What Are You Watching?: More TV You're Hooked On

[kanding]

I love, love, love Someone, Somewhere! It may be about a woman working through intense loss, but it's also very comforting. And funny as hell.

[prisma]

May 4, 2023 16:58:33 GMT -4 kanding said:

I love, love, love Someone, Somewhere! It may be about a woman working through intense loss, but it's also very comforting. And funny as hell.

I watched the first season of this and really enjoyed it. Nothing major "happens" plot-wise, it's just all of these really interesting characters interacting with each other.

I get HBO as part of my internet subscription and my login has been screwed up for a while, so I need to get that sorted out so I can watch season 2.

[kanding]

I love that it focuses on a platonic love affair. Sam + Joel 4evah!

[kostgard]

I love “Somebody Somewhere” so much. I saw an interview with Bridget Everett and she did talk about how difficult it can be to find yourself and really connect with others when you are in your 40s, and she basically confirmed that it’s about the love story between Sam and Joel. She also had some lovely things to say about what music means to Sam (and herself) and how Sam is at her most honest when singing, and that’s why it’s so hard for her sometimes.

The actor who plays her father unfortunately passed away, and I don’t know if they are going to write that into the show or not. I just know it will be heartbreaking if they do.

And on a lighter note, she revealed in the interview that after they shot season two she bought herself a gold necklace with a gold toilet pendant in honor of the most recent episode.

[believeland]

I don’t know if I would have realized Season 2 started without this thread. I just watched the first two episodes, and that second really got me!

[kostgard]

Man, I keep looking at Ted Lasso and thinking, “What are you doing?” There’s two episodes left, and it’s just a mess. Even if the rumors are true about them spinning the show off into a series that’s basically the same thing except without Ted so you’ve got more time with these characters, it’s still a mess.

I spent most of watching this week’s episode thinking, “What is happening?”

So, here’s my rant (spoilers)

SPOILER: Click to show

What was with Keeley just moping after Jack fucked her over? She should have been hopping mad. Instead she’s all, “Everything I touch turns to shit.” It wasn’t her fault. The only mistake she made was starting a relationship with her boss, but this show will never acknowledge that, because they love doing it. Then it all doesn’t matter because Rebecca can fund her business with the change she finds in her couch cushions.

Rupert gets humanized because he grew up poor and loved Richmond so much he snuck into the games? Um…no. First of all, it would be extremely difficult to be Rupert-level rich without being born into some amount of privilege and with a lot of connections. Second, some people are just assholes. You don’t have to redeem them. Third, Rupert showing growth by hiring an assistant who is larger than a size zero and therefore “unfuckable” in his eyes is not actually growth. And what brought on the so-called growth? Did Nate quitting really teach him a lesson? Off screen? Lord. At least Rebecca got over her need to beat him.

And Nate…I can’t even process what they are doing with Nate. I just know they are trying to redeem him without actually addressing what he’s done and it makes no damn sense. So much room for interesting stuff with Rupert, but no. Nate suddenly figured out he’s awful and immediately quits his dream job. Off screen. I can’t even deal with the rest of the Nate stuff, so I’ll say I’m glad he figured out the first person he needed to apologize to was Will, but he doesn’t do it in person, so…meh.

There are things the show continues to do well - Jamie’s growth, the Roy/Jamie friendship, Sam, the fun stuff with the other players. But the actual storyline with most of the lead characters is a mottled mess and I don’t think they can believably unravel it in two episodes. Things will resolve by everything suddenly coming out of left field. How or why? Don’t worry about it.

[boxofrocks]

I just learned that there's a Night Court reboot. John Laroquette is reprising his role as Dan Fielding, except now he's a public defender instead of prosecutor. He is the only original actor back, probably because some of the original actors have died (Harry Anderson, Markie Post, and Mac Robinson, who played the judge, public defender, and clerk, respectively).

The Fielding character is now more of a grumpy old man type quipping one-liners. The highly libidinous smarm of the original wouldn't work post-Me Too. The judge character is Bernadette from The Big Bang Theory, who is the daughter of the original judge, who also is written in the script as having died.

[kostgard]

Time for my weekly rant about Ted Lasso - I just can’t believe that the show handled Jamie’s character arc so well and so completely fumbled Nate’s at the same time.

I did enjoy the scene with Nate and

SPOILER: Click to show

Beard, but only because Beard gave the history of his relationship with Ted and not because Ted basically guilted Beard into forgiving Nate. And that’s the thing - Jamie earned the love and respect of the Richmond crew. With Nate people are just forgiving him out of the blue despite no apology from him and the fact the last time they saw him they wanted to rip his head off. Or, in Beard’s case, they were guilted into it. Seconds chances are great, but they should come with apologies and making amends. Nate has done none of that except for doing Will’s job one night.

[Ladybug]

May 20, 2023 9:47:11 GMT -4 boxofrocks said:

I just learned that there's a Night Court reboot. John Laroquette is reprising his role as Dan Fielding, except now he's a public defender instead of prosecutor. He is the only original actor back, probably because some of the original actors have died (Harry Anderson, Markie Post, and Mac Robinson, who played the judge, public defender, and clerk, respectively).

The Fielding character is now more of a grumpy old man type quipping one-liners. The highly libidinous smarm of the original wouldn't work post-Me Too. The judge character is Bernadette from The Big Bang Theory, who is the daughter of the original judge, who also is written in the script as having died.

I kept seeing commercials for this and was struck by how cheap the set and production looked, and that's not something I usually notice. Maybe they were trying to replicate the 80s set, but it doesn't work for me. My kid's high school theater club builds better looking sets.

I finished watching Jury Duty on Freevee, which is about a guy who gets picked for jury duty, but everything is fake. He doesn't know he's on a fake jury and it's a fake trial. It started out pretty funny, but got very hammy by the end and I couldn't help thinking "how can this guy still be believing this? It's all so obviously fake." There are a couple of funny characters and situations. It's a good show to have on in the background and has the feel of The Office or Parks and Rec (two of The Office writers created it). Also, James Marsden plays himself and he's one of the highlights.

[Millis]

I really enjoyed jury duty and I hope we never find out that Ronald is actually a horrible person! Right now I am just so wrapped up in Succession. I think it will go down as one of the best series in history. The acting and writing are phenomenal, it's astounding how you can despise every character on the show yet still sympathize with them to a degree because they were doomed to misery from the get go.