|
Post by Incandescence 112 on Sept 19, 2021 15:36:07 GMT -8
I thought the finale was good, though the way that the annual heist episodes try to keep topping their predecessors with endless twists and turns has worn thin over the years. And in my curmudgeonly years, I'm no longer as enthralled by finales that keep interrupting the story for callbacks and cameos that are simply there because, well, it's the Big Ending. Still, I laughed a few times, more than I have at most of this season. And the interpersonal material between the main characters was generally handled well. The show was never one of my all-time favorites, but it had some strong episodes (particularly from Seasons 4 through 6). Still, even beyond the impact of real-world events, it was starting to exaggerate the comedy past the point of character logic, and build entire episodes based on one-off jokes (e.g. centering an entire episode around the Boyle family). So it was probably the right time for the series to bow out. Oh, it's not one of my favorites, either. Most of the episodes I mentioned are in the B+/A- range--it rarely reached the heights of Community (and a bunch of others), and the show's long-form storytelling and character development was always shaky and a bit unsatisfying. Still, I think it's a pretty solid workplace comedy. And it has Andre Braugher in it, which counts for a lot. VINDICATIOOOOOOOOOOOOON!
I didn't mind the increasing insanity of the heists--at least there was a story-based reason for the precinct to lose its collective mind. Agreed on the pointless callbacks, though.
|
|
Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
|
Post by Quiara on Oct 14, 2021 21:06:37 GMT -8
Just wanted to pop in and say that I finally saw How To with John Wilson, and that it was very very good. The "perfect risotto" episode hit close to home, but for me the peak of the series was the end of the third episode, with the vandalism montage set to Meat Loaf - somehow that had me in tears. Is this that New Sincerity thing everyone is trying to convince me exists?
|
|
|
Post by Jeremy on Oct 15, 2021 12:06:52 GMT -8
I'm humbled to admit that I had never heard of the Mandela Effect before watching that episode. One of the great things about How To with John Wilson is that it manages to be surprisingly educational in addition to highly entertaining.
I'm curious how the show will handle things in its second season (premiering next month). Obviously real-world events have impacted every show with a camera-on-the-street feel, but they may prove even more influential on a show as surrealist and carefully structured as HTwJW.
|
|
|
Post by Jay on Oct 25, 2021 14:08:13 GMT -8
I am also celebrating Spooky Month by watching What We Do in the Shadows. No major thoughts yet aside from it's a lot of fun for someone who has consumed a lot of vampire media.
|
|
|
Post by Incandescence 112 on Oct 25, 2021 15:51:45 GMT -8
I am also celebrating Spooky Month by watching What We Do in the Shadows. No major thoughts yet aside from it's a lot of fun for someone who has consumed a lot of vampire media. Worth the price of admission for Nandor's accent alone.
|
|
|
Post by Jeremy on Oct 25, 2021 19:50:27 GMT -8
I think it's great that even after sixteen years, people on the CT forum can still be brought together by a vampire show.
I recently finished the first season of Only Murders in the Building, which I liked a lot. It's a great comedy showcase for a lot of talented actors of a certain age (chiefly Steve Martin and Martin Short, still game for anything even in their seventies), a playful skewering of true-crime podcasts, and above all a well-spun mystery that doesn't feel dragged out - ten episodes, each around 25-30 minutes. Selena Gomez's performance was hit-and-miss, and the blatant setup for S2 at the end of the finale is pretty contrived, but it's overall one of the better debut seasons of the year.
|
|
|
Post by ThirdMan on Oct 25, 2021 20:04:04 GMT -8
I think it's great that even after sixteen years, people on the CT forum can still be brought together by a vampire show. Only if it involves some degree of comedy. We mustn't take our vampires too seriously.
|
|
|
Post by Jay on Oct 26, 2021 7:08:07 GMT -8
It's funny though, were it not for the allure of Spooky Month, I probably would've gone in on Only Murders in the Building except that my quick shot impression of it seems to be similar to what Jeremy reports. Steve Martin and Martin Short are great! Selena Gomez is meh and I wish that most young talent didn't have to be produced through the Disney Industrial Complex.
|
|
|
Post by Jeremy on Oct 26, 2021 18:39:08 GMT -8
Is Gomez still affiliated with Disney, though? I know they own Hulu, but it seems like she mostly cut ties with the Mouse House after Wizards of Waverly Place ended. (Though it is true that Disney has brought up a surprising number of millennial film/TV stars.) I think Only Murders largely benefits from its cast, particularly the stunt casting of guest stars (Nathan Lane, Tina Fey, Jane Lynch) who bring their brand of comedy to the show. An enjoyable viewing all around.
