We managed to catch up on what we missed while on vacation… and we’ve got the regular watch of the week, which this week is just one show.
Murderbot – “Complementary Species” gives us some fallout from the previous episode, where the team has to figure out how to deal with Gurathin’s injury (and are still pretty shaken from Murderbot blowing the fucking head off of a threat last week). However, we get the thankfully-rare flashback sequence that works (thankful for the rarity of flashbacks, not ones that work), that sheds a lot of light on Gurathin and how he came to be the way he is, which is actually important to know and works well. Meanwhile, the team seemingly finds itself under attack again… or, maybe not attack after all, by aliens. And then actually under attack by another high-end Sec Unit. What’s going on? Who’s trying to kill our protagonists? Good episode in the character interactions, so let’s hope we get some of those answers soon.
Bob’s Burgers – “The Lost City of Atlantic” involves a trip to Atlantic City, where Linda cashes in a bunch of casino chips her grandfather used to send her from where she worked. The kids try to find a way around security and gamble, Bob becomes obsessed with the prime rib buffet and increasingly drunk, and Linda… stumbles upon an old family secret and a heist. A different mode for the show, and one I enjoyed.
Grimsburg’s “Evidence Locker” gives another animated show on Fox an excuse to tell three different one-act stories, in this case in flashback. Cleaning out the evidence locker brings back a lot of memories: For Marvin, it’s how he (and Martinez) first joined the force, complete with Top Gun-themed cadet training run by Dr. Pentos that he calls “Top Dick.” Then there’s Marvin’s encounter with Tom Petty– sorry, “Tim Patty”– and how he came to live in Grimsburg. Finally, we get the story of how Summers became a cyborg and joined the force (there’s a really funny twist in here I won’t spoil). Pretty good episode on the whole.
The Great North gave us two episodes with “Super Smash Lovers Adventure” and “Serendipi-Beef Adventure.” In the first one, Beef finally gets his hands on his dream coffin and offers the kids a chance to lie in it… which they reject, then eventually decide to give five minutes each. Judy and Ham slip into deep existential crises, while Moon apparently finds enlightenment. He starts preaching to his fellow fourth- or fifth-graders (I forget), with Judy in tow as his acolyte. Meanwhile, Ham’s crisis takes a more midlife form, and he ends up bonding with Mr. Golovkin over his actual midlife crisis, and over a shitty jam band. (“There are fourteen members, and twelve of them play steel guitar!”) Meanwhile, Wolf and Honeybee aren’t communicating well about their irritations with each other and occasional need for space, so Honeybee’s solution is to build an expansion to their cabin to have said space… which turns out to be a huge disaster, because YouTube videos don’t actually make you a carpenter. My favorite story here involves the kids, and I think Ham’s in particular was my favorite.
The next episode largely focuses on a rare event in Lone Moose: two comets crossing paths overhead and meeting in the sky (or as they’re known in town, “Curlew’s Kissin’ Comets”). The town mythology says it’s a night for love, and as the kids are all going on a field trip to the woods, Moon is planning to confess his love for Quinn. Beef, who met Kathleen on the last comet crossing, is convinced the romantic symbol is actually a curse. Moon eventually has to set him straight. (“You said you met her when she threw a wine cooler at your head? Maybe that was the problem.”) Beef, similarly, is panicked because he keeps running into his exes and fears the comet is trying to push him into a certain direction, when he needs to figure out what he wants.
Judy and Ham, meanwhile, run into a classmate who thinks there’s a bag of drugs stashes somewhere in the woods and wants to find it and sell it. Moon and Honeybee’s car dies outside the nursing home, and while they’re waiting for a tow, Aunt Dirt gets caught in there, and convinced they’re trying to dump her at the old folks home… until she discovers that the old folks know how to party.
There’s one more episode listed on Wikipedia this season coming up, but this two-pack really felt like it could be a series finale if the show isn’t renewed (which is apparently a real possibility). Always a solid show but never a game-breaker for me.
I started catching up on Rick and Morty at last. “The Rick, the Mort, & the Ugly” sends us mostly on a side adventure with alternate Ricks and Mortys, Citadel refugees. There’s a Morty Town (with one irate loner Rick farmer) that our Rick and Morty crash-land on… and then the episode follows them, as a bunch of Ricks crash in, kidnap the Mortys, and lay waste to the town… the irate loner Rick tracks them down to rescue the Mortys. And we get a pretty standard but solid action episode, with a lot of the comedy coming from the various clones of Rick. (The funniest is the leader, a self-described “southern railroad tycoon” who was created to head up a restaurant chain called “Big Rick’s Gumbo Hutch.”)
