Debuts, Departures, Dystopia and Debacle - Aug 12 - What's To Watch?

 

     Rolling into the heart of February!
     As discussed last week, this week's already seen the return of Resident Alien (Syfy) for the start of the back half of its second season, and the arrival of the third and final season of Locke & Key on Netflix. The former's going to be a week-to-week affair which should take us to the last week of September; this week's new episode quickly brought me back up to speed on the plot points; mid-March seems longer ago than it probably should. The latter series had all ten episodes land at once, and will most likely fall for me this weekend; at 61 I still have no portion-control skills.
     Casually watched fairly quickly - the longest episodes were 47 minutes, and there were only eight episodes for this season. Locke & Key's final season gave it an appropriate send-off, in part by changing the perspective on the nature of the keys. The very final scene had some formulaic winces, but we're left with a reasonably well-rounded and complete tale, while still having options open for someone to pick the story up somewhere in the future.
     This Sunday will see the third season finale of Evil arrive on Paramount+, with a Rockne S. O'Bannon script. This season was pared down from the 13 episodes each of the previous two seasons, to a mere ten. I can't be happy about that shrinkage. I'm curious to see the state of the characters by the roll of closing credits. A fourth season was greenlit last month, so barring a new national/global upheaval it seems reasonable to expect we'll see that season commence roughly next June -- a world away. If things go as planned I'll be a couple months into looking at a different set of walls by then.
     Watched that season finale of Evil around 4AM - a peaceful time of day to wake up, especially on a day when you know you can go back to sleep when you want. (Which I did... and I did.) The story moved fairly well along, including some intentional frustrations, and gave us an interesting starting place for next season. Now to see if Kirsten, her husband and daughters, and their allies all put their heads together to be sure they have as clear a picture as possible.
     A cleverly-written show, I'll be watching for the full fallout from the revelations in this season-ender... and to see what the tone of season four will be now that the season's pop-up book changed just ahead of the new season. Also, I'm wondering if Wallace Shawn's Father Ignatius will be sticking around for the new season.  
     Monday will see he final episode of Better Call Saul arrive on AMC. It's been a pleasure seeing the story unfold, and now we'll finally see the end of that journey. Grievous flaws and all, I'm still sympathetic to Jimmy/Saul, and Kim, and so am conflicted in figuring out what to realistically hope for. Self-destruction seems to be the theme, though.

     An odd item I came across on Amazon Prime recently is a 2017 film co-written and directed by Bill Watterson. A fantasy adventure comedy horror piece about a largely aimless 30 year-old with a history of never finishing anything. In a weekend plunge of creativity, with his girlfriend out of town, he creates something surreal. Using cardboard boxes and art supplies, he builds an elaborate labyrinth inside a fort - all in their apartment - that is vastly more than it appears to be. It's Dave Made a Maze (2017  NR  81m)

     It's a whimsical fantasy adventure piece, though it does ultimately stick with the horror category; however abstract and craft-y the carnage may be, it's of lasting consequence. The film's peppered with familiar faces and voices from various (often genre) shows, including actors from Criminal Minds, to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Venture Brothers.
     As with nearly anything on Amazon Prime, I've no idea how long it's going to stay put, or more importantly how long it's going to remain as a free to Prime members item; things randomly slip back behind additional paywalls all the time. It's also available on Tubi, where there'll be some commercials, but it's much more likely to stay accessible. References along the way at least suggest that it is/has been part of both Shudder and Epix, so if you have either of those it's possible it may be found there. I currently do not, or else I would have checked.

     My experience with concert events has been minimal, both because I've never been a fan of large concentrations of people, and I've seldom seen one that was a good listening experience. Oh, some great performances have come out of live music events, but I've still found that the recordings from properly miked bands are the way to go if I really want to hear and enjoy it. Live and in-person the crowd's going to ultimately put me off, the chances I'll be able to hear anything clearly on-site are low, and sense of "connection" with the performers is almost guaranteed to be illusory. Your mileage may certainly vary, and I'm genuinely happy for fans of big venue, live music events -- I wish you weren't so routinely being absolutely ripped off by the criminal ticket sale system.
     Sometimes these things go so horribly wrong that no one can sanely claim anything to the contrary.
     Between HBO/HBO Max and Netflix there's roughly four hours of critical retrospective about the debacle that was Woodstock 1999. A tragic failure at almost every level, made so much worse by the unbridled, unprincipled greed behind the (nominal) organizers' actions. From food and water, to sanitation and security, organizational ineptitude, and a bottom line focus on maximizing profit, it was a perfect shitstorm.
     On HBO/HBO Max it's the 2021 documentary (that had previously been on Netflix, where I hadn't taken notice of it last year) Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage (1h 50m)

     (Related aside, HBO Max also currently has a director's cut of the 1970 film about the 1969 Woodstock concert, for historical and cultural contrast.)
     Meanwhile, back on Netflix, there's the recently-arrived, three-part documentary Trainwreck: Woodstock '99 (2022)

     The three-parter currently on Netflix has some issues, particularly in how it covers the sexual assault aspects. They seemed to manage to upset various viewers by simultaneously rushing through that aspect, while including graphic, insufficiently edited material that struck some as insensitive to the victims.

