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Comments
Which is way too storybook/moral-of-the-story to be fair. The fair part is that Life Sentence was really, really bad.
As for shows I started this year:
Still Watching:
The Good Doctor?:I'm not sure I still care but I had a right shock when I found out all three trainee doctors are British IRL so I might watch it just so I can catch 2/3 of them in an American accent misstep.
I love these but they're probably cancelled:
Instinct: Alan Cumming is an adorable ball of energy
For the People: Britt Robertson you kill TV shows stop being on them
Quit:
Dynasty. It was so much that it went from 'I love you Dynasty' to 'Wait what is going on' in like three episodes.
Andi Mack: I binged the first season of this to catch up with the second because it's the season where the Disney Channel Has A Gay Main Character* but oh my gosh it is so dull. I loved when Andi lived with her grandma and grandpa, and I was not happy with her move to her mom's place. Every plot that stemmed from her new space was worse than I could ever imagine. Really, aside from the I-Ching episode it all ended up being as dull as dishwater. They also rushed through Buffy's mommy issues, which I was looking forward to. Maybe I and the Good Hair Crew will reunite someday, but not right now.
The Librarians was cancelled, how random. I wish I cared, but I always went from "I love the three Librarians" to "oh goodness Flynn go awaaaaaaaaaaaay".
*EDIT: I now honestly question whether this was an appropriate plot for this show at all, but I didn't want to edit this post to make it seem as if I'd never said it, so here we go.
It's embarrassing that I slogged through a whole show I apparently hated entirely because they had a gay character, how shallow of me. I mean, I don't need approval from TV shows, nobody does.
The Disney Channel really did manage to put lipstick on a pig and magically shield themselves from all the consequences of creating a bad show.
We're many different people, with different opinions, and different moods and feelings, and different ideas about how the world should be. Depending on who's doing what at any given point in time, results may be dramatically different, in chaotic ways.
FWIW she seems to have a record of making stupidly offensive tweets anyway.
*It turns out though that ABC had forfeited the right to the money from this show outside of initial airings and reruns (which, it turns out, is not actually where the real money lies) so they didn't lose too much. She also managed to bug out (this time anyways) like, literally during the 6ish week period where advertisers and ad buyers assess how much they're willing to pay to run ads on a show.
Yesterday I watched a funny clip from Samantha Bee's show about how Ambien makes you racist (yes, referencing Roseanne). It reminded me that she could be good. I'd watched her show kind of religiously (despite the ridiculous amount of swearing she can't stop doing*) until she dug into Aziz Anzari's terrible date PR disaster. It was a seven minute segment that left a really bad taste in my mouth, so I quit.
Fast-forward to yesterday, I decided to give her another chance. I watched a clip about Melania, which was okay? Then I watched one about Ivanka Trump which used a phrase that I do not believe anybody should ever call anybody, (oh gods why am I doing this) let alone one woman doing it to another. Soured again, I gave up and went on with my business.
This morning there's a giant storm about this on all the media websites, and it was kind of amazing to see people come to Ivanka's defense? I mean, all she did was post something on instagram the same week America's immigration policies continued being terrible. She didn't deserve the kind of backlash she got.
Which is what kind of bothers me about where we are now with liberal culture in America. A few years ago, making fun of Fox News' inability to be objective and kind to people who were different was fun and valid. Back then, give or take a few Daily Show segments, the secondary form of attack wasn't "This person is ugly, or this person has done something vaguely unrelated but I dislike them and that's generally accepted so let's dig into them". Now it's starting to feel like the primary form of attack over their policy decisions.
I still think Samantha Bee does do good investigative journalism, but when seven minutes of a segment can get destroyed by a single underhanded, mean comment, you're kinda doing it wrong.
I haven't watched it at all.
Though Elizabeth (Madam Secretary) was quick to shoot him down because there's no real research in this area yet, this method has been discussed more than once on the BBC and on CNN recently. They tend to gloss over the 'no research' part, which is kind of funny since a fictional program treated it more seriously than factual programming.
Which is great for me because I don't like American TV shows like that. I prefer the procedural-ey shows for old people that air on CBS/NBC and similar.
