TC wrote: 19/09/22, 12:17:50

TC wrote: 01/01/22, 08:59:46 Cobra Kai - Season 4 - as we covered back on page 58, s3 ended in kind of insane land where many teens should now be living at juvi. S4 picks up immediately after the events of s3. I don’t really understand how much time passes during a season - two weeks? Five days? A school year? - and that creates some issues with this season especially. A kid that has been in your class for what i assumed was maybe a week is doing the skills demonstration? He’s also able to strike your best guy? Anyway, was a good season. Brought back the guy who i guess was the villain in Karate Kid 3? I don’t know, didn’t watch that one, but there were enough flashback scenes for me to grasp i guess this guy has existed in the canon of this franchise. He was fine, definitely more enjoyable than Krese. Thankfully, we didn’t get Krese fight scenes this year - those were so painful to watch last year. Guys biggest opponent is clearly arthritis. But, these two guys - ‘nam vets? How old are they supposed to be again? They’d have to be in their 70s at minimum, but in the flashback scenes they looked older than 20, so… Anyway, forgetting about all that, this season was enjoyable. Had some laughable moments. But there’s just no way to recapture why s1 was so great. Watching this, i feel the same way i do watching the CW superhero shows - there is so much teen drama that is both annoying and ridiculous, just in this show, all their issues somehow end up getting solved by and with karate. And i’m still watching because i’m invested. But if all those kids tried the roof jump and fell to their death like lemmings, i’d be fine with that too.

ok, so season 5 fixed everything i hated about s4. s5 was pretty goddamn funny, and entirely self-aware, leaning into the ridiculousness of their internal timelines, among other things. it was definitely better than s4. my only real gripe was that ending, because it means

we have to deal with more fucking kreese, who is the worst character in the show, and incapable of acting in any meaningful way, let alone trying to fight and be a badass. leave the poor old man alone. i cheered when they killed him. but then, of course he's not dead. shrug.

I guess i entirely missed posting about the first...third?...of s6, but here i am talking about the second third. don't know why they broke up this final season into three parts/drops, but they did, milking this dehydrated cow for everything it has. present are the usual entirely insane plot beats, the pastiche of WB-level high school drama, mixed in with a ridiculous amount of karate. at least there is the context of the tournament here, which is a valid reason for so much karate, but the shtick of every problem being solved/caused by karate is beyond old. it gets less amusing with each iteration. i kind of hope every character here dies in the final few episodes, whenever they air. no coincidence that as the show started to take itself seriously and became way less aware, it became way less enjoyable. anyway, if you're still in at this point, might as well finish it. that's my take anyway.

hi anyone left reading this. apologies again for my lack of posting, but i've had an absolutely insane few months of work. i had that thing happen where a coworker was suddenly out due to some medical things so i inherited his entire region in addition to mine. i've been working crazy hours, very stressed, and every available moment of non-work i haven't wanted to look at a computer. so again, apologies. things should be settling down for me soon, so i'll try to be around more.

anyway, here's a bunch of stuff i've watched since last time.

Hysteria! - This show is fucking ridiculous. It’s Cobra Kai but Satan instead of karate. As someone who went to high school, listened to metal, and was in a band in that exact era (the show appears to take place in 1989), nothing about anything in this show is remotely related to reality. An impossible Iron Maiden “performance” by the three-piece band, 30-second clips of Mercyful Fate and Bathory, or multiple Repulsion album cover appearances doesn’t make this show about metal. The “metal” band, when discussing the greatest debut albums of all time, cite Joy Division and Hendrix. It’s not actually about the “Satanic Panic” era either, as it takes place several years after that peaked, and there is a literal anthropomophoric Satan terrorizing certain people in the town. The cliques in that high school - uh, right. They didn’t look anything like that at my school, I’ll leave it at that. Anyway, Bruce Campbell is great playing it totally straight, and it’s an amusing show (like I said, it’s essentially Cobra Kai, with the same level of acting and/or writing), but no aspects of it are in any way related to reality, and it’s definitely not about metal, Satanism, or Crowley. It’s a show that can’t decide what it’s about or what direction to go, so tries to be about everything and go in every direction. Shrug.

The Old Man - I've had this on my list for a while but have delayed as it seemed pretty silly on paper. Finally watched it and am now pissed there will be no s3. Yes it's pretty unbelievable in parts, but damn if it isn't enjoyable as fuck. Bridges & Lithgow are fantastic. Can't say it's worth the watch, knowing it ends on sort of a cliffhanger that will never be resolved, but if you are looking for something fun to watch with international intrigue with Bridges displaying John Wick-level super powers, this is for you.

