Captain's Log
I just realized how much murder is on the current TV schedule
I’m gonna experiment with shorter form for these, especially today. Halloween weekend is here, and I’m sure we all want to get out of the house and scare the hell out of everybody.
I don’t even have time to write about the movies I’ve watched over the last couple of months, and while I’d like to fit some of them in here, I write too much as it is. Most of them aren’t really related to TV, anyway, with the exception of the Peacock documentary Downey Wrote That. I enjoyed that, although there may not be a ton of new information for anyone who’s a fan enough to actually check it out. But if you’re a fan enough, there probably doesn’t need to be.
Only Murders in the Building, “The House Always…” is the season finale, so we’ll give it the first slot. The actual resolution isn’t terribly surprising, but it still provides for a reasonably satisfying conclusion and thematically plays on the point of the Arconia residents coming together to get justice for Lester. And then, of course, we have our murder set up for season 6 (already renewed). I kinda can’t believe it took the show this long to use “Somebody Got Murdered,” but the details of the season 6 case make it make sense to hold it until now. You can’t play The Clash until it’s London calling.
Matlock, “Tomorrow Is Still Tomorrow” – Jacobson Moore senior leadership learns of a leak in the firm about Wellbrexa, which of course puts Olympia and Matty in potentially hot water. Gee, I wonder how that happened. Yvette Nicole Brown guests as the client of the week.
Elsbeth, “Good Grief” – A shot-for-shot remake of the Arrested Development episode of the same name. I’m kidding, though there may be some pier pressure involved. Julia Fox plays a griefluencer who learns some shocking information about her late husband. And Kaya is back!
The Chair Company, “@BrownDerbyHistoricVids Little bit of Hollywood? Okayyy.” – I mean, “Ron digs further into the conspiracy while struggling to juggle that with his job and home life, let alone keeping it all a secret,” could probably describe most episodes, right? Further in. Curiouser and curiouser.
Abbott Elementary, “Game Night” – Well, that was certainly an episode of Abbott Elementary. If your complaints with the show of late are that it doesn’t spend enough time at the school and has too much out-of-character behavior, you will probably not care for this one!
Bob’s Burgers, “The Skids in the Hall” – Bow, bow bow, bow bow, badadababa… We get a detective story and a sting at Wagstaff, as Tina is fired from being a hall monitor, and Gene and Louise discover evidence of a conspiracy to set her up, as well as corruption among the hall monitors. And who doesn’t like an investigative tale? Meanwhile, Bob has to go to the DMV and Linda’s friend Gretchen decides to help his style by fancying up his mustache. The images of Bob’s new mustache are some of the funniest parts of the episode, though I did enjoy it overall. (Also, why are so many shows going to the DMV this week? At least the next show it makes sense.)
DMV, “Easy Pass” – Again, leaning a little too heavily on Colette acting like a lunatic romcom character with her crush on Noa, who wants to take his driving test despite being a terrible driver, but there was more funny stuff overall this week than last, particularly with Vic, who gets the kind of “taking medical advice from a social media crackpot” plot that of course he would.
High Potential, “The One That Got Away” – Annoyingly, this is already the first-half season finale, and we won’t get more of the show until January. Morgan’s annoyance at being assigned to an art heist (so soon after the Louvre!) instead of a human case boils over with Captain Wagner; a strange man becomes a person of interest in Roman’s case. Also, they actually split this two-parter up so we won’t get the conclusion for more than two months! Jerks.
The Lowdown, “Tulsa Turnaround” – Last week, I mentioned that Lee Raybon, for an investigative journalist who keeps making enemies, has terrible operational security. This week, I found myself thinking of something he has in common with another killer Ethan Hawke performance as a shaggy, wild-eyed thorn in the side of white power: John Brown in The Good Lord Bird. Namely, they both seem to believe righteousness functions as a shield. It does not.
No new Beavis and Butt-Head this week, but I don’t know why. They’re taking alternating weeks off for the last two episodes. There was also no new Smiling Friends this week, and I again have no idea why.
In the streaming shows that dropped all at once…
I don’t think we got to any episodes of any of our streaming shows this week.
With the season upon us, we did make a little time for some Halloween favorites. So far that’s only meant the two Solar Opposites Halloween specials and “Treehouse of Horror IV.”
