Lindsay started watching Breaking Bad, and I’ve jumped on board. I almost forgot how good it was. All these scenes. All these characters. We recently met Saul. Then Gus. Then Mike. And I keep thinking ahead to all the scenes yet to come, and getting giddy.
Anyway, we’re trying to blaze through it quickly so El Camino (imdb | rotten tomatoes) doesn’t get spoiled. But not too quickly.
Lindsay got me hooked on Pose (imdb | rotten tomatoes) a while back. We’ve just finished season 1 and are ready to start season 2, whenever we have a free (ha!) hour.
I know I’ve only seen half of it, but it’s easy to see why Billy Porter won an Emmy last week for playing Pray Tell.
Season 1 of Mindhunter (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was one of my favourite shows of 2017. I reckon season 2 can count on a place in this year’s list. The subject matter was still fascinating, Wendy Carr is super bad-ass and interesting, and adding a racial element via the Atlanta child murders storyline gave it more depth.
My only gripe: why was everyone wearing so much yellow face makeup? I know David Fincher didn’t direct all the episodes, but his signature is on everything, and he’s so meticulous about detail (either while shooting or in post-production) that I find it hard to believe this wasn’t intentional.
Anyway. Still brilliant.
We’ve been watching a fair amount of TV lately vs. going out (more on that later) so have blitzed through a few seasons / series / documentaries. The ones I’ve watched (two with Lindsay, one without) have all focused on intriguing women.
The Great Hack (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was, apart from some annoying voiceover at the beginning and end, a pretty interesting look at Cambridge Analytica. I think it missed some context that Michael Lewis covers in his podcast, and was maybe a bit more favourable to Brittany Kaiser than seemed appropriate, but still good overall.
The Honourable Woman (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was a BBC series from a few years back, eight episodes in all, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal who was — naturally — amazing. I love British spy shit. Love it. I’ll take all of that ye got, BBC.
Season 2 of Killing Eve (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was almost as good as the first, and the first was one of the best things I watched last year. Villanelle remains one of the most fun and well-written characters on TV — not surprising since the series was adapted for TV by the brilliant Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
More. More like this please.
Jesus, Ava DuVernay’s story about the Central Park Five, When They See Us (imdb | rotten tomatoes), is harrowing, but it’s so good. Set some time aside to watch it. Just be ready to be angry,
.:.
Cover photo by Preston Pownell, via Unsplash
The amount of available excellent TV remains overwhelming, especially now that Amazon Prime Video can be cast to Google devices. As such, I’ve managed to get through a few more seasons of shows, betwixt all the half-finished shows on the go. To wit:
Billions (imdb | rotten tomatoes) remains pulp in season four, but it’s entertaining pulp about megalomaniac billionaires and politicians.
I thought Stranger Things (imdb | rotten tomatoes) season two was okay, but season three to me felt like a return to form. Lots of great jokes. Amazing new cast additions, mostly inside the mall. Nice through-line about kids growing up.
For some reason I’ve always had a weird soft spot for Tom Clancy stuff (The Hunt For Red October is, like, comfort food for me) so Jack Ryan (imdb | rotten tomatoes) starring John Krasinski seemed like a safe bet. And it was. Nothing special. Nothing groundbreaking. Just entertaining violent geopolitics, as The Clance intended.
About a week ago we finished the miniseries Chernobyl (imdb) and it was amazing. One of the best things I’ve seen on TV, maybe. Shocking (turns out I knew very little about the disaster), incredibly sad, perfectly scored, so well-acted, and — apparently — incredibly accurate in its recreation.
More than eight years ago, when brother #2 was visiting, he saw an ad for a new HBO show that got him really excited. It was a TV version of a book series he’d been reading for years, but I’d never heard of. The book series was called A Song Of Ice And Fire. The TV show would be called Game Of Thrones.
It quickly became my favourite show. Not the best, mind you — it was always only high-production-value fantasy escapism — but my favourite. I’d anxiously await new episodes, re-watch every new episode the next day, and consume reviews, critiques, and podcasts about it. I ended up reading the books, and — once the show caught up and passed the books, and diverged from them to a yet-unknown degree — felt the same mild thrill of discovery as everyone else watching.
It ended last night, obviously, with more of a whimper than a bang. The last two seasons, as have been well-documented, felt rushed and absurd, given neither the room to breathe nor the grounding in brute reality afforded the earlier seasons. I still felt compelled to watch, and was engrossed in every second, but it didn’t resonate with me, didn’t affect me the next day. No character was developed in these final two seasons, and ultimately the characters were what drew me in.
That said, if they decide to make a spin-off series about Robert’s Rebellion, I’m cancelling all of my Sunday night plans for three months.
About a week ago we finished Russian Doll (imdb | rotten tomatoes) which was maybe the most enjoyable, inventive (even though it seems like a well-worn plot device), sharply funny series I’ve seen in a while. It’s only eight half-hour episodes so you can blaze through it, but man, is it good. Natasha Lyonne’s incredible, but as a bonus Greta Lee steals every scene she’s in.
Just go watch it.
(Warning: once you do, the following song will be stuck in your head forever.)
We’ve consumed a lot of Netflix documentaries lately. Some good, some freaky.
Shirkers (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was a true art piece, a small story told in such a compelling and honest way.
Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was mostly pulp, but a bit fascinating because I don’t remember reading much about the case before. Like, how many times did the guy escape?
Meanwhile, Abducted In Plain Sight (imdb | rotten tomatoes) beggared belief. We watched it last night and we’re still bewildered by it today. Not that it was hard to understand; just that…the parents. Watch it. You’ll understand.
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 