But does Marie Kondo spark joy?
Crazy Ex Girlfriend, Season 4 Available today
Look back at the reviews for the first season of this strange show and you will see that few if any thought it would last.
And in a sense, despite its unlikely longevity — it’s been running for four years now — you can still see why people were hesitant. Its strange hybrid of rom-com, workplace satire, and musical fantasy is an acquired taste to say the least.
It’s about the life of a lawyer named Rebecca Bunch (co-creator and star Rachel Bloom) who moves from New York to California, to stalk a teenage crush.
Several song-and-dance numbers ensue and at times, over the following three series, the show verges from a feel good, almost Gleelike, confection to something darker and more serious. Like Jane the Virgin it’s distinctively different but at times very clever. Bloom has confirmed that this will be the last series.
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Season 4 Available Friday
Like Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, this will be the final outing for Kimmy and we had to wait for it while Tina Fey put the finishing touched to her Mean Girls musical.
In case you’ve been secluded in a cave on Mars, let’s recap: A doomsday cultist imprisoned and abused eighth-grader Kimmy. Freed after 15 years and just a tween at heart, she must face her mental pain and forge an adult identity. So the premise is dark. Yet this being very much Fey’s baby the dialogue is stuffed with razor sharp jokes.
For this final season, Kimmy is the HR head at a major tech firm. Told to fire a male co-worker, she tries to soften the blow. Her tactics — like offering him a milkshake and saying: “This thing isn’t going to suck itself ” — lead to a sexual harassment complaint.
A mortified Kimmy proves her maturity by announcing: “I’ ll be placing me on leave while I conduct an investigation of me.”
It’s all a brilliant satire on the MeToo movement and a fitting send-off for a series that has become beloved by many.
Tidying Up With Marie Kondo, Season 1 Available now
Besides ‘when will they sort out Brexit’ and ‘when will winter really begin?’ the biggest question on everyone’s lips over the last few weeks has been: ‘Does it spark joy?’
That’s because Marie Kondo’s now famous tidying up edict has become both an organising maxim to live by and an endless source of internet mirth.
It all began, naturally, with a book (and she’s assured us you don’t have to throw away your books).
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up was an instant bestseller when its English translation was published in 2014.
Japanese ‘organising consultant’ Kondo found a ready audience among design buffs, trendy minimalists, anti-materialists and the sort of reader who still treats anything Eastern with a sort of awed reverence.
Having a lot less crap is kind of life changing, in fairness, though and Kondo’s tactics of ruthlessly eliminating clutter and not buying stuff you don’t need is kind of revolutionary in its anti-consumerism, as well as its ability to give you a kick in the backside to clear out those presses.
Conan Without Borders, Series 1 Available now
It’s often been somewhat painful watching the incredibly funny Conan O’Brien trying to glean some sort of witty banter out of dead-eyed Hollywood starlets on his talk show.
Perhaps Conan himself felt somewhat the same, as this series takes him out of the studio and has him talking to real people in a sort of travelogue format.
Since 2015 he’s travelled to Armenia, Mexico, Berlin, South Korea, Qatar and beyond.
His genuine curiosity and natural skill at improvisation make each one of these a gem in their own right. While there’s lots of talk about whether O’Brien has ever reached the same audience he did when his chat show was in its heyday, this is in fact a better product: it’s all Conan, all the time. And that’s what we came for.
A theme of his travels is mocking Donald Trump which perhaps shows that you can take the host out of late night television, but you can’t take late night television out of the host.