Tag: TV (Page 7 of 16)

Don’t think I’m going to add anything new in the next 24 hours, so I’ll go ahead and drop this and knock one item off my new month checklist.

Shows and Movies

Spring Baking Championship
It’s been awhile, but I finally decided to watch one of these shows that didn’t wasn’t focused on Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Easter. I’m not sure why I enjoy these so much. I’m not a huge baker. These shows are all kind of the same. But the same people have been watching The Bachelor for 20 years. I can watch a damn food show mindlessly.

B+

Formula 1: Drive to Survive, season two
After I blew through season one in February I wondered if L might want to watch season two with me. Indeed she did. She loved it, although I think she enjoyed all the f-bombs that get dropped as much as anything. We’ve both taken a greater interest in F1 in general, which is apparently the new, hip thing to do. I watched much of Sunday’s first race, while she popped in-and-out. I think the show might be more exciting than the races, because it’s still auto racing. Plus I still have no idea who I support. Am I rooting for the driver or the car or the team?

I didn’t think season two was quite as compelling as season one, but providing some good father-daughter time balances that out. We started season three as soon as we got back from spring break.

B+

Coming to America
Coming 2 America
In anticipation of the new Eddie Murphy movie in early March, I had to watch the classic. I tried to get the girls to watch with me, but they weren’t interested. Even when I told them it’s one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen. Kids…

Good news is that Coming to America still holds up, for the most part. There are some pacing issues; a few scenes drag on just a little too long and some closing shots would cut away much faster today. But otherwise it remains a classic. S laughed at me laughing in anticipation of my favorite parts.

As for the new version? I read two reviews after I watched. One was effusive, saying despite some obvious flaws it was still a highly entertaining and funny movie, just the flick we needed right now. The other blasted the movie for being lazy, having too many call backs to the original, and generally being mediocre.

Fortunately my view was much closer to the first opinion. I laughed loudly and often. I watched almost the entire movie with a smile on my face. Yes, there were some lazy moments and some plot elements that did not work well. There was almost no way this movie could stand up to the original, though. I went in expecting to be disappointed because of the comparison. The fact it was competent, entertaining, and pretty damn funny made it a success.

A+, B+

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse
I got down a Wikipedia rabbit hole one night that ended up with me reading about Marlon Brando and, eventually, Apocalypse Now. I did a quick search and found this documentary of the making of that movie on YouTube and fired it up right away. At first I could not remember if I had ever seen it. By the end I knew I had, but it’s probably been 15 years or so. AN is one of the greatest movies ever made, and this is an excellent companion as it shows what madness the main of the film was.

A

’71
An absolutely harrowing story (fictional, I believe) of a British soldier who, on his first day serving in Belfast in 1971, gets separated from his unit during a riot and is forced to spend the night working his way from a Catholic neighborhood back to safety. After seeing a platoon-mate shot and killed next to him, he is chased and shot at, hides in a public restroom until nightfall, finds a friendly bar that explodes when a bomb intended for an IRA target goes off too quickly, is wounded by shrapnel and then stitched up and hidden by a sympathetic former army medic, kills one of the men trying to capture him, and is on the verge of being executed by IRA men when he is “saved” by undercover British officers who, in fact, also want to kill him because he saw that they were behind the bomb that had blown up earlier in the night.

Whew. A lot of shit for one dude in one night. The riot and chase scenes are wonderfully shot, making you feel like you are right in the midst of the chaos.

A-

Shorts

Why Mount Everest’s Height Keeps Changing
This month’s Science! entry.

A

Bee Removal: Backyard Shed
Equal parts fascinating and horrifying.

A-

The Commute: Walking 90km to work

Beau Miles is back at it again, doing weird stuff in the name of changing his perspective, upsetting the routines of his life, and making his viewers open their eyes to the world around them. This time he walked 90 kilometers from his home to his office. This was not the first time he had done this, which somewhat reduced the impact of this walk. But I still enjoy watching him do his weird shit.

B+

Lost Track New Zealand
Two mates from Australia travel around New Zealand on motorcycles in search of remote surfing locals. Just a beautiful piece to watch, although the guys themselves are not super interesting. What struck me was the courage in people like them, who live lives that are focused on just earning enough money to fund their travels and the gear required for their journeys. I’ve read dozens of books about people like this, but when I was in my 20s I never had the nerve to take even a year off and get out and see the world. There’s nothing wrong with taking family vacations and seeing other places from the very limited perspective that can offer. I’m not big on regret, but I do have a sliver of angst that I was not bold enough to take even one trip like this in my life.

