TV Diary
a) "The Power"
This Amazon series features a bunch of different storylines in London, Seattle, Moldova, etc. (although the whole thing was filmed in the UK) all revolving around a phenomenon where many teenage girls suddenly develop the power to release lethal jolts of electricity from their fingertips. Obviously the whole world freaks out and many governments talk about imprisoning these girls or legislating their bodily freedom, it's all kind of an unsubtle allegory for real world issues, but is pretty dark and not some kind of heroic X-Men thing, at least so far. Toni Collette is one of my favorite actresses in the world so I hate to be underwhelmed by something starring her, but it's pretty slow going after four episodes, there are so many different storylines and I do not care about Eddie Marson as a sleazy London gangster or whatever.
b) "Beef"
This has gotten an enormous word-of-mouth buzz in the last few days like no new Netflix show in quite a while, it feels like. I'm not too far into it yet but I like that Ali Wong and Steven Yeun are both playing three-dimensional character portrayed with a lot of empathy and nuance as they're just totally giving into petty anger and doing horrible things to each other, it'd be very easy to do a broad comedic version of this story in two hours but they're aiming for something much more difficult.
Scott Z. Burns wrote Contagion, Steven Soderberg's 2011 film about a deadly pandemic that was praised as pretty prescient and scientifically accurate after COVID-19 hit, and he also produced An Inconvenient Truth. So Burns is a pretty smart choice to helm an ambitious Apple TV+ series that dramatizes what Earth could look like in 2037 or 2046 or 2070 as climate change worsens. But I dunno, the attempt to use a bunch of famous actors and turn this into a bunch of compelling interlinked stories, it still feels a little distant and academic. I hate to think about this stuff because it feels so dire but I'm glad people are at least trying to make art about it and this is probably a better approach than Don't Look Up or whatever.
d) "Lucky Hank"
I am one of the few people who likes Bob Odenkirk but really just can't begin to care about Saul Goodman, so I'm glad AMC has given him a starring vehicle where he plays a different character, finally. I like "Lucky Hank" a lot so far, it kind of reminds me of how low stakes cable dramedies used to be when there were so many Showtime shows where some middle-aged intellectual has a series of personal and professional crises -- the cast and the writing are stronger than a lot of those shows were, though.
e) "Unstable"
Victor Fresco has created some of my favorite cult sitcoms of the last 25 years, including "Better Off Ted," "Santa Clarita Diet," and "Andy Richter Controls The Universe," so I''m excited anytime he has a new show. But he co-created "Unstable" with Rob Lowe and his son John Owen Lowe, so I was apprehensive about what seems like a vanity project for an aging star to give his kid a leading role -- I know, it worked out great for "Schitt's Creek," but I don't think we should encourage every show biz family to try it. It's definitely not one of Fresco's best, but it has a bit of the same satire of corporate tech culture as "Better Off Ted," and Rob Lowe is always pretty convincing as a preening egomaniac.
f) "Wellmania"
This Australian comedy on Netflix kind of sends up a lot of different health crazes and wellness trends but in a sort of realistic, rooted in personal experience kind of story. I wish it was a little funnier instead of just going for these light chuckles of recognition, but it's an enjoyable show.
g) "Up Here"
"Up Here" stars Mae Whitman and Carlos Valdes as a pair of young New Yorkers who meet and fall in love in the late '90s, but you constantly see those two characters debate with the voices in their head, a greek chorus of family members and people from their past who sing advice in the form of songs by the composers from Frozen and Coco. Any musical series with original songs in every episode feels like an ambitious undertaking to me, but I feel like even when I find the characters and the story engaging, the music just kind of comes and goes without leaving an impression or staying in my head.
I haven't seen Gabriel Basso in anything since he was in "The Big C" as a teenager a decade ago, so it's kind of a trip to see him play a dashing FBI agent. "The Night Agent" is kind of a generic action show about a government conspiracy, but it's well directed, I liked the first episode.
