Here we go! I don’t know why I’m writing so excitedly during the summer doldrums.
Catching up
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, “Mac and Dennis Become EMTs” – Time for the Gang to spice up their lives! This was a rollicking farce and surprisingly fun. Bizarrely, the Gang spends the episode fixated on the rush from eating hot peppers; Frank slips an older bar patron a ghost pepper (fun aside, the Gang acts like they have no idea who he is or why he’s there, Mac has to remind them that the bar is open and a place of business), and when the EMTs come to take the guy to the hospital, Mac and Dennis decide the only thing that can compete with the rush of hot peppers is the rush of saving lives.
Which, of course, they take one EMT class, then drop out and buy a bootleg ambulance and uniforms.
Meanwhile, Dee has started making extra money Doordashing (on her bike, which is a frequent source of comedy as she may be the biggest asshole urban bike rider ever), and Charlie has turned out to be a pretty good cook, running his apartment kitchen The Bear-style. The two combine forces to launch a ghost kitchen with Charlie cooking, Frank working as his prep chef, and Dee delivering the food.
And then those two plots combine… anyway, I thought this was really funny and wildly successful as a high-energy escalating farce and with its latter-day-Seinfeld-esque collision of the various plots. It would be really something if they could keep batting at this level. The episode also featured this image, which I think is really funny in or out of context; I didn’t want to use Sunny as a header image again so soon (especially with Digman! premiering this week), but I felt like I needed to include it:
What’s new?
Digman! is back! As of the time I put this article to bed, though, I do not have access to the episode yet. (I even checked before bed and Paramount+ had put the new South Park up, but not this.) Really annoying that apparently I’m going to get Wednesday night episodes too late to ever actually watch them for a Thursday morning article. I guess we should start assuming this article will cover the Wednesday-Tuesday week in TV instead.
I did manage to be up late enough to catch the new It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which goes up on Hulu at 1 AM my time, so don’t expect this to become a regular thing. (Also, Digman! still wasn’t up– when the hell does it actually become available to watch?) “Thought Leadership: A Corporate Conversation” throws back to some classic Gang concerns about a PR fiasco and to their occasional attempts to have more of a corporate structure (or at least talk more in dead-eyed corporate-speak). While they assume the woman at the bar is a reporter asking for a statement about all the gallons of baby oil and Paddy’s t-shirts dumped into the Schuylkill River, they go back and plot their strategy and attempt to identify the proper scapegoat for this fiasco, leading to a story told in flashbacks about slap fighting and the Gang discovering the concept of “water-cooler conversation.” Plus some very funny digs at the Cybertruck. Pretty good episode, though I think I liked last week’s better. And also I figured out the ending twist almost immediately.
Grimsburg closes out season 2 with “Across the Flutiverse,” I guess because every adult-animation show I watch has to do a multiverse riff at some point. A rift (that, as Marvin charges the eventual culprit, “bisected a man across the Y-axis”) opens up in the cold open. Eventually, a bunch of alternate Flutes come out– a young, handsome version; a woman; a superhero type; and more, including an actual flute. Marvin once again has to learn the value of his co-workers, which he does by trying to impress the multiverse Flutes so he can roll with them instead, only to be disillusioned with them when they give him shit for caring about rescuing his actual team (who have all accidentally entered a multi-cam sitcom universe called Flute!). That was pretty fun and a solid closer to the season. Honestly, this year, Grimsburg was probably the Fox animated show I looked forward to the most.
The Great North continues with “Heelraiser Adventure,” with a fun B-plot heist involving Judy helping Mr. Golovkin the train collector steal back a caboose that another collector, who drives the kids’ train at the mall (I forgot his name, which is annoying because it’s weirdly specific), recruiting Ham, Moon, and Dirt for the job. The titular plot kicks off with Wolf goofing around on the boat and accidentally losing a load of fish; he later overhears Beef complain to someone else about his screwups, and gets his feelings really hurt. Then he decides to join the local wrestling league, and, after a few false starts, channels his anger into his new character: Bad Dad! The character is a smash and is also ruining Beef’s reputation around town. They will of course reconcile, but it takes a surprisingly long time to get there, and thankfully they don’t paper over the real issue. (Wolf is too old to act that irresponsibly at work, but Beef should have told him in person instead of complaining behind his back.) Pretty fun episode.
