Anti-binging - the unfinished TV seasons of the COVID year(s) (pt1)

For the most part, we here at T&KSD don't like to write about a TV show unless a season is complete, even though in the past we certainly have.  Sometimes our reviews in hindsight show a spot of ignorance as we're guessing at what's to come based on what we see, and sometimes we just don't even get to the end of a season (or series).  During the past year, Kent has been excited for shows, only to fall off of them.  Let's look at what those shows were, and why they went unwatched.

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The Show/Season: Supergirl Season 5 (CW/Showcase/Netflix)

The Draw:  I was watching all the other CW shows and was quite invested in the "Arrowverse" but Supergirl was the show my daughter and I would watch together. Melissa Benoist has made a wonderful Supergirl and the show has made some tremendous strides in LGBTQ+ representation which I actively champion.

Episodes Watched: 4/19

Why I no finish?: As I mentioned in my review of the CW crossover event Crisis on Infinite Earths and Arrow Season 8 and even Supergirl Season 4, I got pretty burned out on the CW's superhero offerings, to the point where I really have to force myself to watch them, it's not really something I look forward to doing anymore.  It feels almost like homework.  My completist headspace (when it comes to this nerdy shit) kind of demands I finish what I started but sometimes I just can't.  The truth is, of all the CW shows, Supergirl is the one I still actually want to watch.  The problem is my daughter is too invested in youtube videos of people playing minecraft to sit down and watch it with me.  The other problem is, Supergirl seasons are really long (compared to most of what I'm watching these days, most shows I watch clock in at 10 episodes or less a season).

Will I return to it?: I actually hope to.  Supergirl is in its sixth and final season right now, so I'll probably wait until that closes out and do a concentrated binge.

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The Show/Season: Black Lightning Season 3 (CW/Netflix)

The Draw: I thought Season 1 was good, but Season 2 was great.  I thought that Anyssa/Thunder was the best superhero character on television. I was excited for Black Lightning to finally cross-over with the Arrowverse in Crisis and the story of the fictitious Baltic nation of Markovia declaring a superhero war with Freeland was enticing.

Episodes Watched: 11/16

Why I no finish?: This season is a slog.  If there's one thing that frustrates me with television shows it's spinning wheels, not advancing plots forward, biding time to pad out their story to fill their entire episode order.  There's a lot of spinning wheels here.  I've had three binge days on Season 3 and I'm still not finished.  After each binge day I had no desire to immediately return.  This big declaration of war that Markovia has issued has been so low-key and such a non-starter in the show.  Everything sort of revolves around it, but there's been little to no tangible escalation in the 11 (or so) episodes I've watched so far (plus the "war" is Markovia, a whole country, vs. Freeland, a city in America...makes no sense).  Also, Anyssa has abandoned her Thunder disguise for a more shadowy superhero character which has been tremendously disappointing because I love Thunder so much.  As well, Anyssa's girlfriend Grace has had a very, very drawn out, tedious arc over two seasons that's become tiresome.  

Another thing that frustrates me about television is when characters keep repeating the same mistakes or having the same conversations over and over again, both of which happen here so frequently.  Jefferson and Lynn keep getting divided rather than supportive of each other, which is soooo frustrating.  Bill Duke is amazing, but his character Agent Odell is used too often as a deus ex machina that he feels more like a plot device than a real person.  And James Remar is still godawful as Gamby.  Tobias still having any relevance is beyond frustrating as his arc was done last season and he feels completely shoehorned into the story of this season.  

Ultimately, it plays out like a show that doesn't really have a plan for itself.  It's messy and frequently boring and doesn't provide its characters with enough logic resulting in a lot of manufactured drama.  Post Crisis, upon joining the Arroverse proper, I was hoping there would be a noteable shift in the reality, but no.

Will I return to it?: Probably, at some point.

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The Show/Season: Run Season 1 (HBO)

The Draw: That one actress from Girls runs away from her life to meet Domhnall Gleeson, an old college flame who is likewise running away from his life.  It was posed as a romantic comedy/suspense which seemed an intriguing mix.  Plus, Domhnall Gleeson is always great, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge produced (and guest-stars).

