I’m heading out of town later today, and I had to send my laptop off for a repair, so for a couple of weeks, I might not be able to cover everything, and might accidentally leave paragraphs unfinished. I’ll try not to.
New on streaming
Invincible – We’re all the way caught up! Episode 2 was a Nolan and Allen adventure, which are always pretty fun, if a bit of a detour from the main story. But episodes 5 and 6 really started to pick up the pace on some story, whereas the third one felt like we were rehashing some past plots, and the whole show has so many characters that it can feel like we spend half the season checking in and catching up even without the B-list recurring villains. The fourth one was fun, though, if another side story… but the main plot came all in focus in these last two episodes, and they really delivered. Episode 5 is not for the squeamish.
Jury Duty – The final three episodes of Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat proper dropped Friday. This season is a little odd because I feel like they relied more on comic interactions between the characters than season 1. The setup was also a lot more complicated, as we learn more details thereof in the finale recap / post-reveal episode. (Immediately, the fact that the characters were all strangers to each other in season 1 makes it a lot simpler.) Anthony was also a great find; he’s just as game and willing to help and trying to do the right thing as Ronald, but he’s more assertive and has more of a sense of humor than Ronald. And that assertiveness proves key to the show’s climax! I’m kind of in awe they pulled that off, and I quite enjoyed the season on the whole. The finale look back episode was also touching.
I said “proper” at the beginning because the season itself is technically over, but it sounds like two more episodes are coming Friday, a reunion episode hosted by James Mardsen and then a conversation between Anthony Norman and Ronald Gladden.
Weekly releases
Matlock, “The Cavalry Isn’t Coming” – We’re back, and oh so back. Between the big step forward in the overall story, and Matty’s scrambling and gambling with Shae’s case, we got a winner here. The latter gives Yael Grobglas a lot of sides to play we haven’t seen before, which she is great at. (That’s the real reason for this header image.) Not to overlook Matty and Edwin’s anniversary, or Hunter and Sarah’s story. (What Hunter has easier than Sarah comes at least as much from him being emotionally intelligent and observant, and putting in the effort to connect with people, as it does from tall handsome white guy privilege.) A
Elsbeth, “Deadutante” – Man, old money is weird. J. Smith-Cameron does make the episode a lot of fun in her socialite and debutante-queenmaker role, using her position to get revenge (murder) decades later. A-
Abbott Elementary, “April Fool’s” – The teachers are all getting pranked and trying to figure out who did it and how to defend themselves. Solid but mostly unremarkable, with Gregory’s “Serious Day” the highlight. B+
Animal Control, “Bats and Camels” – Templeton and Frank are being evaluated by a kingmaker for their officer of the year competition. Can they put aside their petty feuding long enough to impress him? Can Emily avoid spiraling out when Shred gets set up? I think this is the only show on the docket that hasn’t gotten the header-image treatment yet, and I almost did it this week, but I had a couple of A episodes to highlight. B+
Going Dutch, “Apache Helicopter Parent” – Kristen Johnston’s Canadian general is back and hosting some peace talks, so Col. Quinn tries to pull strings to get Capt. Quinn more responsibilities in order to impress her, which quickly overloads her (Maggie, that is, not the general whose name I forgot). Funniest part was the runner of the language barrier with Papadakis and Jan. B+
The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, “The Loyalty Swamp” – Reggie won’t set a wedding date with Brina. Arthur’s ex Narcissa (Anna Camp) shows up at their door. There’s a show called Ex Peninsula. (“Naomi acts like she’s the first person to ever drown on Ex Peninsula.” How?) Even if I felt it started a little slow and was a little clunky in parts (mostly with Monica), every episode of this show is still a hoot, with multiple great laugh-out-loud lines. Probably enough laughs I wouldn’t bat an eye at an A-, but the standards are a little higher for a show this consistently funny. B+
St. Denis Medical, “We Make Time” – Kicking off our three seasons finales with the best one, a smashing finale with great jokes and a few killer emotional beats. (Josh Lawson puts everything he’s got into his big moment.) Ron’s in for his triple bypass surgery today and doesn’t want anyone to know. Naturally, it doesn’t take long before Joyce accidentally tells everybody. And she’s a comic machine this episode, too. “Jesus, Joyce.” Nothing brings a group together like something like that, huh? To tell you more of what was great would just be to give it away and not let you discover what was great about it yourself. And like I said, I had a couple of A episodes to highlight with header images. So here is the St. Denis one. A(+?)
