What I Watched on TV In December

Happy New Year! I hope no one is nursing a hangover. I wish I could say we went out of 2021 with a bang, but with the loss of TV legend Betty White yesterday, we went out with sadness. What a career she had. I don't know of a single person that hates Betty White (and if you do, kindly fuck off) It's not easy to be so universally loved. Fly high, Betty. 

And back to the usual around here, this is what I was watching throughout the month of December. 

Succession - I loved this season and the finale was a Red Wedding style massacre without the blood. The final shot was perfection. The Roys are quite extraordinary characters. Kendall is such a GD mess, but I felt so bad for him in these last few episodes. Shiv deserved to get her comeuppance, but I'm not even sure she was prepared for what Tom did. I can't wait for next season

Insecure - We said goodbye to one of the funniest shows on TV. I'm not crazy about Issa ending up with Lawrence, but I am glad she and all the girls ended up happy. That's what I wanted most. I've been listening to Insecure's Spotify playlist nonstop all week. I'm not ready to say goodbye fully, so I'm glad I have that.

Dopesick - I binged this Hulu mini series about Oxycontin pretty quickly. Admittedly, this was A LOT like Peacock's Dr. Death. Both are really good series and worth your time. I'm not sure if one is necessarily better than the other, but I give Dr. Death the slight edge. Dopesick, like Dr. Death told its story out of order, which makes sense for the most part, but it rendered some character's journeys, like Rosario Dawson's a little pointless because we meet her at the end of it, so we know what she accomplishes. Watching her go through all the motions when we know she's going to fail was just a weird choice. Kaitlyn Dever, Michael Stuhlbarg and Michael Keaton gave great performances. I liked the trial aspect of the film. And poor pussy whipped Will Poulter was amusing to watch.

Hawkeye - I waited until all episodes were out to watch this because I wasn't as excited for it as I have been other Marvel properties, but it was good. Steinfeld and Renner were fine. I can't say I'm excited about either of them, but Yelena coming back was the highlight and it was cool to see King Pin in the MCU Proper. I'm not shocked the best moments all came from characters reflecting on Natasha. It's still hard not to be bitter about that. 

The White Lotus - I watched all of this when I was home sick on Christmas day. Spending my day with rich, shitty people was certainly something. I had fun with this. I found the murder mystery aspect of it very engaging, and watching bad people behave badly was amusing. Sydney Sweeney was the star of the show for me. Her line delivery was hysterical. I still can't get over her telling her dad that her grandfather was probably a "power bottom." My girlfriend, Alexandra Daddario was wonderful too.

Station Eleven - I loved this book when I read it years ago, but I wasn't sure how the mini series - about what life is like after a deadly pandemic was going to land while we're currently in a deadly pandemic. So far, it's very good. I like the changes they've made from the novel, giving smaller characters some more back story. Especially Jeevan. He sorely needed it. 

The Book of Boba Fett - Only one episode has aired as of this post, but it was a very strong opener. We saw exactly how Boba Fett escaped his Return of the Jedi fate, which should shut up some fan boys on the internet. I never tire of seeing Ming-Na Wen kick ass either. I'm excited to see where this goes.