Discuss and Rate the Last Thing You Watched (non-movies)

[Xprimentyl]

The Mick: S2:Ep1-20: Good / Great

It’s a shame this got canceled after only two seasons 1.) because it’s a good show, and 2.) it ends on a seriously jarring cliffhanger that just won’t be resolved now.

 

[gorfias]

Disclaimer, ep 1&2, Apple TV+

A mini-series (I think it's going to be like 7 episodes?) directed by Alphonzo Cuaron who directed three movies I loved- Gravity, Roma, and Children of Men- and starring Cate Blanchett, with Sacha Baron Cohen in a supporting role. A melodrama about a respected important woman whose dark past is revealed by a scorn victim so the premise kind of reminded of Tar.

So it should be my kind of thing but it's all a bit... too much. Multiple narrators, one too many moments of TV logic and tropes, a bit too much of Look At This Character Archetype going on. It feels like it can't decide if it's a for-serious DRAMA or an unintentional satire. It sometimes feels like an SNL spook sketch of what they think a Serious Prestige Drama is.

Which does seem like a lot of these limited series offerings from HBO/Apple/Netflix- the seem interesting, but then kind of come and go and are forgotten about, like everything Nicole Kidman was doing. Unfortunately, the power of Blanchett and Cuaron were not enough to elevate this beyond the trappings of this format so I won't be continuing.

I enjoyed and was even titillated by an episode, even at my age.
BUT:
It ends up being one of those, "if she'd only told people the truth in Episode 2, the rest of the series would have been unnecessary." But I guess she just couldn't.
And
It just has to have some mysandry at the end.

Spoiler

She comes full circle, from imagined evil manipulator to in reality the ultimate victim: the truth is, she was raped. She let that guy take naughty pictures of her at knife point. But she blames and divorces her husband cuz he was relieved that in fact, she had not betrayed him. Imagine the nerve!!! Of being relieved you'd not been betrayed!

The Penguin MAX series

I didn't much care for The Batman. Batman himself was unimpressive. They borrowed beats from Dark Knight and fail in comparison.

They take Collin Farrel's Penguin from that movie and give him his own crime drama series and it was terrific.

If you like crime drama, even if you don't like super heroes, you'd like this. We follow Penguin from as far down as being a lowly driver for the mob to.... well, becoming an arch Batman villain.

The show includes only 1 single Batman shout out. Very small. This isn't his show. It is Penguin's and they make him feel about as fleshed out as the other characters in the Dark Knight were. Highly recommend. A+

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Was fashion ever worse than in the 1970s? A collar that big (which is awful by itself) under a suit, just yuck.

80s way worse than 70s, IMO. Sure 70s was garrish but folks were trying to do something creative and sometimes it came out cool (i.e., black folks sometimes).

But the 80s was rolling up blazer sleeves and sock-less loafers with trousers and the infamous shoulder pads. Awful.

Anyways, some stuff I been watching:

Bosch into season 2
I been in the mood for TV that's like- solid, not too crazy, comfort food. Bosch was Amazon Prime's flagship show, real dad TV stuff, just a grumbly badass detective in the mean streets of LA who doesn't suffer fools. Each season is its own encapsulated story which I like.
Season 1 had trouble holding my interest because it involved a Se7en/Silence of the Lambs style crazy serial killer driving the plot and that stuff gets wearying for me. Season 2 involves more classic crime drama and corruption stuff like a hard-boiled detective novel and that is more my jam.

Agatha All Along
Leave it Kathryn Hahna to pull back into the MCU nonsense and while it was delightful at times it was also incredibly silly. They kind of ruined the impact of the character by giving her a tragic backstory and providing conflicting tones and thematic direction. This time the quirky loveable bad girl is played by Aubrey Plaza which is fine. A big MEH from me overall.

High Potential
Kaitline Olson (the one woman on It's Always Sunny in PA) stars in what is my favorite TV trend- quirky non-detective detectives. Here's she's like if you take a character from a late 90's rom-com played by Drew Barrymore and give her an comically high IQ and OCD impulses so that she is recruited to solve crimes and hilarity ensues. It's preposterous but Olson is one of our generation's all-time great comic actors so every stupid second of this nonsense is utterly delightful.