USELESS/USEFUL, Vol. 5: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, ‘Adolescence,’ and ‘The Pitt’

Available on Goodpods, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and anywhere else you listen to podcasts.

Welcome to the fifth installment of USELESS/USEFUL, in which we recommend things we think you should know about. We use the term USELESS to lovingly describe topics that have to do with pop culture, music, film, etc. And USEFUL covers topics like relief efforts, charitable campaigns, social issues, and other things that we want to encourage you to consider supporting. And we’ll also share about projects going on at Stereoactive Media. Here are our topics for this episode…

USELESS ITEM ONE

Netflix’s Adolescence is a 4 part limited series based in the UK that is really unlike anything I’ve seen on television before. It tells the story of a 13 year old boy accused of murdering a girl at his school and how the fallout of the murder and arrest affects the boy, his family, and those investigating him and the crime.

As the father, myself, of a strong-willed 3 year old who’s constantly testing boundaries, the show was disturbing to watch on multiple levels. Not only did I watch it as someone worried about the increasingly toxic environment that children are thrust into, especially online, but I also watched it as someone trying to make good parenting decisions with that little voice in the back of my head that often asks, “are you just messing her up?”

The show weaves its way through the ways in which young boys are becoming more radicalized by the so-called “manosphere,” how online bullying can bleed into the real world, the responsibility of parents for their childrens’ actions, and plenty else.

And it’s not like the subject matter is the only thing about Adolescence that is tough yet impressively executed. The show is also audacious yet overwhelmingly impressive in its formal approach. Each episode plays out in a single take that moves between multiple locations and setups. And while the logistics at play in making this work are astounding enough, what really makes it work is the feeling this approach achieves. The circumstances of the crime and the real and emotional fallout are interminably inescapable as we wander through a world that at once seems both expansive and claustrophobic at the same time.

The whole series is co-created and co-written by Stephen Graham, who also plays the father of the accused boy. Graham is a character actor who I mainly recognized from his role as Al Capone on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire and his turns in Scorsese’s The Irishman and Gangs of New York, among other things. He’s always been a welcome presence any time I’ve seen him, but for me at least, this definitely expanded my view of his talent. But really, everyone in the cast is superb and the whole show is just stunningly made.

USELESS ITEM TWO

The Pitt is a show that I was initially skeptical of. Seeing Noah Wyle do another hospital drama three decades after he shot to fame with the rest of the original ER cast just seemed like it had to be lazy casting indicative of yet another cookie-cutter hospital drama. But my good friend – shout out to Stephen, by the way – told me it was actually pretty good and that actual ER doctors thought the portrayal of The Pitt’s emergency room was more realistic than most other hospital shows… so I downloaded several episodes to watch while traveling and quickly got hooked and realized my impressions of the show before watching it were way off the mark.

Wyle does a great job anchoring the vast and compelling cast of The Pitt, which is available on Max. And the conceit of the show certainly helps it stand out from similar shows, as each episode essentially takes place in something close to real time over the course of consecutive hours in an ER shift – kind of like 24, but with folks trying to help rather torture people.

As of this recording, 12 of the show's 15 episodes are out and the latest have really begun to tie several story points from earlier episodes into one big dramatic event.

Alan Seppinwall described the 12th episode – and show – well for Rolling Stone:

The sheer level of competence, preparedness, and dedication on display throughout the hour is stunning, especially at a moment when so many people in power don’t know what they’re doing, and don’t seem to care how their actions will affect anyone but themselves. This is an hour of watching people trying to make it through an absolute nightmare, yet it somehow also feels inspiring to be reminded that even in the darkest times, there are still people who not only want to help others, but are almost superhumanly capable of doing just that.

And now to our…

USEFUL ITEM

In case you haven’t been tuned into this, I just want to let you know that in the face of the oligarch-led dismantling of our civil society that we’ve been witnessing this year, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been on the road recently with Bernie Sanders doing what most Democrats elected to office or in the party establishment are failing to do well, if at all.

They’ve been holding huge rallies where they clearly describe the dark reality of what is currently happening and offering clear policy goals that are easy to understand, support, and organize around. In Tucson, they expected 3,000 people to show up and got a crowd of 23,000. In Denver, they pulled a crowd of 34,000 – the largest there since Obama’s acceptance of the Democratic nomination in 2008. In nearby Greeley, Colorado – a GOP area, they expected 2,000 and got 11,000.

To my mind, this seems like it’s clearly meant as a potential passing of the torch from Bernie to AOC. And I’m not saying it means she’ll run for president in 2028, but she will be 39 years old then and he’ll be 87… and just a reminder, someone needs to be 35 at the time they take office to qualify for the presidency.

But whether she’s running or not, like I said, she is a rare voice right now offering a positive vision of what we can achieve and these anti-oligarchy rallies are helping to prove that there is support for this vision.

So, please, if you’re not already, support AOC in whatever way you’re able. Follow her on social media – especially Bluesky – and pay attention to where she says support is needed. And obviously, please support whatever campaign she embarks on next, whether it’s reelection to the House, a primary challenge to Chuck Schumer, or to succeed Donald Trump or whatever ghoul happens to be in office by the time we hopefully have another free and fair election in which we can start to set things on a better path.

STEREOACTIVE BULLETIN BOARD

We’ve got a couple of things to let you know about in Stereoactive World…

We recently released our second Kind of a Lot with Matt Ruby episode of the year. It’s called “The Boy who cried ‘Wow!’” and features Matt discussing how a 9 year old's excited exclamation at a symphonic concert reveals truths about how we experience the world.

And we also recently released our fourth episode of the relaunched When We See Each Other podcast in which, after nearly five years, R&B artist NYALLAH returns to the show!