ReWatch: The Core

2003, Jon Amiel (Entrapment) -- Netflix

Wait, this movie isn't on The Shelf ? Really? Are you sure?

For some reason I assumed I had already written about this one during a previous ReWatch. Even within my fondness for silly disaster movies, this one stands out as silly for the sake of silly. Something has stopped the core of our planet from spinning, so our magnetosphere is dissipating, which will eventually destroy all life on the planet. It starts with birds going wacky and ends with them sending a team of scientists to the centre of the Earth in a special ship to blow up nuclear bombs, to restart the "engine of the planet". I was mildly disappointed they didn't discover a land of dinosaurs at the centre of the planet.

Now, most disaster movies hinge on silliness, asking us to believe outrageous things for the sake of the plot. This one jumps the shark. For one, there is the presence of Unobtanium, a fictional composite / alloy that not only can protect someone from heat in the thousands of degrees, but it can also transfer that heat energy into electrical energy. The term has been around since the 50s, but this was the first use in a movie. The metal is used to coat the shell of the train-worm-ship (named Virgil) the team uses to reach the core of the planet. There are more, but I will get to them.

So, as alluded, something is going awry with the core of our planet. Once people start noticing things going weird, they, being the US Govt, respond by kidnapping schlubby college professor Josh Keyes (Aaron Eckhart, Battle: Los Angeles) and asking him if someone is using a weapon on the US. They, being proposed terrorists, aren't but it does have him do a bit more digging, and then in a fit of panic, confront a renowned celebrity scientist, Dr. Zimsky (Stanley Tucci, Big Night), about his findings who then gets Keyes in front of the POTUS. I have seen this movie at least half a dozen times and I still don't recall what field Zimsky is actually an expert in -- not that it matters to the plot; he's a celebrity scientist. He's the opposite of schlubby and therefore more credible. 

Anywayz, The magnetic field around the Earth, that protects us from harmful cosmic radiation, is dissipating. If we don't get the planet's core spinning soon, we will all die, which he demonstrates by putting an orange on the end of a fork and flambéing it with an aerosol can + a light = FIRE BALL ! 

That leads them to Zimsky's one time scientist buddy, Dr. "Brazz" Brazzelton (Delroy Lindo, Get Shorty), a sort of mad scientist working in the desert on weird shit, like the Unobtanium and Virgil. He will build the vehicle that will take them to the core where they can blow up some nukes to kick start it again. Why exactly did the core stop spinning? Oh nobody knows, but we do get a few conspiratorial scenes between Zimsky and the US General (Richard Jenkins, The Shape of Water) running the show. Add to the team a pair of space shuttle pilots, one who almost lost her job by landing a shuttle in those water run-off canals in LA, which was totally unfair cuz she landed after their navigation equipment failed, due to, you guessed it, the issue with the core and the magnetic field. And there is Serge (Tchéky Karyo, La Femme Nikita), the nuclear scientist, and best friend of Josh, who will help them set off the bombs properly. I mean, he will set timers, which totally requires a nuclear specialist. The final member is a hacker named Rat (DJ Qualls, The Man in the High Castle) who will hide them diverting the trillions of dollars required to build Virgil and train the team. He hacks, as all movie hackers do, via buzz words and hot pockets. He does not go into the train-worm-ship, but works in the control centre, with the General. I was never sure where the trillions were actually going, but again, doesn't matter.

Virgil is dropped into the Marianas Trench, and using some sort of sound-lazer ('z' is important) they will blast their way through the chocolate layers of the planet to the sugary centre. It basically is like flying, just more worm-like. Their guidance system shows a sub-par digital representation of .. stuff but also doesn't know what diamonds are, so they are black, and are very very big and best avoided. And empty space is static, which is scary, especially when they drop into the inside of a giant geode. They have to go outside to dislodge a piece of crystal, in soft style space suits that don't seem to be affected by pressure so I guess the Kevlar version of Unobtanium? That's where they lose their first crew members, astronaut Commander Bob Iverson (Bruce Greenwood, Exotica) and the other astronaut, Beck Childs (Hilary Swank, Million Dollar Baby) has to step up.

They eventually lose pretty much everyone. Serge is lost when the caboose of their train-worm-ship gets damaged and he jumps in to save the nuclear detonators. Josh loses it on Becks because he believes he could have saved Serge if an override was used. Based on how they drag the scene out, I think he could have as well. Serge is squashed in the quickly collapsing section of Virgil, which is then ejected. I wonder what else was supposed to be inside that section. Braz is lost when someone has to volunteer to disengage a safety switch, which is only accessible from outside which is really really hot, like melt his special space suits hot. Finally, Zimsky does not quite sacrifice himself but gets stuck in a section that has to be ejected so they can set off their nuclear payload in a timed succession. He dies narrating into his mini-recorder and smoking a cigarette. Classy. 

Though pretty much everyone is dead, and the nukes haven't been enough, they realize they have to use the nuclear engine that powers Virgil. But then how will they fly-worm-tunnel home? Remember the line about how Unobtanium can convert heat energy into electricity? Well, all it takes is attaching big cable wires from the hull to the system and buzz whir click, everything turns back on. But they still have to guide Virgil out of the area around the core and back to the surface, and since we remember how long it took them to get there it will... oh, don't bother... if they just ride the nuclear wave, it will push them faster towards some hereto unknown crevasse that leads to the ocean and bob's your uncle, saved!

Also, they have discovered that it was indeed a weapon that caused all this havoc, one devised by Zimsky and the General. Rat the Hacker uploads everything about this conspiracy to the Internet. And I guess the magnetosphere repairs itself like a living organism? 

Yah lots of silly, and yet, the movie still takes itself seriously, seriously enough that the emotional moments feel like real emotion. Zimsky is an ass, and Tucci plays him perfectly, terrible toupee and all. The deaths of likeable Braz and Serge are tragic. The "disaster" is rather minimal, with only the third act depiction of cosmic rays melting the Golden Gate Bridge -- the movie doesn't seek to overwhelm you with death -- as Serge says, they are not trying to save the entire world, just three people -- Serge's family. 

Everything Everywhere All at Once (MV1)

2022, Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert (Swiss Army Man) -- cinema

OK Toasty, what's up with seeing a rare movie in the cinema and then not even writing about the most exciting, most enthralling thing you have seen in ages? Sure, you can tent pole the requirement to rewatch it again, as it was available for OnDemand / Download even before you got home from the cinema, but ... you didn't rewatch, did you? And why are you using that as an excuse to not write about your most enjoyable movie experience in quite some time?

<hangs head>

Sorry.

I have always been a fan of the multiverse concept. The idea that there are an infinite number of universes existing at the same time, in an overlapping state, is supposedly an idea based in science, but really, that's when the level of postulating bleeds into science fiction. One concept of the multiverse is that every single choice every single person makes creates an "alternate timeline" or an entirely new universe wherein that was the choice. That means an awful lot of very similar universe, but with only VERY minor variations. It also ties the idea purely to sentient beings. The radically far end of the spectrum, in pop culture not scientific postulation that is, likes to have things massively different from universe to universe. Think the "mirror universe" from the Star Treks. I don't suggest Googling the actual science concepts, unless you want your brain to ache.

The fun in multiverses comes when you get to interact with another one. In one (I have many) of the "novels being written mostly in my head" something happens and a bunch of universes collide and combine, leaving our planet like a quilt of universes mashed together. In another, there is a prime world (ours) and then a universe for every single fiction we, as a people, have ever conceived, including individual fantasy. Most multiverse fictions have someone traversing from their own over to a single other universe. But, IMO, the real fun comes when you can visit A LOT of other universes.

Everything Everywhere All at Once postulates an entirely new idea, in that technology allows people of the "alpha" universe (oh the conceit, that there is always a prime universe, the "real" one, while all others are extensions or bad copies) to not travel to other universes, but draw upon the skills and personalities of their other-universe counter-parts. The body may stay in one universe, but the mind can draw upon another's knowledge, or take control. Alas, that technology use did not go well for the alpha's.

Gawddammit, still haven't rewatched it !!

Everything.

Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh, Star Trek: Discovery) and Waymond Wang (Ke Huy Quan, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) run a laundromat. Its a bit of a mess. Their life is more than a bit of a mess. While Evelyn seems intimately aware of all the workings of the place, her husband is rather flighty (leaves googley eyes on everything), she is swamped in an IRS audit going badly, her unforgiving father has recently arrived to live with them, and the tension with her daughter is hitting a high, as Joy (Stephanie Hsu, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel) brings home her GF to meet the family, just before a laundromat customer appreciation party (Chinese New Year? Party for her father?). Evelyn does not seem happy, her husband (despite his giddy reaction to everything) even less so, as he is trying to catch his wife's attention long enough to give her divorce papers.

And then the other Waymond reaches out to Evelyn.

P.S. ReWatch Complete! 

