A full month of being locked in had the expected effect on what I\u2019ve been watching on TV: I consumed a shit-load of content! I thought about breaking this list into multiple entries. Instead I\u2019m 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).<\/p>\n
Better Call Saul<\/a><\/em>, season five \u2018Kim Faces Off Against Lalo\u2019 Talked About Scene Ep. 509 | Better Call Saul – YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Better Call Saul<\/em> 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<\/em> will enter the pantheon as one of the great shows of all time.<\/p>\n A<\/p>\n Hunters<\/a><\/em> 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.<\/p>\n Sounds promising, and there were some excellent moments throughout the show\u2019s 10 episodes.<\/p>\n However, the show couldn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Not a waste of time yet disappointing because there was so much promise here.<\/p>\n B-<\/p>\n Tiger King<\/a><\/em> I normally wouldn\u2019t like a show like this. I\u2019m not into reality TV. I don\u2019t like watching white trash, total disasters get their 15 minutes.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n B+<\/p>\n Reply All<\/a><\/em> podcast, episode 158: The Case of the Missing Hit It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Reply All<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n Until they caught a lucky break.<\/p>\n I highly recommend listening as both the path to get to a resolution and the A+<\/p>\n Fleabag<\/a><\/em> The show has depth, addressing all kinds of issues you wouldn\u2019t 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<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n Phoebe Waller-Bridge – it is very hard for me not to call her Phoebe Bridgers – is a genius. I\u2019ve put Killing Eve<\/em> on my watch list and hope her contributions to the next Bond film salvage it from a difficult production process.<\/p>\n The show is brilliantly written, superbly cast and acted, and wonderfully shot. Like I said, a damn-near perfect show.<\/p>\n A<\/p>\n No Laying Up: Strapped<\/a><\/em> A<\/p>\n Let\u2019s Go Crazy The Grammy Salute to Prince<\/em> A<\/p>\n Voskhod<\/a> B-<\/p>\n Marcy Learns Something New<\/a> A-<\/p>\n Bush Pilot: Reflections on a Canadian Myth<\/a> A<\/p>\n A Mile an Hour – Running a different kind of marathon<\/a> B+<\/p>\n Troop Zero<\/a><\/em> B<\/p>\n Soul Surfer<\/a><\/em> B<\/p>\n Despicable Me<\/a><\/em> A<\/p>\n Nacho Libre<\/a><\/em> D<\/p>\n Ferris Bueller\u2019s Day Off<\/a><\/em> A for the parents, no idea how the girls would grade it.<\/p>\n Onward<\/a><\/em> C+ for me<\/p>\n
\nThis 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, \u201cBad Choice Road,\u201d were as good as any five minutes on any show ever. The confrontation between cartel boss Lalo Salamanca and Jimmy \u201cSaul Goodman\u201d McGill and Kim Wexler was utterly amazing. I don\u2019t 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<\/em>, and her utter evisceration of Tony Dalton\u2019s Salamanca was as savage as any scene of graphic violence that Saul<\/em> or Breaking Bad<\/em> has ever offered. It is a travesty that Seehorn has not been nominated for an Emmy. If it doesn\u2019t happen this year I will demand a congressional investigation.<\/p>\n
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\nAn Amazon Prime series with immense potential that came up short.<\/p>\n
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\nWell, 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\u2019t know that I have any particularly insightful comments. I\u2019m 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\u2019t prosecuted.<\/p>\n
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\nI don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
\nresolution itself are highly compelling. Also, who hasn\u2019t got a song stuck in their head that they can\u2019t place? This show is confirmation that we aren\u2019t all totally crazy.<\/p>\n
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\nThis 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.<\/p>\n
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\nThe humorous, budget travel and golf series the NLU guys put out. Season six was in Southern California, and gorgeously shot. Seriously, it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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\nBroken down here<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nShorts<\/h3>\n
\nA 30-minute film about an American hermit who communicates with a Soviet cosmonaut via amateur radio in the early 1960s. There\u2019s a sci-fi element to their communication that is kind of cool. A strange story that I\u2019m not sure worked.<\/p>\n
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\nRachael 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.<\/strong><\/p>\n
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\nYou 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\u2019m not taking pictures much these days but have been feeling the urge build.<\/p>\n
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\nLooking for things to do? This guy has the perfect way to spend a day!<\/p>\n
\nKid(ish) Stuff<\/h3>\n
\nEntertaining 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\u2019t bothersome.<\/p>\n
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\nM and C watched this a few years back, but I don\u2019t think I watched it with them. L just read the book and didn\u2019t remember watching, so she wanted to take a stab at it and I watched with her. It\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019m sure she had some help, but she was awfully impressive.<\/p>\n
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\nCan\u2019t watch this too many times. L and I still laugh a lot each time we watch it.<\/p>\n
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\nThere 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.<\/p>\n
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\nWe 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. \u201cLet my Cameron go!\u201d<\/p>\n
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\nYour 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\u2019s normal standards. L disagreed, though. When it was over she immediately said, \u201cTen out of ten, would recommend!\u201d I asked her if she was sure and she said, \u201cWait, twelve out of ten!\u201d She\u2019s watched it at least one more time since then.<\/p>\n
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