Welcome back to another edition of This Week in Streaming, the cord-cutters guide to the week that was—without a cable subscription. This week, we're still rooting for a flakey Will Arnett, pumped for a Sausage Party, and Cleganebowl level hyped for the newest record breaking Game of Thrones trailer.

'Flaked' 

Recommended dosage: A thermos full of kombucha or conflict free coffee 

Last week I gushed and gushed about my love for Will Forte; about how his mere presence on the screen puts me in the mood to laugh and how I always have high hopes for anything he's connected to. I mentioned the movie the Brothers Solomon, a widely panned piece of art that holds a special place in my heart. The movie was directed by Bob Odenkirk of Mr.Show and Better Call Saul fame and features a young Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, and the comedy stylings of the borderline insane Will Forte and the perpetually dickish Will Arnett.

Will Arnett has never risen to the ceiling every fan of Arrested Development imagined for him. Gob Bluth was an incredible character: a failed magician, a failed business man, a failed brother, lover, and friend with the confidence of a dictator of a failing nation state. I suspect his breakout character on that show is what has kept him from breaking into the mainstream. He simply was Gob Bluth.

This week, in a bit of a surprise, Netflix unveiled a new original series starring Will Arnett as a tragically flawed pseudo-guru of the tight knit Venice Beach community. I watched it over the course of 36 hours and had mixed feelings about it. It's certainly not a swing and a miss, more like a foul tip where a hipster texting on his phone gets pelted by the ball.

Within the first few seconds my expectations shot through the roof. Is that Will Arnett riding around on a bike to a Stephen Malkmus orginal theme song?  It is! 

Despite the setup and the name drop of Mitch Horowitz as executive producer, Flaked is not a comedy, unfortunately. It's more of a sprawling dramedy that would be better served leaning into the laughs or maybe even into the feels. It sort of wavers around in an uncomfortable hyperrealistic comedy purgatory that makes it tough to binge and almost infuriating to watch at first. I'll also be the first to admit this was most likely heightened by the fact that I lived in Mar Vista for a few years and knew a lot of the types of people featured in this series biking around the west side of Los Angeles.

It's a slow burn that becomes exponentially more fun to watch with each episode. It doesn't necessarily get better, you just grow accustomed to how to watch it. 

As the story unfolds each character is given ample time to grow through each new trial and tribulation no matter how trivial or tremendous it may seem. The show has a eye of the needle sized universe and works well in keeping that perspective. There are some twists and turns, some more confidently realized than other, but at the end of the day it's nice to see Will Arnett casting a large shadow against the sunset.

As for getting your bellyfull of Will Arnett laughs, check out Bojack Horseman and/or rewatch Arrested Development to pass the time while we wait for a new final season of the Bluth families exploits.

'Sausage Party' 

Recommended dosage: A Pineapple Express style cross joint on an empty stomach 

SXSW is in full swing right now which is great for two things -

1) Traffic in Los Angeles is 3% lighter than usual

2) Oddball projects on the horizon get a little bit of buzz 

Seth Rogan's Point Grey Pictures just got a huge boost of momentum with the release of a red band trailer for their upcoming movie, Sausage Party.

Here's the official blurb from Sony Pictures:

Sausage Party, the first R-rated CG animated movie, is about one sausage leading a group of supermarket products on a quest to discover the truth about their existence and what really happens when they become chosen to leave the grocery store. The film features the vocal talents of a who’s who of today’s comedy stars – Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Jonah Hill, Bill Hader, Michael Cera, James Franco, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Paul Rudd, Nick Kroll, David Krumholtz, Edward Norton, and Salma Hayek.

So basically, Toy Story in a supermarket with a lot of everyone's favorite comics voicing a heaping pile of "shits," "fucks," and other absurd envelope pushing antics I can't wait to see once it comes out on digital through Sean Parker's new service, Screening Room. (Just kidding I'll never pay $50 for a movie.)

'Game of Thrones: The Inevitable Cleganebowl' 

Recommended dosage: A goblet of Dornish Strongwine

Over 30 million people have watched this trailer since it was released, breaking HBO's record of 27 million from the season 5 trailer of Thrones.

Get.

Hype.