Bob’s Burgers has “Don’t Worry, Be Hoopy,” with a single plot: Tina’s mastery of the granny shot has led her to win the school’s American Athletic blah blah something free throw competition, and now she’s competing on the district level. Which is causing her to panic under the pressure, to the point of hallucinating a six-year-old Tina when she faked an injury to get out of a ballet recital. Tina has to find the strength to go on by herself– which we know because Bob and Linda each gave her pep talks the night before that they are sure were incredibly crappy and may have ruined Tina’s life. The family (and Teddy) mostly spend the episode at the top of the bleachers during the competition, for a better view, and the fun here mostly comes from Gene and Louise’s snack experiments and Teddy’s constant panic about the verticality and stability of their seats. Solid episode all in all; I’ll think of something else to say about a Bob’s episode one day, I’m sure, if one really blows me a way (or just sucks, but that’s harder to see happening).
Rick and Morty aired “Morty Daddy” Sunday, and if that’s supposed to be a pun on something, I don’t get it. The titular plot brings back a season 1 character: Morty’s son the Gazorpazorp, whom you might be forgiven for not remembering. And he’s dying or something and is trying to reconcile with Morty and make peace with his parentage. And Summer and Rick go to a hot new pre-cog restaurant and things spiral out of control when Summer is unhappy with the meal she’s served. Once again, as with most of this season, we are firmly on the ground of “fine,” which may be evident from how little I felt like writing about the episode. (Although some of that is realizing how much I’d just be recapping the plot.)
Falling behind
While I did have the opportunity to watch last night’s It’s Always Sunny before this article went to press, considering it goes up five hours before the article publishes, I’m probably not going to keep mentioning every week that I don’t have the chance. Same with Digman! if its even-later streaming release schedule keeps up.
Old favorites
My buddy who was visiting over the weekend apparently had never seen Party Down, but alas, I didn’t get the chance to show any to him. However, I decided to watch the first episode again, and it’s really a pitch-perfect pilot, even though I never see it cited among the show’s best episodes. There’s so much I could cover, but the show is 16 years old, so you probably know most of what that will be anyway. (Leave it to Ron Donald to not only have to learn “Mexican” isn’t inherently offensive, but to then still use it in an offensive way.)
Beavis and Butt-Head, on the other hand, we did get to watch a little of. We were certain that there was an episode where our duo watched the Crash Test Dummies’ “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm,” but we were unable to find any such episode existed, so maybe we just Mandela Effected ourselves. We ended up watching “No Laughing” instead, the rare double episode; it’s funny, of course, because it’s Beavis and Butt-Head. But also because of the Spanish teacher and Buzzcut flipping out at our dimwitted teens. “The only Spanish you know is from Taco Bell, and Beavis can’t even get that right!”
And last night my wife wanted to put on some Smiling Friends, which is a fun enough show. I’ve warmed up to it a bit more with time, although I don’t love it as much as the rest of the internet seems to and I still think Royal Crackers is better.
I also rewatched the season 1 finale of Digman! so I could remember how the hell the season ended before starting the new one.
Just ended
This was Grimsburg‘s season finale. From my sources (the internet), The Great North appears to have two more episodes left this season, to correct my once-again inaccurate (although, in my defense, similarly-sourced) previous information. And in “ending soon,” I believe Sunday night is the season finale of Rick and Morty, if anyone else is still watching that.
Coming up
Digman! was the big news of the week, but before too long the King of the Hill revival will grace us. Look for the new season to premiere (and possibly drop all at once) August 4.
There have been some release dates announced for September. The Paper, the show that keeps getting described as an Office follow-up even though it doesn’t seem to have much to do with it, premieres on Peacock September 4. Hulu announced that Only Murders in the Building will premiere season 5 on September 9, and that the entire season of whatever season of Futurama this is will premiere September 15.
And you?
What did you watch?
What did we watch?
Righteous Kill
Fascinating for being a dogshit movie – it’s about 25% Scorsese, 10% Tarantino, and the rest is thriller schlock – starring two of the greatest actors of a generation past their prime. Well, it’s hard to tell if Robert de Niro and Al Pacino are past their prime or just half-assing it here; they veer between overdelivering on a crappy script and seeming exhausted with the whole thing. I gotta admit, there’s a certain pleasure in watching them bounce off each other, particularly in the more lighthearted scenes.
