In the Texas Monthly Recommends series, Texas Monthly writers, editors, photographers, and producers offer up their favorite recent culture discoveries from the great state of Texas.

Amazon Prime’s Undone, created by San Antonio native Kate Purdy and BoJack Horseman creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg, is one of the more compelling shows to pop up on our screens this year. The eight-part series tells the story of a young woman, played by Alita: Battle Angel’s Rosa Salazar, who becomes “undone” in time after a car accident and subsequently finds her dead father walking around the Alamo City, urging her to solve the mystery of whether his death really was an accident. It’s unclear whether any of this is actually happening or if she’s dealing with a break from reality as a result of the trauma of the crash. Either way, the story plays out through familiar San Antonio sites—the River Walk, the Alamo, and more—in beautiful rotoscoped animation that recalls Richard Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly and the 2017 documentary Tower (the show was animated by the same Texas-based team that worked on those films). It’s the sort of mind-bending story that should make us feel lucky to live during the golden age of television streaming. It’s unthinkable that a network would have taken a chance on something as weirdly thrilling as Undone in a previous era.

—Dan Solomon, associate editor

Mrs. Johnson’s Bakery

When you’re away from home, you carry memories of certain local late-night spots with you and use them as a frame of reference for what’s considered good food. When I’m visiting friends in Houston or Dallas, North Austin’s Mrs. Johnson’s Bakery is my donut shop par excellence. Established in 1948, Mrs. Johnson’s understands and celebrates the late-night snack, opening its doors (and its drive-through window) at 7:30 p.m. and closing at noon the next day. The donuts—and klobasniky (misidentified as kolaches), for those without a sweet tooth—are warm, puffy, and almost fragile in your hands, so fresh out of the oven that the dough hasn’t even had time to set. This is an essential end-of-the-night meal. A dozen donuts start at $6.

—Sam Russek, editorial intern

Wander Literary Walk

Wander is a literary choose-your-own-adventure in downtown Austin that marries literature and public art. Created by local artists Chris Gannon, Chadwick Wood, and Brockett Davidson, the walking tour begins just outside the Central Library’s north entrance at Beacon, the red diamond-esque sculpture. The stops highlight Austin public art exhibits, such as Erin Curtis’s Pedestrian Geometries (2013) and Deborah Mersky’s High Water Mark (2008). At every location, you unlock the next part of a short story, each written by a local writer, including Fernando A. Flores (Death to the Bullshit Artists of South Texas), Janalyn Guo (Our Colony Beyond the City of Ruins), Jessica Topacio Long, and Lucas Schaefer. The walk can get sweaty, so this writer recommends buying a large, freshly squeezed lemonade at Jo’s Coffee on Second Street before you begin.

—Meghann Bolton, editorial intern

 

This post was updated to correct errors in Deborah Mersky’s name and in the title of Erin Curtis’s artwork Pedestrian Geometries.