Be There When We Feed the Tree
The Devon and Simone DeWitt of newsletters just sorted your summer plans and ostentatiously beats ChatGPT in the stories-of-the-week department.
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Spreadspondents,
Over at the Atlantic, Sophie Gilbert has anointed Netflix’s Sirens “the show of the summer” and—pauses to consider—yep, we will cosign that. But since we’re already more than halfway through its meager five-episode run, we’re finding ourselves a little nervous about where our next (cultural) meal is coming from. As always, our first stop for cracking this and other what-next conundrums is The Spread Culture Calendar™. We decided to give you the next month or so worth of hits in this week’s intro! But you can populate your iCal with these listings lickety split by clicking here!
Because like Lena Dunham—who for many, many years felt much, much younger than us but now feels older than us, vibe-wise…any quantum physicists out there who can explain that one?—we are Bed People, our first order of business is getting our streamer ducks in a row. Here’s what we plan to try, horizontally, over the next month:
Adults (May 28 aka yesterday, FX/Hulu): Gen Z’s stab at becoming the next Friends—or (in Rachel’s dreams) the equally iconic Happy Endings—follows five (not six—bold!) twentysomethings living in NYC. Watch the trailer here.
The Better Sister (May 29 aka today, on Prime Video): For eight episodes, Elizabeth Banks and Jessica Biel (lol) play estranged sisters who after a murder team up to sort out the family’s thorny history. Watch the trailer here.
Department Q (May 29 aka today, Netflix): From the creator of The Queen’s Gambit, this thriller has it all, or at least some of our favorite things: Matthew Goode, Irish accents, layer upon layer of knitwear, and The Sea. And did we mention thrills? Watch the trailer here.
Sally (June 17, Disney+ and Hulu): For those in the market for some cymbals-crashing family-friendly programming, this documentary about history-making astronaut Sally Ride should do the trick. Watch the trailer here.
See also: We Were Liars, a sexy teen psychological thriller based on the book of the same name and set in a place warm enough to wear bikinis (June 18, Prime Video); The Waterfront, a soapy drama centered on a North Carolina fishing empire, starring Maria Bello (June 19, Netflix).
Plus: The Buccaneers returns to AppleTV+ for its second season on June 18; The Gilded Age is back for season three on HBO Max on June 22; The Bear season four bows on FX on Hulu on June 25.
We also like to think of ourselves as leaders in the enduring butts-in-seats movement. Join us for three extremely Spready theatrical experiences:
The Phoenician Scheme, May 30 (limited release): You know what they say: Come for the nepobaby, stay for the whimsical aesthetic and mannered performances! In Wes Anderson’s well-reviewed latest (some are calling it his most political film yet), Kate Winslet’s daughter, Mia Threapleton, stars as the daughter of the wildly rich Zsa-Zsa Korda, played by Benicio del Toro, said to be doing career-best work here. Watch the trailer here.
Materialists, June 13: You’re gonna want to get bangs again. In director Celine Song’s follow-up to Past Lives, Dakota Johnson plays an extremely hot New York City matchmaker with major fringe whose own romantic prospects include Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal. More rom-com-y than we’d have pegged Song for, but we’re not complaining. It’s summer, girlies! Watch the trailer here.
Bonjour Tristesse, June 13: The second movie adaptation of the 1954 Françoise Sagan novel joins the tradition of great lazy European summer movies like Call Me By Your Name and La Piscine. But this one may be the Spreadiest of the genre thanks to 39-year-old director Durga Chew-Bose and star Chloë Sevigny. Watch the trailer here.
Sorry, Baby, June 27: An A24 Sundance hit, this dark dramedy from 31-year-old Eva Victor centers on a young woman contending with a level-10 trauma from her recent past. Bonus points: In the poster she’s holding an extremely cute gray kitten. See what we mean here.
Someone in our orbit recently pitched a summer reading challenge, a nice idea. Because we are competitive monsters but have young children and therefore no chance of winning, we will not be participating. We do, however, hope to scarf down at least a couple of these this month.
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid (June 3): Astronauts are huge this summer! (See: Sally above.) The object of our extreme jealousy delivers (for a zillion or so dollars) a love story about an astronomy and physics professor who joins NASA. Buy it from our Bookshop here.
Flashlight by Susan Choi (June 3): Instead of continuing to wring our hands over whether we liked Trust Exercise as much as the National Book Awards judges did, we should probably take Choi’s new novel as a sign to move on (it’s been six years, after all). The premise: On a family beach trip, the father goes out on a night walk and disappears. Buy it from our Bookshop here.
So Gay for You by Kate Moennig and Leisha Hailey (June 3): L-ies rejoice! The L. Word stars Moennig (Shane on the show) and Hailey (Alice) bring us a co-memoir about their lives and careers. This has beach-trip audiobook written all over it! Or buy it from our Bookshop here.
How to Lose Your Mother by Molly Jong-Fast (June 3): What a title. In this memoir, the politics opiner writes about life as the daughter of the famous Erica Jong, who as she recently revealed in Vanity Fair, is struggling with dementia. Buy it from our Bookshop here.
Notes on Infinity (June 3) by Austin Taylor: Taylor, who went to school in Boston, is dropping a debut novel about two Harvard students who hit the big time when they invent an anti-aging drug. Buy it from our Bookshop here.
The Dry Season (June 3) by Melissa Febos: The Girlhood author swears off sex for a year, and the result is surprisingly sensual! For a preview, read the New York Times’s profile of Febos here. Buy it from our Bookshop here.
El Dorado Drive by Megan Abbott (June 24): The high priestess of suspense sets her latest novel amid a suburban pyramid scheme. You won’t be shocked to hear that things get dark as hell. Buy it from our Bookshop here.
Whew! Dang! That’s a lot of recs, eh! Putting the S in service journalism over here, are we right?
Selfless and talking about it,
Rachel & Maggie
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