Only Murders in the Building has completed season 5, but we are getting at least one more season. High Potential has hit its midseason break and won’t return until January 6. I think Chad Powers‘ sixth episode was its finale, too.
The new Rachel Sennott show (sitcom? dramedy? I’m not sure) I Love LA premieres on HBO Sunday night. St. Denis Medical is back for season 2 on NBC Monday night. And while I could’ve waited a week to announce this, I just recently found out and haven’t mentioned it before at all, so: Vince Gilligan’s latest creation / team-up with Rhea Seehorn / show set in Albuquerque, Pluribus, has a premiere date: November 7 on AppleTV. (They’ve dropped the plus, I guess because it’s not really “plus” anything, although some of their marketing materials are still using it. Better than adding a minus, at least.)
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
I watched one season of Only Murders and felt like that was enough. Has it managed to be even a little believable in explaining why these schlubs keep encountering mysteries?
Ehn, it’s a big building.
Season 1 had the best mystery plotting, although season 2’s was good as well. The actual murders each make sense in context, I guess, although 3 and 4 are certainly more loosely tethered to the building itself.
What did we watch?
M*A*S*H, Season Two, Episode Twenty-Three, “Mail Call”
Another one directed by Alan Alda. This is another well-meaning attempt to make Trapper his own character, and I think it doesn’t do well, in spite of Wayne Rogers doing his best with the material; I love him when he’s in a state of mania, trying to cover genuine desperation with arch, ironic desperation (“Oh, but it doesn’t end!”). The basic idea works, with Trapper (unlike Hawkeye) being a father and being driven by that, but it obviously doesn’t go anywhere. Of course, this lays the groundwork for BJ more successfully riffing on that later.
“For the man who has everything: a sweater with a guest room.”
“Hi Frank.”
“Hello Frank.”
“That’ll be the day.”
That gag never gets old.
“You didn’t have to do that. I’d find you attractive if you were naked.”
This has the first case of Klinger’s commanding officer pulling out a list of Klinger’s excuses for leaving the Army that climaxes in “half the family dying, other half pregnant”, which will be repeated when Colonel Potter comes in.
“You know how long it’s been since I made love to my wife?”
“At least one daughter ago.”
A Family Portrait – Five or six minute animated short expiring on Criterion featuring a family taking one of those old school family portraits by a professional. (Do people still take these?) Their literal grotesqueries and bubbling tensions play out in the animation which lurches into horrible smiles and stink lines. Where a lot of animators would have the characters not notice these sorts of stylistic choices – the characters in The Triplets of Belleville do not think of themselves as weird, for example – here, they play a role in the plot with the wife noticing something is off with her husband. Liked this a lot.
Ooh I’ll look for this. Check The Pub for more expiring animated goodness!
The Benson Murder Case – There were like 12 Philo Vance movies with something like seven actors in the role. but I suspect the only ones anyone ever watches are the ones with William Powell, and only because we love him as another, more interesting amateur detective. By his third outing, Powell was bored stiff, and it shows here. He’s erudite and well turned out, but Powell does the bare minimum with things. The story is pretty middling, though I give it some points for the victim being a broker who did his clients wrong when the stock market crashed two days earlier. The opening scene is pretty good at capturing how the crash must have felt. And the solution to how the killer did it is clever. But overall quite low energy.
The Practice, “Closet Justice” – A man is arrested for brutally murdering a nun, and the firm is dragged into defend him even though it’s apparently 100 percent clear he’s guilty, since everyone is entitled to a good defense. But when it’s clear that an illegal search was conducted, which would let the man go, everyone is aghast and Judge Hiller has to decide the right thing to do. Which ultimately is to let him go. This one is David E. Kelley wearing his opinion on his sleeve, even going so far as to have Judge Kittleson say “the Fourth Amendment is an embarrassment.” Though I have no idea what she meant by that. But Kelley, speaking through Helen and even though Hiller, seems to think the Supreme Court went too far in its guidelines for how to conduct a search. Given the rogue Court we have now, such thoughts are rather disturbing and make me wonder how long till it rules search warrants aren’t really necessary after all. Meanwhile, Jimmy defends a man arrests for solicitation by an undercover cop, and wins the days by convincing the jury it was entrapment. Which it definitely was. Interestingly, in both cases the cops overstepped their bounds, so a bit less copaganda that usual. (Of course, zero suggestion that sex work should be legal.)
