The Return of the Prodigals, and Other Career Possibilites - June 17 - What's To Watch?

 

      Rising anxiety's been wearing on me. From health issues for myself and some others, to work, to political and economic (national & personal), to family, it's been making both concentration and relaxation difficult.
     I even tried venting some of it by starting to write a piece on movies and shows I'd regretted watching, but that didn't seem to do anything for me. I knew from the start that that's not the way I want these pieces to go. For the like-minded haters it can be mildly cathartic, but inevitably some of the targets would be something some readers are fond of, and there are few genuinely good reasons to be That Guy. Avoid what you don't like, allow people to enjoy what they're enjoying, keep in mind that there are things I once really liked but came to dislike, and vice versa. Save the snark for sharing with the right, friendly, limited company, where it can come out in the right spirit. Scorched earth aesthetic wars are not a good thing. Petty actions make petty people.
     
     Aside from the current shows whose new episodes I've already been following and have noted in earlier Friday posts - Star Trek: Strange New Worlds  and Evil (both on Paramount +), The Orville: New Horizons (Hulu), The Boys (Amazon Prime), and both Ms. Marvel and Obi-Wan Kenobi (both on Disney+), it's mostly been catching (older) movies on TCM, or indulging some odd celebrity nostalgia whims by watching various iterations of Password, and episodes of Tattletales recorded off Buzzr's weekdaily schedule, and episodes of Carson-era Tonight Shows recorded off Antenna TV. I decided to let a few episodes of Irma Vep (HBO Max) build up before jumping back in there, so I'll have the option of binging if it goes well. Like books on a night table, I know where they are.

     Mentioned last week, airing Thursdays on FX and arriving on Hulu the next day, were the first two episodes of new vehicle for old Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow. A political thriller, it's The Old Man. I'm nearly through the first episode (an unexpected, but appreciated, visit pulled me away for a bit) and aside from one action scene it's been top-notch. The layers concealing the past that led to this are being revealed in detail along the way, but Bridges and Lithgow are both being pulled back into something they'd each hoped was gone and buried 30 years ago, pulled back into a game where they're trying to deal with a game that's gotten much sharper and more sophisticated, unfortunately underscoring some of the edge each once had. Hubris and reputation are having to a bit more of their sagging butts than they'd care for. The pre-start notes and trailer are pretty much the last items in last week's post, if you want to check that out. 
    
    Begun this past Sunday night on AMC and AMC+ was a six-episode first season of a psychological thriller - overtly a police procedural centered on the Navajo reservation, and so focusing on the realities of life for the residents there. It's Dark Winds.

    I've set the DVR to record these, and as of this writing haven't gotten around to watching that first episode. Always tricky, that, as I seem to perpetually have my DVR hovering around 90% full, I'll soon have to decide to watch or else delete them, unwatched. If the latter, I'll try to add it to the mental notes of things I'll catch up on if and when I ever add AMC+ to my list of subscription services. That's al part of AMC's obvious business strategy, as seen by the limited way they handle reruns of ongoing series. It's the flip side of making some content available early on the streaming service. I ultimately can't fault their business sense, but as one of the potential marks I have the right to grumble a little.
     The initial/advance reviews for the series were strong, and I'm encouraged by the cast. The series is based on Tony Hillermans Leaphorn & Chee book series (18 in his series, from 1970 to 2006), with the character having since been picked up by the late author's daughter, Anne, in a series of novels from 2013 on. The earlier works were the source material for a 1991 movie (The Dark Wind) starring Lou Diamond Phillips and Fred Ward, and a PBS miniseries from back in 2002, so the lead characters may seem familiar to those who never read any of the novels.
     A promising first episode. It's set in 1971, presumably to keep it in tune with the source novel for the socio-political backdrop (including the state of the federal government's generally awful policies regarding Native Americans, the Viet Nam war, etc.) and avoid all of the changes technological advances would force. The first ten minutes or so sets much of it up, with a daring armored car robbery and an escape by air onto Navajo tribal lands. It's managing to get me more interested in Hillerman's novels, including many of the cultural and belief aspects that suffuse the story so far. Again, this is being aired Sunday nights on AMC, but the clear intent is to try to get people to make the leap to becoming at least trial AMC+ subscribers. If nothing else, if the above sounds interesting to you, add it to a note of Things To Check Out on AMC+.

