TV Diary
a) "Mo"
"Ramy" is probably the best current show on TV that hasn't aired a new episode in over 2 years, but with the new season coming later this month, I was pretty happy to see that Ramy Youssef co-created a Netflix vehicle with his co-star Mohammed Amer that is nearly as good. "Mo" is in many ways a love letter to Houston, with lots of car culture and a lean subplot and a Bun B cameo. And that's also kind of infuriating, because Houston is the 3rd-most populous city in America, and think about how many shows about NYC and L.A. there are by comparison. But it's also about a Palestinian trying to get legal asylum in America, and it's a very funny universal show about a guy trying to make a living and figure things out with his girlfriend and his disabled brother. There's a couple episodes where the plot kind of goes into this unexpected action movie sort of thing, and times when you really notice Amer's limitations as a comedian-turned-actor, but he has great chemistry with Teresa Ruiz, overall it's an excellent show.
I rolled my eyes when I thought Amazon was sinking a billion dollars into a new serialized version of the same story of Frodo and Gandalf that was just filmed pretty well two decades ago. But this turned out to be sort of a prequel thing about Middle Earth's past, and so far it's pretty hard to care about any of the characters in this not-nearly-as-epic tale, including the show's Galadriel and Elrond, which so far pale in comparison to Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving in the Peter Jackson movies. I'm willing to stick with it and hope all the world-building pays off, but so far I'm not inspired,
This Apple TV+ series is about five Irish sisters, one of whom is married to a total bastard who she'll never leave, and the story is split into two timelines. In the earlier timeline, her four sisters decide to murder the bastard, and make several unsuccessful attempts to kill him in ways that look like an accident. In the later timeline, he's dead, but you don't really know how he died, and a pair of insurance investigators are interviewing the family and trying to rule out any foul play before his life insurance policy is paid out. The novelty of the story slowly revealing the missing middle chapter is fun, but what really makes the show work is the wonderful cast (although to be fair I just really like listening to women with Irish accents talk). Sarah Greene in particular is a standout, who's surprisingly mostly done stage work before this show, would love to see more of her.
There are people who acutely hate the MCU's brand of humor, but I've generally liked the more comedic stuff like Ragnarok and Ant-Man the most. And the first episode of "She-Hulk" made me laugh a lot, and the most recent episode with Benedict Wong and Patty Guggenheim (from the good but short-lived "Florida Girls") was even funnier. Everyone who's seen "Orphan Black" knows that Tatiana Maslany is incredibly talented, but I kind of forgot how strong her comedy chops are.
This is a pretty charming Peacock show about 4 women living together in London after college, I'm smitten with the Scottish one, Marli Siu.
This sci-fi show on Netflix is about three people who undergo an experimental gene therapy and end up with superpowers, but kind of unpleasant ones that turn them into monsters. Morgan Taylor Campbell's character, a rock singer who's afflicted with super-sensitive hearing and can now break glass with her voice, is really funny and entertainingly written, but I'm a little on the fence about the show so far, feels a little low budget and slapdash.
g) "Last Light"
Apparently Matthew Fox hasn't acted in a single thing in 7 years, and this Peacock series is his comeback. Unfortunately, it's kind of a bland post-"Lost" sci-fi show about an apocalyptic energy crisis, it's all just kind of dark and dour and I don't care about any of the characters enough to get invested in the story.
A creepy show on Netflix where a family takes in a foster kid who recently ran away from a cult and there's some weird supernatural stuff going on with them. I feel like the show could go either way but it's off to a decent start, and Bishop Briggs did a theme song for the show that really sets the tone perfectly.
i) "Fakes"
This Canadian show on Netflix is about two teenagers who start a fake ID empire, I was really pleasantly surprised by how funny it is. Strong cast and sharp writing, with an entertaining 'dueling perspectives' structure with the two characters who have completely different versions of what happened.
A sweet, affecting show on Apple TV+ about a 13-year-old girl who's had cancer, and gets out of the hospital and decides she wants to go back to school and live her life and not be afraid of whether she gets sick again, really pulls the heartstrings.
This Netflix legal drama is very cheesy and soapy with some really contrived romantic plots, I watched every episode because Arden Cho is really cute, but it was a dumb show.
