This week saw the wrap of The Book of Boba Fett on Disney+ (much spirited discussion by mixed response fans I work with over the un-eveness of the season, including who should and shouldn't have been there), and the penultimate episode of Peacemaker over on HBO Max, which begins with a substantial revelation about Chris (Peacemaker's) awful childhood, leading to some significant turns for the characters, all setting things up for the big finale next week.
Over on Syfy, the new season of Resident Alien continues to roll out to general amusement, with a borderline complaint that central character "Harry" added a perhaps too-convenient tool to his toolbox (at least one) this season, possibly promoting sloppier storytelling. We'll see. The cast, generally, continues to entertain. The most recent episode included a guest character, Carlyn (played by Alex Borstein) who I'm hoping we'll be seeing more of. Happily, in any event, we'll be seeing more of Alex via her character of Susie Myerson in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which will at long last be returning for its fourth season next week. I'll be talking about that next Friday.
It's centered on two, plus-sized, nerdy, high school gal pals whose outsider/outcast status finds them responsible for and dealing with the opening of a portal to another dimension, various ravenous, scheming monsters that come through, and so makes it their responsibility to close the portal. It's a 10-monster kill list to complete the mission. (All those set-up elements are in the first episode.)
The show is meant to tap some of what worked for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and even gives a strong nod in that direction when a guiding character (Brutus) from that other dimension, offering the pair key (if annoyingly incomplete) information, presents himself to them as their "Giles" - their guide to the threats, how to eliminate them, and the new powers each girl is now developing.
Aside from feeling a little awkward at times watching this at my age, so far the biggest problem is how unnecessarily (well, they're necessary to filling out the hour) complicated the story arcs end up being simply because information's not being shared up front. It may turn out that there's some in-story reason for this, but lacking that it's simply awkward, story-extending formula. Just three episodes in so far. As mentioned above this is on Syfy, Wednesday nights, and as these are all tied in through NBC I believe they're available the next day over on Peacock, though I haven't confirmed that. Here's the series trailer.
Arriving today on Netflix is a rapid-fire, layered sci-fi comedy from French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie, City of Lost Children, Delicatessen). Set in 2045, a group of humans find themselves locked down in their house by their household robots, apparently seeking to protect them while an android war rages outside. It's Bigbug (2022 1h 51m)
This one looks like an obvious choice even just for the visuals, with its creepy, retro-1950's, world of tomorrow vibe. Visually captivating and entertaining, it's easy to see how woven these household robots have become in the lives of the characters.
Over on HBO Max, today another supernatural horror flick arrives. Not a must-see by any indicator, but as a fan of the North woods, first nations mythology behind the threat I'm at least curious. If and when I do, I'm keeping my expectations protectively low. It's Antlers (2021) Much better than I'd feared, it's well-acted and shot, with natural elements of the Oregon landscape (okay, it was actually filmed in and around Hope, British Columbia, but it's standing in for Oregon) to help raise the appeal. Set in a fictional, isolated former mining town deep into its skid, it's not a happy place nor a story involving happy people. Bad things lead to worse. The mystical curse is effectively conveyed.
Over on Amazon Prime today is a new romcom (yeah, it's almost Valentine's Day) that at least has the appeal of several likeable faces (Charlie Day, Jenny Slate, Gina Rodriguez, Manny Jacinto...), it's I Want You Back (2022)
A romantic teen drama with a paranormal angle lands on Paramount+ today, a teenage girl who survives the car accident that took her boyfriend comes to believe he's attempting to contact her from beyond the grave. It's The In Between (2022 PG-13) The screenplay - and the young adult novel it's based on - are by Marc Klein, who (among other things) wrote the 2001 romantic comedy Serendipity.
On Hulu, today, the second season of Kat Denning's sitcom Dollface is arriving.
The series centers on a young woman, unceremoniously exiting what was for her a long-term relationship, trying to figure out herself and her life. Season one was back in November of 2019, when I was beginning to have a meltdown over some workplace developments, which was probably no small part of why I was oblivious to it. Layer on the copious pandemic production delays, and the heralding of season two finally saw me take initial notice. With all of season two landing today, this means there are 20 episodes waiting for any interested. Here's the 2019 trailer for season one. I'm curious to see how many and persistent the hallucinatory elements are, and am generally glad I'm just noticing the series now. While I had next to zero interest in all things Sex and the City, which seems to share several underpinnings with this, for whatever reasons this seems to offer some promise of being funny and lightly engaging. Entertaining, though I'm not the ideal target audience for this. I expect to watch all of it, eventually, but this is a watch an episode, go do a few other things sort of series for me. I expect that a binge would work poorly -- again, for me.