B

College basketball and lots of reading slowed down the visual media I consumed last month. Or at least compared to the past two months. Still some solid recommendations if you’re looking to add to your watch lists.

ZeroZeroZero
Another entry in the gritty series revolving around the drug trade and its ramifications on society genre. This might be the bleakest damn show I’ve ever watched. Lots of wicked violence – including one of the most gruesome deaths I’ve ever seen (out of the corners of my eyes) – lots of good people getting sucked into horrible situations, intra-family murder, and a truly psychopathic character that I won’t soon forget.

So not uplifting, but a hell of a series. It follows a single shipment of cocaine from Mexico to Italy and shows all the little waves that spin out from that shipment and how they affect the world. It’s really well done, if you’re into this kind of show.

A-

Soul
Re-upped with Disney+ for awhile in part to watch this. I heard wonderful things before watching, so my expectations were high. And it largely fulfilled them. It always amazes me how Pixar can take these stories that are rather simple at their core and make them so emotionally impactful.

A

Narcos: Mexico, season two
I wrapped up my viewing of the currently available Narcos seasons with this, the second that focuses on the 1980s drug empire built by Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo. This season takes a long time to get moving, but the final 3–4 episodes are very good. It struggles a bit because Felix spends long stretches of the show doing a “Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part 2” act of smoking and brooding.

B+

The Wolf of Wall Street
Another past classic I’ve never seen. This felt like many Scorsese films: the first two thirds will floor you and then the final third is full of difficult moments. In this case I thought the final third was almost slapstick and goofy. That knocks the grade down just a hair. But otherwise, tremendous fun. Scorsese isn’t known for humor and this movie was full of laugh-out-loud moments. So, sure, a lot of Scorsese goodness, and a typically great DiCaprio lead. All of that is fine. But Margot Goddamn Robbie! Seriously…she should be illegal.

B+

Mulan
This was a bit of a surprise. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the original, animated movie. I didn’t have a whole lot of interest in watching this updated version, either. But we turned it on when a four-year-old nephew was over and enjoyed the first 45 minutes so much we started it over after he left so we could follow it without his questions and comments. Just a stunning visual presentation. Everything about the way this movie was presented was A+. We all enjoyed the story, too, although parts of it were pretty predictable.

B+

Formula 1: Drive to Survive, season one
This seemed like the show of choice for a lot of podcasters last summer, when they were bored and looking for new things to watch and follow. I resisted, simply because I’m not an auto racing fan other than the last weekend of May. But I caved when it came up on yet another podcast and I was looking for something I could watch in a couple nights.

And it’s pretty, pretty good. The producers are obviously doing a lot of selective editing and storytelling to heighten the personal dramas that are involved in the story. Many of their choices are ridiculous. But they also make for a quickly compelling show for an audience that is largely ignorant to the sport it covers.

The photography of the actual racing is phenomenal. Super high quality cameras on and in the cars, long stretches of uncut video to give a real sense of the feel of racing on Formula 1’s road courses. It’s pretty spectacular.

B

Strapped: Tallahassee
The No Laying Up boys tried a Pandemic era Strapped season last summer in Peoria, IL. It was, to my eyes, by far the weakest season in the series’ history. Because of Covid protocols they couldn’t add the local flavor that has made so many of the previous seasons such great watches.

Although this was also shot during the pandemic, it was later when folks were a little smarter about being safe, in Florida where some people DGAF about Covid, and they had an excellent guide who opened some local doors for them. It still lacked the local food and bar scene elements. But bringing in a golfer and coach from Florida A&M University to tell the story of running a golf program at a historically Black college gave the season enough heft to make it feel closer to how the show felt in the Before Times.

B+

Movies and Shows

The Witches
A movie L picked for us to watch New Year’s Night. Roald Dahl stories are always wacky and this one did not disappoint in that sense. Very weird and maybe/likely offensive at times? I’m not sure, but I get how some folks were offended.

B

Backstory: The Tale of T’eo
Remember when we only had completely insane stories a few times a year? Now that they seem to happen almost daily we don’t get to really dive in and enjoy them the way we once did.

