What to Watch

Here’s what Oliners recommended you watch or otherwise consume! Note that Frankly Speaking and its editors do not necessarily endorse any of this content; its just an anonymous collection of tips from fellow Oliners!

TV Series

Avatar the Last Airbender, a feel good show that’s full of complex characters and wonderfully good for the heart. Currently on Netflix!

The Midnight Gospel – netflix, very trippy and they talk about death a lot but you can’t look away, incredible dialogue

THE OFFICE ????

 Blood of Zeus: perfect if you like greek mythology and epic music. It’s available on Netflix

The Good Place: hilarious and very thought-provoking (Netflix)

Dash & Lily: adorable and screams CHRISTMAS! (Netflix)

Orphan Black (TW: suicide, addiction)

Los Espookys is a show about a fictional Halloween VFX small business growing in success despite its employees dealing with personal problems including juggling part time jobs, a cult-like pyramid scheme, being the heir to a chocolate empire, and just wanting to be left alone to do your spooky stuff. Produced by Fred Armisen, who also plays the best valet parker in the world. My all-time favorite tv show. Available on HBO.

Netflix: Pose – such amazing genderqueer stories of suffering and love and hard work and dreams

Selena: The Series – if you love music and a beautiful story and strong gender dynamics lol

Altered Carbon – why rich people are literally evil

Hulu: Westworld – dystopian, robots, *let it change you*

Daria, my highest recommendation, deadpan, real, alternative, Jane Lane is my animated crush, but Hulu got rid of it, so idk Amazon Prime?

The Good Place— there was a celestial bureaucratic mixup and the wrong person gets sent to heaven, it’s very entertaining. There’s also a genderless Siri-like sentience named Janet who has just the best lines. It’s also worth noting that beyond the idea that there’s an afterlife with “a good place” and “a bad place,” it’s not a religious tv show.

Boy Meets World- wholesome wholesome wholesome <3 Started as a story of friendship, wound up becoming a love story over 7 seasons

The Middle- lots of solid, relatable humor. Does its job as a sitcom

Stranger Things- stellar production, leads to excellent discussions with Rob Martello

Dash and Lily is a super cute short holiday romcom on Netflix ! Mindhunter is also on Netflix and a cool serial killer show that evolves really well.

Queens gambit. TW: addiction, drugs/alcohol, suicide. You’ve probably already heard about this show, but if you haven’t, here’s a blurb I blatantly stole from google: “Set during the Cold War era, orphaned chess prodigy Beth Harmon struggles with addiction in a quest to become the greatest chess player in world.” I think y’all will love this show. Given that you (the reader) go to Olin, imma assume you’re a nerd. So chess might be up your alley. Either way, what’s not to love about chess, passion, sacrifice, and copious quantities of drugs and alcohol?

The Newsroom: what should an ideal news outlet look like

The Witcher: Toss a bitcoin to your Witcher

The Americans: Soviet spies living in the US during cold war

Great British Baking Show – funny, relaxing, motivation to bake

Great Pretender – TW: child soldiers, sexual assault, child sex trafficing. This might be anime, but it’s a really good show that constantly surprises you. The TW are heavy (especially in season 2), but they are not portrayed in a good light or as normal. 

Goosebumps is really good. I watched it heavily with my household this semester and it’s scarier than most scary movies. 

Anime recs

Bungo Stray Dogs; very good and aesthetic supernatural anime placed in modern japan. All the characters are names after real authors and their abilities are named after their pieces.

Your Lie in April: super beautiful and has lots of classical music (Netflix)

The Promised Neverland: very suspenseful. I can almost guarantee that you will binge this show after watching the first episode (Netflix)

Mob Psycho 100! A young psychic learns to control his powers. Available on crunchyroll.

Erased. 

Puella Magi Madoka Magica – pretty animation and great soundtrack, I think it’s on Netflix

Attack on Titan. It here! The final season. This show is absolute insane! I’m not even sure how to describe the pure lunacy of this show, so imma just say, look up the synopsis for yourself. But I will say that every season thus far has been a STRAIGHT BANGER! Now that the final season is airing, why not go back and watch from the start. You won’t regret it!

Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-Kun – comedy, slice of life, one of my favorite animes

Haikyu! My first year roommate watched it over and over and I finally understand why. It also provides a really interesting perspective on teaming that I think many can benefit from.

Movies

Ali Wong’s comedy specials on Netflix. Just so worth it. She is hysterically funny

Three Idiots – Netflix – Amazing Bollywood Comedy about engineering students,

Dangal – Netflix – Another great Bollywood movie about female wrestlers

HARRY POTTAAA

I, robot; haven’t watched it in a bit and really want to

The Brainwashing Of My Dad is a documentary about how the director’s formerly liberal and kindly father gets sucked into conservative media, starting with Rush Limbaugh and going to  Fox News and Alex Jones and how that transformed him into this bitter, cruel, and just angry man. When outside circumstances cut off his access to these pundits, he started turning back into his old self again. It truly followed the cycle that many cults use to brainwash their members, and the director Jen Senko got it all on camera.

Nightmare Before Christmas

Coraline

Tangled

Airplane!, Top Secret: hilarious plot-optional comedies, a joke a minute.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead: surreal tragicomedy about two minor characters from 

Hamlet. I hear the play is even better, but the movie is a great experience.

The Big Lebowski: Weird, fun characters, kinda complex plot, kinda surreal. Quite an experience.

Hillbilly Elegy was a great recreation of the book, super interesting and about a lot of very real problems that people in America face (on Netflix).

Hunt for the Wilderpeople. You’ve probably never heard of this movie, but you may recognize it’s director Taika Waititi as the mastermind behind classics such as Thor Ragnarok and JoJo Rabbit. Anyways, this movie is a hilarious journey as we follow a boy and his reluctant foster father as they become the center of a nationwide manhunt when they become lost in the New Zealand outback. Watch them escape the authorities, make terrible mistakes, and so much more. Definitely one of the funniest movies I’ve seen recently. Also who doesn’t love a good old kiwi accent. Check it out on Netflix! An absolute hidden gem!

The Lighthouse

Jingle Jangle was very cute and was STEM heavy with a POC heavy cast. It was something I would have really wanted as a kid. 

Klaus is another really good christmas movie that incorporated fun Christmas traditions into the story line.

Audiobooks/Podcasts

Reply All – available everywhere and through Gimlet Media. These people dig into some very niche stuff and boy do they commit, especially recommend the “Snapchat Thief” episode

ITS THE FINAL COUNTDOWN!

Finding Fred; very compelling look at the life of Mr. Rogers, the type of person he was, and what we could apply to our own lives

The Adventure Zone!! Three comedians who are brothers play D&D with their dad. Hilarious and eventually deeply heartwarming storytelling.

If you’re a fan of horror, I highly recommend The Black Tapes and Tanis. Tanis is a little more *out there* than The Black Tapes, but is also (imo) scarier. I binged both of them in a week and regretted it in the moment bc nightmares but loved it in the long run. I think both are available where most podcasts are but I’ve listened to both through Spotify.

1619 – history is wrong, everything in America is about slavery

Sincerely, X – such compelling stories, this one is amazing from a storytelling perspective, will expose you to new perspectives; Jemele Hill is Unbothered – because she’s funny and cool and talks about real shit

Behind the Bastards is a podcast about evil people and organizations through history and their rise to power. It’s fascinating, horrifying, informative, and often has parallels or adds context to a lot of current events. Be aware that you’ll get angry listening to most episodes though, this is not a calming podcast. I highly recommend “How Nice, Normal People Made The Holocaust Possible” and “The U.S. Border Patrol Is A Nightmare That Never Ends.” Also, all the trigger warnings are attached to this, they talk about some really dark stuff.

Ghosts in the Burbs is a podcast that interviews people from Wellesley (yes, our Wellesley!) who claim to have seen ghosts or paranormal happenings. Fun stuff.

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer – super good book about indigenous practice and the environment that really helped me rethink my approach to conservation/climate action, I listened on Hoopla through my public library

If you’re interested in psychology, sociology, rational thinking, game theory, and hallucinatory cactus-people: The Slate Star Codex podcast. I can’t recommend this enough, it’s thought-provoking and a joy to listen to.

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