     Shifting back to the far more comforting world of a purely imaginary apocalypse:
     Arriving on AMC (with advance episodes appearing on AMC+, as they will doubtless stress during commercial breaks and most assuredly as the first episode ends - AMC in 2022 increasingly exists as marketing for an AMC+ streaming subscription) this Sunday is the first of a six-episode series set in the zombie apocalypse of The Walking Dead.
     These are to be six, separate slices of life, wherein we see how different people reacted to the catastrophic changes, survived (or failed to), and came to see that world. Stand-alone stories offering different perspectives on a catastrophically changed world. Tales of the Walking Dead.

     When The Walking Dead premiered back in 2010, I had already been having one of my personal worst years, with a death back in April that was a bookend of a nineteen month stretch of mostly surprise deaths that had been violently flipping my world since September of 2008. No need to relive those specifics here.

     I'd been a fan of Robert Kirkman's source series, The Walking Dead comic, since its debut in 2003 as a black and white comics version of "the zombie movie that never ends," which is how Kirkman framed the project in the first issue. His intention at the time being that aside from the normal market element of being canceled if it failed to sell well, this would be his own Romeroesque story of a zombie apocalypse that would go on and on. In the end, he pulled the plug on it in 2019 (confessing that he'd come close to doing so at one or two much earlier junctions in the story, changing plans mostly because the inspiration for new character and plot directions struck), not wanting it to become repetitive -- but that, too, is incidental.
     While I rode out the monthly comic through its unannounced end (Kirkman took pains to make it seem as if the comic was still going to be in production, only announcing the end of the story in what became its final issue), when the tv series went to its (very) roughly "mid-season" break in November of 2017, during their war with Negan's forces, I was finding it all too depressing against the day-to-day backdrop of a MAGA-infested U.S. out here in the so-called real world. While the tv show had made selective changes to the story from the comics, it was still following an outline of key events, so I had a good idea of what was coming for the characters. I wasn't in the mood for seeing them take the losses they would, nor to see them coming within a stroke of winning only to lose all over again, at least in the short term. So, I put it all on pause... and have yet to get back to it. That series is set to finally end just before Thanksgiving this year, btw, but that's not important now.
     The six-episode, standalone format for this new show will let me step back into that universe, no strings attached, for the first time since late 2017. That feels like just the right comfort level for me.

      Coming to Disney+ next Thursday, the 18th (why they shifted from Wednesdays as their new release day I've no idea), is the latest Marvel series. An action comedy starring Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black) as Jennifer Walters, an attorney who also happens to be the cousin of Bruce Banner, aka The Incredible Hulk. It's a nine-episode first season of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.

     I know, I know, "She-Hulk" was and will always be a terrible name. So blunt and unimaginative that it's barely juvenile. One of the more embarrassing ones. You're going to need to get past that.

     The thumbnail sketch reason for the leaden sobriquet is that in the late '70s Marvel's extremely one-sided contract with CBS (all the power was on CBS/Universal's side) for the Incredible Hulk tv movies and show, made Marvel vulnerable to CBS creating a female version, which they would then own outright. Show biz almost always moves to duplicate anything that's a success, the Bill Bixby/Lou Ferigno Incredible Hulk had been a hit for the network, and a successful, female-led spin-off of The Six Million Dollar Man - The Bionic Woman - had been done a few years prior.
     To preempt any such move, Stan Lee and the folks at Marvel slapped this

character together and launched her in her own comics series. That this hadn't happened until 1980 is probably the most surprising part. Lousy name, and nearly as poor of an origin story - that's not worth yet another digression here; I'll touch on the comics origin next week, after we've seen how they decided to handle the specifics in the show.
     It's important to understand how powerless and unsophisticated Marvel was back in the day. As a business it had been hanging by its fingernails through much of the 1970s; had they not scored a  contract to do a comics version of a new, little property no one had many expectations for - Star Wars - in 1977 it's well within the realm of possibility that the company might have collapsed. They did, however, and George Lucas' project was an unprecedented success, and all involved got a dynamic new lease on life.
      So, the creation of a She-Hulk (shake, shake, shake-off the cringe) was a blunt legal move, neither a creatively- nor an even remotely aesthetically-driven one. The lackluster, formulaic series that ran for just over two years did little to improve on any of that. It existed as a staked claim, which was all that was required of it. The early item most to their credit was that they didn't copy the rage-driven creature model the Hulk had long since fallen into, with Jen, instead, retaining her personality (what there was of it initially) and intellect in the transformation.

