Tag: media (Page 7 of 12)

Mystify: Michael Hutchence
What a beautiful man Michael Hutchence was. Not just physically, he had a beautiful soul, too. He wasn’t a voice of a generation – well, maybe he was in Australia – but if you came up in the late ‘80s and listened to pop music, he sang a lot of songs that were in high rotation. INXS was never my favorite group, but they were often one of my 5-10 favorites, and I owned a surprising number of their albums.

I figured this would be a downer since he died by hanging himself. But I was not prepared for how brutal the last half hour would be. I did not know he had a traumatic brain injury he kept secret for the last six years of his life that pretty much turned him into a completely different person, which led to some serious substance abuse issues. I forgot how he got involved with Bob Geldof’s ex-wife, and how one of his final acts before he killed himself was begging Geldof to allow her to bring their kids to Australia to be with Hutchence.

B+

Lance

The Last Dance brought about a wave of nostalgia and good feelings, reminding us of the greatness of Michael Jordan and making us appreciate his pathological need to win.

This…man, totally different feeling. I needed a shower after watching it.

If you’ve been with me since the early days of the blog you know Lance was one of the biggest topics I wrote about in its first few years. And I’ve grappled with how I feel about Lance on here several times since his disgraceful admissions.

So I don’t know what I was expecting from this. I’m pretty sure I didn’t expect to feel as dirty as I did. I think I was hoping Lance of 2020 was a man who had made amends and adjustments and while perhaps not worthy of admiration, deserving of some forgiveness.

Nope. He still comes across as an absolute ass, only making statements of regret because he thinks that is what is expected of him and will allow him to get the attention he craves. There is zero sincerity or remorse in anything he says. The one moment he appears to crack a little, in the closing minutes of episode two when he speaks of Jan Ullrich, he turns that moment and makes it about himself.

Interesting and well done from a film-making perspective, but it is the final nail in the coffin of Lance’s public image.

B

Knives Out

A completely entertaining and fun two hours. I heard lots of people were put off by Daniel Craig’s accent. I loved it. I thought it had just enough ridiculousness in it to make it work.

A-

Without Bias

I have my DVR set to record all the 30 for 30 episodes and this aired the week of the anniversary of Len Bias’ death. I assumed it was new. I got about 20 minutes and kept thinking it felt weird. The tone, the graphics, the music all seemed out-dated. During a commercial I checked and saw that there was a very good explanation for that: it was made in 2009.

A pretty good overview of the potential Len Bias showed, how his life ended, and the tragedies that continued to plague his family. A little too maudlin in tone for my tastes, though.

B

8:46 – Dave Chappelle

It is kind of crazy that of all the things that have been in the media over the last month about race relations in this country, this is the piece that moved me the most. It’s not a traditional Chappelle performance. Rather, it is an extended monologue in front of an audience in which Dave shares his thoughts on the George Floyd killing and its aftermath. The moments when he pours his anger out were the most affecting moments I saw in June.

A

Wonder Woman

So S watched this one night, which is pretty funny. She told L and I that we should watch it, and we did a few nights later. I think L really enjoyed it. I thought the story was a little uneven, and the visuals were not nearly as dazzling as the Marvel movies are.

But let’s get down to the biggest question about this movie. My generation grew up in Linda Carter as Wonder Woman. And late 1970s Lynda Carter was one of the most dazzlingly beautiful women ever. Tough shoes to fill. Gal Gadot did just fine. I recently heard a term that definitely applies to her: she is galactically hot. Plus she looked like a true badass where Carter was always kind of, I hate to say it, girly in her action scenes. Different times.

B for the movie, A+++++ for everything about Gadot

Wind of Change

About a month ago I read Patrick Radden Keefe’s Say Nothing, which was excellent. Around the same time I was encouraged to read it by one friend, another friend recommended the Wind of Change podcast. It sounded interesting so I dropped it into my queue but kept putting it off. Until I realized that the podcast was hosted by Patrick Radden Keefe. I quickly moved it up the queue, slowly caught up, and completed it last week just after the final episode dropped.

It was also excellent.

The pod was built upon a story a friend of Keefe’s told him several years ago. This friend had contacts in the CIA and claimed a former CIA agent had told him that the song “Wind of Change,” by the German band The Scorpions, was written by the CIA in an effort to destabilize the Soviet Union and help democracy spread after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

This story sounded insane to Keefe, but he was intrigued and spent several years investigating. Over the podcast’s eight episodes, Keefe explores all angles of the story. The origins of the rumor. How the CIA has used pop culture to influence foreign populations over the years. How the CIA responds to requests for information. What it was like to be a rock musician in the final days of the USSR. A notorious late ‘80s Moscow concert performed by western bands. The infamous rock manager Doc McGhee. And, finally, Keefe sits down with Klaus Meine, lead singer of the Scorpions and writer of “Wind of Change,” to discuss the rumors and see how he would respond.

The story is really well done all around. Even if you don’t like late 80s hair metal, I bet you’ll enjoy this podcast.

A

Ozark

I’ll leave the big one for last. Over most of June I watched all three seasons of Ozark. I had never watched it before, despite having many friends tell me it was good. What always made me hold back were the reviews I had read which, while generally positive, almost always noted that Ozark fell short of matching a very similar show, Breaking Bad. I tried to put those critiques out of my head, but it was tough not to go back to them.

That’s because there are so many clear parallels between the shows. If you break things down you can argue that the shows are actually quite different, but from a 40,000 foot level, they do follow similar arcs and have similar elements. And while I really enjoyed Ozark, I agree with those critics who said for all its quality, it is definitely weaker than Breaking Bad.

What also jumped out to me, though, was how there are many parallels between Ozark and my personal favorite of recent prestige TV shows: The Americans. Many critics suggested that The Americans wasn’t really about espionage and global politics, but rather about marriage and how couples communicate, grow, and deal with the changes that life throws at them when the lust wear off. And marriage – and relationships in general – is certainly a huge part of Ozark. As with the common elements with Breaking Bad, for all that Ozark does correctly when it comes to relationships, I kept feeling like it was either following ground that The Americans had cut, or tackling similar themes not quite as well as that show did.

I think some of this comes down to there are no genuinely likable characters in Ozark. Everyone is deeply flawed and possibly evil. Hell, even the Byrde kids are loaded with issues. They are all compelling as hell, and I was always deeply interested to see how each conflict would resolve itself. But I’m never really rooting for anyone to win/survive. Both Breaking Bad and The Americans offered you characters to pull for. Sometimes those characters had huge issues that made it tough to love them, but there will still those glimmers that had you wanting them to get through their troubles.

I kind of want everyone to die in the last season of Ozark.

I realize it may be an unfair comparison, but for me it just doesn’t match up to either Breaking Bad or The Americans. It’s still a very good show, just not a legendary one.

A-

My goal for May was to knock a bunch of movies off my To Watch list. At first glance it will look like I did exactly that. But I must admit I watched eight of these movies in that last nine days of the month. That was solid work!

The Last Dance

Well, shit, I never got around to writing about this. I guess it’s because I’ve talked about it so much to so many people I never felt the need to share more here. So I’ll try to sum up quick.

I loved it. It brought back a ton of memories. I understand that the control Michael Jordan had over the series was problematic, but that’s true no matter who makes a film. And if giving him control was the cost of getting him to talk, it was worth it. I’ve fallen a little out of love with MJ in his retirement as we’ve seen just how pathological his need to win is and how he’s struggled to shut it off. But putting it back in context of his playing days made me overlook the troublesome aspects of that drive. I thought the most powerful moment of the series was the final scene of episode seven or eight, when he was explaining the cost of his personality. In general I don’t think MJ has regrets or shame or pain for anything he’s done. But in that moment, he showed that there is a price. He may have “boys” from his playing days, but does he truly have friends, when his goal was always to dominate everyone, even the players he was close to?

