Watched in April

After two ho-hum months, April had plenty of great watches, while not quite reaching the peak of January overall but with plenty of individual programs surpassing most else I’ve watched this year

Best Thing I Watched

Riot Police (Spanish: Antidisturbios):
There’s a couple of countries whose television programs I can’t get into. Spain is one of them (despite global success with shows like Elite, Money Heist, and Who Killed Sara?), along with South Korea and Japan. While I warmed up to Spanish television a bit with last year’s 30 Coins from HBO Europe, this one is the first Spanish show that I really like, and I really, really liked it. I’ll need to give this a few days (/weeks) to come down from the post-season high and see if I still feel the same, but this is currently the best season of television I’ve watched all year out of the thirty-two full seasons I’ve watched (and numerous others in progress), surpassing Efterforskningen / The Investigation and De Dag / The Day.
Sitting comfortably alongside the late, great Southland from NBC/TNT and France’s Les Misérables from 2019, this cop drama sets up its premise in an expertly-shot you-are-there first episode, leading one to think the whole series will focus on an internal affairs investigation, and while it certainly involves that, the focus and driving narrative shifts bit by bit, with its twists and turns both surprising and feeling naturally built towards. This is 100% a cop drama, and it delivers on the thrills and action expected of one, but it’s also concerned with corruption among the political, bureaucratic, and moneyed, incorporating all of it seamlessly into a gripping internal affairs cop show.
Is now the right time for a drama about police brutality that takes a sympathetic (to varying degrees depending on character) look at the front-line street cops? Perhaps not, but by widening its scope beyond just the cops and touching on endemic corruption, it earns the right to take a deeper (/sympathetic) look at the individual cops to show that at the end of the day they’re small cogs in a wider machine.

Runner-Ups

Roman’s Empire (United Kingdom):
Calling a show as funny as or as good as Arrested Development might be unduly burdening it by causing the program to be viewed solely through the lens of ‘does this measure up to arrested development y/n’ with every scene every joke held under constant scrutiny and evaluation and yet by the end of its first and only season, I liked Roman’s Empire as much as Arrested Development and would go so far to say, on the whole, it’s as good (though, while enjoying it a lot, I don’t love Arrested Development as much as most fans). A lot of the jokes in Roman’s Empire (originally airing in 2007) wouldn’t fly in today’s world, though that’s a positive for me

The Day Will Come (Danish: Der kommer ein Dag)
The phrase “hard to watch” often gets used when describing shows/movies dealing with very serious issues and, perhaps because of my jaded nature/how much dark & gloomy TV shows I watch/being a product of the early internet age and watching some of the WTF videos that floated around, I hardly ever find the “hard to watch” shows/movies that hard to watch; but boy oh boy, this three-part Danish series (also released as a shorter-lengthed movie in some parts of the world) was hard to watch. Lars Mikkelsen is absolutely vile as the cruel headmaster.

On the Spectrum (Israel):
This Israeli comedy was a delightful joy of a discovery. The term “autism comedy” might send some/many fleeing the other way, fearing either a cringe-y laugh-at-them tone or a too-pat-too-feel-good overly-uplifting tone, but On the Spectrum succeeded at comedy’s primary goal of being funny thanks to good writing, strong directing and cinnamontography (really strong visually), and most especially great actors led by the trio of Niv Majar, Naomi Levov, and Ben Yosipovich.
I can’t understate how much the directing/cinnamontography contributed to the show’s watchability, the director has the confidence to keep the camera still for a long time and rely solely on the dialogue and actors to make it watchable, such as in episode 7 where it’s an unmoving shot of the back of the actor’s head for 3-4 minutes. The gentle score lilts in and out of the show, never ever heavy-handed and only used when useful, helping this show remain a comedy even when it plumbs dark terrains, and supporting the tricky tonal changes between its comedic and dramatic parts. Wonderful.
Niv Majar’s Ron Schulman quickly became my favorite character due to Majar’s deadpan greatness, with little things like doing a lot with his eyes (his pupils moving a lot or a little or a lot in little movements) to convey the character’s state of mind even if the character himself is unable/unwilling to articulate his state of mind.
Naomi Lavov’s Zahor is probably the most emotionally developed and thus the one that feels the most, having more frequent/larger ups and downs along with emotional aspirations the others don’t seem to have beyond a superficial level. The emotional volatility of Zahor can be a bit grating but Lavov pulls off the emotional roller coaster with aplomb (absolute master of the under-two-minute messy cry).
It feels like a very American quibble to ask whether or not this show should’ve cast actors who were actually on the spectrum, but when the results are as good as they are, it’s hard to dwell on that question for long (though rational minds may disagree).
All the times I related to Ron:
-Everything he does revolving around whether or not it will cause him to miss his TV shows
“Turn off the TV, I want to have a word with you”
“Product of the Week starts at 10”
“Ron, it’s 9:20, there’s time”
“But you’ll ramble on, we won’t notice the time and I’ll miss the beginning”
-Wants material things but is also broke and that bums him out
-During a job interview in episode 1: “I don’t know if it’s a weakness but I don’t like to be told what to do or asked questions in general and I’d rather not share a room with other people, not that I think that’s a weakness (interviewer starts asking a question) and I don’t like to be interrupted”
-“I’m sick of people asking questions and phoning me! I don’t want to talk to anyone today!”
-“Parties are pointless. I can eat and drink by myself. They invited strangers over and they’ll probably make a mess and drink beer”
“For big social events I have to memorize things. When’s the right time to tell a joke or use a proverb that a wise Chinese man once said, and I never know when to fit those into a conversation”
-“Is this your room? You have a twin-sized bed?? What are you, 13?” [I felt attacked]
“Yes it’s orthopedic and comfortable”
-“Why go to the cinema? You can watch any movie at home today. Going to the cinema is a waste of time and money.”
-Not walking a certain route to avoid having to ask people further down the path to make way for him
-Would rather not have a repairman come over and fix an appliance in order to avoid social interaction
Finally, the upstairs neighbor’s daughter was such a toxic bitch and Yaeli’s advice was so so so wrong and Ron deserves better, here’s to rooting for Ron to finding a worthy girlfriend in season 2 (or for everyone to leave him the f alone so he can spend the entire season watching his TV programs in peace, which is basically as good as (if not better than) having a healthy love life)

Shababnikim (Israel):
A comedy about Yisheva students is a nice counterweight to the lovely domestic dramas of Shtisel which also deals with ultra-orthodox Jews and is often set in a Yeshiva, often very funny even if one if unfamiliar with the specifics of the Jewish religion thanks to the writing and winsome foursome at the center of the show

One and Done

Chad (TBS): Despite this being a one-and-done for me, there’s a lot to like here, from Nasim Pedrad (sorely missing from television screens since her ill-fated departure from SNL to co-star in John Mulaney’s killed-by-multi-camera-sitcom-format Mulaney) to the dialogue and chemistry between the cast of Nasim’s Chad’s family, but at the end of the day it’s an awkward teen genre show and I absolutely can’t stand awkward humor. There are great zingers, and again, Pedrad’s delivery of even the single word DIE or calling her TV sister “a whore” is *chef’s kiss* but awkward humor is just such a massive turn off and one I couldn’t fathom returning to for weekly 30-minute installments (relatedly, I also can’t get past more than two episodes of hulu’s PEN15). There are quibbles to be had (the kid IS a massive jerk), though nothing worth the apparent review bombing on the users’ side of review websites (currently a 2.4 on IMDB, 2.2 on Metacritic, 12% on RottenTomatoes).
The awkward teen genre (in general) is just completely off-putting and feels so over-the-top and disconnected, it should be mandatory for each every single person who wants to create a show featuring teens in school to watch the two seasons of Netflix’s American Vandal and toss in the two (and counting) seasons of German comedy How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast) (also Netflix). American Vandal captured the rhythms and patterns of adolescence in such a great way, portraying the awkwardness without going into over-the-top slapstick territory and more than anything, treated the kid characters as smart, functional, competent humans if also well short of being fully intellectually/emotionally developed.

