TV Tuesdays Free Talk

After Breaking Bad and El Camino, I started watching Better Call Saul. It's a radically different show than I expected, but at least as far as episode 4 in season 1, it's great.

I finally got to season 4 of Attack on Titan. I'd swear I'm getting whiplash from the sudden tonal and narrative changes, partway through season 3, and even as far as ep6 of season 4. 3 was a little tough to get through at times, but the story has a great way of making everything snap into place and toy with my emotions after a few seemingly irrelevant backstory episodes. The show all makes sense, and is wonderfully done, but it's quite the roller coaster.

My SO and I have been watching Falcon and Winter Soldier and... I don't know, Marvel TV shows have really been weird, like they have moments where they could be subtle but then they explicitly explain what they were trying to be subtle about? Like in Wanda Vision, Wanda says "Don't go past Lily Lane!" and then 10 minutes later they cut to someone on an end street and it zooms out and it's Lily Lane. That kind of stuff. I've got a lot to gripe about.

I was looking forward to The Way of the Househusband, but once I got to watching, I wasn't feeling it. Each short episode is a collection of even shorter scenes... vignettes, even. I like the idea and the overall approach is funny, but after an episode, I had enough.

Tonight I will start This Is a Robbery: The World's Biggest Art Heist. In Boston on March 18th, $500m in art was stolen and has never been recovered. I figure this will be a bunch of talking heads, but it should be interesting.

City on a Hill is back. Kevin Bacon is absolutely CRUSHING this role. The overall tone of the series is fantastic and the way they replaced the 'previously on...' is the best. Plain text giving a breakdown. The other approach I liked was done by Westworld where they simply showed quick shots from the previous episodes to jog your memory. It was enough and I hope these become the standard.

The aesthetic of City on a Hill is excellent, though. They really captured the early 90s without it being obvious.

On Monday, a miniseries called Sasquatch starts

Follows investigative journalist David Holthouse as he attempts to solve a bizarre twenty-five year old triple homicide that was said to be the work of a mythical creature.

This is EP'd by the Duplass brothers. I'll watch anything they bring out. From what I understand, Holthouse was undercover on a cannabis farm in the 90s and heard some workers talking about Sassy killing three workers... and he's always wondered if it was true.

Other than that, Godfather of Harlem is back on Sunday. I'm hoping they flesh out the series a bit. The first series was good, but it felt shallow -- like it needed to either speed up the plot or add on two episodes. It has a great cast and the writing is alright.

As a huge fan of Fargo, every season being extraordinary, I tried Noah Hawley's other endeavor, Legion. I have to say that all 3 seasons were among the best television I've ever seen. Incredibly complex and vivid with amazing story arch. And one of the finest series ender I've witnessed. Though it isn't for everyone, if complex storys are your thing I'd highly recommend it.

I'd put Noah alongside Sam Esmail and Mr Robot. If you enjoy that sort of show.

We finished up a few things last week, so we tried some new stuff this week. We watched the HBO documentary series The Lady and the Dale. I had heard an interview with the director on the radio about a week before the series became available and was intrigued. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to the hype. The story is about a trans woman named Geraldine Elizabeth Carmicheal who pulled a con in the 1970s when she started a car company to make The Dale, a 3-wheeled car with a sporty look that would supposedly get 70 miles to the gallon and would sell for about $2,000. The car never actually made it to production, and the company took money from thousands of people who bought options to get them early. They detailed her life and numerous cons she pulled, including check fraud, stealing money from regular people and companies she worked for, and various other unsavory things. When the public figured out what was going on with the Dale car, Dick Carlson (shit stain Tucker Carlson's father) did several stories on her and the company. Naturally, he treated her very shitty in his pieces and got worse when they discovered she was trans. Unfortunately, the documentary uses the fact that the press treated her poorly to almost entirely excuse her numerous crimes and the damage she did to her family (who speak highly of her in the movie).

24 Hours in Police Custody has returned. I have no idea what Channel 4 are doing with scheduling. The programme is a calm fly on the wall documentary that shows the work of policing in England. In the past they focussed a lot more on the people accused of crime and being questioned (hence the "24 hours" bit, which is how long English police forces can keep someone arrested before they have to release them). This season they're spending a little bit longer looking at the victim's of crime. I like the fact that it's not sensationalised and it's not judgmental, even though some of the crimes committed are horrific. The last crime thing I watched (same channel) was about paedophiles and people with a sexual interest in children and it did my head in because it's just so pervasive and corrosive. 24H is honest but manages to avoid being quite so bleak.

Taskmaster is back and I really want more people to know about it. The panellists this season are fantastic, and the show is uneasily getting used to covid-19 restrictions.