Yeah, the first season went a little heavy on the mugging, and Eugene Levy’s character was way over the top as a clueless idiot.
They fixed most of that in the second and subsequent seasons, which are much better. They also toned down Chris Elliot’s character (Roland Schitt), which also helped.
Finally got around to watching season 1 of Invasion on Apple TV. A lot of good acting and character development but reveling the aliens and what they’re all about is a real slow burn. It skips around four or five different settings all with their own caption like London, England, UK, Earth or Tokyo, Japan, Earth. It’s not just weird that they think we might confuse “New York, New York, USA, Earth”: with “New York, New York, USA, Betelgeuse 4” but none of Season 1 takes place anywhere but Earth.
I’m trying to enjoy American Auto, but it feels really dated. Shaky cam, and fast paced edits, like it’s 2008.
Finished Stay Close, which wasn’t bad. Michael Mando did a great job (he’s Nacho in Better Call Saul), and Eddie Izzard had a good character.
I don’t know if we can do five seasons of Orphan Black. After the most recent ep in season one, we both looked at each other and made our “do we really wanna stick with this” faces.
Dopesick on Hulu. One season, eight episodes.
Fascinating subject (Purdue Pharma’s shady/criminal marketing of OxyContin and the opioid crisis in America), but wildly uneven. Laden with bad writing, some cringy-bad acting (especially Michael Stuhlbarg), and a disorienting and unnecessary time-shifting gimmick.
It was not all bad. Compelling performances by Michael Keaton as the small town doc and Kaitlyn Dever as one of his patients. The investigative process was mostly well portrayed and interesting.
I would give it a very mild recommendation. Stuhlbarg’s character almost made me turn it off, though, and when done, I breathed a sigh of relief that I will never have to see him again.
mmm
New series, Single Drunk Female. It is fun so far.
It is one of that shows where someone makes a reference to one of their earlier roles (there is a thread about that here somewhere). The main character is mocking the click-bait lists made at her media job. She mentions “ten dogs that look like the cast from Gossip Girl”. She was one of the cast from Gossip Girl.
I agree about Stuhlbarg. I’ve never like him in anything I’ve seen.
Catastrophe (Prime) started watching it because of the praise it got in this thread. My wife and I are four episodes in and are enjoying it. It’s lighthearted so a good appetizer for an evening in, but I don’t think the main guy has a personality at all so we can only handle an episode a night.
I think the only thing I’ve ever seen him in is Boardwalk Empire as Arnold Rothstein. As I recall, I thought he was fine in that role. That show ended 8 years ago, though.
(Note to self: Re-watch Boardwalk Empire.)
He was in a Coen Bros movie called “A Serious Man”, in which he had pretty much the same stone-faced delivery.
Stick around for Allison and Donnie. I’d watch a spinoff of them. And also for Tatiana Maslany’s incredible performance. I was often amazed at how I forgot she was playing different characters in a scene. But that said, five seasons was definitely enough.
I wouldn’t mind seeing Ken and Barbie in another (maybe their own) show, but their dark humor was a real mismatch for the tone of this story.
Just barely made it through the first episode. Usually I will give a new show two or three episodes before I give up on it, but I literally deleted the “series record” option on my DVR immediately after watching the pilot. Stupid premise, couldn’t stand any of the characters.
Oh, she deserves all the awards she got for this. Each of her portrayals are completely unique; it must have been very difficult to keep them all separate. Yeah, Allison and Donnie are a hoot.
I’m anxious to see how Maslany does as She-Hulk.
Finished watching Supercrooks, which was fine as supervillain heist stories go. Extremely gory, though.
Now watching Psych, which I find both entertaining and infuriating - I enjoy the light whodunnit vibes but ye gods, I so want to slap the bejeezus out of Shaun and everyone who has apparently suffered so much brain damage they take this preening buffoon seriously. The longer I watch, the more I identify with Lassiter. Also, there’s a real undercurrent of casual misogyny to the show which rankles. But I’m still watching.
OTOH, Corbin Bernsen’s wig collection is fun to see.
Agreed- it’s really bad The best part is the brief image of a Duesenberg in the opener.
Heh, yeah, that was pretty much exactly my reaction. I started watching it during its first run, back in the days when USA Network was specializing in light, fun shows. I initially enjoyed it, but the urge to punch the smug smirk off of Shaun’s face eventually overwhelmed my enjoyment of light, fun mysteries.
New series that I’ve started watching and am enjoying:
Single Drunk Female
Abbott Elementary
Good Sam (still not sure if I’ll stick with it. The dad is an awful person.)
Pivoting
New-ish:
Kenan - I love Don Johnson’s character.
Wonder Years (re-boot)
Ghosts
My regulars that are still showing new episodes:
Chicago Fire, Med & PD
Ozark
New Amsterdam
This is Us
A Million Little Things
Queer Eye
You
After Life
911
Finding Your Roots
The Conners
Home Economics
Yellowstone
The First 48
The Great British Baking Show
Waiting to try:
Promised Land
We watched the first episode of The Silent Sea, a Korean science fiction show about a mystery on the moon.
The first episode was terrible, especially if you care about the science. I don’t believe they even tried for accuracy. I could probably find dozens of things blatantly wrong or stupid in just the first episode. It’s also really low budget, or they got poor value for the budget they had. Their lunar gravity’ simulation appears to be having the actors walk more slowly. They all act like everything weighs the same as on Earth.
However, it gets pretty good reviews, so we’re going to give it another episode or two. Perhaps the mystery on the moon is compelling enough to overlook the general stupidity of the writing so far.