Never-ending Battles - July 8 - What's To Watch?

 

   In doing these weekly pieces, I'm most often spotlighting new and upcoming items, and so functioning more as a purveyor of trailers, often for things I've yet to watch. Still, I eventually hit points - especially with ongoing series - where I'm having to fight against handing out potential spoilers. That's an ongoing battle.
     This week saw the first season finale for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds on Paramount+, and the wrap of the third season of The Boys on Amazon Prime. Even with the weekly episode release, it went by quickly. The Trek season was ten episodes, while the Boys' mayhem was only eight. Enjoyed both, and am still processing each.

     Strange New Worlds brought us more pre-original series drama and character exploration, and on the whole I'm continuing to find it interesting. Anson Mount's performance as Captain Christopher Pike is excellent, giving us a believable command presence in a style unlike the other Enterprise commanders we've known. The people behind the show are clear fans of the Trek universe and the original series in particular, though already in this season we're getting a pile-up of elements that will make some future fan, trying to watch the overall story in timeline order, a bit mystified once they reach the original series run and try to reconcile knowledge of all of the relationship and character development with what they see in those '60s episodes. This is especially the case for Uhura, and for the Spock & Chapel relationship; it's difficult to see this becoming less

pronounced with successive seasons, especially as the show appears to be a hit and could potentially run for years. The decision to make an expansive, recurrent threat of an alien race that in a first season Star Trek episode in early 1967 was introduced as a previously unknown race -- at least as best I recall. In general, the quality is such that I'm trying to not get lost in the weeds. I'm perfectly fine with the visual changes - trying to be too slavish to design elements decided on in the 1960s wouldn't have been worth it, IMHO.
     The season finale ("A Quality of Mercy") used a plot mechanism to simultaneously explore elements of an original series episode ("Balance of Terror") and deal with aspects of Pike's struggle

with his tragic knowledge of the future. While I don't expect this to fully remove that struggle from the picture - someone who rises to the level of Starship Captain is unlikely to completely give up, and will be looking for a solution to even the most seemingly intractable problem - I'm hoping it allows it to recede to more of a grim background element. Beyond that, while I can't help myself from occasionally indulging a contrast and compare with the timeline of established Trek, and see how some dates have been shifted, I'm not having a problem with that level of minutiae. All of the interview materials convince me that the people working behind the scenes on this show are working with true fan levels of respect, and they're not being cavalier about any shifts.
     Those who follow Star Trek: Picard, for instance, know that some points of history established in

the original series of the 1960s have already been adjusted forward. The Eugenics Wars that spawned genetically-tailored superman Khan Noonien Singh were originally said to have happened in the 1990s, roughly 30 years in the future of the original series' broadcast audience. Via a casual narrative note by Picard early in the second season of his series, they are now said to have happened nearer the mid-21st century. I accept that a key aspect of Roddenberry's vision of a Starfleet future has to remain that the audience is allowed to keep the notion that this is a viable future for us. Shifting future history in the timeline to keep it ever in the future of the fans remains a good and I'd argue necessary, aspirational, thing. Any fan who refuses to bend on such points has to at least pause to ask themselves whether their objection is based on anything more than ego. It's a very human thing to have a high esteem for anything we own, and knowledge is among those possessions. End of sermon. I look forward to season two of SNW.
     I only watched the season finale of The Boys a bit pre-dawn today, so it's still settling. The needle's moved a little - there are some changes that have occurred - but I did come away from it with an initial

feel that pieces were just rearranged. The dynamics have shifted, though, much as they had by the end of the second season. I'm looking forward to season four, which was already approved back in June. The addition of a morally degenerate Captain America type, via Soldier Boy (Jenson Ackles), was welcome. A man out of his own time, who unrepentantly represents an old boy's club world, where American men were men and everyone else had better mind their place Returning with a growing vengeance to a world that personally betrayed him decades ago, and that often makes little sense to him.
     I continue to enjoy and recommend the series (with the caveats for the various depravities, violence, sex, drug use and gore) while also continuing to dissuade anyone from bothering with the source comics. The quality of the screen versions of the character and their stories have been raised considerably, given weight and dimension that the generally juvenile shock comics simply lacked.    
 

    Monday (July 11th) AMC will resume season six of Better Call Saul, bringing us the first of the six, final episodes. This Breaking Bad spin-off, which is mostly a prequel, has been peak television, and the audience was bowled over by where they left us in the most recent episode, before the break. While the first five seasons of the show are currently available on Netflix, the only way to catch up on the current season would be via AMC+, where the complete series to date is.
     This is definitely one of those series where I'm torn between wanting to know the fates of key characters, and not wanting the show to be over. The series has been a stand-out piece of television from the start, not in the least for taking a premise I didn't fully expect to be interested in - the origin story of a flashy lawyer who was a supporting player in Breaking Bad - and turn it into something I might have actually enjoyed more than BB. A rich journey, and some terrific characters we otherwise would have never met.
     I'm not going to run a trailer for this final season, but will, instead, just present the one for season one. Even though this is, mostly, a Breaking Bad prequel series, I'd still suggest watching Breaking Bad first. In part, because many of the characters in Saul are more significant for having first seen them for who they'll come to be, and because Better Call Saul begins - and presumably will end - with bookend chapters that deal with what happens to Saul after the events of Breaking Bad.

