I was avoiding The Keepers because I hate the Catholic Church with the fire of a million burning suns for the way they have fostered the fine art of pedophilia. I think it’s fair to say at this point that they are well beyond “cover-up” and into “actively pursuing and grooming priests for their sport.”
But I watched it and boy is it sooo good. Definitely a trigger warning for rape. It didn’t change my position on the church at all (only reinforced and added to my perception), but wow what a cool murder mystery way beyond what any author could dream up. And all led by two ferocious women who walked right out of an Agatha Christie novel, only less Brit. They do stuff like map out the list of potential suspects on coffee filters. I love them. And the lead witness and her giant Catholic family are total warriors.
Yeah, everything I’ve heard so far is “I expected a comedy, and there’s a couple of lame jokes, but it’s surprisingly more like an extremely high budget ST:TNG fan film.”
Exactly. I’m a diehard Trek fan, and even I can admit there’s comedy in putting less-than-perfect people in charge of a futuristic starship (like Red Dwarf.) If that’s what they want to do, then they should run with that. And maybe they’ll commit to that in future episodes (since you can only fit so much in a pilot.) The first episode felt like it was trying to be all things to all people, and as a result it wasn’t much of anything. Like you said, it reads like fanfiction (or maybe the FOX executives are meddling with the show McFarlane intended to make.)
A collection of 8 kinescopes of 'Way Out, an early television hosting gig for Roald Dahl which used to air before The Twilight Zone. This show was an emergency replacement for The Jackie Gleason Show ('61 edition) and the first episode “William & Mary,” the only that I’ve seen thus far, has a certain oddness to it that may be due to its rushed production, choker closeups, bare-ish sets and lots of talk. Still good old-fashioned macabre fun though.
I just started watching Madame Secretary. I’m friends with one of the people who writes music on the show, so I’m mainly listening for stirring patriotic music.
ReGenesis is on Amazon prime video, and we’ve been enjoying that a lot. It’s almost finished, though, and now I need a new binge!
It definitely gets 5 stars from me, and not just because of all the great Canadian actors and accents I don’t know if the science is any good, but it doesn’t constantly set off my eye-rolling bullshit detectors, like some other science-y shows do.
American Vandal. Sounded kinda stupid, and it is, but it sucked us in. I don’t like true crime shows, but I’ve seen enough and it’s a perfect mimic of them right down to the details while at the same time being, well, kinda stupid. Something about that makes it very watchable.
So far, I’m pretty meh on it. Somehow her children are the only kids in DC not interested in getting into an Ivy league. They seem to play no sports or have any after school activities or be worried about getting into college. They somehow magically get all this stuff managed by themselves; she has no responsibilities to their school at all. She never has to deal with maid or any staff to get her home managed. It just happens.
The people on her staff are all under educated. It’s just this weird Hollywood version of DC that has no relationship to the actual wonky people who live there. It’s inverse to the actual values of the East Coast.
The brown people are either bad guys or magic Negro types.
It’s not really interesting to me, except the idea that a show can center on a high powered woman’s career, and even so she is conventionally pretty and basically acts just like a man. There’s no real feminine slant to it except sorta Go Ladies! You can do it! Which, okay, I guess??
My friend started music in Season 2 so I’m trying to hang in.
I had thought of watching it, until realizing it was only available to watch via a paid streaming subscription.
I already pay an exorbitant amount for cable in order to watch like two channels. I simply can’t afford more streaming services to watch a single new show.
I will say however that one look at the new Klingons made me less encouraged to watch.
This is true. I’ve spent a fair amount of time near DC. Fucking strivers everywhere.
Nothing wrong with that… but I’d imagine being the kids of a war college professor and the freakin’ Secretary Of State would be an automatic “in” for some schools. They’re less worried than they would be if they were the kids of random middle-class schlubs.
If anything, your comment just shows how needlessly classist the college acceptance system has gotten. Even the normal intramurals won’t cut it anymore. By now, these activities practically have to be something that requires a significant monetary investment and takes time away from activities that make money. If I could get into a top school without doing all that bullshit, hell yeah I would coast a little.
That is just too perfect. In middle-class sitcoms, nothing “just happens”, but here is a sitcom where the family isn’t doing anything different than those middle-class families, but everything just goes smoother for them. Anyone who has ever been part of a family must be laughing at that.
Yep. DC people are incredibly wonky, detail-oriented, Type-A personalities. The people on this show seem to be a shallow surface-level imitation of that. It’s really no better or worse than any of the other police procedurals though. I’m not sure if it’s lack of due diligence, intentional corner-cutting laziness, or some combination of the two.
I’m not sure what “East Coast values” are either. DC is a different animal from New England or New York, both of which are different from each other. Do Floridians and Georgians have East Coast values too? That’s the East Coast.
Hate that. Two-dimensional plot device characters are already one of my pet peeves, no need to make it worse by throwing racism into the mix.
This also feeds into the typecasting cycle that prevents talented PoC actors from getting work.
If she’s 1) Mrs. Perfect and 2) a TV character, of course she’s going to be conventionally pretty. Ugly people don’t exist on US television. Not sure what “acting like a man” entails. I’ve met many women who have had to act like a man at least a little to advance their careers, so this may be a reflection of that instead of bad writing.
Even Hillary Clinton, who is the epitome of a DC striver and is conventionally pretty, got a lot of hate for her looks. She also get hit from both sides on the “(not) acting like a man” thing, so I really don’t know. These are legit issues, but I don’t think the title character faces much sexism in the show. There’s no glass ceiling, just like how her household is perfectly organized, and it’s laughable.
Re: the college stuff - even kids with privilege have to take AP classes and run for class president and join lots of clubs to get into Ivy Leagues. I knew a few kids at Tulane who did get in on Mom and Dad’s money but they still at least played some of the game.
re: it just happens
I am trying to relax about the pretense of it and just go with the “she lives her life like a man” thing and therefore no one gets sick, no doctor’s appointments to schedule, no hair appointments to set up for herself or children, no meals to cook, house magically cleans itself
East Coast values - maybe more NorthEast?
The pretense that she just fell into the role without striving for it, has no political ambitions for herself, only wants to serve the country - completely ignores the amount of gladhanding and political currying it takes to get these high level appointments in any administration. But, okay, trying to roll with this lack of real world connection and buy into the Hollywood fantasy DC where everyone is perfectly average.
BTW, my classmate who actually served under Bush - uh, yeah, he graduated a year ahead of me because he AP tested out of his entire first year of Harvard.
I don’t know if the science is any good, but it doesn’t constantly set off my eye-rolling bullshit detectors, like some other science-y shows do.