Cruel Summer (freeform): Only watched this show due to generally strong reviews. No, absolutely not. Why did I think anything on freeform (fka ABC Family) would appeal to me. Lead actress captures the three different narrative versions of the main character well though.

Awards Season

One Night in Miami (Amazon): Purposely kept this as one of the last awards season movies to get around to, afraid it would be an eat-your-vegetables, very-serious, very-self-important type of historical awards bait dramas, my faith in Regina King was unjustly wavering and she more than proved herself. One of three major awards season stage-to-screen adaptations, this one joins The Father as making a very successful leap to the big (/phone) screen. Thanks to its mostly guys-in-a-room talking set-up, One Night in Miami‘s stage roots are obvious, but it’s shot and edited to make it very watchable and not staid and sedate. If the directing and editing are one half of making this two-hour talk-heavy movie consistently watchable, the fine performances are the other half, with any/all of the four deserving Oscar nods (Kingsley Ben-Adir’s Malcolm X was probably the stand-out for me, just barely, while Aldis Hodge got a bit less to do than the others, just barely). Miami also was surprisingly not infrequently funny, in a way that flowed organically from the characters’ personalities as they butt up against each other, backed off, sized the other up, and locked horns again. This was my second favorite awards season movie (behind the head-and-tails ahead-of-the-pack The Father) and really deserved more noms

My Octopus Teacher (Netflix): Fine.

and Others

The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle (United Kingdom): A darkly comedic 2007 show about a daytime trashploitation TV host. It seems to be ahead of its time as, according to Wikipedia, it got generally negative reviews but has decent scores on Amazon (4.3/5) on IMDB (7.3/10). Perhaps after a decade-plus of antiheroes and not-really-a-comedy-comedies tastes became more accepting of such an unlikeable character surrounded by jaded/unlikeable characters putting on a trashy exploitative daytime show

Made for Love (HBO Max): Enjoyable enough with expectedly capable performances from Cristin Milioti, Billy Magnussen, Ray Romano, and new appreciation for Noma Dumezweni, Kym Whitley, and especially, especially Caleb Foote, who has a small role as Bennett the assistant to Magnussen’s tech entrepreneur mogul Byron Gogol but absolutely nails every line delivery, often getting the biggest laugh (/loudly breathing through nose) of the episode from me

Hemingway (PBS): I’ve never read a Hemingway novel and yet I willingly watched a six-hour Ken Burns PBS documentary on the author, I am an old

Striking Out (Ireland): Like a watered-down The Good Wife, though still fairly watchable. Hews a little too closely to episodic legal drama conventions for my taste, but it’s watchable enough that its 45-50-minute run times don’t feel too long. Scattered thoughts:
-Pete was a stock ‘love interest for main female character’ role and wasn’t given much to do.
-Ray was solid
-Meg is the serie’s Archie Panjabi Kalinda, and Fiona O’Shaughnessy was probably the best actor there, imbuing Meg with an air of mystery
-Lead actress Amy Huberman was capable of more than what was given to her
-Not enough Ray in season 2, he’s in every episode, but not enough
-Cinnamontography on the show was punching above its weight: lots of interesting shots (and beautiful cityscape shots) and ways of shooting a straight-forward procedural show, Frida Wendel did good stuff here
-Relatedly, I really love how much drones have contributed to sweeping establishing shots on TV
-Larger inquiry plot plodding and boring
-Older characters (George & Vincent) negligible, didn’t really do much for me for all the screen time they got
-Writing in season 2 was boring, got really, really conventional and rote
-Bookworm in season 2 was likeable
-Boring love plot in s2 with nick’s brother, could use less of it…until it paid off

Flying Dutchmen / Turbulent Skies (Dutch: Vliegende Hollanders): An enjoyable dip into the 1920s-30s Dutch race to conquer commercial air flight elevated by the lively performances of Steef de Bot (Albert Plesman) and Bram Suijker (Anthony Fokker). Fokker’s cantankerousness is reminiscent of Daniel Brühl’s character in Rush (though not quite as good, but certainly in the same ballpark). The ladies are enjoyably spunky and plucky (Violet/Helga + Albert’s secretary + Fokker’s maid). The flight scenes are good, really putting the audience in the seat of being in an aircraft when the crash rate was quite a bit higher than today. They return to the “will or won’t this plane land safely” well several times throughout the series and it is effective every time. The show also incorporates Old Timey footage well, sometimes it’s hard to tell whether it’s a scene they shot and put an old timey filter on (probably all of them) or actual vintage footage.
The casting is largely responsible for the show’s watchability with the the two leads in particular really making it. Bram Suijker’s impatient and cantankerous Fokker captures attention out the gate but Steef de Bot’s Plesman, while initially shown as the more level-headed and less spontaneous of the two, makes the times when he flies into a rage that much more impactful. Coen Bril’s older Jan was only in a handful of episodes and only for a few scenes but was a very likeable presence and all the children felt like living, breathing kids of the main characters, very good casting. (Jan, in the background of a scene, making a quick salute to his youngest brother before heading out was a small but nice touch that added to the sense that they were relatives living together and defined his relationship with his youngest brother in contrast to the constant bickering he engaged in with his other brother).

Ethos (Netflix): Quiet Turkish domestic drama that I initially thought would be like HBO’s In Treatment, but the show slowly expands the environment and cast of characters episode-by-episode. Led by a fine performance by Fatih Artman who goes from 0 to pissed off in a way I haven’t seen since Dylan McDermott’s Bobby on The Practice, the cast is uniformly strong, whose naturalistic acting style is a flavor you don’t often get from Hollywood that leans towards scenery-chewing

Let’s Be Real (FOX): Bringing back the puppet show after a pre-election special, Let’s Be Real tests viewers’ appetite for political satire now that things have calmed down quite a bit in the world of politics. Scattered thoughts:
-Enjoyed the Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Naked & Afraid Ted Cruz sketches largely on the basis of never not liking Cuomo & Cruz getting mocked (though both sketches still went on a bit too long)
-Mandalorian sketch with Dr. Fauci as Baby Yoda and Chrissy Teigen the bounty hunter didn’t work (made all the worse by the sketch recurring three times in the half-hour episode). Teigen’s not really make fun-able, existing in this sort of internet celebrity-dom occasionally bleeding over into TV and having her be the mouthpiece for woke culture (itself a worthy target as the butt of jokes) just repeatedly fell flat. The wire work on the puppets was also super evident, whether by design or not
-While most Trump jokes were old and stale and repetitive long before the end of his term in office, there was still some pleasure to be had in a recurring sketch about Trump trying to hawk items he “acquired” on Antiques Roadshow in order to pay off debts (a sketch presumably written to get more mileage out of the Trump puppet) largely on the strength of how good John Di Domenico’s impersonation is
-Likewise, the voice actor for Biden (Piotr Michael) for a brief Biden sketch was solid, though the sketch itself (Biden repeatedly using expletives on air while wondering what terms he can no longer use) is something we’ve seen a million times
-The Amazon/facebook pride month products was the only sketch to get (mild) laughs from me, although the OJ Simpson/Celebrity Vaccine Promo was also likeable enough thanks to some welcome celebrity appearances (though, broken record here, ran out of steam before it ended)
-Overall this was less good than pre-election special from October 2020, which, while receiving a tepid response from critics and general audience, exceeded my expectations
-The sketches just really needed to be quicker and zippier, I didn’t dislike any of them but any amount of amusement had long dissipated before the end of all of the sketches

