TV: Master Of None
There are hints of Louie and Chris Rock’s Top Five in this comedy, created by and starring Aziz Ansari. Master Of None follows Dev, actor and thwarted lothario, as he tries to find love and success in New York. So far, so so, but Ansari uses this set-up to riff on a range of subjects, from ageism to the portrayal of minorities in film. He’s lured in some fine guest stars, too, including Clare Danes and Eric Wareheim. Available from Friday.
Netflix
Audio: The Axe Files
Chief strategist for Barack Obama’s election campaigns (and, less auspiciously, adviser to Ed Miliband’s Labour party), David Axelrod is a man with a decent contacts book. This podcast, created in conjunction with the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics, sees Axelrod have a natter with prominent political figures. So far he’s roped in some pretty big names on both sides of the Atlantic: Bernie Sanders, Nancy Pelosi and Alastair Campbell all feature in recent episodes.
Video: The Story Of Technoviking
Technoviking is a muscular chap who was filmed at the Berlin Fuckparade in 2000 as he argued with a yobbish fellow raver and then danced pugnaciously behind a float. For some reason, the clip went prodigiously viral. The money shot of this doc about that meme’s rise should feature the wisdom of Technoviking himself. But sadly the big man has initiated legal proceedings against the maker (of both this film and the clip), Matthias Fritsch. So instead, expect a meditation on the nature of consent and identity in the internet age.
Video: Unicorns
This Vice film profiles Shaft, leader of London’s unicorn scene. Identifying as more unicorn than human, Shaft prizes hedonism and polyamory over the mundanities of everyday life, and spends most of his time convincing people to don glittery horns and get off with each other. Despite the unicorn group being very much a real thing, the whole thing plays out like a flawlessly realised mockumentary, with every line a beautifully formed piece of cringe comedy (“I’m in a relationship with a lamp at the moment,” one unicorn professes proudly), right up until the moment you realise that Shaft‘s movement is less a revolution for free love, and more a cry for help from a lonely individual.
TV: The Kennedys
Following the farcical exploits of 10-year-old Emma and her upwardly mobile parents on a “new town” estate in 70s Stevenage, Emma Kennedy’s autobiographical sitcom has been consistently hilarious – and far from misty-eyed. Catch the series so far on the iPlayer.