This hour-long piece looks back at and updates the Manti T’eo catfishing scandal of 2012. I had forgotten some of the details, and it was even crazier than I remembered. I’m still not sure what to think about the whole thing, mostly because it’s hard to know where the truth begins and ends even after nearly nine years.

B+

Chernobyl
I read Midnight in Chernobyl last year and was floored by it. It remains one of the best pieces of non-fiction I’ve ever read. I decided to cap off our month of HBOMax by reviewing this miniseries, also based on the nuclear accident at the Chernobyl power plant in current-day Ukraine. The series is also excellent, if not quite as memorable as the book. It has to cover the same material in a lot less time and suffers somewhat for that. But it still does a fine job of showing what happened, explaining how it happened, and the heroic efforts to save lives and secure the power plant. Episode five, which features the trial of the three men held most responsible for the accident, is especially powerful. And the soundtrack – filled with dissonant takes on traditional Russian music – was amazing in helping to set the tone.

A-

Curb Your Enthusiasm, seasons 4–7
How I spent most of my month with HBOMax. At one point I was having dreams about the show. And I also found myself getting incredibly agitated over mundane details of daily life. Might have been a good thing to stop after four seasons.
Season 4, A-
Season 5, B
Season 6, A
Season 7, A

The Office
Although the show has left Netflix, Comedy Central still own rights to it. And they’ve been playing the hell out of it since it went to Peacock. At least five times this month I would be looking for something to watch, see that CC was airing a block of episodes, and spend the next couple hours watching several. Since they were all over the place in terms of season and episode, I’ll give the show an overall grade. Pretty much anytime Michael Scott is present you can expect to be entertained.

A

Icarus
Documentarian Bryan Fogel set out to make a fascinating film: after finishing 15th in a prestigious bike race in France, he decided to spend the next year doping to see how he would compete by breaking the rules. He enlisted the foremost expert in the world on how to both dope and avoid being detected, Russian Grigory Rodchenkov. But in the midst of filming Rodchenkov became the center of one of the biggest drug scandals in world sports history, one which at times completely shut down the Russian Olympic team.

While there was some disjointedness from that transition, it was still a fascinating look at a man’s entire world crumbling around him. Regardless of what you think of PEDs and Rodchenkov at the beginning, it’s hard not to ignore his acts to upset the balance of athletic competitions and see the man who is separated from his family, estranged from his country, and likely in danger because of the people in Russia he has spoken out against.

A-

Shorts

What If We Nuke the Moon?
Science!

A-

Rebuilding James Bond’s Apple IIc
More science!

A-

Danny MacAskill – The Slabs
Holy shit. I can barely ride down a flat road. This is insane!

A

Podcasts

13 Seconds to the Moon, season 2
This season focused on the Apollo 13 mission, which suffered a near catastrophic explosion on the way to the moon and took a heroic effort by NASA to bring the crew home safely. Since it is focused on one mission, it is a little tighter than season one. And it dispels some myths Hollywood conjured up for the movie about the mission. Commander Jim Lovell is an absolute treasure, still sharp and funny in his early 90s. My favorite line, one I’ve heard him use in other contexts, came when asked about the mission’s earth re-entry, which took much longer than expected. This was a moment of high drama as the capsule was in a communications blackout as it raced through the earth’s atmosphere. Since they took longer to reestablish contact with Houston, the world was not sure if the crew had survived or not. Lovell’s explanation, “We decided to drag it out because we thought it would make for a good movie someday,” followed by his deep, joyous laughter.

A

Chasing Scratch
After three years of making one of the most hilarious podcasts – golf-related, sports-centric, or otherwise – Mike and Eli finally unmasked themselves and transitioned to video this offseason. Like most listeners/viewers, I was shocked that they looked like normal dudes. Something about the way they presented themselves through three seasons of podcasting led me to believe that they were fat, bearded slobs. Turns out they’re good looking guys! Happily the humor and charm that carried the podcast has transitioned over to video, and this is a helpful tool to get golf fans through the cold months when we can’t play.

A

A lot of material to get through, so strap yourselves in.

The Holiday Shit

Classics:
Elf, A+
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, A
A Christmas Story, A
Die Hard, A+
A Charlie Brown Christmas, B
South Park: Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo, A
The Office, see here

New:
Holiday Baking Championship
Lorenzo and Juliana were the most impressive competitors all season. Lorenzo is crazy talented for his age, and always taking his baking interesting angles. Juliana matched him, possesing amazing skills and creativity for a home baker. She was a worthy champion.