This was great and I’m equal parts craving and dreading the next attempt to do a series like this. I’m not sure it will work for other athletes the way it worked for MJ’s story.

A

Lunar
A cool little short that recreates the Apollo moon landings with pictures taken on the Apollo missions.

A

A Parks and Recreation Special – Full Special – YouTube
Who better than the P&R cast to give us a moment of happiness in the midst of this horrible time? Except for that Jerry. God, Jerry!

A

The Irishman
I have no excuse for putting this off so long. Goodfellas is one of my very favorite movies ever. I also loved Casino. Another Martin Scorsese mafia epic with Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci would seem like a no-doubter, right? Especially when you throw in Al Pacino’s addition to the gang.

I put it off from months for one reason or another but finally – FINALLY! – started it on Friday, May 8, and watched about an hour. The next evening I pulled it up on my laptop with earbuds, thinking I would watch a half hour or so until the kids started to head upstairs and I finish on a TV. Next thing I knew it was two hours later and I had watched the entire movie.

So, worth the wait? Absolutely. A fantastic third chapter to Scorsese’s mob trilogy. It is a compelling, wonderfully shot, entertaining movie. Al Pacino is especially fantastic, adjusting his typical manner to fit Jimmy Hoffa’s upper midwest accent. That said, it was weird hearing a bunch of New York/New Jersey Italians attempt to speak like Philly Italians, Irish, and Detroit Germans.[1]

What stuck out to me was the tone of the movie. It felt like a long, bittersweet good bye. It is hard to imagine Scorsese, DeNiro, and Pesci doing another three-hour mafia movie together. This was their valedictory lap, and for all the goodness, there was that hint of sadness knowing that this is the closure of one of the great chapters in American film.

After watching I looked up Frank Sheeran to learn more about him. I came across this article which pokes a lot of holes in the biggest assertions made about Sheeran’s activities. Reading it makes me think of this movie more like JFK. JFK was a brilliant movie, but it was also full of shit. From a historical perspective, I think The Irishman has to go into the same bucket as JFK.[2] And it is a reminder even if Goodfellas and Casino were based on journalistic accounts of mob life, there was also plenty of Hollywood polish put on those stories, too.

A

Beastie Boys Story
We have Apple TV+, or whatever it’s called, free for a year thanks to buying a new Apple device.[3] That gave me the chance to watch this, an ATV+ exclusive. All I knew about it going in was “Spike Jones Beasties documentary.” Which was enough for me. So I was a little surprised by its format: a live, on-stage show by Ad Rock and Mike D in which they basically ran through the same subjects the wrote about in Beastie Boys Book. It was fun, funny, touching, and perfect for a Gen Xer that grew up on the band.

A

Jerry Seinfeld: 23 Hours to Kill
Seinfeld stand up, what’s not to like? It felt like he left his fastball behind, but it was still a decent watch.

B

John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous at Radio City
This was some funny shit. My stomach hurt from laughing through the first 40 minutes, and then he got to Trump stuff and I had to pause a few times to catch my breath.

A

The Crying Game
I don’t know that I had ever seen this all the way through, back in the day. Actor Stephen Rea, who plays Fergus, was married to Dolours Price, a key member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army in the 70s and 80s, and a main focus of the book Say Nothing. With the references to the movie in that book, I figured it was worth a watch.

For those not old enough to remember, this was a very controversial movie when it came out. There was a big twist, about halfway through, that Miramax asked audiences not to reveal after they saw it. The secret got out quick, but it was still shocking when you saw it. Hell, it’s kind of shocking now, 30 years later, but that’s more because of what kind of nudity we do and do not allow in our cinema even today.

What this really made me think about was a college roommate, who one night after a few too many beers and some late night, reality TV, asked how we would all react if we brought a “lady” home and found out she was not, in fact, a lady. This roommate and I butted heads often, and I wasn’t having his theoretical exercise. “I would know right away and never make it that far,” was my response. This instigated like a 90-minute, drunken argument that several other roommates zinged in and out of. He thought I was dismissing a legitimate question. I thought he was spending too much time worrying about a situation that was highly unlikely to happen.

The film? It felt very dated production wise. There were some elements I thought were strange: the tone shifted from light to very heavy randomly, for example. But it deserves credit for tackling a huge issue in a very honest way and in setting the stage for all the other noir-ish, arty films that would come in the ‘90s.

B+

Some Westerns

I keep a long list of movies I want to watch, but only knock off a couple each year. I just always keep movies after books, music, sports, and TV sports when dividing up my media time.

I noticed last month that several of the movies on my list had a common theme or genre. I’ve never been a big Western guy, but several movies on my list could either be classified as modern Westerns, or were influenced heavily by the classic genre. So about a week ago I decided to dive in and knock a bunch out. Along the way I added some more, so I have a long list to still get to. Below is an accounting of that week-plus of viewing.

There Will Be Blood
This has been on my list for years. Years I tell you. What a performance by Daniel Day Lewis. What a great story. How wonderfully photographed. A nearly perfect movie.

A

Django Unchained
It’s Tarantino, so you kind of know what you’re getting. A dazzling story with plenty of problematic moments. Lots of violence, often almost cartoonish in its gore. Homages to great films and film genres of the past. Sharp writing. A+ acting performances. Thus, nothing about the movie really surprises. But I really enjoyed Tarantino’s take on the classic Western. Jamie Foxx and Christoph Waltz were fantastic as the two lead characters.

A

Hell or High Water
I had never heard of this movie before, yet it was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. That just shows how out of it I generally am with movies.

Thus it was a great surprise. This feels like the ideal modern western: it has nothing to do with cowboys and Indians, or life on the range. But its bank robbing theme and gorgeous cinematography draw clear lines to the classics. The lead characters were all wonderfully filled by Jeff Bridges, Chris Pine, Ben Foster, and Gil Birmingham. The movie makes you root for both the cops and robbers, and sometimes against both. A nicely ambiguous ending.

A

No Country for Old Men
I read this book sometime around when the movie came out and, as per my usual style, never got around to watching the flick. So the details were fuzzy but I remembered the basics. And the Cohen brothers nicely added their own twists while remaining faithful to Cormac McCarthy’s original story.

A

The Rover
Here we divert a hair for a movie that in most ways is not a Western at all, but pulls in so many references to that genre that it can safely be called a modern Western.

This one takes place in the Australian Outback ten years after an economic collapse has caused massive upheaval. The almost always amazing Guy Pearce has his car stolen and spends the next hour and forty-five minutes trying to get it back. Along the way there is much violence, most from Pearce’s gun. At the end, after he recovers his car, we see why it was so important to him. At first glance, it seems utterly ridiculous that so many died for this cause. But, considering the world he lives in, you realize despite his acceptance of brutality and death, he maintains a strong connection to the past and that he isn’t the cold, emotionless killer he seems to be. This is one of the bleakest movies I can remember watching.

B

True Grit
Hey, two Cohen Bros Westerns in one month! And this one is a legit Western, a remake of a John Wayne movie that takes place in the late 19th century. This had a few more quirks than No Country For Old Men, which made it feel more like a Cohen movie. Jeff Bridges with another fine performance, and I absolutely loved Haile Steinfeld

A-

Marriage Story
To wrap up the month, S and I watched this together Sunday night. I think we had very different views of the film. She found it depressing. I was, honestly, laughing out loud at some scenes. I felt like it was really playing up the ridiculousness of the process of getting a divorce.