The Penguin - Wasn't sure what to expect with this show, but goddamn did it deliver. I heard things said like "The Sopranos but Gotham City", which seemed like ridiculous praise, but damn if it isn't pretty close to what's going on in this show. It really blew me away. Colin is completely unrecognizable throughout. The man deserves all the awards for what had to be hours and hours in the chair every day before filming. I don't know how he did some of the things he did while in all that makeup. The writing is 90% great, and the grit really fits with Reeves' take on the dark knight detective. Highly, highly recommended. And no, it's not really comic book-y, and there is no appearance of the Batman. I think in universe the events take place immediately after the film? Unsure. Fucking great show.

No Good Deed - Ray Romano and Lisa Kudrow with Dennis Leary in parts. Dark comedy that seemed like it probably wouldn't be good on paper, but is actually pretty damn enjoyable. Not anything remarkable or monumental, but pretty well-done show. A worthy distraction.

Before - Hey look, it's another AppleTV+ show about a psychiatrist with a dead wife and a child. How many of these fucking shows are they going to do? More importantly, what's going on with the heads of this network green-lighting all of these shows? Some severe trauma up top, or some really weird marketing to determine your target audience. Regardless, and regardless of how turned off I am by Billy Crystal at this stage of his life (much like De Niro), this show is actually really, really good. Very interesting where it goes. I'd even say that it's Lovecraft-adjacent, which you would not get at all from the trailer. If you can get past the key points on paper and actually watch this, it's pretty interesting how they weave the supernatural elements into this thread. Was pleasantly surprised.

Squid Game - I thought I posted about s1 here, but can't find it, so maybe not? Anyway, s2 wasn't as good as s1 was, but was still pretty good. Curious to see where they go with this cash-grab extension. Done well enough to keep me hooked.

American Primeval - Holy shit is this show grim. Extremely well done and likely far more accurate depiction of what life in the old frontier was like, which is to say terrifying. Short, but very intense. After a brief setup, it's essentially pedal to the metal all the way. Includes coverage of the early days of Mormons, much to their collective chagrin. Like I said, dark as fuck. Hyper violent. Recommended.

Landman - Billy Bob carries this show about the world of oil drilling, both from the board-level intrigute/backstabbing, and from the field worker/backstabbing perspective. Didn't expect to like it as much as I did. Also, the return of Ali Larter and her boobs. Quite recommended, on all fronts.

Zero Day - No, not the quite amusing Michael Mann film, which gives the impression that hackers all look like Hemsworth. This is about the De Niro limited series. This show is fucking ridiculous on so many levels. First, they spend about 30 seconds on the six episodes talking about what the zero day exploit actually is or any technical details of how it happened, so don't go into this thinking you're going to be watching psycho grampa Bobby try to explain how cybersecurity works. It's not about that. On the surface, it's about an old man - former president - who is slowly losing his faculties that gets called back to DC (by the black lady president) to lead a commission investigating the titular macguffin and save the world. Obviously they were filming this planning on Harris winning. But, having watched it, it's actually about a guy who comes into the DC world who is completely uncorruptable, doesn't play ball with DC lifers, and is determined to root out and expose all the lies and corruption taking place from current politicians who run the show. Sound familiar? The issue is, this irony is completely lost on not only him but clearly the entire writing staff of the show. He's playing the mission of the guy he so professes to hate. Like I said, fucking absolutely ridiculous show on every conceivable level.

Prime Target - As someone who spent a lot of time heads-down deep into the world of theoretical math and physics, and someone who makes a living off of cybersecurity, this show was right up my alley, on paper. While some aspects of it are pretty annoying, it's overall an extremely well-written and interesting show. It kind of breezes through the math and driving concepts, but that's expected as it's very far over most people's heads. The coverage it does get, and the importance of it (the "why"), is handled pretty well. The idea that there's some secret branch of the NSA (that is privately funded) that can access every camera everywhere at essentially the click of a button is pretty amusing, but I get that it was necessary for the show to exist. It also checks most of the "diversity" boxes, as you would also expect these days. But, does feature the return of Martha Plimpton (Stef from The Goonies) pretty convincingly playing a baddie, which is fun. yes, there are a ton of ridiculous plot points and impossible travel happening to move the plot along, but I did like the show. Not sure if there will be a second season, but I'd be in if so.

