The Essex Serpent is the least good show on Apple+. It's not bad, but it's a notch below everything else. It wrestles with issues of faith, hope, love, sexuality, science, interpersonal communication, etc. and does so in a way that seems honest for the time frame it's set in. The struggle is largely in the pacing. I don't mind something that moves slowly, but Andre the Giant running a marathon would have moved at a brisker pace.
Trying to name all the MCU movies. The end💀 #MsMarvel pic.twitter.com/mTIi5bpt5O— Iman Vellani Updates (@ImanVellaniEn) June 10, 2022 I know Marvel has absolutely nailed a lot of other casting choices, but if you have watched even five minutes of Iman Vellani on the Ms. Marvel promo tour, you'll realize they have essentially cast the real-life Kamala Khan as Kamala Khan.
Congratulations to Director Bourke. Excited to see your vision realized. https://t.co/iPB3SFRqpa— Zack Snyder (@ZackSnyder) May 20, 2022 Had missed the fact that Zach Snyder had responded! At least he is a good sport about it.
So...a while back Paramount Network started chopping shows and announced they would become a movies only cable channel. Then came the unprecedented success of Yellowstone and rethinking things during the pandemic. To add to that, they did a trial run of putting a couple of Taylor Sheridan's other shows on cable for 1-2 episodes (1883, Mayor of Kingstown) and those did exceptionally well. That leads us to these tidbits: The 6666 (Four Sixes) spinoff show has been officially moved from Paramount+ to Paramount Network. https://deadline.com/2022/05/yellowstone-spinoff-6666-moves-to-paramount-network-1235026901/ Tulsa King starring Sylvester Stallone as a former mob boss who gets out of prison after 25 years and is "exiled" to Tulsa, will debut the same day as season 5 of Yellowstone (11/13/22) and the first two episodes will air on Paramount Network after the first two episodes of Yellowstone, before Tulsa King moves to Paramount+ https://deadline.com/2022/05/yellowstone-spinoff-6666-moves-to-paramount-network-1235026901/ Finally, they started filming a miniseries back in December called George & Tammy with Michael Shannon playing George Jones and Jessica Chastain playing Tammy Wynette.This article is a bit dated, but the first one about 6666 mentions that this show has been moved up to being on Paramount Network. https://classiccountrymusic.com/geo...ill-explore-the-country-singers-relationship/ In a time where the TV deal for MLS is moving exclusively to Apple TV+, it's interesting to see a cable network thriving and expanding their offerings.
Watched the final episode of The Offer on Paramount+. It's a serious challenge to do a 10 part miniseries about the making of The Godfather, but this thing was brilliant from the word go. 10 hours of well spent time and it's one I may go back and watch again one day.
Watched the first two seasons of For All Mankind on Apple TV+ over the last few weeks. It's a fantastic alternate history show where the inciting incident is the Russians landing on the moon first. The show does a good job crossing the decades, working through the Cold War, and just generally looking and feeling like what would have happened. Really good cast as well with just about everyone being great in their role. Season 3 starting a few weeks ago and episode 4 comes out this Friday. I should be caught up by then.
Slow Horses season 2 is already in post production and is expected to release in 2022, and Apple has ordered seasons 3 and 4 already. If they keep the quality up, it's going to be one of those shows that does well at first and really picks up steam in later seasons as people hear about it and catch up.
So here's my initial thoughts of where Stranger Things 4 fits: 1 3 4 2 Season 2 was just not good. Season 4 is okay, but that's about it and it really feels like the writers were inhaling their own farts and thinking it's a bouquet of flowers when they put this season together. I didn't care 1 bit about Eddie. Vecna/1/Kenny was a barely mediocre villain with a bad back story. The best thing in the season was the kids dealing with how they were growing apart despite everything that has gone on, with El bashing Angela in the face as a close second. Losing Max gets rid of one of the characters I actually found interesting. My guess is Will goes full villain for the final season but they talk him out of it and the show goes out with a whimper in 2024.
I knew a good bit of the info, and there are a couple of the "investigators" that are just tools, but this is a fun 4 part miniseries on where the D.B. Cooper story is now. My favorite part of it all is the French language comic book starring Dan Cooper (the actual name the hijacker signed with) who is a pilot that likes to jump out of planes.
Halfway through season 3 of The Umbrella Academy and it's becoming boring in some parts and insufferable in others. The Vanya/Victor thing was probably the least terrible way to handle it, the reason for 2 families is actually decent, but everything else has been barely tolerable. The best parts of previous seasons (like Klaus and Ben together) are gone and replaced by everyone being unhinged and overly aggressive at all times.
Episode 7 through the end of the season is good for The Umbrella Academy. Episode 8 might actually be the single best episode of the show. It's too bad the first 5-6 episodes were just not very good at all because I know some people finally gave up on it and didn't see the end. They set up for season 4 but I'm not nearly as interested as I was back in the first season.
In the last 5 days we've had Dolly Parton on The Orville and now Carol Burnett on Better Call Saul. I have no idea how that's true, but it's made me gasp out loud both times.
Inventing Anna is a fascinating, mostly true story. Anna Chlumsky (I love that they cast an Anna to expose the real Anna) is fantastic. It's rare that a child actor is this good in adulthood. Julia Garner looks eerily similar to Anna Sorokin. Where the series falls apart is Garner's accent. It's difficult to listen to and I'm not really sure what she was going for. It's not Russian as far as I can tell and it's not any German accent I've ever heard. It's just weird and distracting because of how bad it is. Worth a watch, but knocked down a couple of notches due to Garner.
Black Bird slots into 3rd place for me among Apple+ shows. Great from start to finish, especially considering it's based on a true story, but just a bit behind Ted Lasso and Severance. Also, I just picked up the novel A Gentleman in Moscow and now I'll have to read it as Paramount+ will be doing a show based on it. No date yet, but there is a series order so it's probably not going to be much more than a year or so at most. https://variety.com/2022/tv/global/sexy-beast-prequel-paramount-plus-scripted-slate-1235182797/
For All Mankind has, in the words of the creators, moved from period piece to Sci-Fi. The season 3 finale released this evening, just a few days after the announcement that Season 4 was confirmed, and it's arguably the best episode of the 30 we've gotten so far. A truly masterful handling of multiple storylines and then show continues to show that it's not willing to kill off major characters. We're finally jumping into the 21st century whenever season 4 arrives, and the little hint as the credits began to role gives us something really interesting to chew on. As far as Apple TV+ goes, at least for shows I've watched, this one is excellent and it's still only my 4th favorite.
"Yes! I knew it! Captain America fu..." She-Hulk was a bit uneven in its writing I thought but Maslany was her delightful self and it's primarily because of her that I'll be glad to tune in again next week.
Best end credit any Marvel show has done. I haven't watched much of Tatiana Maslany, but if this is who she is then I need to start checking out her prior work.