But I also found it to be very powerful. I was a child of divorce, and while my parents’ divorce was not heated in any way, it was still hard, and I was sympathetic to that angle. Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver were excellent. And there’s that scene, that one scene, which if you’ve seen this, I’m sure also left you breathless. My first thought following that scene, once I was able to breath again, was how many takes did that require and how wrecked were Johansson and Driver after? Oh, and the scene when Charlie walks in on Henry reading the letter Nicole wrote to take to their initial mediation? Yeah that really go to me.

A

A full month of being locked in had the expected effect on what I’ve been watching on TV: I consumed a shit-load of content! I thought about breaking this list into multiple entries. Instead I’m going to put on my editing hat and pare these down as much as I can. I will put the items I write most about at top, and share progressively less as we move through the list. They are also divided into three categories: TV shows/movies aimed at adults, web shorts, and kid shows (or at least shows we watched with the kids).

Part One: Grown Up Shit

Better Call Saul, season five
This season did not disappoint. To me it was a little more slow burn than recent seasons, but the final three episodes really ratcheted things up. The last two episodes were especially brilliant. Hell, the final 5:00 of episode nine, “Bad Choice Road,” were as good as any five minutes on any show ever. The confrontation between cartel boss Lalo Salamanca and Jimmy “Saul Goodman” McGill and Kim Wexler was utterly amazing. I don’t recall ever doing this before, but as soon as it was over I rewound and watched it again. Rhea Seehorn is the breakout actor of BCS, and her utter evisceration of Tony Dalton’s Salamanca was as savage as any scene of graphic violence that Saul or Breaking Bad has ever offered. It is a travesty that Seehorn has not been nominated for an Emmy. If it doesn’t happen this year I will demand a congressional investigation.

‘Kim Faces Off Against Lalo’ Talked About Scene Ep. 509 | Better Call Saul – YouTube

The final episode had me constantly on edge, as Wexler revealed a totally unexpected side of herself, Salamanca avoided an assassination attempt, and McGill/Goodman showed rare restraint, lack of confidence, and even vulnerability. The episode wonderfully sets up what should be an amazing final season.

Better Call Saul is the best show on TV right now, period. It is approaching the heights set by its predecessor. If Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould can nail season six, BCS will enter the pantheon as one of the great shows of all time.

A

Hunters
An Amazon Prime series with immense potential that came up short.

Al Pacino leads a ragtag team of people hunting Nazis in 1977 New York. Not just your standard Nazis who fled Europe in the 1940s and blended into American, either. In this show there is a whole secret society of Nazis who are poised to use chemical warfare to take over the US.

Sounds promising, and there were some excellent moments throughout the show’s 10 episodes.

However, the show couldn’t decide what it wanted to be. It pulled in elements from comics and super hero flicks, but in random moments rather than as a core part of the show. There were a lot of strange structural elements. The show wildly zigged and zagged between exceptionally dark moments (depictions of life in Nazi concentration camps, moments of extreme violence in 1977) with moments that were supposed to be cartoony and funny. And there were some serious issues about time and space, with people somehow driving between the Deep South or California and New York in a matter of hours.

The final episode tries to make up for some of these flaws with two massive twists. One of those twists was pretty wild and successful. My jaw hit the floor. The other felt forced and manipulative, designed purely to set up a season two. I rolled my eyes at that moment.

There were some great performances. Pacino was Full Pacino, playing an elderly Holocaust survivor to the max. Dylan Baker was absolutely fantastic as a Nazi hidden within Jimmy Carter’s administration. And Jerrika Hinton was excellent as FBI officer Morris, who must navigate the old boy FBI not only as a black woman but also as a lesbian struggling to forge a relationship while keeping it secret.

Not a waste of time yet disappointing because there was so much promise here.

B-

Tiger King
Well, what to say about this absolute train wreck of a show? I watched this over about 36 hours on Easter weekend, unable to look away. I don’t know that I have any particularly insightful comments. I’m in the camp that pretty much no one who was on screen has any redeeming qualities. By the end I felt some sympathy for Joe Exotic, simply because, as the final episode focused on, he got absolutely hammered while people around him who were just as guilty of the same crimes weren’t prosecuted.

I normally wouldn’t like a show like this. I’m not into reality TV. I don’t like watching white trash, total disasters get their 15 minutes.

But there was something insanely compelling about the show. I think most of that lies with Joe, who was as original a character as has appeared on TV in some time. For all his endless flaws, the dude is certainly interesting.

B+

Reply All podcast, episode 158: The Case of the Missing Hit
I don’t venture outside of my normal podcast rotation very often, especially these days since I seem to be behind on so many. This show got a lot of run so I threw it into the queue.

It’s a pretty fascinating account of a man in California who was haunted by a song from his college years that was stuck in his head yet he could not find anyone else who could identify it. His memories were so strong that he even recorded an acapella version of it – with him singing all the musical parts and lyrics – to try to run it through music identification software and find a match. It produced no results.

Reply All got ahold of the story and used their powers to bring in experts from all over the country to review the song. Rock critics, artists, producers, and DJs. No one could identify the song, though.

Until they caught a lucky break.

I highly recommend listening as both the path to get to a resolution and the
resolution itself are highly compelling. Also, who hasn’t got a song stuck in their head that they can’t place? This show is confirmation that we aren’t all totally crazy.

A+

Fleabag
This is a damn-near perfect show. It is funny as hell, making me laugh to the point of tears several times. There are also scenes that moved me to tears from their poignancy or pain. It has several scenes (and episodes) that are deeply dark and difficult to watch.

The show has depth, addressing all kinds of issues you wouldn’t expect a comedy to cover: gender roles, expectations, and double-standards; dealing with the loss of a parent and your surviving parent finding a new partner; sibling issues; the difficulty in running a small business; religion; substance abuse. But, famously, sex is the big issue that Fleabag is centered on. There is a lot of very frank discussion and representation of sex. Definitely a show you watch after the kids go to bed or with headphones on.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge – it is very hard for me not to call her Phoebe Bridgers – is a genius. I’ve put Killing Eve on my watch list and hope her contributions to the next Bond film salvage it from a difficult production process.

The show is brilliantly written, superbly cast and acted, and wonderfully shot. Like I said, a damn-near perfect show.

A

No Laying Up: Strapped
The humorous, budget travel and golf series the NLU guys put out. Season six was in Southern California, and gorgeously shot. Seriously, it’s crazy what you can do with digital cameras and drones these days. As always, it was a great watch and inspired me to go back and watch the previous five seasons. The beauty of a three-episode season: you can knock it out in an hour.

A

Let’s Go Crazy The Grammy Salute to Prince
Broken down here.

A

Shorts

Voskhod
A 30-minute film about an American hermit who communicates with a Soviet cosmonaut via amateur radio in the early 1960s. There’s a sci-fi element to their communication that is kind of cool. A strange story that I’m not sure worked.

B-

Marcy Learns Something New
Rachael Dratch as a single mom looking for ways to connect with others. The avenue she takes is completely unexpected. And her performance, which is pretty straight, is absolutely fantastic. Warning: This is highly not safe for work.

A-

Bush Pilot: Reflections on a Canadian Myth
You know things are getting weird when you watch a documentary made in 1980 about Canadian bush pilots. I found this fascinating, though. And I loved the photographic elements of it. I’m not taking pictures much these days but have been feeling the urge build.

A

A Mile an Hour – Running a different kind of marathon
Looking for things to do? This guy has the perfect way to spend a day!

