I got nothing but a little bit of trivia, really.
An update on upcoming programming: Animal Control is, for the first time in its existence, airing in the fall– and on Sunday instead of Thursday. Season 5 premieres Sunday.
The New York Times is running its list of the top 100 TV programs of the 21st century, revealing 20 more each day this week. You can also vote for your own choices.
We finished Colin From Accounts, which stayed pretty good throughout. There’s a bit more melancholy in season 3 than before, and some new obstacles for Gordon and Ashley (as well as some old, familiar ones, mostly family and friends. Speaking of, I felt like Chiara and Brett were weirdly hostile to Gordon for most of the season, and I didn’t really get why). However, Brammall and Dyer’s banter and chemistry are always fun, and I liked the ending. A good little show that’s worth your time.
Best Medicine dropped a sneak preview season premiere on Sunday, which has no real impact on this column, since by the time it comes out the regular Tuesday premiere will have aired too. It was solid enough, and I think enough of an improvement on the weaker aspects of season 1 to be worth considering and sticking with.
I didn’t write about the Emmys, but I don’t have much to say. I figured Widow’s Bay would be popular with voters, but I didn’t realize it would crush that hard. I am a little disappointed Hannah Einbinder didn’t get a sendoff Emmy for Hacks, but she did win last year, and Kate O’Flynn was fully deserving. Congratulations to Matthew Rhys for winning two Lead Actor Emmys in the same year. And especial congratulations to Stephen Root, finally at 74 getting his first, long-overdue Emmy.
Not much else to say at the moment. Maybe next week I’ll have a more fully-fleshed column. Or someone else who wants to write the Thursday morning article will.
In the meantime, what do you have to say?
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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Your Captain returns after several weeks away with a quick rundown of some recent television
Department of
Conversation
What did we watch?
M*A*S*H, Season Four, Episode Twenty-Three, “The More I See You”
“New nurses?”
“Or loaners. Maybe the old ones are going into the shop.”
“What does BJ stand for?”
“Anything at all.”
“Dinner here is around seven.”
“Nausea is around eight.”
“You have a choice: gin or gin.”
“I’ll leave it up to you.”
“Do you hear yourself?”
“No. What did I miss?”
Hawkeye’s old flame comes to the camp. There’s a noirish element to this show’s romance; or, if you prefer, Old Hollywood. I think this show and Star Trek: The Next Generation have some of the best one-off TV romances; aside from both being dedicated to a particular flavour of dialogue – one more artfully carved than the other, admittedly – both shows are also utterly fascinated by what people can be, and their one-off characters are given more details and ideas than most other protagonists.
Of course, it’s possible I’m just a hopeless romantic. This presents Hawkeye as still deeply in love with the woman who spurned him, and it’s easy to believe. He defends being a distant boyfriend on the basis that he was training for medicine at the time, dismissing her husband’s advertising career as shallow and pointless by comparison. It’s a funny thought – he’s a relentless guy, so it’s easy to see him having engulfed medicine and its mixture of millions of details and high standards, and that this burned him out in other ways, leaving nothing for another person. I think that if this works – and it does – it’s because it shows a choice Hawkeye made at one point, that turned him into who we know and love and wounded him deeply. We all make horrible decisions that turn us into someone lovable.
This also dives into Potter’s painting hobby. Other thing connecting this show to ST:TNG is the way it gives all the characters hobbies and interests.
My Blue Heaven
Did you guys know Nora Ephron wrote a sequel to Goodfellas? This movie was based on the same interview sessions that birthed Wiseguy and, therefore, Goodfellas, except it covers the events after Henry Hill went into Witness Protection, with Steve Martin playing Hill (renamed Vincent Pantonelli) and Ri cck Moranis playing the FBI agent protecting him until the trial. This obviously makes the movie a completely deranged experience; Vinnie is presented as something of a Holy Fool who teaches people much smarter than him the value of confidence and style. Although it is a pretty good movie.
Oddly, the one place where it really crosses over with Goodfellas is that Vinnie consciously overtips people to get on their good side.
Back from the salt mines. It’s actually weird to go to the office for two days and not the rest of the time. I am not saying I want to be in the office full time again. It’s just weird, is all.
No time for movies so far this week, but I have watched a bit of my current shows. Fifth season Elementary’s plots are all really operating the same way: a murder happens and we work our way through the most obvious suspects till the pieces are collected for the less obvious. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t, and how entertaining it is depends on just how Sherlock (and not so much Joan or Marcus) figures it out. This isn’t really that different than at the start of the show but the levels of unbeliavability are growing. What’s more, the show’s emotional heart has stopped focusing on Holmes’s recovery almost entirely, and while the plotline involving the ex-con Shinwell trying to work as an undercover informer and get his life together is good, it’s not what we came here for. That said, there is an absolute banger where the father of man who was assaulted and then spiraled to his death, after asking for Holmes and Watson’s help for five years, takes hostages and demands our heroes solve the case. The mystery is a weird but successful one, but this is all about the man’s anguish and Holmes working against the clock and it’s probably the best season five episode yet.
Done with season two of Barney Miller, marking the end of Gregory Sierra’s time on the show, which is a pity both because he’s really good and because he’s replaced with the much whiter Steve Landesberg. Also the official end of Barbara Barrie being in the cast, but she appeared all of twice this season. The show is a reliable joke machine and the situations the detectives deal with continue to be a mix of unlikely, absurd, entertaining, and occasionally harrowing. Abe Vigoda and Jack Soo are both remarkably deadpan in very different ways, and everyone seems to be having fun. Even Sierra, who was in fact not having fun and did not get along with Hal Linden. In the finale, look for Ron Carey, a future regular as Officer Levitt, as a hard luck jewel thief who leads Harris and Wojo on a chase into the sewers.
Live Music – last minute jaunt out to see a friend’s band that has recently expanded from a solo project. Was cool to see him with a full squadron of synthesizers etc. The music is in kind of an LCD Soundsystem vibe I guess? Good fun. The headline act, Elephant Kind, were an electropop group from Jakarta – really fun, they did a lot of mad vocal processing and interpolating familiar bits into their own songs and also did one actual cover, an impressive take on “I Feel Love” which is not an easy song to cover! Good times, well worth the trip.
Year of the Month updates:
Here’s all the movies, albums, books from 1998 you can sign up for this October!
Oct. 3rd: Gillian Nelson: Movie Surfers
Oct. 4th: Tristan J. Nankervis: Pi
Oct. 9th: Gillian Nelson: Mighty Joe Young
Oct. 13th: John Bruni: High Art
Oct. 18th: Tristan J. Nankervis: Who Moved My Cheese?
Oct. 30th: Gillian Nelson: Halloweentown
And there’s still time to write about any of these movies, albums, books, etc. from 1937.
Sept. 25th: Gillian Nelson: Donald’s Ostrich