Tag: tv

Good Watch: The Mandalorian, Season 2 @themandalorian @starwars @disneyplus #GoodWatch

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Yeah, I know. Thank you, Captain Obvious.

The Mandalorian is back! But why is Tatooine? I get it. Tatooine and a few of its inhabitants hold a special place in the hearts of all who watch Star Wars, but the whole premise of the planet is that it’s an obscure place where nothing interesting happens, making it the perfect hiding place for a young Luke Skywalker. Yet here it is. Again. The center of a Star Wars story.

But let’s move past that. Jon Favreau should be handed the reins to Star Wars. He knows not only how to tell a story, but also specifically a Star Wars story. Two episodes in, and this looks to be as good as season one was. I still love the sign language of the Sand People. Nice touch. Though I’m not sure everyone else is happy with the structure, I also like when a TV series is episodic (original Star Trek for the win!) with a larger story subservient to that.

I also hope their paths cross again.

Rodians cook their meat well done.

No universal translator? Star Trek >> Star Wars.

Someone needs to stat out that Krayt dragon for D&D.

Boba Fett must have been the runt of the Mandalorian litter. He was a wimp. As always. YMMV.

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Great Watch: The Man in the High Castle @alexaKdavalos @CHTOfficial @rupert_evans @FredrikSewell @lukekleintank @joeldelafuente @TheOnlyDJQualls

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For the past few weeks — perhaps months – I’ve had terrible luck with shows I’ve watched that should be right up my alley. I was worried that I was becoming Stan Marsh. Fortunately, I found the Man in the High Castle. There’s hope for me yet.

I love historical “what if” dramatizations regardless of how much of my disbelief I must spend to buy into it. But hell, if I can watch a superhero movie, I can watch this. TMitHC is set in an alternate reality in which the Nazis developed the atomic bomb and thus won World War 2. The eastern part of what should be the United States is run by Germany, and the Western part is run by Japan. The central states are a neutral territory. I’m no expert on history, but I don’t see how either country could have taken over so much of the United States even if they defeated us. That’s a lot of ground to cover by such small, foreign populations, especially as well armed as our citizenry is.

So, forgetting that aspect of it, much of the show seems plausible to me, especially the relationship between the Germany and Japan. Whether it is realistic (not and expert, remember?) is another matter. It’s clearly enjoyable, though.

I’m just starting season 2. I was warned that the series ends in a disappointing way, but I’m enjoying the story and actors so much, I remain undeterred!

I think Hellboy must have had something to do with the story. As always, YMMV.

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Terrible Watch: Undone @PrimeVideo

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I watched this show because someone suggested it, and at four hours of content, I knew I could bang it out quickly. Now I want to commit a homicide. (Not really; he’s great.)

The first thing that bugs me is that it seems a lot of shows are trying to one up the last show on time travel, multiverses, etc., but each of them fails to do anything I haven’t seen before. Moreover, the main character, Alma, at one point says, “I don’t have time for this!” We’re talking about time travel. She literally has all the time in existence for “this.” Do you know a single third grader that wouldn’t be able to understand that? When a plot depends on stupidity to create tension or move the story along, the writing sucks (see, e.g., the horror genre).

The second thing that bugs me are the characters. There isn’t a single one I liked. The show centers on, among other things, a car crash and time travel. Once that becomes obvious, I find myself hoping that Alma will bring all the characters through time, place them (and herself) in the car, and they’ll all just die. Problem solved, and it would have taken 2 minutes to watch. Then I could have gone on with my life.

Then Alma pissed me off by stealing a line I’ve used for decades (something to the effect of “of course you love me; I’m just so damn loveable”). Where are my royalties?

Okay, ignore that one.

Alma is played by Rosa Salazar, but she’s partially obscured by animation, so she looked a little like Aubrey Plaza. Imagine being expected to root for Aubrey Plaza when she’s constantly being obnoxious but not trying to be funny. That’s Alma.

