Category: TV

Cover photo by Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash

Wonder?lust

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Brother #2 reminded me yesterday that two years ago we happened to be in London at the same time, and met up for a delicious meal at Hawksmoor Knightsbridge. It made us both realize how much we miss travel. Lindsay and I then spent a good chunk of last evening talking about recent trips (Lisbon! Dublin! Paris/Champagne/Liège! Copenhagen/Amsterdam! Stockholm/Gothenberg! And so on.) and dreaming up a list of where we’d love to go when such things are once again possible. It was fun to think about, but bittersweet. I’m trying not to let myself speculate on when, as it’s so out of our control.

But man. Is it ever a list.

Speaking of reminiscing, Lindsay asked to start watching The Wire, as she’s never seen it. I agreed very, very quickly. Can’t wait to revisit all these characters. (Related news: there’s more David Simon coming, and it’s going to be about Baltimore cops again.)

.:.

Cover photo by Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash

Cover photo by Ray Muzyka, used under Creative Commons license

Torpor

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Yesterday was a bit of an exercise in staying still. Sleeping in ’til 9. Staying in bed until noon, save grabbing coffee from downstairs. Walking across the hall to the guest bedroom to start season three of Line Of Duty (imdb), eat too much food delivered from Yum Croissant, and drink a bottle of Raventos i Blanc 2017 “Blanc de Nit” cava rosé. Finally walking downstairs to watch an episode of Think You Know Wine whilst cracking a magnum of Tiny Batch Wine Blaufrankisch. Making pork chops & salad for dinner and finishing the mag. Heading back to the bed to finish (!) season three while Kramer slept hard at his end of the bed.

Today will be busier. But yesterday we accomplished so little that, frankly, it felt like quite the achievement.

.:.

Cover photo by Ray Muzyka, used under Creative Commons license

Let the final phase of this bullshit year begin

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I’m on vacation now, more or less. While I might work a bit more between now and 2021, I’m pretty much shut down.

We obviously couldn’t go home to NS this year, but we have a bit of NS here — my niece is staying with us for a couple of weeks. We picked her up from school today, and have hunkered down. There’ll probably be some Pandemic tonight.

I’ve set up our new Samsung QLED TV. I’d made Lindsay watch Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, so now we’re watching Jedi. I plan to binge season 2 of The Mandalorian as soon as possible. That is all the planning I, uh, plan to do in 2020.

Cover photo by Murai .hr on Unsplash

There’s just too much

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

The absolute dead zone of movie watching continues, but the tear through TV shows (to say nothing of the old shows we watch over and over and over and over and over) is going strong. To wit:

  • We killed Queen’s Gambit in 24 hours, like pretty much everyone else. We also loved it, like pretty much everyone else.
  • Someone recommended the Starz documentary Seduced: The NXIVM Story, and it was okay. Interesting story; weird, soap-y way of telling it. Slightly bizarro for me was seeing Callie from Battlestar Galactica, who I’d kind of had a crush on, as a cult sub-leader. 😦
  • Lindsay had watched most (all?) of Grace and Frankie, and convinced me to join her on the re-watch. I really like it. Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin are just so strong. So are the rest of the cast.
  • We’re throughs season one of Line of Duty, and are well into season two.
  • We destroyed Big Mouth season 4 over two days. So smart, so profane.

We’re almost done the latest season of Westworld but stalled out. We also stalled out a few episodes into season 1 of Succession. I started Lovecraft Country but don’t quite know what to make of it. I have yet to start the last season of Mr. Robot or Killing Eve or even The Mandalorian for crying out loud. Plus countless others I’m missing. So yeah, as much as we’re on a tear, we still have some work to do.

.:.

Cover photo by Murai .hr on Unsplash

Cover photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

Outstanding, Miller.

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

The latest TV kick has been British crime dramas. Lindsay started Broadchurch (imdb | rotten tomatoes) before I did, but I caught up and we finished the whole thing. It’s just so good. All the hype, lived up to.

Then we binged The Stranger (imdb) and Safe (imdb | rotten tomatoes), both written by someone named Harlan Coben, whom I’d never heard of, but I take to be a mystery writer of some kind. Anyway, The Stranger was pretty entertaining, but Safe suffered from Michael C. Hall’s presence in the lead role. I’m sure his dialect coach was trying very hard, but my goodness. No.

Now, with some recommendations from a friend, we’ve set our sights on Retribution and Line of Duty.

.:.

