I binged Hacks on HBO Max earlier this week. It was good, particularly Jean Smart, who’s great in everything she does.
Never had a problem with Amy Poehler nor Nick Offerman, but their new show “Making It” would’ve sustained me were it not for the interaction between them and the participants as total hardcore feel-goodery: cloying, then just plain gross after a while.
The background story of one of the participants/builders/whatever-they-were turned serious/sad, followed by support from others, and I’m like, “oh, fuck you”. Nothing like uneven tone - weeeeak.
The hosts’ strange, almost whiteish-looking makeup looks like it was spackled on (like, thick), and the hyper-coloured sets have a nauseating “Death to Smoochy” overkill. (or like I’d just walked into an Almodovar flick)
Watched a few episodes of the Polish comedy Sexify. It was pretty poorly written, and after being away from it a while, I decided not to bother finishing.
Currently watching:
Generation 56k, an Italian romcom or dramedy that alternates between the modern day and the 1990s. It is okay.
Season 2 of Home Before Dark, also just okay.
Schmigadoon, which has only been on for two episodes and I’m still undecided about. It could be good, but it seems more on the track of what you would expect from drawing a middling SNL sketch into a series.
Some anime: season 2 of Beastars, which I was already familiar with from the manga, and Oddtaxi, which I highly recommend.
I just finished ‘The Morning Show’ season one. Really good, I expected a bit of a light hearted show but it was more about power, manipulation, loyalty and self preservation against the background of a Me To storyline.
I think if you played a drinking game where you take a shot everytime someone dropped an f bomb, very few episodes would be survivable.
Yeah, I liked that one as well. She deserves an Emmy nod for that role.
We’re watching Wisting, described as “Norse noir”. It’s a pretty good cop yarn, although I thought that Carry-Anne Moss was miscast as an FBI agent at first. But she did just fine.
I quit Walking Dead after the 5th season after it became evident that there would be no new ideas other than:
“Hey there are some people”
“Uh oh, something’s off here.”
“OMG ZOMBIES”
This is really all this show ever could be, and it was thoroughly played out by season 4 if not sooner.
You’ve probably seen this:
Hah! Awesome.
Just watched the three episodes that are up, and I’m finding it clever and hilarious, but it helps to know enough about musicals to get the references (and I’m sure I’m missing a lot, although apart from Brigadoon, the show has leant pretty heavily on Oklahoma!, Carousel, and The Music Man thus far - and maybe Finian’s Rainbow for the random leprechaun sighting).
Random prediction for the future: The Mayor ends up with Pete.
We actually started the Apple+ trial to watch Ted Lasso, which is addictive. There are so few shows about someone who is genuinely nice while still being believably human that this one draws you right in. Sudeikis is nailing this.
We just started Ted Lasso and binged most of the first season even after my significant other was reluctant to start it. It’s “niceness” reminds me of the The Detectorists which we loved for the same reasons- it’s funny and smart but also very positive and emphasizing the relationships between characters. I just don’t think there are enough shows like these.
I signed up for the Apple TV trial over the weekend just so I could binge Ted Lasso. I got through the first season but then was disappointed that they’re going to dribble out the second season week by week. I think I was so used to the Netflix model of just dropping the whole season at once that I expected everyone else to do the same thing.
That looks good based on the trailer - gonna check it out, thanks!
My public library offers the first season free through Hoopla. Now all I have to do is remember that at 11pm some night when I’m looking to something to watch. The pickings are getting slim OG Hulu and Netflix, the only streams I have.
It’s basically two stories in one season. The first five are about hunting a serial killer, and the second five have to do with a different case. Those first five are worth the watching all by themselves.
I took this advice as well and I am three episodes in. Enjoying it so far!
We just jumped back in to The Good Fight, which is now airing on Paramount+. They have all four full seasons, plus five eps of season 5.
Thanks for the recs for Peaky Blinders, enjoying a lot, and lo and behold, there’s Sean Wallace from Gangs of London!
So I watched the first two episodes of Ted Lasso and thought it very meh and kind straining my suspension of disbelief, then I didn’t have anything to watch for exercise so watched 3 and 4 and like the protagonist that show does grow on you so I’ll keep going
I am also rewatching The Expanse with my daughter, she really likes it and I guess if you like the genre you have already seen it, and if you don’t you probably won’t
Just started S2 of The Americans. Enjoying it quite a bit, only criticism would be that in real life spies would take a break after a big operation, lay low for a while, but in the series the leads are out doing spy shit every freakin’ night it seems . Still, so far, it’s in the upper tier of series I’ve watched.
Edit to add that it’s tough to not root for the main characters. Find myself on their side but then remember they are the bad guys. The show does a good job of showing the Russians are not heartless monsters but patriots, in their view doing the right thing. The main characters sometimes risk themselves to avoid killing civilians.
I found this series much more effective at trying to make their evil characters understandable than even the likes of the Sopranos. Some of the central and south american governments the US supported at the time were openly murdering their citizens and supported by the US (often with little coverage in the news), so you can see why they had supportive priests and Black panthers helped out. You could see why they didn’t blink putting a bullet or knife into a policeman or a soldier, and probably avoided it more because of the trouble it caused than sympathy.
Of course there was also the overriding wish for the soviets to win at all costs in there, but you certainly can see how horrifying and crazy the likes of Reagan was to them too. “Lets bomb Russia”.