Summer! America! Media Recs! July! Here!
Hot! Brain! No! Work! TV! Inside! Watch!
It’s Summertime baby, the bombshells are in the villa, Knicks win, Kylie and Jordan are friends again, TS is getting married, Europeans are discovering ranch, and Mamdanistan thrives.
What media are you going to tap into to celebrate this beleaguered Nation’s 250th birthday? And why is it 2006’s Southland Tales?
SOMETHING OLD SOMETHING NEW FOR JULY 2026!
Television
This month is for the ladies (scammers and murderers)
Something New:
The Hawk -July 16th Netflix
My favorite new comedy of this year is The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, and this seems like it’s that, but instead of Tracy Morgan and football, it’s Will Ferrell and golf! Doesn’t seem like there’s really more to say about the concept than that! We also got Molly Shannon (love), Luke Wilson (solid) and Chris Parnell (Dr. Spaceman) out here and there’s nothing wrong with that! Please bring me joy, comedy show.
Furious - July 27th on Hulu
Lady FBI agents track down a lady serial killer– morals blur, cat-and-mouse, twists and turns, etc etc. I have been longing for a new serial killer show and not just because I am rewatching Hannibal for the 3rd or 4th time. But this show is particularly exciting because it’s from Liz Meriwether! Best known for creating New Girl, Liz has had no misses recently with 2022’s The Dropout and last year’s Dying for Sex. If there is someone who is writing compelling and nuanced female characters and relationships right now, it’s her! Plus murder!
Something Old:
The Dropout (2022)
Our friend Liz Meriwether’s miniseries following the rise and fall of scammer CEO Elizabeth Holmes. Part visionary, part delulu-queen, part straight-up liar, Lizzy Holmes had Silicon Valley in a death grip of fourth-wave feminism. I loved this series way more than I thought I would, Liz M. balances a tricky tone of dark humor, empathy, and condemnation for a figure who could easily come across as opaque and impenetrable. Also, Amanda Seyfried (one of our most underrated actresses), absolutely crushes - CRUSHES. In fact, there was supposed to be a movie of this story starring J Law, but after she watched Amanda in The Dropout she pulled the plug. Amanda was just that good! Anyway, let’s send every CEO to prison!
Movies
It’s Summer, which means we got BLOCKBUSTERS hot off the Hollywood coals. July is bringing a live-action Moana, a new Spiderman, and the cherry on top -Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. In some ways, The Odyssey seems inevitable for our old buddy Chris, my man loves a clear theme. Even though I’ve been personally lukewarm on the oeuvre of Mr Nolan, it’s a net good thing we are revisiting classic literature through the medium of big-budget filmmaking! And maybe this will pave the way for Luca Guadagnino’s Song of Achilles starring Conor Storrie. A girl can dream.
NEW
The Invite - July 10th
Olivia Wilde summer begins with her new directorial effort, a remake of a Spanish film about two couples having a psycho-sexual dinner party. NGL, Penelope Cruz and Edward Norton as a sexy, swinging married couple is…not uninteresting. My hope is that this is a tightly scripted comedy of manners with lots of sex jokes and an unhinged escalation in the third act. AKA even a third of the drama the Don’t Worry Drama press tour had. Please let it be that, and not a tonally odd misfire with a thematically disconnected twist. As I said before, I long for joy.
I Want Your Sex - July 31st
Olivia Wilde summer CONTINUES as she stars as a dominatrix/artist sexually obsessed with Cooper Hoffman in Gregg Araki’s new film. I mean, yes, make America sexy again, let’s get weird, I am here for it. I like bright colors, I like hot movie stars in latex, I like erotic thrillers. If that’s not enough, Charli XCX and Johnny Knoxville are also in this!! I will say though, seeing Cooper Hoffman in sexual situations does make me feel like … is he old enough to be doing this?? I know your father, young man!
Old
O Brother, where art thou? (2000)
If you can’t get enough Odyssey this month, may I cordially invite you to revisit this Coen Bro’s classic? Starring the handsomest, dapperist George Clooney as an escaped convict on the hunt for gold. As ordained by Homer, supernatural trials befall Clooney, his cohorts (Tim Blake Nelson and John Turturro), and his uncrackable pomade. Razor-sharp Coen dialogue, a bushel of character actors AND it’s a musical.
Books
The Great Wherever: A Novel by Shannon Sanders on July 7th
An underemployed millennial living an unfulfilling life in the big city moves back to her hometown to restore her family’s ancestral farm. No - this is not the opening premise of a match-three casual phone game! As if family debt, generational trauma, and millennial milase wasn’t enough for our hero Audrey, her every move is commented on by the shit-talking ancestral ghosts that are occupying the farm in question. May the ghosts of all our forebearers read us for filth.
Helpless: Novel by Jessica Knoll - July 7th
Jessica Knoll’s follow-up novel to 2023’s Bright Young Women, about the victims and survivors of Ted Bundy. Knoll is keeping it twisted with her new novel about a woman who is kidnapped by her former flame/stalker in a erotic thriller sort of way. The blurbs promise a lot of twists and turns, and I feel certain Olivia Wilde is aleady looking into developing this. Perfect if you like your beach reads a little more Gillian Flynn and a little less Emma Straub.
OLD:
Circe by Madeline Miller (2018)
You think I was just going to make a casual Song of Achilles reference and not circle back to Madeline Miller?? When Charlize Theron shows up in The Odyssey you’re gonna think “huh, what’s her deal?” and I’m telling you, her deal is all right here. I already mentioned on this blog how much I love this book as a hardcore Greek mythology girlie, and if you are looking for a more lady-forward take on the Homer classic than I IMPLORE you to read this take on literature’s first witch.
Bullets
Did you guys know that:
a) M Night and Nicholas Sparks have written a book together and
b) the protagonist’s name is simply…Tate Donovan.
A muse to many I guess!
Jackass Best + Last is the most I have laughed and cried in a theater in recent mystery. First haha tears, then mortality is fleeting tears!
I hear you that you all like Widow’s Bay on Apple+! This was an omission on my end, I regret not flagging it .
LOVE ISLAND CORNER - unfiltered thoughts on a season that has aired ten more episodes since writing this.
Trinity and Bryce are our winners, everyone else can collect their issues and proceed directly to therapy
Melanie and Sincere are so in sync in their shared toxicity, it is almost a marvel to behold
I hope we can turn yelling ‘tomato’ at someone into like a thing
Aniya, girl. GIIIRRRRLLLL
Kenzie’s angry splits (or ‘clam slams’) will never not be perfect to me, strong Sagittarius rep
Love Island US is not long enough, and that is the core weakness of the show
Feel free to share Love Island opinions, or a short treatise on the foxiness of grey-haired Johnny Knoxville
Love ya xo
MD