Wellington Paranormal (New Zealand): A worthy extension to the What We Do in the Shadows world. The special effects are surprisingly good most of the time, even when the CGI is obviously CGI. Every actor gets the played-straight mockumentary tone right but especially Sergeant Maaka whose deadpan got better and funnier as the series progressed

Atlantic Crossing (PBS): Kyle MacLachan was miscast here, he doesn’t convincingly pull off the devil-may-care tone they’re taking with his FDR. And every time he’s on screen it just looks like Kyle MacLachen with his hair artificially whitened. Wish they had cast an unknown in the role.
Flat writing, feels conventional (much worse when it’s in English). There’s a better TV show to be made about the events covered in Atlantic Crossing (the Norwegian Queen finding refuge in America during WWII after Germany invades Norway and uses her pre-existing friendship with President Roosevelt to sway him to take a more active role in the war despite resistance from the American people against such measures). The kids are annoying (also why are all kids 10 and under always written like a brain-damaged four-year-old?). The more scenes with FDR the worse the episode. The binge release model has gained prevalence but this show definitely works better as weekly release, not to savor each individual episode but six days is about right to forget how mediocre (if competently produced) it is. It doesn’t feel like a long 50 minutes, but it certainly feels like it’s 50 minutes long.

Philly D.A. (PBS): So far it’s no City so Real or City Hall but it’s shaping up to be a worthy addition to the inside-the-minute-details-of-municipal-government oeuvre

Mare of Easttown (HBO): Watchable whenever Kate Winslet is on screen. Slightly-to-moderately less so when she isn’t. Evan Peters’s young, well-dressed, out-of-town detective is a good foil for her character and the two make for a solid pairing. Good to see Jean Smart on screen, even if just in a ‘the grandma’ role. The central murder case evokes no feelings from me (it’s just another detective mystery plot about a murdered young girl)

Frank of Ireland Episode 1

While the Gleeson brothers are a likeable presence, the mediocre-leaning-negative reviews for their new half-hour comedy Frank of Ireland are largely correct. I wish they had played their characters as arrested development/aimless thirtysomethings instead of borderline brain-damaged 16-year-olds. There’s been plenty of good characters and stories mined from the aimless/immature late-twenties/early-thirties age group (for aimless and adrift, see: Dud & Liz Dudley from Lodge 49; for acerbic and borderline (self-)destructive see: any of the quartet of Jimmy, Gretchen, Edgar, or Lindsay from You’re the Worst; and for downright unrealistic despicable hilarity see: the gang from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), which shows this type of unlikeable-but-not-offputting-or-at-the-very-least-watchable character can be done, however Frank and Doofus are not it, simply off-putting (again, despite the charm that the Gleeson brothers bring). In a different show/movie (heck, in the same show with better control of the tone and better editing/writing), Domhnall Gleeson’s Doofus would be a hoot, bringing winsome chipper energy.
Pom Boyd plays Mary, the matriarch of the stunted twosome, and has the experience to know when and how to dial back the energy and bring it up, easily becoming the most likeable character by the end of the first episode (granted, a low bar). Her initiating high-fives after crude innuendos were definitely among the comedic highlights of the first episode. Jokes about the deceased’s diseases as to why a multitude of songs would be inappropriate to play at their funeral were also among the best jokes of the episode.

Ultimately, this was a second or third draft that had some good lines, it needed to be put in a drawer and walked away from and left for a week or a month and returned to to expunge the many parts that didn’t work, salvage what did, and rebuild from there.
I’ve watched far worse first episodes that evoked more negative feelings (oddly, I’d say this first episode was relatively objectively bad yet almost likeable) and it’s not outside the realm of possibility that I watch another episode somewhere down the line.

What I Watched in March

Best Thing I Watched

Pls Like (UK | BBC Three) Seasons 1-2
Catching up on on the first two seasons proved just as delightful and lol-invoking as watching the newly-reased third season in January. Liam Williams’s low-key, sardonic style bounces off well against the louder aspiring influencers & vloggers along with great use of UK comedians: Jamie Demetriou (nearly pitch-perfect as grime artist); Tom Stourton; Natasia Demetriou, and Arnab Chanda’s Hen is such a great addition in the second season. Between this and Plebs, Jonathan Pointing has nailed the likeable permanently cheerful semi-idiot character.

One and Done

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (Disney+): Much preferred the weirdness of (early) WandaVision, this one is much too conventional for me

Fisk (Australia | ABC): Gave this a shot just for Kitty Flanagan (formerly of The Weekly with Charlie Pickering), it’s decent enough but nothing I’m gonna invest a half hour into every week

Invincible (Amazon): Gave this one a shot purely for the 73 it got on Metacritic, started off very very conventionally before becoming satisfyingly violent and over-the-top gore-y, but still not enough to compel me to watch more.

Awards Season

Emma. (Focus): It’s fine. The costumes and production design are immaculate, but it’s just fine. I kept thinking how Love & Friendship from a few years earlier was also an Austen adaptation that ended up being a lot funnier.

The Mauritanian: Horrible.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix): Never escapes the trappings of being a stage play adaption. The sets felt like sets (and the outdoors one particularly looked cheap).

The Father (Sony Pictures Classic): Contrasted to the above, this also-a-stage-adaptation made a very smooth transition to the screen, while a lot of it takes place in one apartment, there’s a lot of cinematic techniques used to enhance the story of dementia; sure, bits of it starts to feel gimmicky towards the end, particularly mixing up different characters/actors, though I would say this probably was more effective when on stage. Other than that minor quibble, The Father is easily my favorite of this crop of awards season contenders. Anthony Hopkins is absolutely crushing it in his late career (see also: The Two Popes, another best-of-awards-seasoner) and should be cleaning up at awards season if he didn’t run into the late Chadwick Boseman’s sweep (and likely Oscars victory). Likewise, Olivia Colman should be the one to beat in the supporting actress category (you could argue she should be lead though, unlike more blatant lead-vs-supporting category gaming in prior years, hers is a bit of a grey area). The editing (Yorgos Lamprinos) and directing (Florian Zeller) are also stand-outs. Every awards season, only one or two movies live up to the borderline-fawning critical hype and this year it’s The Father

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix): Awards bait in every pejorative sense of the phrase. This deserved NOTHING awards-wise. Absolute dreck. Massive comedown from Molly’s Game. Absolute dreck.