Adolescence - Not even going to get into what happened here from a writing perspective, but do want to talk about the technical achievements of this limited series. It's fucking baffling how the crew accomplished what they did here. Each of the four episodes is one continuous shot. I'm not talking about simple but long shots here, which would be impressive enough. I'm talking about moving into and out of cars, going from eye level to drone shot back to handheld, up and down many stairs backwards, in and out of buildings and small rooms, etc. It's also pretty seamless, meaning it's not distracting or showy ("look how awesome this is!"). If you weren't paying attention and were just watching for the plot, you may never even notice. That's how fucking smooth this is. Have to get pretty far away from it for a while, but do look forward to watching again to really see if I notice anything. First watch, I didn't notice even a slight tremor during camera hand-offs. I'm still thinking about the "how" of this. It's staggering. I don't recall seeing anything like this before, ever. Had to require so much rehearsal for dozens of people, like trying to coordinate a very complicated dance covering several acres, where one mistake means going back to the beginning. I read somewhere that one of the episodes required 23 takes to nail it. I'm in complete awe of how this was done. I hope they get all the technical awards possible for what they accomplished here.

Reacher - Another show that was on my list for a long time but I avoided. Just wasn't in the mood for what was sure to be dumb fun. Finally got around to it. Plowed through the first two seasons while s3 was airing, timed it almost exactly right where I only had to wait a couple days to finish s3. It was everything I assumed it would be, but didn't know how much I'd enjoy it. Big, dumb action show that manages to be very smart in spots. Lead guy (a fucking physical giant, the character of which seems like he has some kind of weird autism - very cold and robot-like most of the time) actually auditioned for American Idol back in the day, and Paula was fawning over him to the point that Simon and Randy got up and left the table so they could be alone lol. Pretty funny to watch back now in the context of this show. He was physically an entirely different person back then. Anyway, I haven't read the books this show is based on, but apparently he's far more accurate to the book than, say, Tom Cruise was. Given that, and the sometimes very comedic tone of this ultraviolent show, I'm thinking I'd quite like the books. Going to have to go read some. I then found out the guy has been cranking them out at the rate of at least one per year for nearly a quarter century (!!!), so a lot to go on here, and also a lot to adapt. Much like the phenomenal Slow Horses, each season of this show is the adaptation of one of the books. However, this show jumps all over the place and isn't doing them in any particular order. So far, it's working. Cast is generally great, which most of the characters changing season over season. Lots of action, lots of violence, some T&A, some comedy... it really is a pretty well-done show. Yes the guy is very wooden, but again, I'm assuming that's just how the character is supposed to be. I'm into it, and waiting for more.

TC wrote: 01/07/23, 07:06:11 Silo - wasn’t sure about this show when it first started, but holy shit did it end up being a great show. It kind of slogs through early on but stick with it. It does live up to the heavy sci-fi premise. That ending of s1 is such a massive cliff hanger! Going to be a long wait for s2 unfortunately. Man. The show is apparently based on a series of books that I haven’t read, so I have no idea where this is going. If you are into sci-fi and have AppleTV+, you should be watching this show while we wait for The Foundation s2, Invasion s2, For All Mankind s4, etc. Yes, Common is annoying, in that he looks like that cheap game where you have a magnet and have to make a face on the guy with the metal shavings because his beard is so perfect and so black, but he does end up being an ok actor by the end of this. Tim Robbins plays what ends up being a fantastic character and huge scene/story stealer. It’s a pretty great cast all around, and that ending makes me say that I don’t think it’s going where they make you think it’s going for almost the entire season. Massive twist, very well done.

s2 of Silo was equally fucking great, and had an absolutely mind-blowing ending, setting up a completely different s3. again, i'm kind of glad i haven't read the books here, as i'm loving the twists and turns of this show. please do watch it, as it's apparently a very expensive show to make, but absolutely deserves to continue. Fergusson is so good in this. she rules. watch this show.

TC wrote: 31/03/23, 13:09:54 The Night Agent - a massively tense action/political thriller. as it goes on, especially toward the end, it requires a good amount of suspension of disbelief to not be taken completely out of it. i mean, in one part, a girl is shot in the leg, and when EMTs show up, they bandage her wound over her pants leg. it gets ridiculous. but i really enjoyed it for the most part. solid supporting cast on display here. nice set up for a second season. hope they get it. caveat for all of this is that i didn't read the source material.

s2 of The Night Agent was actually better for me than s1. extremely well done show, and this season was slightly more believable than s1. regardless of that aspect, the writing on this show is very good. action rules, the intrigue rules, just an all-around very good spy show. if that's in your wheelhouse, you should check this show out.

