Your friendly neighborhood October streaming guide

Surprise, you’re bored out of your mind again. 

I mean, there are a couple books you threw on your counter. You borrowed them back when you told yourself you would “start reading for the purposes of self improvement.” I’ll save you the suspense, you won’t. I guess talking to your parents about politics could also be an option. 

As tempting as these activities sound, I get it. It’s been an exhausting day trying to hide your phone activity from being caught in the webcam display. At the end of it, you just want to kick up your feet and avoid responsibilities for a while, and I totally understand. That’s why I threw together this curated collection of movies, TV shows, barrel-aged classics, unconventional joyrides and piping hot trash, just for you. 

Netflix

“Ratched”

You didn’t pay attention when you read “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey in high school, but luckily, it doesn’t take a literary connoisseur to fall head-first into Netflix’s next great hit, “Ratched.” The show delves into the backstory of Nurse Ratched (Sarah Paulson) before she lands her job at the Oregon State Hospital, where the classic ’60s novel was set. In the literary world, Nurse Ratched is regarded as one of the most evil characters ever written. She runs her hospital tyrannically and unabashedly piles on cruel manipulation with a heavy hand. The eerie TV series attempts to explain how Nurse Ratched came to pursue her antagonistic ways while exploring themes of trauma, sexuality and human cognition set in the age of the lobotomy. 

The show itself features stunning, candy-colored scenes so chilling you might want to save it for a treat later in the month. The cinematography is part Wes Anderson film, part pin-up art and part Melanie Martinez music video, which personally, I believe is a hint at Kesey’s participation in the CIA-funded psychedelic experiments and later habitual use of LSD. If that doesn’t perk your curiosity enough to watch the hypnotizing piece, did I mention it features Sarah Paulson? Come on. 

Hulu

“Cowboy Bebop”

On a mission to destroy the restrictions of genre, “Cowboy Bebop” is a critically acclaimed animated neo-noir-meets-space-epic-meets-Macaroni-Western masterpiece. Don’t let yourself get put off: This isn’t your typical animated show. The year is 2071, Earth has become uninhabitable and humanity has moved on to colonize the rest of the solar system. As crime rates soar, bounty hunters (nicknamed “Cowboys”) are contracted to capture criminals. The series is centered around bounty hunter Spike (Steven Blum) and his adventures working from his spaceship, the Bebop. 

The vintage, immersive atmosphere begins from the first note of the opening soundtrack and continues to be a retro-mindgasm: chock-full of Western romantic ennui, East Asian clean-cut minimalism, eccentricity and humanness. The soundtrack is an ingenious cocktail of blues and jazz, the art is absolutely to-die-for, the characters are fleshed out, the storyline is colorful, it is entirely fun but deeply heartfelt — seriously, I cannot recommend this show enough. 

HBO Max:

“Joe Pera Talks With You”

Midterms suck, you don’t see the point in wearing pants anymore and on top of it all, your newest crush won’t give you their number over Zoom private messages. No worries. When life seems heavy, Joe Pera will talk to you. Joe Pera is a fictional version of himself, a soft, introspective, awkward Michiganian choir teacher who just wants to talk. Critics don’t see the point in a show that is all about the mundane, but all it takes is a short 20 minutes to realize why this wildly underrated series scored itself a second season. 

With sweet episode titles like “Joe Pera Takes You to the Grocery Store” and “Joe Pera Talks to You About the Rat Wars of Alberta, Canada (1950–Present Day),” Pera’s soothing voice will quiet those racing thoughts as he drones on about geology, fall drives, beans and breakfast. There’s no better way to put it, Joe Pera is self-care. If worse comes to worst, adorable Joe will certainly put you to sleep more pleasantly than those asynchronous lectures you set at two times speed. 

“Ocean Waves”

If Studio Ghibli made “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Spirited Away” for the imaginative kid who lives inside all of us, it made “Ocean Waves” for the angsty teen who lives there too. As to be expected from a Ghibli production, this forgotten classic doesn’t disappoint. 

Taku Morisaki (Nobuo Tobita) is a normal junior-high student, working part-time in a restaurant and furious that his school canceled their annual field trip. Rikako Muto (Yoko Sakamoto) is a smart, athletic girl who transfers to his school from the big city and Morisaki’s best friend is in love with her. The story unfolds against a backdrop of serene Japanese countryside and delightful brusqueness. It might be a bit too soon to reminisce on high school, but the soundtrack is airy, the scenery is fresh and the color palette will bring you back to the first time you smelled Dolce&Gabbana Light Blue in a crowded Macy’s. The film overall is careless, naive and undeniably youthful.

Amazon Prime Video

“Masquerade”

As both spooky and election season descend upon us, merge the chaos of politics with a great costume and you get “Masquerade,” a Korean film based on the historical Korean Joseon Era. The film is set in a palace, providing a rich foundation of ancient architecture, clothing, rituals and a whole lot of eunuchs to support a script written to cater to modern-day ideals. When the cold and brutish Emperor (Lee Byung-Hun) is poisoned at the hands of a palace official, a jovial court jester is hauled in to be his replacement. His antics leave lasting impressions that manage to reward him with meaningful friendships along the way. 

The film was inspired by the only Korean emperor to mandate redistributive taxation as a part of national policy, making a striking claim about the true virtues of honor, loyalty and justice. It starts off as a comedy but gradually escalates to become a fast-paced, thrilling drama. By the end of the switcheroo, you will have laughed louder and cried harder than you ever thought possible. A fair warning, this is a film that may leave you hooked on Korean cinema for a while. 

“The Farewell”

“The Farewell” is the most emotionally taxing of all the films in this list and it is an appropriate show-stopper. Awkwafina does a beautiful job playing Billi, a Chinese American girl who travels back to China with her family for a wedding. As it turns out, the wedding is a guise, the family’s last attempt to spend time with Billi’s grandmother before she passes away from cancer. 

The entirety of the film is a “spot the difference” game that treats the consumer to interesting, digestible morsels of Chinese culture and charming glimpses into traditional Chinese approaches to medicine. However, the true heart of the film contrasts the drastic rift between traditional Eastern and Western ideology when it comes to how we approach emotions such as love, grief and ties to family. Neither belief is more right or more wrong, but “The Farewell” helps us acknowledge our differences, enabling us to have an increased aptitude for compassion and understanding across divides.