     It would take later writers to infuse her with more personality, and then take her one step farther by giving her a fourth wall-breaking shtick. She would eventually make occasional, narrative side-comments to the audience or the writer, showing signs that she was aware she was a character in an entertainment. It would also find her eventually finding herself back to some version of the career she'd studied so long and hard for prior to some of her cousin's blood being transfused into her.
     In introducing the character, as is the case with the MCU in general, Disney has the benefit of those miles and years of developmental rough road from the comics. Knowing what ultimately worked, the screen version appears to have skipped fairly straight to it. The series will abound with guest-stars, some of whom have already been introduced elsewhere, others making their MCU debut. We'll get to see, in a snappy, action-comedy format, how much they manage to expand and firm up elements of the MCU over nine episodes.

     Meanwhile, Summer Under the Stars (that link pops out to an interactive page of the listings) month continues rolling out for TCM viewers, offering 24-hour spotlights of various stars. The next block, starting with today:
         Friday Aug 12:     Jane Powell
         Saturday Aug 13:    Marlon Brando
         Sunday Aug 14:     Elizabeth Taylor
         Monday Aug 15:    Randolph Scott
         Tuesday Aug 16:    Raquel Welch
         Wednesday Aug 17:    Spencer Tracy
         Thursday Aug 18:    Shelly Winters
         Friday Aug 19:    Toshiro Mifune

     So many interesting choices in the mix, few of them I'll have practical time for with the work week and currently limited DVR space - I've so much on there, much of it from TCM, that I've yet to make time for. Far too much in the week for me to make a good highlights list for, but one of the items that popped for me is 2PM on Tuesday, as part of Raquel's day. It's the 1973 Stephen Sondheim co-written (with Anthony Perkins), multi-star whodunnit The Last of Sheila. Here's the theatrical trailer from back in the day:

     For me it's been another draining week, including some very unwelcome health news, and I need to try to... I'm not quite sure. Distance myself from the stresses will have to be part of the process, though. There's much to sort out, and I'm aces at putting such things off. Getting myself to accept, usefully, that time is running out will be a challenge. I'm used to hiding in the margins and uncertainties, and evading what I'm told is inevitable. Those are tough behaviors to break, especially when I don't want to.
     I hope you've found something in the movies and shows above (and in previous Friday posts) of interest, and that we'll all make it back here safely next Friday. - Mike

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

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

Litigators, Aliens, and Other Fearsome Things - May 27 - What's To Watch?

      Work's ramped up to see us potentially roaring out of May and into June, so it's been a long week at the lab, and I've much less time for watching and commenting -- or sleeping. Something has to give, right? Ideally most of us will be able to enjoy an extended holiday weekend once we've finished Friday obligations.

    Better Call Saul (AMC) is now better than halfway through its sixth and final season, and had its mid-season finale this past Monday -- it'll be back July 11th to start working through the final six episodes. This focused, mostly prequel series to Breaking Bad, has been excellent out of the gate, and with this being the final season everything is coming to a head in what is centrally the origin story for Saul Goodman, who started out as Jimmy McGill.
    After bringing a caper to a head, a dangerous parallel story came in to stun the characters and the audience in the final moments of this most recent episode.
   I really should (carefully) seek out some others who have been watching the show all along so I have someone to talk with about it before we hit that final stretch. No one in my immediate circle's been watching, many of them not even having gotten through Breaking Bad. Anyway, top-notch television, and I'm here at the point where I simultaneously want to see the final episodes, yet don't want it to be over. It's still funny to me to think back to when I first read the pitch for the series, and wondered why anyone would be interested in providing an origin story - and post-script - to a supporting player from Breaking Bad. Fortunately, they knew better.

    Today sees the final two episodes of the first season of Bosch: Legacy (over so soon?!) arrive on the free streamer Freevee. Continuing the story of detective Harry Bosch following the seven seasons of Bosch that ran over on Amazon Prime.  They managed to wrap most of the storylines up, but I'll warn you that they left us with a major cliffhanger. At least we know it's coming, as the series was given a season two go-ahead four days before this season launched. No word at this early date when we would expect season two, though.
     As noted in some earlier pieces, this new series' first season is in many ways Bosch season eight -- it just took advantage of a career milestone/change for the title character as an opportunity for a slightly different look and feel -- and theme song. We even had some nice bits of involvement from several members of the extended cast from the old show. Reportedly they're very interested in working with Connelly on other (spinoff?) series.
     All based on a series of novels by Michael Connelly, this leads me to a seque for something that arrived on Netflix back on May 13th -- though I took a week or so to get around to it. Connelly created at least one other character who went on to star in a series of novels: Mickey Haller, an attorney popularly known as "The Lincoln Lawyer" for his habit of conducting so much business from the back seat of a chauffeured Lincoln Town Car. Harry was created back in the 1992 novel The Black Echo, and is the more storied creation of Connelly, while Mickey Haller was created in 2005 with, suitably enough, The Lincoln Lawyer.
     While it's less likely to be something they'll handle in one of these live action series - which tend to be strewn with legal landmines - in the novels it was established that Harry and Marty are half-brothers via their father.
     Anyway, I enjoyed the ten-episode first season of The Lincoln Lawyer over on Netflix, and am hoping it's successful enough to be picked up for additional seasons. Here's the trailer:

    It manages to form satisfyingly complete arcs for at least a couple of stories, while leaving us in the final scene with a reminder that important, threatening mysteries remain.