M*A*S*H, Season Two, Episode Nine, “Dear Dad… Three”
The one plotline tying this together is Hawkeye and Trapper pranking a racist soldier who requests white-only blood; it’s a reasonable set of jokes on the concept. But this is largely setpieces with Hawkeye’s commentary; the two biggest are a failed attempt to have a meeting (which is easy money for this show) and, more importantly and iconically, the first family films sent over, showing Henry’s wife and children. Famously, this takes on a more sombre tone given the season three finale (“Henry, if you don’t give the command to cry, I will.”).
Apparently, the surgeons are getting paid $5k a year working for the Army, which is equal to $62k in 2025 US dollars, which is about a third of what they’d expect to actually make.
“I move that we take the roll, and then if somebody’s not here, he’s probably someplace else, and then the record should show it, unless of course the person making the record isn’t here.” / “Thank you, Pierce.”
(Hawkeye has so strongly influenced my sense of humour)
See elsewhere for some thoughts on Sherlock and Daughter.
Love Crazy – Myrna Loy is sure that hubby William Powell was stepping out (on their anniversary no less), and asks for a divorce. Powell is so desperate to get Loy to let him explain that he will do anything to delay the divorce, including getting himself declared insane. And then breaking out of the asylum to go to talk to her, running from the cops, and shaving his mustache and disguising himself as his sister. All the element of a good screwball comedy, but nothing ever holds together besides Powell and Loy. I certainly wasn’t laughing. Though there is a hint of the risque here and there that is surprising for a movie made under the Code.
Frasier, “Party, Party” – Frasier has met someone new, but his first two attempts to have a date with her were ruined by a broken watch and a dead car battery. Now he has his chance out of the blue, but he needs to escape both from a party in support of a group of snotty “explorers” and a surprise birthday party. He does finally manage to see the woman and comes across as less of a pompous twit than usual (though in the end they are a total mismatch). Some solid gags scattered around the edges, but the best ones relate to a sudden fling Niles is having with the host of the former party, and the discovery that she’s married. Best line: regarding the faux-explorers, Niles notes “They’re legendary. Last year they made camp at the base of Mount Everest, then had their servants climb it while they held a wine tasting.” One can only hope the next trip to Kenya, the lions eat them.
The X-Files, “Firewalker” and “Red Museum”
“Firewalker” is okay, but it’s mostly notable for featuring a stacked guest cast (Bradley Whitford, Leland Orser, and Shawnee Smith!) and a spectacularly off-putting effect where a phallic fungus bulges and bubbles against the inside of a person’s throat before bursting out. This kills them, and I think it’s less blood loss and more that no one would want to live after having experienced such a phenomenon. Of course, it turns out that they’ve already been Changed from Within by the spore parasite and are driven to pass on their infection, so they’re also just hosts being turned into used-up husks so the parasite can move on to new turf. This results in at least one good, tension-building scare–a bulging-throated Shawnee Smith handcuffing herself to Scully to try to make sure the eventual sporesplosion hits her–but it all ultimately feels too reminiscent of S1’s superior “Ice.”
“Red Museum” is better, and in an unshowy way, it does all the things I think the show does well. It’s empathetic towards a wide range of people, exquisitely paranoid (the bit at the end about the contaminated beef and milk being too difficult to trace and now just out there somewhere is classic in that regard), and infused with creepy images (HE IS ONE). It’s all a little muddled, but that’s not a drawback for me in this case: it makes it feel more authentic in a tangled, Unsolved Mysteries way. Love Scully recognizing Deep Throat’s shooter; love the quest for answers there being foiled by the fact that for the local sheriff, the course of action here is obvious and tragically simple: this guy killed the sheriff’s son, the sheriff has him at gunpoint, and that’s the end of it.
(Damn, I miss Deep Throat, though.)
Andor, S1E2 – I hate to disappoint Ruck and Lauren but this show so far has Streaming TV Syndrome, where the writer made movies before so he has no idea yet how to structure a TV show into specific episodes without making a ten-hour film, by far the most annoying of media structures, as it turns out. There’s a guy on a train! I don’t know who he is! Bix and this guy have sex!* He is not telling her he’s been following her! Cyril is on a spacecraft and makes a bad speech! Not much happens! Everything’s in stasis! I refuse this lack of movement! REFUSE!
*Also on a puerile, pervy, and infantile note, I was hoping for Star Wars boobs for the first time in my life, and I did not get them. I’m assuming I’ll get some real nasty Star Wars violence, why can’t I also have Star Wars nudity? This country is broken.
My 14 year old self is content with Leia in the slavegirl outfit, even if my 56 year old self knows it’s demeaning and objectifying in the worst way.