TC wrote: 27/12/22, 08:54:32

TC wrote: 08/11/21, 07:47:03
looks like we're getting a season 2:

Season 2 was great! Really dug it. It picked up right where s1 left off. Bummer that it was only six episodes but man it was fun. A very good show. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you should. Looking forward to hopefully another season. Feels like they could wrap up the whole thing with another season.

i was completely baffled when s3 of The Head just appeared out of nowhere. i didn't expect that to happen. i excitedly settled in to watch and see where they take this. sadly, s3 was really, really dumb. complete repeat of what we've seen from a general plot perspective, and the "twists" here were just so stupid. worst part was it felt like the writers must have felt like they absolutely nailed the landing. they did not. so really, definitely watch the first two seasons, then only watch s3 if you're interested to see how badly a completely lay-up can be shredded to bits.

TC wrote: 28/08/23, 09:44:10

TC wrote: 19/08/23, 17:19:03 Yellowstone continued - blazed through seasons 2 and 3, now mid-4. s2 was equally as good as 1. S3 was slightly different. Can’t really pinpoint the change, but the overall vibe felt way less dark. There was also way more humor injected, almost inadvertently. Not in a goofy, over-the-top way, but in a way that felt native to the characters. Like, this was probably always happening, just was off-camera before this season. It was welcome, only because I knew there was more. If I had been watching as it aired, I would probably have been bitching about how nothing was happening, the characters had become way more introspective, and the humor felt off. But in the big picture of hindsight, I enjoyed it. Then as s3 was nearing the end, the last couple episodes returned to the prior darkness, and ended, quite literally, with a bang. S4 picked up immediately where s3 left off, which was fucking great. I think the first 14 minutes of s4 was some of the most tense, most action-packed TV I’ve seen. Looking ahead, I see that there will be no “season 6”, but ala The Sopranos, there will be a “season 5 part 2”, which was scheduled to begin in November, but I assume will be pushed due to the strikes. It will be Kevin Costner’s last, but I read that the show will continue in some form with Matthew McConaughey in the lead role, which is very interesting. Anyway, s4 is a return to very dark times for the Yellowstone ranch. Absolutely fantastic show, can’t state it enough.

so finished s4 and s5 part 1. the toward the back half of s4, several characters started getting more dumb. s5 has many characters exhibiting extremely stupid behavior, antithetical to how they behaved previously. it was quite frustrating. beth, for example, when from aggressively shrewd to willfully stupid. jaime is just a cartoon character at this point. kayce seems to only be there to... actually, i'm not sure why kayce is in the show anymore, as it seems like the writers have completely forgotten he exists. the only reason his family is in the show is to have john interact with monica. speaking of john, his relationship with the eco-warrior is retarded. i had had enough of her last season, but at least she served a purpose in beth's grand plan, but goddamn is that side plot dumb in s5. i've had way more than enough of her. she exists to spoon feed everyone the cowboy take on vegans, i guess. WE GET IT. also, it should be said - Maynard's involvement ended with s1. they completely bailed on that take on music and went to straight country. it kind of existed in the background and transitions through prior seasons, but in s5, there are multiple - MULTIPLE - full set pieces, full songs, of hardcore country just to show montana scenery. it's become pretty brutal to deal with. again, WE GET IT. i don't know what happened between s3 and s5, but man does the first part of s5 seem pretty lazy. yes, some big confrontations are coming, but again, only because the main characters are suddenly dumb. hopefully they can recover some greatness in the back half/finale. to be clear - while all of these are valid points and annoying, it is still an engaging show and i still recommend watching it, just plan on getting a little frustrated with what's happening in the last 10-12 episodes.

well, the back half of s5 of Yellowstone finally hit streaming so i could finish it. it immediately starts with how they exit Costner, and everything that happens after that is because of that. kind of invalidates all of the various plotlines that came before. felt like Sherridan was handcuffed by his exit and not sure how to resolve, so threw some stuff together real quick. the easy button for that means far more of Taylor's character on screen, which are actually the best parts of this section. he's very amusing as the giant, arrogant asshole. a lot - A LOT - of the rest of the episodes once again play like an extended ad for Montana tourism with a very country music bed. there's also a scene where one of the cowboys goes to where the country girl is performing with her band (i would say more impossible travel, but nowhere in this season do they give any indication of how much time is passing) and we're "treated" to not just a clip of a song so we get the idea, but an ENTIRE SONG. that's how much they didn't really know where to go. if you made a super cut where you eliminated all the Montana tourism shots and country music performances, this back half could likely have been 2.5 episodes. anyway, we absolutely get some resolution, and the way they handled the big issue was once again really dumb, but i guess that's the way everyone wanted to deal with it. so, this great show kind of ends with a whimper, but that being said there are some very good/violent set pieces in here which are enjoyable. but again, most of the characters are just cartoons at this point of the show. so if you've invested to this point, just finish it and accept it was what it was.