Episodes Watched: 1/7

Why I no finish?: The first episode didn't really captivate me, and the wife seemed bored.  There was other stuff to watch.

Will I return to it?: I dunno.  I only just now learned that Waller-Bridge actually is acting in it too so I may give it another go.

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The Show/Season: Tales from the Loop Season 1 (amazonprime)

The Draw: A quasi-anthology series about a town that manufactures advanced super-science.  The main characters of one story are background in others.  I really kind of dig that concept.  Plus it's based on the work Swedish painter Simon Stålenhag, and it's really cool to see his designs brought to life.

Episodes Watched: 3/8

Why I no finish?: I did actually enjoy each episode I've seen, but I watched each episode months apart from each other.  It's truly a connected anthology, but as such it didn't pull me to watch the next episode, and the next, and the next like a usual bingeable show.  The first episode of the three I watched is probably the one I connected with the least, but the second and third episodes have lingered with me.  It's a pretty quiet show, it's not a big action or even a big dramatic show, it's very tempered in a refreshing way.

Will I return to it?: Definitely, but in pieces.

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The Show/Season: Love Life (HBO)

The Draw: A staggered narrative of one woman's various romantic relationships. That woman is Anna Kendrick who I do enjoy as a screen presence.  And we all know I like a romcom...

Episodes Watched: 3/8

Why I no finish?: ...but this isn't a romcom, and it's not really fully romantic either.  Each episode is about the trials and tribulations and the differences and growth one has being in a relationship. They're interesting, and challenging, and uncomfortable and they give my stomach butterflies, both the good and bad kind.  But ultimately I'm not sure if I'm sold on Kendrick's character here.  I'm not sure I really get her...but perhaps the point of the show is how she discovers herself over the period of each of these relationships.

Will I return to it?:  I would like to, but I'm not sure if I actually will.

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The Show/Season: The Third Day (HBO)

The Draw: Over three episodes, Jude Law, plays a man who experienced a traumatic incident which, in part, guides him to an isolated community where he starts to understand their unique culture has some rather insidious undertones. I didn't realize that when I started watching it that there was also a multi-media component where there was a 12-hour live event (in the UK which could be attended in-person or watched on a stream) that acted as a bridge between the 3-episodes of "Summer" that starred Law, and the 3-episodes of "Winter" that starred Naomi Harris.

Episodes Watched: 3/6

Why I no finish?: Well, I didn't do any research into what this show actually was.  I mean, should anyone have to really do any research just to watch a TV show? But I didn't know there were effectively three parts to this experience.  I just saw a new show starring Jude Law that looked kinda creepy so I just decided to watch.  We finished the 3-epidose "Summer" arc and it was intriguing enough but also so familiar to the genre of small-town-with-weird-secret/cult.  I felt I got a complete story, but one I was really neither here-nor-there on.  I was never going to sit down with the live "immersive-theatre" event of "Autumn", I just don't have the patience.  The trailers for "Winter" looked enticing, as I love snow-set things, and Naomi Harris is an actress I really enjoy, but my indifference on "Summer" has basically made me apathetic towards watching the remainder.  Plus I've seen Midsommer now and I think that's got to be the apex of this whole small town cult festival genre.

Will I return to it?: 50/50,  Maybe when I'm bored and have three hours to kill and little else to watch and I'm just in the mood for this kind of cultish bs.

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The Show/Season: The Boys Season 2 (amazonprime)

The Draw: Uh, I watched season 1 and my completist nerdhead needed me to watch Season 2.

Episodes Watched: 1.5/8

Why I no finish?: I got about as far into The Boys as a TV show as I did with The Boys as a comic.  Its extreme sensibilities and general distaste for not just superheroes but humanity in general make for a particularly unpleasant viewing.  As well, there's no character I particularly like in the show, thus little for me to connect to and entice me to keep watching.

Will I return to it?: Unlikely

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The Show/Season: Moon Base 8 Season 1 (Showtime/Crave)

The Draw:A comedy starring John C. Reilly, Fred Armisen and Tim Heidecker, as astronauts training in a facility in the desert as a simulation for life on another planet.  I like these performers and expected some weird comedy.

Episodes Watched: 4/6

Why I no finish?:  While amusing, it just wasn't funny enough.  It was almost a light drama in the way it wanted us to relate to the characters, and yet  I didn't really find much about the characters to care about.  It's just a show whose parts weren't clicking.

