In the quest for the most unruly feature on the blog...
I Saw This (double exclamation point) is our feature wherein Kent(me) or Toasty attempt to write about a bunch of stuff they watched some time ago and meant to write about but just never got around to doing so. But we can't not write cuz that would be bad, very bad. Rootin' Tootin' Stoopid Pootin bad.
What I Am/Have Been Watching is the admitted state of typically Toast, but in this case, Kent, spending too much time in front of the TV. But what else has the pandemic been about if not toobin? Sure, we got a few breaks from being confined at home, and might have actually gone outside (gasp!) and socialized with (double-gasp!) human beings (faint-dead-away) but we always ended up back on the sofa, flicker in hand, trying to find something to watch amidst the many streaming services pillaging our credit cards every month...and yeah, Kent still has cable.
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I'm going to try something different with this. Since these are all subsequent seasons of things I've already watched/reviewed, I'm going to reread (and link to) my review(s) of previous seasons and see what, if anything, different I have to say about them in comparison,
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What We Do in the Shadows season 3 - FX
It may have been COVID TV-viewing fatigue, but I wasn't super jazzed about watching Season 3 of WWDITS. It was also one of our first regular programs to return as a COVID production, and as a result there was a strange airiness to the show, avoiding crowds and keeping distance. Or perhaps it was just me being hyperaware that it was a show produced in the COVID years and airing in the COVID years and looking for anything that might signify it was shot in COVID times. F#$@ COVID.
I highly enjoyed every episode, and loved Kristin Schaal (of Flight of the Conchords and Last Man on Earth) as a regular guest star (she should just be added as a series regular, she felt underused). Nandor had a pretty big storyline this season, impacting everything, and though it was wildly inconsistent and a little confusing (as he seemed to be in love one episode then with a long term love interest in the next) it led to a pretty severe shake-up by the season's end. Likewise the "Colin Robinson is dying" story was outstanding and ended with a delightfully horrifying reveal in the finale. I worry about Nadja and Laslo, as they were separated for much of the season which felt atypical for the couple, but, again, plays into where things wind up at the season's end. As comedy it's consistently hilarious, as a story, it's hilariously inconsistent. I don't recall as many meme-able bits but maybe I just need to give it a rewatch. My brain is notoriously bad at retaining clever lines.
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Saved by the Bell Season 2 - W
review: Season 1
SbtB was one of my favourite shows last year, a real respite when it turned up 9 months into the Pause. It was no less welcome or enjoyable in its second season. Okay, maybe just a smidge less enjoyable. Where the first season backgrounded its references to the original series, the second season brought jokes and references of OG SbtB right to the forefront. Members of the original cast were brought to the fore in many of the episodes rather than being more background support. But, the comedy here is still pretty damn good. The show's deft ability to tackle race, class, gender and sexuality without ever becoming "a very special episode" and maintaining its jokes-per-second funny is such a gift, and it never leaves behind what the spirit of the old SbtB was (this season's big runner was about Bayside High competing against their chief rivals Valley in a semester-long spirit competition). The show is so vibrant in its colour tone (wardrobes and sets are so crisp), and it uses its sunny California locale to bring such an overwhelming sense of warmth.
There are shows that shouldn't have long seasons for fear of burning through story and character ideas, and then there are shows like Saved By The Bell, which, operating on the 30 Rock sitcom model, should just be cranking out 25 episode seasons for maximum comedy dosage. Point being, 10 episodes just doesn't seem like enough each year.
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Letterkenny Season 10 - Crave
Speaking of not enough episodes, Letterkenny has shown up, in full, on Christmas day the past two years, which means that the wife and I binge the latest 6-episode season on Christmas evening, and then have to patiently wait another full year for more. Prior to season 9, it seemed that Letterkenny would release its seasons about twice a year, with a holiday special inbetween. So there would be about 13 new episodes a year. That was much more satisfying.
It's like when I deign to make arepas for dinner. It's pretty exciting, because arepas are yummy, but it takes a lot of time to prepare and grill the arepas and their fillings, and once I finally get to sit down, apply the garlic aoli, I'm famished and devour the thing in seconds, barely tasting it. That's the new-season-of-Letterkenny experience for me now, so much anticipation and then just a gorging, barely tasting it as it goes down.
