tv diary fall '17

Finished up season 2, which actually manages to wrap up the series rather nicely. Of course, in a better world this show could have gone on for years. The writing is so ingeniously tight, and the ensemble is ever-capable. The finale is an especial delight, bringing back Jane Lynch's happy go lucky b-movie starlet Constance Carmell for her wedding to an ancient, handsy codger. It is perhaps the best episode since "Celebrate Ricky Sargulesh".

on season 2

"The Tick" is an evergreen franchise, one whose absurdity can always be molded to fit the times. In this age of gritty reboots and creeping fascism, the take we get is a dark one, at times startlingly so. Serafinowicz's portrayal of the great blue bug of justice has the heedless bravado and childlike innocence of Edlund's creation, but there's a unsettled and unsettling quality to him, a quiet madness that mirrors Arthur's own instability. Though the story requires a more serialized approach than prior versions of "The Tick", I wish the episodes each had more of a contained story, or had the room explore some of the weirder corners of The City; at time the show feels like a movie chopped up into 30 minute segments. Still, recommended.

I've skipped the last two season, but I thought this one might be worth a look. I shouldn't have bothered. It's the same dull, witless camp as ever it was.

Still fun, but the quality of the writing is definitely falling off, with a lot of labored plotting in the service of predictable outcomes.

An idealistic honor student finds a notebook from hell, which kills anyone whose name is written in it. Initially, he uses the notebook to kill in secret, imagining that he is making the world better by wiping out crime. But an eccentric detective discerns that these seemingly random deaths share a motive and means, and vows to catch the killer. I found this more intriguing in abstract than in execution. The cat and mouse games between killer and detective advance the plot only incrementally; several times the killer hatches a scheme to kill the detective, only to learn that his rival has just now planned for that contingency. And the detective, who never can prove the killer's guilt to his own satisfaction despite the vast resources at this disposal, decides to involve his number one suspect in on the investigation more and more, nominally to keep a closer eye on him; it's a boneheaded move. And the notebook is a too-complicated macguffin that contributes to the endless contortions of the plot, causing characters to come down with a convenient case of amnesia on a number of occasions.
I've got to add that the portrayal of female characters here is pretty wretched. The main girl is a copycat killer with an obnoxiously gooey schoolgirl's crush on the murderer. Less prominent women are mostly victims and plot devices.

some friends and I saw "The Gang Saves the Day". I quit watching this show lo, many seasons ago, and this scattershot episode didn't make me want to revisit it. The characters are in a convenience store when it gets robbed, and while hiding in the aisles each one fantasizes about what may happen. Mac's story is the most straightforward, an action movie parody that finds him grunting one-liners and busting yakuza heads in Marky Mark mode. The others are more fanciful, but reliably misanthropic. Nearly everyone imagines Dee getting killed; Dee imagines killing everyone else, including the cashier. It's sort of a half-assed anthology that barely tries to tell a story.

saw the last three episodes of the last season. another old favorite that now seems a bit unpleasantly misanthropic. I didn't hate "Meanwhile", the series finale, though I'd say "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings" was a better ending for the series. reruns are on Syfy; I am going to give it a rewatch

series is winding down. not great tv, but not as slow as once it was

Even after finally getting the gang out of Anneville, the show drags a bit much. But I am enjoying it for more than just its gonzo humor and its demented set pieces this season. In the first season I was put off by how much of an unrepentant jerk Jesse Custer was, and neither the other characters nor the show itself seems to fully acknowledge this.

season 4 is great so far, already plumbing the depths of Bojack's psyche and engaging of flights of whimsy that rank amongst the show's funniest moments

We were halfway through season 3 when ntflx dropped it. Hulu has picked it up, so maybe I'll pick up Hulu, at least for the free trial period.