B+

Kid(ish) Stuff

Troop Zero
Entertaining and fairly light family friendly flick on Amazon. Most of the characters were quirky, in a fun way, which made for a lot of laughs. One element of the ending seemed awfully forced but it was also brushed over pretty quickly so it wasn’t bothersome.

B

Soul Surfer
M and C watched this a few years back, but I don’t think I watched it with them. L just read the book and didn’t remember watching, so she wanted to take a stab at it and I watched with her. It’s the story of surfer Brittany Hamilton, who lost her arm in a shark attack when she was 14 and recovered to still have a pro surfing career. It’s pretty saccharine and light, but is also a pretty solid family watch. L told me that actress AnnaSophia Robb had never surfed before she got the lead role. I’m sure she had some help, but she was awfully impressive.

B

Despicable Me
Can’t watch this too many times. L and I still laugh a lot each time we watch it.

A

Nacho Libre
There were only two compelling things about this movie. 1) Jack Black. Even in a fatally flawed movie he is good for some laughs. 2) Ana de la Reguera. Despite being dressed as a nun she gets an A+. My browser history likely has some time spent looking at pictures of Ms. De la Reguera. Otherwise this movie was pretty awful.

D

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
We forced all the girls to watch this, hoping they would enjoy it. None of them seemed to get it at all. Which was a big bummer. “Let my Cameron go!”

A for the parents, no idea how the girls would grade it.

Onward
Your standard quest movie. And it had elements of just about every big quest movie ever wrapped within it. The core story – about searching for connection with a lost relative and, in the process, realizing you had everything you thought you were missing in an unexpected source – was nice. But this did not feel up to Pixar’s normal standards. L disagreed, though. When it was over she immediately said, “Ten out of ten, would recommend!” I asked her if she was sure and she said, “Wait, twelve out of ten!” She’s watched it at least one more time since then.

C+ for me

*Dr. Dolittle *
L and I watched it on my suggestion. We saw it in the Disney+ listings and I said, “Oh, that movie is hilarious! You’ll love it!” L did like it, but about five minutes in I realized I was thinking of The Nutty Professor, a movie which she can most definitely not watch yet. I thought this was kind of crappy.

D

Jane Goodall The Hope
We had to go to school a week ago to pick up a workbook from L’s teacher, and she suggested this to us. It was interesting and pretty good, although it often bordered on the hagiographic. Goodall was kind of a looker when she was young. Who knew?!?

B

Obviously a busier month than normal. Let’s get to it.

Narcos, season three
Maybe not quite as excellent as the first two seasons, largely due to the end of Wagner Moura’s epic run as Pablo Escobar which carried the first two seasons. The move from Medellín to Calí still made for compelling TV. Despite that move, there was still a revelatory performance, this one by Matias Varela as cartel head of security Jorge Salcedo.

The season hit a peak at about its midway point and carried that all the way to its finale. An outstanding end to the first chapter of a great series. I’m excited to see what the move to Mexico for seasons four and five brings.

A-

Jack Ryan, season two
Ugh, so disappointing. The writing felt lazy and manipulative. Some of the major plot developments made no sense. And the last episode was damn near unwatchable. Seriously, a State Department liaison can just order a US helicopter to fly into another country’s presidential palace on its Election Day and start shooting the place up? Bullshit. Sad that John Krasinski and Wendall Pierce are attached to this crap.

C- most of the season but episode 8 was an F

Curb Your Enthusiasm, season three
I watched this series in about two days. It was really solid. I don’t know that it had an episode that matched season two’s The Doll, but it was still highly entertaining.

B+

El Camino
I finally got around to watching this last Saturday. I did not do what some had suggested and go back and read Jessie Pinkman’s Wikipedia entry to remind myself of everything he went through in Breaking Bad. The recap at the beginning helped, but I was still four or five years from watching BB and certainly forgot a lot.

I thought this was really well done. It was ironic that Pinkman was the original BB character that people were rooting for by the end. So it was fitting we got to see how his story played out. Seriously, poor fucking Jessie! The balance of both moving his life forward and filling in some holes of his relationship with Todd in the final year of BB was excellent. It had just the right tone to match that of the original series, and was filled with Vince Gilligan’s amazing eye for how to shoot a show. And Aaron Paul remains amazing.

A

No Laying Up’s Tourist Sauce, season five
My prime golf media connection is with these guys, via Twitter, their podcasts, and their web series. Tourist Sauce is their big travel series that drops twice a year and is centered on an extended golf trip somewhere. The first four seasons hit Australia, Scotland, the California coast, and Ireland.

Season five focused on the Carolinas. Because of that I think it lacked some of the emotional impact the other seasons had, especially the Scotland and Ireland seasons. Seriously, if you are even vaguely into golf, if you watch those seasons you will be ready to book a trip to go play your way around one of those islands.

The Carolinas just don’t have that feel. Well, until the final episode, which took place at the Tobacco Road course. That is a course that has the feels and I would love to go play.

B+

Trinity and Beyond
I came across a recommendation for this documentary about the US’ nuclear weapons testing program randomly and found the flick on YouTube. It is basically 90 minutes or so of video of the weapons testing the US did between 1945 and the late 1960s over dramatic, martial music and some narration by William Shatner. The footage is incredible to watch, but it does get a bit monotonous after an hour or so.

B-

Captain Marvel
Avengers Endgame
Spider-Man – Homecoming
C and L are into the MCU movies so we watched these three. L loved Captain Marvel. She even watched it again last night. I thought it was pretty cool, but I don’t get into these as much as they do. I was thoroughly confused by Endgame, but I know it got great reviews and reaction from fans, so I’ll accept that it was a good movie even if I didn’t get it. And this was our second viewing of Spider-Man – Homecoming since L is into Spidey. Can’t go wrong with your friendly, neighborhood Spider-Man.

Captain Marvel B+, Brie Larson A+
Endgame B?
Homecoming A-

Raiders of the Lost Ark
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
I talked L into watching some old movies with me. We started with these three. She seemed to like the Indiana Jones movies ok, but I forgot how silly and campy they were. I don’t think she got that at all. [1] They certainly felt dated.

Watching the Marvel movies got me wondering if she would enjoy The Lord of the Rings movies. I explained they were basically the Avengers with wizards, elves, dwarfs, hobbits, and orcs. She was game and we watched The Fellowship of the Rings over two days. She was thoroughly confused. It is amazing that for a nearly three hour movie how much they had to leave out from the books. I was constantly explaining things to her. I guess we could have watched the extended version which is an hour longer. I told her the next two movies are better. We’ll see if I can get her to watch them.

Raiders B+
Last Crusade B+
Fellowship B-

Back of the Net
L found this movie about a high school soccer player on Netflix and watched it over the weekend. It’s not very good. L thought it was pretty dumb, too. But when you’re looking for a way to waste a couple hours during the lockdown, you’re going to have to watch some crap to find the gems.

C

Media
In the bleak mid-winter, I watched quite a bit of televised entertainment products. Here are a lot of words about those movies and shows.

The Two Popes
This movie made me understand why some people get so frustrated with Hollywood. While it is a charming and hopeful look at the relationship between the current pope and his predecessor, as I was watching it I knew it was playing fast and loose with some of the history between those men.

Which is fine. I don’t think movies need to be completely true. Just about every movie that is “based on real events” has had elements spruced up, merged, or flat out created in order to make for more drama. And every piece of art comes from some point of view, be in anti-this or pro-that.

Because of this I think viewers should always go into historical movies with the understanding that what they are about to view is offered from a certain perspective. I think too many people watch these movies, however, expecting to get a neutral, accurate accounting of events. Then they get upset when they learn what they just watched was not, in fact, how things really went down.
A for entertainment, C for accuracy

Cool Runnings
Speaking of historically inaccurate movies, we randomly picked this one night as a movie the entire family could watch. The girls found it hilarious and interesting. Having lived through the Jamaican bobsled fever of 1988, it sent me to my iPad to see how accurate it was. Turns out, not very!