Mank (Netflix): It’s fine, a bit of Hollywood wanking off Hollywood but decently watchable for being that. Lily Collins has been one of those actresses that did absolutely nothing for me and her continued casting had me scratching my head, she was absolutely solid in this though. Gary Oldman is fine, 100% disappears under the hair & make-up, couldn’t tell it was Oldman at all.

and Others

Lovecraft Country (HBO): Finished this series after giving up halfway through last year. There’s good qualities here (the pilot was quite good) but it’s wildly inconsistent, veering from one thing to another, blunting any momentum it builds within any particular plot or character. The anachronistic soundtrack is something I never got used to, distracting more often than being additive. The CGI can also be quite spotty, with the green screen glaringly obvious at times.
The best bits were episode 1, episode 6, and the creepy not-The–Shining twins in episode 8. It feels weird to single out a Caucasian actor in an African-American-centered show but the stand-out actor for me was Abbey Lee, she had a lot of fun with her ambiguous character, always feeling dangerous and untrustworthy even (especially) when she was telling characters to trust her. Jonathan Majors was solid in leading man mode while Wunmi Mosaku’s Ruby Baptiste probably had the most interesting character/arc (the prosthetics and make-up for episode 5 were GREAT and blended so well with the CGI, couldn’t tell where one started and the other ended).

Jujutsu Kaisen (Japan | MBS): While it didn’t quite end as well as it began (the show was just churning through plot and big villain battles at a mile-a-minute pace in the first half), it was still a very very very fun and enjoyable show. First anime in probably a decade I’ve watched a full season of.

Nagasarete Airantou: And this would be the second. Having watched the first episode sometime last year, I was intrigued enough to come back to it and finish it off. The romantic comedy goes down easy in 20-25-minute episodes, though it’s definitely an acquired taste, it can be very pervey at times, but in there is also a surprisingly touching story of friendship and growing fondness for one another along with awkward coming-of-age humor.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League: Look, at this point a decade-plus into the MCU and half a decade-plus into DCEU, most moviegoers know which cinematic universe they’re partial to. Whether or not one watches ZSJL is probably heavily dependent on how pre-sold one is on the DCEU.
Though not a fanboy, I’m partial to the darker, grittier, unhappy, more violent DCEU and wanted to check this one just out of curiosity. It’s fine. Multiple bathroom breaks were warranted and there are a whole bunch of threads that go absolutely nowhere, it’s not a home run but as something to turn my brain off for for four hours and watch a whole lot of big stupid action it was perfectly fine.

VICE (Showtime): None of the VICE properties are as good as they were when they were on HBO, but the the weekly half-hour show is the best of the lot post-HBO. It’s very hit-or-miss depending on the correspondent/story, though that was, to a lesser extent, also true in its HBO days, one episode I’m glued to both segments, the next, my mind is wandering five minutes in.

American Gods (Starz): Thank the Gods (New and Old) it’s over and got cancelled. Good riddance.

Wellington Paranormal (New Zealand | TVNZ2): A good addition to the What We Do in the Shadows universe, will have to dig back through prior seasons

Tracey Breaks the News (UK | BBC): Enjoyment of this is almost directly correlated to how much one pays attention to the news. I remember watching one of Tracey Ullman’s shows in the early aughts and it did nothing for me. Flash-forward to now and I really enjoyed TBtN (repackaged as The Tracey Ullman’s Show in the US). Her Angela Merkel is to die für and I legitimately can’t tell if it was her as Jeremy Corbyn.

El Clan (“The Clan”): Finally watched this years after making note of it after reading a review and this historical Argentine drama lived up to the wait. Definitely in the top 10 movies I’ve watched so far this year.

The Untamed (“La región salvaje”): Another movie I made note of years ago after reading reviews and only finally got around to. It’s just as weird and eerie and wtf as I had hoped it to be. To bring it back to Lovecraft Country, if you watched episode six and thought, “I’d like a full-on feature-length movie combining atmospheric horror, tentacle-fuckcreatures, and being foreign language” you are in for a treat.

What I Watched in February

Didn’t watch anything mind-blowingly good let alone last month’s 1-2-3 combo of Death of Dick Long–Les Misérables –The Climb along with solid television series The Investigation, De Dag “The Day”, and Pls Like.

Best Things I Watched

Boys State (Apple+): Watching a bunch of teenage boys play politics for 110 minutes sounds like a potentially extremely cringe-inducing experience (not helped that within the first 3 minutes one of the main interviewees/subjects bloviates about politics/values/whatever in his family kitchen to his parents as if he’s making a campaign stump speech) but Boys State largely manages to be an interesting look at what happens when a bunch of teenage boys form mock political parties, vote on policy platforms, and run for mock office.

The Weekly with Charlie Pickering (ABC | Australia): The best seasons of this show were 2-4 after it’d found itself and got into a reliable rhythm; while more recent seasons can still deliver solid laughs (usually if Pickering is delivering the joke) its correspondents can be hit or miss, especially last season which lowered my hopes for the show going forward but season 7 so far looks promising. A crop of mostly-good new correspondents have been introduced in its seventh season after Tom Gleeson sadly stepped down (thankfully Hard Quiz is still airing) with Frank Woodley (the week in science) and Nina Oyama (the week in the world) aces and Natalie Tran managing to make her initial segment on the digital revival of sea shanties amusing despite my not caring one iota about sea shanty tiktoks (throw in Bernie-in-mittens and how it started/how it’s going as memes that are past their sell-by date). The show also feels like it’s re-established a template after season 6 felt a bit of a hodge-podge of trying some new segments but still trying to stick to old formats. The episode’s pacing is hugely improved by framing the entire episode in terms of going through the past week day-by-day punctuated with correspondents’ reports; the show has a much better flow. The weekly also seems to be throwing in the towel on having in-studio guests anytime soon, which is just fine as the guests could be hit-or-miss and, like most talk shows, usually involved the host being overly flattering/servile.

Jujutsu Kaisen (MBS | Japan): I haven’t watched a full season of any anime for probably a decade (and can count the number of animes I’ve watched the entirety of on almost one hand) but damn oh damn am I enjoying the heck out of Jujutsu Kaisen. WandaVision is the Friday show everyone’s losing their minds over (more on WV below) but Friday’s all about Jujutsu Kaisen baby [insert Hotline Bling meme here of Drake pushing away WandaVision and happy-pointing to Jujutsu Kaisen]

One and Done

For All Mankind (Apple+): In an almost identical situation to Dickinson last month, For All Mankind was part of an initially lukewarm crop of shows that launched Apple+ that didn’t intrigue me but when it’s second season came around with stronger reviews (67–>75 on metacritic, 73–>100 on rottentomatoes) I decided to give this Ronald D. Moore-created (Battlestar Galactica), Joel Kinnaman-fronted (The Killing) show a try in case I was overlooking a hidden gem. No thanks.

Awards Season

Pieces of a Woman (Netflix): Fine.

Judas and the Back Messiah (WB): Could do a lot worse with a historical fiction awards-season movie. Daniel Kaluuya seems to be getting the most traction awards-season-wise but would love to see Lakeith Stanfield and Dominique Fishback (whom I’ve been a fan of since The Deuce) get more nominations/be more in the awards season conversation

Sound of Metal (Amazon): It was fine.

I Care A Lot (Netflix): What I thought this movie was gonna be was…very much not what it ended up being, and for most of the run time I was down for the ride but it loses traction in the last thirty minutes, implausibilities stack up, suspension of disbelief is tried much more than in the prior hour and it just loses the thread. Really felt like the writer didn’t know how to end it and just wrote a quickie ending. It’s a little disappointing but still a hoot for the first half. The electronic soundtrack kind of doesn’t fit the movie but hell after a while, like with the rest of the movie, I just went with it.

