What I Watched on TV In August
2020 continues to be the absolute worst, and here I still am, escaping with my small screen...
I finished the second season and wow this cast just knocks it out of the park. The Emmys need to stop ignoring the women on this show who are just wonderful each week.
The Alienist
The Sopranos
World's Most Wanted
I May Destroy You
Lovecraft Country
This season was going so well until the ending...what was that? It was so bad. An unnecessary death just so another character could man up and get revenge. The main character deciding a loveless marriage is better for him because he wants kids. No Teddy Roosevelent cameo like in the book (I like Brian Dohgerty as an actor, it would've been nice to see him again in this) I'm so disappointed. If anything good can come from this, I hope Rosy McEwen gets offered a ton of new projects because this was her first screen role and she was fantastic.
I'm still making my way through this for the first time and am on season 3. I thought the episode with the rape scene was wildly unnecessary and did absolutely nothing to advance the story. I'm still annoyed with that, otherwise the rest of the episodes have been solid so far. I'm looking forward to the infamous "Paulie and Christopher in the woods" episode, which I think is the one I'm about to watch.
This is on Netflix, and I put it on while I worked. It's a documentary series about criminals on the world's most wanted list. Really, only the 3rd episode about Samantha Lewthwaite held my attention. The rest were pretty bland, but this episode stood out a bit. I liked how they used drone footage, that's rarely something that stands out to me, but it worked very well here. I didn't bother finishing all six episodes.
Can we praise our Lord and Savior Michael Coel? What she managed to do with this series was astounding. As you know, I'm an absolute wuss about sexual assault on any medium, but the way we watched Arabella overcome and understand hers was incredible. (and not gratuitous) With something his heavy hanging over everyone, it still found ways to be funny on top of it. I don't know if this will get a second season. It wrapped up everything so perfectly, but if it does I will definitely be watching again.
This show is wild and uncomfortable and I can't wait to see where it goes. Also can we just take in the fact that this show said more about the green book in one episode than the movie actually named after it did?
I recently got a free Apple TV subscription for a year, so the first thing I tackled was The Morning Show and I loved this. I'm one of the few who had a lot of love for The Newsroom and the setting alone reminds me of it, though the shows are very different. My biggest issue was the finale, and a specific suicide that occurs which leaves a horrid taste in my mouth. I had it when an interesting female character dies to further a man's story. (one played by an extraordinary actress too) I'm sure season 2 won't air before my subscription runs out. so I guess I'll be paying for a week of Apple TV in the future to binge it.
I'm curious about The Morning Show but I refuse to pay for any more services, cable is expensive enough!
ReplyDeleteTCM is my watching drug anyway and I've developed a new hobby since quarantine started, well the first of April. I watch a movie each day featuring a performer I like whose birthday falls on that day. The proviso is that it has to be a picture I haven't seen before. Some days it's a snap but others it's quite a challenge. Today Raquel Welch in A Swingin' Summer!!
Oh that's really cool! I hate paying for new services too. I've been boycotting CBS All Access even though I legitimately want to watch their Star Trek content.
DeleteI've really been enjoying it and for the most part it's been worthwhile. I've discovered some real gems-Fredric March's version of Death of a Saleman, The House of Bernarda Alba (Glenda Jackson), The Trygon Factor (Susan Hampshire), The Grey Fox (Richard Farnsworth) and Across the Bridge (Rod Steiger) are some of the best but mixed in with them has been some real lemons-The Atomic Submarine (Joi Lansing) and Fury of the Congo (Johnny Weissmuller) come to mind. Oy they were stinkers!!
DeleteNow that my cable company finally gave us access to HBO Max, I'm happy to have TCM's library in there. I'm hoping it will supplement DVD Netflix well, since that's where I find the majority of my old movies. Plus, I get to watch Persona again and I've wanted to do that for a while.
DeleteOh I just watched Persona for the first time about a month and a half ago when TCM showed a bunch of Bergman films (Fanny and Alexander too but that's another story-I struggled through it) and thought it was wonderful. Wild Strawberries remains my favorite of his films but it was a fascinating picture.
DeleteTCM is a great resource, not just for older Hollywood films though of course that's their bread and butter but many, many foreign films.
It's helped me with becoming more acquainted with Asian cinema-probably my weakest spot-among other things. For Kurosawa's birthday they did an entire day of his films!! Until then I'd only seen Seven Samurai, Rashomon and High and Low (which still remains my favorite) but I was able to finally catch up with about six new titles.
I also struggled with Fanny and Alexander, I felt only about an hour of it was interesting. Wild Strawberries is good. Smiles of a Summer Night is another one of my favorites from him, but Persona is still my #1.
DeleteYes, the foreign films too! Seven Samurai is on my Blind Spot list next year. I've had it on my prelim list pretty much every year, but I keep removing it because of the run time.
The legendary Pine Barrens episode of The Sopranos where Chris and Paulie get lost in the woods is to me a crowning achievement in television. My dad LOVED that episode and it was why he and a lot of his friends loved that show. When James Gandolfini died, one of his friends was fucking devastated as he loved that guy.
ReplyDeleteGandolfini no longer being wish us bums me out even more after finally watching this.
DeletePine Barrens was great, it's probably been my favorite episode so far.
I forgot that the new season of The Alienist has aired until I read your post. I really liked the first season, and I'm hoping to like the second one too but that ending seemed like a bummer.
ReplyDeleteThe ending is, but it thankfully doesn't ruin everything that came before it. The rest of the season is a good watch.
DeleteNice picks! I really like Lovecraft Country so far, but I also wish it was more cohesive. I can't figure out what's going to happen from episode to episode. It's a fun series though. Jonathan, Jurnee, and those costumes are amazing though.
ReplyDeleteIf you have AppleTV, I hope you check out Defending Jacob. ;D
I started watching Defending Jacob! I know they already changed the ending from the book, which already disappoints me because I really loved the novel. But Evans is hot, so I'm on it. lol
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