Will I return to it?: No

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The Show/Season: Take My Wife Season 1 (CBC Gem)

The Draw: Cameron Esposito and River Butcher, real-life stand-up comedians who hosted a stand-up comedy show together and got married to each other got the opportunity to fictionalize themselves into a TV show (well actually a short-lived streaming service).  I was a big fan of Cameron and River's various podcasts years back and like both of them as comedians.  I wanted to see the show when it was originally released but couldn't (because that streaming service was not available in Canada).

Episodes Watched: 2/6

Why I no finish?: In the years between the show airing and finally being made available to watch on CBC, River and Cameron got divorced, and they ended their stand-up night (which was also a podcast) and it was all really upsetting and sad.  I feel like I've lost touch with both of them since the divorce. (I used to listen to them in my earholes at least once a week for many years, and I've only heard them a couple times in the past two or three).  Watching this show, while I like it, is both fascinating and too painful knowing how their relationship ends up.

Will I return to it?: I honestly don't know.  I adore Cam and River but I don't know if watching this is too painful.

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The Show/Season: Primal Season 1.5 (Cartoon Network)

The Draw: I love Samurai Jack, and Genndy Tartakovsky's storytelling style.  I even really liked the first five episodes of Primal.

Episodes Watched: 0/5

Why I no finish?: I don't just want to like Primal, I want to love Primal.  But I don't. The animation is fabulous, but I'm not connecting with it, because I don't think there's any specific arc or objective that Tartakovsky is pursuing with it.  It's just the adventures of a prehistoric man and his uneasy alliance with a velociraptor and their violent misadventures.  If this were 30 years ago, I would be embracing this show tightly with both arms, and maybe even a leg or two.  I would just devour it on repeat.  I don't have that kind of time or patience anymore, and watching it now just reminds me that I don't have time or patience to really savour media like I used to.

Will I return to it?: Absolutely, just not sure when...and certainly not as frequently as I would like to.

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The Show/Season: That Damn Michael Che Season 1 (HBO)

The Draw: I really enjoy Che's don't-give-a-shit attitude on SNL's Weekend Update, and I like sketch comedy.

Episodes Watched: 1/6

Why I no finish?: To be honest, I keep forgetting about it.  I didn't know it was a show until randomly coming across it shortly after its release.  I found the first episode disarming and hilarious (it's central focus was around police), but I put it on the backburner as I already had the second seasons of A Black Lady Sketch Show and I Think You Should Leave on tap in my sketch com roster.  Che's a guy who doesn't let anything get in the way of a joke, which gets him into trouble, regularly (at least on Twitter). 

Will I return to it?: Yeah, I'll need to seed it back in.  We frequently put on an episode of sketch comedy when we don't have time for another hourlong episode of something before bed.

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The Show/Season: Girls5eva Season 1 (W Network)

The Draw: A new show from producers Tina Fey and Robert Carlock about a semi-famous 90's girl group reuniting to capitalize on the modern nostalgia wave, despite being quite different people 20 years later.  I was expecting rapid clip jokes and quick aside/flashback edits, and it delivered.

Episodes Watched: 1/8

Why I no finish?: It was delivering on the comedy I was expecting and yet, that's also the problem, in that I found it to be exactly what I expected.  I really like the cast (Busy Philips, Paula Pell, Renee Elise Goldsberry and Sara Bareilles are a great team) but like Moon Base 8 and Love Life, I wasn't connecting with the characters.  If anything I think the usual Fey/Carlock comedy formulae may be too much jokiness, interfering with the ability to actually empathize with the characters. 

Will I return to it?:  Yeah, probably.  I think a binge watch (it's only 8 episodes) and then if it's as funny as these shows can be, I'll probably need to rewatch.

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The Show/Season: Shrill Season 3 (Crave)

The Draw: I really liked Season 1 and 2, and I'm totally in the bag for Aidy Bryant. 

Episodes Watched: 3/8

Why I no finish?: For all its progressive sensibilities and fascinating examinations of body, gender, sexuality and race issues, as well as a very minor flirting with romcom tropes, Shrill keeps stepping into cringe comedy which is an increasingly passe form of humour and one I am kind of over. 

