Dropping anchor at Sterling Point

Welcome to Human Pursuits, the column that features need-to-know names and stories in media and other creative spaces. Today, my late-summer fling with “Sterling Point”, and overdue updates from Friends of the Newsletter including Scott McClanahan, Ali Royals, Dolly Meckler, Joyce Manor, and more.

For a show that sounds like it’s named after a Canadian hedge fund, Sterling Point is surprisingly cozy. Like a Tim Horton’s double-double, or one of those scratchy Hudson’s Bay Company (RIP) blankets. It surpasses what is ultimately a pretty low bar. Ambient TV worthy of your limited attention.

Though I spent most the past week fixated on Phoebe Bridgers’ Lost Weekend—which sounds good even without lasers—this Muskoka, Ontario-based drama, now streaming on Amazon Prime, has somehow managed to draw me in like a mosquito to a bug zapper.

Indeed, I am shocked that I actually like it.

For the past few years, the Bezos Broadcast Corporation has been feeding teen girls, and the millennial women they cringe at, a steady diet of slop known as The Summer I Turned Pretty—a show so utterly devoid of rizz and charm, it makes Emily In Paris look like King Lear1.

My problem with The Summer I Turned Pretty is that there was basically nobody to root for. Belly and the brothers who love her, Conrad and Jeremiah2, were utterly annoying in both their motivations and actions. So much so, that I occasionally wished they would experience some sort of nuclear winter. Like teen dramas of years gone by (think: Grey’s Anatomy or One Tree Hill) the show leaned into big emotions, hoping to deliver catharsis via dreamy editing and perfectly timed needle drops. Break up and make ups abounded, but they rarely stuck the landing.

To quote John Mayer, love is a verb. And they never quite showed it, in my opinion.

Sterling Point bypasses similar pitfalls by placing teen longing on the back burner. Stolen glances and kisses on the screened in porch are there, but not really the focus. Instead, the story centres on Annie Jacobson’s cross continent quest to uncover her family history after the death of her grandfather. Along the way she strikes up a complicated friendship with a cottage country resident named Ramona, who may prove to be her north star.

The tension between Annie and Ramona, of who knows what, and who is willing to share, is one of the main reasons Sterling Point succeeds. The situation is outlandish–it is a teen drama–but sold with conviction. There’s an oil and water dynamic at play. Yes, it’s clear these two will become friends. Despite that obvious inevitability, the show somehow manages to keep you invested.

My two-cents is that, unlike other streaming drama, Sterling Point’s cast has dock-star potential.

Jacobson, portrayed by Ella Rubin, has been thrust into the spotlight as a new It Girl—Gen Z Julia Roberts—as has 22-year-old Bo Bragason who plays the charmingly-casual Oona3. Nikko Angelo Hinayo also avoids any potential typecasting by turning on the SWAGAPINO charm, and Keen Ruffalo suggests he’s inherited his dad Mark’s onscreen affability, deftly walking the line between antagonist and comic relief.

Given the frosty state of Canada—U.S. relations, it’s refreshing to see that this series, created by a Canuck, but produced by Yanks, captures some of what makes life north of the 49th parallel great. Filmed on location, many scenes bask in the natural beauty of Muskoka cottage country. More than that, though, I appreciate that Sterling Point (mostly) takes Canada seriously. Almost every joke at the country’s expense is delivered with a knowing wink. A tacit acknowledgement that Americans often know very little about their closest neighbour.

Like most flings, I’m not sure I need more than a season, but we’ll see where the summer takes us.

• ICYMI: Last week’s interview was with musician Lockimara. We discussed his new album, Only Sun, Only Moon (out now), moving to New York, feeling at odds with his own voice, whether loops are annoying, the origins of his stage name, and more.

• My favourite peripheral idiot (her words) Peyton Murphy penned a really great personal essay about “The Skinny v. Starving Conundrum”. I’ve been thinking about one line in particular: “Eating disorders aren’t necessarily caused by comparison, but they certainly thrive on it.”

• I’d Have To Live Ten Thousand Years To Understand The Beauty: Chelsea Hodson and the team at Rose Books have shared a new video of Scott McClanahan reading from Fights!

• Ali Royals —who continues to have more fun than everybody not named Dua Lipa— filed a wonderful style report from the World Lumberjack Finals in Wisconsin for American Style. Read it here.

• Speaking of Byline, I loved seeing Dolly Meckler on the homepage. She penned a recent article about how Roxane Gay and Debbie Millman are revamping The Rumpus.

• Who the fuck's laughing now?: Joyce Manor are playing The Forum in Inglewood next January. Tickets here.

• Graham Hunt has also just announced a short West Coast tour in December. Pre-sale is Thursday with full sale starting Friday.

• Podfather Rob Harvilla’s 60 SONGS THAT EXPLAIN THE '90S: THE 2000S is back from a brief break with an episode about My Chemical Romance’s “Welcome to the Black Parade”.

• Oh, and happy belated birthday brittany spanos , happy early birthday Lindsey Hartman.

When we float out into the ether, into the Everlasting Arms,
I hope we don't hear Marley's chains we forged in life.

Ohio-slash-Michigan rockers Citizen. I’ve been enjoying their new album, Halcyon Blues, a whole lot.