I think it does find its groove a little later on, for what it’s worth, but I would certainly say if the end of episode seven doesn’t hook you for what will happen next (which is one of the best arcs, I think), then the show probably won’t work for you in general.
Ironically, I was recently thinking about trying out some things from the slow cinema movement, but I feel like an ten-hour film that’s actually a film is by default less annoying than a ten-hour film that’s actually a TV show.
Agreed on “needs more T&A.”
Why would he tell her he’s been following her when he knows it’s wrong? Plus, not to get ahead of things, but it would deny the narrative the pleasure of her finding out on her own.
Also, the speech is hilarious. And I rather enjoyed the guy on the train even if he’s forgettable in the grand scheme of things.
It’s not bad, it’s just the fundamental problem of a lot of these shows: maybe one or two plot beats has happened, I want at least five.
By my count, the next episode has, like, seven or eight, if I remember correctly.
I’m guessing he’s talking about the guy Luthen talks to on the train ride into Ferrix. In any event, it’s a nice talk.
I would guess so too, but keep in mind at this point we don’t know who either of them are outside of this one scene. (I mean, if you recognize Stellan Skarsgård then you probably have figured out they wouldn’t cast him to play an unimportant character.)
Woah, that was Stellan Skarsgård!?
I watched episodes one and two when they came out, was definitely not hooked on it, and hopped back in at 3. They probably could have condensed 1 and 2 into one episode; I never felt burdened by not remembering anything from the first two episodes. I agree with your critique of episodes 1 and 2.
But from episode 3 on it rapidly grew on me and I saw what all the fuss was about.
Cool, I was gonna watch it anyway what with my good faith assumptions and all.
Yeah, I remember wondering “when are they gonna get to the fireworks factory?” after those first two episodes. But then they do.
Learning the first three were released in a single block made a lot of sense; that block is pretty self-contained and all the payoffs are in the third episode. And of course there’s a lot of good stuff from there, although admittedly I thought 4 and 5 were a bit slow the first time I watched them. (Really, after I’d finished the series, the early episodes played a lot better on rewatch.)
The first three episodes of the series were all released at once, and there’s a reason for that– they do really play better as a two-hour movie, but also, this first block of episodes is almost like a prologue to the rest of the series.
The rest of the series does have some fairly discrete arcs– especially in season 2, which really condenses the timeline– but there’s a lot you haven’t seen or gotten to yet (like, a large number of major characters and settings that aren’t even introduced until episode 4), and the payoffs are really worth it.
To me, what you find as random guys is part of the appeal– I mean, not the randomness, but that the show doesn’t go out of its way to have characters deliver expository dialogue directed at the viewer more than each other. If you pay attention, you’ll figure it out.
Anyway, have a little faith! It’s worth it!
Dog Day Afternoon – Mrs. was in the mood to stay in and watch a movie, and she’d never seen this. (She said she’d read the book, but… it was based on a Time article, so I don’t know what book. Maybe a novelization?) I’d seen it but not in more than twenty years. And it’s one of those films where I could talk about the many great aspects to it, but I feel like I would not be saying anything that hasn’t already been said by someone at some point in these last fifty years.
The rest was just TV, as you can read in the main article.
Titanic – Hadn’t taken the time watch this since the 90s, having the twin problem of being very long and full of so many iconic moments it felt like I rewatched it every few months or so. A grand epic so wonderfully designed and shot that it’s too bad when people are talking. Cameron’s script, pointedly not nominated for an Oscar when almost everything else was, didn’t need to be fantastic. But it would have been nice to have dialog better than 33% cheese, 33% facts about the Titanic and 33% the words “Jack” and “Rose.”
The visual gambit keeps everything afloat, taking a long time to show beautiful sets and then drown them before our eyes for the last third of the movie. Even with all the false notes along the way, it’s impossible not to get stirred by the details of the passengers fighting or accepting their doom (I’d forgotten how much of the final run is just passengers straight eating it in various horrible ways).
Yeah, I like the parts that aren’t Jack and Rose. Victor Garber adjusting the clock on the mantelpiece never fails to get to me. But since my favorite parts are all the supporting characters dealing with the doom, A Night to Remember is like a good-parts-only version that means I rarely feel like revisiting this one. Some terrific spectacle, though, and Billy Zane is having a blast being a living cartoon. (“Something Picasso? He won’t amount to a thing! He won’t, trust me!”)