     Speaking of Netflix, the first "half" of the long-awaited season four of Stranger Things arrives today. Seven episodes. (The final two, the second of which will be 2.5 hours, will arrive July 1st.) While it's not been quite three years since season three arrived on the Fourth of July, 2019, it somehow seems longer. Advance reviews have been encouraging.
    Here's the season four trailer

     If you're feeling a little at sea, here's a shot at a recap of season three that Netflix posted. It helped revive multiple details for me. I've yet to feel a strong urge for a series rewatch, so this is the right speed for me.

    
     I've now watched through the seven episodes of this portion ("half") of season four. We'll be getting the remaining two (one of which is supposed to be 2.5 hours long) come July 1st. The overall season will run nearly twice the length of any of the previous ones, with the episodes running longer. I didn't focus on that much while watching it, because I didn't feel it was being padded. It gave them more time to spread out over the cast. As ever, your mileage may vary.
     They have managed to recapture much of the early feel of the show, and this season has a distinct Nightmare On Elm Street theme running through it. Period pop cultural references throughout, of course, but for the most part it all worked for me, feeling no more forced than those actual things did when we went through them back in the '80s. 

    Meanwhile, the latest Star Wars series begins on Disney+. While they've been sticking to a Wednesday release schedule for new series - and the remainder of the series will be released on following Wednesdays - the premiere for this one is on Friday. Speculation is that there will be some event tie-in with the Star Wars event in Anaheim on the 27th. Or, it could be that they just wanted the direct, head-to-head holiday weekend competition with Stranger Things.
     Set mainly in the time between Episode Three and Four (Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope), we'll see Ewan McGregor reprising his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader. As with all things Star Wars, I'm going to let them tell me the story, and not race to research all of the advance name-drops of other characters. It's the 6-episode miniseries Obi-Wan Kenobi

    I'm somewhat on the fence with this mainly because it's trying to fill in a time period between the end of the prequel movies' Episode Three and 1977's A New Hope, and to do so regarding not just the lead character but some other prominent ones for that original movie. It's already stretching my credulity considerably, both in allowing what became Episode Four to remain intact, and in doubling down on the simple problem of where Ben chose to "hide"young Luke. If you can manage that bit of advanced mental yoga, then you may be able to enjoy the adventure being offered.
     With just two episodes down, though, it's already extremely difficult to even imagine the 1977 film that started it all managing to remain intact sans some selective memory wipes. It's likely a good time to remember that Star Wars has always been a fantasy series with a sci-fi setting and trappings, not science fiction. repeating "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..." as a mind-clearing mantra may be a good recourse in the absence of some really good meds.

     I've just started watching an 8-episode series on Amazon Prime, a drama that hinges on a sci-fi premise. Sissy Spacek and J.K. Simmons star as an elderly couple, weighed down by the years but much more so by a profound loss many years earlier, who have a secret portal on their property that leads to a sort of observation deck on another planet. It's Night Sky

    Comedian Norm Macdonald was diagnosed with cancer back in 2012, but managed to keep it private. Jump ahead eight years to the summer of 2020, with his secret still kept, Norm was working on new material for a Netflix special when he needed to schedule a hospital procedure.

     Lori Jo Hoekstra, Macdonald's longtime producing partner laid it out as so:
“His test results were not good, so during the heart of COVID-19 pandemic and literally the night before going in for a procedure, he wanted to get this on tape just in case — as he put it — things went South. It was his intention to have a special to share if something happened.” He recorded an hour, in his living room, in a single take.
     The procedure went well, and the tape was tossed in a closet. A year later, though, Norm became very ill -- too ill to be able to film the material in front of an audience, as planned. Remembering the tape, he asked Hoeskstra to dig it out so he could watch it, which he did before he passed away last year. After watching he even suggested a self-deprecating title.
      Norm MacDonald: Nothing Special (1h 26 min) - which will include clips of various comedic contemporaries of Norm, recorded during the recent Netflix Is a Joke Fest - will be arriving on Netflix May 30th -- Memorial Day. Given the nature of the special, it's understandable that they didn't put together an elaborate promo piece, and didn't even post this teaser & clip before the day the special went live.

     That's going to be my next viewing stop here on Memorial Day -- after I take care of a few chores/obligations.
    
     Two days later, on June 2nd, Hulu will finally see the arrival of The Orville: New Horizons. It's been over three years since the final episode of season two of the show aired on Fox.

