It’s Friday. Looking for something to switch up your weekend, or to give you an excuse to relax a little? That’s what the Weekend Reset is for. Each week we’ll pull together five things to get your weekend started. Could be something to read or watch, something to eat or listen to, or even something to do. Enjoy the weekend fellas.
If you’re in the mood for something uplifting and funny — this is the show for you. In “Ted Lasso,” the titular Ted Lasso, a college football coach, travels to England to coach… a Premier League soccer team. Ted Lasso is a phenomenal character — a smart, snappy, pun-filled coach equally likely to fire off teambuilding slogans as he is a deep cut pop cultural reference, and Jason Sudekis plays the character to absolute perfection. This is a delightfully funny, warm and optimistic show — both a fantastic example of the “underdog sports movie” genre and a subversion of it. I loved it so much I finished it in two days. Streams on Apple +.
My rule during Covid is that there must be dessert available at all times. Stella Parks’ Olive Oil Cake is my break-in-case-of-emergency recipe: a cake that I almost always have the ingredients for in my fridge/pantry (since my other covid rule is that there must always be buttermilk in the fridge) and one that comes together in one bowl and in under an hour, including baking time. I know what you’re thinking: Olive Oil doesn’t sound like much of a cake flavor. But trust me on this: this is an incredibly moist, wonderfully flavored cake that will knock the socks off of anyone that tries it. I love love love LOVE it and could have it for dessert every day for the rest of my life and be 100% content.
Since rebooting the Hitman series in 2016, IO Interactive has been churning out some of the most ingenious stealth/assassination simulators ever made. The level design in Hitman games affords you a zillion different ways to hunt and assassinate a target — which makes for gripping moments as well as a ton of replay value. And while Hitman 1 and 2 were fantastic, Hitman 3 is the studio’s masterpiece — a game that both builds on his predecessors while including a level (which I won’t spoil) that totally inverts the typical formula in Hitman games. Out now on PC, Playstation, and Xbox.
January, for me, always feels like a new beginning. And this January, in particular, I think we’re all feeling a need to start afresh and kiss the shiteheap of 2020 goodbye. There’s something about the songs on Modern Vampires of the City — Vampire Weekend’s third and best album — that feels like starting afresh, starting anew, turning a new page while also acknowledging the challenges of what’s come before. I find myself listening to it on repeat every January.
Due to the pandemic, I was by myself for the holidays, and in between lots of videogames and movie marathons, I did quite a bit of solo board gaming. There’s something delightful about making a mug of tea, putting on some good music, and sitting down at your dining room table to do battle against ancient evils. Most of my game time was spent with Aeon’s End, a cooperative deckbuilding game. In Aeon’s End, your character(s) build powers by purchasing cards, until they have enough spells and power to defeat ancient demons known as the Nameless. This is a wonderfully strategic game, and I had several white-knuckle last-minute wins (as well as a few white-knuckle losses). And though it works wonderfully as a solo game, it also accommodates up to four players. While there are a lot of different iterations of Aeon’s End, I started by playing through a full campaign in Aeon’s End: The New Age, and I loved it.
About the author: Michael Robin is an LA-based television writer. When he’s not working away on his latest pilot script, you can find him scuba diving, hosting Shabbat dinners, or goofing off with his goldendoodle, Biggie Lebowski.