Best Medicine, “Norway No How” – Wrapping up the Norway story, and a few other things. Some nice moments. Points deducted for the “misinterpreted eavesdrop” turn on the will-they-won’t-they, a stupid and trite device. And honestly with the way he acts in a community this small and tight-knit, I wonder why the rest of Port Wenn hasn’t killed Glendon and covered it up. “Yeah, real shame he had that fishing accident.” B+
High Potential, “Family Tree” – Kind of a wild plot on the weekly case, never mind the overarching case. Everyone’s personal lives are getting a workout here. Some good story beats and parallels, but hampered a bit by an obvious, rushed bow on the season. And docked further for the blatant Copilot product placement, all the funnier on Tuesday after this article came out Monday. B+
DMV is off this week because of The Neighborhood: A Farewell Special, which I did not realize was big enough or long enough to merit that sort of thing, and also may be airing as many as five new episodes after the farewell special? Some farewell.
Catching up
What’s that?
Old favorites
Digman! is now on Netflix, so your excuses for not watching it yet are slimmer and slimmer. I decided to put on some episodes this way and was reminded of how fun the show is. And then I put on some Good Cop / Bad Cop. Damn, I really did enjoy this show! You all should watch it!
Just ended
We say goodbye to these seasons of St. Denis Medical, Best Medicine, and High Potential, and while the season proper of Jury Duty ended, we’re getting a couple of recap / special episodes tomorrow. The former three shows have all been renewed for another season; I’ve heard no such thing about Jury Duty, but it was already three years between seasons and released with almost no advance warning, so I wouldn’t be surprised if, in the event they do make a third season, they once again keep it under wraps until release.
Monday, Reggie Dinkins is airing two episodes to close out its season.
Coming up
Hacks premieres its final season today. If you’re interested in that Malcolm in the Middle revival (I wasn’t interested enough in the show the first time around to watch it), that starts (or is out in its entirety? It’s only, I think, four episodes) tomorrow.
And on a programming note here, since I’m going out of town for a few days, rather than prioritize cramming all the TV of the week into a couple of nights, I’m just gonna hand over next Thursday to Dave Shutton, so he can write about TV or whatever, and then come back the week after that (probably). So blame him if it sucks. But root for him to do well, because I hope it is very good so you can all lobby him for the permanent position.
Very excited for the Hacks premiere, although I won’t be able to watch it until Friday. Ditto the series 21 premiere of Taskmaster, which will also be tonight. With those two and the last few episodes of The Pitt, my catch-up viewing on Friday is about to be very crowded for a while.
Oh shit, I have a reason to hold onto Stan – I cancelled it because I was cutting down on my expenses, forgetting that’s how I watch Hacks.
Good Cop / Bad Cop! No Activity (maybe, I only saw the American version)! Sunny Nights (maybe, I haven’t seen it at all, but it stars Will Forte and D’Arcy Carden, so there’s gotta be something there, right?)!
I admire that you went to the effort of looking up what’s on Stan, despite it being a service from an entirely different country, just for the bit.
It started so innocently – since I’ve been watching Good Cop / Bad Cop again, I immediately knew that was on Stan. And then I wanted to include some other shows, but I didn’t want to get it wrong (like I almost did with Colin From Accounts). The fact that the three shows I’ve recognized are in various states of being seen by me (saw it, only saw the American remake, did not see it) was a serendipitous touch to the comedy.
Yeah, I’m going out of town so I might not be able to watch Hacks until next week. (One might say I’ll see it next Tuesday…)
What did we watch?
M*A*S*H, Season Three, Episode Twenty-Two, “Payday”
“Radar, you’ve got class coming out of each bellybutton.”
