Eric, 2024, Netflix. Benedict Cumberbatch stars as an American puppeteer - think a lower-level Jim Henson - who goes through some things when his son disappears. It’s a 6-episode series which may have done better with 4 or 5 episodes - I felt there were too many threads in this one.
McKinley Belcher III is impressive in his part as a NYC detective, Gaby Hoffmann played Benedict’s long-suffering wife to perfection - I don’t think I have ever seen an in-character actress more tired of her life than Gaby’s work here.
Inna was glad to see Benedict play a character who’s accent she can understand (she often finds English accents impenetrable), but I think she was largely done with this one by episode 4.
Like I said, there are just a LOT of different plot threads and characters packed into this show, too many for me to bother learning all their names. I do recommend it, but do not think it’s a show where you can half-watch it along with your phone.
Anyway, we might try How I Met Your Mother next. Neither of us have seen it, and we enjoy sitcoms. Heard it had a controversial ending, but, eh: we made it through The Sopranos and Seinfeld this year, what’s another controversial ending to us?
My wife and i thought the ending was great, character-wise. Yes, they have both been growing. But the growth for Deborah was that she genuinely felt bad about it, not that she wouldn’t do it.
What I thought was slightly clumsy about it was that it presented the choice as too binary… Ava will be head writer or just a peon. One of them should have suggested Ava being the assistant head writer, or personal-writer-to-Ms.-Vance, or maybe Deborah promises to push out hockey-shirt-guy after a year but Ava doesn’t trust her, or something.
I also thought it was a bit odd that they presented who-gets-late-night so much about feminism, and not at all about Deborah being so old. Does she genuinely want to take on that strenuous of a schedule, 5 days a week, for presumably the years that the studio would want to lock her into a contract? I think maybe someone mentioned that in passing once, but it seems like it should have been more prominently discussed.
Didn’t Joan Rivers used to be the permanent guest host for Johnny Carson? I think it would have made a lot more real-world sense for something along those lines being negotiated… does she get one show a week? Guaranteed 3 a month? How much notice? How much creative control? etc.
I didn’t have a problem with the concept of the ending (kinda saw it coming), but the execution could have been better, and the series was one season too long.
Also, know going in that Neil Patrick Harris’s character is a total sleazebag who hasn’t aged well.
But if you just roll with it, it’s consistently funny with some really clever storytelling.
I finished watching The 8 Show (8 episodes, naturally) on Netflix. A group of Koreans desperate for money are recruited to appear on a mysterious game show (shades of Squid Game) that involves a vertical structure where food is delivered on a descending platform (a la The Platform). It starts out fairly innocuously but soon takes a brutal turn.
I thought the concept was kind of interesting (albeit derivative), but it started to veer towards torture porn and there seemed to be a lot of plot holes (or maybe I misunderstood how the game worked). I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re not a fan of watching violent beatings, for instance.
Just finished season 3 of Clarkson’s Farm. It has the usual amount of buffoonery by Jeremy, but some surprisingly touching moments as well. If you liked the first two seasons you will enjoy this one. And if you think Clarkson is a pompous a**, this show might convince you he’s not quite as big of a jerk as you thought .
I’m on probably my third go-round on You Rang, M’Lord?, a fantastic old BBC series created by the venerable Jimmy Perry and David Croft who also did so many other great comedy series. Full of crazy characters and just hilarious!
I read somewhere that it wasn’t as popular in its initial broadcasts on BBC as other Perry and Croft creations because it was considered “dark”, presumably referring to its depiction of traditional aristocracy as hypocrites and the servant class as thieves, but I strongly disagree, though I’m not a Brit. It’s very light-hearted and incredibly funny!
Yes. I started it on the recommendation of a friend, and I thoroughly enjoyed the first episode. Then it went steadily downhill to the point where I watched it to the end only because I wanted to see how it ended. It had its moments, but overall I was rather disappointed.
We have just discovered this show, we are on maybe episode six or seven, and we are greatly enjoying it for exactly the reason you just emphasized. It’s likably absurd!
It wouldn’t be. By that time in the UK that sort of comedy had gone VERY out of fashion, and it was alternative comedian and comedies from the likes of Fry and Laurie, French and Saunders and Ben Elton.
If you know it’s not great (not well executed) then not so bad, it’s the 9 years of red herrings, misleads and other such things to have led us up the garden path to just spend about the last ten minutes on the reality…
The show had gone downhill a lot in the last three seasons, and the last one was kind of a hate watch for us (well, me, because my other half opted out of the final season). But if you’re not offended by the toxic behaviour of Barney you’ll find him the most entertaining.
first up was hitler and the nazis: evil on trial. some of it was a bit chilling as there are many parallels with what is happening today.
second was 30 for 30 the life and trials of oscar pistorius. it did bounce back and forth time wise which makes me a bit cranky. they did label the time jumps which helps.
i remember when it first happened that there was much made of it being a domestic situation. the timeline that came out in the trial did not support that. he is on parole as of jan. 2024.
A 3-part documentary about a King Lear-ish battle for succession to control the largest Renaissance festival in the world (located in Texas). It seems awfully tidy for a documentary that had to have begun filming before the real drama and tragedy even occurred. And none of the subjects come off looking very good despite their unfailing cooperation with the filmmakers. But even if it is some sort of manufactured theater (which I’m not certain it is), it is enormously entertaining and darkly funny.
We started watching the Netflix series, Your Honor with Bryan Cranston. We are really enjoying it. Numerous times as we’re watching, one or both of us will blurt out, “OMG why are you doing that?” or something similar.