The Forty-Year-Old Version (Netflix): Didn’t know what to expect going in and ending up enjoying this way more than expected. Netflix has bigger movies it’s pushing during awards season (Mank, The Trial of the Chicago 7, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) but would love to see Radha Blank sneak in for best actress and script and Robert Grigsby Wilson for best editing. An absolute (irreverent?) hoot for the first half and gets a little more, if not serious-minded, then less comedy-focused in the back half which I enjoyed less but made sense as the movie worked to resolve the character arcs it had been building. Radha Blank does not deserve to disappear after this movie and/or wait another 10, 20, 40 years before releasing her next project.

And Others

P-Valley (Starz): Fine. Brandee Evans should be in conversation for lead actress award noms. Would be great to a see such a non-awards-season-conventional-character from a non-typical-awards-season-show get in

Servant of the People (1+1 via Netflix): First two episodes were really excellent and it kind of downshifts from there, though never bad: it started as a solid satire of eastern European politics then went for more of a broad farce. Current Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was great casting in the lead role with fantastic comedic timing, the broader farce in the later episodes would not have worked nearly as well without him.

WandaVision (Disney+): Watching this and seeing the reaction to it confirms I will never be a comic book fanboy, it’s fine, it’s fine, but 100% does not inspire the same sort of breathless speculative craze in me as it does for apparently most MCU fans. Hell, my favorite episodes were the least-favorite of everybody else’s: that being the first two episodes where I knew the show wasn’t what it seemed and I was looking for the tiny breadcrumbs hinting at the bigger picture while enjoying the send-up to old sitcoms (Paul Bettany hamming it the f up is just fun). It got aggressively more cookie-cutter superhero as the show wore on ending with my feeling pretty much nothing during the entirety of the last two episodes while it seems fanboys were deeply appreciative of them. While it’s always good to see Katheryn Hahn get appreciation, this isn’t even the best Katheryn Hahn-as-comic-book-villain reveal of the last 3 years. I could go on and on (Scarlet just turns Agatha into the nosy neighbor character and she can’t do anything about it? Even when the rune symbols/curtain Scarlet had put up around Westview is taken down by Scarlet? Just another case of good guy victorious because good guy is good guy) but this just isn’t for me. Will I watch an episode of Winter Soldier & Falcon? Ugh, probably.

An Ordinary Woman (TV3 | Russia): It’s not a great show. It’s often times contrived, convoluted, and maddening, and yet, I’ve watched both seasons of this pregnant-Russian-mother-flower-shop-owner-slash-madame-running-prostitutes drama. The production values are solid and lead Anna Mikhalkova is 100% the reason to watch it, with a quiet, steely, matter-of-fact resolve you wish the other characters could have 5% of

Spycraft (Netflix): Stock footage: the show. My weakness for spy shit is the only reason I pushed through an extremely whelming mixture of stock footage and talking heads

Pretend It’s a City (Netflix): I wasn’t super familiar with Fran Lebowitz before watching this other than seeing her pop up every now and then on talk shows. I would like another season, equally to hear her thoughts on various topics and to hear Martin Scorsese appreciably laughing along

American Gods (Starz): I continue to annoy-bordering-on-hate-watch this show

Back (Channel 4 | UK): Appreciably likeable if not something I’ll remember a month from now

Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar (Lionsgate): Another situation where what I was expecting was very much not what the movie ended up being. I don’t love it but I do appreciate its zaniness and it often being very much outside the box

Dix Pour Cent “Call My Agent!” (France 2 via Netflix | France): The first two seasons were easily the best with things getting a bit bumpy last season but still watchable, which was the same situation for its fourth and last season until the last episode. Did Coronavirus completely mess up the last episode? That would explain everything just suddenly wrapping up and ending without any of the resolution feeling earned or built towards or not completely contrived. There are still pleasures to be had, the likeable Gabriel and type-A Andréa are still great (though Andréa’s character feels a bit neutered since becoming a mother but not nearly enough to completely ruin the character’s appeal) and I gained a newfound appreciation for Laure Calamy’s Noémie who, in lesser hands, would fall into the annoyingly over-the-top trying-to-be-adorkable category but Calamy manages to pull off the daffiness of the character while simultaneously imbuing Noémie with an innate va va voom quality

What I Watched in January

Best Things I Watched

Three very good movies to start off the year when I’m usually fairly meh on most movies
The Death of Dick Long (A24)
100% go into this comedic Southern crime mystery blind.
This has been on my “I need to see it” list for awhile and finally got around to it, it didn’t blow my mind as much as I’d hoped but still really enjoyed it in the end (a movie I like more than I’d rate it perhaps). This is what indie filmmaking should be all about; so delightfully weird and off-kilter with a hilarious deadpan performance by Andre Hyland (I was in stitches with his every line of dialogue and reaction, put to good use (all too briefly) in a fourth season episode of Search Party) that should’ve opened the door for him getting a million roles.
The Climb (Sony Pictures Classic)
Haven’t laughed this hard and consistently since probably Get Duked! 100% lived up to the glowing reviews (82/7.8 on metacritic critics/audience, 89/80 on rottentomatoes critics/audience). Again, this is what indie movies should be about. A burst of freshness with deceptively simple scenes that simultaneously showcase some audacious technical wizardry that never distracts but adds to the scene. Looking forward to the next one from writer/producer/director/stars Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin. Also another good performance from Gayle Rankin who’s quietly turning in a strong string of performances in indies and is a strong challenger to fellow GLOW stars Alison Brie and Betty Gilpin for having the best (if not the most high-profile) film career, who woulda thought that from Sheila the She-Wolf.
Les Misérables (Amazon Studios)
Like a really strong episode of a good cop show (particularly Southland), that may seem like a pejorative but it’s meant as anything but. Kinetic where it needs to be and calm when it needs to be. Glad to see a damn entertaining movie be nominated for a Best Foreign Language Oscar (and would’ve/should’ve been a strong contender to take the prize if it didn’t get caught in Parasite‘s domination)

The Investigation (TV2 | Denmark)
Danish Crime Story: Submarine
If you watched the scene in Chernobyl‘s fifth episode where Jared Harris’s character explains nuclear reactions and thought, “yes, more of that even-keeled, low-key explanation from a cool-headed, meticulous character please” then this Danish slow-boil, nose-to-the-grindstone dramatization of a true crime investigation is for you.
There’s an episode whose plot is largely around “cadaver dogs” (dogs that sniff for scents released by a decaying body that travels from the seabed to the surface) and East European river current directions, which sounds like it should be boring and yet the show is able to make the low-key mundane watchable.

The Day (Dutch: De Dag) (Telenet)
As with most hostage dramas, it gets a bit more convoluted and conspiratorial everyone-is-involved-many-people-are-not-who-they-first-appear-to-be by the end but not in a way that loses its watchability; sure, there are eye-rolling, contrived moments but absolutely not fatal flaws.
An engaging watch and works as a thriller with some white-knuckle scenes. Synth score is lightly used to great, propulsive effect.
A very enjoyable 6.78/10

Pls Like (BBC Three)
Wonderfully mimics/mocks vlogger/influencer culture packaged in 15-minute episodes

One & Done

Dickinson (Apple+): I didn’t bother with any Apple+ programming when they came out last year as most of them had a lukewarm response, but Dickinson had the best of the lukewarm responses and strong notices for John Mulaney’s guest turn so when season 2 came around with even better reviews I decided to give it a try.
No thanks, it’s very much not my thing.

