Review of Two Period Pieces: Rules Don't Apply and Public Enemies

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Rules Don’t Apply (2016)-When you think about it, it’s kind of strange that Warren Beatty has only directed five films which is surprising considering his capital in Hollywood: He has a directing Oscar win under his belt, he’s renowned for his charm (in more ways than one, hint hint), and he has political tastes that align well with Hollywood. The last of them is a features iconoclast Howard Hughes. It’s likely not surprising that an iconoclast and ladies’ man like Beatty would relate to a visionary of a historical figure who had a big appetite for wealth, status, and woman. For those who thought Beatty was a shallow product of his era (who wasn’t a rebel in the 60s?), it’s admirable that Beatty knocks Hughes off his pedestal. The story is told from the point of view of a young woman (Marla, Lily Collins) who falls prey to Hughes’s charms and is left to suffer the consequences (AKA a pregnancy, he ignores until the epilogue).

In fact, it’s hard to find a more pessimistic take on Hollywood. Through the eyes of Marla, Hughes is just a microcosm of a whole system that will spit out Hollywood’s chaste young virgin girls once they get deflowered. Similarly, Marla’s true love (Alden Ehrenreich from Solo) is used the way most unpaid interns are. Howard Hughes has been a popular subject for Hollywood. Most notably in the 1980 film Melvin and Howard, and the 2004 film The Aviator. He was even alluded to in the Bond film Diamonds are Forever as the billionaire whose identity Blofeld alluded to. In these films, Hughes is depicted as an oddball who is trapped in a prison of his own making. His mental illness is always a clear part of the narrative, which enables the audience to feel a little bit of sympathy towards him. Without fully spoiling the ending, the film nicely finds a way to split the difference between villain and sympathetic character for the agoraphobic billionaire in the final scene.

Public Enemies (2009)-Considering how storied the genre of 30s gangster films is, I really was primed to sink my teeth into what should have been a prime example of what this genre offers. The film is by Michael Mann who is supposed* to possess God-like consistency, and it stars Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, and Johnny Depp. Could a casting director have selected any trio more suited to the period? If he’s not going as a pirate or gothic figurine, the next most likely choice for Depp’s preferred Halloween costume would be pinstripe-decked gangster. Similarly, Marion Cotillard has flapper written all over her. And Christian Bale is solid in whatever box you squeeze him.

The plot tells two parallel stories in the classic fashion of most crime genres: The cat-and-mouse game between a criminal and the man struggling to track him down. The mouse is notorious bank robber (played by Depp) John Dillinger (whose life was insanely interesting), while the cat (Bale) is Melvin Purvis who ran the Chicago office in charge of tracking him down. The character of Purvis isn’t given very much color. He’s mostly an archetype and inaccurate one at that: The real operation was directed by local law authorities until relatively late into Dillinger’s 14-month reign of terror. The script needed a composite character and, as previously mentioned, a broody Christian Bale in a crime movie gets the job done. However, this side of the story, while somewhat of a necessity, is mostly mechanical. One suspects that the script didn’t want to give the (even before the era of cancel culture) morally irksome J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Cudrup) a bigger role as the hero. It’s a shame though, because this is just burying the lead.

Dillinger isn’t necessarily given the hero treatment either. He’s portrayed as somewhat of a feral beast: Instinctually driven to protect his comrades and lovers. He’s also exceptionally clever which is what makes the action scenes so fun.  His famous prison escape scene with a decoy gun, whittled from wood, is played with the kind of claustrophobic tenor from an expert craftsman behind the camera. This is the rare film where I can even pick out the soundscape (the rat-tat-tat of the machine guns, especially) well enough to feel like it should have received a Best Sound nomination at the Oscars (I normally have a weak ear for that).

At the end of the day, the technical construction of the movie is solid but it doesn’t amount to enough “wow” moments to make the whole exercise feel more than typical.

What I'm Watching March Edition: Grosse Pointe Garden Society, Going Dutch, Deli Boys, Laid, Running Point

More of my work is migrating to Patreon, including writings on politics, culture, and how to publish. Feel free to follow me there. There are even free options.

 

Grosse Pointe Garden Society (Peacock): Four disparate grown-ups struggling with grown-up problems get caught up in a yet-to-be-revealed murder through a gardening society. Also, there’s a gardening society with the requisite scenes of hoeing and weeding, if you really are itching to see the title work itself into the plot somehow. Brett’s (Ben Rappaport) recovering from the emasculation of his wife leaving him and has a custody battle on the forefront; Alice (Annasophia Robb) is a teacher caught between kowtowing to a school’s rich benefactor and her integrity, on top of a rocky marriage and a dead dog; Catherine (Aja Naomi King) is the other woman in an extra-marital affair, but her regular marriage isn’t so hot either; and Birdie (Melissa Fumero) is a snooty (and quite fun) socialite who becomes entangled with her biological son and their adopted family. There are time jumps to this big tragic murder thingy six months out, but it’s not really a strong point of the show. Instead, this show is one of the best on TV for the four fully realized story arcs, the juicy drama, and the pointed classism satire. The arcs (particularly Brett and Alice) interact enough to give a sense of connection, and I’m assuming (I’m only halfway through) it will all point to some grand catharsis.

