They certainly took advantage of being on HBO, didn’t they? Not for the squeamish.
We liked the casting a lot, and it was fun to follow a story where - unlike the movies - we didn’t have the book to tell us what was going to happen next. I’m not sure my wife will watch any more episodes, though.
There’s also a side plot that I vaguely know where it’s headed, but I’m not sure it’s necessary.
My wife and I are ignorant of the It franchise except for the film that came out about ten years ago and all we remember is that there was a killer clown in the sewer. We watched the first episode of the HBO series and I thought my wife would bail after the creepy family in the car sequence, but she hung in there. I can’t imagine it possibly getting more frightening, so we’ll keep watching.
Currently in the middle of Gilmore Girls retrospective* and keeping au courant with Dark Winds.
*Paused to binge The Prisoner, 1960s spy-fi British oddity
Yeah, that.
Now 5 episodes out from the checkers on Spenser For Hire– has had more for me than True Detective ever will.
But maybe Merle, Daryl and Carol could make an updated, post apocalyptic Newhart spinoff.
Here is the story.
Carol was indeed supposed to be co-lead with Daryl, but McBride ended up pulling out relatively close to production. I’d bet they offered her way less than Reedus and she balked at it.
In the end, they obviously worked it out as she showed up at the end of season 1 and was pretty much co-lead in season 2.
Both she and Reedus had a contract on Walking Dead, at least the final few seasons, where they got paid even if their character was killed. I knew at that moment, they would never die. Network would never pay out and not get work from them.
New series, Down Cemetery Road, on Apple TV with a couple episodes just out which I like:
Interesting. I have long thought Emma Thompson should spearhead a Murder She Wrote remake (but that has been taken by Jamie Lee Curtis) so this might just be my cup of tea.
I watched the two episodes of Down Cemetery Road that were released on Apple TV and am looking forward to seeing the rest. If you don’t know, it’s based on an early novel by Mick Herron, who also wrote the novels on which the series Slow Horses (also on Apple TV) were based.
Thanks, interesting!
Talk about plot armor…
Oooo, based on a Mick Herron book? I’ll have to watch it. I loved all the Slow Horses books – even more than the series.
I’m … liking it. Enough to keep watching for now. It isn’t quite gelling together but hoping that it gets its footing. Slow Horses it is not. The plot being very eye rolling and not standing up to any thinking about any bits of it is one thing but I can live with that - the characters all so far being pretty much one note and that one note being over the top in all cases is more what disappoints? But it is just getting going, and both great talent and the Slow Horses team … so I will hang in.
That sounds just like Slow Horses…and not in a bad way.
Dark Winds. So very much Dark Winds. Yá’át’ééh!
I’m enjoying The Lowdown – I’m a fan of just about any Ethan Hawke project, and this one is no exception. It has a certain Coen Brothers vibe to it, which is a plus. Also, I believe it is the only series ever to feature one of my favorite fish species(the paddlefish) as a (very) minor plot point in episode 3.
Has anyone checked out the new season of The Witcher? I’ll probably add it to my queue.
I bummed about Henry Cavill not starring, but will still give it a chance.
Brian
Enjoying season two of the animated show Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake, on HBO Max. As with all iterations of Adventure Time for at least the last decade or so, it is extremely lore-heavy, and even an enthusiast might want to keep Wikipedia handy to to remind them of the whats, whys and whos (“Oh, I see, Queenie is supposed to be the Normal-Fionna-World gender-reversed version of the King of Ooo!”).
It’s still fun though, and beautifully animated.
The fourth season won’t premiere until February 15, 2026
I watched the first two(?) seasons, but during the first episode of the next season I just didn’t care and stopped watching then.
