Eugene’s real-life son Daniel).
It’s a perfect binge-watch – just stick with the first few episodes, which are the weakest of the series, before you get to truly good stuff. Your soul will thank you for it, and your reward is the final episode of the series which seriously has to be the greatest conclusion to a comedy show of all time.
Documentary: American Murder (Netflix)
Fair warning about this one: it is grim. This doco charts the story of the Watts family – you’ll remember in 2018, when husband and father Chris Watts horrifically murdered his wife Shannan and their two young daughters Bella and Celeste.
There’s no mystery, or whodunnit, or intrigue – rather this documentary dives deep into what went wrong for their seemingly picture-perfect American family.
It’s a documentary that’s made up of only archive footage of news stories, people and places – there’s no narration or other storytelling device used.
But it’s an incredibly well put-together documentary of the events before and after Shannan and her girls – Bella was four, and Celeste three – were found dead in their small Colorado town. A must for true crime junkies.
Book: Everything I Know About Love, by Dolly Alderton
Capsule’s very own Emma Clifton actually gave me this book for my 30th birthday last month, and while I’m only a few chapters in, I’m obsessed. Dolly Alderton is often lauded as the setter of the zeitgeist for millennials – a funny, shocking, self-aware and hilariously wise author who knows no filter or boundary.
It’s an exceptionally well-written memoir of sorts that covers what it’s like to be young(ish) in these times, written for those of us who remember what it was like to collect Crazybones, log in to MSN messenger and play ‘What Spice Girl Are You’ at morning tea time. God, those were the days. (And also Sporty Spice – every single time.)
Podcast: Armchair Expert with Dax Shephard
Actor Dax Shephard (and husband The Good Place’s Kristen Bell) has been doing his podcast for a while now, and usually he interviews an eclectic mix of celebs he meets in his travels as an A-Lister – think 50 Cent, John Legend, Melissa McCarthy, Malcolm Gladwell and our own David Farrier – where he discusses everything and everything about what makes a person tick.
But one of his latest episodes, titled Day 7, is a personal update about his addiction journey. After 16 years of sobriety, Dax took to the microphone to talk about his recent struggles with a relapse, after he began taking a prescription drug following an accident.
“I have a tremendous amount of fear about doing this,” he says on the episode. “One of (my fears) is, people will maybe bombard me with things I did wrong or judgments of what I should or shouldn’t have done. And maybe some people will feel a sense of betrayal, because we preach honesty and I was being dishonest.”
Go for the raw, gritty honesty – and stay for the awesome celeb interviews that delve deep into what makes the rich and famous who they are.
