I said I was going to have to keep this short, and what I probably meant was “I would spend too much time on this because that distracts me from worrying about important things.”
On Friday, Netflix released Strip Law, an animated sitcom from comedian / poster Cullen Crawford. It focuses on Adam Scott’s Lincoln Gumb, lawyer who is overshadowed by his late mother’s tremendous legal career, and Janelle James as Shiela Flambé, street magician, who partners with him to give his practice the kind of pizzazz he needs in court to win cases. Yes, in Vegas, trials are as much about showmanship as anything (when the most frequently recurring judge is voiced by Jim Rash, that kinda makes sense). Also along: Stephen Root as the tremendously named Glem Blorchman, older and frequently-disbarred firm associate who may have a method to his madness (or may just be mad), and Shannon Gisela as Lincoln’s niece Irene, a teenager who… kind of defies categorization, although the above art is pretty accurate to capturing the character. And their chief rival is Keith David as Steve Nichols, former partner of Lincoln’s mother (“Nichols and Gumb: Two things you find in your pocket!”) and now determined solo to establish his dominance over Lincoln.
Okay, so the thrust of my review is that it’s pretty weird and may or may not require a certain amount of being plugged into the internet to get, but it’s gag-a-minute and generally very funny and often weird in a good way. If you’re prepared for anything to happen, including the wildly irrational, it can be a fun time. There’s a lot of throwing stuff at the wall here, including background gags, and the sheer volume and variety makes it pretty consistently funny, and also gives it the feel of chaos and anarchy that might resemble a weekend in Vegas.
One thing I really enjoyed was the recurring gag of the intentionally archaic pop culture references, which from a critical-theory standpoint could be representative of Vegas’ tendency to trap pop culture in amber and preserve it for those who want to revisit a specific time, but mostly I just really liked because they were so absurd, both in what they referenced and what they did with the references— just wait until you encounter “Hot Dates,” which almost certainly doesn’t mean what you think it means.
There’s not really an overarching story here, unless you count something like Lincoln’s growing confidence and the firm’s success, but there are a lot of absurd cases, plots, situations, jokes, spoofs, riffs, parodies… I’m not kidding when I say the show throws everything in there. To say more would just be to spoil some of that “everything,” so instead, here’s my review: We watched the whole 10-episode season over the course of three days.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, “The Morrow” – A season finale that’s largely denouement after the Big Battle of episode five is, all in all, still quite compelling. Of course, we lead off with the fallout from the end of the last episode, and after that… What’s next for Duncan afterward? Will he continue to wander the countryside? Will he take Egg along? Or might he choose to ally with Lyonel Baratheon? Maybe he will take up Maekar Targaryen’s offer to squire Egg at Summerhall in exchange for his fealty? What about buddies like Raymun Fossoway? Well, while it was less action-packed and more contemplative than the previous episode, it still felt very fitting. And the show hasn’t lost its sense of humor— check the title card and the credits at the end. Good stuff, and really fun to get a take on Game of Thrones that’s a little more lighthearted and more focused on events far away from the halls of power.
American Dad!, “Aw Rats, A Pool Party” – Season 20 according to Hulu or 22 according to Wikipedia kicked off Sunday, also marking the show’s return to FOX, having left the network for TBS in 2014 for season partway through 10 or 12 (Wikipedia has season 11 as three episodes that aired on FOX in September, before moving to TBS in October). OK! Let’s get into the actual show.
It’s a simple episode: The Smiths have a pool party, for various reasons / people they want to impress. Appropriately enough, for the return to FOX, We get some characters we haven’t seen in a long time: Francine’s sister Gwen is back (for the first time since once of the very first TBS episodes), as is Steve’s goth ex-girlfriend Debbie (who has appeared a few times in crowd scenes but hasn’t had a speaking role since season 4, nearly 17 years ago). Bullock and the CIA never went anywhere, but Stan wants to impress him to get the job of “gun guy” (or “pistol picker” or “emissary of weaponry” or whatever). And then they find a dead rat in the pool, and farcical attempts to keep people from the rat-infected water go quickly awry. (Including a reference to the time Stan pooped in Buckle’s pool all the way back in season 5!) Good, solid episode of some classic AD!— a fun watch with a few really great lines. And they updated the intro!
The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, “Nittany Means Big” – We reviewed the pilot back at its sneak preview, and Monday NBC re-aired it along with the second episode. Monica accidentally lets something slip that indicates the real story behind Reggie’s career breakout game (the famous Food Poisoning Game at #2 Penn State, where he led Rutgers to an upset win as a true freshman) may not have been what the legend made it out to be, and Arthur picks up on that thread and tries to dig for the truth. He also tries to encourage Monica to reconnect with her childhood, a time before she was Reggie’s nearly-entire support system.
Meanwhile, Brina is mad at Reggie and he doesn’t know why, but he also has never been one for apologies, usually just buying people something and hoping that smooths things over. Of course Reggie will have to realize this and grow, with a little help from Rusty (and an insane scene with the two of them) and Arthur, but there’s a funny complication in that Carmelo really prefers the current arrangement. “Why is Brina even trying to make my dad be, like, an actual adult dad, instead of a bro with a black card? Yeah, I hear it.”
