This one’s gonna be short as there isn’t much new on the calendar and I don’t really have anything ready yet for a longer article…
Rick and Morty – Season 9 was a definite bounce-back after a mostly forgettable season 8. More fun episodes with interesting plots, a couple of “lore”-related episodes, and a finale that gave us what the show could do at its best, funny and inventive sci-fi stories that could also be emotionally devastating. The bloom has long been off the rose as far as this show being part of anything resembling the zeitgeist, but considering that, and considering how hard it is for any long runner to stay funny, it has really delivered, at least in seasons 7 and 9, and on a much more consistent pace than in the middle stretch.
House of the Dragon – We’re approaching the season finale, and this season has been… I dunno, fine? It’s better executed than the last couple of seasons of Game of Thrones, but I’m definitely having trouble keeping track of who’s who as the show expands, outside of the handful of key players who have been with us the whole time. The show does event and spectacle well when it calls for it, and I enjoy the political intrigue, and while Ormund Hightower comes across as a sociopathic douchebag, his strategy for taking on Rhaenyra and undermining her rule is pretty innovative. This is one of those shows I always look forward to watching and enjoy while I watch it, but then don’t spend a lot of time thinking about afterward. I’m not sure what that says.
King of the Hill – About halfway through the new season. As solid and sound as last season, which is to say, as it ever was. A rare revival that genuinely works and had enough of a unique premise to create stories worth telling.
President Curtis, the Rick and Morty spinoff starring Keith David, premiered July 26 and is airing new episodes Sunday.
Futurama returned once again, kicking off a new season on Monday, August 3 (at midnight Eastern, so really Sunday night for most Americans). Hulu calls it season 14.
Ted Lasso is back after a long hiatus with a season 4 and a new story. That premiered yesterday. This may be a show I have more to say about; I recently watched season 1 again and everything I wrote about it lo those many years ago remains true. TBD if the new season can recapture the magic.
If you’re in Australia, or sail the internet’s high seas under your own flag, Colin From Accounts premiered season 3 on July 27. I’m hearing this will be the final season.
And coming up, no every-other-year schedule this time: It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is kicking off season 18 on August 17.
Also returning is Glen Powell’s Chad Powers, September 3.
The Paper will give us season 2 starting September 9.
American Dad! will air its final two episodes of the season, including the show’s 400th, on September 13.
Tell me something you’re watching, or looking forward to, or something else I forgot to mention here.
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.
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Captain's Log
Pictured: A typical scene from one of the eight funniest shows of the year
Captain's Log
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Celebrating deserving performances that will not get their due elsewhere
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I WILL convince someone to watch this show
As the network TV season comes to an end, we take a look back at some canceled shows that shouldn't have been
Department of
Conversation
What did we watch?
M*A*S*H, Season Four, Episode Sixteen, “The Price of Tomato Juice”
“I’d never eat a snail.”
“Nobody would, that’s why they started calling it escargot.”
“Rats! My fly sank!”
“If he doesn’t come up in ten minutes, I’m going in after him.”
“Major Burns wouldn’t give a drowning man a glass of water.”
“… Why would you give a drownin–”
“Major Burns has no heart.”
“I got a soft spot for Klinger. He looks a little like my son and he dresses a lot like my wife.”
“I have no interest in the compound.”
“He has no compound interest.”
This has a very old-fashioned premise, where deals pile on deals pile of deals, with the neat variation that the piling is accidental – each character is, individually, going to someone else to solve their current problem. This matches the inciting incident of Radar discovering Potter likes tomato juice and wanting to get him more because he likes him; we’re retaining the goofiness of the first few seasons – I’m genuinely surprised how far the laugh track is surviving, because I remember it falling away by now – but it’s getting more sentimental.
This also has a moment of BJ analysing the relationship between Frank and Margaret, which is very funny to me – a few months back, I asked the Discord’s opinion of the couple, and BJ’s conclusion that they’re all they have here is an interesting one in that light.
That “he looks a little like my son and he dresses a lot like my wife” line has always been one of my favorites, probably because Potter seems sincere about it.
Jigsaw (1962) – There are six movies named Jigsaw. I suspect this British police procedural/mystery is the best of them. It’s definitely a good movie. A man kills his pregnant mistress and mangles her body so badly that she cannot be identified. So the police – British TV stalwart Jack Warner leading the investgation – have two mysteries to solve. This works in part because the mysteries are compelling (though the resolution of who the killer is feels a bit anticlimactic), in part because director Val Guest (a Hammer Films regular) filmed in and around Brighton in a cinema verite style, and in part because Guest’s script has some genuine humor and humanity. It’s really been entertaining to stumble onto these forgotten British crime films of the 50s and 60s on Tubi. I don’t think such filmmaking exists now in the UK.
The Twilight Zone, “Third from the Sun” – The mix of nuclear fears and science fiction elements we only see come to life slowly, plus great direction and a strong performance by Fritz Weaver, make this one a banger. More later.
Barney Miller, “The Bureuacrat” – A Nixon appointee who runs an obscure federal agency is brought in drunk, and tries to wheedle out of being charged, and Wojo’s complaint to the Board of Health closes a local deli that delivers. This one belongs to the guests, David Wayne as the titular bureaucrat, who is portrayed at once with disdain and with sympathy; and Milton Selzer as the deli man. The show is starting to find its footing. It also just dawned on me that the characters are a Pole, a Latino, a Black man, a Japanese-American, a Jew, and a Jewish-coded character played by an Italian. I don’t think any other show of the time is more diverse and less WASPy. And just wait till the next episode…
Leaving this comment now to remind myself that Jigsaw seems like a good candidate for a future Streaming Shuffle.
Koln 75 – Keith Jarrett’s improvised solo piano album “The Köln Concert” was one of the very few jazz albums on the 1001 list that I actually enjoyed, and the story behind it is a really interesting one so I was curious to see this film about how it came to be. I was a little worried it would be a very safe, reverent biopic but that’s not the case at all – it has more in common with the fourth-wall-breaking approach of 24 Hour Party People, and it switches focus between teenage Jazz promoter Vera Brandes and American music journalist Mick Watts as the concert approaches rather than ever making Jarrett the central character. The stress of putting together a large, expensive event when you’re young, financially unstable and inexperienced is the main drama of the film and they do a great job showing how close it all came to failure. I thought this was pretty fantastic, on the whole – cleverly structured, funny and charming with some strong performances and a great soundtrack.
Year of the Month update!
This August, send us your pieces on any of these movies, albums, books, etc. from 2001!
TBD: James Williams: Millennium Actress
Aug. 7th: Gillian Nelson: Recess: School’s Out!
Aug. 14th: Gillian Nelson: The Princess Diaries
Aug. 16th: Tristan J. Nankervis: Mulholland Drive
Aug. 21st: Gillian Nelson: Disney’s California Adventure
Aug. 27th: Cori Domschot: The Mummy Returns
Aug. 28th: Gillian Nelson: Walt Disney Treasures
Then, this September, you can write about any of these movies, albums, books, etc. from 1937.
Sept. 4th: Gillian Nelson: Moose Hunters
Sept. 18th: Gillian Nelson: Pluto Quin-pup-lets
Sept. 25th: Gillian Nelson: Donald’s Ostrich