I feel uncultured because I've never read Great Expectations or even watched any previous adaptation, and this one hasn't gotten very good reviews so I wonder if I should stop watching it and go read Dickens. Matt Berry definitely has the acting chops to do serious dramatic roles but I feel like he's too good at comedy, I just see him in this and find him kind of irrepressibly hilarious.
j) "Saturdays"
Amidst all the De La Soul nostalgia lately, it's kind of sweet that the Disney Channel has this new show based in a roller rink that clearly drew inspiration from "A Roller Skating Jam Named 'Saturdays'" for its title. I hope they use the song at some point. It's a cute little family sitcom, I don't find it especially funny because the humor is geared toward kids, but it's charming.
k) "Liaison"
This Apple TV+ thriller takes place in the UK and France with both English and French dialogue. Pretty good so far, and Eva Green is still just breathtakingly beautiful.
l) "Red Rose"
I was happy to see Isis Hainsworth from Metal Lords land a leading role in this BBC series that's on Netflix, I think she's great. The show is one of those trendy horror things about a mysterious and sinister smartphone app, but I like what I've seen of it so far.
Priscilla Presley co-created this 'adult animated sitcom' for Netflix where Elvis Presley (voiced by Matthew McConaughey) is secretly also a spy for the U.S. government. I liked the Baz Luhrmann biopic, but this attempt at a hipper, more irreverent way to maintain Elvis's presence in pop culture just feels really misconceived, lame and unfunny.
I grew up on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and have a deep love for Jean-Luc Picard and Patrick Stewart, but I didn't have Paramount+/CBS All Access when "Picard" started, so I've been catching up the last couple months to be able to watch the third and final season. So much of the show is fan service, but as a fan I love seeing Spiner and Frakes and so many other familiar faces, much more than the storylines, and sometimes it's a little weird seeing these characters in a sleek modern cable drama with totally different lighting and ambiance from the old show. I'm kinda glad they dropped a lot of the new characters from the first two seasons for the new episodes, I had a hard time caring about the scenes that didn't center on Picard anyway.
I definitely feel like the glut of Star Wars series has diluted the brand, because I've had a hard time paying attention to the latest season of "The Mandalorian" as if it was new episodes of duds like "The Book of Boba Fett" or "Obi-Wan Kenobi." I like the total goofiness of the latest episode with Jack Black and Christopher Lloyd, though.
p) "Snowfall"
The more I think about it the more I feel like "Snowfall" jumped the shark a little with the famous "bodies bodies bodies" scene last year, so I'm glad this is the final season.
q) "Class"
This Indian series on Netflix is actually based on a Spanish series on Netflix that I haven't seen, "Elite," but the whole thing with working class students transferring to a private school just feels so familiar and boilerplate, I guess that's the idea, Netflix just takes a genre and rubber stamps it for a bunch of different markets.
r) "Shahmaran"
I like this Turkish show on Netflix about a professor who has a complicated family history, I thought it was going to be a straightforward drama and was pleasantly surprised that there's a whole fantasy mystery element to the story.
I really dunno about this Chilean show about a guy with down syndrome getting tied up in a murder investigation, I don't think they'd be able to do this show in America.
I don't really understand this Spanish show about two women celebrating their 50th birthdays, like it's very upbeat and silly but I don't know if the sense of humor translates, culturally.
A Spanish mystery show where a little girl disappears during a parade, I got really anxious and upset just watching the first couple episodes to be honest, didn't continue with it.
This Netflix series may have my least favorite animation style I've ever seen in anime, just this garish uncanny valley video game cutscene sort of aesthetic that makes my skin crawl.
A docuseries about a pretty upsetting pattern of unsolved murders of Indigenous women in Montana, I hope this is the kind of thing where the story getting more attention on TV leads to some answers.
MTV doing a reality competition in the modern art world seems iffy, and the title just made me want to make Xzibit jokes. But I am impressed with this show, which also airs on the Smithsonian Channel, and was filmed at MICA in Baltimore, it feels like they selected talented artists and tried to make a credible show, at least it feels that way to me as someone who's not too familiar with that world.
To most hip hop fans I know, the Rap Caviar playlist on Spotify is kind of a laughing stock, this enormously influential corporate thing that sort of represents the blandest distillation of the zeitgeist. I kind of feel bad that this fairly insightful and well made docuseries has the Rap Caviar name slapped on that, because the stories it tells about the rise of someone like Tyler, The Creator feels like the complete opposite of the Spotify algorithm side of the music industry.
I still really enjoy this goofy show, as much as I don't care for Jimmy Fallon, I'm glad it's back for another season. Obviously a lot of the games in the show are partly won with musical talent, but it's also entertaining when they have someone like Patti LaBelle on who has kind of a bemused "I'm too old for this shit" vibe.
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on Monday, April 10, 2023 at 8:07 AM.
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