Laid (Peacock): Stephanie Hsu and Zosia Mamet make a good pair of friends (with whom some nice tension develops midway through) who are investigating a supernatural phenomenon of all of Hsu's exes dying in a certain order. It's an unapolagetically sex-positive take on a woman who's gotten around, but that's not really new (Amy Schumer, Chelsea Handler, Broad City, Girl Boss have treaded this territory). In this take, there's an interesting counter-current of "sex has consequences." It might even be read as a metaphor for STDs. If this is a "conservative take", it's all wrapped up in enough of a flippant overly comical storyline that I doubt anyone will care. It's developed by Nahnatchka Khan who generally treads in absurdist genre spins on the traditional formula (Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23, for example) so there's some of that absurdity here.

 

Running Point (Netflix): In my book this is one of the best casts on TV: Kate Hudson, Drew Tarver, Scott McArthur, Justin Thoreaux, Brenda Song, Jay Ellis, and Jon Glaser. And four of them play siblings quite convincingly. It's a behind-the-look at a female executive in the NBA played by Jeannie Buss, though it never feels like it has a whole lot of verisimilitude to NBA life. Instead, the episodes are arranged more around various themes as sitcoms are wont to do: One episode is more about trades, one episode is about disciplining the players, one episode is about tackling double standards between genders in the front office.

Going Dutch (Fox): An excellent military comedy about a stubborn man (with a capital M) and daughter forced to share commanding duties on a military base.

Unlike MASH which took medics to the front-lines and found humor in bleak situations, this show is more devoid of social commentary about war, because it doesn't take place anywhere near combat. Going Dutch gets a lot of comic mileage from its setting: This is a support base in the Dutch countryside which features a laundromat, bowling alley, and cheese factory (which they refer to as a “formagerie”; hey, I learned a new word).

The targets of satire are the crusty military traditions and classicism of the instutitons are the satire target in the form of the excellent general and failure of a father in General Quinn (Dennis Leary, did not know he had this type of character in him). The chemistry between Taylor Kisiak and Dennis Leary is reason enough to watch this show alone.

Deli Boys (Hulu): Solid mob comedy that gets better as it goes. There probably was a point when “ordinary  people falling too deep into illicit activity that they were stuck in bed with organized crime” was an original comic idea. El Mariachi? Mickey Blue Eyes? By now, it’s pretty old hat but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for something like this which has great execution and even better characters. The show features an all South Asian cast, so part of the fun is taking this small subpopulation of character actors who we generally associate with Glee and Community (Iqbal Thegba); Never Have I Ever (Poorna Jagannathan); Seinfeld (Brian George); and even Queer Eye (Tan France) and turning them into stone cold killers.

Other stuff I'm watching that I've either previously reviewed

Animal Control (Fox): Premiering the same night each week as Going Dutch, it's getting better each week. I've covered it here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyfdQB_mc9I

Ghosts (CBS) and Krapopolis (FOX)-Still two of the strongest comedy programs on TV. They've preiously appeared in my top 10s.

Dark Winds (AMC)-Another new Native American-centered show. A bit more of a slow burn than I'm looking for, but it has an interesting setting.

Top 25 Characters of 2024

 Another delayed listicle. I have long loved doing this 25 characters list.

You can see a couple of them here and another one here

1 Andrew Yancy (Vince Vaughn), Bad Monkey- Like the hard-boiled detective or the steadfast cowboy, Yancy marches to the beat of his own drummer. Yes, he would love to get it on with a hot detective, get his badge back, or enjoy tormenting his waspy neighbor (he’s more chaotic than lawful good), but not if it means letting a white collar criminal go free. It’s the archetype of the wayward American hero across multiple genres, but not many characters can walk the walk,  and talk the talk with such gusto. And it’s Vince Vaughn playing the part, so we know right off the bat, this guy can at least talk that talk.

2 The Goddess Deliria (Hannah Wadddingham) Krapopolis-Let’s face it. Most Gods have a hint of vanity. It’s sort of a requirement for the job, isn’t it? The difference between Deliria and your run-of-the-mill p is that she exists on pure vanity. And enough motherly instinct to make her recognizable for those of us with tough-love mothers. But not too much or the show wouldn’t be as riotously funny.