However, I have to really give this show kudos for the final scene because it pulled off a real coup: Sebastian has just told Penny that Bakia stole his father's song. In the audience, Penny's father has arrived and sees her for the first (well... third) time, and Sebastian's father is also there. At the end of their performance, Bakia arrives and reveals that Pentacord (yes, Pentacord) "Penny" Mendez is her daughter. Curtain closes.
It was pretty epic.
Also at the end of the episode I got the following recommendations which is like... I get it Showmax I watch lots of kid's shows.
The second season of Penny on M.A.R.S. is airing in the UK and the first music video they released (seemingly) has something romanting brewing between Penny and Sasha of all people. I'm all for love triangles, but it seems as if they were just working on a school presentation.
I do hope that the first music video of every year is a Penny and Sasha song though. Somehow this is the first tradition the show decided on and I really like Sasha so keep on, show.
the fact that they all slept with Nolantheir various issues.Then we have Mona and Ali from the original Pretty Little Liars dealing with the mystery of Beacon Heights University and trying to bring down the comprehensive Beacon Guard surveillance system.
The reason I'm not like "THIS IS THE BEST SHOW EVER WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" is because of Beacon Guard; it's like a security system but it feels like actually it's a surveillance system from a sci-fi movie which it might be since it's only focused on a number of students. It monitors everything which turns the setting into some sort of secret government facility to monitor... something.
I like that Ava's thing is that she has to pay for her own tuition via her YouTube channel which is like, the most millennial thing and totally unrealistic. But then it turns out it *is* unrealistic and when her dad ran from the FBI (and CIA? who knows) he left her a designer weekender full of hundred dollar bills. So she's actually using YouTube as an excuse to launder that money.
It also turns out that the Baader-Meinhof Phenomemon was named after what was basically an antifa group.
Anyways I'd like to thank the Disney Channel for finally giving us this scene.EDIT: I now honestly question whether this was an appropriate plot for this show at all, but I didn't want to edit this post to make it seem as if I'd never said it, so here we go.
Also for goodness sakes thanking a TV station whose whole job is to wring money and attention from you, really me?
I recently started watching Whiskey Cavalier, just to try and vary my interests a bit and not get too bogged down thinking about things and i quite like it. However, it has not been renewed for a new season.
It's this fun, dumb spy show with a wonderful levity. Like, good decent levity that really lifts your spirits as you watch.
In the same boat;
For the People was cancelled after two seasons, and I'm sad now because I really liked how the character dynamics had evolved in season 2.
Instinct will air this summer, but I'm not too sure of it's chances for survival.
On a sad note, Pua Magasiva, who played the red Ninja Storm Power Ranger, has died. He and the show were a big part of my childhood. It's really unfortunate, especially for somebody as young as he was (38).
I liked how after Taylor shoots Jeremy point blank in the chest, Ali goes all PLL Mode and starts spinning a story about how Jeremy wasn't running *away* but rather *towards* them (I mean, he did turn towards them to say goodbye to Caitlin before escaping with his secrets) but then Caitlin is like "Guys he's alive!" and the whole group, including Dylan who was all for adding to Ali's story and Ava who basically placed a weapon in KO'ed Jeremy's hand are like "oh, darn it".
I liked it because it's the sort of thing you'd think characters on a show like this would do but never do but also it super didn't work out.
Also if this show doesn't get any more seasons, Dylan will be kicked out of school for academic fraud, Caitlin's Senator mom is carting her to DC because she's well... a lot happened to Caitlin (especially getting hit by a car) and Ava has no money to continue school since her secret bag of stolen funds was stole by a campus security guard with a vendetta against her and so it better get at least one more season for happy ending purposes.
Plus, I really really like it.
Oh about this; it actually turns out the CW really really likes Lucy Hale so they cast her as a lead, again, in their new Katy Keene adaptation.
Episode 9 of The Perfectionists did have a Professor Hale and Doctor Benson (Ashley Benson played Hannah Marin on PLL) which was a nice, if odd, nod to the previous cast.
Soheir phones ring and the caller is themselves (wooooooo) and they're asked to state their biggest fears and it felt weirdly like the start of a death game but I mean, they probably won't kill anyone.
