Category: Good Watch

Good (Meh) Watch: History 101 @netflix #GoodWatch #QuarantineLife

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Netflix just released season 1 of History 101. This is a 10-episode season with each episode under 25 minutes long. I watched the entire season in a single evening after work. It’s intended to be a crash course on the history of fast food, the Space Race, the rise of China, plastics, oil and the Middle East, robots, feminism, nuclear power, AIDS, and genetics. Obviously, none of these topics can be thoroughly discussed in 25 minutes, but then again, not many people have the time or patience to learn everything there is to know about all of these topics.

Some of the episodes focus on history (as they should) but unfortunately devolve into opinion pieces. That’s not why I was watching, and they could have spent those 5-10 minutes providing more historical information. I appreciate series where the episodes are 30 minutes or less, but that makes time precious, so wasting it opinion soured me a bit to the series, especially considering some of the opinions offered.

As always, YMMV.

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Good Watch: Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich @netflix #GoodWatch #QuarantineLife

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You’ve all seen the memes, but this isn’t a joke. Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich is a limited-run series of four episodes each about 1 hour long. As someone who grew up in the DC area and has had some experience with actual politics, this was nothing new to me. High-class prostitution runs rampant in the world, so it’s inevitable that teenagers and even younger children will be caught up in the mess. This may be a tough watch for a lot of people because of the subject matter, but if you can watch it, you should. It’s important to be reminded that the world of the powerful and wealthy isn’t the same world in which the rest of us live. It’s also important to realize that, in the unlikely event that the whole truth ever comes out, your heroes are as likely to have egg on their face as your villains. But none of them will take a fall. Who will prosecute them?

I’m not into conspiracy theories, but Jeffrey Epstein didn’t kill himself. As always, YMMV.

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Good Watch: #Unorthodox @netflix #GoodWatch #QuarantineLife

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Unorthodox is the story of a 19-year-old Hasidic woman in Brooklyn who escapes from her arranged marriage and heads to Germany, the home of her mother. I don’t know much about Hasidic culture, so I don’t want to paint too broad a brush. I’ll just say this: I see the value of organized religion, but it’s still a human institution, so it can be as flawed as the humans that run it. My experiences as a child in the Catholic Church exemplify that. This is an extreme case that disturbed me. There was little if any force. Even scarier, there was capitulation. The main character, Esty, willingly submits to the lifestyle for her entire life (often revisited in flashbacks), making change difficult and justice nonexistent. The present-day aspects of the movie show her finally breaking free from those social bonds, but she can’t quite escape her past. It’s long-term effects will always  be with her. Generally speaking, I can relate to all of that.

The limited-run series is four episodes each under 1 hour long. It was worth my four hours, but I did have to take some breaks while attempting to binge it.

As always, YMMV.

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Good (Meh) Watch: Space Force @SteveCarell @LisaKudrow @dianasilvers13 @FunnyAsianDude @rejectedjokes @netflix #GoodWatch #SpaceForce #QuarantineLife

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With much fanfare, Netflix just released season 1 of Space Force. It has some good star power (pun intended), including Steve Carell in the lead, John Malkovich, and Lisa Kudrow.

Malkovich is brilliant as usual, and as I’ve discussed before; Carell’s moving explanation as to why we have an expensive space program should shut people up about it (it won’t); and I love when the episodes are only (just over) 30 minutes each — I watched all 10 episodes in less than 12 hours — but I’m afraid that my opinion goes south from there. I was really looking forward to this show, but it just fell flat for me. It has some funny moments sprinkled in, but over all I thought the humor was ho-hum. I also imagine that, much like an attorney watching a legal drama or a doctor watching a medical drama, anyone with even basic understanding of the real U.S. Space Force or space travel will develop a nervous twitch from the inaccuracies. On this I say, it’s a comedy. Just roll with it.

More importantly, I didn’t care about the characters. There are very few criticisms worse than that. I really don’t care if Steve Carell’s General Naird, or the Space Force in general, succeeds at anything. Lisa Kudrow is reduced to a very minor supporting role, which I found as confusing as it was unnecessary. Maybe in the real world she didn’t want to commit to the schedule for filming, but if there isn’t a real world explanation, then I don’t understand why she was marginalized. In fact, we don’t even know why she was marginalized within the story. (I’m avoiding spoilers here.) She was my favorite “Friend,” and she’s really funny. She also provides the only scene in the entire season where I actually care about the characters. The one and only thing that’s good about her limited presence is that it sets up the possibility of a great dynamic between General Baird and his daughter, Erin, but the writing (not the actors) drops the ball on that. In fact, there’s little purpose to Erin’s character in the show at all.

Being a Silicon Valley fan, I’m happy to see Jimmy O. Yang  getting a good gig eventually with significant time on screen, but his role is more straight than funny. Ben Schwartz plays the same character he plays in absolutely everything else he does. I loved him in Parks & Recreation, but he didn’t get enough air time in that show for it to get old. It’s certainly gotten old seeing that actor play that role with an almost constant presence.

Then there’s Fred Willard playing General Naird’s father. Considering Mr. Willard just died, that was sad, but it also gave you reason to watch.

According to Rotten Tomatoes, the critics panned it (36%), but the audience like it a lot (71%), so as always, YMMV. I hate that I agree with the critics. I guess I must have died inside recently.

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Good Watch: Apollo 18 @HWarrenChristie @RyRobbins @netflix #GoodWatch #QuarantineLife

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I saw a video on YouTube entitled, Alien Movies on Netflix That Should Be Required Viewing. It’s over 11 minutes long, so you may want to read the rest of this post before deciding whether to watch it.