3 Tom Ripley (Andrew Scott), If Matt Damon’s snub at the Oscars for the 1999 film was one of the biggest tragedies of that era, it’s pretty remarkable that Scott can come in and fill those shoes with such fearlessness. Scott’s Ripley is somehow both more forcefully vindictive, and more understated than Damon’s creepy leech interpretation.

4 Jerry (Mike Patrick O’Brien), What We do in the Shadows-The key to adding a character late into the mix of a show’s run is they have to be rough around the edges. Jerry is a perfect foil in that he has the nerve to call out his fellow vampires on their sloth. Every character choice that went into to Jerry was a winner from his outfit as a Transylvanian butler, to his Pinky-and-the-Brainesque casualness about the task of taking over the world, to his aloofness to his role in a Nandoor-induced love triangle


5 Rogue, X-Men 97- If I were to rewatch an old episode of X-Men, it would be for the cringey puns based on ridiculous regional stereotypes. In other words, the Cajun Gambit, the Canadian lumberjack Wolverine, the Black Pantheresque Storm, and Southern Belle Rogue are the caricatures worth ironically laughing at, with a little bit of 90s child Jubilee adding some seasoning. In this attempt to mature the season to accommodate the aging of its primary fan base, the show has miraculously managed to keep Rogue cringe while giving her an actual arc.

6 and 7 Morgan (Justine Lupe) and Sasha (Timothy Simons), Nobody Wants This- I’ve been slowly learning that the difference between a romantic drama and a romcom is all in the supporting players. If there’s laser focus on the leads, then it’s the Richard Linklater Before series. Add the leads’ social circles as stand-ins for their romantic values, and add an extension a dose of quirk and it’s a party. That’s what you have here with a will-they-won’t-they-oh-no-they-can’t….can-they?

8 Amanda LaRusso (Courtney Henggeler) Cobra Kai- The bizarreness of a modern-day high school environment (with its emphasis on anti-bullying compared to the ‘80s), in which teenagers have to learn karate just to survive a Mad-Max-like dystopia of constant bullying, has had a strong need for a deadpan skeptic like Amanda. But at the end of the series run? Screw it. Amanda as the karate equivalent of a soccer mom feels like a more apt direction at this point.

9 Tindaro (Dougie McMeekin) The Decameron-My favorite show of the year was an upstairs-downstairs comedy set in a century where both sides of the societal divide were equally at the mercy of plague-carrying rats. And the bumbling hypochondriac Tindaro would probably not get very far in the “who lives longest” betting pool. But this rotund ball of delight proved full of mettle in a relatively dynamic arc.

10 Eddie Horniman (Theo James)The Gentlemen-In an era when nepobaby is a bad word, it’s not easy to root for anyone with such generational privilege. But it certainly helps that Eddie is never more than a couple false moves from having his head, the heads of those he cares about, and those under his employ blown off. As the title suggests, he’s a sly operator but also a class act.

11 Rufus Coatesworth, Death and Other Details-Considering there are so many takes on the eccentric, tunnel-vision. detective — whether modeled after Hercules Poroit, Sherlock Holmes or whatever the hell Daniel Craig is doing in Knives Out — it’s pretty remarkable for Mandy Patinkin to come up with such a unique creation here, as the detective entrusted with solving the murder of his protégé’s mother.


12 Dove Maloney (Siobhan Cullen), Bodkin- Fitting squarely in the category of female firecrackers who won’t let anyone put them in a box, Dove is the best of the trope. Of course, it helps for a hard-core journalist to have a great foil, in the hapless podcaster Bodkin (played with aplomb by the introspective Will Forte): A directionless and obtuse foreigner particularly with what she sees is a naive kindness.

13 Principal Cinnamon Scuttleworth (voiced by Phil Lord), Clone High- It was thrilling to see my favorite one-season wonder return to the airwaves but the sharp edges of these characters had been filed off and the new additions were pure vanilla. Except Scuttleworth. He has the hamminess of a cartoon villain with a couple ounces of pathos for good measure. You might enjoy seeing him blown up like a Looney Tunes villain, but you root for him to piece himself back together for his next crazy scheme.


14 Nadja, What We do in the Shadows-The best thing about the “Guillermo and the vampires become tech bros” arc is how enthusiastically Nadja assimilated. Her treatment of Guillermo and most other humans as pesky miscreants who are mostly useful for menial labor and meals, so she was always a good fit for the world of passive aggressive one-upmanship of Wall Street.

15 Dexter (Leo Woodall), One Day- What’s this, the thug from White Lotus is a sensitive heart throb underneath all those tattoos? Well, even as a straight guy, I thought Woodall was pretty hunky. But watching him sell this gender-flipped beauty and the geek romance. I’m impressed.


