I finally finished watching The Man In The High Castle (imdb | rotten tomatoes). The concept sounded so cool and I wanted so badly for it to be better, but other than Rufus Sewell and Chelah Horsdal it just felt so…stilted.
Oh well. On to BoJack Horseman.
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Cover photo by The Q Speaks, used under Creative Commons license
About a week ago I started binge-watching Fleabag (imdb | rotten tomatoes) again. I’d started watching it with Lindsay and then just fell off for some reason. She finished it ages ago; what spurred me to go back to it was that she bought tickets to see a recording of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s performance of the Fleabag play at the National Theatre in London last September, at the Paradise Theatre on Bloor.
First, the series: as we all know by now, it’s brilliant. All the superlatives are earned. It’s clever and moving and dark. I think season 2 might be even better than season 1, but might need another watch to confirm that.
Second, the (filmed) one-woman show: recaps a lot of the first season of the show, often verbatim. Offered a few interesting changes. Also strips it down to a woman on a stool, so no winks at the camera or other actors to help carry things. I might have found it funnier if I didn’t know 98% of the jokes in advance, but it was enjoyable to watch. Cool theatre too — we sat in comfy chairs in the balcony and had cocktails brought ’round.
There’s also a bar attached to the theatre — Bar Biltmore — and a restaurant — Osteria Rialto. We had late reservations at the latter, and passed the time at the former with cocktails (Paper Planes, Negronis), wine (Gruner Veltliner, a crazy Chardonnay) and oysters.
For dinner we had:
The salumi board ended up being massive, so we ordered bread and cheese to go with it; by the time that was done all we could manage was a primi each. The secondi and dolci menus looked great, so we’ll have to go back and restrain ourselves out of the gate.
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Cover photo from the Paradise site
The Good Place (imdb | rotten tomatoes) wrapped last week, thus ending one of the better bits of television — certainly network television — in some time. It had a lovely send-off, and I miss the characters already. Especially Michael.
At one point I’d tried keeping a list of all the philosophy books they referenced, but I gave up by episode, like, four. I might want to read them, but I still have back Atlantic articles from two years ago, so.
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Photo by Giammarco Boscaro on Unsplash
Not long ago I binge-watched the second and third (final) seasons of The Deuce (imdb | rotten tomatoes), David Simon’s latest series. As with most of his work it dealt with the transformation of an American city; this was about New York — specifically midtown Manhattan, around 42nd Street (aka, The Deuce) — in the 70s and 80s, in and around the world of prostitution and nightclubs and porn. Like Treme, I found it only semi-compelling when watching it, but it’s stuck with me for weeks. I can’t wait for his next one.
Speaking of which, there’s one city I’m not sure why he hasn’t yet written about. Today I listened to a Reveal podcast about Detroit, and how — after fifty years of slow decline, massively exacerbated by the 2008 recession — it’s still recovering. It seems custom-made for Simon. Here’s hoping.
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,
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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.