“Either the camp has a flat or Radar has developed a slow leak.”
“Shall we repair to my tent?”
“I didn’t even know–”
“–know it was broken.”
“I’d like to stay, but that would keep me from going.”
This is the one where Hawkeye gets leftover money from payday, then accidentally gets Radar to scam 3k out of the army and has to pay it back. As you can see, there is a plot here, but it’s interesting to me how much of it comes from simply following process; just the fun it has out of Hawkeye being the pay officer is interesting, even before we get to the plot. You even see this with the B-plot, where Frank buys pearls off a vendor (played by Jack Soo).
Also, another thing I notice is charming about Hawkeye is how self-deprecating he is about his skills outside surgery and lovemaking. It’s the kind of self-confidence where he accepts the things he isn’t good at.
Slow Horses, “Drinking Game”
We bid a sad farewell to Min, one of my favorite fuck-ups: he thinks he’s slid from danger to professional camaraderie here, with Pashkin’s men steering him into a “friendly” drinking game, but it’s all just a ruse to get him wobbling away on his bicycle before wiping him out on the road.
For all his various faults, Min was a sweetheart, so his end hits hard, and I like how we see it affect the various characters. Louisa is devastated (and inclined to blame the fight they had, which is painful), and she wants to bury herself in work/potential revenge (great work from Eleazar here, as she spends the rest of the episode moving about like her skin hurts); the largely indifferent Roddy can shrug it off with nothing more than a “eulogy” so unbothered that even Lamb is shocked by it (shades of Taverner being briefly appalled by Spider’s open callousness); Lamb demonstrates a quiet bit of tact by having Catherine give Louisa the news (he knew last series that he was a better choice to tell River about Sid than Roddy was, and here he knows Catherine is better than he is), and losing a joe shakes him up to the point that he actually tells the sent-off-mostly-as-bait River to be on his guard.
Marcus is revealed to be the kind of gambling addict who insists it doesn’t affect his work when 1) it’s already gotten him sent to Slough House, and 2) he was placing a bet in the middle of a high-stakes work conversation and getting info about it in the middle of a different one. Lot of good potential complications here as he partners up with a grieving Louisa to see out the rest of the detail.
River, bless him, goes full Clark Kent, bespectacled journalist and still obvious 10, while he’s doing his undercover work in Upshott. I’d say he’s okay at this–too clearly jumpy in certain scenes, but the journalism cover does work as an explanation for all his questions, and he’s pretty decent at staying relatively chill and acting relatively unflustered when he’s caught doing spy shit, which helps him spin it a bit. Lowden continues to be quietly gifted at comedy during all this, and there’s some great facial acting in the last scene that sells that his mental dialogue is, “AHHHHHH!”
Lamb not accepting the official story behind Min’s death and so tracking down the woman ostensibly responsible, breaking into her heavily locked flat and matter-of-factly intimidating her: all excellent material. Oldman’s especially fantastic in the bit where he leans in close and explains that the people monitoring her will believe she talked to him anyway, so actually talking is the only out available to her, because then he’ll protect her.
Going back a few days here…
Crooklyn – have wanted to see this for ages, because a low-key coming-of-age film from Spike Lee and his siblings sounded right up my street. And it was, mostly! The aspect ratio weirdness Lee used to show his young lead being out of place on a visit to the South is a big swing that just didn’t really work for me, but otherwise this is a scrappy, episodic joy with a great cast and soundtrack.
Magnolia – revisit as part of a chronological PTA journey. I’ve only seen this one in full once before, I’d forgotten quite how intense it is. The first two hours are non-stop in a way where when you watch it KNOWING that PTA was a big cokehead at the time you can’t help see it in most of the scenes (even the ones where Melora Walters isn’t doing fuckloads of drugs). It’s pretty amazing though! I wouldn’t quite put it among my favourites of his films but I think it’s another step up from Boogie Nights, glad he mellowed out a bit after this though.