16 Dr Kristen Bouchard (Katja Herbers) , Evil-The show gets a lot of mileage out of this extremely charismatic actress who telegraphs so much with her face.
17 The Bleacher Creatures, Clone High-We all know that the cool kids in school are never the most interesting. Giving Christopher "Topher" Columbus villain friends was the best thing the second season ever did.  
18 Det. Helen Chamberlain (Danielle MacDonald), The Tourist-A brilliant detective with a heart of gold. That successfully sets up a labyrinthine plot to get away from an evil captor and can't pull it off. That's an interesting choice.
19 Mr Beast (James Donaldson), Beast Games-The Beast Games were a disappointment, but it was an interesting glance into the mind of history's most successful YouTuber. Despite attempts at cancellation, he's one to root for.
20 Ethan Crum (Greg Larsen), The Tourist-Helen, Elliot, meet your comic relief. Now that that's out of the way...
21 Beatrice Worth (Brooke Lena Johnson), Cruel Intentions-If the show (like the movie) is centered against the two amoral step-siblings, then Beatrice is your sidelined hero. She had casual sex with one sibling (let's applaud her for sex positivity) and tried to pledge three times to the sorority of the other, but adolescents are complex and conflicted. She's still the right person to take down the elitism in my book.
22 Android SM 33 (voiced by Nick Frost), Star Wars: Skeleton Crew- Confession, I just li
23 Frank the Temp (I can't even remember; that's the point), Futurama-At long last! Someone who's less respected among the crew than Zoidberg
24 Colin Robinson (Mark Porsch), What We Do in the Shadows-Colin has always been a wonderfully jagged fit to the rest of the vampires, and I'll miss him tremendously. Who ever thought of a villain who's super powers were based off boringness. 
25 Heather (Edi Patterson), Resident Alien-Heather, the avian alien who visits Earth for a bureacratic check-up, has a resistant courtship and an epic whirlwind romance. It's thanks to Heather, we now know how Harry's gills are cleaned. We are eternally greatful.

Best TV Shows of 2024: Ten Runners-Up

I've been doing this every year since 2009, so no reason to stop now.

In alphabetical order:

Baby Reindeer (Netflix) Despite its bleak subject matter, this trigger tale of an Irish stand-up suffering sexual abuse, female-on-male stalking, and gaslighting from the police managed to catch the zeitgeist of Netflix’s viewership. Why? For god’s sake, it’s based on a true story, so are we sick voyeurs for being spectators? My take: I think the authenticity of Richard Gadd as a likable guy helps, but it’s more that through all the murk, it’s a life-affirming tale of overcoming that doesn’t cut corners. But, be prepared: Major trigger warnings.

Bad Monkey (Apple) Full disclosure: I recently read three Carl Hiassen novels and they were all better reads than this one. But considering this is what Apple chose to adapt and I have to judge it for what it is, let’s face it: Most, if not all, Carl Hiassen novels could be adapted to make great TV. This one has some superfluous plot lines, but it has a great maverick of a hero, a well-defined villain, and plenty of Florida quirk. In an era where there’s not enough real estate on the box office release schedule for comic stars, there’s something worth celebrating about Vince Vaughn being able to sink his teeth into such a fitting role, no matter the medium.

Death and Other Details (Hulu) An ornate whodunnit set in international waters with some solid late-stage twists. What’s most impressive here (not to discount Mandy Patinkin’s measured performance) is that it feels so classic. Despite plotpoints revolving around crypto, cloud storage, BDSM, nepobabies, this feels like it could fit into the repertoire of an Agatha Christie novel.

Life and Beth (Hulu) This tale of love and compromise is based on executive producer and star Amy Schumer’s own experiences in a marriage to a man who was later diagnosed as autistic. The show is shot like an indie dramedy with meandering stories and a camera that isn’t focused directly on the action.   It’s fitting considering this isn’t a typical Hollywood romance. It’s an eye-opening and reaffirming look at life alongside someone on the spectrum from the POV of a complete outsider. The wedding episode was one of the most beautiful episodes of the genre the second season contained a couple clunkers.

Manhunt  (Apple) - The aftermath of the Civil War is an interesting topic in a PBS/Ken Burns way but most tourists to DC delving into Lincoln tourism want to know the juicy saga of John Wilkes Booth, the conspiracy, and his escape route. Characters like enigmatic Dr. Samuel Mudd (though less so from the point of view of the series), Lewis Powell, Mary Surratt and Edwin Booth himself are great fodder for drama, and this series interweaves their fates with the larger currents. It also goes without saying that this is a period piece on Apple TV: There’s some great scenery porn here.

