Captain's Log
After Labor Day, the new shows really start rolling in. We'll get to what we can!
Well, we’re past Labor Day, but for my money it’s still hot enough to wear my Hawaiian shirts and linen. I forgot what point I was trying to make when I drafted that sentence, other than that a lot of new seasons of TV are starting soon… but “soon” isn’t “yet.”
Digman!, “The Christ Figure” – A literal and metaphorical title for our season 2 finale. Rip is getting hired for a ton of jobs, which makes Saltine suspicious as all the museums hiring them have their own in-house Arkys. All this work gets Rip back on the Top Ten Arky List… but the reason he’s been getting so much work is that the other members of the Top Ten Arky List have been disappearing. Rip doesn’t suspect much, despite Saltine’s protestations, until Bella misses a coffee date with him. They go find out who’s kidnapped all the Arkys… and it’s a vengeful woman named Vindita, who reveals that 17 years before, when she was a child, Rip and his team stole the Christ Figure, a Christ figurine made out of a rare, pyroelectric material, for the Smithsonian. The tourism from the Figure was the source of her village’s economic prosperity, and with it gone, it plunged into poverty.
Now she wants Rip to steal it back from the Smithsonian so she can return it where it belongs… if he wants to save his Arky friends. And there may be an even bigger conspiracy afoot, both with the true intentions of Tatiana Maslany’s Vindita and with someone else possibly bankrolling this operation … and Rip may have to make a difficult decision at the end of it all. (Gee, I wonder if that decision is going to involve self-sacrifice in an episode titled “The Christ Figure.”)
Anyway, plot summary aside, this was a strong finish to the season, another very funny and very fast-paced episode. (I try not to ruin any of my favorite lines, which does make it difficult to talk about just how funny this show is.) I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with how it all plays out; I’m really hoping we get a third season because I have got to see what they have planned after that ending (which admittedly I did see coming, but who didn’t?). And hey, “Hazy Shade of Winter” over the closing credits! (The Bangles, not Simon & Garfunkel.)
Beavis and Butt-Head premiered last night… and we were out seeing MJ Lenderman so we missed it. (And I even tried to check on it after we got back from the show and I still didn’t have access. MJ Lenderman was awesome, unsurprisingly.) The Paper was released on Peacock today, too. We’ll get you more on those next week.
See above.
Weirdly, I don’t feel like I have a lot to comment on this week. Spent a fair bit of time out of the house or working on non-TV projects, so I can’t think of too many shows I actually watched. I did watch some of Norm Macdonald’s Weekend Update, though. Really says something about his craft that jokes about 30-year-old news stories, some of which would otherwise be long-forgotten, largely hold up.
Well, last week’s Digman! was the finale, but that was eight days ago by now.
As I mentioned last week, we have a lot coming up this month– network, cable, and streaming. Beavis and Butt-Head premiered last night. The Paper was released today. Only Murders in the Building comes back on Tuesday.
I guess I could mention, regarding the premiere dates chart I put up last week, that Matlock and Elsbeth are running a “special sneak preview” premiere on Sunday, October 12, before moving to their regular Thursday time slot on the 16th. But you have more than a month to figure that out.
Your turn, especially if it’s about a show I told you to watch.
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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Department of
Conversation
What did we watch?
Andor S1E9 – The intricacies and atrocities of the Kafka in space prison get worse, something Andy Serkis almost internalizes in his facial reactions and increasingly uneasy performance. Kino Loy is a character made for wallflower in his professionalism and honor values, even in an oppressive structure, believing his work ethic can get these dudes through the shifts/days to the point where “this is all a bad memory.” But when that value is cheated, and his anguished reactions become betrayed and furious, his exchange with Andor is a fist pumping moment to end the episode.
Syril’s attempts to sorta-romance the ISB agent are hilarious, the man has no chill. (He even has a Charlie-esque reaction to being accused of stalking by replying basically, “Oh no, I’m just following you and know where you work.”)
“Never more than twelve.” Fuck yeah.
Never going to get how Serkis didn’t get an Emmy nomination.
Fuck yeah, Kino Loy and the charisma of purpose.
Ooh, I don’t know this term!
Ha, I don’t think it is one, I was just trying to figure out how to phrase Serkis’s particular appeal in this role. Kino Loy is riveting and attractive (I mean this in the literal draws-people-in sense, but hey, other meanings apply too!) precisely because he knows who he is, what he wants, and what he’s good at.
He’s dumbfounded – completely and utterly and hilariously dumbfounded – at the idea there’s anything remotely unreasonable about his behaviour. He’s only Doing his Duty!