watched it live. the usual gladhanding affair (not a euphemism)

on the pilot: There are a few funny gags here, but McFarlane seems to want to be a real Star Trek captain too badly to let his show be a full-on spoof. And so The Orville plays it fairly straight. The sets, the ships, the uniforms, even the fascist evil aliens are straight out of the Trek playbook. And as Star Trek goes, it's a pretty pale imitation. To Gene Roddenberry, the diverse crew of the Enterprise represented a utopian ideal, people of all races (even a token alien!) all working together for a common goal. In the pilot of The Orville, the bridge crew are goofy character types, jokes that never make it to becoming punchlines. You have a petite and pretty alien security officer, who is from a world with higher than average gravity and so possesses superhuman strength. You have an alien from a species that is all male (not much detail is explicated beyond that, but it's weird that a species with one gender would see itself as male or female, isn't it?). And there is a robot who's species is supposedly famously racist; this, too, is a fact we're supposed to take on faith, as he doesn't say anything offensive. Much of the plot is taken up with Mercer and Grayson's divorce, and the tension it creates when they're assigned to the same ship as captain and executive officer, and at least thus far this plot doesn't really carry the show; in fact it undercuts any threat the villains might've posed, when our heroes are being held at gunpoint and can't help but continue their marital squabble.
...
I actually kind of enjoy this show, though it generally isn't very good. It is a bit too faithful to the Star Trek model, which, let's face it, was a fairly formulaic show in most of its iterations, swapping out the stiff drama for stiff comedy. There are jokes that are glorious, like a holodeck western that goes awry when a threatening bandit challenges the players to a dance off, but these are generally few and far between.

picking up where I left off, halfway through season 2

Season 2 is as delightful as the first, which we are rewatching now that it's on hiatus for the winter.

watched "Oeuf", the episode from season 1 not broadcast due to the 2013 bombing of the Boston Marathon

I haven't made it past season 3 of either "Weeds" or "Orange Is the New Black". Both are shows with a lot going for them, strong leads and supporting casts, a memorable setting and meaty premise, and of course abundant humor, but after about 2 years both shows just felt like they were spinning their wheels. Both get very bogged down trying to give equal time to large ensembles; sometimes this shines a spotlight on an amazing performance and sometimes it just fills time with a trivial subplot, but Jenji Kohan and company seem to lose interest in the actual leading lady, and when they do, so do I. So when the Botwins bounced out of Agrestic, I didn't care to follow, and I couldn't even tell you what Piper Chapman did last time I watched.

The same pitfalls could befall "Glow" a season or two from now. I don't know how involved Kohan is, but it seems to adhere to a number of her trademarks, with its large, diverse cast of talented ladies, its irreverent humor, its love of weirdos and outsiders, its frank sexual politics. I feel that the relationships are strong enough to sustain the show in a way that they could not on her other shows; Brie and Gilpin particularly have a wonderful, thorny bond that promises to be fun to explore. They're a pair that makes sense together, more than Nancy and Cecilia or Piper and Larry, yet of course there's nothing easy about their relationship. Of course, it could all fall apart in the future, but for now its fun, exciting, great tv.

Who's going to sign up for yet another streaming service just to get this show? I was unable to see the first episode on broadcast television, as CBS didn't bother to air it at the scheduled time, so I sure ain't.

this is getting yanked from netlfix, too. I watched "Cat Amongst the Pigeons". It was a fairly formulaic whodunit. Suchet is a delight as the famous detective.

As it has in the premieres of past seasons, Brooklyn 99 takes its terrific ensemble and breaks it apart, however briefly. Here, Jake and Rosa are in prison, framed at the close of season 4 by crooked cop Gina Gershon. Rosa doesn't get a lot to do; the premiere, which is part one of a two parter, gives her a b-story where she puts Holt and Terry through the paces running errands for her on the outside. Only in part 2 does she get in on the actual plot, as the gang hatches a scheme to catch Gershon. Jake's prison stay is much more memorable, and receives more time; I for one have no problem imagining that Rosa would adapt to life behind bars than Jake would, but still, she is underserved. Jake, meanwhile, contends with sinister warden Toby Huss, who wants him to infiltrate a gang run by Lou Diamond Phillips, and befriends cellmate Caleb, a cheerful cannibal played by the wonderful Tim Meadows.

I've watched this on youtube from time to time. It is without a doubt one of the most thorough and vital news sources in the US, and as a bonus it is spectacularly funny.