TV Diary
Maybe it's reductive to say one Irish show reminds me of another one, but "How To Get To Heaven From Belfast" is, like "Bad Sisters," about a group of Irish women who are harboring a secret about a man's death. Even the romantic subplot is kind of similar. But it's pretty good, from the same creator as "Derry Girls," a show I liked but never kept up with beyond the first few episodes, I should probably go back and finish that one. I was surprised at how dark the story got by the end, but it worked and set up a possible second season well.
Another dark comedy with a similar tone, this one British. It opens with a guy mourning his father who died 2 months earlier, and then his mother says "Can you keep a secret?" and his father walks in. And so the rest of the series is them collecting the insurance money from his death and trying to keep the secret that he's still alive, pretty entertaining stuff but that opening moment is just perfect, I love that they made it the title of the show. I wasn't familiar with Mandip Gill and she's absolutely gorgeous.
c) "56 Days"
"56 Days" on Amazon Prime is kind of an old-fashioned 'erotic thriller' with a very overused modern plot device -- the first episode shows two characters meet and hook up, and also shows you the discovery of an unidentified dead body in one of their homes 56 days later. So the couple episodes I've watched, and probably nearly all of the 8-episode season, are devoted to showing you various ways those characters are deceptive and untrustworthy and making you try to predict who's going to kill who. I'm not a big fan of that kind of storytelling, although I don't mind terribly that those characters are played by two very beautiful people, Avan Jogia and Dove Cameron (he's engaged to Halsey, she has a budding music career as a replacement-level Halsey). There are some cartoonish bits where Cameron will be acting friendly or flirtatious with somebody and then will turn away from them and immediately make an evil face so you know she's planning something devious and underhanded.
The idea of doing a "Star Trek" show about the Starfleet Academy that we've always heard about is so good, and it's such a bummer that it's another mediocre Alex Kurtzman "Trek" show rolling off the assembly line. It's fun to see Holly Hunter as a Star Trek captain and even Paul Giamatti in a guest role as a Klingon, but I just hate the look of these shows and some of the dialogue is just so corny and not in an appropriately "Star Trek" way.
e) "The Beauty"
On paper, "The Beauty" could have been the right show from the right person at the right time. Ryan Murphy's first hit "Nip/Tuck" was all about the dark side of vanity and insecurity, and revisiting that subject matter from a body horror angle in the 'looksmaxxing' era could've been a slam dunk on the zeitgeist. But it's genuinely one of the worst shows Murphy has ever made, and he's made a few duds. The first three episodes feature long, repetitive setpieces of three different people undergoing the same grotesque transformation, before introducing to a larger array of wacky characters like a one-eyed assassin who loves yacht rock. And there's just something about the slick Murphy house style that makes the gory special effects shots and the knowingly absurd moments all just not land as well as they should. Like if you had a David Fincher-type director with a real sense of style and atmosphere direct these actors with these scripts, it might not be great, but it would probably be good.
I liked the first season of "School Spirits" a lot and got a bit bored of it in the second season. It feels like they sort of finished off their original idea for the show and are trying to revitalize it with a new storyline and some new cast members for season three, though, including Jennifer Tilly, so far I think it's working pretty well.
g) "Hijack"
The first season of "Hijack" was about Idris Elba as a corporate negotiator who has to negotiate with airline hijackers, and the second season is about a train hijacking. The spirit of Speed 2 is alive, I love it, I hope a boat gets hijacked in season 3.
h) "Shoresy"
I miss some of the old supporting cast from the first three seasons of "Shoresy" -- at one point in season 5 they mention Sanguinet but he didn't actually appear on camera or anything, which was kind of disappointing. But it's still a pretty great show, I enjoy seeing Shoresy and Laurel finally become a couple, and just felt kinda proud of the show for actually getting a Wayne Gretzky cameo.