It’s a Sin (Channel 4): Russell T. Davies is kinda hit-and-miss for me, when he hits he hits (Years & Years; Doctor Who; A Very English Scandal) and his misses aren’t so much misses as ‘not for me, thanks very much.’ File this under the ‘not for me’ category.

Cobra Kai (Netflix): Similar to Dickinson, no interest whatsoever in this despite generally strong notices and an appreciable audience, decided to give the season 3 premiere a whirl and yikes, 100% not for me and baffling how much it’s liked.

Lupin (Netflix): This French-language Netflix original managed to climb into the Top 10 in the U.S., staying there for several days (and topping the Netflix charts in France for half of January), and garnering very strong reviews (some calling it the first great show of 2021); it’s fine but I felt no need to watch another episode after finishing the first nor adding it to my “check back on it later when I have time” list

Painting with John (HBO): HBO Fridays has been the home to wonderfully out-there half hours such as hysterical and quirky (for once I don’t mean it pejoratively) Los Espookys (hmmm, not a bad companion show for Search Party fans looking for something to watch), pleasant surprise How to…with John Wilson, the chillaxed vibes of female skater show Betty and others like Room 104 and High Maintenance so I had high hopes for the warmly-received Painting with John, it’s fine.

Resident Alien (Syfy): Generally likeable and Alan Tudyk is absolutely solid in this but the show itself isn’t enough for me to invest six hours into (the part where he’s dancing and everyone’s cheering him on at a bar to extremely dated pop music was cringe-inducing to the nth degree

and Others

30 Coins (HBO Europe): I started this one at the tail end of last year as it was airing in Europe prior to premiering in America, and, while I never loved it (I watched one or two of the first episodes at double speed), it was a ‘good enough to toss on and mindlessly’ watch sort of deal. There were legitimate scares in the first couple of episodes but became less horror and more mystery and, especially in the latter part of its run, adventure. While I gave up Lovecraft Nation halfway through (great first episode, pacing and tone shifts a mess afterwards). Megan Montaner is eminently watchable as the spunky Elena and Macarena Gómez is also fun as ‘the wife’ character trying to get her husband to stop chasing ghost stories. Unfortunately it just went batshit insane (in a bad way) in the last 2 episodes and the whole thing just fell in on itself. I really really enjoyed the main title credits though, my favorite of 2020 alongside The New Pope‘s Nunnery-cum-Crucifix-Rave. Absolutely deserves an Emmy mention for it.

Staged (BBC): While there were 2 expertly used celeb cameos in the first season, the second is chock-full of them almost at the risk of capsizing the season. None of them are bad per se but some shone brighter than others (and interestingly, a minor celebrity (Ben Schwartz) playing an actual character was the brightest cast addition or cameo appearance).
While season 1 didn’t end up being my fear of two actors being actorly at each other with the amount of amusement one got from it directly proportional to how much one was already a fan of the actors, the second season relies a bit more on liking the actors than funny writing (though there’s still plenty of funny lines, just a bit more padded out, the eighth episode in particular felt very self-indulgent). One positive improvement is more scenes with the wives, more importantly with the wives talking to each other taking the piss out of their husbands. Georgia Tennant showed she could deliver a throwaway line about not knowing where her kids were with utmost hilarity at how indifferent she was to her children’s well-being so giving her more lines is generally a good thing.

WandaVision (Disney+): Very indifferent to the superhero genre (worsened by my tendency of liking the ones everyone else dislikes and disliking the ones most people like) but I was intrigued by the first big Disney+ MCU series. Hardcore fans were into it from the beginning while casual fans disliked the oldie sitcom format largely played straight for the first episodes. I liked it weird and once it became more of a conventional MCU show I felt the “real world” scenes were a reminder of why I’m so blah on general superhero stuff. For the foreseeable future, the first seasons of Netflix’s Jessica Jones and FX’s Legion set an insurmountable high bar for superhero shows.

Kieler Street (Norwegian: Kielergata) (TV2 Norge): Intriguing Norwegian show that’s not exactly Nordic/Scandinavian Noir (perhaps Nordic/Scandinavian Noir-adjacent) but certainly has its mystery, murder, and “lots of folk in a small town with mysterious backgrounds” elements down. Generally likeable but has its ups and downs (too much focus on insufferable dramatic high school teenage girl character), dragging particularly in its middle batch of episodes.

Search Party (HBO Max): Not as consistently good as season 3 but still enjoyable

American Gods (Starz): I’d thought season 3 was the last season and all the build up would actually lead to something this season, unfortunately not and it’s just plodding along. I enjoyed season 2 despite the behind-the-scenes changes but watching season 3 as background noise will likely be the end of the road for me in watching American Gods (unless, ugh, they renew for a fourth and final season in which case the completist in me will probably force myself through it)

Kaikki Synnit “All the Sin” Season 2 Quick Thoughts

-Not as good as season 1 as expected, was not as sucked in/entranced as I was with s1
-Casting and cinnamontography as good as ever (making great use of Finnish trees & sparse winter-y lands)
-Jussi’s hair tho
-Aaro teenage actor dead ringer for EITHER Lauri or adult Aaro
-Aaro’s deep voice belies age
-New age women’s cult felt peripheral to the on-goings, didn’t do much for me. Wasn’t flat-out bad but the scenes always dragged for me
-Young Aaro actor has great forlorn/pensive/thousand-yard stare
-Such a massive part of season 1’s magic was Johannes Holopainen (Lauri) and Maria Sid (Sanna), if there’s a season 3 they absolutely need to be back

Best Thing I Watched — December

Love Me (Swedish: Älska Mig) (Viaplay)
what if Modern Family but instead of goofy familial hijinks it’s a Swedish dramedy that’s a generally depressing meditation on relationships at different life stages
There’s something deeply contemplative/cerebral/introspective about the two Swedish shows I’ve watched this year (Gösta being the other) that, at the risk of painting with a broad stroke, feels very typically Swedish (thinking of Ingmar Berman’s films)
There’s something deeply likeable about Älska Mig from the immediate start (despite the schmaltzy title), the season 1 finale however felt like a step off, things get resolved too neatly and too nicely. There aren’t just one but two big scenes of characters pleading for the other to love them back and that theirs is a relationship worth trying to have. Even worse is that one of those characters doing the pleading is Clara, who was at her best as a rather curt, unsentimental person. Sure, one could argue that this is character progression, but it rather feels out of character to plead loudly on a public sidewalk for someone to reciprocate her love, surely there could have been a more Clara-like way for her to ask for him to try and continue their relationship without turning into a blubbering pubescent girl in the process.
The finale, unfortunately, foreshadowed the troubles ahead for season 2. Season 1 had been effortlessly charming and likeable and a realistic reflection of the bumps and hiccups in relationships without blowing every disagreement into apocalyptic TV drama, the tensions and conflicts were treated seriously without having to resort to making them feel fatal to the relationship. Season 2 just lost that magical touch and experienced a sophomore slump, through no fault of the actors who remain as engaging and watchable as ever with Josephine Bornebusch (Clara) and Gustav Lindh (Aron) getting the more fun parts and really relishing their chances to have fun with their immature outburst scenes while Johan Ulveson (Sten) brings a quiet dignity to his patriarchal role.

