You must not have watched Sex and the City. It seemed like hardly an episode went by that didn’t have a shot of Carrie typing away on her PowerBook G3 with the inverted Apple.
You’d be correct.
Just finished S.1 of Bad Trouble, a Netflix sketch comedy show by Tom Segura. It’s reminiscent of the Tim Robinson sketch show “I Think You Should Leave”, in that it’s cringe comedy, but with sexual, scatalogical and gory gross-out humor turned up to 11.It is definitely not for everybody. My wife bailed after the first episode, said I could watch it on my own if I wanted to continue.
I’m not really sure what I thought of it. I admit I chuckled a few times. Much of it almost seemed like it was trying too hard to be subversive with the over-the-top gross-out elements, but there was an interesting concept or two-- like the rich, famous Country music star who kidnaps his fans to grill them for stories of their real-life experiences he can use for songs, since he’s lost touch with ordinary life.
At only 6 20 minute episodes, it’s a quick watch.
Now expanding the above inventory to include two more Netflix series:
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Inheritance Detective: Rather soapish dorama about a young ex-lawyer and his misfit henchpersons who investigate cases of mysterious or disputed wills of the recently deceased. Of course there are tragic backstories galore. On this voyage of discovery I learned that in Japan it is technically legally binding when a testator handwrites a will with no witness signatures or official notarization, which seems like just asking for trouble. (And subsequently I learned that in fact about half of US states also accept such wills as legal: mind blown.)
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Riku Oh: Struggling fourth-generation family-owned small Japanese factory, makers of tabi (traditional Japanese toe socks), seek a way out of their financial difficulties by diversifying into manufacture of high-end competition running shoes. Any show full of dedicated Japanese artisans throwing their hearts into the successful operation of old-fashioned cast-iron sewing machines is my happy place. And Riku Oh also has family and collegial tensions, high-stakes supply-chain negotiations, some soulless big-corporation executives, and exciting race competitions: what’s not to like? Still only about halfway through the series, but I’m betting that the company will work its way through more traumatic near-catastrophes and emerge triumphant in the end: it’s just a hunch I’ve got.
Also, another couple of series (so far) without love-story subplot! If Japan is really so worried about their declining birthrate, maybe they should get on that? Not for my sake, mind you, I find it really refreshing to watch a show about workplace relationships and adventures that doesn’t keep getting distracted by who’s dating whom or wants to date whom or has no particular character features other than being the love interest of whom. But I’m a bit surprised that the great Japanese viewing public is likewise so okay with that.
Japanese media in general isn’t aggressive with the PDA. Romance manga usually go through about 300 chapters before the couple holds hands for the first time.
Hulu:
We’re watching The Good Doctor which I guess came out a while ago. It’s about an autistic surgeon. He’s young, so there’s a lot of coming-of-age stuff. The depiction seems pretty realistic to me for someone at about a Support Level 2. I’m not positive he can handle the job without supports and I prefer that to a sanitized, “he just needs to overcome discrimination” sort of narrative. I also like that he has a high degree of empathy even though he doesn’t express it in a neurotypical way. The series starts out with some dumb backstory flashbacks but it gets less cheesy as it goes.
Apple TV+:
We just finished Shrinking Seasons 1 and 2 and I think it’s one of those shows that you get into without realizing how great it is becoming an then you realize you’ve been hooked. It’s very funny and very poignant and all around great TV. I like that the characters are each so believably flawed yet so accepted by their little found family. My husband likes the show but he thinks the MC is a total narcissist and is less forgiving of his character. The whole cast is great though so you can hate that one guy and like everyone else.
We just started Government Cheese. Um. Cohen Brothers meets Wes Anderson? I have no idea how to explain it, tonally. A guy gets out of prison and has to deal with his family’s resentment while he tries to succeed with his one business idea, and also some heavies get involved. He has a genius kid who practices pole vaulting in their front yard. Curious to see where it goes.
After finishing a few other series, I have decided to go back and watch some of the HBO shows that were highly rated but I never got around to watching.
I am starting with the first season of True Detective. It stars Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as two detectives investigating a serial killer. After the first season I am probably going to switch over to watch Chernobyl.
Share your thoughts. I’ve not seen this one but it was widely acclaimed.
Have you watched Enlightened? I was pleasantly surprised by that show. I would also recommend The Comeback.
I have not heard of either show, I will have to check them out. There are so many good shows from just a few years ago that I have not watched. With so many streaming services, the choices are a bit overwhelming.
I re-watched it recently. The quality holds up on the second viewing. And it’s a fair mix of a show. It doesn’t hold back on making it clear that the accident was largely a direct result of Soviet failures, while also making it clear that there were real acts of heroism by the Soviet citizens who had to clean up the mess.
I watched it with someone who witnessed the events, even the original explosion (though she was about 40km away, it still lit up the night sky.)
Her reaction is here:
I watched the first 3 episodes of Chernobyl (on a plane). It looked great, but I’m not a big fan of dramatizations of real events; there were a couple of dramatized scenes that made me roll my eyes. It definitely made me want to watch an actual documentary on Chernobyl, though.
Star Wars.
All of it.
Disney bought the richest sci fi universe ever created, and beat it to death with a stick labeled “Stupid”.
“I’ve had it with this motherfucking Chernobyl on this motherfucking plane!”
Other than Andor, and the first 2 seasons of the Mandalorian, I have not enjoyed most of the Star Wars shows. Boba Fett was watchable but quickly turned into another season of the Mandalorian. Ahsoka was apparently only good if you watched the Clone Wars series and the Acolyte was one of the worst shows I have attempted to watch.
It is the same with the Disney Marvel series; they have produced way too many mediocre shows. I gave up in the first episode of Echo and Secret Invasion and only made it a few episodes into Moon Knight and She-Hulk.
However, I am sure that Disney has made their money back 5x over with both Star Wars and Marvel.
The part of the series which was most fake was the entire investigation. Soviet society was never interested in finding out the truth of things, and this investigation… and the trial… did not occur as shown.
Of course there was a trial, but its entire purpose was to blame specific figures so the rest of the political system could still stand. And when that’s the purpose, there’s no need to send someone (much less a woman, which would never have been the case - Soviet society was very patriarchal) to conduct interviews, gather fact-based evidence, etc.
Episode VII is terrific. Shame they had zero plan going forward.
You must have very high standards; I thought it was one of the best things I’ve ever watched.
I was thinking of the scene
where the scientist woman (who didn’t exist in real life, IIRC) comes bursting into the room saying “Stop what you’re doing!”
“Harrumph, harrumph, who are you? How did you get in here?”