Pandemic time is perfect for TV

As it’s getting colder outside and there’s still a pandemic, the time has never been better to stay inside and watch TV.

Luckily, I’ve been training my whole life to stay inside and watch TV, and I do so quite often.

Here are three TV recommendations you can take to the bank:

I. Fargo (weekly episodes at 10 p.m. Sunday on FX, available the next day on Hulu)

The quintessential period-based cable crime show premiered its fourth season last week and it’s already proven to be the most ambitious installment in the series.

Set in the middle of a power struggle in 1950 Kansas City, Missouri, the series catapults screen time between leaders of rival gangs. More-established of the two is the Fadda family, headed by Jason Schwartzman and his oft drunk, aggressive younger brother played by Salvatore Esposito.

The other gang is led by the charismatic and calculated Loy Cannon, played by Chris Rock, who substitutes his iconic comedy schtick with a sincere and captivating performance as head of the crime family.

The dominant theme in the season premier is how minorities are treated in the country and the fallacy of acclimating to become an American. Cannon even makes a pitch to members of the Fadda family that there are more similarities than differences in how Blacks and Italians are viewed in post-World War II America.

Other characters in Hawley’s ever-expanding epic include Jessie Buckley as frightening do-harm nurse Oraetta Mayflower, Ben Whishaw as Rabbi Milligan, the lone Irishman in the Fadda family, and E'myri Crutchfield as young Ethelrida Pearl Smutney, who narrates the season’s premier and paints the complications of being Black in America.

Each season of “Fargo” is unrelated to one another, so watching the series’ other seasons is not necessary before watching season four.

II. Harley Quinn (First two seasons on HBO Max and DC Universe)

This was one of my favorite staples of the early pandemic as two seasons of the cartoon starring the famous Batman character premiered this past winter and spring.

Kaley Cuoco (The Big Bang Theory) voices the foul-mouthed titular character and stars with partner-in-crime Poison Ivy, voiced by Lake Bell (Boston Legal, Childrens Hospital).

The show successfully breaks down and makes fun of traditional and often-sexist tropes in comic books and superhero shows and movies through poignant commentary and vulgar, outlandish bits that land much more often than they miss.

It begins in a similar manner to Birds of Prey, the unrelated 2020 live-action Harley Quinn movie, in that Quinn is experiencing a breakup with her counterpart, the Joker. The clown, voiced by Doom Patrol’s Alan Tudyk, stars as the series’ reoccurring antagonist that Quinn tries to best in her quest to become the top villain in Gotham.

The show runs through a wide-ranging cast of characters in the Batman universe, many of whom are hilariously voiced by Tudyk. The bat himself shows up in a minor role and is constantly made fun of along with Commissioner Gordon, who is depicted as a lowlife drunk in a total flip on how he usually appears in the Batman universe.

III. Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet (first season on AppleTV+)

Attempting to separate itself from the saturated genre of workplace comedies, Rob McElhenney’s “Mythic Quest” carves its path to comedic adequateness by relying on its unique setting and colorful cast of characters that, by the end of the first season, have recognizable on-screen chemistry.

Set in a video game production company, the series’ main conflict is a seemingly sexist workplace power struggle between arrogant head-honcho Ian Grimm, played by McElhenney, and lead engineer Poppy Li, played Charlotte Nicdao.

The first season has some questionable asides and weird instances between Grimm and Li, but its comedy is a key constant throughout the series. That’s not to say this series doesn’t have substance, as there is valuable episodes pertaining to problems in the modern-day workplace and gaming industry that aren’t commonly addressed in other comedies.

The crown jewel of the series is its pandemic special, appropriately shot in its entirety from iPhones and other Apple products, in which Nicdao delivers a powerful performance as Li while her character struggles with everyday life in the coronavirus pandemic.

If you enjoy McElhenney’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, you’ll find some similarities in style as Charlie Day, Megan Ganz and David Hornsby from the Emmy-nominated comedy serve as writers and executive producers on “Mythic Quest.” Hornsby himself hilariously plays corporate puppet David Brittlesbee in the show.