     It's been a long wait, and on more than one level I'm interested to see how this goes down. During those two seasons on Fox, the show was generally panned by critics (especially the first season), while scoring strongly with the audience. For one subset of the fans the "throwback" theme and feel of it struck a chord, and it became the Trek they wanted, as opposed to Star Trek: Discovery, which many of them at the time were rejecting. I've become a strong fan of Discovery, but even among those who haven't gone that way the recent debut of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - a series set aboard the Enterprise under Captain Christopher Pike, set ten years before it became James T. Kirk's ship - seems to be enjoying almost universal praise. (Now four episodes in, I've certainly been enjoying it.) "Fans" being what they are, who knows how long that'll last, but for now at least official Trek has a series with a very human, accessible captain and relatively old school sensibilities. We'll see if the pandemic-delayed series' return, here in a new place, works well enough for them, or if the moment's passed.

     Finally, I noticed that today would have been the 100th birthday for Christopher Lee - gone nearly seven years. Wanting to end as many of these Friday pieces as I can with free-to-all items, if you go to Tubi you can search for things not only by title but by actor or director's names. It's best to put the name in quotes to help cut down on the false hits. Anyway, among their current offerings (and I'm not going to pretend in the least that these are the best choices among his esteemed career) there's the always entertaining Horror Express (1972  R  1h 30m), with friend and frequent co-star Peter Cushing, some wonderful scene-chewing by Telly Savalas, and an ancient, unique menace, Night of the Big Heat (1967, aka Island of the Burning Doomed), and a 2018 Rifftrax re-framing of 1977's Starship Invasions, an entertainingly bad sci-fi film that deserves the active ridicule. Free to watch, with modest commercial interruptions.

     As for sleep-starved me, I have to bury myself in calcs and reports today before I can get back to watching anything else! Wishing you (and, frankly, myself) luck in finding the quickest, safest exit to the weekend! See you next Friday, when, among other things, some twisted hyper-violence will be returning over on Amazon Prime. (No, I'm not referring to Bezos' union-busting.) -- Mike

What's To Watch? - Apr 15 - Where We Were. Where Are We Going?

 

     April 15th! Tax Day here in the U.S. (okay, we technically have until Monday the 18th this year), and this year it's also Good Friday - which by some odd company history not worth going into here and now is also a day off for me - and, as with every year, it's also my birthday. Taxes (federal, state and local) have been taken care of (Just! I let them go very late this year), so I'm going to be trying to enjoy this three-day weekend... though I've so very much to do to begin to prepare for some big changes at and of home in the months ahead, along with tending the paying career. I can't just be watching my stories all day.

     As if often the case, as I get around to watching items I'll try to loop back and add generally non-spoiling comments.
 
     I've already watched and enjoyed this week's episode of Moon Knight (Disney+), which is now halfway through its 6-episode run. Nearly all of the players are in action, and we have a much better sense of how supernatural these events really are. Interesting characters so far, and the underlying dynamics of ancient gods at work, with the primary struggle being between the choices of being violently reactive or violently pro-active underlying the conflict. In that respect it's the whole (Marvel) Civil War conflict of ideologies being played out again, this time with backing from another plane of existence. As is the way when dealing with gods, we also see what we've always pretty much known: they're as varied and flawed as human beings are. Authority comes from power and conviction, and it's ultimately always flawed and up for debate.

     My next, weekly, leisure stops (not necessarily in this order) will be the latest episodes of Star Trek: Picard (Paramount+), crime-beat investigative reporter memoir-based Tokyo Vice, and French Chef biopic series Julia (those latter two both on HBO Max). All three continue to engage me in their own ways, even if Picard feels much like wheel-spinning in its main plot. It's best to just focus on the character arcs. Meanwhile, Tokyo Vice has me interested in seeing how this comes out for the key characters, while Julia has become a sentimental favorite for me, where with only three episodes to go I'm already beginning to miss the characters. There I'm just enjoying it, including the many, many human moments, and trying not to focus on the more contrived elements that try to expand the cultural footprint, such as the confabulation that is Alice Naman (ably brought to life by Brittany Bradford), who is carrying the load of being not merely a young woman trying to navigate a 1962 workplace, but also being African American. Still, I'm enjoying the interactions of the characters and am not fixated on policing the show for historical accuracy.

