The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Friday, February 26, 2016 — 5

Breezy, happy ‘Light’

By DANIELLE IMMERMAN

Daily Arts Writer

In my mind, I always think I like 

Ra Ra Riot more than I actually do. 
The thing about Ra Ra Riot is that 
they have a few 
jams, but only 
just a few. “Can 
You Tell” and 
“The Orchard” 
are 
the 
shit, 

and if anyone 
says otherwise 
they’re 
just 

lying. The prob-
lem I now real-
ize, though, is that “Can You Tell” 
and “The Orchard” are the only 
Ra Ra Riot songs that I’ll never 
tire of — every other song they’ve 
ever produced sounds identical 
and annoying after three listens. 
And as I’m sitting here at Espres-
so Royale listening to their latest 
album, Need Your Light, I find it 
hard to decipher one song from 
the next.

Produced 
by 
Rostam 
Bat-

manglij, formerly of Vampire 
Weekend, Need Your Light is a 
10-track, feel-good album falling 

somewhere in between Passion 
Pit’s high-energy, upbeat vibes 
and Vampire Weekend’s baroque/
indie-rock sound. Overall, the 
album as a whole isn’t awful — Ra 
Ra Riot’s sound has come a long 
way, no doubt. With dazzling vio-
lins intertwined with Wes Miles’s 
iconic chirpy vocals and electronic 
synth beats, Need Your Light is one 
of the least depressing albums I’ve 
ever listened to. It could be played 
at an ’80s dance party, on the 
beach as you sip a pina colada or as 
you lay in an eno, swaying peace-
fully on a breezy summer evening, 
high on all sorts of good stuff.

Despite the fact that this album 

almost took away the pain of my 
broken foot with its peaceful, 
positive energy, I failed to add a 
single song to any playlist. It’s not 
that any song in particular is bad, 
they just all sound the same. For 
example, “Absolutely” is a pretty 
solid jam, in that I could play it in 
the car for a few weeks without 
tiring of it, but will it be played a 
year from now? Nah. Similarly, I 
would dub “Call Me Out” a high-
light of the album — it’s catchy, 
features the iconic Ra Ra Riot 

violin/cello integration and sur-
prisingly features lyrics that actu-
ally vary every line or two — but, 
again, I can barely remember 
what it sounds like after listening 
to the rest of the album.

The only significantly different 

songs, at the end of the day, aren’t 
even Ra Ra Riot products at all — 
Rostam was featured on “Waters” 
and “I Need Your Light,” resulting 
in the two best and the two most 
stylistically distinct songs on the 
album. “Waters” is a smooth, 
calming track while “I Need Your 
Light” is just all around solid. But 
I think it’s only solid because Ros-
tam made it solid. It’s less synth-
pop and more indie-rock, Vampire 
Weekend-esque with the soaring 
vocals and lack of bombastic Ra 
Ra Riot instrumentals; the minute 
“I Need Your Light” ends, though, 
we’re back to the same old Ra Ra 
Riot sound that dominates the 
album.

But this is where my song-by-

song commentary ends — the 
remainder of the album isn’t much 
to elaborate on aside from the fact 
that it very well might have been 
intended for Cyndi Lauper to sing. 

TV REVIEW
Intelligent ‘Yorker’ 

By SOPHIA KAUFMAN

Daily Arts Writer

The New Yorker is known for its 

polished prose, witty cartoons and 
sophisticated style. With Amazon 
Prime 
Video’s 

“The New York-
er 
Presents”, 

the magazine’s 
elegance 
has 

been transmut-
ed to screen. 
Overseen 
by 

Oscar-winning 
filmmaker Alex 
Gibney (“Going 
Clear: 
Scien-

tology and the 
Prison of Belief”), the series offers 
short narrative films, documentary 
work, poetry, animation and car-
toons, as well as exposure to some 
critically acclaimed artists of a 
variety of mediums. Compelling in 
both form and content, “The New 
Yorker Presents” seems poised not 
only to become the strongest cur-
rent option of docutainment but to 
be another weapon in Amazon’s 
battle as it strives to reach the kind 
of popularity that Netflix has a 
streaming service.

