Manafonistas

This is a photo shot in my electric cinema. I’ve been listening (some might recognize fragments of the cover) to the Eno-produced MORE SONGS ABOUT BUILDINGS AND FOOD from the salad days of the TALKING HEADS, some fucking moons ago, and this was a life-changer. A „lifer“ like few others. This record is anti-matter and remedy at the same time. Gimme hard times, I turn it on, LOUD, gimme happy times, and I turn it in on, LOUD, gimme happy-sad times, and I turn it on, LOUD. I was listening to it on a cheap cassette recorder when it came out, and I‘m listening to it on a surround-mix today. This record kills me, and makes my life new, every time I listen to it. This is what I call magic. I believe in white magic. I‘m a pagean. When I was a teenager T Rex‘s ELECTRIC WARRIOR has had a similar effect on me. Multiple effects. Stay hungry. Plan is: in my very last radio show, I will play music from this album, at the very end, and call it a day, a night, an epiphany. I know what an epiphany is. Even pageans can know that. And, by the way, dear readers, these lines are an exercise in understatement.

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Michael’s choice. Here they are, the awesome dozen of the year. England‘s masterclass LINE OF DUTY (4) is one of them, for sure (photo). Do yourself a favour, and go for the whole series. TATORT, in comparison, is like „Bauernschwank with Sozialkunde“. We are no completists, so some possible contenders for the year’s final flashback cannot be seen and evaluated in time (Twin Peaks 3, Detectorists 3, Game of Thrones 7). Nevertheless, you‘ll be stunned. Stand-alones (meaning shows that can be seen without starting with the first season) are marked. FARGO 3 is a case in point, LINE OF DUTY 4 definitely not. Apart from the usual suspects there are some discoveries that have been sailing too long under the radar and no finally go front page on  Manafonistas. Good news for friends of ghost towns, broken dreams and lonesome figures with a gun – one show is coming  from the old „western“-genre, bleak and black as the night can be – GODLESS is its name. Letting oneself be immersed by GODLESS, some of us will meet a good old aquaintance. Of course, you might want to add, contradict, join sides!

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One – The Leftovers 3
Two – Halt and Catch Fire 4
Three – Godless (standalone) – Netflix
Four – Line of Duty 4
Five – Stranger Things 2 – Netflix
Six – Fargo 3 (standalone) – Netflix
Seven – The Deuce (standalone)
Eight – Vikings 4
Nine – The Punisher (standalone) – Netflix
Ten – Glow 1 
Eleven – Mindhunter (standalone) – Netflix
Twelve – Ozark (standalone) – Netflix

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„Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta’s post-Rapture drama LEFTOVERS 3 finished its three-year run with eight episodes of alternately wrenching, surreal, and bleakly funny storytelling about the psychological aftermath of loss and the quest to superimpose narrative on a seemingly chaotic world. I should admit this pick comes with an asterisk: Lindelof told me that certain themes and images, and the totality of episode five, were inspired by my personal writing about the death of my first wife. I loved the season before I knew that, so I’m leaving The Leftovers where I think it would’ve gone otherwise; however, if you consider the personal aspect disqualifying, go ahead and bump The Leftovers off the list and move everything up a notch.“ (Matt Zoller Seitz‘s no. 1, on vulture)