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

Schemes of Summer - June 24 - What's To Watch?

 

 

         As is likely the case for many of you, I'm walking that line between trying to stay informed and not wanting to become uselessly depressed. To that end I scrapped my original opening paragraph early Friday morning, just before sending this to publish. Not wanting to overly distract by references to the nearly daily revelations and underlinings from and surrounding the January 6th commission hearings, emphasizing and re-emphasizing how it came down to the actions of a few, principled people that ended up standing between us and Trump's coup. Nor wanting to dwell, here, on the various woundings handed down this week by the Conservative-packed U.S. Supreme Court. Now that they've dropped the bomb with the overturn of Roe v. Wade, I decided to at least add some version of my original opening back. Not as to drag the debates into a blog post on entertainment, but even just simply to time-stamp this piece. To give it the context of this historical backdrop.

     That said, for now, we'll dive into the potential entertainment.

     (As ever, each link here pops open as a new screen, so you can take a look, close it, and you should end up back here.)
     There's plenty to watch and be entertained by. At the moment it's almost an embarrassment of riches even just with shows I've already written about on recent Fridays.
     To quickly hit some of the current/recent highlights, grouping them by where they're streaming. If you have the service in question, check them out. If you don't then make a note that they're there for you to check out if you decide to take a free or reduced-cost trial period with that streamer.

    Amazon Prime: The Boys (Fridays) hyper-violence and twisted sexual elements abound, but it can also be entertaining and engaging, with more than a little contemporary social commentary.  This week's episode, "Herogasm", is particularly twisted. Easily NSFW, or pretty much anywhere.
     The most recent bit of fun and puzzlement with the series, though, have been various reports of right-leaning fans flipping out upon realizing what pretty much any rational person knew from the get-go: Homelander's the central villain of the piece. Extremely dangerous, powerful narcissist who realized he gets even more popular with a given demographic the more he self-aggrandizes, talks about violent resolutions to conflicts, and runs un-apologetically roughshod over anyone in his path -- it all seems oddly familiar, doesn't it?
    FX/Hulu: The Old Man (Thursday nights on FX, on Hulu the following day). I enjoyed the heck out of the first two episodes last week, and am looking forward to this week's. Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow head a solid cast. This includes flashback scene performances by Bill Heck and Christopher Redman as Bridges and Lithgow's characters, respectively, 30 years ago; Heck's gotten Bridges' mannerisms down, and Redman does a superb job of Lithgow's cadence. While at the time I didn't have much more to go on than the trailer, I first mentioned it back on the 10th. This first season will be seven episodes, so after this week we'll still have four to go.
     Disney+: Ms. Marvel (Wednesdays) Certainly there will be some limited appeal, especially if one's uninterested in or just feeling glutted by comics-derived, costumed content, but so far they've done a nice job of bringing a modern, teen- and family-centered show with a culturally-diverse cast in a way that helps expand representation but still manages to feel oddly relatable to a 61 year-old, white dude. We're all looking for friends and a place in the world.
     Paramount+: The star attraction there for me this week was the recently-wrapped, 10-part dramatization of what went in to getting a screen adaptation of Mario Puzo's The Godfather made. Centered on Al Ruddy, a former computer programmer for The Rand Corporation who wanted to make something happen with his life, he angled his way into the entertainment biz. A deserving brand of chutzpah that's a combination of balls and brains. It's The Offer.
     I'd held off on watching it until all parts were available, and having binged through it in about three sessions I'm very happy I waited to have it all handy. It's a stirring tale, well-told, and full of characters nearly all of whom are or were very much real people, and every bit as colorful. (Among the main cast there's only one character who turns out to be an amalgam of various people.) Outside of the actors, several of the behind-the-scenes people I knew about before, but others were mostly new to me, and I enjoyed researching some of them -- mostly after the fact. It's worth it even just to start to dig into producer Robert Evans (played with mesmerizing intensity by Matthew Goode) and his deservedly deeply-storied career. If you watch, let it run through the credits at the end of each episode and watch the few minutes they take deconstructing some elements of the episode you just watched. Paramount + also has The Godfather movies, too, so you can roll into them -- well, at least the first two -- sometime after having lived through the fight to make that first one.