A-

Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey
Tons of references/influences, but somehow it all works. Not strictly a Christmas movie, but rather one that takes place at Christmas. But as a movie the entire family can watch together, it ends up being an ideal show for the season.

B+

The Holiday Movies That Made Us: Elf
There is some good trivia in here about the holiday classic. But the way the information is presented made the show hard to watch. The producers tried to be way too clever in how they cut up the interviews and voiceovers.

C-

Shorts, Shows, and Movies

Dua Lipa: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert
Over the past couple years I’ve given over the car radio to the girls, with some caveats. I’ve put in a few “hits” stations as favorites and we listen to those on rides to and from school. So I’ve heard 8 million Post Malone, Lizzo, and Ariana plays over that span. A lot of the artists kind of run together. I knew Dua Lipa’s name, but not sure I can always connect her name with her songs. I saw her on a lot of Best Of lists for both songs and albums for 2020, so when her Tiny Desk (Home) Concert popped up, I decided to give it a try. What a delightful performance! What a dynamic presence she has. Yes, she’s tall and gorgeous with a fine voice. But what struck me most was how she carries herself with a glorious, bubbly confidence that more women in this world need.

A

Inception
I’m ashamed to admit I had not watched this until last month. It was a first class mind fuck and I loved it.

A+

Bruce Springsteen’s Letter To You
A documentary companion to Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You album, it showed the Boss and the E. Street Band in the studio last year banging the songs out. He still plays with a remarkable energy, but the man is 71, and it shows. The songs are still pretty great, but the sections when Bruce speaks suffer. He’s always been long-winded. Thank goodness Bob Dylan told him back in the early ‘70s that he used too many words in his songs.

A- for the music/B- for the spoken parts

How Tag Became a Professional Sport
This is the good shit right here.

A

The Vast of Night
A quirky, low-budget thriller set in late 1950s New Mexico and presented as if from a Twilight Zone knock-off of the same era. Some parts of it, especially the end, are fabulous. And the camera work is excellent, with several exceptionally long takes. But other parts of it are very slow and keep this from being a great movie.

B+

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Based on one of the greatest spy novels ever written, this was extremely difficult to follow for the first hour as it constantly jumps around. Sometimes a scene would include just a single spoken sentence before it leapt to a completely different shot. But it all comes together nicely as Gary Oldman finds a mole in the 1970s British intelligence service. Ironically I watched this just hours before John le Carré’s death was announced.

B+

Following Seas
A really interesting documentary about the Griffins, a family who spent most of the 1960s and early 1970s at sea. It is told from the perspective of the mother, Nancy, in interviews done in the final year of her life and almost entirely through the film they shot on their trips. I used to be fascinated by people who sailed around the world. It’s pretty sobering to see how difficult life on a sailboat actually was.

B+

The Barkley Marathons
The Barkley Marathons is an annual race in the woods and hills of eastern Tennessee. When this movie was shot, only ten people had ever completed its full 130 mile course within the 60 hour window. The filmmakers caught a break and saw three people finish this insane race, the winner breaking the previous record by over an hour. Even back when I ran a lot and had way more energy, I don’t think I could have even completed even a single loop of this race.

A-

WW84
So you have Gal Gadot, the woman for whom the term “Galacticly Hot” may have been invented. You have Kristen Wiig, one of the funniest people on the planet. And somehow you still make a movie that is plodding, bloated, and has you hoping for the finish not to see how it ends but so you can stop watching. Pedro Pascal was very good, but it’s like he was acting in a completely different movie than everyone else. He was cartoonish and over-the-top where everything else was reserved and somber. A disappointment.

C-

Bee Gee’s: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart
I heard raves about this and since we have HBOMax for a month – we got it so L could watch WW84 – I figured I would check it out. I knew much of the Bee Gee’s story already from a podcast I listened to a year or so back. But it was interesting to see interviews with the brothers rather than a narrator telling their story. I don’t know that it breaks much new ground, and I’m betting they had more struggles than just not getting along for a year or so in the early ‘70s. But the music, man… You can argue they are one of the most unfairly judged bands ever, given how they took the brunt of the backlash against disco. What they did from 1975–1979 was as good as any band outside the Beatles has ever done.

A+ for the music, B for the content

Mission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo
I watched this about a year ago with L, when we were watching a bunch of space shows together. I was pushed to watch it again by the podcast listed below.