Quan does such a good job of switching gears from Waymond, the silly set upon husband, to Waymond the multiverse soldier. While in the elevator, he puts his glasses away, pulls out a small umbrella to hide them from the camera, and then proceeds to tell Evelyn quickly about what is going on, as well as installing their equipment: dual mid-2000s style hands-free earpieces. After a bit of disorienting configuration, DING they are on the 10th floor. "Wow, fast elevator, " this universe's Waymond says.

This whole opening act introduces us to the war going on between agents of the AlphaVerse (the first universe to discover the others, and learn how to connect) and the Jojo Siwa Jobu Tupaki. AlphaWaymond believes he has found a special warrior in Evelyn, someone who has made all the disappointing choices for her life, leading her to ... here, a tax audit. We solidify that introduction with the most fantastic fight sequence, between AlphaWaymond and some unfortunate security guards, after Evelyn misunderstands an instruction to fight back, and punches Deirdre (Jamie Lee Curtis, Freaky Friday) the auditor, in the nose. From there, in just trying to escape the IRS building, we learn all about the multiverse and what is going on. And the Bagel. Hail the Bagel. 

This opening also introduces us to the style of directing from The Dans, and the range of our actors. It constantly, quickly shifts from humorous, to uncomfortably emotional, to absolutely ludicrous. I honestly never thought Michelle Yeoh had this in her, as she has always been so fucking regal in my mind. But she pulls off the shifts from mundanity to silliness to action so well, I was marvelling all over again in the rewatch. And while I am less familiar with Quan's work, the switches between silly Waymond, complete with high pitched Shortround voice, to suave Hong Kong drama Waymond, so slick in his black suit, are fantastic. I am so glad he is back to acting. But isn't it a little on the nose that his next project is season 2 of Loki ?

Anywayz, things just progress, and get sillier, and more dramatic, and more tear-jerkingly moving. Soooo much goes on, but when thinking of how to recap it, I realized plot-wise it all happens within a very very condensed time period. So much of the movie takes place inside the IRS building that the are desperate to escape, occasionally shifting to another universe where they just left quietly after the audit meeting, and are in the party at the laundromat. But, by then, Evelyn is fully versed (pun intended) in verse jumping, and is now desperate to understand her power well enough to save her daughter. She is beginning to see that even in the universes where she made the best possible choices (basically becomes Michelle Yeoh), there are disappointments. And we visit more than a few nonsense universes, each that have their own just-right amount of sweetness and poignancy. And disturbing aspects -- hotdogs for fingers are fine, but squirting mustard and ketchup from finger tips?!?!?

Eventually, Evelyn finds her centre. Her place. Her real universe. Which also doesn't quite say everything, because Evelyn is now in all universes, everywhere, all at once. But she is accepting it and has a chance to be happy about it/them.

Kent's MV post.

10 for 10: what even is TV anymore?

 [10 for 10... that's 10 movies (or tv shows) which we give ourselves 10 minutes apiece to write about.  Part of our problem is we don't often have the spare hour or two to give to writing a big long review for every movie (or TV show) we watch.  How about a 10-minute non-review full of half-remembered scattershot thoughts? Surely that's doable? ] 

In this edition: a bunch of teevee

The Flight Attendant Season 1(HBO)

Saved by the Bell Season 1 (W)

His Dark Materials Season 2 (HBO)

Big Mouth Season 4 (Netflix)

The Queen's Gambit (Netflix)

Star Trek Discovery Season 3 (CTV SciFi)

Los Espookys Season 1 (HBO)

Lupin Season 1 (Netflix)

Keenan - Pilot (NBC)
Young Rock - Pilot (NBC)

...m'kay...

---

No doubt about it, 2020 was a completely fucked up year, pardon my French. Nothing was normal, everything felt off, and, you know, for some people it was really really bad (and for some it remains really, really bad, or has gotten even worse).  I feel very fortunate for where I am living, and working and able to frivolously talk about TV and movies on the internet to literally tens of people!  Such a gift!

Had you asked me on January 1, 2020 what one of my favourite shows of the year would be, I never thought a quasi-spy/mystery/psychodrama starring the Big Bang Theory's Kaley Cuoco would be near the top of the list.  But there it is.

I loathe the Big Bang Theory to the point that I feel offended whenever someone thinks I watch it just because I'm a geek.  I'm not going to get into it, this is not a Big Bang Theory review, but I dislike the show so much that pretty much everyone associated with it I just want to write off completely.

Yet I've had to begrudgingly admit that Cuoco's vocal performance as Harley Quinn in the (now HBO Max original) cartoon is fantastic, and that as producer of the series she's actually had somewhat of a guiding hand in how that show comes together, and the messaging it presents.

The Cuoco softening continued with The Flight Attendant, which the wife and I started watching on a whim because a commercial before whatever HBO show we were watching made it look like a really really fun series.

And it is.

It's super fun, but the commercial made it out to be more of a Peter Sellers-esque farce with Cuoco's titular flight attendant bumbling through being a suspect for a murder and doing everything wrong in trying to clear her name.  In reality it's much more dramatic than that, as Cuoco's character, suffering intense PTSD and anxiety is coming apart at the seams while still trying to do something proactive.  And Cuoco is fantastic in the role.  She treads a very fine line between realistic and over the top and always stays on the right side of it.  The show goes broad but she stays grounded.  I've clearly misjudged her (though I have not misjudged The Big Bang Theory).

The Flight Attendant is utterly consumable, an effective mystery thriller, while also being supremely charming with a very well rounded cast.  There are some stretches and missteps and moments that feel too large for the story, but they're forgiven by how easy it is to invest in the story, the characters and the character dynamics.  The twist that Cuoco's character works through her issues in her head with her murdered lover is the shows fantastical conceit, but it's wonderful and works so well to help get inside the character's fractured midset.

Just an absolute delight.  Unfortunately they're planning a second season which I think is a mistake.  This feels so right self-contained, and I worry that Killing Eve syndrome will happen, where the show's quality dips so dramatically without an actual plan or guide... but you never know.

[16:23]

---

Just as I never thought that a show starring Kaley Cuoco would be one of my favourite things of the year, I would have never guessed at the start of 2020 that the rumoured Saved By The Bell redux would be one of my favourite things of the year.  And both The Flight Attendant and Saved By The Bell were airing at the same time, so I had two unlikely appointment television shows going.  I was really questioning my sanity for a moment.

I didn't much like Saved By The Bell as a pre-teen, because it was the lead program responsible for cartoons disappearing from Saturday morning network TV.  You know, the stuff that made getting up Saturday morning worthwhile and so very exciting.  I caught the odd episode, but I generally tried to find something else to watch or go off and play on the Commodore 64 or read comics or something.

So there's no way I should have been looking forward to a reboot.  I had no nostalgia for the show, and really the thing I like most about SBTB is the Funny or Die series on youtube, "Zach Morris Is Trash", where they run through an episode of SBTB in 4 or 5 minutes with the thesis of how Zach Morris is the worst person on earth, and they're usually proven correct.

But the redux/sequel/reboot was a curiousity, that's basically it.  And the first commercial for it, it actually made me laugh multiple times.  It was to my own awe and dismay, when, halfway through watching the first episode I not only found myself laughing constantly, but also genuinely appreciating what the show was doing.

This new SBTB finds an "urban" school being shut down due to budgetary and safety concerns and some of it's lower income students finding their way to the very upscale world of Bayside High, where everything is clean, bright and surprisingly progressive.  You would expect the show to play off of differences in an antagonistic way, but the rich kids are welcoming of the new wave of multicultural students (it's more their rich parents who have the difficult time).

Though the child of Zach Morris and Kelly (Tiffani Amber Theissen) whatserface is in the show, they mercifully make him a side character, and he's delightful in a supporting role, a prankster and oblivious spoiled rich kid.  Instead the lead of the show is one of the transfer students, Daisy, who is the one who breaks the fourth wall and addresses the camera directly (remember in my last 10 for 10 talking about Enola Holmes and how people were upset with it using the "Fleabag device" of talking directly to screen, Zach Morris did it decades earlier).  Haskiri Velazquez as Daisy is very endearing and fun in the role, giving those glances and asides a lot of unique charm and character.  

The show examines the class and race divides and it has a character who is trans (Lexi, the most popular mean girl in the school), which seems like it would lead to a lot of "very special episodes" but instead the show expertly weaves a rather deft comedic narrative about topics that should be quite sensitive.  It purposefully defangs the tension and gets the point of acceptance across (if not always activism, although that's one of Daisy's big things).

The pilot was so good, I rewatched it when I made my wife watch it, who agreed that the show is a thousand times better than it has any right to be.  I neglected to even mention how it continues the Saved By The Bell continuity, carrying over cast and characters from the previous series and making deep cut references to episodes and events and tropes of the old show.  These things are there, and they're hilarious even if you don't get the reference, because it's evident that these absurd events they're referencing were things that happened once on the old show.  But it's not stuck in the past or reliving it, it's just joke fodder.  And seeing former cool guy A.C. Slater as now the kind of pathetic Coach is just fun in its own right, but Mario Lopez plays the character so tone perfect as to not make him sad (that's reserved for John Michael Higgins' ineffective principal).

