Inside Job (Netflix)-Created by one of the writers of Rick and Morty, this is an animated office comedy in a place akin to Section 31, where a group of rogue agents keeps the lid on all the conspiracies that control the universe. The cast of characters includes a half-marcho-general-half-dolphin and an anthropomorphized mushroom spore. The series centers around the main character, Regan (Lizzy Caplan), who has Asperger’s, so score one for representation, and her dad is a bitter mad scientist akin (a little gentler than Rick, though).
This season’s plots have been getting more efficient, and Regan gets a boyfriend, which shakes things up a little.
Derry Girls (BBC4 -à
Netflix)-Slowly moving my way through the seven-episode arc of the show’s
final season, I started this month with the episode where things changed
majorly in a teeny melodrama way: [Cue the orchestral swelling] Two characters
kiss! And since there’s only one guy in the group, you can only guess that one
of them is James, and it’s neither his cousin, Michelle, nor the lesbian
character, Claire, who does the mouth tango with him. Plus, Orla might be
classified as mentally deficient, making seduction problematic. Uh oh!
Considering none of this sexual tension was telegraphed in advance, I’m not
loving this.
Almost reading my mind verbatim, Michelle comments that it would change the
group dynamics a lot if they started dating, and it might not be a good plot
direction. The two pause their romance, which is an excellent direction considering
it’s refreshingly counter to every other teen show.
The next episode is one of the best this series has ever
done. It takes place at a class reunion for the parents of Claire, Orla, and
Erin, plus all the characters of that generation. Also, Erin’s grandpa is thrown
in for good measure, and the mature adult's lot get into the same shenanigans
they chide their children for being unable to avoid. The theme: Some things
never change.
In the penultimate episode of the series, the Erin-James
romantic tension is hand-waved, and the quintet goes on one of their trademark
disaster episodes that exemplifies Murphy’s Law.
The show might not be the most adventurous, but it can change gears well.
Alaska Daily (ABC)-As a journalist
for over a decade, it’s thrilling to see a show the heroic and exciting side of
journalism. Hilary Swank stars as a tough-as-nails reporter who’s exiled to
Alaska. There’s a lot of excellent scenery porn and a healthy dose of small-town
charm here.
The show almost gets journalism right, but journalists aren’t cops, and there
are clear lines over how much you can press a subject that the show could
articulate better. But there is a truth that if you can get facts under most
circumstances, they’re fair game. So suck it, naysayers! Also, FOIA (Freedom of
Information Act) requests can be a bureaucratic nightmare.
To understand the show’s shortcomings is to also understand the constraints of
network TV, where the cop/rogue doctor/hotshot lawyer is the most common
archetype. Network TV viewers want a black-and-white rootable character.
Bumper Goes to Berlin
(Peacock)-Of all the Pitch Perfect characters, I’d put Fat Amy and Chloe
ahead of Bumper in terms of people I would have wanted to see in a spin-off.
Would anyone really have Bumper as number one?
Still, the show kind of works. It’s silly and low-stakes
enough that it’s popcorn watchable. Sarah Hyland (the vapid child on Modern
Family) plays a plucky people-pleaser who balances out the cast well, and Flula
Borg is a great comic talent. Part of me wonders if they set the whole thing in
Germany because they wanted to build the project around Flula Borg.
The show captures the same themes that made the Pitch Perfect film a hit:
Arrested development, a false sense of being elite, and people who take singing
too seriously.
Shantaram (Apple TV)-This
epic tells the story of an escaped Australian convict who gets caught up in the
criminal underworld of Bombay. Only he can’t make a very good criminal because
he seems too morally upright. In fact, he got in prison in the first place because he stopped mid-robbery to attempt triage on a cop trying to stop
him.
Eventually, Lin (at least at the point where I am in this
story) settles into an Indian village as a makeshift medic because the
town needs him. He believes he has a moral debt because a fire happened on his
watch, and he could not save a victim.
Lin’s story to find of finding redemption and do good in a lawless
society echoes the narrative arcs of Buddha and Jesus. The symbolism is a bit
more obvious when you consider that the title of the series takes its name from what the Hindu villagers give him: "Man of God's peace."
But if this is an elaborate religious allegory, it’s a very gritty
and sexy one. Charlie Hunnam sports a man bun and a rugged build and always delivers smoldering looks to the camera. Similarly, there is a confident femme
fatale (Antonio Desplat) and a prostitute (Elektra Kilbey) who ratchet up the
heat. Although it was shot in Thailand during COVID, this is one of the most
visually ambitious TV series I’ve ever seen in terms of exotic on-location
shooting.
Inside Job (Netflix)-Created by one
of the writers of Rick and Morty, this is an animated office comedy in a place
akin to Section 31, where a group of rogue agents keeps the lid on all the
conspiracies that control the universe. The cast of characters includes a
half-marcho-general-half-dolphin and an anthropomorphized mushroom spore. The series
centers around the main character, Regan (Lizzy Caplan), who has Asperger’s, so score
one for representation, and her dad is a bitter mad scientist akin (a little
gentler than Rick, though).
This season’s plots have been getting more efficient, and Regan gets a boyfriend, which shakes things up a little.
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