🤏 What to Watch (stuff you won't find on your own)
Incredible movies and shows waiting for you to discover
Dear friends,
One of my uncles in Morocco is deaf, but never learned sign language. He refers to my dad with a “zero” over the eye, because my dad wears glasses, and he refers to me with a hand held high because I’m tall. Watching today’s top pick, about two deaf characters, made me both sad and happy that deaf people can lead such fulfilled lives in developed countries. And even then, there is still a long way to go.
I hope you have a good weekend!
OUR TOP TV SHOW OF THE WEEK
This Close
On Amazon Prime 🍅 rating: 94%
This heartwarming comedy-drama is about two best friends in their 20s who are deaf. One of them is a graphic novelist going through a breakup and the other just got engaged but is hiding the news out of fear of making her friend feel bad.
The script is sharp and funny, and like any first big production from a minority group, it also feels fresh and original: the arcs are unlike anything seen before, and the characters are a joy to discover and watch.
The result is something that feels like an easy and fun story until it’s not: in the first episode, when one of them doesn’t immediately put their seatbelt on in a plane, the cops come in and restrain their hands (their only way of communicate) to drag them out.
The two leads are played by the creators of the show - the first deaf showrunners in the history of TV. When they were trying to find a title for the series, they landed on a sign (the emoji in the subject of this email), not a phrase, that captured the bond between the two friends. “We’re showing something that’s intertwined... [the “this close” sign is] a sign used for “best friends, “like this” or “this close”. So we came up with “this close” from that."
OUR TOP MOVIE THIS WEEK
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