It was when I saw the credits and Tracey Wigfield's name came up that it all became clear why this show worked so well.  Wigfield was a Tina Fey disciple, having a hand in 30 Rock and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and this adopts that production and comedy style... that rapid-fire, jokes-per-second pacing that's a kind of comedy gold.  But the young actors are so well cast and the midset is so perfect... I love this show, so unexpectedly, but it presents such an optimistic world, while acknowledging there's still bad stuff.  It's kind of the show we need right now.

More please.

[41:33] 

---

The first season of His Dark Materials was a bit of a slow burn, it took its time to get going, and even when it did it felt like it was still in complete set-up mode.  Season 2, covering the second book of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy moves at a much faster pace.  Lyra and Will meet, they hop between dimension, and there's kind of a more focused trajectory for them.  We know the dangers they're facing, we know what they're looking for, but the more important part is they have each other. It works well, the budding friendship and connection.  They both have destinies to achieve, and they're both kind of oblivious to the fact.  Lyra has greater designs than Will, but will is comfortable with the fact that he's the guy who needs to help ensure Lyra's destiny comes to fruition.  

In the background, there's the machinations of our evil beings over at the Magisterium, with some polite murder and a new patsy regime taking hold, if only so that Ruth Wilson's fantastically perplexing Marisa Coulter can do whatever she wants without any real oversight.  

The first season seemed bogged down with too many characters, but not enough sense of what to do with them all.  The second season feels so much more streamlined, so much tighter, much more consumable.

It also helps that it's playing with parallel realities, which is, next to time loops, my favourite sci-fi trope.  And perhaps that's ultimately what makes Season 2 resonate with me more than Season 1, it's more science-y than fantasy, and I do favour science fiction over fantasy, (but I'm usually pretty happy with a blend).

I was nervous that the show wasn't doing well and that it wasn't going to get to wrap up, but thankfully HBO is committed to the project and is closing it out with a third season.

[51:47]

---

Uh oh.

Big Mouth is back.  It's about to get uncomfortably hilarious.

We rewatched Season 1-3 during the lockdown and were quite ready for season 4 when it came.  This season promised both more of the same as well as something different...some growth for the characters, if not necessarily maturity.

The third season ended with Nick and Andrew's friendship dissolving and the fourth season picks up with them forced to bunk together at camp where Nick's summertime best friend, Seth, played by Seth Rogen winds up becoming fast buds with Andrew.  Meanwhile there's a trans girl who everyone used to know as someone else, and it's Jesse who is the first to accept it.  As usual among all this is the plethora of dick, fart, and poop jokes as well as the hormone monsters only serving to make bad situations worse.  The camp setting is only the first three episodes of the season, but the show easily could have extended it.  Hopefully there's more camp in subsequent seasons.

Big Mouth accelerates rapidly through storylines, pushing its dense cast of characters through dramatic paces at a stupefying rate.  Missy finds her own voice as a young Black woman (which culminates in Jenny Slate passing on the voice work to Ayo Edebiri, a proactive choice made by the show just as the cries for accurate vocal representation were starting).  Jay an Lola get into a very weird relationship which seems to sweetly work for those two disgusting kids. Matthew gets more involved with his boyfriend and so much more.

It's all a lot, and very outrageous, and frequently in questionable taste, but that's the show.  It's very progressive in some ways but still mired in little kid poop and fart humour, and 80's-influence raunch comedy. 

If there's one takeaway from season 4 though, it's that Nick as a character is becoming a real asshole, and that Andrew, who was already aware of his own asshole tendencies, is at least aware of it where Nick is not.  And that makes it harder viewing when the ostensible lead of the show becomes more and more unlikeable.  I hope that Nick finds some sense of self in the upcoming seasons.

[1:07:05]

---

I avoided The Queen's Gambit because it was one of "those shows", you know, the ones that becomes a thing, and everyone watches and says its the greatest thing and you must watch it.  I buck up against that kind of stuff, because therein lies mediocre shit like The Da Vinci Code right?

But COVID hit the industry hard, and new content suddenly became a trickle rather than a flood.  Sure I could have went and started, say, Orphan Black or something, but The Queen's Gambit was right there, staring me in the face.

And yeah, I have to admit, there's definitely something there.  A young girl, traumatized by the death of her mother, and orphaned, becomes addicted to the pills the orphanage used to help the kids sleep (oh, the 60's).  But Elizabeth also finds chess, and becomes fixated.  Not only does she have an aptitude for math, but even more a preternatural ability to read the chess board, to calculate possibilities.

Young Elizabeth is interesting, but it's when the show jumps forward to her being a teen in the second episode and Anya Taylor Joy takes up the role that the show becomes fire.  Joy takes the character from a naive newbie to a shrewd and calculating ingenue, and handles the varying paces required of her with aplomb.  She's clearly got an emotional disconnect from her reality but those moments where she breaks the facade, Joy plays so perfectly.  The relationship with her adoptive mother is one of convenience at first but becomes one of intense meaning, it's where Beth learns to be a strong, independent woman, to look out for herself and not compromise anything.

It's all framed in Beth's experiences in the world of competitive chess, where she is one of few women, and certainly the only woman of world-class caliber.  The show never really goes too deep into what probably was an actual misogyny minefield, and instead seems to have more fun with chess players as intellectuals who respect skill and smarts. It also enjoys how capable Beth is at cutting down most anyone she meets.

If the show flails, its in its final act, where Beth goes to a Russian invitational, a big deal for an American chess player.  The Russians are the gold standard and considered unbeatable.  The mini-series falls into a lot of happenstance and cliches, and improbable logistics to be emotionally manipulatate, to give the audience the feels in an unjust manner.  It taints the whole production for me.  I'm sure most people wouldn't even notice.  But other than that, it's a wonderfully sumptuous production, so well crafted visually, the wardrobe is out of this world, and Taylor Joy just a captivating presence.

[1:22:39]

---

Season 1 of Star Trek:Discovery was difficult for many because the visuals looked far too advanced when compared to what we see in the original series ("TOS"), and being a show that takes place roughly ten years before TOS creates a cognitive disconnect that was hard for many to resolve.  When at the end of the second season, the crew of the Discovery find themselves a thousand years in the future, it seems like, finally, the show is where it should have started.  It should be home now, exploring a far different reality than the 80 year timespan explored between TOS and Voyager.

I love how the season opened, with sole focus on Michael Burnham, as she finds herself separated from the crew in traveling to the future, and makes friends with a bounty hunter (?) named Book who shows her the ways of the further.  A friendship is forged and adventures are had.

The second episode shows what was happening on Discovery while Burnham was off on her own thing. And I was liking the idea of alternating between Burnham and Discovery for a few episodes as they had their own adventures on their way to finding each other.

Alas, at the end of the second episode of the season, they find each other.  Too soon.

From there Burnham becomes fixated on "The Burn", the event from 100 years prior wherein all the dilithium in the universe exploded all at once, crippling interspace travel.  Though people way out of time, and their technology seemingly archaic, it's the Discovery that is the only ship that can travel pretty much anywhere in the cosmos thanks to the spore drive, thus making them both invaluable asset to the fractured remnants of the federation, but also a dangerous weapon in the wrong hands.

There's some floundering in the midseason, and frankly too much Burnham focus for my liking.  The conecit of the show being centered around someone who wasn't Captain of a ship seemed like a good idea to start, but the crew has come together and the cast has gelled, it's time to become more of an ensemble and stop having not just the universe, but the damn timeline revolve around Michael Burnham.  I don't even dislike the character, but I dislike the gravitational pull the show puts on the character, the center of everything.

The last third of the season is nicely propulsive, if not always sensible.  It gets big and resolves a lot of the big issues they set up, but almost too cleanly, as it really could have spent a lot more time being more traditional Trek in navigating this future reality, but instead it ends with a triumphant new normal.  That said, it does poise the fourth season to be this future reality exploration in a traditional Trek sense... but we know this show buck up against that expectation time and again, so we'll see how it fares.

A mixed bag, but more better than worse...just frustrating
(SPOILER:
how!? How do they promote Burnham to captain after she goes rogue time and again and follows nothing but her own intuition even when it clashes with the established morals and guidelines of the federation.  It's maddening that they did that.  She should have been thanked for her efforts and cast out.)

[1:37:08]

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Some of the comedy and film review podcasts I listen to had in the past mentioned Los Espookys and the name stuck in my head.  I tried looking up the show, but it was just never something remotely accessible in Canada, until recently when it popped up on our Canadian HBO streaming.  I hopped right on, really not knowing anything about it.

What it is a delightfully silly, mostly Spanish language comedy about a group of 20-somethings who are obsessed with horror and operate a upstart business that does spooky things upon request.  It seems like a bad idea for a business, and it is, but it's a niche idea and the show takes us through their adventures with their niche clients.

