Some Random Thoughts About Television... [R]

I'm not familiar with the source material, but I've enjoyed the first few episodes.

 

Opening for the new King of the Hill.

 

Has anyone checked out Sherlock & Daughter?

I like both Holmes adaptations and David Thewlis (portraying Holmes on this show). So I am intrigued for those reasons. Giving me pause are the title and wondering just how CW it is going to be (as someone who has enjoyed more than one CW show in the past).

 

It's on my list but I haven't started it yet. I think it's the first of the new shows that is exclusively theirs instead of being either co-produced with or sub-licensed from a Canadian network, so I have no idea how it's going to go.

 

In From the Cold (2022) Netflix
Missed it when it was released a couple of years ago, we decided to binge it last week.

The series follows a divorced mother and ex-Russian spy, living secretly in the United States, as she is forced back into her old life after the CIA learns about her real identity.

I won't give away the "big secret" (revealed at the end of Episode 1) in case anyone has not watched it. If you haven't, it is one of dumbest, least realistic concepts in television history, at least television not of the silly "superhero" variety.
However, the one good thing was there was an attempt to explain it.

I would say it is 67% good and interesting, and 33% amongst the stupidest concepts in the history of television.

I also liked the multiple languages, mostly English, but Russian, Spanish (most of it is set in Madrid) and Chinese.


The worst part was the stupidity of the daughter, but teenage girls are generally pretty terrible characters.
Also, they would need to be far more focused going into an international skating competition.

By the far the best parts of the show were the flashbacks to 1990's Russia when Anya was just learning to become a super spy.

That said, KLEO would have kicked her ass every time.
A cross over show with KLEO and Anya would have been terribly fun.

 

In the 1984-85 TV season, George Clooney had a recurring role in 8 of 22 episodes of a show that got cancelled after its only season.

In the 1994-95 TV season, George Clooney began a 108 episode run on a show that made him famous.

The 84-85 show was called E/R.
The 94-95 show was called ER.

Both shows were set in Chicago.

That forward slash delayed his stardom by a decade.

 

Sherlock & Daughter:

David Thewlis as Holmes: predictably great
Blu Hunt as his "daughter": charming
Dougray Scott as Moriarty: splendidly camp

The writing: kind of meh

 

Network TV in Lubbock tonight gives me a WNBA game on Ion, a Texas Rangers home game on MyTV, an NBA Finals game on ABC, and Ringo & Friends at the Ryman on CBS.

Throw in two Premier Lacrosse League games on ESPN+, a USL1 game on ESPN+, and Nationals baseball on MLB.tv. Lots of stuff to watch without a single cable channel in sight.

 

New season of Resident Alien started this past week.

One of the few comedies I have enjoyed in the past several years.

It is very uneven, but entertaining in its weirdness.

 

Lubbock Matadors on channel 14, UFL championship on channel 28, USL Super League final on Peacock on my tablet, and Stanley Cup Finals on my laptop. It's a good night and not a single cable or satellite subscription in sight.

 

******** Brownsville! Forza Lubbock!

 

Stick is less comedy than I expected, but we did get the wonderful advice of finding your "inner Grosweiner."

 

Streaming beats broadcast and cable combined on TVs for the first time.

 

Every now and then it pops into my brain that, before he was Carlton, he was an actual mini Michael Jackson.

 

My better half and I just binged both seasons of The Last of Us this past week, finishing up last night.

She really liked the slow, deliberate pace of the some of the episodes.

I liked Bella Ramsey's performance and thought she was well cast. Her black, soulless eyes and lack of facial features seemed appropriate for the role. Sure, her acting is uneven, but she is still very young and playing someone even younger.

I just could not get over the "video game logic." I will try not to include any specific spoilers.

So, society collapsed and the world has effectively ended, but nobody has ever run out of ammunition for their almost limitless guns.
Season 1 is 20 years after the "event," and season 2 is 25 years, but no shortage of bullets.

Where in the ever loving hell did they get batteries for their flashlights? Everybody has a flashlight and they all work just fine.

They syphon gas from cars that have sat abandoned for 2+ decades and the gas is still "fresh"?!?
Crap, my boat won't start, as I did not drain the fuel from last year, and my boat has been stored away from the elements.

Also, where did all the fuel for the various vehicles come from, anyway? Who was drilling and refining fuel these days? As we have seen, a small "disaster" can disrupt the global oil supply.

Season 1 had one of the stupidest climaxes I have ever seen. I won't go in details to avoid spoiling it, but not only was it a terrible decision for the world, but it was also virtually impossible considering the "opponents" were all military/ex-military.

Why is EVERY single dispute, even the most minor of squabbles, "solved" with gun fire (and knives)?
At least, the Wyoming town had a "council," but the council meeting was about going after and killing people hundreds of miles away for "justice."