Arriving next Monday (the 14th) apparently both on Paramount+ and Hulu - in what at least seems an odd add for Valentine's Day - is a coming of age movie titled The Space Between, It at least nominally arrived in theaters last April, was out for digital rental by mid-June, and in general appears to have mostly sunk like a stone, garnering not even much in the way of scorn or derision, but rather mostly without notice. The dearth of reaction on Rotten Tomatoes when I checked was little more than one reviewer lamenting that it wasn't even enough of a wreck to be interesting.
It centers on eccentric, has-been rock musician Micky Adams (Kelsey Grammer) who has lost his grip on reality, and Charlie Porter (Jackson White), a young man who's given a chance to earn his way out of the mail room at a record label, if he can get Micky out of his contract. Micky sees Charlie as a possible key to an artistic breakthrough, and so an odd, at least initially lopsided friendship is formed.
When I see Kelsey Grammer in a role, I do my best to set aside what I know of the man's political beliefs and affiliations, and just enjoy the performance and the character. I'm hoping to do that here. I'm hoping Grammer's nude scenes are brief and heavily-obstructed; there's only so much I can take.
Once again, it's The Space Between (2021 1h 39m R for language, nudity, drugs, and some sexual content.)
Next Wednesday, the 16th, Netflix sees he arrival of a 2015 that went past me unnoticed -- possibly with good reason. Starring Chris Hemsworth, it's an action crime thriller centered on a convict with technical expertise is recruited to work with the FBI in a joint effort with Chinese authorities to hunt down a cyber crime network. Directed by Michael Mann, it seems that while he went all-in with extremely qualified technical consultants (former hackers of some prominence) he was considerably less attentive to casting and the pacing of the script. The film lost money, badly, with box office significantly less than a third of its $70M budget. It's Blackhat (2015 R 133m)
Shifting gears considerably, here's a pair of items that are from the I Tell You This So I Can Tell You That file.
The SCTV comedy troupe is fondly remembered by millions of us, and with genuinely good reason. With the majority of the players being Canadian, though, there were occasionally times when they'd hit a reference that was extremely familiar to them and their homegrown audience, but which went past the rest of us in the dark.
A 1970 Canadian film by director Donald Shebib was and I suppose still is a very well-known cultural artifact up in Canada. A story of a pair of friends who hit the road to find work and better lives, meeting various people and being wowed by often seedy places that seem sophisticated and alluring to them. It's Goin' Down the Road (1970 88 min). The locales and the regional stereotypes aren't likely to specifically resonate for non-Canadians - I know they didn't for me, though I've been to analogous locales - so either before (if you don't mind potentially spoiling some plot elements) or after, you'll get a better perspective on those elements by reading the Wiki on the film. Either way, here's the movie itself: With that now in mind, here's the SCTV sketch (with some retrospective commentary voice-overs along the way), starring John Candy and Joe Flaherty, soon joined by Andrea Martin, and with the rest of the cast taking up parts along the way. They even got an actress from the original movie to approximately reprise her role! It's Garth and Gord and Fiona and Alice. Difficult to believe that in just a few weeks it'll have been 28 years since we lost John Candy. That's an unfortunate note to end on... so let's not.
Instead, how about we wrap this up with a Mexican sci-fi western musical comedy, all that I wasn't aware of until this past week? A pair of Venusian women, with their all-purpose robot, Tor, are tasked by their queen with finding and retrieving males to repopulate their planet. Recast it in your imagination with Hope and Crosby if that's more to your tastes, but I think it's fun as is. It's Ship of Monsters (1960 83m). It's in Spanish, with English subtitles. Okay... now it's time to wrap this up.
No, wait -- the various future elements reminded me that Turner Classic Movies has a trio of movies set in the future where something's gone wrong. It's likely there's a guest host, and possibly a more specific theme. Starting at 8pm Eastern:
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Logan's Run (1975)
Westworld (1973)
Okay, that's all!
I hope you made it successfully through another week, and that you manage the same next week. See you next Friday! - Mike
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