     Next Wednesday, the 22nd, Netflix will see the return of the Hargreeves with the arrival of the third season of The Umbrella Academy.
     Based on the Dark Horse comics series by Gerard Way (graphics there by Gabriel Ba), the core premise is as follows: Around the globe, 43 children were born of sudden, unexplained pregnancies (their mothers didn't wake up pregnant that day) at noon on October 1, 1989. Seven of them were adopted by an enigmatic billionaire, to be raised according to his rules, and six of these - each possessing a unique ability - were eventually formed into a superhero team, complete with private academy-themed uniforms. The first season lays this out, largely in retrospect, after so very much has gone so wrong, and gradually reveals key info about all of the characters. The second kicks it up with scattered time-traveling relocations for the siblings, including some more revelations. finally bringing them back together for...whatever season three will be.
     As is generally the way with Netflix series, all ten episodes will arrive at once. I'll enjoy having the full access, and will almost without a doubt indulge myself greedily, only to have friends slowly getting around to watching the episodes in such a way that we never seem to be able to have a real conversation about it, because I have to keep checking myself to avoid spoiling the revelations of later chapters for them.
     I generally recall how things went in season two, including leaving us with the results of time-travel shenanigans finding the siblings returning to a "present" that rolled out differently than what they knew. Finding out about this new timeline's Sparrow Academy will be part of the fun, including seeing how relatively well or poorly Hargreeve's design played out here. The initial sense is that there'll be more than a little aspect of this which will be like the children of an abandoned family - feeling like the practice models - tracking down an errant father whose new family, at least at first blush, weren't the disappointments the first try had been.
     I enjoyed the first two seasons sufficiently, and as it's been just under a month shy of two years since since season two appeared, I 'm tempted to make a run at rewatching the first two seasons before diving into the third. Speaking of the third, here's the trailer:

     I'm looking forward to spending some time with them. This is easily my most-anticipated pick for this week's post.

     Already arrived on Netflix this past Wednesday is the first half (eight episodes) of the debut season for the latest vehicle for Melissa McCarthy and her husband Ben Falcone. Created by Falcone, it's described as an apocalyptic workplace comedy. Early reviews haven't been strongly encouraging, though some are rooting for it to work the wobble out as it goes. It's God's Favorite Idiot.

     It's not something I'm likely to rush to watch, but I wanted to mention it as an option.

 Arriving today on Netflix is a science fiction thriller set in a possible near-future, where convicts can reduce their sentence by volunteering to test mood-altering drugs. It's adapted from a short story by George Saunders, which first appeared in The New Yorker in 2010. Leads are Chris Hemsworth, Miles Teller, and Jurnee Smollett. It was shot in and off the coast of Queensland, Australia. It's Spiderhead

     Over on Amazon Prime, a Canadian, scripted comedy series about Justin (played by Jordan Gavaris - who I know only from his part in Orphan Black, which is a good place to know an actor from), a gay man who, post-break-up, returns from abroad intent on connecting and forging a bond with the now-teenage daughter he gave up for adoption. He's intent on doing so at the family cottage, but finds out a little too late that their parents left that cottage property to Justin's "picture perfect" step-sister, Maisy-May (played by Julia Stiles.) Landing appropriately enough in Pride Month, it's The Lake

     It's allegedly based (in part) on experiences by series creator Julian Doucet.

     I have what will be an exhausting day coming for me Friday, for which I need to marshal my resources (or at the least, try to get adequate sleep), so I'm wrapping this up here. If opportunity permits, and I see or remember something to add, I may revise this a little sometime Friday... otherwise this one's finished for the week. A Fathers Day weekend, I'm not sure how that's going to roll. No one's asked about plans for it, but these things generally roll out on their own.
I'll be  aiming to give best efforts in the lab on Friday, then try to completely set work matters out of my mind until Monday (cue either canned laughter or a Morgan Freeman voice-over -- "Mike would, as he knew he would, be unable to do this."), where general demands and my anxiety will lie in wait for me like some school bully with designs on my lunch money and dignity. There's only so much that can realistically be done at a given time, workplace triages are just a fact of life. Some people are just going to have to wait. It's trying to fairly and best decide who those will be that's its own part of the energy drain. For now, enjoy the imminent weekend as soon as you can. - Mike