a) "Year Of The Rabbit"
Matt Berry is always hilarious and I feel really spoiled that this show, where he plays a ridiculous detective in Victorian London, is airing in America just before "What We Do In The Shadows" returns for a second season. It kind of reminds me of Blazing Saddles (high praise, it goes without saying), the way they've created this comically elevated version of the late 1800s that emphasizes how ugly and cruel the times were in really sharp and silly ways. And David Dawson's portrayal of the Elephant Man is just hysterical.

b) "Dispatches From Elsewhere"
Jason Segel has kept a pretty low profile over the last 5 years, and I was intrigued to see that he was returning with an AMC drama series he created. The first episode was really slow to get going, but I'm intrigued. Learning that the "alternate reality game" the characters are playing is a real thing people play in San Francisco that a documentary was made about disappointed me initially, because it made me feel like there's no way this story is going to build into some exciting larger mythology, but who knows really, maybe it will. If the story is ultimately just about the characters' normal day to day lives, though, that's fine, Eve Lindley and Andre 3000's characters are pretty interesting -- Jason Segel seems to be kind of overdoing this 'expressionless office worker guy with no passions or interests' thing, which is a little annoying. In ways this show reminds me of "Lodge 49," but "Lodge 49" was much better from the jump and I'm still mad at AMC for canceling it.

c) "Hunters"
A series featuring Al Pacino and produced by Jordan Peele understandably arrived with a lot of hooplah, which quickly deflated as soon as people saw how bad it is. At first I thought it'd be kind of lazy to compare this show, which is about people hunting down surviving Nazis in the '70s, to Inglourious Basterds. But as much as I have mixed feelings about post-'90s Quentin Tarantino and his habit of using revenge-themed B-movie tropes to 'correct' history, Basterds was the movie that I think holds up the best. And "Hunters," with its cornball blaxploitation character names and absurdly cartoonish depiction of the Third Reich, manages to Tarantino seem restrained and tasteful by comparison. And that's just how I felt about the show before the season finale, which has two big reveals that are so insanely dumb that I'd encourage you to google spoilers just for a laugh. Ted Mosby is also in this, so 2019-2020 is truly the season of dramas featuring "How I Met Your Mother" alumni, and "Stumptown" is still far and away the best of those shows.

d) "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist"
This show's big silly high concept flourish is that after a freak incident in an MRI machine, a young woman starts to not just hear music all the time but see the people around her singing pop songs that communicate their emotional state. Sometimes it's pretty entertaining, particularly because she imagines whole choreography routines along with the songs, but what surprised me is that the drama element of the show, the idea of someone being able to kind of read the minds of people they know, ends up being kind of sweet and affecting at times. And I really just adore Jane Levy, she's the perfect kind of dryly sarcastic protagonist to make a show like this not come off too saccharine.

e) "I Am Not Okay With This"
This show strongly reminded me of "The End of the F***ing World" before I realized that's it's the same creators and based on a graphic novel by the same author. Really the main differences are it takes place in America and the protagonist has mysterious telekinetic powers. But so far I'm not really liking it quite as much, just not as funny and the characters feel more like boilerplate teen movie archetypes.

f) "Locke & Key"
Whether this is a less creepy "Haunting Of Hill House" or a more creepy Chronicles of Narnia, there are things about "Locke & Key" that feel familiar, but it's good, have enjoyed the first couple episodes.

g) "Gentefied"
This Netflix show has a lot of parallels with the excellent "Vida" but is really charming in its own right and distinct enough tonally, a little more comedic, really promising.

h) "War Of The Worlds"
There's obviously never going to be a bubbly upbeat adaptation of War Of The Worlds, and this one isn't quite so bombastic and scary as the Speilberg movie. But it is very slow and bleak and restrained. Like, a particularly taciturn Gabriel Byrne is the most charismatic character in the whole cast. But I do like the way they've been patiently rolling out the story and revealing things, and there was a dryly funny moment where the astronomer who discovered that aliens were coming is listening to Nick Cave's "Into My Arms," and confesses that she thinks the invasion is her fault because that was the piece of music she chose to beam into space.

i) "Beforeigners"
In this Norwegian show on HBO, a bright light flashes in the sky in modern day Oslo, and people who lived hundreds or thousands of years ago, vikings and stone age primitives and so on, have suddenly shown up alive in the present day. It's a mostly serious show but there are some very goofy choices, including actually having the 'time immigrants' be referred to as beforeigners in the show, and kind of an Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer vibe to watching a lot of the people adjust to modern technology.

j) "Cherish The Day"
This show on OWN that spans years in the life of a black couple is similar to another OWN series that aired a couple years ago, "Love Is," that got canceled in a firestorm of controversy. But "Cherish The Day" is a bit more promising, created by Ava DuVernay and starring Xosha Roquemore, who was always really funny on "The Mindy Project" but does well in a dramatic role.

k) "For Life"
After triumphing on cable with "Power," this show is 50 Cent's first big play on network TV as an executive producer, an ABC legal drama based on the true story of a falsely imprisoned convict who becomes a licensed attorney and works to overturn wrongful convictions until he can get himself out. It's a great premise and Nicholas Pinnock plays the character really convincingly, although it's one of those things where I guess the guy won't get free as long as there's a show, that's kind of a bummer even though he already went free in real life.

l) "Tommy"
Edie Falco as LA's first female chief of police, not that great, with Thomas Sadoski finally in the bland CBS procedural gig he always seemed destined for.