Of the movies suggested, I had seen a few already, and have since seen a few more. I have to say that the list is, at best, hit or miss. That said, Apollo 18 was pretty good.

In the real world, Apollo 18 was cancelled for budgetary reasons. This movie presumes that was a cover up, and that the mission went forward. Here’s the short description:

Apollo 17 was the last U.S.-sponsored lunar voyage — or was it? Hours of found footage, classified for decades, point to a subsequent moon mission — Apollo 18 — that ended very badly. Astronauts John Grey (Ryan Robbins), Nathan Walker (Lloyd Owen) and Benjamin Anderson (Warren Christie), on a mission to install radar scanners, discover a Soviet space capsule nearby. The men also discover a dead cosmonaut, and unfortunately for them, learn how he died.

I think that pretty much sums it up. I’m not a huge fan of “found footage” films, but this premise intrigued me, and I enjoyed the movie. It’s just under 90 minutes long.

As always, YMMV.

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Good Watch: What We Do in the Shadows @Natasia1andonly @porksmith @m_proksch @HARVEYGUILLEN @DougJones @TaikaWaititi @hulu #GoodWatch #QuarantineLife

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What We Do in the Shadows isn’t the kind of show I would have expected to like. I liked Galaxy Quest because it made fun of my favorite intellectual property, Star Trek, but I’m no into horror movies at all, so I didn’t expect this to appeal to me. However, after the first few episodes, I found it hilarious, which is unsurprising considering Taika Waititi’s warped brain is behind it. Kayvan Novak absolutely steals the show, but the entire cast has some great moments. 

WWDitS airs on Hulu, with new episodes every Thursday night. Catching up would be a snap, as each episode is less than 30 minutes long. That makes it easy to sneak in an episode whenever you have a moment. Plus, each season is only 10 episodes long, and they haven’t finished the second season yet.

As always, YMMV.

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Good Watch: F Is for Family @billburr @netflix #GoodWatch #QuarantineLife

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F Is for Family is the R-rated brainchild of my favorite active comedian, Bill Burr. There are currently three seasons posted on Netfilx, with the fourth set to be released on June 12, 2020. It’s a sitcom about middle-class, suburban America in the 70s.

Mr. Burr isn’t even a month younger than I, so he’s writing a story that I’ve lived as well, and thus is something to which I relate. There are other parallels to my personal life. Half of my family tree is essentially Irish and Scottish, and my nuclear family consists of an eldest son, a middle-child son (me), and a youngest daughter. For about a decade, until my younger brother came along, that was my family’s dynamic. The middle-child in the show is named Bill, leading me to believe that Mr. Burr, like me, is the middle child.

By the start of season 3, the father’s yelling seemed to get more annoying than funny. I’m not sure if  that’s because it grew old or if the scripts changed, but that’s the only thing I don’t like about this series.

I don’t know if I like this show because I related to a lot of it, but Bill Burr has a large fan base. If you’re a part of it, you may like it too.

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Good Watch: #Dolemite Is My Name @netflix #GoodWatch #QuarantineLife

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Dolemite Is My Name has been on my list since it came out, but I never got around to seeing it. Enter SARS-COV-2. It’s the story of Rudy Ray Moore, who made and released his first blaxploitation film, Dolemite, in 1975. I’d never heard this story and have never seen any of the Dolemite movies. It was a good blend of funny and serious. It showed how difficult it was for Moore and others in 70s America but kept it lighthearted. At times, it was even inspirational.

I wasn’t the target demographic for blaxploitation films, but this story still appealed to me. As always, YMMV.

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Good Watch: Oliver & Company @billyjoel @disneyplus #GoodWatch #QuarantineLife

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In February of 1988, I babysat for my brother’s birthday party. About 15 10-year-olds and only two adults. 🙂 We saw this animated movie as part of the party. It’s definitely a kids movie, and didn’t appeal to me even then (I was 19), but I was curious how well I remembered it. Besides, it’s only 75 minutes long, and I still listen to the theme song, “Why Should I Worry?” by Billy Joel to this day.

I looked up the cast and saw that Roscoe Lee Brown voiced Francis, which sent me down a rabbit hole. As soon as I saw his image, it lead me to this vague memory from childhood: Doctor Scorpion (1978). I can’t find any details on the plot but would love to stream it if I can find it. I’m certain it didn’t hold up well.

Oliver and Company streams on Disney+. If you have young kids, it’s probably a good watch.

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Good Watch: Under the Skin (Not So Good) @netflix #GoodWatch #QuarantineLife

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I saw a video entitled Alien Movies on Netflix That Should Be Required Viewing. Some of the movies I’d seen, and a couple were on my saved list. I decided to give Under the Skin a shot. In the interests of avoiding spoilers, I’ll simply say that Scarlett Johansson plays a believable predator killing men. Her origins are in the real of science fiction.

I thought it was going to be a morality play, and it disappointed me that it wasn’t. While murder can never be justified, as I’ve discussed many times before, filmmakers often deal in extremes so that the less attentive in the audience won’t miss the point. So putting aside the inherent evil of murder, I was hoping her selection of targets would be based on their character. It wasn’t. She killed as many sympathetic men as she did unsympathetic ones. That soured me to the movie. A morality play could have resulted in an interesting ending, so unsurprisingly this one’s ending fell flat. It just … ended.

One interesting coincidence: It takes place in Scotland, and there’s a bus in the movie (during a particularly horrid but pivotal scene) that’s apparently from Lochgilphead. I’m planning a trip to Scotland and really want to visit the town. One of my paternal great-grandfathers was born there.

As always, YMMV.

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