Ahhh, but it’s a heartwarming tale that anyone, from anywhere, can accomplish anything if they just believe it themselves and each other. And if they fall short, Hollywood producers might spruce it up and turn it into a movie that makes them seem way more successful than they actually were.
B for entertainment, C for accuracy

Curb Your Enthusiasm, seasons one and two
I swore I had watched both of these before, but a good chunk of these episodes rang zero bells for me, so I was glad I started over from the beginning. I was watching just as the new season premiered, so I was able to bookmark a bunch of Best Episode and Best Moments articles, which made for good reading after I knocked out episodes that made those lists. One of the episodes I had not seen was “The Doll.” HOLY SHIT!!!!
A+

The Great Hack
The initial trailer made this seem like a broader look at the privacy concerns of living in the modern, connected world. Instead it focused on a couple players in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. While it is chilling, it did not have the immediate, personal impact I expected
B

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
I heard about this on, believe it or not, a golf podcast. One of the hosts threw out a very brief reference to this, got big laughs, and I immediately looked it up. I found it on YouTube, and moments later was watching.

It is an utterly ridiculous documentary about the wild world of dudes (mostly) who attempt to get the world high score on classic video games. This show is focused on the two men who challenged for the world record on Donkey Kong. Along with their story we get a view of the community that surrounds their efforts. You may be shocked to learn that most of these people are gigantic dorks!

When I say ridiculous I mean in the best possible way. All the dorks – who are totally, completely, lovably dorky – make it great. One of the main characters has a really compelling story. And his rival is, well, he might be the greatest villain in the history of cinema. Just a truly loathsome individual that you want to see more and more of. (For bonus loathing, read up on him after you watch this. You’ll hate him even more!)
A+

The Good Place
It was not my plan but I saved the entire final season of The Good Place to watch in one extended binge over a long weekend. I started Friday afternoon, watching a couple episodes before dinner. I watched four more that night. I watched a few Saturday afternoon between basketball games. And then I wrapped it up Sunday night.

Time well spent. A really, really good closing season for one of the smartest, warmest TV comedies of our age. It was a fitting and emotional goodbye to Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, Jason, Janet, and Michael.

What I noticed as I watched was how it fit into my historical comedy preferences. If I had to divide up my favorite shows, I would pick Cheers over Seinfeld. Parks & Rec over The Office. Why? Heart. Cheers and Parks & Rec were shows filled with heart. Seinfeld and The Office made me a laugh so much over their runs, but they had very little heart. Seinfeld was cynical, The Office often cruel. Community and Scrubs are two other shows I loved that put heart before cynicism.

As I watched this final season I also wondered if it would be the final, major role in Ted Danson’s amazing career. He will always be Sam Malone. I never watched Becker but it was popular and lasted for 129 episodes. I never watched the CSIs he was a part of, but that gave him another 102 episodes in prime time. All his appearances on Curb Your Enthusiasm over the years. There were his utterly amazing 10 episodes as Hank Larsson in season two of Fargo, one of the greatest performances in recent years. And then Michael the architect on TGP. I’m sure he will remain active as long as he can. But is this the last time we see him taking a character and filling it with his Danson-ness for four or more years?
A

Tron
L and I were scrolling through Disney+ one night, I saw this, and insisted we watch it. She was intrigued when I explained what it was about, but it took us three nights to get through what is a pretty quick movie.

My bad, I had forgotten how strange and kind of bad it is. I guess I was just remembering how pumped I was when it first came out in 1982. I remember playing the game and even reading the novelization of the movie. I dug me some Tron in 1982.

But for a modern kid, the crude graphics are kind of tough to take in. I explained how groundbreaking they were when I was 11. L the 11 year old tried to get into it, but just couldn’t. It didn’t help that the story only barely makes sense and even then you probably need to read a plot summary while you are watching to make any sense of what is going on.

I had forgotten that Cindy Morgan was in it. I think I preferred her work in Caddyshack, but her presence here was appreciated.
1982 me: all the A+’s. 2020 me: C-

Dunkirk
Two years ago, right about now, I made a list of movies I had missed in recent years that I needed to get caught up on. Dunkirk was the first entry on that list. I finally got around to watching it a couple weeks ago!

Stunning. That’s the best way to sum up my view of the film. It is (mostly) historically accurate. Wonderful to look at. Cranks down a large, complex story to a handful of characters in a compelling way. Is entertaining, exciting, suspenseful, and up-lifting. And the music. My goodness the music was just insanely good, adding so much tension to every scene.
A

The Mandalorian
Our first Disney+ original, L and I sat down and watched episode one two weeks ago. When I was ready for episode two, she was more interested in Fortnite or watching YouTube, so I blew threw the rest of the series without her.

Overall I liked it. I’ve made several attempts to get into the expanded Star Wars universe stuff over the years, usually with the novels. They’ve always been aimed more at true sci-fi fans than me. But this, while making those Star Wars fans happy, was open enough to non-sci fi fans like me that I was able to get into it.

I don’t know that there was a great, overarching storyline that tied it all together. I enjoyed how the season ended, but it felt like they started the season without knowing where they were going, or at least how to bridge the middle. Which is fine. I kind of dug the series just being Din Djarin going out on adventures around the galaxy. Honestly, that limited scope may work better for me, the casual fan, than building some new world.

I can’t believe I didn’t know until one of the final episodes that Pedro Pascal played Din. His mechanized voice kept tickling something in my head, but I didn’t look him up until he finally revealed his face in the last (or next to last) episode. Hey, that’s Agent Peña from Narcos!
B+

Good Luck Charlie
L has been watching some of the shows she and her sisters used to watch on The Disney Channel on Disney+. (This is turning into a commercial for the package, isn’t it?) I got sick of hearing Austin and Alley so reminded her that Good Luck Charlie was way better. She listened and has been watching the Duncans to my joy. I’ve said this before and I will say it again: this was the best show of its kind Disney ever did. Solid writing. Great acting. One of the rare shows that made me laugh as much as my girls. Even now, while L is watching an episode and I’m reading next to her and S is charting on the other couch, we will all three bust out laughing multiple times each episode. Good stuff.
A from 2010–2012, still A now.

Pandemic
I knocked this timely series out over the weekend. It is a quick look at how people around the world charged with stopping the flu, ebola, and other viruses are trying their hardest to prevent a repeat of the 1918 Spanish Flu outbreak. It is a pretty sobering look how the greatest health care system in the world was struggling to prepare for an inevitable attack. And now that COVID–19 is in the US, it is more worrisome.

I thought it was interesting that the series had no narrator. I don’t know that it made a difference in how I took in the information it offered. But I did like that we only heard from the people whose stories the program was sharing.

I also found it interesting that the chose an extremely attractive woman to represent the hippy, anti-vaxer point of view.
B+

Time to share what I watched over the stretch from mid-November through New Year’s Eve. Although some holiday programming is included here, I’ve only included things that were new or unique to this year.

Pursuit of Happyness
The first movie that S watched that I got pulled into during this stretch. I enjoyed this but, good God, it was sooooo freaking depressing. I like sad songs but movies that last two hours and are just constant downers are too much. B

Knight Before Christmas
Ugh. S started watching this one morning when it was snowing and I was feeling too lazy to move off the couch. It’s was pretty much a Netflix-ified version of a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie. Goofy and safely romantic. Not all that good, at parts straight-up dumb, but not terrible, either. C

Cheers, seasons 3–5
Every October or November I think to myself, “I should really watch all of season five of Cheers rather than just watching the “Thanksgiving Orphans” episode. And every year I don’t do it. This year, though, was different!