In further TV news, I finished Season Two of Ted Lasso today. My thoughts are... mixed. The writers definitely wanted to change things up (probably since the "fish out of water" angle was largely settled by the end of S1) and so they turn S2 into more of a straight drama, less focused on interpersonal conflict than on characters grappling with inner demons. A lot of Friday Night Lights parallels this season, though the show still tries to retain its trademark upbeat humor.
And some of it works, but a lot of it feels forced and drawn out. The episodes are too long (stretching to 45 minutes and beyond in the season's second half), and the good moments tend to get drowned out by long stretches of dramatic wheel-spinning. I respect the writers for taking risks and going big (in a manner of speaking), but the second season misses a lot of what made the first work so well.
(Also, I finally noticed that Anthony Stewart Head's character is named "Rupert." Props for that.)
|
|
|
Post by Jeremy on Nov 14, 2021 21:49:06 GMT -8
I watched Impeachment: American Crime Story recently, and while it wasn't as fresh or gripping as the People vs. OJ Simpson season a few years back, it's a well-told story about the Clinton/Lewinsky affair and the ensuing media and political fallout that captured so many minds and eyeballs in the late '90s. It paints a surprisingly (given the presumed political leanings of the writers) jaded portrait of Bill Clinton, while the spotlight shifts mainly toward the women - chiefly Monica Lewinsky and Linda Tripp, as well as Paula Jones and (eventually) Hillary Clinton.
The episodes could have benefited from some trimming (most of them run over 60 minutes) and the cast - often tough to recognize under heavy gobs of makeup can be hit-and-miss. (Some of them, such as Cobie Smulders as Ann Coulter, appear to have emerged straight out of an SNL sketch.) But the second half of the series features some great drama, heightening the personal side of its characters and featuring intense performances from the actors who inhabit them.
Also watched Schmigadoon! on Apple TV+. It's a loopy musical series in the vein of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Galavant, particularly focused on parodying stage and screen musicals from the '40s and '50s. All six episodes were directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, who - as he did so well on A Series of Unfortunate Events - brings a glossy sheen to the picturesque title village, enhanced by Bo Welch's eye-popping production design. The story itself is pretty routine, and might have made more sense as a feature film rather than a TV season, but... I mean, have you seen Sonnenfeld's recent movies? The guy is doing much better work on the small screen. Anyway, decent show, with some catchy and well-staged musical numbers.
|
|
Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
|
Post by Quiara on Nov 20, 2021 14:21:55 GMT -8
Did some binging. I am currently severely underemployed and my boyfriend let me mooch off his HBO & Netflix, so I got to catch up with the zeitgeist over the past couple months. I only slightly regret it.
Chair, The - Oh, you thought you were getting a Sandra Oh vehicle with an intelligent sendup of academia? PSYCHE, beeyotch, you got Duplassed!!! Seriously, I'm pretty sure Jay Duplass gets more screentime with Sandra Oh's family than Oh herself does. Some of the little details about academia are extremely on-point, and yet, I cannot imagine anyone involved with drafting this show's A-plot has set foot on a college campus in the past ten years, instead of reading Atlantic articles about loony social justice warriors. The most gratuitous misstep here is that this "lesser Ivy" seems to have eight tenured professors for each adjunct (lol) but I think what I can't get over is that in the first ten minutes of the show Duplass's character accidentally shows an entire lecture hall his sex tape (!?!?!?) and this is never mentioned again. Not a total waste of a show, since Sandra Oh can make any piece of crap watchable (see: Killing Eve) but it's a hell of a bait and switch.
Crashing - I am 100% over shows about stand-ups being stand-ups, but it took two seasons more for this show to lose me than I thought it would. Largely this is because Pete Holmes is lovably naive which makes it easy to root for him when you stick him next to Artie Lange. There is a very interesting current running through the show where Pete's inoffensive big-kid vibes enable him to have a fairly successful career as a "clean" comedian, but at the cost of the contempt of his peers who correctly regard "warmup guy at the Rachael Ray show" as a pretty insipid gig. Anyway, this is still a show predicated on the idea that stand-up comedy is a worthwhile profession that mostly exists so that Judd Apatow can give some of his comedy buddies a paycheck, so uh, probably shouldn't have watched sixty-six percent of the show before checking out.