     AMC/AMC+: A crime thriller centered on a Navajo reservation, set in 1971. It's Dark Winds. That was one of the shows I mentioned last week. New episodes land Sunday nights on AMC, and if you have AMC the cable provider likely has an On Demand access to past episodes. You'll need that, because AMC is clearly pushing this as part of their AMC+ content, so - unlike, say, the Walking Dead shows, where they'll frequently rerun earlier episodes during the week, giving ample opportunities to catch up, they pretty much run and rerun that week's episode only, then move on to the next. This is combined with them always letting you know that you could be watching the next episode now, rather than having to wait a week, if only you were an AMC+ subscriber.
     The AMC marketing schemes aside, I've been enjoying it so far and was pleased to see this week that the response had been strong enough they've already renewed it for season two. Given all of the novels they have to draw on, this could have serious legs.
 

    Netflix: Also part of what was mentioned last week, is the much-anticipated return of The Umbrella Academy, back with its third season. Between bring busy and so fully drawn-in to The Offer (see above) -- and having semi-trapped my OCD self by having started a rewatch of show from the start (about 70% through season one) I've surprised myself by not having dived in to the new material yet. Still, the weekend's here, and I'll likely fold soon.
 

    Newly-arrived on Disney+ is the Marvel's most recent big screen addition, Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness (2022  PG-13 2h 6m), which had hit U.S. screens back on May 6th, so pretty close to the rumored 45 day span between theatrical release and arrival on Disney+. As someone who's not only steeped in most of the source material (severe gaps with much of the newer print material, though), but closer to home is up on the movies and Disney+ series, it's obvious that with each new item in the past year or so it's gotten a little less accessible to casual and first-time viewers. I'm not sure what someone who hadn't seen Spider-man: No Way Home and Disney+'s WandaVision series would make of some of the details and references, for instance. That's the trick of continuity, as while it invests the long-term fan ever more deeply in a series -- or, in this case, a universe of characters -- it potentially dissuades others from jumping on board because they're wrestling with the desire to know it from the ground up, but to do so presents them with an every-growing stack of homework. This movie is formally the 28th feature film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, stretching back to 2008's Iron Man. That alone would be daunting to anyone approaching it, and in the past two years Disney+ has been pumping out series that are woven directly into the same tapestry has a growing number of series to take in if they want to be up to date on it.
     The marketing aim is not only to get fans to line up for each new theatrical release, but to see the Disney+ subscription as essential. It would be all nearly perfect - well-curated in various ways - if not for the messy legacy of the long-lasting effects of some rather old business deals made by Marvel years before the House of Mouse gobbled them up. For now, at least, this means that Disney+ gives someone access to most of it, but (for now) that doesn't include the MCU-connected Incredible Hulk (2008) nor the three most recent Spider-Man films starring Tom Holland. They're working on that, though.
     Anyway, since the outbreak of COVID-19 I've only gotten out to see a couple films in theaters, and

those weeks after they premiered, hitting particularly ill-attended weekday showings. I'm still not anywhere near the comfort level of looking to get back into a theater with more than a well-scattered handful of strangers. This Dr. Strange sequel was one of those, though.
     While undeniably a Marvel film, it's also very much a Sam Raimi one, with a restrained form of his brand of horror imagery. I enjoyed it well enough, though the past two years have seen me get very accustomed to watching things at home, where I have the captions on, can pause the film, and generally be much more comfortable. I was getting a little antsy in the old-style stadium seats at the Regal where I watched it. I'm looking forward to giving it a rewatch at home, where I'm expecting I'll be more focused on it.

    The next MCU film will be Taika Waititi's Thor: Love & Thunder, set to formally land less than two weeks from now, on July 8th. I suspect that'll be another weekday matinee affair for me after it's been out for a little. I continue to play that by ear. I doubt I'll just wait until (presumably) late September for it to arrive on Disney+. These days I think the thing I miss most about going out to the movies is going to see something new with someone. At home I think that for the most part it's a mercy for all potential parties that I'm taking in most of what I am solo - the past dozen years in particular have spoiled me such that joint tv viewing decisions and sleep schedules alone be issues to kill the domestic arrangement (or one of the participants) - but going out the movies, it's considerably less than half the fun doing that alone.
    