Based on the ending, all of this was almost explainable, but only in a Wizard of Oz sort of way, but if I’m supposed to treat this as the Wizard of Oz, then the ending can’t be reconciled with the knowledge Alma had. Besides, it was too little, too late for me. I can’t care about the story if I hate all of the characters, and no ending can possibly justify 4 hours of that. I have no idea what you all saw in it.

As always, YMMV.

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Letdown Watch (So Far): The Expanse @ExpanseOnPrime #Good Watch

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I’ve been itching to activate a free, 30-day trial of Amazon Prime, mostly because of the Expanse. I’ve heard scientists explain how the show gets the physics of space travel better than any other show or movie before it, which also piqued my curiosity. I never thought I’d say this about this show, but with only a couple of episodes to go in season 1, I’m a bit bored. Surprisingly, the fact that it gets the science right isn’t that big of a deal. They produce drama around it, but they could (as so many other have) produce just as much drama around bad physics.

I haven’t given up hope on it. A fan of the show admitted that it starts off slow, and two of my all-time favorites, The Office and Parks & Recreation, both had weak first seasons to set up the series.

As always, YMMV.

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Overrated Watch: Good Omens @michaelsheen #GoodWatch

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As I mentioned last Monday, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm inspired me to finally start my 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime. I’m otherwise uninterested in adding a 100th streaming service to my monthly bill. So, I asked the social media world what I should after Borat and received a ton of suggestions. Looking up everything, I settled on prioritizing the Expanse (I can’t believe I forgot that was available), Good Omens, Man in the High Castle, the Boys, and Undone. If there’s time, I’ll add Jack Ryan, Catastrophe, and Bosch. Practicing an analogue of Occam’s Razor, I chose Good Omens to start because it’s only six hours of content so far. I watched all six, 50-minute episodes this weekend.

Overall, it was decent, but I’ve seen too many movies and shows reimagining the apocalypse for modern times. Each adds a tiny twist. Tiny, not clever. I also get a bit annoyed by the overuse of flashbacks. Sometimes, holding back the history leading up to an event makes a lot of sense. Sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it’s just a gimmick. The first 30-some minutes of the sixth episode is a flashback, but it’s also the conclusion to the main story. There’s absolutely no reason for that, and little reason for the last 25 minutes. Finally, I was particularly annoyed by the theft of Sandra Bullock’s joke from Demolition Man (“lick butt v. kick butt”).

But it certainly wasn’t “bad.” If it were “bad,” I wouldn’t have finished it. Besides, if none of these things get on your nerves, you’ll probably like it a lot. It was still a good story delivered by a great cast. It was just a bit trite for my tastes.

David Tennant’s delivery reminded me of Bill Nighy. Every now and then, my mind would see Nighy delivering Tennant’s lines.

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Stellar Watch: Viewing Notes for Star Trek: Discovery, Season 3, Episode 1 @CBSAllAccess #StarTrek #DISCO

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I’m excited to watch the season premiere of Star Trek Discovery tonight. Why? Because the alternative is a town hall with either Biden or Trump (written on 10/15/2020). Plus, I love Star Trek. This is, after all, why I bought a subscription to CBS All Access. I don’t plan on doing viewing notes for every episode; just this one.

Burnham arrives in the future. This is something every space show gets wrong. If you choose a random point in the universe, the overwhelming odds are that it’ll be empty. Yet here she is, showing up in a mess of junk and running directly into a ship.

Gee. It’s a good thing Burnham landed on a class M planet. What are the odds? See above.

Book really can’t fight. Give me the first punch, and you’re going to sleep. Plus, phasers have greater range than knives. It’s not an even trade to separate. She’s still a threat, and you’re no longer one. Dipshit.

The Burn!

A dilithium recrystallizer?

Oh, wait. Nevermind.

In other news, my spell check doesn’t recognize “dilithium” or “recrystallizer.”

I just saw Morn!

Yep. That’s Morn (you know what I mean).

Amazing that the animal’s goo is everywhere but on Michael’s face.

The red-leaved trees are an obvious homage to the opening scene of Star Trek Into Darkness. That movie deserves no references.