Adult Material (Channel 4)
Hayley Squires gave 2020’s best performance by an actress in a drama (if we’re counting this as a mini/limited series it’s a coin toss between her and Fargo‘s Jessie Buckley)

L’Effondrement “The Collapse” (Canal+)
While 1917‘s technical style ended up feeling gimmick-y, L’Effondrement (“The Collapse”) organically weaves it into its storytelling, heightening the tension when needed and pulling back and letting the actors and story take center-stage when necessary. Though some episodes in this post-apocalyptic anthology are stronger than others, it is never not good and the technical achievements often leave you scratching your head wondering “How…?” without overshadowing the individual stories

Jujutsu Kaisen (MBS/TBS via HBO Max/crunchyroll)
Not a regular anime viewer but this was so watchable

Honorable Mention: Les Sauvages (Canal+)
This had the potential to be one of the best political shows I’d watch, but it wasn’t to be, not because it was bad but because instead of being a political show Les Sauvages was more a mixture of espionage/homeland security drama and socio-race drama, and while falling into some of the well-trodden and familiar patterns/tropes of the former, it excels in the latter by telling a tale, while focusing on an Arabic-French family, that could have waves of recognition and familiarity to families of immigrants living in a Western country not entirely welcoming towards them with rifts in the family between those leaning towards a secular lifestyle more in line with their adopted country and those wanting to hold on to the social/religious traditions of their homeland.

Bani negri (pentru zile albe) “Tuff Money” (HBO Europe)
It’s a bit of a daffy premise but the execution makes this accidental bank robbery comedy work with engaging/believable performances all around, from the two leads to the three connivers. Cristian Bota has the saddest puppy-dog eyes that makes it nigh impossible not to root for him to get out of the hijinks in one piece.

Shows with new seasons airing/having aired in their respective countries that could appear in Top TV Shows of 2020 list if English-subtitled versions appear: Dix Pour Cent (“Call My Agent!”); Sygeplejeskolen (“The New Nurses”); Shtisel

Best Thing I Watched — November

City So Real (National Geographic)
Though each/most episode(s) runs a hair over an hour long, the episodes fly by (and this coming from someone who generally gets antsy at shows running longer than 45 minutes/movies 90+) thanks in large part to the fact that it’s essentially a series of vignettes, building up to an overarching picture of the mayoral race or polarized opinions on race relations among residents of the city, hopping from neighborhood to neighborhood, “character” to “character,” if you don’t find whatever’s on screen interesting, it’ll pop over to another group of people in another part of the city in a few minutes.
Stars of the documentary:
-Preckwinkle’s fact sheet
-Paul Vallas’s campaign manager Phillip A. Bradley
-Neal Sales-Griffin and moreso his mother Linda Sales
-Lightfoot’s side-eye to Preckwinkle in episode 4
-Carebear-onesie-wearing Uber driver

Deliver Us (Danish: Fred til Lands) (DR)
I’ve previously mentioned how Finland is becoming my favorite foreign producer of TV shows and that’s thanks largely to what feels like punching above its weight against its Nordic neighbors who have a larger pipeline of media exports and a more well-known cinematic history, with Denmark, in my opinion, being the grand-daddy (of television at least) with a long list of internationally-known hits, hell, it has its own Wikipedia page. As such, something good/great coming out of Denmark feels less like a hidden treasure thanks to a strong history of exports (Rita, Borgen, The Killing, Broen) but man oh man the dark and very unhappy Deliver Us (“Fred til Lands” in Danish) was a show I savored episode-by-episode. Fantastic cinnamontography; great, great all-around great cast, compelling story, this is the dark Nordic drama I love.
Most Nordic noir shows start with a dead body and work backwards. Deliver Us (“Fred til Lands”) takes the opposite approach, [SPOILER ALERT] ending with a dead body with the previous seven episodes leading up to the dead body (and wavering on whether or not there will be one) with a multitude of storylines weaving through the multitude of characters with secrets, insecurities and, this being Scandi-Noir, varying states of unhappiness and/or discontent. That all the story lines, including the main one, end up being resolved in a satisfactory manner (if not conclusively and neatly tied up) is a testament to the skills of Christian Torpe and Marie Østerbye (the team behind the tonally-180° Rita):
-Mike’s backstory (though isn’t anything particularly groundbreaking, is executed well and still feels like a surprise when revealed)
-The Martin-Anna-John love triangle
-The Anna and Tom marriage (and Anna being kind of a psychopath was a sweet twist)
-The Kasper and Mia love story which was such a sweet, pure story line in the midst of all the craziness
-Peter dealing with his grief and alcoholism
-Milad’s backstory
-The relationship/friendship between Mike and Kasper is particularly well done and the series/season 1 arc felt satisfyingly resolved but not too neatly with a bow on top. There was a tension throughout much of the series about why Kasper is friends with Mike despite being well smart enough to realize Mike is not the best of persons in the village and why Mike is friends with Kasper, or if he is at all or just using Kasper as an accomplice, and whether there is an underlying sexual tension between the two (or one directional or at all). Not all of these gets a definitive answer (satisfyingly so) but there is enough progression and development in their relationship throughout the eight episodes that clear answers to these questions aren’t needed

Honorable Mention:
The Crown (Netflix)
A bit surprising that The Crown only gets an honorable mention instead of receiving full “best thing I watched this month” honors, probably by dint of Fred til Lands and City So Real feeling “fresher,” and while The Crown by-and-large feels as immaculate and pricey and the-big-Netflix-budget-is-on-the-screen as ever, it feels like it starts to take more artistic liberties that, for whatever reason, irks me more than in the past (possibly due to having to (fictionally) force some plot points to move along more quickly along the narrative path to match the accelerated temporal pace of the season, which covers thirteen years, matching season 3’s time frame but ahead of season 1 and 2’s eight-year time span). Having to leapfrog from historical event to historical event gives short shrift to organically—and steadily—developing the relationships between the characters, in particular the degradation of Charles and Diana’s relationship and the working relationship of Queen Elizabeth and Margaret Thatcher over Thatcher’s decade as Prime Minister. Charles and Diana’s relationship was a complicated one, to say the least, but the show introduces her (to the audience and Prince Charles) in an almost whimsical way, has her run into him again briefly at the end of episode 1, win over the family in episode 2, and suddenly the next seven episodes is scene after scene of Charles ignoring or demeaning or insulting Diana mixed with Diana’s bulimia. There is no development of their courtship, any sign that they were ever content with each other, any early fractures in newlywed non-bliss, it’s just a straight drop into misery lacking nuance, it eventually feels like a single flavor of miserablism (though Josh O’Connor and Emma Corrin’s acting are never at fault with O’Connor’s work in the last episode particularly gobsmackingly good). Similarly, while Elizabeth and Thatcher are shown as a mixture of wariness and curiosity prior to meeting each other (almost optimistically anxious in Elizabeth’s case), things begin going downhill almost right after starting with the episode 2 “Balmoral Test,” with the conversation between Michael Fagan and Elizabeth fabricated to contrive doubt and skepticism into her character towards Thatcher’s policies, and reaches a nadir in episode 8’s “48:1.” However two episodes later Elizabeth is seen personally awarding the Order of Merit to Thatcher because ‘woman to woman she respected her’…or something, this feels like such an abrupt turn with absolutely no groundwork done in laying a foundation of mutual respect across the season, focusing far more (almost exclusively) on the degradation of their working relationship from hopeful trepidation to tense misgivings to downright hostilities.

