Best Weekend
How to Have the Best Weekend Ever: ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ + More
What we'll be listening to, watching, and reading to sate our pop culture needs.
This article was made possible because of the generous support of DAME members. We urgently need your help to keep publishing. Will you contribute just $5 a month to support our journalism?
Sunday is International Women’s Day so we’ll be celebrating the achievements of women by filling our weekend with their exceptional work. Okay, you’re right, we always do that. But this weekend we’ll be doing it with more purpose while following the hashtag #MakeItHappen (this year’s theme).
‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ Starring Ellie Kemper
The end of 30 Rock left a Liz Lemon–shaped hole in our heart but the release of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt on Netflix today might just help fill it. The show, starring Ellie Kemper as the survivor of an underground doomsday cult who’s reacquainting herself with normal life in NYC, was created by Tina Fey and her 30 Rock cohort Robert Carlock, so it’s got a similar sense of the absurd plus Fey’s awesome undercurrent of feminism. It also casts Jane Krakowski in a role that is more outlandishly hilarious than Jenna Maroney. You want to go to there.
‘Ongoingness: The End of a Diary’ by Sarah Manguso
Since she was 11, poet Sarah Manguso was a voracious diarist, capturing every moment as a “defense against waking up at the end of my life and realizing I’d missed it.” Ongoingness, her third work of nonfiction, details the motivation behind her 800,000-word undertaking (though never actually quoting from it), and how her feelings toward it shift as her life changes. Her signature poetic prose will give you the feels.
Restored Re-release of ‘Grey Gardens’
In light of documentarian Albert Maysles’s passing on Thursday, it’s perfectly fitting that the Edies—whose story he brought to the world—are back on the big screen, right where they should be, thanks to the re-release of a fully restored Grey Gardens. We can’t wait to be spending an evening with the S-T-A-U-N-C-H, eccentric mother-daughter hoarders in the theater, wearing our best revolutionary costume for the day.
Soko—‘My Dreams Dictate My Reality’
L.A.-based French singer Soko takes her love of the Smiths and the Cure and channels it into the melancholic-pop of her new album. My Dreams Dictate My Reality still exhibits Soko’s quirks (Ariel Pink joins as her partner in weirdness on two tracks), but with its ’80s synths and post-punk melodies, it’s an album as familiar as it is fresh.
‘The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’
Sure, the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel was a little cheesy and predictable but oh boy, was it a heart warmer. Plus any movie with great roles for women over 60 scores bonus points with us. We’re pretty sure this follow up will similarly deliver, and Maggie Smith alongside Dame Judi Dench is our idea of heaven.
Before you go, we hope you’ll consider supporting DAME’s journalism.
Today, just tiny number of corporations and billionaire owners are in control the news we watch and read. That influence shapes our culture and our understanding of the world. But at DAME, we serve as a counterbalance by doing things differently. We’re reader funded, which means our only agenda is to serve our readers. No both sides, no false equivalencies, no billionaire interests. Just our mission to publish the information and reporting that help you navigate the most complex issues we face.
But to keep publishing, stay independent and paywall free for all, we urgently need more support. During our Spring Membership drive, we hope you’ll join the community helping to build a more equitable media landscape with a monthly membership of just $5.00 per month or one-time gift in any amount.