Recommendations: Week of 1/6/25
Let's ease into this thing
Happy 2025, my dear readers! I hope you all had a peaceful, invigorating, restful holiday season (according to your preferences). I watched a lot of TV, took down about a book a day, and got really into these wooden miniature projects. I am coming into the new year with many writing goals, including continuing to get this Monday newsletter out on time every week. The people need their recommendations!
This week I am focusing on easing everyone into the new year. Should you be gearing up for American Primeval and the new season of Severance? Yes, of course. Should you be hurrying to your couch to catch up on all the Globe-winners, yes. But it’s the first week of January (or so I choose to believe) and there’s officially Plenty of Time for That.
Beast Games (Amazon): I have been watching Mr. Beast for a few years now (as has the rest of the wired universe) and have enjoyed how bonkers his content usually is. His videos tend to fall into two categories: challenges and explorations. In his exploration videos, he might take his friends to stay in an abandoned town or show you what kind of hotel room you can get for $1, $5000, $1M, etc. These are fun, but the challenge videos are his meat and potatoes. In these, some number of contestants, usually drawn from his vast YouTube following, compete in ludicrous games to win vast sums of money. Maybe they win a Lambo if they’re the last one touching it. Maybe it’s a full Squid Games-style set of challenges. It is those videos that inspire Beast Games, Amazon’s attempt to capture some of that sweet YouTube gold. Mr. Beast seems to have had a largely unlimited budget for the show; he is known for pouring his YouTube profits back into his videos and that spirit of Wonka-ish generosity/malevolence carries through to this show. The show begins with 1000 contestants but quickly whittles that down to 60 through a series of savage elimination games. Some of these games are about some level of skill (giant beer pong) but most are either entirely chance-based (what line you happen to be standing in) or psychological (will your team captain refuse money to eliminate you). If you like The Challenge or Survivor, this show will likely work for you, but there’s a chaotic energy to it that sets it apart. For one, it is just far meaner than most shows of its kind. Mr. Beast is not your friend in this show; he may be holding the check-book but at least in the early episodes it’s clear he doesn’t trouble himself with the humanity of the contestants (even as Amazon insists on showing us endless shots of people sobbing when they lose). That’s all to say that I don’t know if it is an indicator of a healthy society that this show exists, but I won’t lie to you and say I haven’t enjoyed it.
Nancy Drew: Mystery of the Seven Keys (Her Interactive): This may be the first time I have recommended a video game to you all, but that’s mainly because I have no history of playing them outside of this one series (I was raised in 1860s London!). I have a theory that if you had an American Girl Doll, you probably also played these computer games, but if you’re not familiar, they are point-and-click computer mystery games in which you play as famous Titian-haired sleuth Nancy Drew. Now, Nancy is thee sleuth of the 20th century. Based on a series of incredible novels that began in the 30s, the Nancy Drew games are immersive, strange, incredible little gems. There are 34 of them, with Mystery of the Seven Keys as the most recent release. Her Interactive has gone through many changes in the decades they’ve been releasing these games and the games reflect how much the industry itself has changed in that time. The company nearly shut down a few years ago, then in 2019 released Midnight in Salem as a sort of hail mary but the game was so buggy many couldn’t even play it. So imagine my shock and awe when I saw they had released a new game this year, and a great one to boot. These games are perfect if you want to just sit down for a few hours and solve some puzzles, explore cool locations (this one is set in Prague), and do little tasks. Join the Nancy-hive today!