Serkis has perfected the art of facial expression, precious. It’s good to see his real face here.
The X-Files, “Nisei”
Loses points for making me think about Unit 731, one of the most viscerally disturbing things I’ve ever found out about, but otherwise a good, if rather shaggy, episode.
Mulder stumbling across a major mytharc development because he sent away for a $29.95 video tape of an alien autopsy is one of the most beautifully Mulder things I’ve ever seen in my life, and I love Scully popcorning along with it as they hash out what makes the tape seem more authentic than previous fakes (the SWAT-esque team crashing in at the end seal the deal, but Mulder also makes the point that the lack of detail proves that it’s not trying to convince–a fake would try harder to sell itself). Scully coming across the other abduction survivors, who remember her and add the chilling detail of cancer diagnoses, is a great moment: surreal and grounded, ominous and human.
I don’t actually need Mulder playing Ethan Hunt, but on the other hand, leaping on top of trains is cool shit, and you’ll never hear me claim otherwise.
Charity Shop Sue – finally finished up this local web-series, filmed in a shop ten minutes from my house. It never quite rises to a level where it feels like they had a chance of being picked up to make something bigger, which I assume was the intention. But the last few episodes were nicely chaotic and funny and the main character definitely has something that could have broken out, I reckon.
Joe Pera Talks With You, season 2 episodes – Conner O’Malley is such a scene-stealer that he manages to steal a scene in the grocery store episode without even appearing in it. Having a great time revisiting this, it’s such a nice mix of slow, warm comedy and the occasional bizarre pivot.
Also like half an episode of Masterchef which made me hungry.
M*A*S*H, Season Two, Episode Fifteen, “Officers Only”
“Henry, you’re one of the three great people of this conversation.”
This is the episode which introduces the bar – not yet Rosie’s Bar – with the plot being the enlisted men being highly offended that they’re excluded from it, protesting (led by Radar) by becoming cold and indifferent. Which is hilarious, because Hawkeye and Trapper would be motivated to let them in anyway; they’ve never been terribly elitist about this sort of thing. Their solution is appealing to the very man who gave them the bar in the first place on the basis that his son isn’t allowed in; if it works, it’s because this particular guy seems well-meaning and befuddled (as if most real generals wouldn’t simply bend the rules).
I enjoy that the sheer length of seasons from this era means we can be over forty episodes in and still gaining new iconic elements of the show that would define it for years to come. And the groundwork was so well laid that it feels like building on what’s already there!
The Rivals Of Sherlock Holmes (s1e1-5) – Just what the title hints at, an anthology of other literary Victorian and Edwardian detectives and supernatural investigators. I haven’t read all the detectives here, but visually this follows the Sherlock formula very closely. Several episodes open with a detective in conversation with a less intelligent police captain or peer. Most have a Watson-like assistant. But they aren’t exact copies of Holmes either – one is blind, one hunts ghosts, another is unscrupulous. The first episode A Message from the Deep Sea with Dr. John Thorndyke. Thorndyke is played by John Neville and is an early take on the forensic scientist. The first half is the investigation with the second in the courtroom. The solution is obvious but it’s getting there that is done quite well. Another highlight is The Duchess of Wiltshire’s Diamonds with gentleman thief Simon Carne who has an alter-ego, private dick Kilmo. Carne reminds me of Dennis Stanton from Murder She Wrote, a dapper jewel thief who becomes an insurance investigator. The one I was looking forward too was William Hope Hodgeson’s occult detective Thomas Carnacki played here by Donald Pleasence. It’s an adaptation of The Horse Invisible. It’s exactly that, an invisible horse haunts an estate. There is a real world solution but also something left unexplained. It includes Carnacki’s electric pentacle. With so little of WHH’s work adapted this was a bit of a disappointment but not terrible. The production in the series is a little stagey with some outdoor scenes clearly filmed on a soundstage. The detail is nowhere near the lived in feel of Brett’s Sherlock Holmes series. It is interesting to think where a lot of modern day, eccentric detectives, tropes and formulas come from.