Mulligan (Netflix): From 30 Rock co-creator (the one who gets a LOT less attention than Tina Fey) Robert Carlock, this animated post-apocalyptic comedy borrows some of the same absurdist humor at the dialogue level. In the second season, the show proves it still has momentum. It will likely never achieve must-watch status but it’s great popcorn comedy, and it’s highly rewatchable.

Resident Alien (SyFy) The idyllic town of Patience had two welcome additions this season. It was highly amusing to see the emotionless Harry court and eventually get horny with an alien bird (Edi Patterson, a role she was born to play) this season. Enver Gjokaj also proved a menacing foe and provided a slight bit of situational comedy as a grey alien (I think?) who goes under the loosest of qualifications of a date with Asta to get to Harry’s DNA. On the other hand, the mythology started going backwards and looping inwards on itself. Is there anyone who’s not in on the secret of extraterrestrial life at this point? How did we go this far into the story only to discover two key characters are kidnapped on a nightly basis? And, I’ll admit, I don’t remember who is and who isn’t a grey, but blame the show: I don’t have a reason to care.  Still, this has long been one of my favorite shows on the air. There are few virtual worlds I’d rather live in than Patience, Colorado and a little backwards movement won’t keep me away.

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew (Disney Plus) It’s not easy to recapture the childlike sense of adventure of Star Wars and translate it to an audience that has now grown into adult sensibilities. But, by Jove! I think Star Wars has done it! Actually, I just wanted to use the phrase “By Jove!” somewhere. In reality, there’s an argument to be made that Star Wars has always approached its far away galaxy with a sense of sharing wonder and awe. Yes, it can lead to a massive overload of special effects, but when done right- a tense plot with escalation (kids being kidnapped), great actors (Jude Law, check, Kerry Condon, check, whoever is behind that robot with the pirate accent, check)- the second-to-none visuals are properly augmented with true vision.

Thank God You’re Here (Australia Network 10) You young’uns have to remember that back in my day shows being bought back from the dead didn’t happen very often. We would have to got together in the kinds of numbers needed to cure world hunger and mailed subway sandwiches to the studio. So yes, it feels miraculous that this mid-2000s Australian improv game show has found a second wind about 15 years after going off the air. The show’s format is one where comedic actors are thrust into an unfamiliar scene where non-cooperative scene partners try to trip them up. The show’s original featured a number of Down Under talents (Rebel Wilson, Rhys Darby, Angus Sampson, and Josh Lawson) before they were known to US audiences, as well as at least a dozen others who should get that privilege soon. The remake does little tweaking to the old formula with a new host. The vast majority of these episodes can be found on YouTube and the adventurous improver in you can even play along.

X-Men 97 (Disney Plus)-I'll admit to being thoroughly engrossed by the original X-Men cartoons as a child of the 90s. Upon rewatch as an adult, I was mostly amused by the cringe puns and awkward national stereotypes. I'm sure some comic book fans feel differently, but I think most of us can agree that the show did an impressive job of taking the contours of a child's cartoon (and yes, I'm likely picking a fight with comic book enthusiasts) and gaving the material a grown-up makeover. The characters are still cringe, but the arcs tie together more smoothly, actions are filled with  more consequences, and the stakes elevate so much each episode, it's almost like a Peak TV serial. Plus, who would have thought we'd see the day when Jubilee wouldn't be annoying? She even got her own episode and it wasn't awful.

20 Best TV Episodes of 2024

1. Who Dat, Life and Beth (Hulu)-The hidden gem of a show explores the relationship between a rustic outsider on the spectrum (played improbably well by Michael Cera) and urban sophisticate Amy Schumer as (for lack of a better characterization) Amy Schumer. The wedding episode exemplifies the taking-more-than-giving nature of Beth with regards to John, and the way the pair's compromises leads to its own sweet union. The wedding episode expands the world of the pair's circles, it's wild, it's funny, and it's achingly sweet.

2. Ill Somerso (Episode 3), Ripley-The show doesn’t provide much surprise if you’ve seen the 1999 film “The Talented Mr. Ripley” which is also adapted by the Patricia Highsmith novel. But in the hands of Andrew Scott, his steely exterior turns the murder of the object of his adoration (Johnny Flynn) into a complete shocker. Scott’s lightning-fast psychopathic instincts are here on full display and it’s chilling. The show is lit in a picturesque black-and-white setting while also being muted in its sound scape, which makes the experience of a drama in an episode like this more vouyeristic.

3.     High Potential-One Of Us (Midseason finale)-For a show that's never designed to be more than a serial with a snarky protagonist, it ramps up the pathos quite well between Morgan and her the daughter gives the episode real stakes. The kidnappers' dynamic as one of them becomes steadily more unhinged is a treat.