And we finally finished Common Side Effects. I was kinda drunk while we watched it, but the season ended fine enough, if a bit predictably in some areas (or perhaps that’s just a factor of me being a lot less naive than Marshall), but it’s still a pretty interesting show, and of course, the blue angel mushroom continues to attract both converts and the attention of the FBI (obviously to protect big pharma profits). Pretty solid season, although I don’t think I loved it as much as some people seemed to.
None of the Fox animated shows aired new episodes this week, which leaves us with only Murderbot (in the building). “Foreign Object,” on the overarching front, brings in a video message from a corporate crew never heard before, and the one that is likely behind the massacre of the DeltFall team. (Nice that we actually see some competence from our main characters as they figure out what exactly the interests at play are here.) Meanwhile, Murderbot offers to link up with Gurathin to block his pain receptors for the medical attention he needs… which leads into them probing each others’ minds and discovering some secrets they don’t want the other to know. Surprise, this leads to more distrust between the team and Murderbot. Not a bad episode, but I’m starting to feel that maybe turning a single novella into a full season is stretching things a bit thin.
I still need to catch up on Rick and Morty. Two episodes behind at this point.
If you’re on Bluesky, or my Discord server, you may have seen my Andor / Mr. Show crossover thread. That got me in the mood to watch some Mr. Show again, what a funny show. And I still notice details I didn’t before. In this case, from the “Dalai Lama” sketch in “It’s Perfectly Understandable,” they actually put work into all the other cover copy on “Jugg Fucklers.” “Top Ten Fuckling Cities in America.” “All Nude Fuckling.” And my favorite: “ORAL HYGIENE: What to do if you’re not sure if she’s brushed before she goes down.”
Nothing. Two more episodes of Murderbot, so that’ll wrap up right after It’s Always Sunny and Digman! start. I have no idea when the Fox animated shows end their seasons, because their scheduling is so weird. It looks like they mostly won’t be airing for a while, and then again with a couple of episodes in July. So, uh, this might mostly be a Murderbot and Rick and Morty space for a couple of weeks.
Be on the lookout for this article moving to Thursdays coming soon, exact date TBD. (There’s a good chance it will be on July 10, just in time for It’s Always Sunny and Digman! to start airing on weekdays and thus stick me right back in the rush to watch shows on time.)
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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.
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Sherlock & Daughter, “The Challenge” – In 1896, just as Sherlock Holmes’s life is coming apart and Watson and Mrs. Hudson have been kidnapped, a young woman from California shows up on his doorstep claiming to be his daughter and seeking his help to solve the murder of his mother. He doesn’t accept for a second she’s his kid (and I am utterly convinced classic Holmes is at best sapiosexual, but more likely ace), but accepts her help. Filmed in Dublin and produced for the zombie remains of the CW (but running also on Max and Discovery+ so likely commissioned before the sale of the network), this is above all else conventional. A period piece but it feels like a dozen other such pastiches and a dozen other CW shows with “teen” protagonists. Indeed, Amelia Rojas seems to have come from not just America but the 21st century. Blu Hunt (aged 29) is pretty bleh as Amelia, though I think part of that is the writing. Thankfully, David Thewlis is very good as a grumpy and bitter old Holmes, following the footsteps of all the other good actors who’ve played Holmes. As there are eight episodes in this run, I figure I will keep going with expectations to be entertained, if not enthralled, mainly to see Thewlis (and soon Dougray Scott as Moriarty).
Andor, final arc – The fate of Luthen Rael (and also his backstory), the acquisition of key information about something called…let me see if I got this right…the Death Star, and everything lines up for Cassian’s next mission. If you were expecting a big finale…well, it’s called Rogue One and this is not about that. It’s about seeing the characters move along both in terms of setting up the movie and just showing who and what they have become after years of rebellion. Or in the case of Dedra and his bosses, years of not stopping the rebellion. And all of it is effectively done. Though I really did want more of a action scene involving Cassian’s rescue of Luthen’s assistant and surrogate daughter Kleya. And maybe “Bix went off to have Cassian’s baby” borders on cliche, but it’s effective.
Overall, the 24 episodes of Andor add up to a thought meditation on the natures of tyranny and rebellion, an exciting Star Wars action story, and a whole bunch of engaging character studies. I suspect I could find a lot to pick at here and there, but I would rather just revel in how good this is, how great the acting is, and how Giltoy and his international cast of actors and directors brought us a Star War this good. Only now any other Star War is going to seem a bit of a letdown. Which doesn’t mean I won’t try Skeleton Crew or The Acolyte at some point.
And being a fanboy, I would not mind seeing some Marvel comic tell us what happened to the survivors of the show, even if Tony Gilroy would hate that.
I’m still thinking about how good the season 8 premiere of Rick and Morty was – eps two and three were enjoyable but suffered for me watching immediately after the first.
We’re up to date now so have gone back to the very start, and what a strong set of episodes in that first season. Episode two with Snuffles/Snowball was what hooked me for the first time, then you have the simulation inside a simulation inside a simulation…, the first visit to the citadel to meet the Council of Ricks, and of course inter-dimensional cable (which still packs a punch on repeat viewing).