In mid-October I picked up where I had left off in watching every Cheers episode a few months back, early in season three. Doing some quick math, I found if I watched two episodes each day, I would land on “Thanksgiving Orphans” the night before Thanksgiving. Challenge accepted!

Man were these good. All three seasons are super strong, even allowing for the changes in cast. Nicholas Colasanto was in poor health for much of season three. He missed several episodes and eventually died before filming ended. As the season was shot out of order, Coach would disappear then reappear, which was a little strange. His death was awkwardly addressed in the open of season four, when Woody Boyd, a friend of coach’s, shows up looking for him. Sam tells Woody that Coach had passed and that’s that.

Season three is filled with the Diane-Frasier romance, ending with her leaving him at the altar. Season four is a little unsteady as they attempted to work Woody into the cast, but ends on a strong note with Sam in a relationship with a local politician. The finale ends with him calling someone on the phone and proposing. Ah, the good old days of the summer-long cliff hanger! Of course, as the opening scene of season five reveals, it was Diane rather than the politician and we’re off on the most intense of Sam’s on-again, off-again romance. The couple set off on a season-long battle about whether they would actually get married or not. Woody comes into his own in season five, getting some of the biggest laughs.

Really everything came into its own in season five. The writers were locked in. The cast was confident and settled. After saturating the screen with bitterness in season four, Fraser becomes a reliably hilarious character in season five. And the show was an official hit, meaning the studio audience laughed a little louder and longer at jokes, which makes them work better.

Season five is my favorite of the Diane era. It is filled with wonderful episodes. Obviously, “Thanksgiving Orphans,” is one of my favorite pieces of TV ever. Even after 30 years, “Dinner at Eight-ish” made me laugh until I cried. And there is a long list of others that I would put on a Must Watch list.

I’m taking a break from the show for awhile but eventually will pick back up with season six.
Season three, A-; season four, B+; season five, A+.

Jack Ryan, season one.
I forget how many of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan books I read, but I was really into the series in the late 80s and early 90s. The Hunt for Red October was one of the great action movies of its era, between a smart script, Sean Connery, and a young Alec Baldwin as the perfect Ryan. Harrison Ford seemed too old to be Ryan when he took over the franchise, but Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger were both solid. When Ben Affleck and Chris Pine took over the role, I didn’t bother watching. I had a hard time getting my head around John Krasinski as Ryan for the Amazon series a couple years back – he will forever be Jim Halpert to me – and put off watching it until now.

I thought he tackled the role nicely. He’s probably a touch too old for where they have Ryan in his life, but he pulls it off well. I don’t know that I totally buy him as a former Marine, but he also didn’t look completely out of place in the action sequences. He shined in those moments when a little Halpert came through, especially in the scenes with his romantic partner, Dr. Cathy Mueller.

As for the story, like so many streaming series, it seemed overly compressed to get it into an eight episode window. I guess some folks like being able to binge it quickly, but I would prefer 2–4 more episodes to tease things out, add more depth, etc. The supporting cast was very good. You can’t go wrong with Wendell Pierce. Ali Suliman and and Dina Shihabi were excellent. And I’m a big fan of Abbie Cornish (Dr. Mueller). I think it’s hilarious that she’s a rapper back home in Australia. I also laughed at how she couldn’t pronounce the word “helicopter” in an American accent

Overall a solid first season. I’ve heard season two is better. B+

Dolemite is My Name
The first project of Eddie Murphy’s new relationship with Netflix was quite good. It was funny, although not filled with non-stop laughs. It was surprisingly sweet. And knowing it was based on true events – surely brushed up and sanitized for the times – added some heft to the story. Right in Eddie’s wheelhouse. Oh, and Wesley Snipes is RIDICULOUS! B+

Office Christmas Party
This was part of AMC’s Best Christmas Ever movie series. I caught a few minutes one night after Elf or Christmas Vacation, laughed, checked the cable guide and set the DVR to record its next airing. That was a solid choice. This is a truly dumb and kind of awful movie. But it also had enough big laughs to keep me watching. C- on quality but B+ on enjoyment.

I Think You Should Leave
I had read about this Netflix sketch series a couple times over the last month and watched it in the week between holidays. Some sketches are crazy funny. Some are filled with so much awkward humor that didn’t connect with me that I was looking forward to them being done. Tim Robinson is a different dude. B-

Die Hard
For years I’ve been saying, “I should really watch Die Hard over Christmas. Then I never did it.[1] I finally got to it this year, albeit the weekend after Christmas. I don’t think I had watched Die Hard in 20–25 years? Which is crazy as it was the single best “watching a movie in a theater” experience of my life, and I rewatched it routinely through the 90s. It holds up pretty damn well. I bought it, so it will go into the December movie rotation. Not sure if the girls will get to watch it anytime soon, though. A+

Spies in Disguise
Two Will Smith vehicles in six weeks! L and I went to the theater to see this over her break. We both really enjoyed it. Funny, clever, smart but accessible for kids. Just about everything you can ask from an animated movie aimed at tweens. A-

Stepbrothers
Believe it or not I had never seen this all the way through. Last summer I read an oral history of its making and have been meaning to sit down and watch it ever since.[2] On New Year’s Eve, with M in the basement with her friends, C at a friend’s house, S watching a movie on her laptop, and L playing Xbox, I decided that was the time to do it. It worked out perfect as I started it at about 10:20 so I finished it about ten minutes to midnight.

Since there were youths around, I watched on my iPad with headphones on. Most of the time I was sitting next to L while she played Madden. She got a little frustrated with me for laughing so much, so hard.

I liked it, but my reaction was similar to how I feel about The Big Lebowski: it was funny and I enjoyed it, but I don’t necessarily see it as an all-time classic. Not even sure it’s among my top 4–5 Will Farrell movies. But perhaps, as with Lebowski, it takes repeated viewings to really fall in love with it. A-

My busy-ness, sickness, and laziness over break kept me from posting my thoughts about The Rise of Skywalker and Eddie Murphy hosting Saturday Night Live. Allow me to rectify…

Skywalker

I saw The Rise of Skywalker the Sunday before Christmas with two of my brothers-in-law. I also saw The Force Awakens with them, and the local b-i-l of that duo saw The Last Jedi with me. So it was good company.

I entered the theater with fairly low expectations. I had read zero reviews, but I had seen several headlines that were, at best, lukewarm. A couple were rather scathing. I remember one, from a prominent national newspaper, called it the worst Star Wars movie ever. Yikes. Fortunately I had seen enough positive Twitter buzz from sources I trust that I took my seat hoping for the best.

Also, I watched both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi the previous week to get my mind right for where the story was and where most thought it was headed going into episode nine.

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that I’m far from a Star Wars expert. I was excited about the new trilogy but I haven’t dug into them the way I did with episodes four through six when I was a kid.

So…

I thought most of the action scenes were terrific. They were exciting, quickened the pulse, and had lots of explosions, which is an underrated aspect of the Star Wars saga.

The story? Well, I had a lot of issues with the story.

My biggest issue is how much of this movie, and in fact the entire final trilogy, was just a rehashing of the same broad storylines that the original trilogy used. Seriously, one more final battle where a ragtag collection of rebel forces are facing off against an evil empire that has planet-killing weapons? Haven’t we done this four times already, if not more?