4. Sleep Hypnosis, What We Do in the Shadows (FX)-It’s more in ROFTL territory than plot movement, but how often is s Colin Robinson ever given the chance to do something this smart (hypnotizing Nandoor into talking up Colin in his native language)? And how much more random can one get than making a vampire believe he is Richard Nixon? The episode also makes great use of Guillermo in his “I’m so over this” mode.

5. Do You Get it Sports are Huge in this Town, Clone High-Frida Kahlo has a knacok as the star of "sport" of snorkeling (pointing at fish) with a hilariously on-point send-up of the VH1 style documentary on a past life of Scudsworth as a world-class snorkeler who's achilles heel was overconfidence and fast food. Anything that sheds light on Scudsworth's past is worth it in my book.

6. Krapocalypse, Krapopolis (Fox)-King Ty has to save civilization in Groundhog Day fashion. The entire day resets when a volcano kills him and he has to learn from his mistakes and bring everyone up to speed before the volcano devours them. In Krapopolis tradition, no one actually appreciates he king, and when they do, In another Krapopolis, the God who set up this hellish situation is driven by equal parts fickleness and boredom.

7. Halloween 5, Ghosts (CBS)-It’s hard not to love what the ultra-rigid Patience (Mary Holland) brings to the crew. She fits in less with the octet than any other character we've seen to date and I love those jagged edges. Namely, she scares everyone to death and bloodies up the walls. Bring on the chaos.

8. March Madness, What We Do in the Shadows (FX)-Shawnie gets obsessed with another sports phenomemenon in March Madness, and as usual, the vampires have no idea what’s going on. These are the same guys who attended a Superb Owl party. And in the B-plot, Guillermo is getting along in the corporate world when he blah blah blah Colin punches Guillermo in the face. Wow, that happens. Multiple times too. Guillermo and the crew interacting in the corporate world was an outstanding arc that bought along some of the crew’s best interactions with the non-vampire world -- especially, Nadja, who has the sharp-tongued insult catalogue for a finance bro.

9. Episode 5, Baby Reindeer (Hulu)ts-This is a show that's so hard to watch, that it's not gonna fully feel cathartic until the last episode when Martha is done away with, but this hope spot when Donny and his parents can release their demons together. What a sentimental gut punch.

10. Episode 2.2, The Tourist  (BBC ---> Netflix) Ethan obnoxiously inflicting both his aerophobia and his route to self-discovery on his seatmate is worth the price of admission for this episode alone. On top of that, this episode sets up the eventual collision course between leprechaun Norman Bates (he’s Irish and short, come on, it’s an easy target) and Helen. It also has the best dramatization of the Frog-Scorpion (the fable about the scorpion stinging the frog because it's in his nature) analogy TV has done to date.

11. A Shiksa Walks into a Temple, Nobody Wants This (Netflix)-The incompatibility between Jewish values (which discourages intermarriage, if not outright bans it in some sects) is never easy to reconcile with our modern-day conception of romance and free will. Throughout the first two episodes of the series, hunky Rabbi Noah seems to be broadcasting entirely different things between his head and heart. It's an episode where we have no idea what's happening. Why is he following her into a car on the middle of Shabbat. Even crazier, why is Sasha going along? Is this a date? It's also the start of Morgan and Sasha as sublime third and fourth wheels to this pairing.

12. Thor, Krapopolis (Fox)- It’s hard to get better than a cosmology crossover with the Norse gods. As someone who has completely skipped over the Thor franchise, my knowledge of these gods is a little thin, but the characters of Thor, Freya, Odin, and Loki came pretty ready-made with comic quirks that made the episode delightful. Besides, Scandanavian archetypes are pretty universal. Jealous Deliria was also a new shade to witness and the plot all got resolved on a nice brick joke.

13. The Killer Inside Me, The Caped Crusader (Amazon)-A very interesting retelling of the Harvey Dent story that leaves Harvey a bit more sympathetic. There's a lot of dramatic irony here--we know Dent is going to turn bad--that limits the possibilities of any of this, but the remorse on Harvey's part is something new.

14. Circle Sewn with Fate/Unlock thy Hidden Gate (Episode 2), Agatha All Along (Disney Plus)-The creation of the coven. I don't think Agatha All Along worked. It was too insiderish rather than what Marvel properties are at their best: Comic-book level knowledge serves as easter eggs, but otherwise the TV shows/films should be inviting to those outside the nerddom. However, this creation of the uneasy truce among former enemies and this realpolitik on Agatha's part of negotiating what these people wanted and needed. The scene of four wannabe witches and put-upon neighbor Sharon singing the Witches Road song in the round medley is also something else.