Season 1 was ridiculously good.
Murderbot, “Foreign Object”
The Murderbot-Gurathin conflict continues to be my favorite part of the show, and the way a tentative bit of reconciliation–Murderbot blocking Gurathin’s pain receptors during his surgery–becomes a dramatic scene of both deferred and immediate payback, with a big revelation for the team about how Murderbot has defined itself, is pretty great. Ratthi is my second favorite part of the show, an earnest sweetheart doing his best to bring back “adorkable” as a description–and also the only person in the doomed throuple with the emotional intelligence and forthrightness to clearly communicate his feelings and boundaries as soon as soon as he actually realizes them.
But yeah, the bigger plot feels a little shaggy to me. Actually, I don’t think I want it to be tighter, I think I want it to be more strategic in its looseness: this would benefit from being more episodic, with the intrigue simmering along in the background while some one-off adventure plots take center stage and give the Murderbot + team dynamics more time to develop.
Andor, “Ever Been to Ghorman?”, “I Have Friends Everywhere,” “What a Festive Evening,” “Messenger,” “Who Are You?”, and “Welcome to the Rebellion”
Keeping this brief because the sooner I write it, the sooner I can go watch the last three episodes. Some of you already saw my comments on this anyway, so I’ll stick with things I didn’t mention as much before:
* “Who Are You?” and “Welcome to the Rebellion” are maybe the finest episodes of the show so far, really firing on all cylinders as both the character-centric drama–Syril’s too-late realization of what he’s really been doing on Ghorman, Cassian’s extraction of Mon Mothma from the Senate–and the wider-scale political action (which has never been more deliberately, chillingly reminiscent of our world, and in a way that feels powerful rather than hamfisted) work like gangbusters and make everything feel electric.
* The show does an excellent job highlighting the individual Ghormans and making them feel like they could be at the center of a different story (and it’s a small detail, but I also like how, despite Cassian warning them about fake Imperial leaks, they’re not portrayed as “dupes” for falling for Syril’s act; the implicit criticism here is entirely on him for deceiving and betraying them, not them for believing him). The bellhop, the speaker at the town hall who becomes a member of the Front, the weathered leader … they all feel like they have texture and depth to them, and the arc structure the show uses gives us time to see them evolve, change positions, commit, etc. in a way that makes them feel even more real.
* Kleya talking to Lonni through her teeth while she cuts her hand open trying to remove the bug they’ve installed in Davos Sculdun’s art in plain sight at a party full of enemies, including Orson Krennic: incredible.
* I will never be tired of Cassian shooting people, and him pulling a brief fake-out on Mon Mothma’s Imperial spy driver just to immediately fire on him is *chef’s kiss.* I also love how many wardrobe changes he gets in these episodes: I am very appreciative of the Diego Luna fashion show.
* While the introduction of the conflict feels a little abrupt, and the final “they want to change the narrative” note on it in “Welcome to the Rebellion” doesn’t have as much impact as I’d like, I do like the concept of the mistrust between the Alliance’s soldiers and its spies. Cassian’s been working either alone or with a very intimate, minimal hierarchy, however fraught–his relationship with Luthen is complex, as is Luthen’s relationship with *checks notes* everybody, but it’s also one-on-one, and it’s a system Luthen has authority because he has knowledge and connections, not because he has rank; Luthen doesn’t give a shit if Cassian pushes back against him, and there’s no decorum to uphold. The formalized Alliance is an institution, as indeed it probably needs to be, but that has its drawbacks as well as its strengths. Cassian can’t switch back and forth between the two modes as easily as taking his spiffy uniform on and off again, and here we see that he’s valued by the Rebellion but also viewed as someone who doesn’t really “fit.” He’s too used to acting independently. Cassian has always been sort of a demythologized Han Solo, a guy who could never be retroactively refitted to never shoot first, and this is another side of that. He’s not the Cool Guy who effortlessly switches into being the Cool Guy on the Big Team; that transition is an active problem for him and everybody else.
I don’t think anyone expected that from Ratthi, haha.
And… I wish I had more to say about Andor, since I could talk about it endlessly. Maybe that’s why I don’t; I feel like I’ve said so much already.
Got all caught up on go-to-sleep watch Ghosts and decided to check out the original British version, Ghosts, Innut?. It’s a very similar concept but this might be a perfect case study for cultural comparisons if it’s in any other countries, because which eras are selected for a ghost says a lot about how that country’s history is perceived and taught. You can write a whole compare and contrast on how the characters do and don’t line up with their overseas counterpart. I can’t because that sounds tedious, but I’d be interested in reading it if you can.
The wife is almost done with Orange is the New Black. Prison does not look like fun, those ladies should not have gone there.