I got to review the first 4 episodes of this season of "Reservation Dogs" a few weeks ago, but I've continued to get early screeners of episodes, so I've seen episode 8 that's airing in a couple days. And I will say, it's centered on Officer Big and Kenny Boy. And while I'm often not a fan of episodes of shows where characters get dosed with psychedelics, it's a good one, with a bit of backstory about Elora's dead mother. I've enjoyed the way this season has kind of let various characters go off on their own little adventures apart from the rest of the cast, the Cheese episode and the episode with Rita and her friends at the conference were standouts.
m) "Grown-ish"
I was wondering if "Grown-ish" would kind of run its course this year with the characters finishing college, but instead they've kind of cycled in a new cast centered around Junior, Zoey's little brother from "Black-ish," as he begins college. I was never really super into this show and just kind of watched it out of habit anyway, and I'm not really interested in this new version of the show where Francia Raisa and Chloe and Halle aren't still there but Diggy Simmons is, so I'm finally going to give it a rest.
I thought season 2 concluded back in March, but it turns out it was just the first half of a 16-episode season so there have been more new episodes the last few weeks. The show manages a nice balancing act where Alan Tudyk being an absurd space alien is the point of the show, but I genuinely like the rest of the cast, the cops Mike and Liv are funny, Sara Tomko is dreamy.
This French show on Netflix about two young women who decide to 'detox' from social media and abstain from the internet is pretty good (although honestly I don't know why they didn't keep its title in France, "Detox").
I thought this Spanish series on Netflix was just a garden variety coming-of-age thing where a girl starts at a new school, but then there was this supernatural twist where she inherits powers from her grandmother who was a witch, fun little show.
q) "Pantheon"
This animated series on AMC grapples with the idea of people being able to talk to AI versions of dead loved ones, which is unfurled in a very subtle and unsettling way. The whole premise is really in the zeitgeist these days and there have already been some "Black Mirror" episodes dealing with the idea, but really I just don't much enjoy these kind of slow somber adult animation shows.
As a longtime "Community" fan, I've tended to think of Dan Harmon as being equally responsible for "Rick and Morty" with Justin Roiland. But based on the other animated series they've done separately, Roiland's "Solar Opposites" is basically "Rick and Morty" at 85% strength, while Harmon's "Little Demon" is incredibly weak. I haven't laughed once in three episodes, and have only nodded with respect a couple times at cleverly constructed plots or dialogue, there's some decent ideas here but as a comedy it just falls completely flat and the voice cast is very bland.
Amongst all the bad news around HBO Max these days, it's comforting that "Harley Quinn" is still one of the funniest shows on TV and got renewed for a 4th season. This season has been a little more hit and miss, but some great episodes, especially the one where Joker is elected mayor of Gotham.
t) "Lost Ollie"
My son Daniel has a stuffed bunny, Bernard, that's his most prized possession that he takes with him everywhere, and a couple months ago on a family road trip we had a close call where we misplaced Bernard and it took us 3 days to figure out where he was (he was left in a hotel room), it was all very dramatic. I put on this Netflix show, about a lost stuffed bunny named Ollie, not sure whether Daniel would love the show or whether it would bring up bad memories. It was more the latter for him, so we didn't watch too much of it together, but I thought it was a touching show, good visual effects.
This anime series on Netflix is about a kid whose uncle comes out of a coma 17 years after being hit by a truck, and suddenly has all these powers that he got from the world he went to during the coma. Fun weird premise, but I don't think I'm enough of an anime guy to get into this.
"Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty" was a wildly entertaining show full of great performances that was, apparently, historically inaccurate and/or unflattering enough that there have already been, less than six months later, two docuseries seeking to correct the public record: "They Call Me Magic" on Apple TV+ (which I haven't watched) and now "Legacy: The True Story of the L.A. Lakers."
This docuseries about Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney deciding to buy a Welsh football club is entertaining partly because they're both seasoned comedy guys who know how to keep things light. But what surprised me is that a lot of the show is these empathetic portraits of the people in Wrexham who play on, work for, or cheer on the team, which really helps you get caught up in the drama of these fish-out-of-water new owners from Hollywood trying to help the team succeed.
The latest Netflix dating show about insanely hot people hooking up at a seaside resort is a lot like the others, with the twist here that pairs of siblings are all there, both trying to find romance and be each other's wingman. Of course, the title "Dated & Related" has some terrible incest vibes, but the premise itself is clever, I think it instantly makes most people think about awkward it'd be to try and flirt with someone with their brother or sister in the room.
This is an HGTV home renovation show like a hundred others, which isn't usually my bag. But I got drawn into this one, the host Christy Lee is pretty likable and is hands-on with the renovations and works with people around Detroit where she's from.
This Netflix show is like a real estate version of "Shark Tank" where a panel of wealthy real estate magnates meet with homeowners and they get this one opportunity to sell their house with no middleman and negotiate right there onscreen to agree to a price. Not a bad show, takes something I don't find interesting and makes it watchable, but once I watched an episode or two I got the idea and didn't need to see any more.
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