Captain's Log: The week in TV, 4/6/25

Hi friends and readers,

Trying out a new feature where I run a weekly roundup of TV I’ve been watching, hopefully to get into more critical detail than the daily writeups and stimulate further discussion.

I’m gonna try this format where I break up what I’ve been watching (or in some cases meaning to watch) into a few categories, so we’ll see how that works. All feedback on this new feature appreciated. Especially positive feedback.

What’s new?

With Thursday March Madness over, CBS has returned to its regular Thursday schedule, and that means the stretch run of two procedural dramas in particular.

Matlock returned with “The Johnson Case,” which on the surface involves Olympia and her team getting a man wrongly imprisoned for murder a second chance to have his case heard, thanks to a juror coming forward… and below the surface, as always, involves Matty’s secret plans… and this time with a game-changing twist at the end. I think there are only two episodes left in the season, so I can’t wait to see how that plays out (and if you aren’t watching yet, you should).

Elsbeth is back too with the goofily named “Hot Tub Crime Machine,” with guest murderer of the week Mary Louise Parker as Freya, a wannabe Marie Kondo and throuple enthusiast. Her jealousy and possessiveness (ironically, hence “wannabe”) gets her to set up a plausibly-deniable murder of her husband Axel so she can have their newest third Taylor to herself. She’s sloppy on the details, though, and her hoarding tendencies of course end up being her downfall.

As far as the rest of the week…

We had The Righteous Gemstones on Sunday, of course, with “He Goeth Before You Into Galilee,” another hilarious episode entirely focused on a family weekend at Galilee Gulch, the Gemstone family’s long-held lakehouse. The plot has moved slowly this season so far, but there are certainly enough complications set to explode soon enough, and this episode was so goddamn funny and full of weird and memorable lines that I enjoyed the hell out of it.

Monday’s Poppa’s House (“Say Wha?!”) gave us a hilarious People’s Court (or maybe Judge Steve Harvey, not for racial reasons so much as raucousness reasons) sendup, with Vivica A. Fox as the judge who’s clearly smitten by Poppa– and, honestly, I need to get that suit Damon Wayans Sr. was rocking.

Tuesday, we got another funny St. Denis Medical, “Anything to Push Zaluva,” where Ron pushes Joyce to confront whether her “friendship” with a pharmaceutical representative is really just a business relationship, and Matt goes to Bruce for mentorship, with predictably disastrous consequences since Bruce is nuts.

On Wednesday, Good Cop / Bad Cop continues to be delightful, funnier than a procedural like this needs to be, and with great performances from the leads. (I would say “especially Leighton Meester,” but a)I figure that’s implied and b)I don’t want to draw Clancy Brown’s ire.) The individual cases are quirky fun– in this week’s episode, “Buckle Up,” we investigate the mysterious death of a rodeo rider– and the relationships between the Hickmans and how they develop both dramatically and comedically. Plus, the season-long rumbling cold case picks up real steam this episode. This has been more than a pleasant surprise.

And The Studio continues to be a highwire act of cringe comedy, this week with “The Note,” as Matt sweats whether to give Ron Howard a note on his new film (that everyone at the studio agrees with, but nobody wants to be the one to say to him).

Catching up

I made a deal with a friend that I would watch Invincible if he watched The Shield, and we’ve both been living up to our end of the bargain. And I gotta say, I’m glad I did, because it’s been really engrossing and enjoyable, and something I would have never checked out on my own because, you know, capes.

Interestingly for the purposes of this exchange, Invincible and The Shield share a few similarities.

• They both have a sense of weight and spatial coherence to their action scenes. Obviously, the scope of those scenes are quite different, and animation offers more freedom in that regard, but it’s really well done.
• They both do a good job capturing a sense of “endless rolling crisis,” although they approach it in different ways. Invincible has a steady cast of recurring villains ready to cause problems– let alone the overarching threat– and make sure Mark never gets one damn day off to just be a teenager, whereas with The Shield it was always “How do we get out of the consequences of the last thing we did?” in a recurring loop.
• Last, but not least, both their first episodes end with a game-changing twist.

It’s also effective at portraying the cost of being a superhero. That in this world, with great power comes great responsibility, and your life is never really your own. It also makes you– and your loved ones– a target. (“Have no attachments, have nothing in your life that you cannot walk out on in thirty seconds flat if you spot the heat around the corner”– as Grant said, it’s as much to protect them as you.)

Anyway, there’s a strong sense of storytelling here, in a few modes– Mark’s coming-of-age story, as well as the overall dramatic arcs and stakes at play here. And the show has well-done action sequences and a good sense of humor. (“I love my boring, powerless, everyday, run-of-the-mill mom.” “And I love my asshole son.”)

Did I mention the strength of the casting here? The main trio is voiced by Steven Yeun, Sandra Oh, and J.K. Simmons, but Walton Goggins’ Cecil probably gets fourth billing here. Other superheroes are voiced by folks such as Gillian Jacobs and Jason Mantzoukas; Mark’s high school chums are voiced by Andrew Rannells and Zazie Beetz. Seth Rogen gets a relatively minor but seemingly significant (and fun!) role. And that’s just scratching the surface, as a number of well-known and well-regarded voice actors fill out a number of other roles (and it’s a big cast).

Anyway, I’m through the first episode of season 3 now, and so far, I give the show a hearty recommendation.

Falling behind

I still haven’t gotten to check out Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney. I keep meaning to. I enjoyed the brief trial run of Everybody’s in LA last year.

With our Invincible watch, we haven’t caught this week’s Abbott Elementary yet, but we will.

We started watching Common Side Effects, but we’ve been sporadic on that and we’re only through six episodes. I think at least four have aired since then.

Old Favorites

I made this section for old favorite shows that we’ve decided to rewatch. This week, though, there wasn’t really anything on the board there, as most of our free time has gone to catching up on Invincible.

Just Ended

I won’t get a chance to talk about any of these now that their seasons are over, but American Dad!, Mythic Quest, Animal Control, and Going Dutch all ended their seasons recently. American Dad! is returning to Fox after airing its last 10 seasons on TBS. Animal Control has apparently been a relative smash for Fox in the ratings, and is certain to return (especially, I imagine, as they only make 8-10 episodes a season). Mythic Quest is apparently up in the air, though, with no renewal set, and Going Dutch, which was pretty funny and stars Denis Leary and Danny Pudi (among others), seems to be on the fence.

Coming up

Hacks returns for season 4 Thursday, April 10.

And you?

What are you watching? What are you thinking about it? What are you excited for coming up?