The pilot opens with a segment 

on people that have the “Truman 
Show Delusion” — they think their 
lives are being filmed without their 
consent for reality television — 
which immediately hooks viewers. 
It features a segment from Gibney 
 

about how 9/11 could have been 
prevented, if the CIA hadn’t kept 

information from the FBI. Though 
a complex and perhaps risky seg-
ment to start out with — especially 
considering they only have 34 min-
utes to fill — it’s comprehensive; an 
outline is given of all the informa-
tion to which the CIA had access 
and withheld from important FBI 
agents. By analyzing these events 
through the tension between these 
two organizations, the writers 
of this segment stay away from 
sounding too much like govern-
mental conspiracy theorists. 

The show adds a dose of humor 

in the form of a short narrative film, 
“Le Café de Blazac” — shot with a 
perhaps semi-ironic yet still aes-
thetically pleasing sepia filter — in 
which Paul Giamatti (“Sideways”) 
plays Honore de Blazac, the 19th 
century French author known for 
drinking unbelievable amounts of 
coffee daily. An even shorter come-
dic piece by Simon Rich (creator of 
“Man Seeking Woman”) features 
Alan Cumming (“The Good Wife”) 
playing God speaking to Brett Gel-
man (“The Other Guys”), who runs 
around preaching in his under-
wear, as per God’s instructions.

Within the first few episodes, 

there’s an interview with perfor-
mance artist Marina Abramovic. 
Due to time constraints, it feels like 
a more superficial introduction to 
her work than she may deserve, but 
it’s functional and fun nonethe-
less. The main investigative piece 
is a profile on biologist Tyrone 
Hayes, which is as entertaining 
as it is informative. Finally, one of 

the most evocative pieces is the 
exploration of racialized violence 
in America through art by writer 
Edwidge Danticat, in a segment 
titled “Black Bodies in Motion and 
in Pain,” inspired by Jacob Law-
rence’s Migration Series.

The b-roll in “The New Yorker 

Presents” is just as skilfully made 
and beautiful to watch as the foot-
age from the main stories, and the 
score always perfectly comple-
ments the segment. The animated 
cartoon sequences and The New 
Yorker office vignettes provide 
breathing space in between the 
more complex stories, and balance 
out the journalistic and creative 
elements. Unlike other NYC-cen-
tric media, it’s completely acces-
sible to those who aren’t familiar 
with the magazine — though for 
those that do read it, there are 
familiar touches. The style of The 
New Yorker’s copy — down to the 
fonts — is echoed in the cinematog-
raphy.

“The New Yorker Presents” may 

feel uneven in terms of what kind 
of content is in each episode, but 
that doesn’t detract from it; rather, 
it’s one of the strongest points of 
the show. The combination and 
complementation of documenta-
ry-style work, animated cartoons, 
narrative films and storytelling, 
poetry and conversations with art-
ists is what makes the series fun 
to watch in a way that a straight 
documentary often struggles to 
accomplish.

BARSUK

Yung Bill Hader on the right.

ALBUM REVIEW

B-

Need Your 
Light

Ra Ra Riot

Barsuk

A-

The New 
Yorker 
Presents

Series Premiere

Amazon Prime 

Video

‘Love’ is complex

By SAM ROSENBERG

Daily Arts Writer

Most TV shows that face the 

subject of love head-on tend to 
take a formulaic route: boy-meets-
girl 
premise, 

simplistic sup-
porting charac-
ters, romantic 
setting, 
some 

sort of conflict 
and 
resolu-

tion, etc. It’s a 
rather 
broad 

and 
touchy 

topic that has 
been 
recycled 

over and over again for years in 
pop culture. But who says love 
doesn’t still contain some artistic 
merit? For Netflix’s newest origi-
nal series, “Love,” all those clichés 
about love, romance and relation-
ships are thrown out the window 
for a practical, grounded perspec-
tive on every aspect of the show’s 
namesake. 

