If a good sweater shows up in a movie and nobody posted about it, did it make a sound?

Or the sweaters I want to shout about more.

David Dastmalchian pulls off this look really well! But it’s not the sweater! (Credit: Courtesy of IFC Films and Shudder)

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: I’m thinking too much about a sweater that briefly popped up in a movie.

In this case, it’s Late Night With the Devil, the newest film from Cameron and Colin Cairne. The vast majority of the movie practically plays out in real-time via “found footage” of a late-night talk show's infamous Halloween 1977 episode, during which one guest attempts to summon a demon allegedly possessing a teenage girl. With November sweeps around the corner and the fate of his show on the line, Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian) is desperate for something to boost the ratings for Night Owls with Jack Delroy—always second fiddle to Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show in the ratings—and save it from cancellation...but at what cost?

I enjoyed myself enough, although I didn’t find it all that scary (observation, not a complaint). Much of the discourse about LNWTD is over the Cairnes’ use of three interstitial images (appearing just before the show returns from commercial break) made with A.I., for completely understandable reasons. But that’s not what I want to talk about.

While most of LNWTD is structured as a single episode taping (with glimpses of what’s going on during commercial breaks), a brief documentary-style exposition at the beginning shows us exactly what we need to know about Jack Delroy’s life and tenure as a late-night host. We meet Jack’s wife, Madeleine (Georgina Haig) and soon see the couple posing on the cover of a magazine wearing matching Aran sweaters. It’s kind of reminiscent of how someone like Grace Kelly made a garment worn by the working-class chic but in a much smaller snapshot. Jack Delroy is supposed to be the new and shiny thing on late-night TV, and his and Madeleine’s love story is supposed to be one for the ages. But that’s not how things turn out.

The sweaters are barely in the film for 20 seconds—a complete guess since I wasn’t expecting them, didn’t have a timer, didn’t look at my watch, and I was in a movie theater so it seemed rude to do that. It’s not in the trailers, it’s not in the few promo images released by IFC Films/Shudder, and when I looked after seeing the movie, nobody was talking about it online. I know I didn’t imagine anything, but there’s still this weird disconnect (on my end) whenever I’m the only person getting excited about a new movie sweater.

I promise you, this sweater exists, and I’ll be grabbing screengrabs the minute it arrives on Shudder. If you decide to watch it, you’re welcome. But if you’ve already seen LNWTD, join me in shouting about it.

Update, April 24: Now that LNWTD is streaming on Shudder, here’s the sweater! Let’s shout!

TOLD YOU, I say, even though absolutely nobody doubted me. (Source: Shudder)

The screenshot is from the first few minutes of the film, and while you don’t explicitly see Jack and Madeleine on a cover during that exposition dump, the footage and photos still give off the vibe they’re posing for the camera. The actual Aran sweater has little to do with the turns LNWTD takes, but I’ll never complain about seeing Dastmalchian wearing one.

The Knit: Constellate Mitts

You have no idea how difficult it is to get a photo of this without all the details getting lost. (Credit: Michelle Jaworski)

Pattern: Ravelry / Direct

Yarn: Bar à Tricot Cognac in Midnight Kiss

First came the hat, and now the mitts follow. Unfortunately, the fingerless mitts are a tad more frustrating, at least on my end. They’re more or less following the same pattern as before with some added glove quirks, but because the recipient has smaller hands and wrists than I do, requiring fewer cast-on stitches, I can’t exactly use myself to measure my progress.

The Flick: Girls5eva

“WE’RE GONNA BE FAMOUS 5EVA—‘CAUSE 4EVA’S TOO SHORT (TOO SHORT)”—Yes, the show’s theme song will be stuck in your head 5eva, and I will not apologize! (Credit: Emily V. Aragones/Netflix)

Streaming: Peacock (seasons 1-2); Netflix (seasons 1-3)

Girls5eva might just be the best comedy on TV that you’re not watching.

I know that seems like an improbable thing to say about a show you may or may not have known existed before this newsletter when we’re still fairly close to the peak of Peak TV; I just gabbed to a friend about it earlier this week who’d never heard of it. But despite the very murderers’ row of great TV to consume, this might be one of the few comedies airing right now that’s actually funny. Not a dark comedy masquerading as a drama (Succession, The White Lotus), nor a drama masquerading as a comedy (Barry, The Bear). Not even a show whose genre would be more nuanced if we didn’t immediately have to categorize it for the Emmys. But an honest-to-god, laugh-out-loud comedy. I’ve heard it compared to 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, which makes sense because Tina Fey (who created both shows) is an executive producer and Meredith Scardino (who wrote on UKS and later executive produced it) created Girls5eva.

My elevator pitch: The surviving members¹ of a ‘90s girl group, now in their 40s, reunite and decide to have another go at fame on their terms after a rapper samples their song, which goes viral. What ensues is an absurdly delightful delve into mainstream misogyny in the late ‘90s/early aughts (probably not a coincidence it’s coming as we saw a surge in mea culpa docs, shows, and movies about how we and/or the media treated famous women during that time) and how Dawn (Sara Bareilles), Summer (Busy Philipps), Gloria (Paula Pell), and Wickie (Renée Elise Goldsberry, who should have at least one Emmy for this role by now) reckon with that as they pave their own way.