And Rusty mostly manages the archive of Reggie memorabilia and practices his Jim faces for the camera.
Still funny stuff, and in typical Morgan fashion, there’s a great run of Reggie non-sequiturs to the camera at one point. Maybe in the future I’ll just start writing down my favorite lines instead of summarizing the plot, because I only have a couple.
Rusty on Reggie and the Food Poisoning Game: “It made him a star overnight. Jim Carrey played him on In Living Color. It was a different time.”
Monica on her childhood playground: “In 1995, a year after the release of Illmatic, Nas lost his virginity on this seesaw.”
DMV, “Hot Gurlz” – We’re back from the midseason/Olympic break over on CBS. Colette wants to be in Cece’s “DMV Hot Gurlz” text group, which she refuses— “you have more ‘cute girl’ energy”— until her cousin takes an interest in Colette. Colette goes out with him… and discovers he’s shorter than her, which is a problem for her, but also one where she can’t break it off without pissing off Cece. Well, at least she’s interested in someone besides Noa! Noa is busy this week teaming up with Vic to screw with a returning rich customer who didn’t have the proper paperwork the last time and continues to act like a jagoff. Gregg’s lawsuit over the broken chair continues, although Barb tries to intervene and mostly makes herself look worse. Solid episode, buoyed by a few very funny sequences— Colette’s final confrontation with Miguel and Cece; Cece’s final scene; Barb at any point.
Best Medicine, “The Bogfather” – Apparently the Tuesday State of the Union address wasn’t enough to completely keep a new Best Medicine off FOX’s schedule. We had a hook that could make things quite interesting— a dead body found in the town bog— but it’s found in the first place during an annual tradition regarding the town founding that takes place at the bog. We were so close to an episode that wasn’t an annual tradition!
However, this is still a more interesting story just for being so different than most of the recent ones. Martin actually seems pretty content when he’s pressed into medical examiner work; it’s both an interesting window into his character and rather funny to see Martin actually in a good mood after spending all day on an autopsy instead of dealing with an entire town full of people who don’t follow his medical advice. (As if I could forget that even without the episode-opening montage.) “Why wouldn’t I be? I finally have a patient who doesn’t talk back.”
While some of Elaine’s influencer stuff can get tiring, I really enjoy the times when she tries to put on a serious persona, like as the field reporter at the blueberry festival or “Claw and Order: BOG” here. (You can probably figure out what that is.)
Anyway, the episode is part history of Port Wenn, part Martin trying to not only identify the body but see if there is any historical significance to it, and part the usual shenanigans and developing plots with the other townsfolk. And, I suppose, part chance for Martin to grow and learn to open up a little, which worked pretty well for me. (Josh Charles’ performance gets a ton of credit for that, because honestly, there’s a still really good case for Martin to just leave town and not look back.) Not too bad; I do feel like this show is headed in a better direction of late.
Bonus points for use of “Super Bon Bon.”
Nothing new to report this week, though we will get back to How to Get to Heaven From Belfast when time permits.
I haven’t really had time for any of that (except the periodic late-night Fringe episode, but I’m not gonna go back over shows I just watched for the first time so soon again). I did make a little time after the new American Dad! to watch season 5’s “An Incident at Owl Creek,” the aforementioned episode where Stan poops in the pool.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, only being six episodes this season, aired its finale Sunday night.
Matlock and Elsbeth resume their seasons tonight on CBS. Animal Control and Going Dutch are also back after a brief break. Stumble is back tomorrow night on NBC. St. Denis Medical got bumped this week for two episodes of Reggie Dinkins, but it’ll be back on Monday. And Abbott Elementary got bumped last night for a double-episode premiere of the Scrubs revival, but it’ll be back on Wednesday too.
That’s so much TV.
Your turn to tell me what’s on your TVs.
About the writer
Captain Nath
Born on the bayou, thriving in the mountains. Writer, gambler, comedian, singer-songwriter, bon vivant, globetrotter, and all-around Renaissance Man with perfect opinions about TV and music. Pronounced with a long A and with the H.
It's a gaming ship.
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Conversation
What did we watch?
M*A*S*H, Season Three, Episode Sixteen, “Bulletin Board”
Another directed by Alan Alda, and perhaps unrelated, another kind of ‘greatest hits’ episode where the scenes are essentially jokes and ideas we’ve seen before; the one runner is Margaret being angry with Frank for not lending her money. Otherwise, we have one scene of Trapper writing home to his kid, the characters watching a movie, the characters fixing up kids (great bit where Trap realises a kid has survived a wound through hypothermia), and a big party all the characters have that climaxes with Radar ruining the fun by calling out ‘choppers’. It makes me realise this show actually isn’t that far from the casual nature of the movie.
“Well, Radar, all the nurses know about sex.”
“I know I’ve been spreading the word.”