Undertone – another “secret screening”, although the friend I went with had figured out what it was going to be from the clue. Low-budget Canadian horror that is effectively found-footage but for audio only – it follows one of the hosts of a paranormal podcast as she dissects a bunch of unsolicited creepy audio with her unseen cohost and deals with palliative care for her mother. It’s visually and sonically strong and the lead manages to carry the movie well by being the only (conscious) person on screen for the entire movie. But I didn’t think the writing was up to the same standard… SURELY even a totally amateur podcast would check unsolicited audio ahead of time rather than deciding to listen to it all “live”? And it flirts with a bunch of interesting themes then largely abandons them for familiar creepy imagery in the finale. Still kinda fun but doesn’t live up to its potential.
Seinfeld, S7 – “The Seven”, “The Cadillac”, “The Shower Head”. Solid run, loved George being absolutely insane about baby names in the first one, Jerry’s good deed going horribly wrong in the double-part second one and the consistently funny visual gags of people having bad hair thanks to bad water pressure in the third. Also, Marisa Tomei guest appearance!
Twin Peaks, S2 E5 – I’m seeing the flaws in season 2 a little more this time through (third viewing). There’s still some great stuff here though, especially Coop and Harry heading up north to rescue Audrey from One Eyed Jacks. I also enjoyed the quirky judge using good judgement and serving weird cocktails. I guess mostly I just find the Harold Smith stuff a bit of a slog, he’s no fun as a character and Donna’s behaviour towards him is pretty nasty.
Live Music – enjoyable punk / hardcore show in a tiny venue that was slightly spoiled by one annoying drunk guy who really wanted to be the centre of attention. I don’t mind some mad punk dancing but you can’t just be grabbing people who obviously aren’t into it and dragging them around, fuck that guy. Apparently he was very apologetic AFTER the gig had finished. Anyway I escaped injury from his dickery only to then trip over on the way home and fucked up my ribs, hahaha what a life.
Woo, live music! Boo, annoying drunk guys at shows. (Not that I haven’t been that guy.)
I definitely had a drunk guy at shows era, but thankfully (?) even when I’m hammered I have too much social anxiety to want to be the Main Character of an evening, haha.
As I said on Ruck’s discord, The Chair Company E2 ACTIVELY feels Lynchian in the amount of normal behavior skewed just enough that it feels strange – Tara’s dad stomping on the loose rocks until it becomes a rhythm, Joyce crying so hard she nearly retches – and how this builds, at the end, into genuine terror. (Echoes of Lost Highway too in the menace of being watched by something unseen.) Tim Robinson sometimes grates on me and yet I think he’s good at staying somewhere between his comedic persona and a nicer, more loving family man type. Ron isn’t totally incompetent either; he does what his daughter asks by talking to Tara’s dad! A ITYSL character would have merely crumbled and fixated on the rocks.
The Pitt, S2E13 (14?) Everyone’s losing their goddamn minds except the night shift coming in, who are hilariously relaxed. Cool as well to see the procedure of these characters getting ready to leave on a semi-ordinary day whereas last season ended with a massive emergency. A big theme of the show is the system’s myriad failures cracking these people – doctors and patients alike – apart, with Robbie right in the center, burning the fuck out. It is evident that the man has been witnessing horrors and injustices for far too long with almost no coping mechanisms and he finally admits to Dana at the end that if he goes on this sabbatical, he outright might not come back. (Everything wrong with Robbie is summarized when he says his mother abandoned him then “No one needs to know, who gives a fuck?!”) Nice mirroring with the sweetness of Mel exhorting Langdon to stay – Dana tells him he can go and he’s not so sure of that.
For Always Sunny fans, Fake Donovan McNabb/Tiger Woods plays a cardio doctor who casually tells Robbie his friend is “a ticking time bomb” heart-wise.
Malcolm In The Middle kicks off the great single-cam sitcom renaissance, you are really missing out. (It’s also shockingly funny, I was not expecting to laugh so much at almost every episode.)
I was in college when it premiered, I wasn’t really looking for any reasons to watch new TV shows (really I mostly watched Simpsons and Kids in the Hall reruns).
But also what I did see I just could not deal with Lois. Maybe a little too real with the overbearing tyranny.