What I Watched on TV In September

Well I certainly made up for my slower months in September. I feel like I'm watching SO much stuff on TV right now. It's almost overwhelming, but I've got quite the variety to talk about this time, so here's what been happening on the small screen in House Rambling Film.

Ted Lasso - Fresh off their multiple Emmy wins, season 2 continues to be just as great. These last couple of episodes have been quite a bit more emotional and heavy than their usual, but they still throw some great laughs in there. Jason Sudeikis is just phenomenal in this. God, what was Olivia Wilde thinking leaving this dude?

Mr. Corman - I'm TRYING hard to love this show because of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, but his character is just...not great. That's a shame because the concept and whimsy is really different than anything else on TV right now, and I like the risk he takes, but Josh needs to get out of this rut. The newest episode finally caught up with COVID-19 times, and honestly I'm just not in the mood for seeing the pandemic in media right now.

LulaRich - The tale of LulaRoe is such a trainwreck and one that I just cannot turn away from. This four episode mini series is on Amazon Prime, but if you don't have that, Vice has a great 30 minute segment on the same thing that you can watch on Youtube here. Some of these women are also in LulaRich, so there was a bit of overlap but it's still fascinating. I had to laugh, someone mentions in the doc that everyone looks alike at these LulaRoe meet ups and she realized she was in a cult, and it's absolutely true. I couldn't tell if I had seen some of these women before because they DO all look alike, and it wasn't until one of them mentioned the Tiajuana Skinnies that I realized I was indeed familiar with her. If you're fascinated with MLM garbage, watch this. 

The Morning Show - Like Mr. Corman, this show is about to touch on COVID-19 and I'm just not interested. As of this writing, only the first two episodes are out and they're not as engaging as season 1 was. Episode 2 has a very cringy scene with Mitch and a woman trying to confront him but I'm going to keep watching because I assume it will pick itself back up.

What We Do in the Shadows - This show is hilarious, I prefer it to the movie and I'm on season 3 now so almost caught up. I love watching shows in real time and having something to look forward to on a certain night, so I'm glad I'm almost there.

The Premise - This is BJ Novak's new anthology show so I watched it for him as I do like his writing, but it's so pretentious. The first episode would make a funny headline, or news article, but the further it went the dumber it got. Episode 2 was slightly better but still not great. I'll give the 3rd episode a try and see if that grabs me, otherwise I'll probably drop it. 

Scenes From a Marriage - Oscar Isaac should have this beard at all times. Who is telling him to shave? They're wrong. I was worried about this because I'm very fond of Igmar Bergman's version but this works in today's world and is different enough to where I don't have to constantly compare them. The second episode where the main characters have their marriage ending fight, my neighbors were outside in their yard also having a crazy fight (lots more swearing from them than the show) So that was awkward. Thankfully they seem to be fine now but man, the timing of that was too much. 

What If... - This is such a fun show, I definitely think the stronger episodes were the early ones, but I enjoyed the most recent one with Thor partying all over the place. They keep ending on really fascinating notes, but not following up on them which is a bit frustrating.

Nine Perfect Strangers - I didn't read the book this is based off of but I cannot believe this show actually had a happy ending. Like, they trajectory of complete fucked up-ness and it just...works out? This was fine. I was engaged, Bobby Canavale and Melissa McCarthy were awesome together. (Yes, I'm praising McCarthy! I'm surprised too. I loved her here)

Midnight Mass - This show is a very slow burn. There's way too man monologues but I was in to it. The ending was kind of a mess though, just so much stupidity for plot purposes. Still, at 7 episodes, it was a fine watch. I do feel very weird about one story involving a disabled character. I really would like to read some disabled writers' perspectives on it, because to me as an able bodied person, the note it ends on felt very off. 

American Crime Story: Impeachment - I love ACS for providing all the context that I was too young to understand while this was actually happening. So far, I'm enjoying it. Beanie Feldstein is wonderful, Clive Owen's makeup is not, and that's a bit distracting, but overall I'm enjoying this. I'm glad Vulture is doing their fact vs fiction recaps again. Those are so fun to read. 

Wolfboy and the Everything Factory - This is a new show that Joseph Gordon-Levitt produced a long with a collaborator Toff Mazery (better known as wirrow online) My son and I are watching it together and the animation is gorgeous. Only one episode is out so far, so I can't say much about it now, but I've been a fan of wirrow's art ever since I came across him years ago, so seeing it brought to life on TV is wonderful. 

Star Wars: Visions - The newest offering to the Star Wars universe. I've only seen the first two episodes and there's a HUGE drop in quality from 1 to 2. The first episode is definitely a Seven Samurai homage with some very interesting animation, and the second episode is about a generic rock band... We'll see how the rest of this goes.