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Aug 22, 2014 By Ryan Newmyer, Jen Goma, and Josh Meakim A Sunny Day in Glasgow

Welcome to What I’m Watching, where a musician tells us about a TV show they are currently watching or a movie they recently saw. In this installment three members of A Sunny Day in Glasgow (Ryan Newmyer, Jen Goma, and Josh Meakim) let us in on their viewing habits. The shoegazing band formed in Philadelphia in 2006, but now its members are based in various cities. The band’s critically acclaimed fourth album, Sea When Absent, was released by Lefse in June. Read on as they tell you about a new animated favorite, some guilty pleasure watching, and a ‘90s classic.

Ryan Newmyer:

I’m a huge Dan Harmon fan, going back to his shorts for Channel 101 and his stints writing Scud. And while I fiercely love his first cult TV show Community, his new animated sci-fi program Rick and Morty might be even better.

Using the classic pop culture trope of the brilliant scientist and his young protégé, Rick and Morty‘s sci-fi trappings provide a limitless playground for Harmon’s rich imagination and talent for deconstructing and subverting plot structure.

If that makes it sound like some kind of pretentious quasi-academic hogwash, have no fear. The show is crass, disgusting, bizarre, and poignant, often in the same breath. It’s one of the most interesting first seasons of television I’ve ever seen, and I can’t wait to see where it goes in its second.

Jen Goma:

Whenever I want to zone out and binge on TV I usually seek out reality shows. I wish I could zone and binge on Criterion, which is what I was hoping I’d do when I signed up for Hulu Plus. But, it’s so satisfying to give in to these serials that are formatted to give me my characters and grab my attention without a huge commitment.

So, I stopped fighting it and started feeling it and learned that what I like to watch is some form of reality show with a workaday theme. Which is a series of search terms more than a genre I can name or one show in particular. I’ve tried the crab catching shows and the gold digging shows but, the best ones I’ve found are Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares 2004-2007 and Undercover Boss (U.K. version, first three seasons). And when I’m not re-watching these six seasons of reality TV gold I’m watching the 12 international franchises of Undercover Boss and anything that Gordon Ramsay lets the camera roll on. And it’s not all good. Most of it is terrible. But, I’m chasing the terrible/wonderful that is both of the original U.K. versions of these shows. And the formula that becomes cringe-y in later seasons and American versions is so charming in these first groups of episodes.

The premises of these shows are pretty insane. In Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares a renowned, mean chef comes into a fledgling/failing restaurant and uses his special brand of tough love to whip the owners into shape, on camera. In Undercover Boss the CEO of a major corporation goes undercover as an entry level employee and tries to see what is really going on, on camera. It’s like the plot of a quirky ‘80s movie but with real people. And these first seasons showcase a realer side of the subjects as well as the 1.0 versions of shows that are now worldwide successes. From the clunky disguises (wigs attached to hats and fake earrings) of the undercover bosses to the odd amount of times Gordon has to take his shirt off, on camera, in order to change into his chef whites—these early seasons are charming, warts and all.

They smooth out the bumps in later iterations of these shows so that it’s no longer necessary to exploit Ramsay’s sex appeal and CEO’s actually pierce their ears, dye their hair, and buy their entrance level employees houses. For me they also dull some of the magic. It seems like regular workaday Joes are getting really good at “being real” on camera and editors are able to fit the stories of different failing businesses across America into tidy story arcs. I guess our entire culture is getting better at being on camera. And that fact, like spinoffs of these shows, I can take or leave but I mostly don’t know what to do with. Maybe these first seasons will be remembered as the wild west of reality shows, when people could lose their shit freely without realizing it could be turned into a GIF or without hoping that it would be. But, I do recommend this early era of these reality shows, even if they aren’t good examples of how to be real, they are good TV.

Josh Meakim:

A few weeks ago my wireless router crapped out on me, which has prevented me from absorbing all the current shows everybody likes so damn much. So, in my down time I’ve been re-watching episodes of Get a Life.

For those of you who weren’t watching goofy network sitcoms in the ‘90s, Get a Life was a vehicle for the comedian Chris Elliott, who is one of my favorite weirdos. Chris (which is also his name in the show) is a 30 something paperboy who lives in his parents’ garage.

Most episodes revolve around some idiotic adventure, includes a montage set to some pop song from the era, and usually ends in Chris’ death. It is without a doubt my favorite show of all time and everyone should watch. If you don’t think it’s funny, that’s understandable, but we can’t be friends.