       Returning to FX Tuesday night (and so appearing on Hulu on Wednesday) is supernatural comedy series What We Do In the Shadows, back for its fourth season.

Looking forward to it!

     Speaking of Hulu, the 10th (Sunday) will see the arrival of the fourth and final season of Killing Eve. I'd caught it season to season via BBC America, but here's an opportunity to either catch up if you'd lost track, or watch it from the beginning if you didn't get around to it before.

     Landing on Hulu and HBO Max on the 12th (Tuesday) will be The Bob's Burgers Movie (2022  PG-13  1h 42m),  animated feature that debuted in theaters on May 27th. The on-going Fox tv series is on its 12th(!) season, something that still throws me because I've still only seen the first one or two episodes of it. I'm told the film works both for established fans of the show and as an entry point to the characters for the uninitiated. I'm among the uninitiated, and haven't seen it, so I cannot say. Either way, here's the trailer for the movie.

     Unfortunate side-effect of watching the trailer: It reminded me that we've already passed both the Memorial Day weekend and fourth of July. This summer is screaming by.

     Arriving today on HBO Max is an odd Warner TV project from France, that as best I can tell aired there back in May. It's an eight-episode, deadpan style humor, sci-fi series set in the town of Point-Claire. An unhappy, sullen, child-man's first day on the police force there - a sudden and questionable change of career for him - strange lights collide in the sky, and they soon find themselves in the middle of a conflict between two, alien races.  The episodes run between 22 and 28 minutes each, and it appears to have entirely too many characters for this structure to support. It's presented in its original French, with English subtitles (I watched the first few minutes of the first episode), while this trailer is simply the original one for a French audience. It's Visitors

     It has me curious enough likely take more of a look at it soon, though my overall expectations remain reserved. Who I'm taking to be the main character, Richard, is in the opening moments of the show a taciturn schlub. Nancy, presumably his wife, is obviously energetic and driven, partner in a local real estate business we see as the main sponsor for the local newscast. In the first scene we see with them I was torn between the dismissive way she was treating him - seemingly only being interested in details if they're points on which to criticize him, and otherwise making it clear that as there will be other people there and something going on at home that night that he should plan on coming home late - and his hang-dog expression and aspect, which gives us little reason to be on his side save the humane reflex to to side with someone who is being bullied. My expectation is that the story arc will be a hero's journey one for him, during which he comes at least closer to being alive.

     Beginning Sunday on HBO and HBO Max is a 6-part documentary series covering a socio-political movement/experiment launched in 2015 by a Canadian entrepreneur. It was based on a non-traditional definition for anarchists, and presented itself as a big tent, anti-government movement that ended up drawing in a diverse group of people, many of whom otherwise likely would have no reason to be anywhere near many of the others, including libertarians and right-wing families who reject even formal, standardized education and anything that might seek to govern them. People who at least initially liked the idea of some social organization that didn't involve a government and central banking oversight. Some of them were already fugitives. They were all brought together at an annual event in Acapulco, Mexico, dubbed "Anarchapulco." An attempt to unite under one banner a diverse assemblage of people who pointedly do not want any restrictions, most of whom find any notion of consensus to be a red flag. It's The Anarchists:

     The series was shot and developed over the course of six years. As someone who over the years tried to investigate various political parties, looking for the best possible fit, I sampled and ultimately rejected Libertarianism largely on the basis that it's an ideology that is going to be most attractive to the young, healthy, strong and secure, with the strength and security varying in its sources, though usually coming down to wealth, property and force of arms. An ultimately "I got mine, go fuck yourself" mindset, especially if they're feeling threatened. A mindset in which weakness is unworthiness, and potentially dangerous people to be around if fortunes turn and the sub-groups begin to circle their own, clannish, wagons.
     I do want to do a little reading on this before I decide to watch, mainly to be assured that it's not ultimately more "reality tv" bullshit, that's significantly scripted and contrived. The topic deserves better than that, and I'm hoping to find that it's gotten that consideration here.

     Speaking of a predatory world, I see that way off on Thursday the 14th, the eve of next week's post, Netflix will see the arrival of a new series: Resident Evil. Based, of course, on the video game franchise that was launched back in '96. It looks fun, and as I contemplate the world of the ever-evolving COVID virus I've grown nostalgic for a virus that gives us more obvious monsters, and more directly & unequivocally cancels all other plans.    

     An eight-episode series, all arriving on the 14th.

        Time has once again flown, and this is going up close to five hours later than I'd normally have it set to auto-publish. This week's followed the trend and evaporated on me, with too little to show for it. As is likely the case for any of you, I have too many things calling out for my overdue attention. Why, you'd think I was spending all my time watching shows and movies!
     Keep well, keep cool, and I hope we're all back here next Friday. For now, enjoy the weekend and take the time to do at least one thing today you'll feel good about. For you or for someone else who needs it. We all need it.  - Mike