 15. Eunjangdo (Episode 10), Cobra Kai-For a show that used up all its plot threads by season 5's finale, it’s supremely impressive that the show gave us anything worth caring about in the final season. Season 6. It took us a little while to get there, though, but it found its groove by the end, and as per custom, we got an epic brawl. Though Terry and John Kreese continue their annoying habit of being part of the plot, they’re at least displaced from center stage to make way for fresh blood. With the fall of Kwon, the show left a gaping question mark of a cliffhanger.

16. Ice Day, Krapopolis (Fox)- it's a rare episode in which King Ty succeeds with a love interest and there are multiple late stage twists. It's not the most monumnetal episode, but it's sweet.

17. Lovebird (Episode 5), Resident Alien-Harry and Heather (Edi Patterson) fall in love and have an interspecies romp in the middle of a helluva awkward dinner party with Asta and D'Arcy, hard to get more riotously funny than that in this show that plays comedy straight.

18. Pilot, Interior Chinatown (Hulu)-The show had a distinct culturally specific noir feel to it at the start. Unfortunately, it became too much of a procedural with the preposterousness of the Josh Schwartz series Chuck (ordinary Joe Shmoe is useful to crime fighting), but it started out really strong. Jimmy O. Yang’s subdued voiceover drips with a sad semi-noirish pathos and there’s an outlandish tone is the show transitions between the mundane and a gnarly fight scene.

19. Episode 1.7, KAOS (Netflix)-The lengths of Zues's amorality and power lust are shown in their fullest extent here in the pool party frying. It's a penultimate episode that raised the urgency of the stakes

20 He Sees Dead People, Ghosts (CBS)-Jay’s sister Bella has turned a wheel from her penchant of bad boys and has shacked up with adorkable pushover Eric. Personally, I’m still rooting for her to work out the beyond-the-dead logistics and get with Trevor, but this will have to do for now. The episode takes a sublime twist when it’s discovered that Eric can’t really see dead people.
Eric’s pushover tendencies is a great source of comic humor and it drives the plot brilliantly as he is encouraged to throw himself down the stairs to sell his loss of ghost connection.

Underrated performances from 2024:

A colleague and acquaintance of mine Jesse Hassenger wrote a great piece in the Guardian on underlooked performances of 2024 so I thought I'd follow suit:

Glenn Powell of Twisters-If Tom Cruise can garner a slight bit of Oscar buzz just for being a matinee idol and holding together a popcorn movie on pure charisma, Powell deserves the same. It's a good reward for a prolific last 18 months, and his performance is based on an actual character, so he should get that non-fiction bonus.

Dolly De Leon-Between the Temples-As a practicing Jew who has been around all sects of the religion, she taps into a fairly wonderful experience of converts who don't fit the traditional mold embracing the religion. She embodies traditional judaism so wonderfully that no one gives a second thought to see a Filipino being a Jewish mother

Jodie Conner, The Bike Riders-Her accent work and her gradual shift in attitude are impressive here.

Kate Winslet, Lee-The story behind the story matters, and she did pretty much everything for this film, including paying the crew out-of-pocket for a couple weeks when financing fell through, mico-managing various departments, and keeping this project going for eight years. I hate to give too much credit to things like make-up and such, but it's certainly a complete transformation.

Sidenote: And no, Andy Samberg doesn't deserve credit here. Even if he did serviceably, that was a bizarre casting choice. Watching the Lonely Island's poster boy in a serious World War II film just took me out of it the instant he appeared on screen. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Samberg has zero history being anything but goofy on screen. Why start here. It's like if Adam Sandler went straight from Happy Madison Productions to Schindler's List.

Jason Schwartzman, Between the Temples-Is this his best performance? It's not too far from his introspective blankness that launched him to stardom in Rushmore, but this film had some insane mood whiplash that Schwartzman navigated with aplomb.

Robin Wright, Here-The put-upon housewife who spent years trying to decide where the line was between accepting her lot in life and taking that chance on something better. The nice touch of complexity in Robin Wright's character and her relationship with Tom Hanks's character is that you know she waited too long to do it. The Thanksgiving scene was a highlight, but it's too spoilery to reveal more.

Jessie Buckley and Anjana Vasan, Wicked Little Letters-Giving a shout out to Olivia Colman seems boring because she always gets recognized, even if she is more of a character actor than a lead. Buckley embodies the typical female firecracker trope but I'm a sucker for those. I wouldn't really advocate for Vasan for an award if I was running PR for this film because her screen time is too small (and that applies to Isabella Rossellini, I'm no hypocrite), but it's a small role, I could see a lot more potential with if it went the right way.