Despite 
its 
grating, 
gener-

ic-sounding name, “Love” is a 
down-to-earth, charming comedy 
bolstered by strong writing, two 
standout leads and a stinging sense 
of realism. Set in L.A. (my home-
town), the story follows two thirty-
somethings, the socially awkward 
Gus (Paul Rust, “I Love You Beth 
Cooper”) and the aimless Mickey 
(Gillian Jacobs, “Life Partners”), 
and their developing relationship 
from strangers to friends to pos-
sibly more than friends. Through 
awkward dates, revealing confron-
tations between exes and other 
romantic and sexual misadven-
tures, Gus and Mickey successfully 
and hilariously guide the show’s 
exploration of relationships and 
female outlooks on modern love.

Executive-produced by “Train-

wreck” and “Knocked Up” direc-
tor Judd Apatow, “Love” is exactly 
what you would expect from an 
Apatow production: risqué and 
vulgar, yet full of poignancy and 
heart. It isn’t always laugh-out-
loud funny, but for those who enjoy 
observational humor within the 
underpinnings of day-to-day con-
versations or physical cringe com-
edy, “Love” is the perfect show to 
watch. With a UCB pedigree, Rust 
masterfully embodies the nerdy 
Midwestern nice guy archetype 
as Gus, but his character’s deep-
seated aggression and disappoint-
ment with life’s constant downfalls 
elevates Rust’s acting. Having 
been on six seasons of the NBC-
turned-Yahoo! cult hit “Commu-
nity,” Jacobs effortlessly delivers 
as Mickey, transcending the well-
worn high-functioning alcoholic 
archetype through a subversive, 
passionate performance.

Though its first season is only 10 

episodes, “Love” is steadily paced, 
the characters and plotlines unrav-
eling gradually with each episode 
(Mickey and Gus don’t even meet 
until the end of the first episode). 
One of “Love” ’s greatest strengths 
is making sharp examinations on 
the ecstatic highs and destructive 
lows of human interaction through 
its protagonists’ points of view. 
The third episode, “Tested,” finds 
Gus having trouble with his job as 
an on-set teacher tutor for a bratty 
young TV actress (Iris Apatow, 
“This is 40”), while Mickey has sex 
with her boss, radio host Dr. Greg 
Colter (Brett Gelman, “Another 
Period”), to avoid getting fired. 
“Party in the Hills” depicts Gus 
and Mickey having different expe-
riences at the same party, with Gus 
spontaneously jamming out with a 

few hipster dads to Paul McCart-
ney and Wings’s “Jet,” while 
Mickey tackles an uncomfortable 
situation with two former beaus 
(stand-up comedian Kyle Kinane 
and Rich Sommer, “Mad Men”). 
In “The Date,” Mickey stays home 
and does whatever she can to avoid 
drinking again after going sober, 
while Gus and Mickey’s perky Aus-
sie roommate Bertie (the winning 
Claudia O’Doherty, “Trainwreck”) 
go out on a date that twists and 
turns into an unexpected outcome.

In addition to a tongue-in-cheek 

title sequence and an eclectic 
soundtrack that includes Queen, 
Jamie xx, Diane Coffee and Biz 
Markie, “Love” is stylistically on-
point. As a native of Los Angeles, I 
can definitely say that the cinema-
tography in “Love” does a fantastic 
job of encapsulating both the beau-
ty and energizing nightlife of the 
city, from the hipster-friendliness 
of Echo Park to the laid-back hive 
of Silver Lake. It’s typical to just 
display West Hollywood or Bever-
ly Hills, but “Love” unearths some 
hidden spots in the L.A. backdrop, 
which only adds to the visual and 
emotional experience of watching 
the show.