I did not like how Rey was identified as a Palpatine. Say what you will about Rian Johnson’s episode eight, but offering the idea that bloodlines didn’t matter and anyone could be an important cog in the Force was one of the most exciting ideas ever introduced into the saga. But she ends up being just another part of a royal family. Some were excited about this, especially after all the teasing about who her parents were. I found it disappointing.

This showed a trend in the final trilogy: there were a lot of moments when it felt like Johnson and JJ Abrams were fighting with each other. The series certainly would have benefitted from having someone above the directors laying down a consistent viewpoint for them to follow, rather than allowing them to jerk the storyline back-and-forth.

Most of that doesn’t bother me too much. What I did have a problem with, though, was the line in The Rise of Skywalker when Abrams had characters diss perhaps the most stunning scene in the entire saga: when Laura Dern’s Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo turns her ship toward the First Order’s command ship and jumps to hyperspace, destroying both ships in the process in The Last Jedi. The moment of silence in the movie’s soundtrack that allowed you to hear the gasps in the audience was a truly amazing cinematic moment. Seriously, that scene was up there in my favorite experiences in a movie theater. And Abrams decided to shit all over it because it was Johnson’s. Lame.

There were not great moments of surprise, either. Perhaps I was just too cynical coming in, but each time there was a twist, I knew it would twist back quickly. I knew there was no way Abrams was going to kill Chewbacca midway through the film, so those seconds of emotion when Rey thought she had caused his death didn’t register with me: I knew the Wookie would be back. And he was. Almost embarrassingly soon.

While I was watching, I was surprised at how much screen time Leia got. I was also impressed with the CGI work as she looked pretty lifelike. Only after did I learn that those were scenes that Carry Fisher had shot before her death that they used. I guess I’m cool with that. Interesting how they shoehorned that dialog in.

Kylo Ren was the most fascinating character in the new trilogy. I don’t know that I was pleased with his story arc. Again, it was pretty predictable where he would end up. I did enjoy the path to get him there. Any scene with Kylo and Rey was about as good as the trilogy got.[1] I’m glad they had several scenes together. I don’t know that they needed to kiss. Bringing Harrison Ford in for the scene when Kylo/Ren is debating what to do seemed like an apology from Abrams for killing him off in The Force Awakens. It also felt a little cheap.

But, man, Kylo’s ending. I just don’t know if I can get on board with it. It seemed a little flat for the character that will be most remembered from this set of movies. Worse, it again aped Return of the Jedi. When Darth Vader turned and helped Luke defeat the Emperor, his reward was death. Same for Kylo. So I guess the point is redemption does not equal salvation? That’s going to really help the next time an evil emperor pops up!

You’d think Disney would have pushed Kylo surviving so they could continue his story somewhere else. Although, if Adam Driver isn’t interested in carrying the role further, I’m not interested.

Star Wars analysis has always been over-thought. In reality the movies are pretty simple stories about good vs evil. That presents both problems and freedoms to filmmakers. For all the flack Johnson took for The Last Jedi, at least he took risks and challenged his viewers. If you strip Finn and Rose’s weird “find the codebreaker” arc away, episode eight was pretty good.

The Rise of Skywalker, on the other hand, felt cautious and unambitious. No way would Disney have allowed for anything that wasn’t a satisfying, bow-tying end to the Skywalker saga. But it was absolutely possible to challenge the audience in the process of reaching that final point. Instead we got constant callbacks to the five movies that came before.

That’s not to say it was a bad movie. I will call it an entertaining if deeply flawed film. Instead of leaving the theater either exhilarated or satisfied at the end of the Skywalker storyline, I left with a bland feeling of, “Well, that’s over.” There was no deep emotion, only slight disappointment. Then again, the expectations that were first set in 1977 were likely impossible to reach. Especially now that I’m middle aged and cynical, rather than barely into grade school, wide-eyed, and impressionable.

The first time I saw Star Wars I refused to talk afterward, shaking my head when my mom asked about it. The following day I sat on my front porch in a daze, my world rocked by what I had seen the night before. Two weeks ago I left the theater, talked it over for a few minutes with my brothers-in-law, then went home, got into bed, and fell asleep. I wish something about this movie had moved me enough that I had tossed and turned for a few hours, reliving my favorite scenes.

I listened to part of a pretty nerdy podcast in which a panel discussed the movie. Most of them, while they had problems with the movie, liked it a lot more than I did. Worth noting that most of them have seen the movie multiple times.

I have a couple friends who are really into Star Wars and they liked it more than I did as well.

Based on that feedback, I think it’s safe to say that if you are a true believer, there are enough strong elements that reveal themselves upon repeated viewings that can help you get by the troublesome parts.

If you are a casual viewer, like me, however, I think it’s much harder to get beyond those many issues.

Eddie

Eddie Murphy’s turn as host of Saturday Night Live, on the other hand, was a thoroughly enjoyable 90 minutes. With one notable exception, the show was pretty perfect.

Leading in, I kept reading discussions of what classic characters Eddie needed to bring back. At first I was bothered by that. Eddie is returning to stand up and making comedies, why shouldn’t he have the freedom to bring new characters to the show? But then I realized that all those classic characters were the result of him spending hours at 30 Rock creating them with his fellow writers and performers. It was too much to ask for him to carry a 90-minute program with a bevy of new bits.

I guess I was worried that modern takes on Mr. Robinson, Gumby, etc would come off as poor facsimiles of his 1980s performances. That’s happened with some other hosts who came back after years away. I figured it would be impossible to match peak Velvet Jones, and bringing them back would just disappoint a 48-year-old who was very excited to see arguably the biggest star of his childhood return to his old stomping grounds.

Thankfully those were needless fears. Yes, Mr. Robinson, Velvet Jones, and Buckwheat were all probably B+ renditions. But that was still pretty damn good. Gumby, on the other hand, was out-freaking-standing. That was the one moment in the show when Eddie brought back the “anything can happen” vibe from his 1980s work.

There was more to Eddie’s performance than his old characters. His monologue was solid. I get what he was doing by bringing Dave Chapelle, Chris Rock, Tracy Morgan, and Keenan Thompson on stage. And there were some good lines in that part. But I was hungering for some straight Eddie standup. He did give us the one line about Bill Cosby which was both devastating and hilarious. I wanted five minutes of that!

The Holiday Baking Championship skit was solid, especially since we watch that show. Eddie as the Elf in the 11:55 skit was ok. While neither skit was especially memorable, they still had that classic Eddie energy, if slightly toned down to reflect his age. I don’t know that anyone in the show’s history, not Will Ferrell or John Belushi, had that energy that Eddie brought back in the day. You could see the glimmer in his eye that that energy was still there, and he was thrilled to be letting it out again.

I had two problems with the show. The first had to do with the modern structure of SNL. What was once a tight cast of repertory and featured players is now a bloated cast that takes several minutes to introduce in the show’s open. Skits seemed overly big in order to squeeze in as many faces as possible. In Eddie’s prime the show was really about him first and foremost. I guarantee pretty much everyone who watched this episode tuned in to see Eddie. This was a week when they should have dialed everyone else back a little more.

Secondly, and this is not a unique opinion, but I have no idea why Lorne Michaels and the writers feel obligated to do a Democratic debate sketch every episode. They epitomize the bloated nature of the show and lose their effectiveness when they run them out week after week. Eddie Fucking Murphy is hosting for the first time in over 30 years and you’re going to open the show with five minutes that don’t include him? A total waste.

Oh, I have another problem: HOW DOES BUCKWHEAT JUST SHOW UP AND PERFORM WHEN HE’S BEEN DEAD FOR 36 YEARS?!?!!? Have you seen the footage? Let’s take a look…[2]

Those quibbles aside, a very pleasing return to SNL by Eddie. 1983 me would have approved.