That podcast I mention a lot in the Discord had a funny riff about making “Titanic for guys,” and it’s the exact same movie except Jack lives at the end instead of Rose, and when they go back to the present day where old Jack is telling the story, he wraps it up with “anyway, so let me tell you about the next broad I banged…”
How do you make a new Sherlock Holmes TV show for the CW? Making new Sherlock stuff is not that hard. Ther are at least 254 actors who have played the part on screen. He’s had adventures in his own time, WWII, and in the far flung future. He’s worked with Batman and Freud, he’s investigated Jack the Ripper and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, he’s appeared in more pastiches than one can absorb. But doing something that will work for a younger audience in 2025 on an OTA network? That is a challenge.
Six episodes into an eight part season, I can say the people behind Sherlock and Daughter cracked the case. It’s on the CW, which even after it was sold to NexStar still skews younger, so obviously you need a younger lead. And younger supporting cast, especially a love interest. Then you need to decide when the story is set, and seeing as there is a glut of contemporary Holmes things, you stay in the Victorian Age (and then copy at least some elements of the RDJ movies). You come up with a hook – the title says it all – and a mystery within the mystery as to whether Holmes has a daughter. And lastly, you come with a mystery that will take eight weeks to resolve, get Watson out of the story to make room for the daughter, and be big enough to engage an audience used to every movie and TV having Global Stakes.
The trick is that last bit, and to my surprise, six parts in, we are getting just. The story is messy, but it’s even more engaging, involving an international cartel, a Moriarity with reason to help Sherlock, a competent but egotistical insurance investigator, Scotland Yard, and Lord Salisbury in his last term as Prime Minister. What started out as a kind of a mess and merely diverting has become, if not compelling, certainly as much fun the EDJ movies. And while most of the cast is actually pretty good, and David Thewlis is excellent as the 254th Holmes, none of that would matter if the story weren’t good. Good enough that the mediocre younger actors aren’t messing things up for an old coot. And from what I know, good enough that at least some of the younger target audience is watching.
Is this prestige TV? Not even a little. But not everything needs to be prestige. Sometimes just being fun is enough. But will they stick the landing? I will let you know.
My association with prestige TV is “getting off on being withholding” as a storytelling rule so maybe that’s a good thing!
I haven’t seen this yet, but I’m pretty sure it took over the time slot after Good Cop / Bad Cop ended, which I’m using as a reminder to tell people to seek out Good Cop / Bad Cop.
Los Gringo Hunters
Season 1. First time.
My wife started watching this on Netflix and I jumped in halfway through. This is a procedural based on a suppossedly-real Tijuana police unit that tracks down and arrests U.S. fugitives in México. The show largely alternates cases-of-the-week with an overarching conspiracy involving the assassination of the unit’s leader at the start of the series, which later involves a public vote for a land development, corrupt politicians, narcos, destroying a slum, strange priests and a child abuse ring. It is quite effective if somewhat sensasionalized, with a good ensemble cast for the unit, constant action and plenty of cliffhangers. Still, the main reason I kept watching was the location work, which is pretty good on its own but also gave us the pleasure of seeing a bunch of places we’ve personally been to, in Tijuana and even here in Rosarito: the border, my university, a few beach restaurants we know, city hall, the Toros’ baseball stadium, my old office, etc. And a lot of cool drone establishing shots too. Good shot, excellent Tijuana travelogue.
I feel like that Sunny still deserves a long second life as a reaction image.
Agreed, it’s a hoot.
I still have to finish the last season of Futurama!
I’m a season and a half behind! 20-something me would be aghast.
To be honest, the two of you haven’t been missing a whole lot. Each revival has been worse than the one before, and there were a couple of good episodes last season, but the overall bell curve of quality has gotten lower and lower each revival.
(Read more here!)
I was pleasantly surprised by the first Hulu season, which I thought superior to the Comedy Central era on average.
I think the Rick & Morty episode title is just referring to Baby Daddy? Or maybe Babymama? Honestly I find their naming convention really annoying, although I recognize that it must be really annoying for people working internally to keep track of which episode is which and this almost loops it back around to funny. Almost.
The forced puns can be irritating, but at least I usually know what they’re talking about. Take last week’s “Nomortland”– I haven’t seen Nomadland, and it’s a particularly dumb pun to use in an episode focused on Jerry, but at least I understand it. I’ve never heard of Baby Daddy and if that’s the pun, it’s awful. If it’s a Baby Mama pun, that’s even worse. If it’s a pun on “Mommy Daddy,” well, that’s not even a real phrase.