“Love” isn’t necessarily about 

falling in love or finding love, but 
about human connection and 
interaction in the realest, rawest 
sense. The show doesn’t roman-
ticize or glamorize love; it simply 
shows the complicated, troubled 
and occasionally amusing nature 
intertwined within the context 
of love, whether it’s dealing with 
a breakup from a long-term rela-
tionship, a toxic attachment to an 
old lover or throwing out a collec-
tion of Blu-Ray DVDs to signify the 
media’s distorted idea of what love 
really is. 

A-

Love

Series 
Premiere

Netflix

TV REVIEW
‘Cooked’ brings food 
back to the TV table

By DANIELLE YACOBSON

Daily Arts Writer

“For is there any practice less 

selfish, any labor less alienated, any 
time less wasted, than preparing 
something deli-
cious and nour-
ishing for people 
you love?” Best-
selling 
author 

and 
journalist 

Michael Pollan 
writes about his, 
and our, rela-
tionship 
with 

food in a poetic 
cadence, sending an ode to his-
tory and the years of evolution that 
have been shaped by what, where 
and why we eat. Based on Pollan’s 
“Cooked: A Natural History of 
Transformation,” Netflix brings 
his culinary stories and insights 
to screen in “Cooked,” a four-part 
documentary series that ties food 
to the core of our civilization and 
humanity.

Each 
episode 
of 
“Cooked” 

focuses on one of the four natu-
ral elements — fire, water, air and 
ground — and explores the uni-
versal impact that it has had on 
both biology and human nature. 
Continuing the stories of subjects 
in Pollan’s book, the documentary 

series takes on “food” from a global 
perspective, featuring individuals 
from countries like India, Morocco 
and Peru. While what we eat is so 
often categorized by culture and 
regional cuisine, “Cooked” is able 
to paint a picture that shows the 
act of feeding, in all its variety, as 
simple. “We are a product of cook-
ing,” Pollan narrates, arguing that 
the very act of heating up our food 
is what made us human from the 
start. “Fire,” the first episode of 
the series, primes the audience to 
explore humanity through the lens 
of cooking as a group of aborigi-
nal hunters sets fire to a deserted 
landscape. It burns, catching from 
shrub to shrub, but however for-
eign their way of hunting might 
seem, “Cooked” effectively shows 
that the simplest natural elements 
connect us all at our most basic 
need.

From economics to chemistry, 

“Cooked” is able to clearly articu-
late the complicated systems in 
preparing food without losing 
its audience in the process. Cov-
ering an impressive range, Pol-
lan effortlessly transitions from 
detailing the microflora composi-
tion of “designer cheeses,” prod-
ucts of modern fermentation that 
favorably alter human immune 
systems, to discussing the socio-

logical implications of Sunday 
family dinners. The series presents 
food as a relationship, not a prod-
uct, and recognizes the complexity 
of the topic without entitlement or 
blame.

Simply put, the series calls for 

a cooking renaissance. It does not 
push a political or activist agenda 
down the throats of its viewers, 
nor does it scream of boycot-
ting corporations that infiltrate 
our minds and bodies with high 
fructose corn syrup. “Cooked” 
doesn’t forcefully rally for some 
monumental change in society, but 
rather, hopes to reconnect us with 
nature. Pollan explores the time-
consuming, complicated and beau-
tiful relationship between humans 
and food, as sweeping shots of 
desert landscapes and exquisite 
close-ups of bubbling stew show 
that humanity simply could not 
exist without the primal act of 
mixing water and ingredients and 
then heating it up. The docu-series 
is soft-spoken and light, and while 
it fails to capture an unwavering 
and undivided focus, it succeeds in 
gracefully maneuvering through 
the technical aspects of cooking 
as well as backing out to a cultural 
lens. Instead of lecturing people 
back to the kitchen, “Cooked” lures 
them back in. 

