TV shows you're currently watching.

Finished I Know This Much is True last night, late to the party , but damn if Ruffalo wasn’t a revelation in this. Was great to see Rosie O’Donnell in something non-comedic and totally bring it.

Question: is there supposed to be a noticeable time jump from the time Juliette Lewis comes over to his apartment and the scene first introducing Imogen Poots as his girlfriend?

I’m just wondering if I missed his mentioning her or that was more of a choice on the writing to show that Dominic was somewhat not even serious about her from the jump.

Started The Staircase immediately after, the limited series based on the Kathleen Petersen accidental death case involving her husband, novelist Michael Petersen .

The cast is stacked: Colin Firth and Toni Collette as the Petersens, Michael Stuhlbarg as his attorney, Parker Posey as the DA… the first episode sets everything up pretty great. After watching the entirety of the Netflix documentary series and some articles on the case I’m interested to see what angle this takes.

Been catching up on This Flag Means Death. I'd seen a few less-than-glowing takes when it first aired, so I hadn't rushed to see it, but 3 eps in I've discovered it's actually a lot more fun than those early stick-up-the-ass reviews suggested. Darby is perfectly cast and the support crew are a lively, imaginatively realized bunch. And I haven't even got to the Blackbeard-heavy episodes yet!

Also caught up on Atlanta, a.k.a. the cheekiest show on television right now. I'm pretty sure it's also the best show on television right now.

Our Flag Means Death is an absolute hoot. I hope it gets renewed.

Finished Amazon Prime's Outer Range this weekend. It is very much Yellowstone mashed up with Twin Peaks.

A very frustrating watch, for me. It's clear there are definite ideas driving the story...but those ideas are also deliberately obscured and shoved behind a continuing set of mysteries with no real answers provided. The show seems to want to explore things like faith, fate, and whether we're free to make real choices, but never really lands anywhere nor cares to dwell on any of them in a way that provides depth.

Most everyone is doing good work onscreen; it's clear all the actors are giving 100%. Brolin is always watchable, despite the character and plot growing more opaque each episode. The standout is Tamara Podemski as Sheriff Joy Hawk; until the very end, she remains relatable and understandable in a way that helps ground the story. Lily Taylor is completely wasted here, in a thankless and poorly written role that goes nowhere.

Unfortunately, that is not true for any of the remaining characters. Whether they descend into greater and greater opacity and/or become more quirk than character, almost everyone on the show ends up behaving in ways that no actual human being would believable act.

If you really dig your TV leaning into the weird and are happy getting no explanations or satisfying conclusions to plotlines and arcs, then you'll probably dig this!

Bucho wrote:

Been catching up on This Flag Means Death. I'd seen a few less-than-glowing takes when it first aired, so I hadn't rushed to see it, but 3 eps in I've discovered it's actually a lot more fun than those early stick-up-the-ass reviews suggested.

We're closing in on the last episode and boy have things tightened up nicely. I think this is a show that's really found it's footing as it's gone on.



Here's something odd we've been watching for ages on Netflix: Better Than Us. This is a Russian sci-fi show set in the near future where relatively simple humanoid robots with safety protocols are starting to become accepted in society in the services industry. Some people are resentful of a potential threat to jobs and some even form underground gangs to hunt robots. A robot manufacturer get their hands on a brand new prototype (with no safety protocols) from Asia that's an entirely new generation, and it goes missing and bonds with a random disjointed family, even able to kill bad people who try to harm it or the family. The manufacturer hunts to get it back while covering up what it is while the family is split up through infidelity and kids joining anti-robot gangs and so forth. Meanwhile the cops try to chase down the leads while also being infiltrated by undercover gangs. It's a real soap opera at times with conflicting loyalties and passions. But overall it's actually been a fun show, if a little long.

I highly recommend THE BIG CONN on Apple TV. it's a 4 part docu-series on a con artist named...get this...Eric C. Conn. Really wild, very entertaining. This lawyer essentially ran a social security scam down in Kentucky and got caught.

WINNING TIME stuck the landing on the season finale. Nicely wrapped up this season's arc while sowing some seeds for next season.

Started The Man Who Fell to Earth on Showtime last night. I am unfamiliar with the original film and novel, so this is all new to me (I know, I know, heathen!) First, is the book worth seeking out? And the film worth anything beyond Bowie?

It is an intriguing pilot. There's a lot happening - mostly Chiwetel Ejiofor yelling 'FUCK!' very loudly and getting what he wants. It never feels like it's handling too much. Not sure if the time jump; Ejiofor, now a tech god, is TED Talking his journey to earth. Harris is excellent as his companion; she's juggling so much life shit it's exhausting for her. The brief glimpse of Nighy at the end as...well, not entirely sure but he seems like he has an agenda and a plan for our Man has got me intrigued. Looking forward to more of it.