The only good thing is the long lead time gives us time to binge the entirety of the series yet again before each season drops. Well, really, the good thing is a new season of Letterkenny. And just when I start to think Letterkenny may be jumping the shark, that maybe it's losing a little steam (it seemed to be light on Squirrelly Dan this season), that it's close to repeating itself, it pulls out some brilliance. One episode in S10 deals with prostate checks and how squeamish guys get about the whole thing, only to have a couple female members of the cast dramatically demonstrate the regular invasiveness of their examinations. And having the skids square off against the hockey boys yielded ridiculous results, and also one mean dance sequence that is one of my favourite moments on the show.
As well, the show came back for an International Women's Day special in March (their first holiday special since season 7), which was a massive surprise and a raucous delight.
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Titans Season 3 - Netflix
The first two seasons of Titans seemed to be a show that was trying to find itself. The first season adjusted mid-flight from being a super-edgy superhero show to hewing somewhat closer to its comic book self. The second season tried to lean into its comic book history but it tried to do too much in a short period of time, creating uneven results. The third season was much tighter in terms of the story arc it wanted to tell, but it got lost in the Batman of it all. Part of that getting lost was intentional, as the team relocates to Gotham and deals heavily with Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon and Jason Todd's challenging relationship with their mentor, and the pretty unhealthy mindset that Bruce Wayne encouraged in them...basically he was a bad father figure and damaged them as much as anything prior to his "rescuing" them. The Riddler (Mad Men's resident dick Vincent Kartheiser), despite being imprisoned, manipulates his situation (somewhat impossibly but comic book-y enough) to be the big bad of the season, even as the same character was poised to be the big bad of the next major motion picture (which at one time would have been a huge deal).
What all this Gotham/Bats stuff does is push most of the other Titans to the background. Even when characters do get a spotlight, it's so outside of what the show is otherwise dealing with it doesn't all feel of a whole, properly integrated. The best episode of the season, just as with last season, is almost a complete detour from the main plot, as a handful of characters take a trip through the afterlife. Given the show's budget limitations, this all is sold by intonation, and it works pretty well. It is a compelling season, but I think the fan desire (or at least my desire) is still something much bigger in scale, more fantastical/supernatural/superheroic/cosmic-like.
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How To With John Wilson Season 2 - HBO
review: Season 1
How To... is sort of a Koyaanisqatsi-like series with a quasi-comedic narrative put upon it. A lot of random imagery used to help exemplify the thin narrative construct of, say, "How to appreciate wine" or "How to be spontaneous." There's an almost meditative quality to it, and it's just sheer chill watching, rather peaceful, a little absurd, and quite fascinating. The first season felt almost personal and intimate, and ended with the pandemic just taking form. This season starts with the pandemic in full swing, but also weaving in and out of the premature moments of "returning to normal" as it intermixes much of Wilson's historical footage. But the second season feels a little less intimate, a little less personal, a little less singular. Wilson's stamp is still all over this, but it does feel like there's a bit more of a machine at work behind the scenes, and it seems more of a production than a labor of love (or at least the end result of some form of compulsion). Still a compelling delight regardless.
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Search Party Season 5 - HBO
review: Seasons 1-4
Those first four seasons of Search Party were a challenging binge, the darkest of dark comedy. The characters seemed to be circling the drain, and pulling everyone around them, the viewer included, down with them. It was frequently inspired, often hilarious, but also bracing and confrontational. Season 5, like each season before it, upended any expectations about what it should be and where it could possibly go as it leaned hard into farce for its final season. Not wanting to depart with a sour taste, but also not being untrue to how the show has operated for four seasons, it leaned into this season's ridiculous premise that Dori, having gained fame as a murderer/kidnapping victim, started a cult, but a cult tied heavily into modern technology and social media.
Half a year later, we've been deluged with these stories of start-ups that exploded then imploded with oddball figures at the helm promising the world but only seemingly delivering the world to themselves. Search Party's showrunners were clearly picking up on these stories (which were either long form articles or podcasts) and their place in the zeitgeist, and incorporating it perfectly into their series. And having seen glimpses of Inventing Anna or WeCrashed or The Dropout I think Dori as a character perfectly fits alongside with those shitheels. And there's also Goldblum.
