Are you still watching? Or rather, when do you stop? Everyone knows there is a fine line between comedy and cringe, though people draw that line in different places. Some enjoy the moments where a show feels like a fever dream, while others, like myself, can’t stand anything that passes from funny to uncomfortable. As a STEM major with a microscopic amount of free time for TV, if my line is crossed, I immediately throw in the towel. If I have the chance to watch a show, it simply has to be good. But recently, I’ve felt that shows have been losing their plots earlier, missing the comedy marks that were hit in the previous episodes and crossing well into cringe instead. For example, I personally couldn’t bring myself to watch past the first season of The Summer I Turned Pretty, but the wedding preparation dance scene from the third season that was ridiculed across social media would have sent me over the edge. Recently I’ve watched two shows, one that I’ve finished and one I am debating on continuing. And while they have both toed the cringe line, one does so excusably and the other much less so. I’m curious to know, would you stop watching?
Only Murders in the Building
After the first season of Only Murders in the Building, I was convinced it was going to be my favorite show of all time. Could there be anything better than a trio of Selena Gomez, Martin Short and Steve Martin? Yes there could be: that lovely trio with the cringe dialed far down. Only Murders has come close to losing me many times, yet inevitably pulls me back in with great guest stars. However, the new fifth season might be my final straw.
Season one was perfection, season two managed to hold up the good comedy momentum and then came season three, which crossed the cringe line and then some. First, the positives: the guest stars were Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep –– amazing. The negatives: season three revolves around a musical and its related murder. I adore musicals, but there was so much random breaking into bad songs and so many jazz hands –– if I heard “Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It” one more time I was going to lose my mind. And the cringe only grew. In one episode, Oliver (Martin Short) imagines the trio in a musical number complete with sequined jackets and top hats telling him to destress. There’s a scene where Mabel (Selena Gomez) is holding Charles and Oliver’s talking heads as babies. One of the season’s repeating plot lines is Charles’s (Steve Martin) stage fright bringing him to the “white room” which is filled with painful dancing. I thought I was done with Only Murders, but then season four announced the addition of Eugene Levy, Eva Longoria and Zach Galifianakis. They redeemed the show, I might even have called season four good, until the seventh episode saw Melissa McCarthy with a thick Long Island accent fist-fighting Meryl Streep. Again, I considered the end to be near. Then, the season five casting announcement: Logan Lerman. The 2000s child in me simply could not miss out on Logan Lerman interacting on television with Selena Gomez. And yes, I’ve been enjoying that, except for the fact that in only five episodes we’ve already dealt with a singing band of mafia sons, weird product placement (Gomez prominently holding a Stanley cup for half an episode?) and talking corpses. Once again, it might be time for me to be an unapologetic quitter.
The Great
Perhaps my favorite comedy of all time, The Great is shockingly underappreciated in the world of college television viewing. I have yet to find a Cornellian to share my love for the show. Despite this, all three seasons received critical acclaim, winning a number of awards for comedy, costume design and acting. With the full title, The Great: An Occasionally True Story –– which changed in one episode to, The Great: An Almost Entirely Untrue Story –– the show follows a factually not-so-correct but deliciously raunchy version of the life of Catherine the Great. Elle Fanning plays a young Catherine who arrives in Russia to find her new husband, Emperor Peter III (Nicholas Hoult), a ridiculously useless, selfish and volatile ruler. Lovers, beheadings and political sabotage abound as Catherine holds a coup to take Russia for herself. The Great is exceptionally funny –– Hoult and Fanning are comedy perfection backed up by a slew of equally ridiculous supporting characters. The Great does toe the cringe line throughout its running, crossing it in season two when Catherine’s mother comes to visit, and then (major spoilers ahead!) seduces Peter and dies from falling out the window in the midst of intercourse with him. But this was forgivable because it was in line with the rest of the show; I was horrified watching Peter deal terribly with his mess, and yet it matched the show’s overall insanity. The line was perhaps unforgivably crossed during the series finale with a mental breakdown dance break that had me shielding my eyes –– I think crazy dancing might be my absolute no go. But the show was saved by this being the final episode, and thus I watched the show to completion and overall loved it.
The Great and Only Murders in the Building are very different shows; one is, in the absolute loosest of terms, historical fiction, while the other takes place in the modern age. And yet on the surface they should be similar, both comedies that deal with a sprinkle of heavy material (plenty of murder, never fear). And yet The Great made it clear throughout all three seasons that its purpose was to be absurd. Everything that happened made sense in the grand scheme of the show’s satirical madness and most of the choices were much appreciated. But Only Murders from season three until now in season five, feels confused, jumping between deep moments about emotional growth and love, and some minor sadness over murders, and then random attempted comedy moments which feel out of place and too cringey to watch. And so the question remains: do I keep watching?
Jenna Ledley is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at jledley@cornellsun.com.
"Are You Still Watching?” is a column spotlighting what the Cornell community has been streaming. It runs every Wednesday.
