What to Watch July 2021

July viewing looks pretty decent. Special treats include more Ted Lasso, The Pursuit of Love series based on the Nancy Mitford novel, and the return of Real Housewives of Potomac (where I expect to see the real fireworks erupt!).

As always, I've compiled a list of shows I'd like to see coming soon, and I'm sharing it here along with links to everything coming to streaming services so you can go through and pick your own must-watch viewing. And away we go! 

The Housewives: The Real Story Behind the Real Housewives by Brian Moylan

More than a decade ago, I watched my first Real Housewives show with the launch of the New York cast. Bethenny Frankel had me at "Get off my jock," and whenever she was on, I was glued to the screen.

A lot of years passed where the antics of the housewives held no appeal for me, but during Bethenny's brief return to RHONY I got hooked again. I even started collecting more Housewives shows, like boxes of crap piling up in the basement until it becomes too much and you'd like to ditch it all and feel renewed, but you can't let it go. I'm up to five different cities, and plan on hitting up Hulu to give Orange County a try from the start, too. I just can't quit 'em. 

Killer robots and the best sentence of my week

A cool thing on Twitter is something called #SundaySentence, wherein readers share the best sentence they read all week and tag it for others to enjoy.

I had one that was kinda awesome this week for being funny, rather than the usual sentence that's plucked from the pages and shared due to beautiful construction, lovely imagery, or profound sentiment. My tendency toward anxiety led me not to tag it for #SundaySentence lest someone say it didn't fit the theme of great sentences or was offensive. I didn't want to harsh my mellow this lovely Sunday with any negativity about a funny line. 

I posted the sentence on Twitter, sans hashtag, which of course means none of the other word lovers saw it. I definitely, probably, should've tagged it. Maybe? Seriously, I would've laughed out loud if someone else had. Luckily, I have a blog and can post whatever I want here without fear of anyone but me reading it (hardy har har).

It was from Shit, Actually: The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema by Lindy West. The book of irreverent yet often on-the-nose movie reviews peeled back the layers of Terminator 2: Judgement Day with a fair and fabulous comment about time-travelling robots and essential details the script should include.

Here, solely for my own enjoyment, is the greatest sentence I read this week:

"Call me old-fashioned, but I think it’s weird not to explain why your robot is Austrian and has a dick."

She's not wrong, y'all. Have a great week, and may you encounter many wonderful sentences on your reading journey!

The Sound Inside by Adam Rapp

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A good audio play is a thing of beauty, and The Sound Inside is simply wonderful, serving up a little Broadway for your ears. That's exactly how I like it — enjoying a high-quality show while keeping my butt at home in frugal comfort.

This recording features the original cast (Mary-Louise Parker and William Hochman), and they deliver a seasoned performance that would've been worth paying for. But free is better, and that's how much this cost with my Audible membership. 

Open Book by Jessica Simpson

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The great celebrity dish and candid stories I'd hoped for were not in this book. The dish is drab, the story lifeless and sanitized. It feels very carefully crafted to conceal a lot for a memoir called "Open Book." It's simply not that good.

As someone who isn't a fan of Simpson's, I picked this up on recommendations of many online that this book had great gossip and uncommon candor for a celebrity memoir. This was a load of hooey.

The most dirt you get will be on John Mayer, but it basically confirmed that he's as big a jerk as he seems, and in the end it's not that interesting. It could've been if she'd reflected on what motivated her to keep going back to him, to put her career on hold to follow him around on tour, etc., but her waters don't run deep, y'all.