     Caught by a DVR preset in place from at least a couple years ago, the eight-episode, fourth and final season of British spy thriller series Killing Eve (BBC America and AMC/AMC+) had been building up, week to week, since the end of February. Knowing in part that I'd prefer being able to binge it, I kept putting off getting to it, and came perilously close to just clearing the memory and leaving me to find it later. Happily, I instead decided to start in on it last week, and rolled through it an episode or two or three at a time.
     Fans will of course differ on how well or poorly they thought character arcs were resolved, especially in a world where brutal, final options are common, but at the very least I certainly enjoyed the ride. At its core through the four seasons was both the relationship and the individual journeys of personal development for both British intelligence investigator Eve (Sandra Oh) and psychopathic assassin Villanelle (Jodie Comer), complete with romantic tension. This final season includes revelations about the long games behind the mayhem, and the players backing the various pieces.
     This final season even included the very interesting introduction of two more assassins, one a savage pro, the other a neophyte. Particularly with respect to the latter, the audience's empathy is repeatedly tested.
     Back to the core pair, we see the arguable evolution/degeneration blend arc for one, and the murkier attempt at self-improvement and trying to determine her ability to be a human being for the other. Villanelle's journey by itself makes for an interesting compare and contrast with the recently-concluded life arc for serial killer Dexter Morgan, late of Dexter and Dexter: New Blood (both from Showtime.)
     Anyway, here's the season four trailer for Killing Eve

     The end of the series was... abrupt, and understandably disappointing to some faction(s) of the fans. It's difficult to believe that this is someone's clear concept of an ending.
     Currently the most reliable spot to catch the entire series (at least in the U.S.) would be by trying out a subscription to AMC+, one of the services I've yet to add.

     Today on Amazon Prime, the first two episodes of an eight episode first season for supernatural mystery thriller series Outer Range. In it, Royal Abbot (Josh Brolin) is a rancher in Wyoming, who finds himself in the thick of a mystery following the arrival of Autumn (Imogen Poots), a drifter with some connection to his ranch. Two episodes this week to start, then two each of the following three Fridays.

     In the New To Me category, arriving today on Hulu is a documentary that's come up repeatedly as a reference in things I've read: Drunk, Stoned, Brilliant, Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon (2015).

     Next Monday, the 18th, a little over two years since the final episode of season five aired, Better Call Saul returns with the first two episodes of the sixth (and final) season. To emphasize that, this is the final season of the terrific Breaking Bad prequel series that turned out to be so much more than I ever expected when I stepped on the Saul Goodman ride back in February of 2015.

     This last season of the series will be 13 episodes, three more than each of the previous five, which is good as we still have a great deal a ground to cover in the final stretch of this pre-Breaking Bad supporting character origin story. That of con man "Slippin'" Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) who became a lawyer, then, frustrated in his career path, used some innate showmanship to work his way into becoming a garish, regional, defense attorney, rode high only to see his life implode. Also, we hope and have good reason to expect, we'll close on more detailed word of his ultimate fate -- or, at least, something farther down the road than we've previously seen. Is there any hope of happiness for Our Anti-hero? I'm rooting for him.
     The series so far has been superb television, and while this is technically a mostly prequel series it's really best enjoyed if one first watches Breaking Bad.

     The same day, HBO Max subscribers have been told to expect the latest relaunch for Batman with the streaming release of The Batman (2022 PG-13  2h 56m)

     I'm curious to see it, but this wasn't a driving matter for me. I was content to wait for it to come to my home screens. I'm open to (yet another) interpretation of the characters, but despite being steeped in decades of related lore these DC items remain very casual-level fan involvement for me. Warner/DC's approach of recasting and re-presenting different directors' interpretations of the same characters and city across the years - frequently including variations on the same first meetings - leaves it all with little to no convincing momentum. Don't care for this one? Wait a few years and you'll get yet another one to choose from.
      That's also set to hit HBO itself that Saturday, the 23rd.

     This past Tuesday I was saddened to see that comedian, actor and podcaster Gilbert Gottfried had died. Only 67. While my experience of Gilbert strictly as a comedian had been limited for most of his career, the past few years his podcast (I'll get to that shortly) has been a fun and informative show, and had unexpectedly endeared the odd, little man to me.

     In another of those synchronicitous moments, I'd earlier in the week watched Can We Take A Joke? (1h 15m) a 2015 documentary examining the chilling effect of outrage mentality in the era of social media. It drives along with a handful of comedians who relate situations and experiences, along with looking at some of the longer history of censorship, including Lenny Bruce's pivotal role in (posthumously) shattering the obscenity laws that dogged him. Gilbert is one of the recurring comedians in the mix. It's available to stream freely for Amazon Prime users.

     It continues to be a tricky area to navigate, though I'm coming to more fully realize we as individuals would do better concentrating on our own shortcomings, blind spots and journeys of growth, and less on playing a game of pointing to gasp or guffaw. A little less emphasis on silencing the world.
     Today I turn 61 (which is a horrible thing to happen to a 19 year-old), and I almost daily still catch myself detecting "humor" where there really is none, but which social programming in my youth convinced me by example that there was. Even just the area of dialect humor, with the underlying audacity that the ability to speak English is a measure of intelligence, in league with the asinine notion that other languages are just nonsense sounds to be derided, is a frequent point of self-correction. Realizing one's own ignorance, and trying to keep from punching down, or at The Other, requires constant vigilance - especially for those of us who are getting well along in life.

