This week:
- The best TV show to watch right now.
- The best play to see right now.
- The best things to spend all your money on.
- The best feud to laugh at right now.
- The best TV shows to get excited for.
There’s Finally a Good Show
I forgot that TV shows are supposed to be good.
I’ve spent the summer giddily excited for shows that I describe to other people as: “Yeah, I know it’s not, like, good, but I love these characters and it’s fun to watch regardless.”
Sometimes the show in question is actively bad (And Just Like That). Sometimes it used to be boringly bad, but then suddenly became surprisingly engrossing (The Gilded Age). Usually, it’s just Real Housewives that I’m talking about. (Though not Miami. The Real Housewives of Miami is unimpeachably excellent television.)
All of this is to say, there’s been no shortage of television this summer to save me from having to do the worst thing in the world (go outside). But I’ve become so complacent that it never dawned on me that television can often be, and should be, good.
That is why I must recommend that everyone watch Alien: Earth.
The FX series is a prequel to the massive Alien franchise, of which there are roughly 600 films and spinoffs, the only one of which I’ve seen is the original. (Sigourney Weaver, where is your Oscar?) I’m opening myself up to cinephile shaming by admitting that for one very important reason: You don’t have to give a single s–t about the Alien movies in order to understand Alien: Earth, let alone realize it is brilliant.
We’re in no shortage of television series in the last few years that ascribe to the notion—or at least the ambition—or being “epic.” It’s the race for the headline “The Next Game of Thrones.” (I don’t even want to search for how many reviews of series I’ve put a variation of that headline on…though, each time, it worked. You all clicked.)
But sprawling plot, jaw-dropping locations, and expensive action sequences have never been enough. There needs to be story, and intrigue. You can’t just throw budget at that.
That’s why I’m so enthralled by Alien: Earth.
From its premiere episode earlier this month, it exudes lavishness. I’ve never seen a blend of practical sets (much of the series was shot on-location in Thailand) and visual effects (there are, like, space ships) that is so convincing—especially in television, where budgets are a fraction of what big studios devote to sci-fi films.
I’ve also never been so owned in my dismissal of the sci-fi genre as “not for me.” Alien: Earth reveals that, hey, if you have a good story and tell it well, it is very much “for everyone.”
The series begins by setting up a prophecy for the future of mankind: cyborgs, synthetics, or, most intriguingly hybrids: synthetic beings downloaded with human consciousness. That latter category lays out an early emotional layer to the proceedings. Terminally ill children, through the work of a megalomaniac billionaire, go through a procedure to have their souls and minds transplanted into the body of a human-looking, preternaturally strong and gifted robot.
When a spaceship carrying the dangerous alien predator that the series (and entire franchise) is named after crashes onto earth, a small group of those hybrids are dispatched to save everybody. There are, of course, dozens of different side plots and further context I could spend the next 400 words delivering, but that is essentially the set up. And it’s such an engrossing one.
Alien: Earth is from creator Noah Hawley, who is behind FX’s Fargo anthology series and the X-Men spinoff series Legion. When you type that out, it materializes as a no-brainer that he’d be so good at making a series like this one.
It captures the same idiosyncrasies of the human condition and how our impulses guide us out of ordinary life into extraordinary circumstances, a la Fargo, but also features incredible world-building and a mastery of honing the big ideas of science fiction into something palatable and earthbound.
Good TV? In this climate? It’s hard to believe, but it’s here (and streaming on Hulu).
Let’s Get Together
It is a Golden Age for stupidity in New York.
That is complimentary, by the way.
One privilege of spending my entire paycheck on an apartment smaller than a hotel room at a Comfort Inn and dodging what can only be a pile of human s–t on a sidewalk on the way to paying $23 for a lunch salad is that I live in New York and get to see theater. And theater, finally, is reflecting me.
From Titanique and Oh, Mary! to The Big Gay Jamboree, and one-man shows like ta-da! and Sugar Daddy, there has been a surge of productions that feel like my brain has just been excavated and spilled out on a stage. And, more, regular people are paying attention.
These shows feature a campy, idiosyncratic, and unapologetically ribald sense of humor—yet underscore the madness with an incredibly earnest sense of heart and enthusiasm.
They are so gay. And yet, as has been revealed, universal. It’s been wild to get to see them all and look around and, not just see my friends and community, but, like, all demographics of people in the audience—and losing their minds with laughter.
