Unconventional Aid & Comforts - July 15 - What's To Watch?

 

 (Notes for any who are revisiting any of these pieces: First, I apologize for any of the inevitable, broken links. Things get pulled from YouTube all the time. Second, for the most current streaming availability for anything, go to JustWatch and type in the name of the show or movie. Streaming platforms are swapping material all the time these days. That JustWatch link will pop out into its own window. - Mike)
    Friday once more, in another rush-rush, all-draining week.
     Some quick, leading notes on recent shows:
     Both Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Paramount+) and Ms. Marvel (Disney+) wrapped their seasons within the past eight days. The debut season for the latest Trek franchise was an almost unqualified success, with Anson Mount's continued (from season two of Star Trek: Discovery) turn as the doomed Captain Christopher Pike winning over even many of those Trek fans who had issues with anyone toying around with Trek history - the show's set on the Enterprise roughly seven years before she'll be passed to James T. Kirk. I've enjoyed the tide, and will be back for season 2.

     Ms. Marvel introduced us to high-schooler Kamala Khan, a Muslim immigrant living with her family in Jersey City. Iman Vellani ably played the lead in this six-part miniseries that helped stretch the Marvel Cinematic Universe, provide a better sense of inclusion, and ultimately help set up one of their big screen 2023 films, The Marvels (currently set for July 28, 2023).
     This past week (as mentioned last week) also saw the return of  two favorites:
    What We Do In the Shadows, the supernatural comedy series that spun off from Taika Waititi's film of the same name, returned with the first two episodes of their fourth season. I'm saving those for likely later today, as it's been a busy week for me. New episodes appear Tuesdays on FX and then on Hulu.
     AMC Monday nights are now hosting the final six episodes of the final season of Better Call Saul, the first of which was this past Monday. They'd taken a month's break before getting to these final six, and the previous episode knocked the audience over with a dramatic last-minute turn. Monday's return

ultimately turned another big page in the tale. As the series is primarily a prequel tale - giving us the origins and history of the Saul Goodman we met in Breaking Bad, we know many of the characters we see in BCS already - from later down their timeline. Others, though, were new to us, meaning that for some reason or other they weren't in the picture (at least that we were shown) later. By now we've seen what happens to the majority of those, so in these final episodes we'll be watching with great attention to see what becomes of those final, precious, loose ends. (I apologize for being so intentionally clouded and oblique, but the quality of the show's been such that I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't yet taken the plunge.)  Among them is Saul himself, as the series is bookended with the tale of what happens to Saul after the events of Breaking Bad. I simultaneously want to know the remaining five episodes as soon as possible, and am already lamenting the loss of the series with its final episode set for August 15th. (All six seasons are on Netflix as of my most recent check in May 2024.)

     Finding myself drawn towards hopeful possibilities, here are a trio of items newly or fairly recently arrived on Netflix that you might find interesting. All three are ones I've yet to get to, but am aiming to look at as soon as this weekend.
     There for several weeks now is a light survey of twelve, single-topic, cutting edge sci-tech features about the relatively near to mid-future possibilities of subjects ranging from dogs, to cheeseburgers, to life after death. They're meant to be titillating openers - intriguing starting points - to start you thinking about the possibilities while also seeing what some people are working on concerning that particular subject. Each running around 20 minutes, they're light items one can either binge through or watch casually here and there when you've less than half an hour to work with - maybe while eating breakfast. Thought- and conversation-starters. It's The Future Of

     I don't have a trailer to embed here for the next one - that's puzzling and a little maddening, but the one offered on YouTube is from some sketchy trailer purveyor, and is inexplicably & awfully woven through with true crime bullshit - but a four-part docu-series out of the U.K. offers us views into The Hidden Lives of Pets. Four episodes, focusing on Intelligence, Communication, Super Senses, and them as Athletes. (I can offer facebook users a link to the actual Netflix trailer, though.)
     It seems to be science lite, but looks promising as a semi-educational version of watching pet videos.

 The new Netflix arrival that has me most interested is based on Michael Pollan's book of the same name How To Change Your Mind. It looks at the potential beneficial effects of mind-, mood- and perception-altering substances, from psilocybin ("magic mushrooms") to MDMA and LSD. While not seeking to throw all caution to the wind, I'm nonetheless intrigued by the possibilities, including the likely one that early exposure to intense scare tactics (and associated laws) may have walled me off from substances that might benefit me.

     I've long, long realized I don't live in a country where my true well-being is fundamentally a concern, as our institutions and laws increasingly emphasize personal worth with net financial worth, either for that individual directly or the institutions that can squeeze that value out into their own coffers. A nation that gave us the seemingly boundless, never-ending plague of The Reagan Revolution, while not merely avoiding but openly scorning fundamental matters for any civilized society such as universal healthcare, has proven itself to not merely be a failure, but an abuser. Questioning many previously unquestioned matters is very much in order.

     Back to close with more pure entertainment:
    Among my recent comfort viewing - I suspect most of us have been in need of various comforts in recent weeks especially, and will be in need of much more as the year rolls on - has been revisiting a series I watched week to week as it rolled through its five seasons from September 2008 through January 2013, but haven't looked at since then: J.J. Abrams' Fringe. (Originally broadcast on Fox, I've been rewatching it on HBO Max.) Here's a trailer from the DVD set, as it's visually cleaner than the original broadcast one hanging around on YouTube. (As of May 2024 it's still on Max and over on freevee.)

     The sci-fi thriller series had both long-term continuity aspects, and a number of monster/menace of the week episodes to catch new and casual viewers' attentions, and an intriguing and oddly endearing band of characters to draw us into the subplots of their lives as the stakes rise 'til the fate of the world - two, really - is on the line. Sure, it had its occasional clunker notes (e.g. I groaned all over again when I hit characters who should absolutely know better spouting ridiculous lines about giant, "single-cell" cold viruses, for instance, as they failed to employ even a reasonably well-informed middle school science student to check their techobabble), but it mostly held together.
     An effects-heavy show, which drastically drives up the costs, that we got 100 episodes out of it via a broadcast TV network is just shy of miraculous. Generally speaking, especially in the years since, it's mystifying why some sci-fi shows get an initial green light on broadcast networks where the financial bottom line always wins out. Where some cheap to produce "reality" show is waiting in the wings to take that timeslot and delivery several times the audience for half or less what the formally scripted show cost. That sufficient affection was present and arm-twisting was brought to bear to line up that abbreviated fifth and final season such that we could have a conclusion was and is appreciated.
    I know that some key players at Fox were big boosters for the show, and only recently recalled how this extended to their placing a distinct class of characters, the formally-dressed, bald and eyebrowless "Observers", in crowd shots of numerous other Fox shows during that first season, including NFL and NASCAR events, and the audience of American Idol.

     I'm currently just in the early part of season three of the rewatch, and trying not to remember too much in advance. Enjoying spending time again with Olivia, Peter, Aspirin, Asterisk, Aphid, Astral, Astrid and, of course, Walter, who always managed to remember "Farnsworth."

     With that, I'm out of time once more! Middle of July already?!
     Take care, keep cool, and make it safely back here on the 22nd. - Mike