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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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