TV these days.

Emily V. Gordon has a piece up on the NYT about mental-health representation on television.

She mentions Lady Dynamite and Maria Bamford, whom I love. She also mentions You're The Worst and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, shows I've heard of, but not watched.

You're The Worst I caught in bits and pieces, I flipped to it mid-episode where the main character was crying alone in her car, which I mean, I get, but I didn't feel like watching.

I'd add Please Like Me to that list - which shows anxiety and depression and mania and is still super funny and sweet. There's actual long-term representation of a mental-health facility and that patients/friends in it.

Even Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt represents PTSD. So there is representation of mental illness slowly making its way into television.

It is, as they say, the "golden age of television," and lately it seems every comedian I like is getting their own television show, so what a time to be alive!

Lady Dynamite.

I have been looking forward to Maria Bamford's Lady Dynamite for a good long while.

I'd heard through stand-ups and comedians on Twitter that she was working on a television show for Netflix and knowing it would deal with her life, and her living with mental illness got me all riled up.



If you're not familar with Bamford, I wrote about her a few times here, so click on the label of her name for more on her.

The Atlantic has a review up. Hopefully I can carve out some time this weekend and watch it.

Netflix has been big on my list this past year, with The Fall, Jessica Jones and Kimmy Schmidt, it's a feminist scream fest: stellar female-driven comedy and complex, well-written female drama leads.Whodafuckingthunkit.

Lisa Ling and PTSD.

I watched an episode of Lisa Ling's This Is Life last night. It's playing on OWN, after originally playing on CNN.

I really liked Our America by Lisa Ling on OWN, and this is in a similar vein.

I don't know why she left OWN, Our America had a better production value, but the content is similar, and I really like and respect Lisa Ling. According to an interview with Ling, cited on Wikipedia, she could look at "edgier" content with CNN.

Last nights episode "Jungle Fix," was all about ayahuasca, a plant-based hallucinogenic that is espoused by some to be a useful tool in confronting and dislodging trauma. 

Ling travels to Peru and interviews folks who flew down there specifically to take the drug, and to try and face their demons. 

The most powerful interviews come out during her interviews with veterans. They are clearly (understandably) angry at the lack of help they're getting back home, and with about 22 American veterans committing suicide daily, they're willing to try anything to alleviate some of their pain.

While on Our America, Ling did an episode called "Invisible Wounds of War" that, to this day, my friend S and I talk about. It deeply, deeply moved and upset me. The pain was palpable. I could taste it and feel it and it was just an overwhelming viewing experience.

That might make it seem frightening, but it was beautiful and important. 

I recommend both of these episodes. 

Treatment looks like different things to different people. We don't all have the same needs. We don't process things the same way. We all struggle to access help, and our drug laws are antiquated, maybe access to assisted retreats with certain drugs could in fact dislodge certain things for certain people. 

If someone is in deep pain, they deserve the opportunity to try whatever they can to help themselves.

Gaycation: Japan.

Really impressed by he first episode of Gaycation on the new Viceland.

Of course there's the "classic" look and production of Vice, but the production on the show is top-notch. I just genuinely feel Ellen Page's intent while watching, and it's just nice to see her really living her life openly now. She seems to have a really beautifully sweet friendship with Ian, and I think the show is important and just really well done.

You can watch the whole episode above.

Highly recommended.