There are jokes on top of jokes, but the real draw is the music. Bareilles, a talented songwriter in her own right (and who I’ve been a fan of since I was 15), wrote a handful of songs over the three seasons, but the majority of them came from composer Jeff Richmond, Giancarlo Vulcano, and Scardino. They’re legit earworms, from the theme song of “Famous 5eva” (never skip the opening credits) and “BPE (Big Pussy Energy)” to the show’s earliest standout, “New York Lonely Boy.”

It’s that last song, a Simon and Garfunkel-inspired ditty about Dawn’s son (an only child living in New York City) performed by The Milk Carton Kids, that demonstrates the cleverness of a continuous gag. In season 2 a revised version of the song is born after Dawn learns that she’s pregnant with her second child, meaning her son is no longer a New York Lonely Boy. And in season 3, it gets an international spin when applied to Gray Holland (Thomas Doherty), the Harry Styles stand-in who befriends Gloria (who has no idea who he is) while disguised on the road as a trucker. He’s just a lad who really loves his knitwear and doesn’t want everyone around them to use him for their own means. No wonder he leaned into becoming full nightmare fodder.

Gray Holland, a crooner after my own heart. (Source: Netflix)

Despite being critically acclaimed for its entire run (all three seasons are certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes), the biggest hurdle Girls5eva has is getting people to watch it. At first, it probably had to do with where you could find it: Seasons 1 and 2 were released in 2021 and 2022 on Peacock, and before Peacock had success stories like Poker Face and The Traitors, chances are you probably didn’t have Peacock. The show was canceled after season 2, but then Netflix saved it. And while there were hopes that the “Netflix Effect” would kick in for Girls5eva as it did with Cobra Kai, Lucifer, and Suits, Girls5eva seemed to be DOA on Netflix since its arrival last month. Which makes a season 4 (which I desperately need) a long shot.

“When Girls5Eva gets cancelled and then you discover it in two years and tweet, ‘How come no one told me how funny this show is?!?!’ just know that we did tell you and it’s all your fault,” Stephen O'Neall tweeted in early April.

And he’s absolutely right! I’m telling you right now to watch this damn show. DO IT. And if it gets canceled, I will judge² you.

What I’m Reading

• Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune: The tagline for this book is “A Man Called Ove meets The Good Place.” While unfamiliar with the former reference, I was drawn to this one by the latter. And, fair warning, do not read this one in public unless you want to bawl your eyes out in public. I’m not saying that because I made that mistake, but even sitting at home with it…oof. (But in a very good way.)

• The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston: It’s not my first time recommending one of Poston’s books, and like The Dead Romantics, the “twist,” so to say, is incredibly obvious; like the first chapter obvious. But I can’t get too mad about it because Poston is really good at what she does, and I find the characters to be really compelling.

• Starter Villain by John Scalzi: If the adorable absurdity of the cover doesn’t win you over, this book—about a laid-off journalist (sob) inheriting his distant uncle’s “evil” empire (and his enemies)—featuring SENTIENT CAT SPIES just might.

Shameless Plugs

• At Reactor (former Tor.com), I went long on Coraline’s blue starry sweater—a previous Knitwear of the Week entry—and expanded on how its existence kind of blows my mind.

Knitwear of the Week

Knit: A gray asymmetrical yoke sweater—and yes, it bothers me a bit that it doesn’t match up.

Worn By: James Taylor (Matthew Beard), who looks like he has impeccable taste in sweaters, in Magpie Murders.

Costume Designer: Annie Hardinge

I have no idea what’s going on, but you have my attention. (Source: PBS)

About a month after officially launching Knit(ting) Flicks, I quietly posted a call for Knitwear of the Week nominations. I don’t know about every Good Piece of Knitwear (knitted or crocheted) out there, so I wanted to give readers a chance to nominate their own; one of my better experiences on Twitter dot com (RIP) was the weekend a knitting feature of mine went viral, which people used as an excuse to share some great movie sweaters with me. If that sounds familiar, it’s because a shortened version of that call sits at the end of every newsletter I send out (including this one).

But nobody’s taken me up on that until now. Let me introduce you to this unique Lopapeysa-esque sweater, which Marie, a newsletter subscriber, nominated. I knew nothing of Magpie Murders (the Anthony Horowitz novel or the recent PBS Masterpiece adaptation) before this recommendation came in. But the premise of the show—book editor Susan Ryeland (played by Lesley Manville) searches for the missing final chapter of author Alan Conway’s (Conleth Hill) mystery novel after his sudden death, which is reported as a suicide (but Susan suspects it was murder) and has the real-life and in-novel mysteries playing out side-by-side—sounds incredibly intriguing. (All six episodes are available to stream via PBS Passport.)

Matthew Beard, donning this week’s sweater, plays two roles in the series: James Taylor, Conway’s boyfriend in the real world, and James Fraser, the detective’s assistant in the fictional world. And it’s not the only good sweater in the series.

Here’s what Marie had to say about that sweater: “I am OBSESSED with a sweater that the character James wears in the series Magpie Murders—it's an asymmetrical yoke sweater, and I desperately want one (even though looking at it breaks my brain), but my knitter sister said it would be too annoying for her to knit.”

Want to nominate your own Knitwear of the Week?

I’m now offering you a chance to nominate your favorite piece of cinematic knitwear. I’ve got more information about what I’m looking for here. So, if you’ve got one, send an email over to knittingflicks@gmail.com with your pick!

1. The fifth member, Ashley (Ashley Park in flashbacks), died in an infinity pool accident in the early 2000s—apparently, a common way for famous people to die in this universe, if what one character says in season 2 is any indication—but is never forgotten.

2. grumble internally at