We Bury The Dead
A zombie apocalypse film where the twist is that it’s set – but not shot – in Tasmania. An American pulse weapon goes off on the coast of Tassie, killing half a million people; Daisy Ridley plays an American woman who volunteers to help clean up the bodies so she can find her husband. It’s not much of a movie; it might not be made in Tasmania, but it’s reminiscent of a lot of short Tasmanian films I’ve seen – especially horror – in that it looks like an anti-smoking ad, is paced like an Antonioni film, and has the script of a typical brainless zombie flick. The best part is by far the zombies themselves, who are incredibly creative in their look; the first one we meet just stands there menacingly, and it’s incredibly spooky. Close second is the chemistry between Ridley and Brentan Thwaites (who, if you recognise, you know as Robin from that Titans show where he says “Fuck Batman”) as a loutish young guy who teams up with her.
I have worked hard to forget Thwaites was Robin.
Had a piano lesson and was pretty spooked from listening to the audiobook of Pet Sematery all day* – more on that tomorrow – so I threw on What We Do In The Shadows’ “The Return of Jerry.” Jerry’s increasing irritation that NOT ONLY was he asleep for fifty years instead of being woken up in 1996 like he asked, but that the vampire housemates only “conquered” their block (and part of Ashley Street), not the entire New World, is very funny. Plus Colin’s genuine hurt that Jerry doesn’t remember his name. “He was the only one in the house who liked me.” “That is true.”
*Not the song, though it’s a good one.
Inside No. 9, “How Do You Plead?”
Incredible episode, with particularly stellar work from Shearsmith and Sir Derek Jacobi. Jacobi plays Webster, a former firebrand barrister with an exceptional career who has spent the last several years mostly bedridden and in agonizing physical decline; Shearsmith is the awesomely named Urban Bedford, his tart-tongued but compassionate home nurse. We come to them on a dark night of the soul, Webster’s birthday, when all the sins of his past seem inclined to haunt him, and we follow that thread to some out-and-out supernatural horror that’s genuinely scary. Some of Shearsmith’s best work as an actor here: he nails the mournful, accepting self-knowledge in one of Urban’s last lines, instantly making him one of the show’s most lasting characters. (It’s a very Angel-esque beat.)
Taskmaster, “Drier Than You’d Think, Chalk”
“They say it’s not the winning that counts, it’s the taking part. And if you’re a child watching the pre-watershed version of this show, I’m here to tell you an uncomfortable truth: you’re being told that because you’re not good enough.”
Updog joke!
“I figured the most fun thing to ride would be Alex Horne.”
“According to the internet, I agree.”
“Is there a way of keeping him in the toilet?”
“Yeah, let’s kill him!”
“It was all going to plan, and then we had a northern man dressed as ‘70s pimp attempt to lock him in the toilet and fail.”
“Tell me about the see-through umbrella disguise.”
“I’ve written off what you have in your mind as fair.”
“And that time wasn’t taken off. I’m still kind of shocked at that. It means if I’d had a heart attack, at some point when the paramedics were working on me, you would’ve said, ‘Time’s up.’” (Sanjeev, tying for best line of the episode with this next one from Phil:)
“Did you eat the word Technicolor first?”
“FISHES!”
“Oh, you think this is a game of millimeters, do you?”
Reverse task ownage: Maisie chewing up the task letter for her Technicolor dribble painting, plus the editing that had Phil, of all people, point out how objectively nuts that would be right beforehand.
Vomit-inducing task completion that nonetheless qualifies as ownage: Reece horking up huge quantities of dark sludge. Vile to watch—but it somehow makes a weirdly charming, identifiable picture of Dracula?
Comedic ownage: See above, re: Phil and Sanjeev.
An Angel-esque beat, eh? May have to watch this.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents, “The Belfry” – Um, no. More later.
The Practice, “Telltale Nation” – The main case involves a victim of sex abuse by a priest who is suing a long ago friend for not warning him. But the case – which is a bit nonsensical and also at no point does the defendant’s lawyer say “you expected a traumatized boy to do anything?” – is really the follow-up to the previous episode where Eugene questioned Bobby’s willingness to be part of the Catholic Church. By the end of this, Bobby quits the Church in part because even his wife hates it. At the time this aired, it made the news since David E. Kelley was not shy about his own anger, and gave interviews about it. Not being Catholic, I can’t say how this lands for Catholics, but the show getting into hot button matters so directly instead of being only about weird criminal law is welcome, and for once it seems to be done well. Meanwhile, what started as a simple dispute between ex-lovers turns deadly, and while it seems like self defense, Jamie the eager new lawyer discovers her client is actually a serial killer. But you can’t out your client. I guess weird criminal law is still with us.
Spoilers for a scheduled article: this promises to be our biggest divergence in AHP opinions!
GASP!
Live Music – won a couple of free tickets to see PVA, a British electronic post-punk trio whose sound falls somewhere between Dry Cleaning and techno, depending on the song. I found their album a bit patchy but it definitely has some high highs, getting to see them for free was a fun way to do a little further investigation, and I was impressed! Synths + live drums is always a fun combo and they’re good at letting the songs sprawl and build a little more in the live setting, which I really appreciated.
Woo, live music well-done!