Joe Swanberg's new Chicago-set Netflix show Easy highlights a lot of the city's nooks and details that will likely delight locals. While binging on the eight-episode series, I began jotting down all the Chicago-centric references. In episode five, the one starring comedian Marc Maron, I heard this very paper get name-checked. 

Maron plays graphic novelist Jacob Malco, who's about to do a reading of his new book. When a professor (played by improv icon Dave Pasquesi) delivers the bad news that only a few people have showed up to the event, Malco begins to fret, as only Maron can, about an apparently scathing Reader review of his work.





It's not the most flattering cameo. Or even a little flattering. Could Swanberg's characterization of the Reader as needlessly snarky stem from the fact that our review of the filmmaker's Digging for Fire is headlined "Joe Swanberg: the king of whatever"? 

Hard to say. But ultimately it's still nice to be a small part of Swanberg's televisual collage of things that make Chicago distinctive. (In another episode, Hannibal Buress plays a "reporter" for Newcity.) And regardless of the show's take on the Reader, I highly recommend Easy. (Full review to come.)

Oh, and for the record, we have no 12-year-olds on staff.