Why is everyone whispering? Speak up. I can’t make out what you’re saying.

Overall, this is a very interesting take on the Star Trek universe. I’m eager to see where this season goes.

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Good Watch: Schitt’s Creek @danjlevy @Realeugenelevy @annefrances @emilyhampshire @sarahlevy_ @DustinWMilligan @SchittsCreek #GoodWatch #pandemic #SouthPark

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All six seasons of Schitt’s Creek are now on Netflix. Apparently, despite flying under the radar for its first four seasons, this show did well at the 2019 Emmys and absolutely cleaned house 2020. I can explain why.

The show has been hit or miss. Very uneven. It had times when it was brilliant and times when it fell flat, often in close proximity. However, one thing I’ve often said about the show is that they knew how to wrap up a season, bringing all the story lines together in fun(ny) and satisfying ways. All shows do that, but Schitt’s Creek is one of the best at it. So, each season finale was brilliant. Looking at the bigger picture, season six had the same effect, wrapping up the story of the Rose family with 14 solid episodes that collectively were head and shoulders above the prior seasons.

The cast had a lot to do with this. It includes two comedy legends, Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara, and one person who should’ve been, Chris Elliott. However, by season six, Eugene’s real-life and in-character son, Daniel, really stole the show. I’m sure Eugene is more than happy to have been upstaged by his son. The other cast members? Perhaps not so much. 🙂 But most of them did a great job.

The only thing I didn’t like was that Moira (Catherine O’Hara) didn’t grow. She stayed the same, conceited, spoiled brat she was from the start. The purpose was to provide comedy relief and remind us where the show started. Ultimately, that annoyed me a bit, but it was easy to ignore.

This was a really good show and ended at precisely the correct time. As always, YMMV.

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Shark Jumping Watch: The South Park Pandemic Special @SouthPark #GoodWatch #pandemic #SouthPark

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I haven’t been watching South Park lately. Considering how much I love the show and how much I’m streaming, I can’t explain why. I just haven’t. Then I saw someone on Facebook say that he was purposefully avoiding the pandemic special (why?). I had no idea it existed, and now that I do, I decided to watch it.

I never thought I’d say this, but South Park has jumped the shark. I used to laugh out loud watching that show. I’m 100% okay with over-the-top humor, but this special just wasn’t funny. The only good commentary was on a topic other than the pandemic.

As always, YMMV.

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“We Know Already” Watch: The Social Dilemma @netflix @kesseljunkie #GoodWatch

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I want to say that this was a waste of time, but I can’t. It’s too important not to be given an occasional reminder.

This 94-minute documentary (with occasional, annoying dramatizations) is about how social media is impacting our lives. Yeah, we all know it, but we can’t help but succumb to it. And that’s point #1. It resembles an addiction, but it’s really about preying on our very nature.

Point #2 is that it’s taken the internet and made it even more divisive. It’s not that we haven’t had serious disagreements with each other. Anyone that’s lived outside their bubble knows that. It’s that we’re now being exposed to those differing viewpoints seemingly continuously, and in a way that makes the speakers feel as if they’re anonymous, even when they clearly aren’t. In other words, we’re hearing a lot more about the way people really feel about issues, and we often disagree.

Kessel Junkie and I discussed this a little bit in the comments on his blog. Trigger warning: He hates the Goonies.

Speaking of “disagree,” Facebook issued a weak response.

I think it’s healthy to be reminded of these effects every now and then, and 94 minutes isn’t a lot of time to invest. As always, YMMV.

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Boring Watch: Raised by Wolves @hbomax #GoodWatch

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Normally I like science fiction. These are not normal times.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t equate this show with the horrors of 2020; I just thought it was a funny line. Raised by Wolves just bored me. It comes across as a show made by people that think they’re owed allegiance to their “masterpiece” because they take it seriously in an artsy-fartsy kind of way. Every episode I watched felt like people were whining in hushed tones, passively-aggressively obliging me to cheer them up. I wasn’t able to make it through episode 7 and don’t care how it ends.

My opinion isn’t a popular one, so as always, YMMV.

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