It took the the "wolves" five years to find Joel? And it was, apparently, the first Joel they found. Revenge is best served "cold" since it was the middle of winter in Wyoming.

The small boat is the storm was nonsense. How did someone who had never even been in a boat manage to command the boat so well. It conveniently started right up and had plenty of fuel.

On the plus side, I suspect that the situation probably really went a long way to mitigate Climate Change, so there is that!

 

I would imagine that plastic cannisters would be better than metal, since they don't rust, are less likely to corrode and leach material into the fuel.

Especially 2 or 2 1/2 decades later.

 

Really not sure why Stick is classified as a comedy, but I'm enjoying it so far. First 3 episodes are a really nice setup, episode 4 is rough (rated way below the others on IMDB), and episode 5 gets it back. It's much more drama with the bits and pieces of comedy sprinkled in to lighten the mood between the longer dramatic elements.

Owen Wilson, Marc Maron, Mariana Trevino, and Peter Dager all have great chemistry together.

 

Watched my first K-Drama, Tastefully Yours, on Netflix. It starts off well enough as a goofy, straight-forward romcom, and I enjoyed it for the most part. Running at 10 hours was a little much, though, as it really didn't hit many more beats than a standard 90 min romcom movie.

 

So...The CW Network is going to make 6 TV movies from Harlequin novels, but they're also going to put them in theaters for a day or two as well?

https://tvline.com/news/the-cw-harlequin-romance-movies-mcnamara-panabaker-1235466918/

First one up is "Montana Mavericks" and it's in theaters on August 26 & 27 (Tue/Wed) only.

 

So I’m watching the 3rd season of White Lotus, and I can’t get over the fact that they expect me to find Aimee Lee Wood attractive.

 

Spring 2025 Anime Round-up


Apothecary Diaries (Season 2, Part 2) ~ OLM, TOHO Animation

I think this show's popularity has spiked after the first season released on Netflix. It's well deserved. Just a really enjoyable combination of medical detective show and palace drama. The second half of the season leaned more into the political intrigue and less in Maomao's detective skills. Hope a season 3 tilts back a little to episodic adventures. 10/10


Witch Watch ~ Bibury Animation Studios

A teen witch moves in with her familiar, a teen boy/ogre, as they go to a normal high school. This one started out rough. I was almost ready to drop it after a couple episodes but was pretty sure it would be better once the ensemble formed. That was correct, and this won me over with its silliness and clever comedy. 8/10


Kowloon Generic Romance ~ Arvo Animation

A woman living in the Second Kowloon Walled City is falling in love with her co-worker but is beginning to realize that something about this world is wrong. A really enjoyable sci-fi, romance with a lot of twists and turns. It is a little rushed in its execution and is apparently adapting a much longer manga, but the animation and story are good and effectively generate the feeling of a place and time that the story hinges on. 8/10


Mobile Suit Gundam: GQuuuuuuX ~ Sunrise, Khara

Two girls meet and start battling cool space robots and meet a boy space robot pilot. Then the entire history of Mobile Suit Gundam is dumped into the mix for cool nostalgia for fans or for my complete bafflement. There is a cool small story here that could be covered in 12 episodes, but 6 of them seem to be rehashing an alternate-universe MSG show where you're expected to get hyped over a bunch of characters from another show. The new characters still play a central role, but since so much time is devoted to a larger universe of shows' complex political environment, you have no idea why they're doing what they're doing. If you're already a MSG fan, you will either love the nostalgia or hate that it's all undercooked. If you're not, it's just some contextless space robot battles. 6/10 (spejic, apparently this is co-written by Evangelion's Anno Hideaki, though I think they borrowed the confusing mishmash not the philosophy.)


Food for the Soul ~ P.A. Works

Cute Girls Doing Cute Things (CGDCT) is a whole genre and probably the best description of this anime. Some college girls form a club based around food and enjoy each other's company. Each episode provides some minor inconvenience for which they all shrug their shoulders and move on from. I'm not sure there's much originality here, but this anime is good at chill food vibes. 7/10

Older Anime:
My son loves Demon Slayer, so we watched all of that up to the upcoming movies. It's well-animated, but it's also very loud and obnoxious.

We also started Death Note, but after episode 7, I hate Light so much that I can't bring myself to watch more.

 

The absolute best commercials on TV today.

 

Also, as someone from Raleigh, Parker Posey and the Brit playing her husband have done a spectacular job nailing the accent of Triangle area patricians. The husband has a few words where he is doing a Manteo accent* rather than a Triangle accent, but that’s just a quibble.

*Sometimes when he says a word like high it comes off a bit as hoi, like high tide is hoi toide.

 

Fred Berry and the other Lockers were something else.