B+

Cooked

Documentary 

Series Premiere

Netflix

TV REVIEW
ALBUM REVIEW

By BEN ROSENSTOCK

Senior Arts Editor

On paper, the ongoing plots of 

“Togetherness” 
seem 
recycled 

from practi-
cally 
every 

other dram-
edy 
about 

white people 
in their 30’s. 
Brett 
Pier-

son (co-cre-
ator 
Mark 

Duplass, 
“The 
One 

I 
Love”) 

and his wife Michelle (Melanie 

Lynskey, “Two and a Half Men”) 
desperately try to reignite their 
spark, which has faded after years 
of marriage. Meanwhile, Brett’s 
dorky best friend, Alex (Steve Zis-
sis, “Jeff, Who Lives at Home”), 
struggles to deal with his feel-
ings for Tina (Amanda Peet, “The 
Whole Nine Yards”), Michelle’s 
sister who’s way out of his league.

The show works so beautifully, 

though, because these characters 
are more than their apparent stock 
roles. With Duplass’s wide-eyed 
earnestness, Brett is well-meaning 
in a way that makes his occasional 
whininess endearing. As well, 
his friendship with Alex is one of 

the most charming male friend-
ships on TV, supportive and joyful 
even during their most unlikable 
moments.

In the second season premiere, 

though, Duplass isn’t the only cen-
tral player at the top of his game. 
Following a radical period of 
weight loss for Zissis, Alex is now 
a successful actor filming a movie 
in New Orleans, with a hot young 
girlfriend of his own. He’s just as 
kind and funny as he was last year, 
but his smile is wider and more 
confident after spending some 
time away from Tina and gaining 
some professional success. Seeing 
this happy new Alex, Tina can’t 

TV REVIEW
Sweet ‘Togetherness’

help but awkwardly step in and try 
to regain his favor, buying him a 
ridiculously expensive compass for 
his birthday. Whether Tina has real 
feelings for Alex or if she just self-
ishly craves his puppy-love atten-
tion, she can’t stand their awkward 
dynamic following his first season 
declaration of love for her. Peet is 
hilarious in her cringe-inducing 
portrayal of Tina as transparently 
jealous and desperate.

Lynskey is another standout, her 

expressions subtle yet managing to 
convey so much. The first season 
ended in a cliffhanger, with Brett 
pledging to be a better husband 
while 
Michelle 
simultaneously 

commits her first infidelity, sleep-
ing with her friend David (John 
Ortiz, “Silver Linings Playbook”). 
Now, the full scene and its after-
math is shown to us in disturbingly 
immersive flashbacks, the sound 

design filled with nightmarish bass 
courtesy of Braids’s “Lammicken.” 
It’s painful, over the course of the 
episode, to see Brett striving to be 
the perfect husband, planning little 
playful surprises and asserting 
his dedication to Michelle. Brett 
notices that something’s been off 
with Michelle, but he attributes it 
to her distrust of his romantic ges-
tures. He has no idea that Michelle 
has had an affair, and going for-
ward, the show will surely build 
towards this devastating revela-
tion.

As affecting as the flashback 

scene is, Zissis and Peet share the 
strongest scene of the episode, the 
ending scene. Frustrated with the 
way Alex has been subtly push-
ing Tina away, she confronts him 
at the ice machine in their New 
Orleans hotel. After an episode full 
of wide smiles and gentle media-

tion, Alex finally lets his confident 
movie star persona fall away, and 
he expresses all the hurt Tina 
caused him by breaking his heart. 
It’s a magnificent scene, with both 
the characters dropping the pas-
sive-aggressive bullshit and laying 
their emotions on the table.

Above all, that emotional hon-

esty is what’s most impressive 
about “Togetherness.” The series 
easily could’ve been just another 
carbon copy of every other show 
of its genre, but its sincerity and 
genuineness makes it something 
heartfelt and deeply emotional. 
Like the Pfefferman dynasty of 
“Transparent” or the Cole fam-
ily of “Casual,” the friends at the 
center of “Togetherness” help the 
series transcend the genre’s cli-
chés. To watch them, feel for them 
and become deeply invested in 
them is a special feeling.

A-

Togetherness

Season 2 Pre-
miere, Sundays 
at 10:30 p.m.

HBO