Cover photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

Schitt’s Creek

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I kind of didn’t believe the Schitt’s Creek (imdb | rotten tomatoes) hype when I was hearing it. Despite the cast’s more senior pedigree it was a CBC show. I don’t usually pay attention to those. But then Lindsay watched it and swore I’d like it, so I started. By the middle of season one I was pretty much locked in.

Today, maybe two months after we started it, we finished the series. It definitely made me snort-laugh more than most other recent series I’ve watched, and left some all-time classic lines in my head (e.g., “Where is babay’s chamberr?”). Meanwhile Dan Levy’s reaction when Eugene Levy tries to hug him but gets caught on the seat belt is straight gold. But it was also sweet and joyous without being cloying, which is hard to do, and the final wrap-up mini-doc after the last episode made us cry quite a bit, so. Yeah. Good series. Highly recommended.

I’ve forgotten to write about them, but in recent weeks I’ve watched Run (imdb | rotten tomatoes) and, in an attempt to catch up to Lindsay, season one of Broadchurch (imdb | rotten tomatoes). We also watched Waco (imdb | rotten tomatoes) which, well, meh.

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Baby steps

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Slowly, I am re-entering the world outside the loft. Last Saturday we walked into the east to meet a friend and drink Rorschach beers in a (very brown) Woodbine Park. Two days ago I went to the dentist (a new one; no need to get on transit to visit my old one) after a long wait — my last appointment had been scheduled for March 14 but was obviously cancelled.

I still haven’t been on a patio. I think I’m ready, but Lindsay isn’t quite yet. No matter; we have plenty of wine to keep us company right here in the loft.

We’ve watched some rough documentaries over the past week: first the documentary series Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich (imdb | rotten tomatoes), then Athlete A (imdb | rotten tomatoes). The latter was exceptional — just extremely well done, thoughtful, well-constructed, and responsible in execution and scope. Still, between that and occasionally dabbling in the Waco miniseries, we’ve needed some light palate-cleansers as well, tossing in episodes of New Girl and The Good Place here and there as needed.

Maybe once this crazy heat wave (which, as I type this, has been temporarily replaced with rain at last) subsides we might attempt a patio. Until then: baby steps.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CCPEi2Bh7XB/

.:.

Cover photo by Andre Mohamed on Unsplash

COVID-19: Part the Ninth

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In a lighter timeline than this one I’d be getting ready to fly to London right now. I was meant to speak at a conference at a venue in Westminster. When I got there I’d probably drop my bags and go for a walk around St. James Park. (It’s 23˚ in London as I write this, versus -1˚ here.) Maybe get a coffee at Rag & Bone, or a pint at CASK. But I’m not headed to London, because we’re in the darkest timeline. (Can you tell I’ve finally decided to watch Community all the way through?)

Still, it was a pretty okay week overall. First and foremost, everyone’s still healthy. I took a day off Wednesday, which felt great. My brother celebrated a milestone birthday yesterday. We have plenty of delicious food. Lindsay’s made huge strides with Kramer and has been able to pet him a little, even if he did turn and scratch her pretty hard yesterday.

I mentioned the Peloton bike last time. My worry is that I’d grow tired of it inside of a week, but I’m still really enjoying it. I might have jumped ahead in my ride difficulty a little too quickly, but I’ve reined myself in and can already see/feel progress.

I’ve been trying to keep up with all the great new music coming out, like the new Grimes (very good, and certainly better than her baby names), the new Porridge Radio (excellent) and the new Fiona Apple (brilliant). In and around the afore-mentioned Community I blazed through Unbelievable (imdb | rotten tomatoes), which was hard to watch in the best/right ways and also elevated by Toni Collette, Kaitlyn Dever, and Merritt Wever.

Other than that: LOTS of food & booze deliveries. I might have gone / be going a little overboard.

COVID-19: Part the Seventh

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In a non-COVID world we’d be in Spain right now. Probably Barcelona, or Valencia. Or maybe San Sebastian. Enjoying the weather (it was 21 degrees in Barcelona today). Drinking Albarino and Jerez. Eating pintxos. Maybe watching some flamenco. Then on to Madrid. Instead I opened a 2001 Rioja.

Still, could be much worse. We remain: home, healthy, gainfully employed (and/or schooled, as the case may be), and well-stocked.

We closed off another busy week with some ill-advised delivery from an Italian place, a nice little walk for me concluding in a pickup at Boxcar Social (which has become a bottle shop for the time being), some online hangout time with our friend Sarah, and a chat with my parents today.

I finished The Plot Against America (imdb | rotten tomatoes) this week. Bit of a twist vs. the book, but not a bad one. Well-handled by Simon and Burns, I thought.