I feel seen by the algorithm

I’ve been on a bit of a streak lately — Derry Girls (my wife’s recommendation, and I owe her), then How to Get to Heaven from Belfast, then Bodkin. At some point Netflix noticed the pattern and started serving up a queue of quirky, short-run, UK and Ireland-adjacent shows, and honestly? The algorithm knows me better than I know myself.

Derry Girls in particular I resisted longer than I should have. It’s set against the backdrop of the Troubles but wears it lightly — it’s really a show about being young and ridiculous with your friends, which transcends geography by about a thousand miles. My wife was right. I hate when that happens. I am grateful when that happens.

Now I’m on to Obituary, which continues the theme: small, strange, Irish, very funny. There’s something about the particular flavor of humor that comes out of that part of the world — dry, dark, deeply committed to the bit — that I find consistently restorative.

Netflix’s recommendation engine is a blunt instrument most of the time. But occasionally it reads the room. This is one of those times. I feel seen.