There’s another entry into the genre: Ginger Twinsies, a comedy inspired by the Lindsay Lohan remake of The Parent Trap. It is out of its mind. (Once again, complimentary.) The show, written and directed by demented genius Kevin Zak, is an 80-minute sprint of pop-culture references, nostalgia jokes, and send-ups of modern gay hookup culture. It’s exhausting, in that you have to ration your laughs because the humor flies by so fast and so often.
There is a real generosity that radiates from these shows, an expression to the audience that there is a value in creative work that is silly and flamboyant, and that value is because of the intelligence and diligence behind the creation of it. These shows are “stupid,” but that’s not pejorative. They’re the smartest things happening in theater right now, and that’s why they’re working.
I Need to Set Up a GoFundMe
Speaking of theater, is there some sort of Broadway Casting Olympics going on right now?
In just the last week, it was announced that Don Cheadle and Ayo Edebiri will be making their Broadway debuts in the play Proof. The Gilded Age and The White Lotus star Carrie Coon (aka The Queen of HBO) will head the first Broadway mounting of the celebrated play Bug. And the off-Broadway hit (and excellent indie movie) Marjorie Prime will head to Broadway with a cast that includes Cynthia Erivo, Cynthia Nixon, Christopher Lowell, and 95-year-old Oscar nominee June Squibb.
That’s on top of upcoming productions of Art, starring James Corden, Neil Patrick Harris, and Bobby Cannavale, and Waiting for Godot, featuring Bill & Ted themselves, Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter.
Do banks give personal loans for people just trying to buy Broadway tickets? My credit card just let out a high-pitched scream, leapt out of my wallet, and jumped into the Hudson River.
The Most Charming Feud in the World
Seth Meyers’ dog, Frisbee, died this week, which is tragic…and also hilarious.
Meyers’ friend and Saturday Night Live co-star has been so outspoken over the years about how much he hated Frisbee that, on the occasion of the dog’s death, multiple clips went viral where Samberg talked about it.
no way frisbee passed away on andy samberg’s birthday. that’s incredibly sad and immensely hilarious. rip frisbee pls haunt andy forever
— lola (@ibuprophan) August 19, 2025
Most recently, he was on Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast, and Poehler, knowing that he hates Frisbee, joked that the dog had died and Samberg’s response was: “Don’t even play, I would be so happy.”
Wild that Frisbee actually passed away the day after (or potentially on??) Andy Samberg’s birthday with all this considered😭 pic.twitter.com/Hc7wSC7VAw
— morgan ✰ (@hotdoggalore) August 19, 2025
The reason I love this is not because I think Samberg is legitimately celebrating that a friend’s dog died. It’s that I find it so beautiful that these people were so close that their relationship opened up to the most glorious, intimate thing a friendship can evolve to: the opportunity to tell the other person you hate something they love.
It’s a rare thing. And Meyers, for what it’s worth, is in on the joke:
She also disliked him, FWIW https://t.co/aZr5XwemNW
— Seth Meyers (@sethmeyers) August 20, 2025
I’ve Found My Next Career
There is no greater pleasure in life than coming home from work, putting on your inside pants (soft), and plopping on the couch and putting on either HGTV or The Food Network…and then scrolling through your phone and not paying attention to a single thing that is happening on TV.
It is a luxury. And a vital part of pop culture.
There was a big press release this week that HGTV has greenlit over 100 episodes of new programming, including audience favorites like Love It or List It and The Flip Off. Included in the release, however, are new programs, with titles like Cheap A$$ Beach Houses and Tropic Like It’s Hot.
I’m sorry. We just get to call TV shows things like that now? I’m imagining the board meeting: “We have a show about affordable houses on the beach.” “Sounds like a cheap a– beach house to me.” “Brilliant. That’s the title.”
I look forward to spinoffs like They Built a House Over There, The Planned Community Where Every House Is the Same, and, of course, Goddammit, They’re Doing a Renovation Next Door Again.
More From The Daily Beast’s Obsessed
What is the truth behind the Real Housewives roofie rumor? Read more.
Lee Pace is giving the summer’s best (and hottest) TV performance. Read more.
Lorne Michaels is teasing a major shakeup at Saturday Night Live. Read more.
What to watch this week:
Splitsville: Rom-coms are so back, y’all. (Now in theaters)
Long Story Short: Get ready to cry over a cartoon. (Now on Netflix)
Lurker: A creepy stalker thriller for modern times. (Now in theaters)
What to skip this week:
Honey Don’t: I always appreciate when a movie title answers the question, “Should I see this?” (Now in theaters)
The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox: Haven’t we had enough? (Now on Hulu)
The post ‘Alien: Earth’: There’s Finally a Good TV Show to Watch This Summer appeared first on The Daily Beast.