    This weekend (Sunday) HBO sees the return of the sci-fi series Westworld, back for its fourth season. This reminds me that I eventually have much catching up to do. When the series began early October 2016 I was largely bowled over by the overall quality - everything from the performances and explorations of what we identify as human behavior and recognize as intelligence, to the musical score - and continued to watch through that first season, even as our own, so-called real world took dark and surreal turns. That season ended on interesting notes, but for whatever reasons, when it returned in late April two years later, repeated attempts to climb aboard that second season failed for me. It was a weird thing, as if the content refused to load in my head despite, technically, watching it. So, I set it aside for some other time, and am yet to get back to it. For those of you who're caught up, here's the trailer for the new season:

     I know I neglected to do it last week, too, but I haven't lined up suitable free film to recommend either because it's simply good or it's bad enough for the excesses or deficiencies to be an entertainment on its own.
     When next we get together it'll be July 1st! How did that happen?! - Mike

Bands On the Run Amok - June 3rd - What's To Watch?

 

    Work's been hounding and hunting me down. Not only keeping me longer at the lab but pressing me to take care of more of it, remotely, when I finally get home. And I suspect there are events in the news that have been wearing on all of us. So, this week's piece is going to be light.

     Arrived on Hulu this past Tuesday is a 6-part biopic series on the punk band The Sex Pistols. Based on founding member and guitarist Steve Jones' memoir Lonely Boy: Tales From A Sex Pistol, this miniseries focuses on a key, three-year stretch for the band.
     Despite being nearly the same age as Sid, the punk era largely passed me by, with its positive influences being seen in performers and bands of what we came to know as the New Wave. Punk mostly seemed to be about anarchy over all else, with a particular disdain for anything positive. The result was that I never found anything there I thought of as musical. I'll be interested to see how this washes over me.
     It's Pistol:

      While in the vein of anarchy and British accents, it's been just under a year and a half since the close of season two, and (finally!) today Amazon Prime sees the return of the twisted and hyper-violent comics-to-screen adaptation of The Boys for its third season. This is a case where I've been enjoying the show, but still cannot recommend the source comics, which were mostly just about trying to find lines to cross. We're getting a much, much better distillation and interpretation on the screen.
     We get the first three episodes this week, then one per Friday through July 8th, I suppose. Here's the trailer for the new season:

     I'm looking forward to the twisted mayhem, including Billy Butcher's power-up, and the introduction of their WWII-era, dark, Captain America-esque Soldier Boy, who will be played by Supernatural alum Jensen Ackles.
     Having previewed the first episode of the season, it's difficult to come away with the sense that anything is taboo for this series. Certainly not in the veins of sex and graphic violence, often in the intersection of the two.

     A far more family-friendly bit of superheroing starts next Wednesday on Disney+, with the launch of a six-episode Ms. Marvel series. Well, they're billing it as a miniseries, giving the impression that it's meant to be a one-and-done item, primarily acting as a set-up for a 2023 film The Marvels, which will be the sequel to Captain Marvel (2019).
     The series centers on Kamala Khan, a 16 year-old Muslim Pakistani-American living in Jersey City, who is a big Avengers fan, writes fan fiction (much of it about Captain Marvel), and has the manifold complications and conflicts that come from her gender, ethnicity, religion, and being a teenager here in the U.S. Even without the head-in-the-clouds fixation on superheroes, she'd be fighting for her own identity in a world mostly intent on defining her by her faith and gender. As one would expect from a Marvel Cinematic Universe series, something happens to give her powers. Fairly obviously, this is a series intended to have a strong young adult appeal, along with generally looking to line up a new generation of heroes, much as the Hawkeye series introduced Kate Bishop, who is taking on the Hawkeye mantle.
     While the comics version's powers are an ability to stretch and/or enlarge parts or all of her body at will, reportedly as a cost-saving matter they changed them here to be energy construct powers more like Green Lantern uses. You'll get a good sense of that from the trailer. Again, that's for Ms.Marvel

     I suspect that aside from cost-saving in the effects, they likely also want to keep the stretching a little more fresh for when they more formally introduce Reed Richards/"Mr. Fantastic" to the mainstream MCU. Audiences got to see a version of him during Doctor Strange: In the Multiverse of Madness (currently, semi-officially scheduled - based largely on an announcement that slipped through in Germany - to arrive on Disney + June 22nd, btw)  sure, but alternate universe takes of characters are their own thing.

     In the meantime, new episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds continue to arrive each Thursday on Paramount+, Obi-Wan Kenobi's episodes (the 6-episode run already half over as of this week!) Wednesday's on Disney+, and Hulu's finally seen the return of Seth MacFarlane's The Orville: New Horizons -- all as noted in previous Friday posts.

      Here's hoping my workload is much better in hand by this time next week. We have plenty of cool new and returning things stretched out over June. In the meantime, enjoy the weekend, and take care. - Mike