I don't really know how to explain Los Espookys.  It's its own comedic reality, where everyone acts a little weird so people acting a little weird doesn't seem weird to anyone.  Movies like Nacho Libre or Kung Fu Hustle come to mind, where the reality that the characters inhabit is one which everyone accepts, but obviously are patently absurd to us. Like, there's this whole side thread about Andres, a fabulously droll and goth gay man who is the young heir to a chocolate empire.  He is dating and later engaged to a statuesque but vain and superficial heir to a cookie empire... and their relationship makes no sense, but that's kind of the point.  Or Tati, the most awesome, out there character of the show.  She's supremely positive and up for anything, but also utterly incompetent and oblivious to her incompetence.  She's always doing odd jobs, seriously odd jobs, like breaking in peoples shoes, or moving the second hand in the clocktower (it's now running 3 minutes slow as a result).  There's weird asides, like the local tabloid news broadcaster who seems to be brainwashed, or Uncle Tico in L.A. played by Fred Armisen whose gift in life is parking cars, and can only seem to relate to people on that level.

It's an utterly delightful and silly show, and I was very sad that it was only six episodes long.  At the same time, six episodes seemed to be the perfect amount to work through its various arcs while still readying itself for more to happen in a sequel season.  This is a show where I think less is more.  It feels like it's taking the path of British comedy, in that way, and smartly so.  It's a good plan to obsess over the comedic details watching on repeat than to drown in too much absurdity.  I'm ready to rewatch, any time.

[1:51:30]

---

Lupin is a famous French thief from novels.  It's been adapted many times and even inspired a famous anime series.  This is a modern take on it from Louis Leterrier, which is more about a character who is inspired by the Lupin books, rather than Lupin having been a real person in this reality. 

The show is very watchable, with Omar Sy being a very charming lead.  The story, over its six episodes, is kind of a mystery that unfurls, as Assan Diop pulls off a very daring heist at the Louvre, which seems like just a gig, but then reveals to have very personal layers for Assan.

Assan is a father and has an ex-wife whom he gets along well with.  It's clear there's love still there but Assan's profession keeps him distant.  But this very personal journey he's on brings up aspect of his past, his immigrant father framed for a crime he didn't commit, and Assan finally understands that there's actually a wrong to right.

But he must first understand who is to blame, and the many skills he's adopted over the decades as a master thief are put to work in solving that puzzle.

At six episodes, the first season ends on a cliffhanger which feels like a cheat.  So few serialized shows are six episodes anymore that it seems like it was an intentional ploy to get more money for less episodes and guarantee a reorder.  The show appears to be quite popular, so a second season is likely, and, well, I'm up for it.

[2:00:44]

---

Keenan Thompson has been on Saturday Night Live for a record smashing 19 years now.  It's hard to remember a time when he wasn't on the show, and yet his presence is always welcome.  He hasn't seemed to age at all and he's so comfortable in the live setting he's able to be a naturally funny presence in almost any role he's playing.  He's got recurring characters, sure, but his best roles are ones where he gets to mug or react to something.  He's a top notch supporting not-ready-for-primetime player, but now he's got his own show that, well, doesn't seem ready for primetime.

Keenan the show puts Keenan as a widower father who is also a morning show celebrity in Atlanta.  His morning show curiously isn't a sort of  parody of morning but rather tries to earnestly ape the morning show vibe in a scripted sitcom.  It doesn't work.  They should let the characters improvise here, give it a sense of flow, but as it is, it's just dull pap.

Outside of the morning show, Keenan has two daughters in sort of the pre-teen/early teen age range.  They're a good heart to the show and have that kind of "we know whats really going on" precociousness.  Also living with Keenan is is father-in-law, played bafflingly by Don Johnson.  I don't say that as a race thing but more of a ...Don Johnson? thing.   Also Keenan's brother lives with him, a rather shiftless Chris Redd, the only one to bring any laughs to the pilot.

Where this first episode of Kenan fails is two fold.  Firstly, it seems like a sitcom that has no audience or laugh track, the pacing is all off.  It may be COVID fallout, where the show was written as a live studio audience comedy, and so it just plays off flat as it waits for laughs never to come. The second reason is it doesn't let Kenan do what Kenan does best, which is react wildly to things.  I mean yeah, that could get tired very quickly, but it what I want to see and there is literally none of it in the pilot.

Maybe it's a work in progress, but this pilot is so dire, I don't know that it's going to get enough episodes to really work out its rhythms

[2:11:32]

---

Young Rock is a bizarre vanity project for Dwayne Johnson, where they mine stories from Johnsons life to present a show that takes place in many eras with many different people playing Johnson at different stages of his life.

We see Johnson as an 8-year old, living with his mother and idolizing his absentee father, the wrestler Rocky Johnson.  In the pilot we find young Dwayne given all sorts of promises by his dad, going to back rooms to meet wrestlers like Junk Yard Dog, Andre The Giant , and "uncle" Iron Sheik where they're just casually hanging out.  I loved this behind the scenes of classic wrestling, but also there's a really good emotional core as young Dwayne looks up to these glorious behemoths talking both life and the biz.

We then catch up with Dwayne in high school, where he was a bit of a shrewd shoplifter, and trying to elevate his status at a new school... with semi disastrous results.  There's some pretty good comedy bits here, including the shoplifting tag exploding, and the fact that all the other high school kids think he's a Narc ("dude, you're bigger than my dad").

There's a third arc as Dwayne starting his football career and trying to get off on the right foot with his new teammates goes awry.  It's all about the facade, the kayfabe, the fake reality you build to fool others into perceiving you how you want to be perceived.  

All these individual parts, honestly, are pretty good.

What's not so good is the bizarre framing sequences set in 2032 where real Dwayne Johnson, is running for president and is being interviewed by Randall Park, now the host of a popular news journal.  One of the hardest things to write well is this kind of talk show interview, and it's too easy to have characters say lines that fit the plot or whatever rather than talk like real people.  It's kind of off putting how bad these sequences are despite starring two extremely charming performers.

There's definite promise here though but a lot of bugs to work out.

[2:22:32]

10 for 10: telehell

[10 for 10... that's 10 consumables which we give ourselves 10 minutes apiece to write about.  Part of our problem is we don't often have the spare hour or two to give to writing a big long review for every movie or TV show we watch.  How about a 10-minute non-review full of half-remembered scattershot thoughts? Surely that's doable?   ]
 
In this edition:

Mindhunter Season 2 - Netflix
The Boys Season 1 - Amazon Prime
The Wire Season 1 - HBO/Crave
Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus- Netflix
Swamp Thing Season 1 - Showcase
A Black Lady Sketch Show Season 1 - HBO
rewatching Cougar Town - ABC Spark
Arrow Season 7 - Crave
Legends of Tomorrow Season 4 - Crave
Black Lightning Season 2 - Netflix

 aaaand....go go gadget blog

---

Mindhunter Season 2 was great.  But also problematic.  And weird.  Though touted as a "season" this really felt like the middle of a season.  If Mindhunter were an old school detective show on network television it would be cranking out 22-26 episodes a year, and this "season 2" would be the middle chunk of it.

And that's just what it feels like...a middle chunk.  It doesn't have a proper start, really, nor does it have anything close to approximating a conclusion.  That's the "weird" part.  It doesn't feel whole.  It's incredibly captivating watching, but I think it will perform much better if watched immediately following season 1 and immediately followed by season 3.

It took me a while to remember some of the dynamics of Season 1, some of the internal hardship at the FBI Holden and Bill faced at the FBI, some of the personality politics at play.  Season 2 finds a new director in play (the awesome Michael Serveris joining the cast), one much more supportive of the psychology division...almost too supportive if that's a thing.

Holden and Bill get involved in the Atlanta Child Murders and it's the center focus of the season.  It's not presented as such but organically becomes it...and it's this simmering on-again/off-again nature that's both scintillation and frustrating about the season.  It's too true to life, that Holden and Bill would keep jumping back and forth to Atlanta without real consistency and often without real support.  It's a gut punch examination of how the system fails its people, and a reminder that not much has gotten better today.

Bill meanwhile is dealing with some family issues, which turns his wife Nancy into that horrible trope of the nagging wife.  I think the show angles for a more sympathetic view of her, but it doesn't quite get there.  The most unfortunate part is with such a keen focus on Atlanta and Bill, Anna Torv's Wendy takes a bit of a side-seat.  She gets some personal drama and a bit of something to do, but she disappears for whole episodes and her storyline is tacked on with an abrupt conclusion in an equally abrupt episode 9.

[11:50]

---

I like the recreation of the classic cover image..."classic"? Really?  I guess

I wasn't too fond of the comic The Boys.  Created by writer Garth Ennis and illustrator Darick Robertson, The Boys allowed Ennis to get his cynical frustration with superheroes out onto the page.  It was his critique that superheroes steal the limelight of comics culture, that there's an egocentricity around them, and that they need to be spanked into submission by more hard-edged, down-to-earth characters.  It was edgy and biting for many, but for my liking, tedious and sour.

