(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 about it cuz that would be bad.. like Michael Jackson's Bad bad)
The show/season: Dickinson Season 1 - Apple TV+
Why I No Finish: I generally don't have much interest in period dramas, but after watching Hawkeye I was both reminded and completely sold on what an enjoyable performer Hailee Steinfeld is. A fictionalization of Emily Dickinson's less-than-charmed charmed life. It's a show with very modern sensibilities (Emily would be considered a radical leftist in today's era, back then she would be radically lefting through every wall like the Kool-Aid Man) and does well at using its in-period setting to address current (and sadly ongoing) issues with race, gender, and sexuality. It has an often contemporary soundtrack and a pretty sharp sense of humour and style, as well as roping in a lot of great comedic performers like John Mulaney, Nick Kroll, Billy Eichner and more. The first four episodes were directed by David Gordon Green and the late Lynn Shelton. I like it, but just not enough to just crush it in binge sittings. It's the period setting that holds me back.
Will I return to it?: Maybe. Probably. I really like Steinfeld, and the whole cast is actually quite solid. It's a funny and challenging show that has an artsy streak.
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The show/season: Physical Season 1 - Apple TV+
Why I No Finish: Physical, from advertisements, appeared to be a cheeky 1980's set dramedy about a housewife making it huge at the dawn of the home video fitness craze...just spandex upon spandex upon spandex and those pulsating synth beats. That is what it is, but it's also a seriously uncomfortable dark comedy that finds Rose Byrne's bulemic housewife wrestling with her dislike for herself and for everyone else around her while her husband (a swingin' ex-hippie, just-fired professor Rory Scoville) makes a play at running for governor. It's one of those shows that all about bad choices and sitting in awkward spaces (though not really as comedy) and surviving. Byrne's performance is exceptional, and her caustic, self-flagellating voice-overs are genuinely upsetting. Just have more confidence in yourself, girl! There's help for you...somewhere, maybe, in the 1980s
Will I return to it?: I really want to, but I also don't...so, I dunno.
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Episodes watched: 8 of 13
Why I No Finish: *Sigh* I avoided The Americans in their first run because every show I watched on FX at the time featured a thousand ads for it, and I got very exhausted hearing Keri Russell's emotive "sigh" every damn commercial break. I called it "the Americansigh" and even had a little 80's rock song about it that would play in my head. Sitting down to watch it this year seemed an exercise in patience. It's a pretty slow-moving show. It's well acted, and the pieces as they move around the board, are pretty compelling to watch, but it's a show that doesn't want to advance plot so much as it wants to create drama. And that's sort of where I'm at odds with it.
Will I return to it?: Maybe. 13 episode seasons seem so long now, and there's 6 of them.
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Episodes watched: 3 of 8
Why I No Finish: If you go by the poster to the right, you would think this was about a giant cowboy who sits on mountains...but you'd be wrong... what a comically bad poster. Instead, Outer Range finds struggling Wyoming rancher Josh Brolin discovering a mysterious black hole on his land. The neighbouring ranching magnate is slowly dying, but his vulturous sons are wreaking havoc and trying to take Brolin's land out from under him. During a fraught encounter at a bar, the sons of both sides get into a fight. The dipshit son of the bad dude is killed and Brolin's boys cover it up. Brolin gets rid of the body in the hole...only for it to emerge days later and some distance away. Also, at some point, Brolin is pushed into the hole. There's something hinky going on with time.
Intriguing, but too invested in the local politics and not so interested in the sci-fi phenomenon that's occurring.
Will I return to it?: Probably, but I need to know if season 1 ends with a cliffhanger of a season 2 that's never going to come before I do.
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The show/season: Abbott Elementary Season 1 - Disney+
Why I No Finish: The show, at least in these early episodes, borrows heavily from The Office and, moreso, Parks and Rec in its use of the documentary-style sitcom format with confessional asides. Created by Quinta Brunson, it's choice of setting is a Philadelphia grade school with a predominantly Black population. The show tries to find humour in the many pains of being a teacher in the US, and more specifically in the how the school system fails its Black students, and to its credit, it does find some funny, but it's also very adept at highlighting the basically impoverished public school system in the United States and it hurts my heart to see it.
Will I return to it?: It's garnering repeated accolades from trusted sources, so I'll probably continue to pick off an ep here and there.
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The show/season: Little Demon season 1 - FXX
Why I No Finish: Back in the day a show would have a year or two to find its footing...now it's like, hit it out the part in episode one, or you're done. Little Demon find overbearing mom Laura (Aubrey Plaza) being way into everything going on with 13-year-old Chrissy (Lucy DeVito). But a little bullying and her first signs of her period trigger a whole other side of Chrissy that spells danger for everyone. Laura finally admits that Chrissy is the daughter of the devil (Danny DeVito) and that she's been hiding her from Satan her whole life. But Chrissy, missing a whole side of herself decides that she wants a relationship with her dad and lets chaos reign for a while. It's bloody and fast paced and a funny concept, with some solid bits in the first ep, but overall Lucy meeting her dad so quickly feels like it sucks the tension right out of the show (knowing that it is a comedy, and that dramatic tension or suspense isn't really what its after). It's a subversion but not one I'm sure works.
Will I return to it?: Not sure. It's only 4 episodes.
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The show/season: Killing It Season 1 - Showcase
Why I No Finish: This is the new show from Dan Goor, co-creator of The Office, Parks & Rec and Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2 out of 3 of my favourite American comedies) which he co-created with Craig Robinson. Robinson plays a man trying to live the American dream, pulling himself up by his bootstraps, with a great idea, and a need for funding to see it through, which being an underemployed Black male in Florida means he's got virtually no shot at getting it through traditional lending means. By a twist of fate he meets Aussie import Claudia O'Daugherty who is a Jackie of All Trades including Uber driver, mobile billboard toter, and snake killer. She tips him off to the fact that there's money in killing snakes in Florida, and that's the setup. It's not a super hilarious pilot, but it's very charming, and, moreover, very different feeling than most comedies. It also begins with a flash forward (or rather, maybe the whole show is a flashback) so we get that Craig is ultimately successful, but the story is the journey, not where it ends up. Ultimately, it's a show that's going to have a lot of snakes in it and the wife just can't handle snakes, so it's a backburner show for me to watch when the feeling strikes.
Will I return to it?: Yeah, definitely.
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The show/season: Loot Season 1 - Apple TV+
Episodes watched: 1 of 8
Why I No Finish: I literally just watched the first episode a couple days ago, so it's perhaps premature to put it on this list, except that I found the first ep, for all its comedic power (Maya Rudolph, Joel Kim Booster, Ron Funches, and Adam Scott starring, withAlan Yang [Parks & Rec, Forever, Master of None] behind the scenes) it just wasn't very funny. There's definitely comedy to be had in a woman winning billions in her divorce settlement and being completely out of touch with reality yet trying to find something real to make her post-marriage life make sense... but at least in the pilot, the show doesn't find it. Instead it comes off as...sad. Not a sad attempt at the show, just the character Rudolph plays just feels sad, and it doesn't feel good to laugh at her. I don't know if humanizing the rich is really the path we want to go on right now. If you want to watch something that kicks the rich in the dick, watch the films of Ruben Östlund (he says, knowing full well he still has to do so).
Will I return to it?: Probably not.
And now waiting for the Giant Cowboy Sits on Mountains movie....
ReplyDeleteFunny, just last night I was thinking about returning to Dickinson on my own time when I was reminded of its existence on AppleTV.
ReplyDeleteNope, no snakes. I do get the premise though, since Burmese pythons are an invasive species in the Florida Everglades.