Nine Notes on Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Just finished this film. Once again, the critics are wrong. It's a great film that is pretty much indistinguishable from the originals stylistically. James Mangold once again gives life to an old genre:

-Phoebe Waller-Bridge is killing it, though I'm curious about Shia LaBeouf's absence. I wouldn't put him in cancelled celebrity territory, considering Honey Boy was such a self-aware work about his PTSD. Was it mostly because Harrison Ford and Shia LaBeouf didn't get along? Depending on how much you know about Harrison's gruff personality and dislike for working with Shia, it made for some very false notes when Harrison Ford was lamenting how much his son was lost (when we know Harrison couldn't stand his "son").

-I notice the villain is a professor at the University of Alabama which seems a cheap shot at red states: The implication being that these states were horrible to Black people, so sure, it probably makes sense they'd harbor Nazis. In real life, Nazis were harbored in Latin American countries, which were more progressive towards race than we were at this time anyway.

-Towards the beginning when Boyd Holbrook first appears with a man in a cane or crutches and he and two other goons corner Indy in a library. We don't see a shot of his death, but it's implied that he's crushed to death by several bookshelves. A bit too gruesome for an old guy in crutches? Besides if they killed the seceretery and other old professor, why not just kill Indy in that scene?

-I can see Indy being more a nominal hero in this story considering Mads' character strikes me mostly as evil because he's a scholar who happens to have been a Nazi in his past. In Raiders, Toht was planning on torturing Marion even when she surrendered and Belloq was quite comfortable killing Indy as a matter of egotistic rivalry. Mola Ram was framed as a devil worshipper (cultural relativism aside) and cult leader who had imprisoned every child within a 15-mile radius. In contrast, Doctor Voller mostly left the murdering up to the henchman, and even when he does pull the trigger, it's because of a necessity of his plan. 

-I've had so many brilliant professors in college who suffered the unbearable apathy of spoiled rich students who didn't belong in college. Oh, the tragedy. Just remember, apathetic college students, you're professor could have braved death multiple times and fought under Pancho Villa

-Props to the film for lampashading in dialogue an awareness that Indiana Jones straddled the line between grave robber and archeologist. I wouldn't want to see him completely cancelled through a modern lens, as an outdated cultural relic but some discussion of it is necessary.

-The found family trope is here and that's not a particularly deep take that Teddy is an stand-in for Short Round. However, there's a lot to be said for the fact that through five films, Indy has shown a strong affinity for every platonic relationship in his life: Sallah, Marcus, Oxley, the newly introduced Basil Shaw, and there must be some abounding sense of guilt that he wasn't there for his goddaughter. Even if Basil Shaw and Helena are canon foreigners, it's clever how one can already map out this conflict based on Indy's past relationships.

-It has to be said "wombat" is a dumb nickname. Maybe that's what chased her away

-There's nothing particularly charming about the modernization of the map overlays.

Am I too late to the party for Ally McBeal analysis?

I just watched 4 episodes of Ally McBeal last night. Here are some quick takes:

My take is that the show's appeal is that Ally is the unapproachable hot girl in high school and the show gives you a chance to live in her world.

This is reinforced by the fact that Ally acts like an adolescent: she has cutesy/girly mannerisms, she is pouty and has low self-esteem, she one of the most outwardly emotional people I’ve ever seen on screen or in real life, she escapes through fantasies, and she is overruled by her hormones. Although she tries to maintain that she is doing fine in life (she is) and that finding the right guy is just the last piece of the puzzle in her life goals, sometimes she’s overwhelmed with frustration.

What’s ironic is that this show is simultaneously really progressive in that Ally is highly capable, highly compassionate, and does very well in managing in what can only be described even by the standards of 20 years ago as a hostile work environment.

More than anything else, the show is just a really sexually charged one with really beautiful people on it (perhaps, Peter MacNichol won an Emmy because he’s not conventionally attractive and somehow managed to feel like he belonged). Nearly every time Ally meets a guy, I’m instantly put into will-they-or-won’t-they mode with guest star of the week. In one of the episodes I saw, a homeless guy derides her when she passes by (they do), in another episode, an obese man goes up against her in court (they don’t but he wants to), in another episode, a high school student is her client and she engineers a plan to boost his confidence by being his prom date. I was seriously wondering considering shows wouldn’t be cancelled back then for that, if she and the prom date would (thankfully they don’t).

Ally is a prime example of the Hollywood homely trope, wherein a star is so conventionally attractive that it's difficult to buy that her character wouldn't get dates. The in-universe excuse is that Ally is too busy to have anyone outside of fellow lawyers outside of her circle. That might make sense, but in the same way that Seinfeld feels dated because a number of their scenarios would have played out differently had the internet existed, I wonder if online dating might have cured her man problem. Ally's problem (from the sample that I saw) wasn't retainng or developing relationships. It was meeting guys. Sure, she would have had to sort out the losers from the winners from the hundreds of messages she would have received, BUT on the show she seemed willing to go out with losers because it was too much of a time investment to find the winners.