So it turns out somebody hijacked Taylor's Beacon Guard system (basically the Chinese government surveillance system but limited to one college) and rewrote Mona's algorithm to find people of a certain type to conduct lots of psychological experiments on them, it seems.
It was a really fun episode actually! Also everybody kept reminding us how badly Caitlin had it this season. Her fake boyfriend died, then her fake boyfriend's best friend creeped around her like a lech, then she was run over by a car (possibly a hijacked AI Uber-type thing) and finally her real boyfriend was mistaken for that guy's murderer and shot.
Also also Dylan's high-school bully showed up and at no point did Dylan guess that said hot brooding guy was there to apologize/make up with him/make out with him and neither does Andrew. Andrew's actor really needs to keep his eye on that recurring role lest he get replaced as "One who is Dylan's boyfriend."
Oh this also means all three Perfectionists have flirted with and/or had a serious relationship with somebody in food service (though maybe that's not rare for American college students).
I also really liked Ava in this episode, dealing with her crazy dad, I want to see more of in-control and slightly evil Ava next season.
So, come on Freeform, you renewed The Bold Type! This show is super-hyper-cheap to produce! It has like, five regular sets total! Give me ten seasons!
This season overall was pretty good, the Ponytail Crew (Lucy and Sasha) were good villains, and the 2-Good had an Aikatsu Friends! vibe about it too since everybody had to perform in pairs.
There were a lot of good songs, what stood out to be particularly was Camilla's amazing singing voice in You Rock the Roll.
There was also a whole new element introduced this season with young transplant patient Pete, who Penny made friends with in the hospital after she fell down the stairs that one time. I was a hundred percent prepared not to like him, but he won me over with his particularly thick Italian accent.
I was very surprised when Bakia and Penny's father, Bruce, made up super-early in the season after sixteen years of being lied to, but there was a lot of drama to get through so I guess it was okay. I didn't particularly think Bakia did the right thing pushing all the blame on Freddy for stealing Sebastian's father's song, and I was angling for Freddy to come back later in the season with a new client who would act as a rival for Bakia.
Boy, how wrong I was.
I liked how this season, Penny really showed off a new character. Her forgiving nature overall was really cool (there was a lot to forgive), and her willingness to fight harder vs last year was brilliant.
I also liked how Arianna, one of the extras from S1 who ended up in a lot of
episodes, was semi-officicially promoted to the main cast because she is super cool. She even made the Italian DVD cover.
Speaking of, I wonder why this DVD doesn't have English audio. I wonder if it's because the Disney Channel has some sort of deal on that.
So, it's a Penny on M.A.R.S. season finale, so we need a big twist. Penny and Sasha win the 2-Good (why would there be a competition where the #1 trophy has a gigantic 2 on it?) and are off to participate in a reality show. Standard for the course in this universe, since this also happened in Alex & Co to which this show is a spiritual successor.
But then they invite the producer of said reality show onto the stage and it's Freddy!! I was absolutely blindsided and it was amazing! I can't wait for season 3!
I sure am finishing a lot of stuff suddenly.
I've wondered about whether this effect would be a thing.
Of course that's a very very consumer minded approach to take, which makes them more perishable not only in product but in the mind of said consumer. Then again, most are based on isekai LNs that are carbon-copies of each other.
This is VS Netflix, HBO and Hulu's style, which is to shoot for a strategy that combines prestige series with niche products that get every other person to sign up for. That way you get the mavericks who make trends (like Game of Thrones, Stranger Things and Big Little Lies), the trend-chasers (unfortunately, probably the majority of your audience) and the hipsters.
The hipsters* are basically mavericks who don't want to be mavericks, so they avoid the big shows whilst latching on to that same almost ridiculous "You must watch this!" mentality. Like that guy on Vox who would never at any opportunity let him forget that his favorite show is One Day At A Time.
Which leads me to a fun story; Netflix's algorithm has apparently deciphered that the hipster-maverick shows only bring in new viewers up to three seasons, and has started culling them like the loss-leaders they are. This led to One Day At A Time being cancelled, only for them to announce a suspiciously similar sitcom a few days ago.
*I'm not talking about me, here. I mean other more mainstream hipsters!
