Best Things August 2018

It's been a busy month for me personally. Moved houses, got a new job, had a birthday. Not a whole lot of time to sit around and just enjoy things. Nevertheless, here's what stuck out to me.

James Acaster's Repetoire
I mostly indulged myself in stand-up specials on Netflix this month. It's always been a format that has appealed to me, unlike comedy films, there's no need for plot or themes, just jokes. However, just cause that's what they don't need doesn't mean it they can't give us a little more. James Acaster's Repetoire is one of those specials that goes further than it needs to. Split up into 4 different segments: Recognise, Represent, Rest & Recap. In each one he plays an exaggerated version of himself-like many comedians do-but his commitment to each bit and each story, carrying over from one segment to the other, almost as if he's creating an entire backstory and rich detailed life for a person who will only exist for a couple of hours. Most comedians will tell stories of things that didn't actually happen, and it's always a grievance of mine when you can easily spot a fraud. Acaster however commits and creates such detailed and unrealistic stories that it's an easy hurdle to get over. Nothing is real, nothing is sacred, nothing to be trusted, all of his stories are intentionally filled with twists, contradictions, all for the sake of building on the joke, making it as unrealsitic as possible and still 100% being commited to the tale. Oh, it's also really fucking funny, I should probably have pointed that out at somepoint.

Springfield Confidential
I am a big fan of The Simpsons. You know this because I am a living, breathing human being. It was the first series that I actively listened to the dvd commentary back when I was a child, I pretty much spent all of year 7 quoting the series non-stop. It's the most influencial piece of media to me personally, and arguably one of the most influencial to the world. So when a book written by series Showrunner Mike Reiss - a man who has been with the show since it's beginnings and remains with the show to this day - is published, naturally I would want to read it. Everything you could want to know about the series gets discussed in here, from it's origins, to a detailed description of how each episode is produced, tales of fans from around the world, his views on Family Guy, the backlash against modern episodes, his personal favourite stories and tales of fan meetings from around the globe. Not only is it a fascinating insight into the world of The Simpsons, as well as a fairly easy & engaging read (I finished the whole thing in a day), but of course as you'd expect from a Simpsons writer, it offers clever laughs along the way. A must-read for any Simpsons fan.