I Saw This (double exclamation point) is our feature wherein Kent(!) 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. Freedumb Convoy bad.
What I Have Been (or Am) Watching is the admitted state of me spending too much time in front of the TV. But what else was the last few years about? 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 35 shows we downloaded, and the 5 or so streaming services we are subscribed to.
Part A is here. Part B is here. Part C is here. Part D is over there.
And yet, I still regularly go looking for something new to watch. I just need something to enthrall me, something to entertain me long enough to not pick up my phone 10,000 times, something that doesn't have me nodding off after one 9pm stout.
Only Murders in the Building, 2021, Hulu/download
I actually loved this show, and it fit much closer to what I wish to watch, when using my time... well. You see, we have our "shows of the season", those shows we actively look to download or catch week to week on a streaming service. Most keep my attention, or we wouldn't make the effort, but few enthrall me. This did. Maybe not in the obsessive way the main characters obsessed over true crime podcasts, but at least I put my phone down.
Brazzos Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin, The Jerk; and not Thomas Haden Church), Oliver Putnam and Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez, The Dead Don't Die; ohhhh those NAMES !) live in the Arconia, a high-end, Upper West Side Manhattan (it always seems necessary to identify the section of NYC, to impart... socioeconomic placement) apartment building. Savage had a run on a popular copy show (Brazzos), Putnam had some mild success on Broadway and Mora is basically squatting in her rich aunt's apartment claiming to be renovating it. They don't know each other and very likely would not like each other, but for the murder of a fellow tenant and their shared fondness for true crime podcasts. None of them are really doing much, but Oliver needs a new success, or he will lose everything, so he drags the other two into doing their own podcast in order to sleuth out who killed Tim Kono.
The production values! The sets! The costuming! That coat! The jacket! Yes, the outfits Mabel wears, the ensembles of vintage choices, make her as iconic as LoFi Girl, but really all three dress definitively and live in incredibly distinctive locations. It may be shallow, but to me it tells of commitment to the production when they spend more than a bit on the set dressing.
The first episode was great, but the second felt a bit off kilter, prompting me to wonder if this was going to be the kind of series where different writers/directors would append their own views to the characters as well as the plots, something I always find jarring. I cannot remember the exact point, but something felt off about Martin's Savage character in the second episode. But I was happy it pulled back for the rest, and despite some rather creative choices made to subsequent episodes, it still all felt cohesive as a single series. And a great one!
Wolf Like Me, 2022, Amazon
I had no interest in this series. The trailer did a great job of showing us a series that was probably about a metaphor, a woman with something dark and weird in her life, one that makes her spontaneously run away from the potential love interest. I expected it would be quirky but ultimately just another *yawn* metaphor for how hard life is. But Marmy started watching, so I stayed in the room.
Bing! It wasn't a metaphor. Of course she has to run away, and usually once a month, because she's a werewolf. I love werewolfs! Werewolves? Meh, werewolfs. So, yeah I love me some wolfie story, and despite my usual aversion to Josh Gad, I rather enjoyed this series. In fact, we pretty much binged it over three nights.
Gary (Josh Gad, Frozen) is an American living in Australia, the home of his late wife. He's not dealing well with her death, despite it being seven years prior, and is struggling to raise his daughter. They bump into Mary (Isla Fisher, Arrested Development), and keep bumping into her. Mary is weird, and despite her connecting with Gary's daughter quite easily, she pulls away, or more accurately... runs away.
You see, as a werewolf, she has to run home once a month, close up her house bunker style, lock herself in the basement and ... change. She doesn't want to kill anyone (else) so lives off chickens, goats, etc. whatever she can get from suppliers, usually animals that didn't have long to live to begin with. When Mary was initially infected/cursed, she ate her husband and another nice couple on holidays. So she is rather hesitant to connect with Gary and his daughter, despite feeling some sort of destiny inspired connection to the two.
Gad is tolerable doing more drama than comedy, conveying a man who has never recovered from his loss, but is open to something new. Fisher's role is typical for her, kind of quirky, introspective and cute. It was a short "mini series" but just perfect considering what it wanted to present, and ends on a reveal that could lead somewhere, but doesn't have to.
The Book of Boba Fett, 2022, Disney+
Boba is definitely different, despite the loads of fan service from other sources, as it takes the fan fav character, digs him out of the gut of the Sarlacc, and has him decide to become the new crime boss on Tattooine. Sure, weird flex, as the kids say, but as a trailer born plot point, it was kind of exciting. But for the point that he does such a terrible terrible job of going about it.
I loved watching each episode of this show, even as I watched him make terrible choices. It should have been a bad joke that he kept ending up back in the bakta tank. I think their intent was to say that is how legendary characters keep on coming back -- take tons of damage, one Cure Serious Wounds spell, and back to the action! But the fact he kept on getting battered & knocked around by just about every foe must have infuriated the fan who saw Boba as an epic warrior.
The two episodes of The Mandalorian were intentionally meant to be a catch up, but felt very very weird, even if you ignored Deep Fake Luke. I just felt that being so jarringly pulled out of the main plotline unnecessary, when they could have hinted at the changes, and left the full reveal to his next season.
But the fan service was incredible, even if you didn't know the characters from other sources, as they were just fun choices, especially Black Krrsantan.
Ken't take, and my original comment, as I wasn't expect to write about it at that time. We pretty much agree.
This guy puts perspective on Boba Fett in chronological order, and...well, I really would have liked to have seen the show presented this way...or maybe in a novel?
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/U9Xqa7ZPsy0
Good call on the wardrobes in Only Murders...they're so character defining, and not just the main cast, all the peripheral characters had thought behind their style and wardrobe. I should check out who the costume designer was on this...
I find myself thinking about Martin Short's character every time I see the hummus in my fridge or pass by the dips at the grocery store. His "I only eat dips" is one of the absolute best character quirks I've seen in a very long time.
There was a time, when we were living in Halifax and had only recently discovered pita & hummus or nachos & salsas, when either of those two would become a default evening meal choice.
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