So I had planned to avoid The Boys adaptation on Amazon.  The distaste of the comics wasn't even close to fresh in my mouth but the bitter sense memory remained.  After a few podcast and a bit of positive reinforcement from Toast, I gave it a shot.

I was astonished at not just how much I liked it, but how feverishly I wanted to consume it.  The characters in Amazon's The Boys are complex in a way that's very intriguing.  The titular Boys led by Karl Urban all have their own baggage, some of it paints them in a bad light, and some shines a better light on them.  But even the supers, like The Deep, Queen Maeve, and A-Train, all have their own baggage too.  These are somewhat despicable people, but then we see that they maybe don't want to be.  The corrupting power of having powers is certainly what's at play. But also there's a searing commentary on capitalism and structures which seek to exploit and taint what's good for greed.  It's this look at how corporate superheroes and the structures put in place to control them (and their image) that's most fascinating. 

At 8 episodes, it's actually perfect length to be satisfying without being overwhelming.  Hopefully Season 2 is as thoughtful and measured.

[21:30]

---

more like "pay attention", this show moves quick

Hahaha, how many years have I been telling people that I've never seen The Wire and people saying "What do you mean you haven't seen The Wire yet?  Get on it!"

Well, this summer we finally got on it.

And, well, this is a show that looks every bit like it's from 2003.

Imagine if that's all I had to say about The Wire?

But no, it's great.  The first episode we found to be extremely overwhelming.  That pilot (if it was even a pilot) is so dense, navigating the structures of the police, the political hierarchy of the criminal justice system, and the street level drug operations.  I likened it to the nuts-and-bolts of it all as seen in The Sandbaggers (a classic British espionage series from the late 1970's that is a frame of reference to, like, a half dozen people in the world).

Subsequent episodes get less nuts-and-boltsy.  It's still pretty nitty gritty but it follows the path via the personalities involved.  The characters of the wire are what make it so great.  The way things shake down aren't just standard operating procedure, they shake down the way they do because of the way the people in the procedure operate.  And the show does a great job of distinguishing how they operate.  This isn't Law & Order, there's no formula at play.  The characters dictate how things go down.

This leads to a lot of unexpected situations, and a genuinely exciting series.  It is, however, kind of alarming seeing a very young Michael B. Jordan as a drug runner in the yard.  He's a significant player in this story (filled with almost a Game of Thrones density of cast) and a tremendous actor even as a young pup.  Also, Micheal K. Williams Omar is one of the best characters on TV ever, and Andre Royo's Bubbles is so loveable, the guy you root for the most. Sonja Sonns' Greggs is such a badass, and now I know what the hell a McNulty is.

[31:46]

---

you can tell there's a lot of yelling just
from the poster

It's kind of hard to believe that the last time we saw an original episode of Invader Zim was 2006.

I came into Invader Zim as a fan of its creator, Jhonen Vasquez.  He made some very darkly comedic and absurd comics called Johnny, The Homicidal Maniac and Squee, and was certainly excited to see what he would do for, effectively, children's television.  Invader Zim wasn't nearly as dark as Johnny  or Squee but then again, being a show for children (well, let's face it, it was made for college kids), Zim in some ways is so much darker.

But as much as I loved Zim and had friends who equally loved it, and we would shout Gir quotes at each other all the time (I still do!) I didn't watch Zim all that often.  I don't know Zim inside and out like, say, the early years of The Simpsons.  As such, I can pop in almost any episode of Zim and watch it with only a little familiarity (and in some cases, no recollection at all).  So in some ways, Zim always feels fresh to me.

An so, 13 years later, we have a new Zim movie.  The animation is a little more refined, and we're talking one big 70-minute episode (where most Zim stories were 11 minutes), and it all still works, and works damn well.  It's Zim but just EPIC-sized, and it's just as great as it ever was.  Vasquez hasn't missed a beat, and the voice cast is in prime yell-y form.  Those Gir lines are just as great as ever "I shot that pug into space."  Yes Gir, yes you did.

I don't want a full Zim revival, I have too much else to watch (and too much rewatching of original Zim to do].  But more of these movie-length specials, even once a year, would be so, so great.

[40:56]

---

the show looks good, but never this good

Cancelled before it even really got a chance to prove itself, deciding to invest in watching Swamp Thing was a definite decision on my part.  I mean, the details that first the show was cut from 13-episodes to 10 in mid-production, and then cancelled outright after the first episode aired on the fledgling DC Universe streaming app, how satisfying could this be.  It seemed like the executives certainly didn't have much faith in the show, so knowing that it could all end in huge disappointment, why should I even bother.

Truth was, I wasn't going to.  I heard that it wasn't really connecting with any other DC TV properties (like Titans or the Arrowverse), and Swamp Thing isn't really a character I connect with in the comics.  But then I heard there was more DC connectivity within the show... Madame Xanadu, the Phantom Stranger... Blue Devil!?!  My nerd brain was severely teased.

The opening episode introduces the world of Marais, a small town deep in the Louisiana bayou.  The local industry magnate, Avery Sutherland, who supports the town is trying some revitalization efforts to his slumping business.  This includes basically sticking steroids in the swamp in hope of finding (or creating) some sort of industrial, military or pharmaceutical byproduct.

Instead it creates a contagion which brings CDC agent Abby Arcane back to her home town and back to some serious drama.  She meets Alec Holland - a scientist brought in to help Sutherland in his discoveries, then fired for getting too close to uncovering Sutherland's dirty deeds - and the two have  a connection, a brief flirtation before Alec is killed for finally discovering the dirty secret.

Of course, Alec becomes Swamp Thing, and you would think that Alec's transformation would be the focal of the show, but no, it's really Abby's navigation of the world of Marais that takes center, and the unraveling of Avery Sutherland's dirty deed which is the over-arching narrative glue.  The whole Swamp Thing of Swamp Thing is kind of a side product.

So it's actually a testament to how finely crafted the show is that it's immensely engaging even when it's only dealing with the supernatural and metaphysical about 15% of the time.  It keeps the budget down, I know, and it is disappointing that Swamp Thing doesn't just morph up out of the ground or keep changing shape.  It's also kind of sad that the grand romance between Swamp Thing and Abby isn't really put in focus either (which was always the main centerpiece of the comics, their relationship).

The show wants to be a suspense-horror first and foremost and does a pretty decent job for what's effectively mainstream TV.  Lots of cool little effects, creepy and disgusting references to John Carpenter's The Thing.

I find all the night boating in the swamp to be excessively tedious, and a little absurd, but hey, maybe real bayou folk do so much night boating, I'm not in the know.

It has some real problems, repetitiveness and spinning wheels, mostly, but it's well made and gets fairly comfortable in its own skin fairly quickly.  Oh, and Madame X, Blue Devil and the Phantom Stranger are all very disappointing representations of their comic book counterparts, and yet, they work for the show (though Ian Ziering's Blue Devil's larger purpose is never truly fulfilled).

[57:50]

---

I've said before that reviewing sketch comedy is a difficult task, since the tendency is to want to review every sketch.  That would take forever, certainly longer than 10 minutes.

A Black Lady Sketch Show is named as such because it's never existed before, at least not in North America.  There haven't been many all-female sketch shows, nevermind one whose cast consists entirely of black women.  It's pioneering, and it would be easy for something pioneering to be lazy and pandering.  But this is HBO, it's got to be another level of quality.  And it is.

Robin Thede, Quinta Brunsun, Gabrielle Dennis and Ashley Nicole Black are the show's primary performers, but behind the scenes Issa Rae, Amber Ruffin and more have their hands in the pie.  And they also pull in some great names in black lady celebrity, like Angela Bassett, Jackée, Marla Gibbs, Lena Waithe, Gina Torres, Yvette Nicole Brown, Nicole Byer and one glorious sketch about a break-up featuring Patti LaBelle.

I love the show's opening credits, which feature the quartet as muppets, I watch it every time when I could easily fast forward.  There's a recurring interstitial sketch throughout each of the 6 episodes of the first season which find the quartet dealing with life after the apocalypse as the only survivors.  Mainly it's drinking and talking shit, but little aspects of the outside reality do seep in.   There's a great sketch in the church where people use the open mic for asking for prayers to hawk their wares, perform stand up and try to arrange a date for their lonely daughter.

The great thing about A Black Lady Sketch Show is obviously perspective, seeing things from a point of view that isn't very prominently represented in comedy or on television.  But that perspective is backed up by actually being funny, and with production values that heighten the entertainment.

It's not legendary comedy at this stage, but there are definitely a few classics in the offering.  The production by episode six seems to have gelled and the cast certainly has chemistry to keep this thing going.