The series ends big, and bold, but with muted millennial intensity, undercutting severity with selfishness, and the gang faces their consequences with a shrug given the chaotic nature of what happens, numb to the problems of the world. I expected nothing less. Pretty fun.
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A.P. Bio Season 4 - Showcase
reviews: Season 2
What I started to notice in Season 3 (but didn't see fit to write about) was that A.P. Bio was verrrry slowly moving through the AP Bio class' final school year. Each seasons was maybe 2 months of class time with season 3 having a winter break towards the end of the season. I think the plan was for maybe 5 or 6 seasons to round out the full school year. I thought the show was great, but once I picked up on this, I delighted in it even more.
There's not a tight continuity to A.P. Bio but it does build up its characters and picks up and drops threads as needed. It never really needs to carry any threads and it's often very subtle in how it advances things. It's yet another show (in a good way) that has a sprawling cast of characters in its world, it's main cast of teachers and students and it's peripheral cast of other teachers and school support staff who crop up on occasion. I love these types of shows that have this whole world around them and see fit to bring back smaller roles over and over again for maybe one scene every other episode.
Seasons 1 & 2 aired on NBC, seasons 3 & 4 were scuttled over to NBC's streaming service Peacock, where the show started experimenting with its storytelling format, which gave me feelings of Community if not quite as adventurous or savvy. I appreaciated its playing with structure and sitcom formulae and happy that it got the four seasons it did, but I wish it could have one more just to wrap all the little dangling threads, and to see the kids graduate. 4 seasons and a movie?
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Resident Alien Season 2 - CTV SciFi
review: none
I'm not sure why I didn't write about Resident Alien Season 1 (Toasty did a little) but, as my comment to that Toastypost said, I lurrrved it.
Watching season 2, I have to clarify that statement. What I lurrrve is Alan Tudyk's performance primarily. We've had aliens in TV sitcoms many times in the past Mork from Ork, the Solomons from 3rd Rock From The Sun, Balky Bartokamus, Borat (whether we're talking about aliens from outer space or aliens from often fictional European countries, the effect is quite the same), and the gist of comedy is always about how unfamiliar they are of the societal norms, and how the character twists what little they do understand of them. Typically this comedy stems from the character's ignorance, whereas with Resident Alien and Tudyk's Harry Van der Spiegel, largely comes from a place of not giving a shit and feeling eminently superior in spite of his ignorance.
It's so entertaining that it's almost to the point that no story arc, no character journeys really matter, I'm mostly just watching for the sheer joy of Tudyk's amazingly weird physical performance and belly-laugh inducing line readings. The thing is, the whole cast of characters are pretty good, and quite likeable, except maybe the town mayor and his wife, whose domestic relationship storylines tend to feel like time filler (at least until they blow up in the final episode of season 2). They're really only necessary because their 10-year-old son, Max, is the only one who can see through Harry's disguise and is Harry's chief adversary in a ludicrously juvenile rivalry. Season 2 starts feeling like spinning wheels, but by the second half of its 8-episodes, it starts to pull together a number of exciting threads before it abruptly ends on a cliffhanger. The comic book the series originates from is much more tranquil and not a comedy, and actually more of a small-town mystery series. The first season flirted with mystery, and the second season starts to toy with Harry as amateur gumshoe again (nods to Lenny Briscoe)
The show's seamless integration of Native American culture is not just token asides, but actually an integral part of the show, an important part of Asta as our second lead, and just as important to Harry's developing attachment to Earth. It's through his exposure to the Ute traditions that he starts exploring what it means to be human (even though he initially detested the idea of being even remotely human). It's a largely silly show (Tudyk's buddy Nathan Fillion is a recurring guest star this season, voicing an octopus) and its story pacing is quite uneven, but each episode is a breezy, entertaining journey that's really hard to dislike. I don't know that there's a lot more mileage left in its tank, but I hope a third season can bring its story a satisfying sense of closure.