Finished THE DROPOUT (excellent) and started SEVERANCE (holy shit!!!!)

UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN on Hulu is the real deal. Garfield is great, as we expect of him now, and you get great supporting work from Gil Birmingham (playing a role famililar from HELL OR HIGH WATER), Christopher Heyerdahl, a lesser Culkin, and Wyatt Russell doing some great villain work. But the most impressive part is how successfully it manages to elevate Daisy Edgar Jones's "victim", who is introduced as a bloody corpse challenging the faith of its pious male lead, into practically a co-lead. I think there are a lot of murder shows that have talked a big game about treating their Dead Girls as more than corpses, but I can't think of any that manage it this well.

Great to hear. How is Sam "Don't call it a comeba--okay, 2022 is kinda my comeback" Worthington?

He's lying in the wings, I presume waiting to earn his second billing status by being crucial to the final "twist"/resolution to the murder mystery aspect.

Classic Worthington.

Genuinely enjoying ASTRID & LILLY SAVE THE WORLD at the moment. Pretty fun light horror comedy on Syfy.

Kids in the Hall have a new season out on Prime, and it's absolutely worth a watch if you loved the original series. While I feel some of the sketches had some slight pacing issues, I don't feel they've lost any of their edge now that they're old men.

I'm definitely inspired to dig out the old episodes and giving them a proper revisit.

Fantastic. I was genuinely surprised when they got a new season, and am glad to hear it's great!

The new season of THE KIDS IN THE HALL is fucking great. Highly recommended!

Just finished up a rewatch of Stranger Things, season 1. Only my second time through. It holds up pretty well; I'm beginning to think Steve is the series' best character in terms of depth, arc, and nuance. (It still bugs me that his hairstyle is absolutely NOTHING like anyone wore in 1983.)

The three main characters - Mike, Dustin, and Lucas - were all MUCH shriller than I remembered. Felt like at least half their dialogue was shouted/shrieked.

And while the 80s were definitely the era of "kids on bikes gone all day and their parents had no idea where they were", Mike's parents are the absolute worst. And I cracked up at the number of times Winona Ryder's character - who already had one child missing - seemed wholly unconcerned when her other child was gone for more than 12 or 14 hours with no explanation.

Modine was surprisingly good as the white-haired villain; the costume does a lot of the work, but he does a LOT with just a few lines, vocal delivery, and body language.

You doing a rewatch of s2 and 3 before the new one? Curious how they hold up!

Yeah, that's the goal. I've only seen each season once, so I'd like to have a full rewatch before diving into S4.

Biggest challenge is other shows: just started Severance on Apple+, The Boys drops a new season in June, and in a couple of weeks, I'm going to start with the new season of Barry.

anjinash wrote:

Kids in the Hall have a new season out on Prime, and it's absolutely worth a watch if you loved the original series. While I feel some of the sketches had some slight pacing issues, I don't feel they've lost any of their edge now that they're old men.  

I'm definitely inspired to dig out the old episodes and giving them a proper revisit.

My wife and I had been recording the older episodes when they showed up on IFC, but about a month before the new series debuted, a whole bunch of the older seasons showed up on Prime. Not every single episode, but almost all of them.

Dock Fight wrote:

Modine was surprisingly good as the white-haired villain; the costume does a lot of the work, but he does a LOT with just a few lines, vocal delivery, and body language.

Modine 100% feels like he's channeling David Cronenberg both in terms of look, voice, and overall vibe in that. I'd love to know if Cronenberg was a touchstone for that performance, because he's almost dead-on (minus the glasses).

My wife & I just revisited the first three seasons, this time showing them to the kids as well. We had a lot of fun doing it. My short verdict..

Season 1 - Still great.
Season 2 - Really good, but I liked it a bit less this time.
Season 3 - Also really good and I liked it more this time.

I'm really eager to see where things go in Season 4, especially since it has already been announced that Season 5 will close the series out (aside from any inevitable spinoffs). Having an actual endgame in place can only help. Plus I love that we're finally getting an inhuman villain that can talk.

As for the bad parents of Hawkins? I'm glad that the show basically leans into that from Season 2 onward. They really are the worst parents ever, especially Mike's.

The post-apocalyptic DJ in the third episode of The Kids in the Hall is one of my new favorite bits of bleak comedy.

Seriously, the season is fantastic.

OK, SEVERANCE S1 was great. Wild ending. Can't wait for S2.

Judas Booth wrote:

OK, SEVERANCE S1 was great.  Wild ending.  Can't wait for S2.

So it's going somewhere? I just finished Episode 3 and am very afraid this is another Outer Range in the making.

I need actual story, progress, and some answers, not just endless puzzleboxes.

No spoilers, but can you assure it's worth watching?