m) "Utopia Falls"
A goofy Hulu take on young adult dystopia stories, where the teens in the ruined future earth find a relic that tells them about old forgotten concepts like hip hop music, a really cheesy show.

n) "The Outsider"
This remained pretty gripping up to the end but maybe not as fascinating as I hoped it would be when watching the early episodes unfold. The last couple episodes had some really intense scenes, though, and I liked the way they reconciled the supernatural elements with the realism of the world and the characters. I do get irritated with the casting on things like this, though, since it takes place in Georgia but has most of the biggest roles occupied by 2 Brits, an Australian, and several Americans without the slightest trace of a southern accent. It's only really distracting with Paddy Considine, though, his attempt at a southern accent is awful.

o) "Luna Nera"
An Italian show on Netflix about a 17th century family of witches, been watching it a little with my wife but I'm still on the fence about it, kind of cheap-looking production values.

p) "Slow Burn"
I like that if I just continue to never listen to podcasts, some of the more interesting ones will eventually be adapted into TV series and I can just watch them instead. "Slow Burn" is kind of a granular examination of Watergate and the end of Nixon's presidency that's obviously intended to give generations that didn't live through it like mine an idea of what it was like, now that we're dealing with a situation with obvious parallels. It's pretty interesting, and I'm glad I'm watching it in series form, I like seeing all the old footage and photos and getting really placed in the middle of it (plus I drive past the Watergate all the time, so it always feels like this history is right in my backyard).

q) "Love Is Blind"
The idea of a dating show where people talk and get to know each other without seeing each other is interesting enough. But it feels like they really leaned into casting conventionally attractive people, many of them dopey actor/model types, so you really just hear the most vapid and inane banter and then they act like they connected on this deep spiritual level. The minimal perfunctory Nick Lachey host segments are kind of hilarious, though. Definitely annoyed that Netflix's other much better show "Dating Around" didn't get remotely as much attention.

r) "Hot Ones: The Game Show"
I really enjoy the original "Hot Ones" web series, in a way they get better interviews with major celebrities than most other shows just because the whole show is just one long conversation with one guest with the goofy but entertaining conceit of them eating progressively spicier hot wings as they go. TruTV is now airing old episodes of "Hot Ones" alongside the new game show version, which is not nearly as good a show but is still pretty entertaining. It also feels a little more like torture for the contestants, someone threw up about 6 minutes into the first episode.

s) "The Crystal Maze"
"Adam Ruins Everything" is a really informative show that handles a lot of nuanced topics intelligently, and it accomplishes that in large part because Adam Conover has this nerdy manic energy that keeps the show from getting dull. So I'm not surprised that Conover is now also the host of a game show for kids on Nickelodeon where he gets to dial that up and way louder suits, he really could become the next generation Bill Nye of children's TV at some point.

t) "ThunderCats Roar"
"ThunderCats" was probably my first favorite TV show besides "Sesame Street," but I have very little residual affection for that poorly made show now. So I'm kind of glad that the reboot my kid is watching now is substantially sillier and more cartoony, the original really just took itself way too seriously.

u) "Ask the Storybots"
My 4-year-old has recently become infatuated with this Netflix show and I'm really impressed with it, lots of kid's shows try to teach something, but this is one more than others where I've seen him really learn and retain information. The episode about why it's important to eat real meals with vegetables before your sugary dessert actually made him more agreeable at dinnertime, it was a real godsend. I have too much of a crush on Judy Greer to not feel confused about her voicing the green storybot, though.

v) "Bluey"
I always though Australian cattle dogs were neat-looking animals and this Aussie cartoon about a blue heeler poppy and his family is really adorable, I'm kind of disappointed my kid watched it once or twice and then had no desire to go back to it.

w) "Project Blue Book"
This show has gotten deeper into the classic Area 51 flying saucer stuff in the second season, but my interest had already started to really wane by that point, don't know if I'll make it to the next season. Wish there were more episodes with Emily Tennant, though.

x) "The Sinner"
I love that "The Sinner" kind of grew from a miniseries into an anthology series of Bill Pullman's character Harry Ambrose investigating different cases, but the second season was definitely a bit less memorable than the first. The third season has really got my attention, though, I'm enjoying seeing this unusual mystery unravel and guess at exactly where it's going. And a lot of the appeal of the show is in Ambrose's lack of people skills and Jessica Hecht in particular is a great foil for him. And Chris Messina has this great unusual quality that's perfect for a character that might be the villain or might be the victim.

y) "Castlevania"
The dialogue on this show is just hysterical, at times I feel like it's getting to almost "Venture Bros." levels of banter. But I also really like the animation style more and more, the design of some of the monsters is really offbeat and creative.

z) "The Soup"
I was pretty annoyed when E! canceled "The Soup," partly because it's the only show of any value on the whole damn network, and partly because it seemed like Joel McHale would've gladly kept doing the show, as evidenced by the short-lived similar Netflix show he did afterwards. But even if he didn't, the original "Talk Soup" changed hosts several times and was good in pretty much every iteration, so I thought there was always potential to carry on with a new host. And now, just 4 years later, E! has made the inevitable decision to revive "The Soup." I've never seen the new host Jade Catta-Preta before, and I'm trying to give her time to grow into the job and not rush to judgment, but after 4 episodes, it's still a little light on laughs, but I think she has potential. I think that McHale and all the best "Talk Soup" hosts all had a little of that Letterman-style self deprecation in how they'd display contempt for some of the more obvious jokes they were telling, I think Catta-Preta has a little of that and could nurture it more.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 09, 2020 at 2:35 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.