Will I return to it?:  I want to finish it off, as this is the final season, but I need to psyche myself up to get there

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The Show/Season: Kevin Can F**k Himself Season 1 (AMC)

he sure can

The Draw: Annie Murphy's first production post-Schitt's Creek is an awesome premise, one that follows the long-suffering wife of the prototypical schlubby husband character in so many TV sitcoms. 

Episodes Watched: 2/8

Why I no finish?: Oh man, this show is so bleak despite its fascinating set-up.  It portrays scenes with Kevin in very much a typical single camera sitcom fashion, complete with laugh track, and you can see Murphy's Allison just utterly without agency.  The moment she steps away, the world turns widescreen and grey, the forced smile drops and the exhaustion and depression sets in.  Trapped.  Murphy is wonderful, but, wow, does the show ever feel the weight of it all.  Kevin is the fucking worst...I hate those types of sitcoms and they overexaggerate even that style here to really push how godawful the men are in those shows (as if to say point of those types of shows is just to emphasize the misogynistic idea that all wives are shrew and buzzkills).  

I was expecting kind of a sharp meta-comedy, not really a mix of horrendous sitcom and a horrifying suburban nightmare. 

Will I return to it?: Yes. Although I was initially taken aback, now that I know what it is, I just need to get myself ready for the rest of it.

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The Show/Season: Sweet Tooth Season 1 (Netflix)

The Draw:  I read the comics...

Episodes Watched: 3/8

Why I no finish?: I've read the comics... Gus, the poor little antlered boy in this very harsh post-apocalyptic society, gets thrown through the fucking wringer.  I don't even know really why I started watching it.  I was anxious from moment one of the first episode.  It's a beautifully shot (in New Zealand) and realized show with really good performances but these post-apocalyptic societies where the worst of humanity rises to the top are my least favourite stories (because they're probably true, the worst of us will do anything to gain, and keep, any semblance of power).  The fact that the show also revolves around a pandemic, and then debuting in the midst of a pandemic, makes it a bit too "now" to watch comfortably.

Will I return to it?: Not sure.

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The Show/Season: Birdgirl Season 1 (cartoon network)

The Draw:I loved Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law, and I love Paget Brewster as Birdgirl.

Episodes Watched: 3.5/6

Why I no finish?: Brewster is in fine form as Birdgirl, but the show thrusts itself into a setting and situation with characters I don't know and that we don't really get a lot of context for, and then slowly tries to figure it out all while going a mile-a-minute with gags and punchlines and asides.  It's a frenetic show but it moves a little too fast for my tired brain to keep up with it.  Like Primal, I want to invest more into it that I have.  Had this been a show that immediately followed up from Harvey Birdman's end, I would be in with both feet, no reservations, but there's been too much time in between, and the connective tissue is almost non-existent, so I just haven't quite gotten into it.

Will I return to it?: Probably but sporadically.

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The Show/Season: Wayne Season 1 (amazonprime)

The Draw:  I saw an ad for it on amazonprime one day and was curious, so I put it on.  The show is kind of punk, with an  unglamorous worldview.

Episodes Watched: 1/10

Why I no finish?: While I kind of liked it, it didn't seem to be a world of characters I wanted to spend 10 episodes with.  I've watched Sing Street since watching the first episode, and now have a better connection with the titular Wayne actor Mark McKenna, but that said there's an attitude to this show that bothers me.

Will I return to it?:  I don't think so.

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The Show/Season: Heels Season 1 (Starz)

The Draw: I came to really like Stephen Amell as a performer through 8 seasons of Arrow so I've been looking forward to him bringing his physicality into a role about a family of wrestlers.

Episodes Watched: 0/?

Why I no finish?: I really didn't start.  Now that the show is a reality and I can actually watch it (maybe, need to double check my service) I've kind of lost interest.  I used to like wresting but I don't think I'm invested enough in the sports entertainment to really want to watch a drama built around it.  GLOW was at least a comedy(-ish) with the good fortune of having an 80's aesthetic to work with.  Heels looks a little dour.

Will I return to it?: I think I'll actually give it a shot...but if I don't do it before the first season finishes then I probably never will.