     I'll also note, as it's streaming entertainment (if audio only), that I've yet to be disappointed by any of the interviews that make up the hundreds of Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast series. Gilbert and his stalwart researcher, straight man and merry enabler, Frank Santopadre, started doing the podcast back in 2014. While Gilbert had an adolescently-arrested development aspect to much of his sense of humor, the pieces are a treasure trove of celebrity, screenwriter, director, tv and movie memories. They celebrated their 400th podcast just this past January.
     Also, while it's from 2017 and so won't have the more recent years, much less include the end of his story, there's a documentary about him that can be seen over on Peacock, even by we lowly sorts who just have a free account and will see commercials during it. (Note: While it was on Hulu back when the trailer below was made, it ain't no mo'. Such are the vagaries and tides of the streaming seas in our glorious, treacherous, future age!) It's titled, appropriately enough, Gilbert (2017 1h 36m)

     Something that crept up on me due to DVR series presets is this Sunday's Doctor Who special, an episode dropping on Easter Sunday. It's The Legend of the Sea Devils (45m). This is the penultimate episode with Jodie Whitaker as The Doctor and with Chris Chibnall as showrunner. After this there's just one more special, sometime late this year, where Jodie's version of the Doctor will bow out, regenerating into whoever once and returning (for 2023) showrunner Russell T. Davies has chosen to take on the mantle next. I'm hoping the trailer for this episode is just very poorly assembled, because it has no (good) energy that I can detect.

     Ah! Another oversight! Next Wednesday (April 20th) Netflix will bring us the second season of the time-looping comedy-drama series Russian Doll. Another of the pandemic-enhanced gaps, the first season appeared over three years ago, on February 1, 2019. Natasha Lyonne again stars as Nadia Vulvokov, though we're rejoining her four years after we last left her. Then it was all about a looped 36th birthday day, now she's fast-approaching her 40th.
     Here's the second season trailer, which gives us a good sense that season two will not be hinging on a single time-looped day.

     While the first season was eight episodes, this one will be seven.

     And that will do it for this week! I've much to do Friday, and some of that will be me trying to enjoy the day, too. I keep forgetting to do that.
     Take care, and see you next Friday! - Mike

What's To Watch? - Apr 8 - Talent and Rot: Neither Should Be Hidden

 

      Unlike last week, this Friday Amazon Prime has a new original (also having limited release in theaters) espionage thriller starring Chris Pine, Thandiwe Newton, Laurence Fishburne, and Jonathan Pryce.
     Ex-lovers and spies Henry (Pine) and Celia (Newton) meet for dinner, where reminiscences bring them back to a disastrous hijacking, with an agency-haunting aftermath. During the meal, it becomes clear that some old, deadly business is being concluded. It's All the Old Knives (2022   R  1h 41m)

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      Fame is interesting in its scope and lack thereof, along with how transient - ephemeral - it can be. We see it all the time - when we recognize it, of course - with sports, music, or general pop stars. People who can be known and followed by millions, yet some small divergence of tastes and/or geography, and they're reduced to a "Who...?"
     So it was for me and Jimmy Savile.

     A DJ who became a huge, "man of the people" style pop star, who generally wore his hair long as part of a branding gimmick, he hosted Top of the Pops for decades, and in large part he made a career of fundraising (mostly for special hospitals) and of becoming someone who could make wishes (particularly those of children) come true via a long-running tv program Jim'll Fix It. Friend and confidante of the British royal family, and of Prime Minister Thatcher, publicly meeting with Pope John Paul II, he was one of the most well-known, highly-regarded figures in the U.K. for most of the back half of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st. As it turns out, he was also - throughout it all - a pedophile.
     For good or ill, it seems that infamy outpaces fame. If I'd ever heard the name Jimmy Savile prior to his death, I cannot recall it. It was only once he was being posthumously, openly investigated, and then reviled, that I started to hear anything about the man.
     A two-part documentary covering it all appeared this past Wednesday on Netflix: Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story.

     While normally, traditionally, I would have steered around such a thing, for some reason I gave it a look and was drawn in. Again, there's something fascinating about how deeply "known" someone can be - a cultural fixture - by so many, while many millions of others have heard nothing. More importantly, and terrifyingly, is realizing how something so damaged and evil can hide in plain sight. Defined to popular satisfaction, regime-approved and all eccentricities written off as mere gimmicks, distracted otherwise by a string of Good Works, he was protected by a glamour. One of the true magics of the world, turned to dark purpose. An unsavory character, but a story I found fascinating. The two parts run nearly three hours total.
     Thematically, on the basis of evil hiding in plain sight, masked by the glamour of celebrity, Important Friends, and very public Good Works, it's an interesting companion piece to the four-part Showtime documentary We Need To Talk About Cosby that ran just this past February. (Has it really only been a little over a month?)