[1:15:39]
(that took a long time because I had to look too much stuff up)

---

bad poster, good show

I don't know how I came to watch Cougar Town the first time around.  It's hard to remember a time when we weren't so inundated with content, and with new about content that we already had our viewing time planned out.   I'm assuming that when Cougar Town came out back in 2009 that I was looking for things to watch.  For many years I would investigate all the new offerings television had to offer in the fall, and pick out the ones which seemed intriguing.  In 2009, the big highlights were obviously Community and I would have to say Cougar Town as well.

While Community would be an immediate favourite, Cougar Town was something I stuck with.  It was just funny enough to start.  I wasn't a huge Friends fan so Courtney Cox wasn't the biggest draw, and Bill Lawrence's Scrubs was a series I enjoyed quite a bit...for a time... so I did think there was something possible here.

But the coneciet for Cougar Town was Cox, newly divorced, would be prowling around her small-town oceanside Florida community preying upon men 20 years younger than her.  By the half way point of the first season, it was obvious that the writers, performers, and creators weren't really feeling that.  The cast dynamic (Brian Van Holt, Busy Phillips, Christa Miller, Dan Byrd and Ian Gomez) was pretty phenomenal pretty immediately, so the show wisely started twisting more into that friendship.  By the end of the first season the show was starting to regret its title (and in subsequent seasons there would be some joke made over the opening title card at the title's expense).

The phrase "Cul-de-sac Crew" is coined in Season 2 and is basically the center of the show.  It's a group of goofballs who are more family than friends that love to sit around drinking and doing a lot of goofy shit for their own (and our) amusement.  As much as any show, Cougartown grew to be one of those things my wife and I would quote in our daily life.

So it was always disappointing that the show only ever emerged on DVD for Season 1, the weakest season.  But finding out that Showcase  ABC Spark(?) in Canada was airing 2 episodes daily, we set the PVR and have dived right back in, remembering things we had forgotten and discovering the origin of in-jokes that we hadn't remembered. 

We love this show.  It's comfort food.  We started our rewatch at episode 11, which is the halfway point of Season 1.  We weren't too sad to miss the floundering first dozen episodes.  By this entry point, the show is on its way to becoming its silly self.


[1:28:49]

---

It starts out very strong in jail, but once he's out, moof

Season 7 was a pretty wild ride for Oliver Queen, but for the most part made for pretty lousy viewing.  Arrow has been a wildly uneven show throughout its run and Season 7 typifies both the good and bad of the show.  It opens with Oliver Queen in jail, which made for some very entertaining stories.  But then he got out of jail, and he retired from being Green Arrow... again.  But then he had to come out of retirement because someone was impersonating him, and not doing the most stand-up job.  Then Team Arrow got deputized.  But that deputization was a tenuous relationship.  And then it turns out the new Green Arrow was Oliver's half sister he didn't know exist and she still has daddy issues and wanted to take it out on Oliver and his city.

There's so much cycling nonsense in Arrow, overpowered characters with silly motivations that are doing big damage to Olver and everything he loves.  Oliver has wrestled with fighting his family and friends so much that at this point it's exhausting to see him go through it again and again and again.  Especially when he's come to a resolution on an issue, like his no killing policy, only to wrestle with whether he should kill again, and again, and again.  So many dramatic moments are revisited that 7 seasons in its tired and lagging.  At least Oliver in prison had stakes, had some of that magic of revisiting his past and dealing his present sensibility.

Consistency of chracterization was never Arrow's strong suit, but it's at its worst in Season 7... just a thoroughly frustrating ride with moments of inspiration.  The "flash forward" this season takes place about 20 years in the future, and follows Oliver and Felicity's adult daughter Mia in a dystopian Star City.  It brings Roy Harper back into the fold and is generally filled with some fun ideas.  Its story is actually far more fulfilling than the rest of the season (even though it mainly takes up about 7 minutes of any given episode...if it appears at all).

The biggest problem with Arrow is its episode lenght.  Sustaining things for 20+ episodes a season is too big an order.  It survives not on story (which, as noted, can vary wildly) nor character (they do wrong by these characters just as often as they do right) but by sheer charisma of the performers.  Stephen Amell primarily went from being the weak link of season 1 to the show's MVP pretty much the rest of the series.  He's a very captivating, charming, likeable performer.

Season 8, with the Crisis on Infinite Earths looming, is only 10 episodes and I thing should be a much tighter, better executed, more entertaining story that is Oliver Queen's swan song ending with someting spectacularly epic.  I'm actually super excited for it, and hopefully will not be too let down (as I always want something more out of these Arrowverse shows and crossovers that I never seem to get, but Crisis seems determined to deliver)

[1:42:14]
(I should be done by now but ...superheroes)
---

this poster is sadly more exciting than the show

I'm not sure what to say about Legends of Tomorrow at this point.  Season 3 took a big turn for the weird and I embraced it for it.  It got very silly at times but it understood how to use that silliness to provide maximum entertainment.  I mean, the giant Beebo fight was one hell of a payoff.

But season 4 continues on a path I wasn't really thrilled about for the show.  What should have been a huge showcase for bringing live-action versions of DC's B- and C-list pantheon to the big screen has instead become about goofball magical creatures and can't-take-it-seriously demonic bullshit.

The draw of having Matt Ryan's John Constantine seems to be the impetus for the show's direction the past two season.  But where as last season had the cast having to adjust and deal with their new magical reality, this season they seem way too comfortable within it.  And it get's corny, very very corny.  Like, 90's syndicated TV corny.  With effects to match.

The show doesn't want to be a superhero show anymore.  Things that would be logical for a superhero with superpowers to do seem to never cross the characters' minds in this show, and it's utterly frustrating.

The cast now consists of over half original Arrowverse or Legends creations, like Ava, Gary, Nora Darhk, Mona, Charlie... who are these people infecting my "DC's Legends of Tomorrow" series?  There's fewer and fewer references to the DC universe and when they do they tend to botch it (this season's take on Neron was duuuulllll).

The time travel element has become a cheap and easy mechanism for the show and it doesn't really have logical purpose anymore.  And it's not that I don't sometimes enjoy the show (the cast is very, very fun) and characters like Gary and Ava are actually my favourites on the show, the whole thing just seems aimless, and not really what I'm looking for.  It does a lot for representation, which I love, but I wish it represented in a less chintzy package.  If not for the looming Crisis, I would be out for Season 5.

[1:54:33]
(...I like talking about superheroes...)
---

Thunder...the best superhero character on TV

Because I pretty much took the year off from reviewing in 2018, I don't have a write-up of Season 1 of Black Lightning.  It's a superhero show on the CW, but it's built outside of -- or at least to the side of -- the Arrowverse proper.  If we're talking multiverse theory, it's an alternate Earth in the Arrowverse and therefore unlikely to interact with or be interfered with by the events of Arrow or Flash or whatever.

That's probably for the best as Black Lightning builds its own reality in the city of Freeland.  If Metropolis is Chicago, and Gotham is New York, Freeland is Atlanta (where they shoot the show).  It's a city divided by race and having a black superhero has some real meaning.

Season One established the city, it established its struggles with violence, it established its politics, its police, its crime.  It established Black Lightning as a retired superhero who must come out of retirement, it established his family dynamic as Jefferson "Black Lightning" Pierce successfully reconnects with his estranged wife and his daughter.  It establishes his daughters discovering they have superpowers, with Anyssa becoming like her dad, a superhero, while Jennifer's powers are beyond her control.  It established Tobias Whale, a ruthless gangster with super strength who never ages who has been running the town for 30 years.  It establishes Jefferson's role in the community, as a leader and principal of a high school.  It established a lot, even more than all that.  But by the end of it, the show has turned so much of what it established on its head, and season 2 has to deal with that.

Season 2 deals with the ASA (some secretive government thing) that was responsible for giving Jefferson his lightning powers, and the discovery that there's more like him, some out on the loose in society, some still contained in pods after 30 years.  Tobias has a keen interest in obtaining these "pod kids" and using their powers for his profit, but as always Black Lightning is a thorn in his side.  Lynn Pierce starts working for the ASA to protect and help the pod kids, which is its own world of trouble.  Anyssa, starts moonlighting as another Robin Hood type hero, Black Bird, stealing from the mob and giving to those in need, while also dealing with the disappearance of her girlfriend, Grace.  Jennifer has an encounter with her childhood crush Kaleel who has since become the mob enforcer Painkiller, only for him to about face and the two go on the run, but not before Jennifer learns to control her powers...somewhat.  Gamby (Jefferson's foster father) fakes his death as he becomes the target of a mysterious organization.  Meanwhile Jefferson has lost his Principal job, and the new principle is...difficult.  Oh, and Markovians, a rogue nation with a lot of black book metahuman projects, is starting a war in freeland.

A lot happens this season, and it's actually pretty great.  The show structures itself in "books" with multiple chapters, so it makes binging a contained effort, with starting and stopping points.  It's generally well constructed and doesn't tread familiar ground too often, which is a real problem for these CW shows.