Time flies, it feels bizarre that this show is already in its fourth season. Vella Lovell's character on "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" was so hilarious that I'm sometimes annoyed that she's a bit more of a straight man character on "Animal Control," but she's still great, I think it's nice that they let her and Michael Rowland's characters finally get together. I've also enjoyed Ken Jeong being in the last few episodes and having a little "Community" semi-reunion with Joel McHale.
k) "Strip Law"
The 'animated sitcom for adults' genre has been in pretty rough shape for a while now, so I was cautiously optimistic when I saw that voice cast for "Strip Law" includes Keith David, Stephen Root, Adam Scott, Janelle James, and Jim Rash. It's pretty good, though, some of the humor is a little predictable but it occasionally gets a belly laugh out of me.
A French show on Netflix that takes place in the 16th century, one of those old-fashioned pulpy action shows, but with lots of nudity.
m) "Dudes"
A German sitcom about a group of guys who are all dealing with middle age in different ways, but with lots of nudity. A decently funny show, I could see an American adaptation being popular, without the nudity (or possibly with, idk).
A fun Japanese show on Netflix about a young woman who wants to be a serious reporter but ends up getting transferred to a tabloid and has to cover sordid scandals and gets caught in that world, kinda reminds me of The Devil Wears Prada.
It's funny to see a Korean show with the corniest premise about someone having wishes granted by a literal genie, like it makes me wonder if someone would ever try to reboot "I Dream of Genie" in America today.
Sweden first allowed women to be police officers in 1958, and this Netflix period piece is about some of the first women on the job. Like a lot of period piece TV, the costuming and visual details are more impressive than the writing, which feels a little shallow and obvious.
A truly weird Korean show where a modern day chef magically gets transported back to the 10th century and becomes the personal chef of a monarch of the Joseon dynasty and impresses everyone with her futuristic cooking techniques, like how do you even come up with a premise like this.
This Indian show is about a game developer who's dealing with misogynistic online harassment, it's weird that the only TV show I've seen reckon with Gamergate at all was made on the other side of the world.
Another pretty weird premise for this Taiwanese show, two women practice a resurrection ritual to bring the head of a scam center back to life to avenge their daughters who were kidnapped and forced to work there, one of whom died and one of whom is a coma.
Maybe I heard something about the ABA at some point in the past but I don't think I had any idea that an NBA competitor existed for 9 years in the '60s and '70s and it's a pretty fascinating story, especially how they hired away some NBA players but also gave a bunch of unknown amateur players a chance to go professional.
Most showbiz documentaries these days fall into two categories: docs where the celebrity subject has editorial control and makes sure they come out looking good, and docs where the celebrity subject doesn't participate at all. "Reality Check" is an increasingly rare and entertaining example of a third category: Tyra Banks sat for interviews about "ANTM" and tries to put a positive spin on every problematic story, but the whole thing is just so unflattering to her. It's interesting because the show was sort of ahead of the curve in trying to counteract some of the harmful standards perpetuated by the fashion industry but still managed to reinforce a lot of them, so it's like an autopsy of the pitfalls of the early woke era, and of trying to be politically correct in the messy sensationalistic reality TV system.
Watching this Amazom Prime docuseries about female CEOs, including "ANTM" alum Winnie Harlow, right after finishing "Reality Check" kind of made impossible to watch this through anything other than the lens of the weaknesses of girlboss feminism.
These true crime docs always make me aware of stories that probably made the national news that I have no memory of hearing about that the time. And "Girl On the Run" is about Sarah Pender, who was convicted of a double murder and described as a 'female Charles Manson,' and escaped from prison for several months in 2008. Pretty crazy stuff, and it's fascinating that Hull sat down for onscreen interviews to share all the details, and also maintain her innocence in the murder case.
This PBS miniseries is pretty interesting, I feel like a lot of people would benefit from watching it right now, when it feels like there's more resentment festering between the Black community and the Jewish community than I've ever seen in my lifetime.
The score in this is way too dramatic, it makes me feel like I'm watching a movie full of intense forboeding like Tรกr and not a Netflix docuseries about a famous TV chef.
This A&E show, where each episode follows a police investigation beat by beat via body cam and dash cam and Ring camera footage, is kind of impressively put together, but I don't particularly like watching this kind of stuff and I really don't like the whole surveillance state we're living it that makes it possible.
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on Wednesday, February 25, 2026 at 6:37 PM.
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