Derry Girls - OK, now this is a wonderful comedy - '90s Catholic school girls get up to hijinx against the backdrop of the Troubles. So, so charming; actually laugh-out-loud funny; vulgar but with a heart. The closest thing to a flaw I can find in this show is that the period piece elements are laid on a little thick in the first episode (gratuitous Pulp Fiction references and an extended gag about the novelty of, gasp, cordless phones) and a couple of the girls occasionally lean into the established girl group archetypes in ways that feel slightly cliche. But I love 'em all. It's funny, the biggest digression from the '90s setting is the recurring use of "I'm Shipping Up to Boston" as a "we're up to trouble!" leitmotif, which the show Kevin Can """F""" Himself ALSO did earlier in this year, and Derry Girls is by a long mile the better show, but it has no pretensions about being "deep" or making some political statement, and thus you can guess which show got a full media cycle. Stupid TV critics.
Queen's Gambit - I completely get why a zillion teenage girls watched this and wanted to play chess. It's a fun show - a total starmaking role for Anya Taylor-Joy, obvi. The surface-level depiction of the '60s was a bone of contention for some critics - The Forrest Gump of Chess, Vulture called it - but I think it's a feature and not a bug that Beth Harmon just point blank Does Not Care about the Cold War. Honestly, no small part of my enjoyment from this show comes from how in a mere six episodes it manages to pack in basically every cool rock song of the '60s. "Along Comes Mary!" "Venus!" "Classical Gas!" (Not rock, that one, but who can resist "Classical Gas" !?!?)
The Other Two - Genuinely funny, surprisingly sweet show, with a lot of really solid farce going on, particularly surrounding its recently out gay male lead. The pop culture satire is rather broad but occasionally very, very inspired.
|
|
Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
|
Post by Quiara on Nov 20, 2021 16:09:57 GMT -8
Also, Evil is flippin' awesome. I think the problem I have with a lot of shows that try to be The X-Files is that they fail to get a duo with Anderson and Duchovny's charisma on the one hand, and they fail to get a distinct visual atmosphere on the other. And let me tell you, Evil does not struggle with either. The entire cast is golden, and the visuals have incredible panache. I have absolutely no idea how this show aired on CBS of all places!!
|
|
|
Post by Jeremy on Nov 20, 2021 21:37:35 GMT -8
It's funny, the biggest digression from the '90s setting is the recurring use of "I'm Shipping Up to Boston" as a "we're up to trouble!" leitmotif, which the show Kevin Can """F""" Himself ALSO did earlier in this year, and Derry Girls is by a long mile the better show, but it has no pretensions about being "deep" or making some political statement, and thus you can guess which show got a full media cycle. Stupid TV critics. I think Kevin Can F*** Himself gets the award for weirdest yet retrospectively most inevitable TV failure of 2021. Premise is interesting on paper, but the show has no clue how to develop it, and much of the critical buzz seems to be steeped around the MeToo of it all. At least they got Boston right. The Other Two is funny! Haven't watched the second season yet, but that was my impression of the first (which feels like it aired almost a decade ago. God, time doesn't fly these days). Quiara, it occurs to me that you might really like Schmigadoon! Or at least, that you would appreciate its various sendups of classic musical theater, delivered by a lineup of talented comic actors. Not a brilliant show, but a fun addition to the limited crop of musical TV series.
|
|
Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
|
Post by Quiara on Nov 22, 2021 10:19:00 GMT -8
Schmigadoon! is very much up my alley - my worry, though, is that it's going to end up less Crazy-Ex Girlfriend and more Galavant. Which is actually a bad bit of pith because the "yep, this is The Music Man, this is Carousel, this is Oklahoma, etc." vibe I'm getting from Schmigadoon is more CXGF than Galavant (the latter of which didn't need to rely on pastiche because you had Alan Menken writing all the music), but I'm worried it's going to take a handful of obvious potshots at musical theater tropes without, like, any of the genuine emotion that comes out of a really good musical, and instead we're going to get a lot of really risque jokes that aren't really all that funny because they're too fixated on nudging you towards the form of the musical theater number rather than taking it for granted and thus allowing the real humor to happen.
|
|
|
Post by Incandescence 112 on Nov 22, 2021 13:35:37 GMT -8
Also, Evil is flippin' awesome. I think the problem I have with a lot of shows that try to be The X-Files is that they fail to get a duo with Anderson and Duchovny's charisma on the one hand, and they fail to get a distinct visual atmosphere on the other. And let me tell you, Evil does not struggle with either. The entire cast is golden, and the visuals have incredible panache. I have absolutely no idea how this show aired on CBS of all places!! Well, Michael Emerson starring in underrated genre gems on CBS is on brand for him, isn't it?
|
|