The acting is hit or miss, with the Pierce family, thankfully all being incredible with a fantastic dynamic that feels like real family, with them supporting and fighting with each other with knowing familiarity.  Some of the other cast though, like James Remar as Gamby or Marvin "Krondon" Jones III as Tobias Whale being a little iffy, if not sometimes really really bad in their roles.  Jones I can understand, as he's not a very experienced actor who has to hold most of the scenes he's in on his own, so it's a lot.  But Remar, man, has been around forever, and with Gamby it's never close to believable that he's a bad-ass superspy, nor someone who is intimately connected with the Pierce family.  The Pierce's sell it on their end at least.

Season 1 was good, but season 2 was exciting.  The show negotiates the drama of superheros and family and relationships exceptionally well.  It deals with the community of Freeland also very well, with the Church playing an important part of guaging the impact of crime and superheroes on the community.  If there is a weak spot in the story, it's in believing that Tobias Whale is a really good mobster.  He's to impetuous and prone to some stupid ideas that should have found him in jail a very long time ago.

By the end of the season the show has gotten deeper into its superhero mythology without taking its boots off the ground. It's introduced a lot of familiar concepts from the Outsiders comic book but in its own way, and it does so with a clear focus on representing the African-American experience in so many of its facets.

It's a very good show, close to being great.  It's still genre television, but it's smart and cool.  Looking forward to season 3, and to Cress Williams showing up in Crisis.

[2:19:37]

(...so much for 10 minutes per...but you got me talking about superhero shows,man...)

10 for 10: "Netflix and chili" edition

[10 for 10... that's 10 movies TV shows which we give ourselves 10 minutes apiece to write about.  Part of our problem is we don't often have the spare hour or two to give to writing a big long review for every movie or TV show we watch.  How about a 10-minute non-review full of half-remembered scattershot thoughts? Surely that's doable?   ]


In this edition, 10 teevee programmes watched on Netflix.

1.Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23 - season 1 & 2 (Netflix)
2.The Crown - season 1 (Netflix)
3.The White Rabbit Project - season 1, 3 episodes (Netflix)
4.The OA - pilot (Netflix)
5.Chewing Gum - season 1 (Netflix)
6.Dear White People - season 1 (Netflix)

7.Maron season 1 & 2 (Netflix)
8.Friends from College - season 1, 4 episodes (Netflix) 
9. Wet Hot American Summer: 10 Years Later (Netflix) 
10. Big Mouth -season 1 (Netflix)

aaaaand...go!

I remember seeing promos in 2012 for Don't Trust the B... and thinking "what the hell"?  From the mouthful of a title to the "James Van Der Beek as himself" it seemed like a show that was trying waaaay too hard to be part of the new wave of TV sitcoms that Arrested Development bore.  I gave it a hard pass.  Through the year and a half-ish that it was on television I saw people I knew who had good taste giving it a go and liking it, review sites giving it favourably passing grades, and I thought "how".  I mean, I have friends who watch Big Bang Theory and I know that's garbage, surely this goofy-titled poseur was just another hot pile in disguise, right?  I mean, I'm not a John Ritter fan at all, and I didn't think I'd be a fan of his kids either, nepotism and all.  But after coming to love Krysten Ritter in Jessica Jones and learning she's not, in fact, even related to John Ritter, I needed to get more of a Krysten fix.  I hesitantly pressed play on Don't Trust The B... on Netflix and had a quick laugh very early on, plus saw  Nahnatchka Khan's name as creator (also created Fresh Off the Boat) and I was hooked.  Ritter's morally spurious Chloe is both just as nasty as her reputation suggests and nowhere near as nasty, really.  She could have been fairly one note, but I love how Ritter takes her on journies without ever getting "soft" (her on again/off again Aussie boyfriend/soulmate/nemesis is a show highlight).  Van Der Beek adds some "Sad Hollywood" humour and the extended cast of Dreama Walker, Eric Andre, Ray Ford as Luther (JVDB's assistant), Liza Lapria (Chloe's ex roommate and stalker), and Michael Blaiklock as the perv in the window across from them are all ridiculously fun.  This show hits it instantly with only a couple duds early on, and leaves a lasting impression.  I want a rewatch.

[12:46 -- oops]

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Oh the Royal Family.  We shouldn't care, and yet, we do.  I don't know why.  There's something about Rulers and Monarchs that is so ... other.  Especially in modern times of democracies and governments, the idea of a monarchy and royalty seems solely symbolic.  Thankfully The Crown elucidates on that symbolism by taking us into Queen Elizabeth's early days as ruler, taking over after her father passes away and her uncle abdicates to be with an unlikable American socialite.  The show zeroes in on how the titular crown affects Elizabeth's relationships, with her husband Philip who expects to be king (and is sorely disappointed/emasculated), with Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Churchill's story takes on its own fascinating sub-plot of calculation and back-biting within his party to oust him), and with various members of her staff, not to mention the colonies she visits and her receptions, both the ones she's aware of and the ones her aides attempt to shield her from.  It's a phenomenal show, Claire Foy amazingly inhabits the role and expresses the weight of it tangibly.  Ex- Doctor Who Matt Smith puts in a great turn as Philip, his jealousy and pettiness combined equally with sympathy and love.  Surprisingly outstanding is John Lithgow in his Emmy winning turn as Churchill... it shouldn't be surprising that he's so go but he's above and beyond.  I was utterly engrossed at both the historical and fictional recounting of this time as well as with the care to show it in a reflective lens of modern concerns.  Just a beautiful production.

[23:01]
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I miss Mythbusters.  I've been an on-again-off-again viewer of it since its inception, but it was in its final season when my daughter and I started watching it together.  It's science and entertainment, rolled into one, and highly educational while also being ridiculously silly.  It'll be back in some form soon enough, unfortunately The White Rabbit Project, which stars the Mythbusters b-listers Grant Imahara, Kari Byron, and Tori Belleci, doesn't quite hit the mark.  The basic premise of the show is to focus on one topic, find 5 or 6 prominent examples of the topic, look at the science of those examples, conduct some experiments and then judge which of them is the best based on whatever criteria they establish on the show.  The main problem with this is they go through their experiments much too rapidly on the show.  With 5 or 6 examples to get through every story and experiment feels rushed and the exploration factor, the trial-and-error part that Mythbusters did so well, is lost in the process.  Grant, Kari and Tori are capable, amiable hosts, but the premise of the show puts them in talking mode more than action/experimentation mode.  I really wish it were better.  As it is, I didn't get past the third episode, even with an enthusiastic 7 year old ready to watch.

[29:52]
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The OA opens with a feature-length pilot about a woman (played by Another Earth's Brit Marling, also the show's co-creator) who famously disappeared as a teen and then returns inexplicably seven years later.  She has some oddities that surround her, mysterious scars, and she starts calling herself "the OA".  Meanwhile her adoptive family tries to reconnect with her with difficulty, and she begins establishing perhaps inappropriate connections with some of her neighbours (mostly all younger than her).  Eventually she starts to open up, both about who she is and what she went through, but her tale of lost time is a difficult one to believe.  The believers though, gather with her, and experience a touch of the supernatural.  It's all a little too self-serious, hitting the same tenor as Another Earth but leaning hard into its more bizarre elements (specifically leaning into Marling's more bizarre and frustrating behavior).  The pilot, around the 50 minute mark, takes a dramatic left turn, as the OA recounts her tale as a young girl in Russia.  It's a lavish production, a harrowing half hour story that seems at once a tangent and absolutely the reason why one should watch this show.  And yet, I haven't gone back to it.  I'm definitely intrigued, but the tangent being more engrossing than the main tale to me was problematic.  That said I'm not sure I was particularly invested, and I've not quite decided whether Marling is a good actress or painfully one-note.  The show's tenor doesn't exactly allow for a broad range from its lead.  The facebook reaction at the time it came out seemed to be "it's mostly good but what the fuck"...which leads me to believe it has a frustrating ending that may not make the journey worthwhile.... I need someone to sell me on continuing with it...

[40:37]
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Haha, this show is great.  Just thinking about it makes me smile.  This British show is just goddamn fun.  Written and starring the formidable comedic talents of Michaela Coel as Tracey, it's a show about a repressed 20-something finally coming into her own sexuality it the the low-rent flats of suburban London, while still living with her mother and sister, both direly religious.  The show's explicitly frank sexual talk is utterly refreshing, and coupled with Tracey's ignorance, it's utterly hilarous.  It's a show that could easily fall into a cringe comedy trap, but because the characters are largely so open and honest with each other, the cringe factor rarely (I won't say never) manifests.  Tracey's just a supremely joyful and awkward person, naive but willing.  The supporting cast from her mother and sister, to her almost-kinda boyfriend and his invasive, liberated mother, to her in the closet ex, to her promiscuous friend and her suffering boyfriend, the show is full of amazing supporting characters, most delivering comedy gold.  (Tracey's sister having her own sexual awakening is just one of many, many highlights).  If you're not put off by sex or sex talk, give the pilot a shot.  If it doesn't hook you in then the show won't be for you, but it's practically genious.  So gloriously vibrant, fun, and riotously funny.  I don't think I've ever seen Coel before, but with this series, she's already a comedy legend to me... just a phenomenal spotlight for her.

