I watched 20 new things in May and here are the best, worst and weirdest

As The Conservative Critic it is my goal to watch as much new content as I possibly can to hone my craft and avoid social outings. I watched 20 new (new to me not necessarily new to the world) things in May and I have a lot of takeaways.

Here are the best, worst and weirdest of the stuff I watched this month: 

Best: Snowpiercer (series) 

The Snowpiercer series on HBO Max and TNT is one of my favorites from May. It’s a dystopian story with a lot of hard science fiction that explores issues of class, greater good, and the science of surviving if the remnants of humanity all had to live on one big long train. Its dark, full of memorable characters and has a compelling storyline. Any lover of science fiction or of dystopian fairy tales should check it out. 

Worst: American Crime Story The Assassination of Giani Versace 

Coming off of American Crime Story: Impeachment I gave the Assasination of Gianni Versace a try. It was not for me. Unlike Impeachment (or for that matter The Trial of OJ Simpson) the Versace installment focused a lot more on the inner workings of the life and mind of a serial killer and not much on the characters surrounding the story. It was a major format departure and extremely weird and extremely creepy. Plus I find Darren Criss a little exhausting as killer Andrew Cunanan. It was just all a bit much. You can find it on Hulu or FX but I wouldn’t. 

Weirdest (in a good way): Metal Lords

Metal Lords is a very unique and charming story of two high school outcasts finding themselves through the world of metal. It has a lot of layers and multiple comings of age. It isn’t groundbreaking but it’s quirky and cute and it’s a nice little celebration of the metal genre and its longtime influence on those who march to a different drum. You can find it on Netflix. 

Best/Worst: 1883

1883 is a prequel to Yellowstone and very well done. Starring real life married couple Faith Hill and Tim McGraw along with Sam Elliot and Isabel May, the show follows travelers as they move west along the “Oregon Trail” which is more like an Oregon vague direction. It’s beautifully filmed and very intense with one tragedy after another befalling the travelers. Despite her ridiculously obvious highlights and surgically manufactured face making no contextual sense, Faith Hill actually acts the crap out of her role and out hits her more seasoned actor husband as well as veterans like Sam Elliot. 

1883 would be a “Best” of May except I hated the ending so much I will refuse to watch another season. So if you want to watch it on Paramount+ be warned that you will love the series and then immediately hate it. Much like Game of Thrones.