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Star Trek: Picard Season 2 - CTV SciFi
review: Season 1
Yeesh. You did it to me again, Picard, you sucked me in, and then you just sucked. You start off so strong and then just flail and strike at some of the most absurd story beats, leaning into some of the least enticing elements of the story you're presenting.
It doesn't help that between the first and second season Patrick Stewart seems to have aged 10 years and now looks every bit the 81-year-old man he is. His face sags so deeply that it's often hard to read his emoting. He's got that bit of tremble to his hands and jaw that no longer scream commanding officer, but instead shout of frailty. There's a shakiness to his voice that only goes away when he's being angry and forceful, and there's not a lot of call for that. I love Patrick Stewart and almost every moment he's on screen in this second season I fear for his safety... like at any turn he's going to snap his femur or fall over and smack his head on the table.
They develop a love interest for Picard in Orla Brady's Laris, who at 61 is 20 years Stewart's junior, but is so stunningly drop-dead gorgeous that it feels like there's a 40-year span between them. Love is love, and it only kinda works because she's supposed to be a Romulan and their romantic customs are vastly different than Earth ones. You'd break him in half Laris.
The show brings back the Borg, and Q, and Guinan (all of which I was good with) in a story that at first seems scintillating, but then winds up in quasi-time travel/altered reality bullshit that feels lazy and cheap, or maybe cheap and lazy. Reality has been drastically changed, and yet the cast remains largely the same, which just serves to remind me that I'm watching another season of a TV show, and not a new mini-series starring Picard.
I binged the first 5 episodes when I didn't think I would watch it at all. I was looking for something to fall asleep to. But that opening episode was so full of promise that I watched and watched until I was all caught up, only to feel less than enthused when episode 6 dropped later in the week. That episode, with its cheesy, tedious 60's Star Trekkiness has put me off watching the rest in the same way the first season finale put me off wanting to watch a second season. I'll probably finish it, but I'm not super pumped about it.
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It's been 3 years so I had to give Season 1 a rewatch before I headed into the much-anticipated Season 2. It's of course been on the list for a "T&K Go Loopty Loo" (coming soon once Toasty gives it a rewatch) even though Toasty and I both written lengthy reviews about it. What can I say though is I thought that first season might perhaps be the best time loop story we've ever gotten, and rewatching it sort of confirmed that fact. It's amazing.
I had thought incorrectly that Season 1 ended on a cliffhanger, but rather I just misunderstood it. There's closure in season 1 to that arc, so after the rewatch I really wasn't certain what season 2 would be. I didn't watch any trailers, I wanted to be surprised. (Toasty nearly spoiled it in a text message but, in a fit of good timing, I only read it shortly after watching the first episode).
I was surprised. I was kind of expecting another time loop, not Quantum Leap-y time travel, and not a magic train that whisks Nadia on her 40th birthday back in time into the bodies of her mother in NYC in 1982 and grandmother in Budapest 1942. The journey for Nadia (and Alan who has his own little side-journey into his grandmother's body in East Berlin circa 1962) is about recognising that having regrets or wishes that the past was different would mean you are not the person you are today, for good or ill, and you have to contend with that. There's truly no way to change it, so acceptance is really the only path forward.
If anything disappoints me about this second season it's that it short shrifts Alan's story, quite dramatically, to the point that it almost has no real weight on the overall season. Nadia's story is so dominant this season in a way that doesn't integrate much at all with Alan's, unlike the first season where the twos journey was interwoven.
I muse in that forthcoming Loopty Loo that the only thing that could tear down Russian Doll's status as the GOAT of time loops is weaker subsequent seasons. But since the show is not embarking on further time loops, even a weaker second season (and it is weaker) doesn't sway my feelings of the first. Where the first season was both so darkly comic and delightful, but also contemplative and exploratory, this second season feels a little flat on all fronts... Natasha Lyonne is still surly yet charming and she carries the emotional weight required, but there's not the comedic highs, and the surprises are much more muted. I thought the finale was clever, beautiful and strong, but it didn't leave the same sense of demanding "what's next" that the first season did. I'm still curious what's cooking for the third and final season.
