TV Tuesdays Free Talk

The Ripley series on Netflix was outstanding. Super slow-burn noir series, all black-and-white, set in 1960s Italy, with Andrew Scott (Sherlock, second season of Fleabag) starring. The cinematography is phenomenal - every single transition and establishing shot is so beautifully composed.

Short (~13:00) documentary from Atlantic Selects

Little Potato

As a mail-order bride, Elena flees with Hurley to Seattle to live with James, a Christian fundamentalist who she describes in the film as “unpredictable.” He is attracted to Elena’s ostensibly Russian-Orthodox upbringing. Little did they know, mother and son would be trading one form of oppression for another. But this time, relief would come with a plot twist—and a happy ending fit for an American movie.

Short little heartwarming coming of age doc of a divorcee mail order bride, the man who married her, and her gay son.

New season of Only Murders in the Building is starting! I love this cute show. The three actors are so great together, and the plots are so fun.

I have had a month of Netflix after not being subscribed for years, and among other things wanted to see some Black Mirror episodes that I haven't seen. The first season was mindblowing and really felt like something new and provocative at the time. Not super impressed with what I found this time around, but I may have chosen the episodes badly. I did like San Junipero as it was a bit different in tone and I love Mackenzie Davis. Shut Up and Dance was decent enough as an intense thriller, but it did seem like a Black Mirror episode on autopilot. It was however Beyond the Sea that at least for now made me lose any further interest in the series. It is like a parody of itself with a very artificial constructed premise that doesn't make much logical real world sense. Most Black Mirror episodes are of course constructed premises to highlight a certain problematic trend, but most of them did still seem like it was part of a real and plausible future world. This was just created for maximum shock value, and I didn't care at all about what happened to any of them. Maybe Black Mirror has always been like that and I was just more impressed with the first season as it was new and groundbreaking at the time, but this was simply plain boring.

We got a few free months of Apple TV with the purchase of a new phone, so we have started binging some content. My wife and I are watching Ted Lasso together and that is a delight. I've been watching Dark Matter, and that has also been very good, though completely different. There seems to be quite a few good series and movies as well, so I'm pretty happy with it thus far.

I'm having some pretty intense anxiety right now, so I haven't been able to watch anything serious. So I've turned towards Disney+ as a form to distract myself, and bring myself some form of comfort.

I decided to watch the beginnings of a couple of up-and-coming celebrities that got their start with Disney.

Stuck in the Middle (Jenna Ortega)

I think I'm in love with Ortega. She's a few years younger than me, which is new since I don't typically like girls younger than me but I guess I'm getting to the age where that matters less. First thing I ever saw her in was Wednesday (I actually remember her casting announcement and the google results for her being that she was a Disney kid. I remember liking Wednesday enough, I don't think I paid attention to most of it though very much a background noise thing. But since I've seen Ortega in the Scream movies (I saw Scream V after watching Wednesday despite Scream releasing first) and X (same deal).

This was a Disney show that was released in 2016, I was 16 at the time and had already aged out of the Disney channel programming. I liked this more than I thought I would, especially for it being very much a kids show. It's like Malcolm in the Middle, Ortega plays a child genius and she breaks the fourth wall.

It's fine for what it is, but I really like seeing the progress Ortega made as a performer. The first season is rough all around, but in the later seasons Ortega really starts coming onto her own. The writing also got better which I'm sure helped.

Also in the show is Ariana Greenblatt who played Young Gamora in Infinity War and also the daughter in Barbie. Which was kind of interesting to see since I didn't know she was also in this. The funny thing about that is she's missing from an episode around the time of when Infinity War was shooting, which means Disney shuffled her schedule around and the writers had to come up with an excuse of why she wasn't there. That was a fun little thing to catch.

Not that I think it's worth for an adult to watch, but as background noise to go to sleep to it was nice.

Girl Meets World/Adventures in Babysitting (2016) (Sabrina Carpenter)

I saw two episodes of Girl Meets World, I couldn't do it. I don't know why I couldn't do it. I just couldn't. I suppose it felt too old fashioned for me, but I just did not want to continue watching it.

Adventures in Babysitting, which is a TV movie, is also really bad.

Neither of these really warmed me up to Carpenter as a performer, I thought she was fine in the little I saw in Girl Meets World, but I thought she was kind of bad in Babysitting. Maybe I should watch other stuff she's been in like the Tall movies on Netflix, but I'm not like a fan of hers enough to go out of my way to watch that.

High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (Olivia Rodrigo)

I like Rodrigo's music a lot, I think she's a very talented songwriter and she shows layers and a maturity that is beyond her years.

I don't think this is a good show. The acting is all around rough, even from the adults, which is not typical of Disney shows. A lot of the jokes don't really land for me, and it brought up topics that kind of reminded me of the reasons for my anxiety to begin with, so it didn't really work as a distraction. But even then, if I wasn't actively using it as white noise to sleep I probably would have given up on it by now.

I'm still watching it, but I kind of feel like Rodrigo won't be acting again anytime soon. She's not... good. I'm on the second season and haven't seen any improvement from her as a performer. I think there's a reason why she's stuck to music and hasn't seeked acting roles.

As a side note, I didn't know Rodrigo was a Disney product until I went to Disney World in 2022 and saw her posters at Hollywood Studios. I'm shocked Disney let's her curse on her records.