CULTURE

5 Shows to Watch This Week

Show of the Week: Dietland Premiers on AMC

Dietland, the new show from Marti Noxon (a writer for Buffy the Vampire Slayerand co-creator of UNReal), promises to be one of the funniest, strangest, and most apt shows for our current #MeToo moment. Plum, Dietland's literally plump heroine and wry narrator, is the ghostwriter for a self-help column in a Cosmopolitan-esque magazine, but in real life she's put all of her efforts, ambitions, and sense self-worth towards her upcoming lap band surgery, which she hopes will allow her to finally become the thin, happy person she's always dreamed of being. But then sexually abusive men begin falling from the sky, and Plum is recruited into a feminist cabal and set down a path she never imagined for herself.

Here's what else to watch:

Pose is a lively dance musical and 80s period drama

Immersed in New York City's club scene in the 80s, Pose follows a group of LGBTQ outcasts who find a sense of community performing drag amid the AIDS epidemic. Much like Transparent, many of the show's main characters are played by trans actors and actresses (Our Lady J, a producer and writer, also starred in Transparent). While it's a story of struggle—with poverty, illness, and acceptance, and a host of other hardships—Poseis also a story of possibility; it takes the aspirations of its characters seriously, bestowing upon each the right to define themselves.

Lady Bird is now streaming on Amazon Prime

In this movie directed by Greta Gerwig, and nominated for several Academy Awards, a high school senior (played brilliantly by Saoirse Ronan) learns about family, identity, love, and the value of making mistakes when you're young. Not only is Lady Bird a charming coming-of-age, with some very poignant scenes exploring mother/daughter relationships in particular, but it also offers a nuanced portrayal of class in suburban America.

Younger is made for pure binge-watching pleasure

In this show by Daren Star (Sex and the City), a financially strapped 40-year-old divorcée, Liza Miller (played expertly by Sutton Foster), tries to re-enter the working world, but discovers that to get a job at a prestigious New York publishing house she'll have to pretend that she's still in her 20s. The show is now in its 4thseason, and while it's not entirely believable that people still think Liza is a 20-something, Younger is a pleasantly funny and often clever romp through the millennial phenomenon. Watchers be warned: you can easily blow through all four seasons in one sitting.

The Devil Wears Prada Returns to HBO

This 2006 drama starring Merryl Streep and Anne Hathaway, and based on the book of the same name, is a great lead-in to author Lauren Weisberger's sequel, When Life Gives You Lululemons. The book comes out on June 5th, and follows main character Emily's next stage in life, 10 years later. The Devil Wears Prada is available for streaming on HBO as of June 1.

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