TC wrote: 26/03/23, 08:19:24 Shrinking - new Jason Siegel / Harrison Ford vehicle at Apple TV+. Ten half-hour episodes centering around Siegel’s psychiatrist character in Ford’s practice whose wife died a year ago and he was left to raise their 16-year old daughter. Starts with him being a total train wreck, having gone numb for the last year, and the whole story is a redemption arc for him, with both his daughter and his friends, let alone his patients. Some really funny moments happen - mostly toward the end of the season for me - but even so, a really engaging, well-told story. Yes, yet another ATV+ show about a psychiatrist - that’s at least 3 by my count - which is really pretty fucking weird, given the percentage of total original programming that represents for them. But, still very good. Could be subtitled “Jason Siegel is out of breath”, as he delivers 90% of his lines like he just ran into the room. It’s really quite inexplicable and uncalled for, also never addressed, like the other characters somehow don’t notice. It’s a weird choice and once you see it you can’t unsee it. Ford is good as an older guy trying to cope with early stages of Parkinson’s and his own shit. Really, the whole cast is good. Setup feels a bit stiff early on but have patience and stick with it, it pays off. I enjoyed it. Don’t know if it’s getting more seasons or not, but easily could.

watched s2 of Shrinking. i cannot put my finger on why i like this show. it's so obviously contrived, and many of the characters are unlikeable, but something about it just pulls me in. i even held off watching s2 for quite a bit, but when i finally started it, i just plowed right through. it's a breezy show that i enjoy for reasons i cannot explain. given that, i can't really recommend it, but all i can tell you is i like it. i just can't tell you why.

TC wrote: 05/05/23, 06:35:38 Cunk On Earth - watched this awhile ago but forgot to post something, saw someone talking about it elsewhere which reminded me. Absolute British absurdist comedy mockumentary about a fake documentary host of a history show on an unnamed fake network. What we see is the actual “show” as “broadcast”, not the making-of, ala The Office or anything. She (Diane Morgan) plays everything perfectly deadpan, never breaks, as the fully ignorant host, interviewing very real guests/experts with stupid questions, etc. I’m doing a poor job of explaining it, but episodes are short and there are only 5 of them, so you should check it out. At first it takes a while to get into the groove of what they’re trying to do with this, but by the end I was quite absorbed in it an laughing out loud frequently. If absurd British comedy is your thing, or maybe history, you’ll probably find it amusing.

so this crew did a "special" hour-long episode called Cunk On Life. i get that it's very british humor, and pretty slapstick in moments crossed with Borat-level interactions, so it's probably not for everyone. but holy shit was i laughing my ass off for most of this. had to rewind several times because i missed lines laughing. it's so dumb, but i like it.

TC wrote: 22/01/23, 07:17:33 The Rig - 6-episode series on Amazon. Don’t know who decided it was time for sci-fi/horror to go back to the sea - 1899 (sadly canceled), s2 of The Head (fantastic), s1 of The Terror, etc. - but I’m here for it. This show, of which I had heard nothing (which is surprising given the cast and obviously decent budget), is about an oil rig where something weird happens. That’s about as much as I can tell you without blowing it all (sort of). Several Game Of Thrones actors in this, like Jorah Mormont (Iain Glen) as the lead, Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy), Alliser Thorne (Owen Teale), etc. Shot entirely in Scotland. It’s really quite good, I enjoyed it a lot. Tense and well-written. I’d say the only down side, if you want to pick nits, is the female lead, Emily Hampshire, is not a great actress. She provides some unintentionally hilarious moments because of that, and her boyfriend on the show starts out as such a whipped idiot that when he abruptly changes to normal man behavior, it’s quite noticeable. Anyway, great little show, does set itself up for a mysterious s2 should it get picked up, but could also just end like this and be fine. It’s not breaking any new ground, and at very few times is clumsily preachy (“We fuck the planet then are surprised when it fucks us back”), but you should check it out.

this post is impossible to search by title, as search won't index three-letter words. i ended up having to search "jorah" and "baratheon", as i remembered mentioning them in the post. anyway, yes, The Rig miraculously returned for a second season, which was completely unexpected. again, it's mildly Lovecraft-adjacent with some nods to The Thing and Michael Crichton this season, which is a wrap for the show. felt like they successfully resolved the story arc with this second season, and again, i enjoyed it. nothing ground-breaking or earth-shattering, but very well done for what it was. lots of it - the parts essentially trapped on the arctic station or under the sea - felt like a video game, in a good way. so, a very under-the-radar show with a fucking stellar cast. worth your time to watch for sure.