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     Begun April 1st, with a new episode set to appear each Friday, a new South Korean fantasy series about supernatural workers in the afterlife, policing suicides, has shown up on Netflix: Tomorrow. Our entrance to this is by a young, increasingly desperate job-hunter who acts to save someone who's sunk even deeper into despair than he has, unwittingly getting drawn into a whole new world and a major life detour.
     It's set to run 16 episodes, and I've just begun giving it a look.

*** *** *** *** ***

     As mentioned last week, we finally had the arrival of season five of Better Call Saul over on Netflix, joining the previous four seasons. It's been approximately two years since I'd seen these episodes as they aired week to week on AMC. With the sixth, final, season set to begin April 18th, I wanted to rewatch the previous season to get myself back up to speed. There were some vague notions of spreading it out over the course of the nearly two weeks in between. Have I met me?
     Yeah, I casually burned through the ten episodes in a few days.
     It's a detail-rich environment, yet I was surprised at how fresh in mind most of it was, though it was good to take the refresher. It not only gave me more time to get back into the characters, but it reminded me of a few details I'd forgotten, including that the season didn't end with a snap back to the present, so a potentially dicey situation still waits for us there.
     As with Breaking Bad, the series this one is largely a prequel to (though with bookends that are set well after that series wrapped) I expect to eventually go back and rewatch the full series. It even crossed my mind to do that during this gap before the final season begins, but that would be 50 episodes, running anywhere from 41 to 60 minutes each. I've done more than that in less time, but it's not a good idea.
     Anyway, I'll be more in on the series next week, when we're on the brink of the final season's start.

*** *** *** *** ***

 

      We otherwise seem to be in an odd spot, with significant releases coming in the middle of the month and later -- a little too soon to get to here.
     Instead, I'm continuing to enjoy series I've hit in previous Friday installments. Series that are still unfolding. Even just in my piece from two weeks ago, we have Atlanta (on FX, then on Hulu the following day), Moon Knight (Disney+), and a pleasantly unexpectedly engaging Julia Child biopic series.

     The Julia Child miniseries on HBO Max, Julia, has continued to pull me along. Without a doubt, were they not releasing this in weekly installments, and had dropped it all at once, I'd have moved through it a week ago. Sarah Lancashire has been delivering a moving performance as someone who is overtaken by unexpected fame. A woman who has had to navigate a life where she's too regularly felt like the unfeminine elephant in the room, and has developed an array of skills to navigate the world, is increasingly at sea in a world where her sudden and growing fame has people treating her in a way she's never known. A sudden intimacy and presumed friendliness that she can't help but be unnerved by after a life of being mostly treated as a preposterous figure. In the mix she's also getting to see that she's had more of an impact on people from well before all this, but she can't bring herself to really trust it.
     An undercurrent with Julia, established early in the story, is that she's hit menopause, and so is quietly dealing with the loss of the quiet, secret notion that she might ever become a mother. With its loss she realized how the simple, unspoken, possibility of it had been in some way sustaining.
     The supporting cast is wonderful. Among them is David Hyde Pierce as Julia's husband, Paul, an initially somewhat staid and priggish man who we come to realize genuinely loves his wife, and grows past his own professional disappointments to enjoy seeing her finally come into her own. Contrasting

with him in a small, but significant role is James Cromwell as Julia's father, John. He couldn't really see his daughter for who she is, too lodged in early life notions of her as am ungainly creature, with his fatherly duty being to use his relative wealth to help her find some place in the world, some part of him still believing that it's the only reason she ever found a husband. The other main male character in the cast is Russ Morash (played by Fran Kranz) an executive at public television station WGBH, who is taken on a journey with all this that he initially dismissed and fought against. The other men in the mix are relative supporting players. Most of the

significant parts in this story are women.
     Running parallel to Julia's own story are the other women who are navigating a world that too reflexively diminishes, even dismisses, them. While a few have solidly staked their claim and asserted their authority (such as Avis, ably played by Bebe Neuwirth), most have to take a route of quiet perseverance, acting more intelligently, tirelessly and boldly, frequently needing to nearly ask forgiveness for making smart moves while being the wrong gender. That latter path's the one walked by Alice Naman (Brittany Bradford), one of the initially lower-tier production people at WGBH, who is a young woman of color, and so operating with two strikes against her even in the relatively liberal environment of public television. She champions Julia's cause, and is instrumental in guarding the spark of it, helping to tend it into full blaze.
     Four episodes in as of this week, we're halfway through the story, it's in that sweet spot where I'm hungry for the rest of the story, but already feeling a little sad at it being over so soon.

     I've also begun to sink into Tokyo Vice (also on HBO Max), one of the shows I gave an introductory look at late in last week's post.

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     Despite that long ramble, I'm once again pressed by other circumstances, and have to wrap this up here for the week. A busy Friday ahead for me, and I already want a nap.  Today would have been the 61st birthday of someone special to me, who fell three days short of her 49th. I'm in need of a little, quiet, downtime, but I don't know if I'll get much of it. Miles to go.
    Take care. I'll catch you again in the ides. - Mike