Frasier, “The Dish Ran Away with the Spoon,” part one – We pick up immediately after we left off at the end of season 7, with Niles and Daphne in the camper, driving away. Only they decide to do the right thing and go back and face the music. And while it is the right thing, it’s a bit deflating, though maybe it played differently with months between things. Anyway, the lovebirds try to figure out their next steps, like properly dating, but Donny is suing Daphne and Frasier for causing him distress, and Mel is so mortified that she demands Niles play the doting husband for a few months at various social functions before she grants the divorce. So love’s triumph hits roadblocks, and this is deflating but at least a little realistic.
The X-Files, “Wetwired”
Pretty cool episode, even if it’s a little too similar to “Blood.” It shakes things up with a geekily entertaining scene where the Lone Gunmen break down the strangeness in the TV signal and–in a more major way–by having Scully be the one to succumb to violent paranoia this time. Gillian Anderson does a phenomenal job with the material, playing Scully way out at the end of her frayed nerves, jumpy and full of dread; when she’s on the phone with Mulder and thinks he’s lying to her and that the phone is bugged, she gives the scene a sinking sense of horror that feels like a perfect excerpt from a paranoid thriller. (And then alludes to one of the all-time greats in that category by ripping up her hotel room, Harry Caul-style, looking for listening devices.) The downside is that it doesn’t feel like it taps into or reveals anything about the real Scully, aside from Mulder betraying her being her greatest fear, which we could have guessed. (Admittedly, when she’s saying he was in on her abduction and he killed her sister, it’s pretty gutting, and Duchovny’s reaction shots are great too.)
Good use X–I think he’s at his best when he feels most distinct from Deep Throat, and he’s more ruthless and more willing to cut his losses when an attempt to throw Mulder a bone doesn’t work out.
The set design in this episode is unhinged. Mulder and Scully’s motel, which from the outside seems like every other slightly scuzzy motel they stay, has an in-room fireplace and a VCR to go with the TV. The morgue seems to be the office of a parking garage. Was everything okay at home, production designer?
I remember Duchovny indeed being devastating and I think it’s here where he confirms, “Scully, you’re the only one I trust.”
The Fog – haven’t really gotten into Halloween season this year but wanted to get my girlfriend’s verdict on my favourite horror film (probably). Pleased to report she was into it, I think if you approach it knowing it’s All Vibes then that helps – the atmosphere and characters are great, even if the story is a little disjointed. This was my seventh viewing and this time around I particularly enjoyed Janet Leigh repeatedly telling her assistant (Nancy Loomis) that she’s “very annoying”.
The Fog is indeed All Vibes, it is high on the list of Movies You’d Most Want To Live In and surely the highest horror movie on that list. Which is pretty weird, right? Both text (murderous zombie lepers) and subtext (stolen land) say this is a bad place — this is not a criticism at all but I wonder if these things are somewhat downplayed in favor of that wonderful spooky-and-chilly-so-get-under-the-blanket vibe.
I kinda love that the Father Hal Holbrook is the only person who really cares about the actual plot, and when he’s trying to tell Janet Leigh and Annoying Assistant about it they just want to leave.
I definitely want to live in a town with nightly radio broadcasts from Adrienne Barbeau in a lighthouse, although on this latest viewing I did start to find it a little odd that she’s dedicated herself to such an intense broadcasting schedule to purely play kinda bland smoky jazz music.
Clearly everyone in town is tuning in to listen to Adrienne Barbeau, not the music. Which is relatable.
Yeah this is surely why it took me seven viewings to even notice. “Ahoy mateys!”
Year of the Month update!
This November, you can write about any of these movies, albums, books, et al from 2018!
Nov. 7th: Gillian Nelson: A Wrinkle in Time
Nov. 9th: Cori Domschot: Book Club
Nov. 10th: Bridgett Taylor: Aquaman
Nov. 12th: Ben Hohenstatt: Bark Your Head Off, Dog
Nov. 14th: Gillian Nelson: Christopher Robin/Mary Poppins Returns
Nov. 21st: Gillian Nelson: Ralph Breaks the Internet
Nov. 28th: Gillian Nelson: Legend of the Three Caballeros
And in December, we’ll be taking pitches on anything from 1948, like these movies, albums, and books.