Finished the second season of Slow Horses, and trying to decide if I want to rush through the third before my freebie ends. I really enjoy this show but nothing about it screams that I need to watch all of it, though I am sure that I will find another freebie at some point and that over the years I will come back for more. (It’s slated to run seven seasons, to adapt every book). The second season particularly fascinated me because it was only at the end did everything in the first five weeks make sense. And suddenly, it wasn’t really the specter of the Cold War as much as the specter of Vladimir Putin after all. This was actually set in 2016, something we don’t learn till the last scene, but as I noted airing after the invasion of Ukraine. And by the end, what I had thought was the show aging poorly by suggesting that the official policy of the UK was getting along with Putin was as much of a feint as the idea of Communist sleeper agents. (Sleeper agents, yes, Communists no.) I don’t think anyone was trying to make a serious political point here. More just reflecting both the state of the world and the tendency of bureaucracies to get lost up their butts. But it goes give a satisfying ending a little extra oonph.
Though it was still also about Cold War legacies, albeit on a personal level and not a national level. As much as the show (and I think the books) is essentially trying to be post-Le Carre, it’s almost inevitable that a spy show involving people who were part of the Cold War will veer to the side and echo LeCarre sometimes.
Meanwhile on The Practice, I am deep in a long second season – I think we get so many episodes because several were filmed for the first season and held back for some reason – and the tonal shifts are ever more noticeable. As much as I like this show, as much as the highs are really high, the comment Emily St. James made about “starting out serious and ending up with Michael Emerson as a serial killer dressed like a nun” gets at something. David E. Kelley has a great sense of drama. He also can’t stop himself for going for the absurd. I am currently in the middle of the return of John LaRoquette as Joey Heric, who’s killed another boyfriend. The character is great, the acting is great, and bringing him back really leans too hard into Kelley’s absurdism. This show is a good show. It could have been better. Maybe thirteen episode seasons would have helped. (PS: Emerson did play a serial killer but did not dress as a nun. Lord help me, that was someone else.)
Watched the new Peacemaker, “A Man Is Only as Good as His Bird,” this weekend. Loving this season so far, and I’d happily listen to Tim Meadows talk about his bird blindness while Eagly exuberantly mauls whole teams of armed government agents all day. Other highlights: the rooftop party scene, Vigilante being annoyed that Peacemaker didn’t invite him to the orgy (sex is a good way to spend time with your best friend!), and the black comedy of the dead body constantly falling into full view as Peacemaker tries to stow it away. Most of the forward plot momentum this episode is on the antagonistic ARGUS side of things, with them mustering and trying to gather information; meanwhile, Chris makes an attempt to keep a toehold in his reality and then, with Harcourt’s rebuff, gets tempted back to the other side. Also, my wife and I agree that Adebayo deserves better than Keeya anyway.
Can’t wait to see where this goes now that the ending has set it up for Peacemaker to get more and more involved in the other reality under false pretenses.
Still watching random episodes of Scrubs in no particular order. S1-3 is my favorite stretch, but I hop around a little in the fourth and fifth seasons too–the comedy gets broader, and Braff’s comedic performance gets a lot more cartoonish and smarmy, so I really do think it drops off after season 3, but some later moments and episodes still kill, and Braff brings it for the more serious or nuanced moments even after his comedy approach has gotten grating. This show has influenced a lot of what I like in fiction, and I can always get a fair number of writing lessons from it.
Our host will be relieved that I should pick up a new laptop tonight and therefore get back to Mr. Show (and attendant liveblogging) soon.
Still obviously watching Alfred Hitchcock Presents for my weekly write-ups–I never mention those here because they get their own articles, but my progress through the series is chugging along, and today’s post is on the eerie, unusual “The Case of Mr. Pelham.”
Oops, didn’t watch AHP yet. Might be a bit late to respond today, but that is what quitting time is made for.
I always appreciate your comments, whenever they arrive! And knocking off work and watching some AHP sounds like the start of a good evening.
I also haven’t watched this week’s AHP yet and also I forgot to comment last week. But I will keep watching!
Like I said above to Simon, I always appreciate your comments! I’ll say this week’s is different in an interesting way.
Did someone’s bird quit and it’s no longer legit?
The
seriesseason finale of Ted Lasso. I totally see where the criticisms come from (I’m most familiar with the ones by the author of this post), but I ended up putting more in the positive column than negative. Do I believe pro sports locker rooms, or any adult professional spaces not run by Joey Soloway, regularly engage in earnest conversations about mental health that seem to follow an APA checklist for dialog? I do not. Are its most cloying tendencies summed up in a sigh-inducing rendition of “So Long, Farewell” that gravely miscalculates the comedy value of the concept (and does not quite redeem itself by showing the singers go full hooligan after it’s ended)? Yes.But the show is what it is and I don’t ask it to make apologies for it. Occasionally it’s pleasurable to see people fantasize about what the world could be without checking how far astray it’s wandered from recognizable human behavior. Roy Kent 4ever.