A

Spies in Disguise
Third time L and I have watched this in the last 12 months.

A

Scoob!, B
Doolittle, B
Our New Year’s Eve movies. Not great but not terrible either, and L enjoyed both, which was the point.

Bond

Casino Royale , A
Quantum of Solace, B
Skyfall, A
Spectre, C
Goldfinger, C+
I went on a mini-Bond run right after Christmas, re-watching the Daniel Craig movies and capping it with a trip back to one of Sean Connery’s best. That was a mistake; if you want to watch old Bonds you need to watch them on their own, not after watching a bunch of new ones. They look awfully dated and cheesy in comparison. I debated whether to watch From Russia With Love, my favorite Connery edition, but decided not to ruin it. And somehow I don’t think I had ever watched Spectre. It was kind of a mess. Here’s to No Time To Die being more like Casino Royale and Skyfall, my two favorite Bond films, and ending the Craig era properly.

Audio

13 Minutes to the Moon
A BBC podcast that aired a year ago for the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 flight to the moon. I meant to listen to it then but never got around to it. Picked it back up after I saw a recent recommendation for it. It focuses on the final 13 minutes of the LEM’s trip to the moon’s surface. Over 10 episodes they set up everything that led to that sequence and break down little moments in the sequence. Then, the final two episodes are a guided trip through the 13 minutes, then an episode where they play all the NASA audio from the 13 minutes without any commentary. It’s a brilliant way of setting things up so, by episode 11, you can listen into the tapes from 1969 and have an idea what is going on. And it is just another reminder of how freaking amazing the Apollo program was.

A

Two Broke Watch Snobs
I’ve been dabbling in the horological information space a bit over the past couple months. I still love my Apple Watch but I also love regular watches, and have been debating whether I should be rewarded with a nice mechanical watch of some variety when I mark 50 years on this earth later this year. TBWS is the most irreverent watch podcast out there and highly entertaining whether you care about watches or not.

A

American Top 40 Year End Countdowns
For much of December 29–31 and listened to the AT40 station on iHeart Radio as they worked through the Top 100 Songs shows of the late 1970s. My constant complaint of this station is that they don’t play enough late ‘70s shows. Listening to these scratched that itch rather nicely.

For grins I tracked how deep I could go into each countdown before I came across a song I could not immediately recognize. Here’s how it broke down:

1976: #7
1977: #4
1978: #43
1979: #29

I think I need some more weekly countdowns from 1978 because that year clearly resonated with me.

A++++

A pretty light month. I guess that happens when the election wipes out roughly a week of normal TV viewing. Plus I read a lot in November.

Here’s what I did watch.

Archer, season 11

The world’s greatest spy returns for another year. Archer seasons fall into one of two camps. There are the ones that make you laugh so hard that you are constantly rewinding/rewatching to catch the jokes you missed. And there are the ones that feel flat and never really get going.

Until this year.

This season started out as a snoozer but gained traction midway through the run and finished very strongly. The last three episodes kept this from falling into C territory.

B-

Tehran

I spent the week after the election watching this Israeli thriller. Tamar Rabinyan is an Israeli agent who sneaks into Iran in an effort to cripple the Iranian air defenses before an Israeli attack on several nuclear sites. Her initial effort gets stymied and she spends the next several days attempting to come up with a backup plan so the attacks can proceed.

Her efforts are further complicated when an Israeli tourist recognizes her in the Tehran airport just before she is detained by Iranian security authorities. During the interrogation of the tourist, the security team learns of their contact and begins searching Tehran for Rabinyan.

This was a pretty solid, modern espionage story. There are lots of very tense moments, a big double-cross near the end, but all of the work of the series is undermined by a poor ending.

A couple interesting things (at least to me) about the show:
As it was made in Israel for an Israeli audience, it is almost entirely in Middle Eastern languages. Mostly Hebrew and Farsi, but also doses of Arabic. There are moments of English sprinkled throughout, and even a shot of French.

Rabinyan’s family, and some of the other Israeli agents she works with, are Jews who came from Iran. I did not know there was such a thing. You usually think of modern immigrants to Israel coming from Eastern Europe. Glad to have my ignorance corrected.

Finally, this is an AppeTV+ show, presented as an Apple exclusive. So it made me laugh that no one was using Apple devices. Obviously Apple bought it for US distribution without being involved in its production.