I'm not going to lie here, I had my expectations about this episode. Chief of them all that somehow
AmazonKerblam! and some of it's technology would be the main villain.Instead, the final twist was about a young disenfranchised man who is sad that only 10% of the human population has work and that Kerblam! is basically a terrible place to work. Of course, he wants to shut down Kerblam! by murdering a huge swathe of it's customers. The Kerblam! system is actually trying to save humanity!
Which is like, okay? That sure is a terrible thing for the guy to do but you're totally forgetting how apparently only 10% of humans have work in this planetary system and all the non-management we saw appeared to be low-wage employees. They don't explore the situation on the main planet, but what we do get doesn't sound good in any way. It's really odd a twist for this sort of episode.
I was actually really disappointed. I get wanting to do a twist that's different or whatever, but if you're going to do social commentary don't forget how terrible Amazon/etc employees have it in real life and certainly don't make your Amazon analogue look like a hero.
Also it was kind of funny that the human-looking robots were all treated as being creepy and Doctor destroys an entire battalion of them, yet the weird looking v1 bot is humanized (it basically becomes a sidekick).
Well, actually, Andi Mack is going to try and tackle racism and I'm going to have serious problems with it.
So this last week on Andi Mack, Andi takes part in a class exercise where every student is given a piece of paper with the name of another student. Without mentioning their name, that student is to describe the person on their piece of paper.
Now Andi correctly describes a new kid, who then describes another girl by claiming she regularly calls herself "the most popular girl at Shadyside high". Now, the popular girl is tasked with describing Andi. She describes Andi as "probably being good with computers" or "probably knowing how to play the piano".
Of course, Andi is Asian. However, Andi is also none of those things. Andi is understandably devastated at this girl, who she's known her whole life, apparently paid 0 attention to her. Especially considering Andi has done a lot of insane things at her school that the most popular girl would know about. Of course, their teacher addresses this (off-screen), teaching the kids about how Stereotypes Are Bad.
My complaint about this episode is that Andi decides to do something about this, so she creates a massive mural of her own face made up of her various interests, which are mostly art, various forms of protest and social justice. However, during this sequence there are various students looking at the mural, but the only person from her earlier class to see it is her teacher. Obviously, she commends it.
None of the students who agreed about Andi being good with computers or playing the piano appear, and none of them apologize or share their own stories about being stereotyped. In the end, the episode creates an echo chamber where Andi gets what is essentially a hollow victory. The only named characters this episode who are convinced that stereotypes are bad are the ones who already knew stereotypes are bad, in effect.
Andi Mack is a show that usually covers real life topics in a somewhat nuanced way, but I can't lie to you and say I was ever excited for this episode (Disney Channel show tackles racism! is never a good plan). I did expect more from it though.
Anyways, there's no doubt that with a big HBO budget they'll be filming in New York again. As long as they keep at least one of the shows themes, like the Van Der Woodsen's real dedication to the concept of family and legacy, I'll at least give the whole first season a go.
Unless there's nudity, in which case nope.
I did actually watch the first season of Big Little Lies despite the nudity, and the second season has been much lighter on the softcore stuff overall, by which I mean it's completely gone, hopefully that's what they'll go for.
I think I'll watch some more old-timey movies.
Plus this is the first post in here not by me in a while.
Meanwhile, I feel like I've run into a serious "The Emperor Has No Clothes" situation with Big Little Lies. The penultimate episode of season 2 is terrible, like, actually terrible.
Season 2 so far was basically nothing and then this episode drops so much nonsense on itself that it made me want to wring my own neck. For example; Celeste has a one night stand in the middle of the season, and her mother-in-law finds out about it.
In this episode, that one night stand is suddenly revealed to be a massive pattern that wasn't mentioned beforehand, involving like seven or eight men. You would think, in a season where not much happened to start with, they could at least lead with this instead of pretending that first incident was supposed to be foreshadowing.
Also I feel like no review of this show has mentioned how between Season 1 and Season 2, Bonnie gained vague magic psychic powers. In a show that thrives(d?) on realism.
Yet, everybody still seems to love it. I mean, this is HBO for goodness sakes, they make good TV according to everybody. This show was once at the very least artistically competent at all times, now it's just a joke.