It is golden brown. About 11 inches from end to end. And it is the centerpiece of every Thanksgiving celebration.
We are talking, of course, about football. Otherwise, why would people endure meetings with relatives, a table covered with turkey, mashed potatoes and candied carrots, inferior wine – if there was not a promise of two hours of landing happiness and a forward pass hanging at the end?
However, just like there are people who don’t care about turkey, there are also people who don’t care about Saquon Barkley. Rarely, but it happens.
For the non-football fans among you who are cheering for Thanksgiving, The Record is once again offering its annual public service.
So here are some of our favorite shows that we can binge-watch on the telly upstairs while the rest of the family is screaming downstairs in the living room “Yes-yes-yes!”
Some of them may be old favorites. Others are shows from this year that you haven’t been to yet. Here’s your chance.
If you time it right, you may not have to communicate with your relatives at all.
“The Crown”
Think your family is trying? Imagine that Prince Andrew, Princess Margaret, and Charles and Diana are your nearest and dearest. The British have been critical of the show — both for its historical inaccuracy and its irreverent treatment of the Windsors — even as they bash the royal family itself as a dear anachronism that has yet to answer for its colonial misdeeds. We Yankees can be more lenient – both with the show and with the family. Given the shrillness of our politics (the British are starting to catch up), a little firmness seems refreshing, eh? This season welcomes Imelda Staunton, Dominic West and Jonathan Pryce. (Netflix)
“Mare from Easttown”
A world away from the glamor of Windsor Castle is the grim, fictional Philadelphia suburb of Easttown, where a jaded detective – famously played by Kate Winslet – investigates a murder while dealing with multiple family and personal crises. Dark, compelling and only seven episodes long. (HBO)
the ozark
It’s like a “Breaking Bad” plug, but somehow tougher and better, with its own infernal logic. Jason Bateman is a brooding Chicago accountant who inadvertently becomes embroiled in a murderous Mexican drug cartel. Forced to relocate to rural Missouri and launder money, the cool, laser-focused Bateman deals with each new crisis as it arises – but with each ingenious solution, he ends up digging himself deeper. Even more than Bateman, the show belongs to Laura Linney as Bateman’s Lady Macbeth. (Netflix)
‘big mouth’
Puberty is the age of raging hormones. And hormones are literally raging in this sassy, grown-up — but surprisingly cute — animated series. Each teenager has his own “hormonal monster”, which, of course, constantly causes him trouble. Sincere and funny. (Netflix)
“i can destroy you”
London is calling – but not the London of “The Crown”. Contemporary multicultural London, and in particular its vibrant black subculture, is the setting for this funny but disturbing series that follows the career of a millennial writer (Michael Coel), her friends, her romantic relationships and a dark, disturbing memory, which may be that rape. (HBO)
“sharp objects”
A beautifully shot, disturbing miniseries based on the novel by Gillian Flynn (“Gone Girl”) about a crime reporter (Amy Adams) who returns to her affluent Missouri hometown to solve a case that leads her inexorably back to her own past. (HBO)
“Night Sky”
What do you have in your tool shed? Rake, hoes, maybe a lawnmower? Franklin and Irene York (Sissy Spacek and JK Simmons) have a portal to another planet. And that’s where this brilliant sci-fi premise comes in begins. (Amazon Prime)
“Betty”
A fresh, fun, upbeat yet disaffected series about Gen-Z female skateboarders in New York City trying to carve out a piece of their own field in a male-dominated sport. Dede Lovelace, Cabrina Adams and the rest of the cast are wonderful. These kids are fine! (HBO)
“Sex Education”
A high school student becomes a self-appointed sex therapist for his fellow students. This comedy-drama is set in modern-day England, although the high school and its troubled teenagers might remind you more of a 1980s John Hughes film. It’s fun, although at the end of the second season (out of three) it’s like jumping the shark. Just our opinion. (Netflix).
“Pican Blinds”
Picanists what? Don’t worry mate they’re just caps with hidden blades. And it’s the favorite headdress of British gangsters of the 1920s in this imported series, a kind of British “Empire Embankment”, which takes place in an industrial town in the north of England. (Netflix).