It’s been nearly three months since my last (and first) What I’m Watching post. I haven’t watched much in terms of variety since then, but I have packed in some quantity. So here’s a quick run down.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine I was doing some DVR cleanup, mostly deleting crap the girls recorded and never watched over the summer, and realized I had almost half of last season’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine to still get through. I worked through them over a couple weeks in September. It will never be the best show in Michael Schur’s collection, but it never disappoints. B+

Saturday Night Live I’m trying to remember the last time I watched new episodes of SNL regularly. I think I may have tried to watch it my first year living in Indy. Although Indiana did not observe Daylight Saving Time back then, local TV was always on the eastern time zone schedule, with SNL starting at 11:30. That was tough for someone raised on 10:30 SNL’s. I know I tried to get back into it a few times over the years but, for whatever reason, couldn’t do it.

Last spring I watched a skit that got some buzz – I can’t recall what it was – and ended up watching almost the entire episode. I made a mental note to give the show another try this fall. Which I have done. And I’ve enjoyed it more than I expected. The show has definitely changed over the years. The production values are much higher than even in the Will Ferrell years. I wish the cold opening didn’t have to be about politics every week, although Kate McKinnon as Elizabeth Warren is gold. I wish it wasn’t so obvious how even the cast members are reading many of their lines straight off the cue cards. But I’ve laughed more than I’ve been troubled by these minor complaints.

The bonus will be I actually know who most of the cast members are when Eddie Murphy hosts in December, an episode I would be watching whether I enjoyed the first five episodes of the year or not. B+

Halloween Wars We recorded three of the Food Network’s Halloween shows this month, but this is the only one L and I watched. I, personally, prefer the Halloween Baking Championship but L picked this as her focus. She enjoyed it, picking a favorite team and rooting for them the entire time. I wasn’t as into it as her, and spent more time getting excited about the various holiday baking shows that kick off this week. B

Murder Mystery There is always an entry here for a movie that S starts watching and I sit through, half-watching. I thought this was pretty dumb. She’s done it many times, but I just never buy Jennifer Anniston as this hot chick who has stuck with some semi-deadbeat husband for years. Come on… C

Springsteen on Broadway I watched this in small segments over several weeks. I really liked it, although I think I watched it in those chopped up bits because the beginning seemed to drag. Perhaps it is because that part of the show most mirrored what Springsteen wrote in his book Born to Run. The back half was filled with better stories and better songs.

I appreciated the stagecraft that went into the performance. If you don’t like Springsteen he will come off as arrogant and insufferable. But if you like him, you will enjoy him skewering his own image, pointing out how everything he has ever done is an act, and jokingly saying, “That’s how fucking good I am,” when he points out that he built a career on writing songs about working people when he’s never held a normal job in his life. B+

Stranger Things Finally, I watched all three Stranger Things seasons over about five weeks. I had watched season one before, but still started there to remind myself of who was who and what was what. I again found that season utterly magical, full of delightful moments that got deep into my Child of the ‘80s soul, well written and acted and paced, and ending with an absolutely perfect finale.

Season two was a little more uneven. It felt like they crammed 10 episodes of material into eight, and adding another couple of hours would have made the flow better. Its finale couldn’t match season one’s, but it was still quite good.

And then there was season three. I kind of hated it. The over-the-top, constant 80s references were annoying. The story was flat out dumb at times. I didn’t understand how Hawkins morphed from this tiny, rural town into something more along the lines of Bloomington or Columbus, complete with a big ass mall that was crammed with people. I thought a lot of the acting was really bad, both from the secondary characters and from a few of the main ones. Some of that bad acting came from poor writing. They kind of ruined Hopper, turning him into a parody of what he was in the first two seasons.

And then there’s the whole secret Russian sire under Hawkins. HOW THE HELL DID THIS HAPPEN? They can just build this massive instillation below an American city and we have no idea? Come the fuck on. I know, I know, to watch this series you have to buy into parallel worlds, demonic creatures, and humans with super powers. But the logistics of the Russians somehow building this base in the middle of America and trying to tunnel into the Upside Down in secrecy made me flat out angry.
Season One: A; Season Two, B; Season Three, C.

As usual, I’m late in starting what I want to be a new, regular feature of the blog. I already let you know what I’m reading and listening to. Stealing from Jason Kottke, I want to start sharing the other media that I consume each month.

This was meant to be shared at the beginning of August, but I wanted to finish one thing on the list before I posted.

American Experience: Chasing the Moon, The Farthest Home, Death Dive to Saturn. L and I have been on a space exploration kick all summer and these shows were the latest in our research on the topic. The Chasing the Moon shows were really good and they reinforced the sheer incredibility of the effort to reach the moon. Even 50 years later it is absolutely stunning that it worked. For all the amazing things that we have done with technology since then, we would have trouble putting a man on the moon tomorrow if we had to. I was more into the other two docs, the first about the Voyager missions and the second about the Cassini mission, than L was. In fact she generally either fell asleep or left the room during them. But I enjoyed them, especially the Voyager show, as I remember learning a lot about those missions in school in the late ‘70s. Again, it’s amazing what we were able to do with relatively primitive technology. More amazing that the two Voyager craft are still operational. A, A-, B-.

Narcos, Season 2. This is a show that has been on my list for awhile. I watched season one in May and then put off getting into season two for awhile, finally finishing it over the weekend. Overall, I thought it was really good. It had some flaws, and it also had some elements that are beginning to feel required in shows like this, i.e. high-brow cable/streaming dramas. But what pulled the show through were a series of fine acting jobs, none better than Wagner Moura as Pablo Escobar. Moura was mesmerizing and turned a man who was a brutal killer into a sympathetic character. The final episode recalled the last episode of season one of Stranger Things in how it wonderfully tied up all the loose ends of the first two seasons while taking just a moment at the end to throw out some leads into the next season. A-.

Megamind. Out of nowhere L decided to watch this like three days in a row, saying it was her favorite movie ever. Which surprised me as she had never expressed that opinion before. It’s good, I laughed quite a bit the one time I sat down and watched with her. But I don’t know that it’s the best of the animated movies we’ve watched over the years. Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, and David Cross do great vocal work. B+.

Holey Moly. Another show L and I watched together.¹ It hit two sweet spots: Steph Curry for L and golf, well miniature golf, for me. It’s dumb, heavily edited to squeeze into 44 minutes, and filled with “contestants” who seem too wacky to not be actors. Plus hosts Joe Tessitore and Rob Riggle generally annoy me on their own. Together they are barely tolerable. But L likes it. C- for me, A- for L.

The Ugly Truth. L did not watch this with me. I think she passed through the room while it was on and we had to chase her out as it hit on some adult content. Rather, this was a movie S picked randomly one evening and I half-watched while reading. I found it lazily written, cruel at times, far too crass at others. But, come on, watching Katherine Heigl made it worth keeping an eye on. Apparently the ladies like Gerard Butler in the same way. D+ on content, A+ on eye candy.

Spider-Man: Far From Home and Spider-Man: Homecoming. I’ve mostly avoided the Marvel superhero movies over the years. C is really into them, though, and L likes Spider-Man, so the three of us went to see the latest, Spider-Man: Far From Home last week. It was really good! Then L and I grabbed Homecoming at the library and watched it over the weekend. Again, pretty good! Now is this because all the movies are good, or just because Spider-Man is the one superhero I ever liked as a kid? All I’ll say is that if L wants to watch some of the other Marvel universe films, I may be ready to join her. Also, I laughed at Michael Keaton playing Vulture. L asked why I was laughing and I explained that he was Bat-Man when I was in college and it amused me that he turned into a Marvel villain. A/A.