Binge This Week: Our staff’s latest batch of recommendations

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST: THE STORY OF FIRE SAGA If you haven’t yet watched this sweet Will Ferrell parody of the international song competition, you have yet to get “Volcano Man” stuck in your head. Your loss. Netfl ix.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

THIS WEEK

( N e t f li x / C o u r t e s y )

FILM

DISCLOSURE

Actress Laverne Cox (Orange Is the New Black), writer and director Lilly Wachowski (The Matrix), actress Mj Rodriguez (Pose) and actor Chaz Bono (American Horror Story) share their experiences as trans artists in this original documentary and offi cial Sundance 2020 selection. With an offi cial mission of “provoking a startling revolution in how we see and understand trans people,” Disclosure highlights the increasing visibility of trans people in Hollywood while discussing the very real violence and injustice leveraged against those within the community. Netfl ix. –Leslie Ventura

MUSIC

PHOEBE BRIDGERS’ PUNISHER

Phoebe Bridgers is such a prolifi c collaborator—The 1975, Bon Iver, Conor Oberst, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker are just some of the artists with whom she has worked—that it’s nice to see her expand her solo work. Her sophomore album, Punisher, comes three years after debut Stranger in the Alps, and it feels like the perfect soundtrack for a summer that fi nds most of us hunkering down. It’s rife with loss and heartbreak, and catharsis, too: Play “I Know the End” several times in a row and see if you don’t feel like you’ve gotten something off your chest. –Genevie Durano

TV

THE VENTURE BROS.

When Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer created their animated sci-fi comedy The Venture Bros. for Adult Swim in 2004, their goals were modest: to goof on Hanna-Barbera’s Jonny Quest and to contemplate failure—generational failure, institutional failure and (mostly) male failure. Seven seasons in, it has gone from parodying sci-fi action to becoming one of the best examples of it, with Marvelquality world-building and cutthroat family drama to rival Game of Thrones. Name another show on which a shape-shifting David Bowie (impersonated) runs the criminal underworld. And—very important—it’s hilarious. Hulu. –Geoff Carter

VOTE FOR OUR ALL-TIME BEST OF VEGAS AWARDS AT LASVEGASWEEKLY.COM/BESTOFVEGAS

THE HOOD INTERNET This Chicago-based production crew, which specializes in mashups, recently completed what could be its magnum opus: ‘79-’89, 10 mixes of 50 songs apiece. Head directly to 1988, which seamlessly blends Danzig with Paula Abdul. thehoodinternet.com.

OUR PICKS FOR THE WEEK AHEAD

(L u c a s fi l m L T D . / C o u rt e s y )

PODCAST

IMAGINARY WORLDS

How do fi lmmakers create alien aesthetics? Can villains be good? Are time-travel stories, such as Back to the Future, really a form of therapy, or are they emotional stumbling blocks? In this compelling podcast, host and public radio veteran Eric Molinsky delves into the stories behind the stories of science fi ction, fantasy and beyond. There’s even a large back catalog divided into categories like animation, horror, Star Wars, monsters, video games and comic books. imaginaryworldspodcast.org. –C. Moon Reed

( P a u l B e a t y / C o u r t e s y )

MUSIC

MEKONS

Their meetup plans thwarted by the pandemic, the Mekons instead recorded new album Exquisite “in lockdown on mobile phones, broken cassette recorders, clay tablets and other ancient technologies,” with members scattered in London, LA, New York, Chicago and points beyond, according to their Bandcamp notes. The results? Shambolic, sonically dextrous, lyrically defi ant and a bit mysterious. In other words, it sounds like a Mekons record.

If you’re not already familiar with the band—forged as an arty punk outfi t during the late ’70s in Leeds, England, before evolving into something earthier and far more multifaceted—Exquisite makes for a solid intro, rolling out Western tumbleweeds like “Escalera” and “Nobody” to go with such bouncier bits as “The Inhuman” and “Corn & Grain.” The project also serves as a welcome excuse to dig back through essential entries like Fear and Whiskey (1985), Rock ’n’ Roll (1989) and Oooh! (Out of Our Heads (2002). Fun awaits. –Spencer Patterson