B

The Other Guys

For all the Will Ferrell movies I can quote extensively, there are some I’ve never seen. Like this one. I don’t remember it coming out back in 2010, but saw an online discussion that included it and decided I should watch it.

It had the risk of being one of those movies that throws a terrific scene right at the beginning and can never again match that. But I was pleasantly surprised that it was funny throughout. Not an all-timer, but a decent way to spend 90 minutes or so.

B+

The Departed

Speaking of movies I missed, I’ve been meaning to watch this one for a long, long time. I chalk up missing it to having kids.

Man, this was a good way to end the month. Certainly not in the same league as Goodfellas, but it’s a fine entry in Martin Scorsese’s mob chronicles. Even better that he used some new faces and locales.

Scorsese’s movies are always dazzling and entertaining and magnificent, but rarely leave you feeling good after. This might have the most bleak ending of any of his movies, though. Those last ten minutes are just brutal.

A

Holiday Baking Championship

I’m through the first four episodes of this year’s season. I miss Lorraine Pascale.

B+

Baseball took up a lot of time last month. But I still squeezed in some quality television programming.

The Spy

This brief series tells the story of Eli Cohen, a Mossad agent who infiltrated Syrian society in the 1960s and became a deputy minister of defense before being discovered and executed.

It is a compelling, interesting story that is very well acted and paced, and beautifully photographed. I also enjoyed the old school spy tale angle. When we think of that period, we tend to think of traditional Cold War stories. But what was going on in the Middle East at the time was equally fascinating and, in some ways, far more consequential than spies chasing each other around Europe.

But the revelation was Sacha Baron Cohen in the lead role. I was floored by how good SBC was in a straight, dramatic role. He was excellent and believable, especially in the moments when Eli Cohen began to lose grip on who he really was after spending so much time in Syria.

A

Halloween Wars
Halloween Baking Championship

Ahh, it’s holiday food show season! October is always a fine warm-up for the real deal. Sadly, L doesn’t like to sit and watch these with me as much as she used to. She watched some of the Halloween Wars episodes, but we skipped a couple and went right to the finale Halloween weekend. That show kind of annoys me but I don’t turn down chances to spend time with one of my girls watching food shows.

I’m a bigger fan of HBC. This year’s crew wasn’t my favorite. But it’s a good way to get ready for the holiday season.

Halloween Wars, B-
Halloween Baking Championship, B+

Narcos: Mexico, season one

I loved the first three seasons of Narcos, which focused on the Colombian cocaine cartels of the 1980s. Done with the Colombians, the series moved up to Mexico, focusing on Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo’s Guadalajara cartel and the DEA agents who battled him.

This season took longer to grab me that the Colombian seasons did. Perhaps that is because Gallardo and/or Diego Luna, the actor who played him, were not as immediately compelling as Pablo Escobar/Wagner Moura in the first two seasons.

But this season cranked up the drama in the back half. As Gallardo’s cartel shifted from its own marijuana to transporting Colombian cocaine, the stakes got higher and the DEA became more interested. Especially agent Kiki Camarena. Camarena pushed a reluctant DEA bureaucracy to go after Gallardo’s interests much harder. His reward was to be kidnapped, tortured, and murdered. The episodes that center on his kidnapping are brutal and emotionally draining, and in some ways saved the season from being just ok.

A-

It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

L wanted to make sure we watched this before she went out on Halloween. It has always been the weakest of the Peanuts holiday specials. And it got me thinking about how terrible most of the characters are. A subject for a future post!

B-

11 Foot 8

Who doesn’t love those videos of (usually) trucks smashing into low bridges and overpasses because the drivers ignore safety warnings? Well this mini-documentary is all about one in North Carolina.

B+

Ted Lasso
As with the first month of shows, Ted Lasso continued to shine in the final five episodes of season one. Sure, there were predictable, clichéd choices in how the show progressed. But the dynamic between the main characters is what carried the program. I believe I said this last month but it was a little shocking how good Jason Sudeikis is in the emotional moments of Ted’s life. Hannah Waddingham and Juno Temple were both outstanding, too. A show that made me laugh, smile, and feel a little each Friday. I was suspicious of Apple TV+ when it first came out, and we only have it because we get it for free after buying a new device. A season two of Ted Lasso may be enough for me to actually pay for it a couple months next year.