[48:32]
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Oh, the heavy stuff.  Well, heavy, but not, but still heavy.  Dear White People is an series extension of the film of the same name which I've never heard of before.  The series itself is brilliant, exploring issues of race in America, largely African American but not solely.  The series uses its microcosm of a black dorm on an Ivy League campus to explore the macro issue, without ever forgetting that some of its characters who seem to have all the answers are still, in effect, kids without a lot of real world experience.  I loved the exploration of different black thought, and it's not that the show manages to come from every possible perspective but it does effectively reiterate that there's not just one voice when it comes to the black experience, but it equally effectively reiterates that there are common experiences across the board that are largely a result of systemic and even unintentional racism.

The genius of the show is in how it plays out.  It starts with an event, a campus party, an un-PC party put on by the campus humour/satire publication (a Harvard Lampoon of sorts), and it approaches it from our main character, Samantha.  Or at least we think it's our main character.  She hosts a campus radio program with the same title as the show that seeks to incite and inform in equal measure.  But the next episode our lead switches to Lionel, the demure side character from the first episode, as he becomes fully aware of his homosexuality, and we see the party and events leading to it from his perspective, but advancing slightly.  Each subsequent episode retraces steps with another character, but moves things forward, by midway the rather lighthearted take on race relations becomes in your face and dire, as an encounter with campus security turns almost deadly and the show does an incredible job at hitting to the core of what the police violence against black people means, the lack of safety in the world, the crawling unease.  Eventually the show swings back to it's lighter perspective, but after that it never lets go of the fact that America (and many other places, let's not kid ourselves) still treat black people as "other".  The show explores the roots and continued fight for equality in a systemically corrupt reality.

It's not a straight comedy, it's not a drama, but it manages both incredibly well.  The cast is incredible, and many of the characters become instant favourites, such that we're eager to see the spotlight circle back on them but also disappointed that it's to the detriment of other favourites.  Just an incredibly well put together show.

[1:02:16]
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I've reviewed Maron once before, back when IFC threw fans a bone and place a couple episodes on youtube.  In the years since Maron had four seasons and is now finis, but has been available on Netflix for some time.  I've slowly worked my way through the first half of the show in fits and starts, pretty much the same way I consume Marc Maron's podcast now.  The podcast has hundreds of episodes, each with a famous or semi-famous person, always with a cold open of Maron discussing his life.  The TV show flips that.  The show is mostly about his life with a bit of the podcast where he's interviewing a celebrity creeping in.  It's Maron's angst that leads the show.  Nearing 50 at the show's inception Maron's past the mid-life crisis, has done a ton of self-help, and is a much better person than he used to be.  He's not a slave to his demons anymore, but they occasionally return to remind him of who he was, which only surges him on to try and do better.  But old habits die hard.  Maron is a compelling central figure, a solitary man not looking desperately for love, a man only marginally burdened by his parents, a man whose friends are as messed up as he is, only generally more secretive about it.  Maron's life, especially towards the end of season 1 and the start of season 2 spiral out of control when a particularly destructive and invasive relationship begins and then decays.  It's a relationship I knew from Marc's real life told through the podcast but it's fascinating to see it play out in fiction.  Part of my fun was recounting to my wife the reality of the situation which was actually just as crazy if not crazier than the show.  There's a hint of cringe comedy to Maron, but most of it is Maron fighting with his own worse tendencies in a given situation, sometimes side stepping the cringe, and sometimes stepping right into it, it's not knowing which way it will go that makes it so satisfying, and funny.  With a tinge of DIY and a hint of melancholy, few other comedies have felt like Maron, and few others trying to find this balance are as successful at being funny.

[1:10:51]
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Oh I was so looking forward to Friends From College as an exploration of how friends you made from one of the peak times of your life have grown or not grown with you, how friendships have evolved or stagnated, how those old habits and tendencies you have with those friends crop up every time you see them, and how those same things impact your significant other when they're invited to join in yet are perpetually the outsider.  Ostensibly these things happen in Friends From College, but the show is less a broad exploration than it is a very specific one, for this very specific group of friends.  I dunno, I just couldn't relate.  Nick Stoller has done some fun, funny, accessible films, but this, this was off putting, despite it's fantastic cast which includes Keegan Michael Key, Cobie Smulders, Nat Faxon, Annie Parisse and Fred Savage.  The show opens with Key and Parisse engaging in a post-coital discussion in a hotel room, their long-standing relationship obvious by the familiarity they have with one another.  As the conversation progresses, these are obviously people who are in love with each other and still good friends after all these years, a real solid relationship to start the show on...except when it becomes clear that these two are not married to each other, and in fact have been cheating on their own spouces with each other since before either were ever married.  It makes the show wildly uncomfortable from the get go, and despite the likability of both actors, it's hard to like or sympathize with the characters at all, and it's hard to find something to root for... do we want them to break up their otherwise happy marriages/families (Parisse has a child, Key and Smulders are going through IVF to try to have a child) and friendships?  It's a no win situation for the show, even if Key and Parisse choose to never sleep with each other again.  After four episodes of this horseshit sneaking around and cringe-inducing situation comedy around covering tracks and friends finding out, I couldn't really take watching anymore.

[1:20:00]
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The first Wet Hot American Summer Netflix series, First Day of Camp was great for how it played with the timeline of the original movie in relation to the actual timeline in real life...that is to say, it was old comedians attempting to play teenagers, the results were never not funny.  This sequel series Ten Years Later takes its cue from the end of the film where the characters promise to regroup in 10 years time, and we get to see where they all wound up.  The First Day of Camp succeeded in spite of its logistical challenges, bringing together its repetoire of now very successful actors and comedians, and having a script that juggled their availability in any one scene adeptly.  Ten Years Later feels less well planned, the logistics not working out as well, and rushed in spots.  The excuses they make for replacing Bradley Cooper with Adam Scott, for instance lends its own spot of comedy, as does the retroactive inclusion of two new players Mark Feuerstein and Sarah Burns and the continual flashbacks that insert them into sequences of the film or preceding series where they never were.  This would be more amusing if the show didn't spend so much time with them.  The cast of characters was large enough that spending (a lot of) time on two new characters only makes them stand out more as outsiders (and for them to be quite unlikable as well doesn't help anything).  There's an absurd plot involving George HW Bush and Ronald Reagan that also doesn't quite take off, primarily for how much cheap comedy circulates around them, and yet the show's under-arching plot pretty much hangs off it.  There's a lot of fun stuff in Ten Years Later but not nearly as much as First Day of Camp.  Like most comedy sequels, it's diminishing returns on similar jokes.

[1:28:38]
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I can't say that Chewing Gum inspired Big Mouth, but these are two peas of the same pod, despite one being very British, the other very America, one a live action cartoon being about people in their 20's discovering their sexuality, and the other a highly animated cartoon about teenagers discovering sexuality as they go through puberty.  Both are incredibly frank and hilarious, although I might have to give Big Mouth  an edge largely for what it dares to do with it metaphors come to life.  Created by Nick Kroll and his childhood friend Andrew Goldberg (with Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin) its a mostly fictional recounting of their pubescence, with Kroll playing Nick and frequent collaborator John Mulaney playing Andrew.  Andrew's puberty is hitting him hard, and he's shadowed constantly by the Hormone Monster (also played by Kroll), who's like the little devil on his shoulder telling him to get into trouble, only there's little sinister about it, it's just a personification of urges.  Nick and Andrew hang out with Jessi (Jessie Klein) who has her own Hormone Mistress played brilliantly by Maya Rudolph and, for some reason, Jay (Jason Mantzoukas) who is that kid who's just the filthiest kid, extremely annoying, you never want to be around them, and yet you're friends with them for some reason.  The show's exploration of pre-teen sexuality is very daring, but necessarily frank, and absurdly true to life, despite its grandiose metaphors.  At one point Jessi has a conversation with her vagina (as played by Kristen Wiig) and there's a sequence where Nick, still having not hit puberty, catches a glimpse of Andrew's post-pubescent crotch and can't think of anything but...it's penises everywhere.  The casting is brilliant, the show is largely spot on (one episode's spotlight on Jay's relationship with his pillow is, perhaps, too weird, stretching the metaphor way past its breaking point), and it's full of quotable quotes (as often based on inflection as cleverness).  I'm a huge fan of Kroll, from his stand-up to Kroll Show to Oh, Hello on Broadway and now this... it's not just about how talented Kroll is, but the people he surrounds himself with.  Outrageous, and again, like Chewing Gum, not for prudes.  Watch the first episode, if it puts you off you won't want to continue.

[1:42:22]

-fin-