Antisocial Media: Book and TV Pairings for Social Distancing Survival

This is a cheap shot, but I recommend rewatching your perennial faves (“The Sopranos,” “Sex and the City,” “Broad City,” “Girls”—all HBO, save “Broad City” which is Hulu) while reading the dedicated chapters in Emily Nussbaum’s “I Like to Watch” (Shannon’s review here). You’ll look at these evergreen favorites with more nuance than ever, and you can always pretend her ideas are your own at cocktail parties when you’re allowed to leave your apartment again. Will we be allowed to leave again? Today I saw a leaf and cried. - Moira

“My Friend Anna” and “Holiday in the Sun” (rentable on Amazon Prime or Apple). It’s no secret that I love a good scam story, but you may not have known that I love vintage Mary Kate & Ashley movies. “Holiday in the Sun” is one of their last films together, and it’s so early 2000s — low rise jeans, mean girls, Fendi bucket hats, synchronized dancing — with a scammers on Spring Break vibe happening. Pairs perfectly with everyone’s favorite New York heiress. - Elizabeth

“Queenie” and “Insecure” (HBO). Both center around black women (one, a Jamaican British woman living in London; the other, a black woman in LA) who careen from awkward decision to awkward decision after their relationships end. Both deal with mental health, racism, code switching, and what it means to feel like you just can’t get your life together. - Shannon

"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" and “Brooklyn 99” (Hulu). These things have exactly one thing in common, and the hint is in the title, but I recommend breaking from the heartwarming but often tragic Betty Smith classic with Andy Samberg’s (I like my men from only two Abrahamic religions, and one of them is not Christianity) delightful goofiness. - Moira

"Slavery by Any Other Name" and “13th” (Netflix). Because you should use this time to decolonize your mind and challenge yourself. - Moira

“American Spy” and “The Americans” (Amazon Prime). These things are both about spies, but the book is about an … American … spy, and “The Americans” is not. Both are excellent, and there are 75 episodes of the TV show, which will take up plenty of quarantine time. - Shannon

“The Gown” and The Crown (Netflix). No, I didn’t intend for that to rhyme but what a fun coincidence! If you read my review of “The Gown,” you know that I loved everything about the book, and I think it pairs so nicely with the early seasons of “The Crown” — Elizabeth II is easily one of my favorite monarchs, and why not deep dive on her storied life while we are all in the same social distancing boat? To be fair, I think the show focuses too much on Prince Philip for a show about the queen, but when he’s complaining, just mute and look at the pretty clothes -Elizabeth

“The Royal We” and “The Crown” (Netflix). (Yes we doubled up on this one.) Both center around the British Royal Family; one scarily predicted an American princess (I know Meghan isn’t a princess, don’t @ me), the other is a period piece that reportedly had Netflix’s biggest budget ever. It’s worth watching for the acting heavyweights and interior eye candy alone. - Shannon

"Out East" and “Looking” (HBO, Hulu). Young gay men trying to find themselves. Also many beaches. Picture yourself on said beaches. Will we ever see beaches again? Will we see Beaches again? The latter seems more likely at this point. - Moira

“The Looming Tower” and “The Looming Tower” (Hulu). Lawrence Wright’s book about the history of al-Qaeda and how 9/11 came to be is truly excellent (it did win a Pulitzer, after all), and the Hulu adaptation starring Jeff Daniels is also great, even though we all know how it ends. - Shannon

“A Good Girls Guide to Murder” and “Riverdale”. I’ve read a shocking amount of YA murdery books during this time of quarantine (see also: “One of Us is Lying” and “One of Us is Next”), and it’s a nice distraction from everything that’s happening in real life. Riverdale is just as crazy and campy, the same kind of diversion. - Elizabeth

“An American Marriage” and “When They See Us” (Netflix). If you want to spend your quarantine getting really mad about the American criminal justice system, read this heartbreaking novel about a husband wrongfully accused and imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit, and watch Ava DuVernay’s dramatization of the Central Park Five case. - Shannon

"Prep" and “Gossip Girl” (Netflix). The former for some class introspection at elite boarding schools. The latter for the exact opposite. - Moira

“The Darlings” and “Succession” (HBO). If you thought I wasn’t going to recommend this TV show about a disgustingly wealthy family (loosely based on the Murdochs, no matter what the creator says), think again. I didn’t necessarily love “The Darlings” but the family at its center was running a Ponzi scheme leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, so I’d say these two pair well. - Shannon

"Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls" and “At Home With Amy Sedaris” (Amazon Prime). No one can quite hit the same note of erudite, earnest kookiness as the Sedaris siblings. Plus, you’ll learn lots of crafts from Amy. - Moira

“Catch and Kill” and “The Morning Show” (Apple TV). “Catch and Kill” (my review here) reads like the best type of engaging fiction, and “The Morning Show” is much darker than the initial ads let on — it’s a thinly-veiled look at a Matt Lauer-esque situation, with lots of cursing and drinking and all that jazz. - Elizabeth

“I’ll Drink To That” and “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” (Netflix). Darren Criss is outstanding as the shape-shifting serial killer who gunned down the Italian fashion designer outside his Miami estate. Highly, highly recommend. The only thing it has in common with this memoir by the most prolific personal shopper at Bergdorf Goodman is fashion, but that’s enough, right? I could have recommended a thriller to fit Andrew Cunanan’s serial killer vibes, but let’s keep it light. - Shannon

“The President is Missing”, "Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win” by Jo Piazza and “The West Wing” (Netflix). I have long blamed my early-age fandom of “The West Wing” as to why I ended up living in DC and working in politics and have a perpetual attraction for men like Josh Lyman, and I decided this may be the appropriate time for a series rewatch. “The President is Missing” is one of my favorite types of guilty pleasure reads — I love a political thriller — and “Charlotte Walsh” may make you cry tears of frustration, yearning for good leadership. Proceed wisely and remember, #BartlettforAmerica - Elizabeth

"Shrill" and “Shrill” (Hulu). Tbh, we’re not Lindy West Stans over here. See our Book Club of “The Witches Are Coming” for more on that. I liked but did not love the book Shrill. However, Aidy Bryant’s ebullience and joy on the Hulu version are just everything to me. - Moira

“The Vanity Fair Diaries” and “The Bold Type” (Hulu). One is a great memoir from an iconic editor who reignited Vanity Fair into the modern magazine we know and love today. The other is a “so bad it’s good” Freeform show featuring Jan from “The Office” as an EIC who uses phrases like “social media maven” unironically. I can’t stop watching. - Shannon

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