A-

Cobra Kai
Listen, I heard the talk. “Have you watched Cobra Kai? It’s really good!” And I would put it on my To Watch list and forget about it. After a few months I would delete it, only to put it back on when I came across another recommendation.

Well, folks, I finally dove in and watched the first two seasons over a three-day stretch. I can’t believe I waited so long. And I can’t believe I liked it so much.

It isn’t high art. But it was highly entertaining and shockingly well done. Was there cheese? Absolutely. But it was like the perfect amount of cheese that made it enjoyable without going over-the-top.

William Zabka is the big revelation of the show. I loved, loved, loved where they placed Johnny Lawrence in his life and how Zabka worked to add depth and growth to his character. And I love how his prime pupil, Miguel, goes from good to bad to somewhere in-between before the absolutely shocking end of season two.

I loved how all the feelings from the original Karate Kid movie are flipped. You want Lawrence to succeed while Daniel LaRusso comes across as a pretentious dick for much of the show. And having Robby Lawrence be LaRusso’s pupil, and morphing him from troubled kid you hate to kid you want to succeed to, well, whatever you feel about him at the end of season two, was supremely satisfying.

Lots of good supporting characters as well. Not to be creepy, but Amanda LaRusso is exactly the kind of girl I would have been totally in love with but utterly unable to talk to back when I was in high school. Plenty of excellent call backs to the original movie and the 1980s in general. Some great 80s music. As Johnny Lawrence would say, it is all pretty bad ass.

Season one, A+
Season two, A-

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga
I was warned about this. Two friends who generally enjoy Will Ferrell’s work said this was not worth watching. But I saw it pop up on a couple summer lists of good things to watch so I gave it a shot…and I didn’t last a full hour. No real laughs and not much of a story to keep me engaged. Maybe it got better in the second hour but I’ll never know.

D

High Score
A brief and high level review of the history of video games. It begins with the development of Space Invaders and the rise of Atari, moves through Nintendo’s domination, the transition of role playing games from boards to computers and consoles, SEGA’s bold ventures in the ‘90s, and then two episodes about fighting and first-person games, respectively. Not exhaustive by any means. But for someone like me who had a childhood love of video games that has never quite translated completely to adulthood, it was good enough.

B+

Loopers
A Golf Channel documentary about the history of the role of caddy, narrated by Bill Murray. It was ok but kind of ruined by Golf Channel running commercials every four minutes. Even on the DVR that’s super annoying. But golf tournament broadcasts have commercials roughly every four minutes so I guess that carries over to non-tournament broadcasts as well.

B-

Stuck at Home in an Albanian Blood Feud
A short that explores the Albanian concept of “Kanun,” which allows for seeking blood in revenge for the death of a relative. Don’t get me wrong, we have some crazy, historically-based shit in this country. Witness how we treat people of color for example. But this stuff is truly insane.

B

The Death of Stalin
I knew going in that this was a satirical farce about the power struggle in the Soviet Union after the death of Josef Stalin in 1953. Still I was not prepared for how ridiculous of a movie this was.

I say ridiculous in the best possible way. It features British and American actors, in their natural accents, playing most of the major roles. Steve Buscemi is Nikita Khrushchev. He does standard Buscemi things. Which is an amazing way to think about Khrushchev, the man who pounded his shoe on the table and said “We will bury you!” a few years later. Jason Isaacs as Georgry Zhukov is especially fantastic. Rupert Friend as Vasily Stalin was absolutely delightful.

Even if you don’t care about history and have zero interest in the history of the Cold War or Soviet Union, this is an excellent way to spend an hour and 45 minutes.

A

Strapped: Peoria
The latest entry in No Laying Up’s small budget travel series.

The crew chose Peoria, IL because of a contest on the No Laying Up Refuge message board in which a group from Peoria raised the most money for charity. Despite that good will, this edition falls flat in relation to past seasons of Strapped. And it’s all because of Covid. One of the delights of Strapped is how they shine a light on aspects of the communities where they are playing golf. There is an Anthony Bourdain quality to the show when they dive into the history of race relations in Baltimore, the life of a struggling singer in New Orleans, or the background of a young PGA pro while in Southern California. That’s all missing since Peoria, and especially Bradley University, were largely deserted during the group’s summer visit. They couldn’t explore the locally owned shops and bars. There were no doubt some campus eccentrics or local history experts that they would have spoken to in normal times. They do pull in a couple interesting locals, but both are golfers and more cool guys than personalities unique to Peoria.

B