Best Thing I Watched — October

Valkyrien (NRK1)
A show that could’ve easily been done in by its slightly out-there premise (Surgeon Ravn Eikanger, upset that his hospital supervisors decline his and his sick wife’s wishes to perform experimental medical procedures on her, does so anyways in the abandoned Valkyrie subway station) manages in its execution to help the audience suspend their disbelief and go along with the ride without poking logical holes every five minutes in a plot that almost begs to be logically questioned at every turn. Solid acting also carries the absurd premise with Pål Sverre Hagen’s doomsday prepper Leif and Mikkel Bratt Silset’s criminal with a heart Teo the standouts for me (though lead Sven Nordin and Ellen-Birgitte Winther’s supporting work are also solid). The show goes a bit off towards the end of the season but if a second season were to be made I’d still tune in. The British remade the show (“Temple” starring Mark Strong) and based on the first episode is absolutely skippable.

Staged (BBC)
Another show that could’ve easily been done in by its premise (“Michael Sheen and David Tennant play fictionalised versions of themselves trying to rehearse a play during lockdown”). There’s been no less than five Zoom/webcam-produced Corona-themed productions released in the last two months alone (though released on hulu in the U.S. in mid-September, Staged‘s release in its native U.K. by BBC in mid-June technically precedes all the rest which includes freeform’s Love in the Time of Corona; HBO’s Coastal Elites; NBC’s Connecting…; and Netflix’s Social Distance), the only one worth watching is Staged.
This could’ve turned into two well-regarded actors trading barbs or reciting Shakespeare at each other for six twenty-minute episodes, which would’ve grown tiresome/stale for everyone but the most devoted fans, like being on the outside of an inside joke for six twenty-minute episodes, and while it does include barb-trading and Shakespeare recitation, and while it does have some spotty wifi/webcam meeting jokes, it transcends the many pitfalls and trappings of a remotely-produced show, feeling very much like a normal show, crisply written and with an easy rapport among the actors that just happens to be produced by webcam and cellphone. The (surprise) guest stars are excellent and I still remember Georgina Tennant’s deadpan indifferent delivery of “i dunno” (when asked how the kids are doing) and “yoga” (when asked what she’s doing, while scrolling on her iPad, ostensibly for yoga exercises). The one area the show didn’t stick was Michael’s concern for his neighbor (interaction initially caused by the amusing premise that he used her bin to leave his empty wine bottles, afraid of neighbors’ judgement if he left them all on his own curb) after she doesn’t respond to his visit and an ambulance arrives at her home. Given the overall acerbicness of the show and character, his sudden turn to caring and worrying about her and the more emotional beats rings a bit inauthentic to the overall tone of the show (and character), as if they needed a “real” moment to ground the show in the real stakes of everything going on outside Michael Sheen and David Tennant’s homes.

Honorable Mention:
Absolution (Czech: Spravedlnost) (ČT1)
Another Czech production coming in hot after Burning Bush in February. Finland is still my favorite foreign television producer discovery of the year but the Czech Republic has put itself on the radar as a bustling production hub. This one, a solid addition to the antihero cop genre populated by the likes of The Shield and Luther, starts with a Czech police investigator getting a visit from his semi-estranged, blood-covered daughter in the middle of the night. The episodes’ 75-minute run time was only slightly felt towards the end of each episode with this “Czech Noir” production managing to juggle its multitude of intersecting story lines fairly well without collapsing on itself.

Potential Top 20 of 2020 Contenders: The Expanse (Amazon); The Crown (Netflix); Dark (Netflix); Dix Pour Cent “Call My Agent!” (France 2 via Netflix); How To…with John Wilson (HBO)
With two months left in the year and my Top 20 TV Shows of 2020 mostly compiled (with plenty of honorable mentions), a few upcoming shows are contenders to jostle their way onto the list: The Crown season 3 may’ve not been my favorite season but it would be a surprise if its fourth season didn’t at least break into the Top 20; I’ve never watched an episode of The Expanse before but might as well give it a shot in these production-shutdown-delayed-release-less-new-shows CoronaTimes; I also need to catch up on (all 3 seasons of) Dark though I’ve been meh on what I’ve seen so far; Dix Pour Cent (“Call My Agent!” in English), depending on when Netflix releases it in the English-speaking world, could very well merit being included on the honorable mentions for the year. Similarly, after discovering the charming and very likeable Danish medical procedural Sygeplejeskolen (“The New Nurses”) at the beginning of the year, it returns for a third season imminently and could make the list depending on when it hits English-speaking shores.
One show that’s already started with two of its six episodes having already aired is HBO’s How To…with John Wilson, and not a minute of the show passed that didn’t walk the line between being too cringe for me to continue (it’s executive produced by Nathan Fielder, natch) but there’s something kind of magical about this off-kilter, out-of-left-field show that I’ve really loved and makes each of the episodes come together rather beautifully.

Best Thing I Watched — September

Stories from Norway (TVNorge)
An “investigative musical” from the duo behind “What Does the Fox Say”? Sign me the f up. The seven-episode series from 2018 explores six news stories from Norway’s recent past, interspersing interviews with the actual people from those news events with musical recreations of the events. It sounds intriguing on paper but could certainly fall apart in execution, and the first three episodes didn’t completely wow me: while generally amusing the musical bits didn’t sit snug with the played-straight interviews, producing a bit of a tonal whiplash as it went back and forth between the earnest interviews and silly musical segments, making me much more intrigued by the interviews and slightly annoyed when it would cut to a musical bit. However, the fourth episode (the second of a two-parter around the saga of Olympic Gold Medaling cross-country skier Petter Northug) is where everything felt like it clicked in place, the musical interludes were drop-dead hilarious and added narratively to where talking heads alone couldn’t explain. The remaining episodes continue to successfully mesh the tones of the more earnest talking head segments with the musical bits’ hilarity, with the fifth episode covering the Norwegian rocket incident probably the best of the season for me.
Listening to the soundtrack, the music, covering a range of genres, is never not on point.
Stories from Norway is probably the 2nd or 3rd funniest show watched this year behind The Goes Wrong Show and/or Dave.
With the dearth of original programming on TV and what little there is (imports and otherwise) not doing great in the ratings, a more adventurous programmer should take the plunge by grabbing the rights to air this on American television. With some shows hitting 0.1s and even 0.0s and this show being a mere seven episodes, and a restart to American television production a big question, programmers could do far worse.

Last month several shows were mentioned as potential contenders to break into the Top 20 TV Shows of 2020 list and, one month later, the results are less than promising

• Deutschland ’89, the show I was the most high on, disappointed in an extremely whelming eight-episode final season
• I liked the first season of The Boys (my 11th favorite drama of 2019) but it definitely wasn’t without shortcomings; with stronger reviews for the second season I went in hoping those stronger reviews meant that those flaws had been fixed but alas, it appears the strength of those reviews were more so based on timely themes and issues weaved into the second season, which, while adding an interesting dimension (and another solid Aya Cash performance), can’t paper over the sometimes too-pat developments, too-contrived plotting, or characters being just plain dumb. It’s still an enjoyable show overall, but it ain’t making the Top 20 of 2020
• Fargo was the surprise for me, with lukewarm reviews for the fourth season and my lukewarm feeling towards seasons 2-3 after really enjoying the first, I went in expecting to quickly downgrade the show to background noise, but (and it’s early days only three episodes in), I’m finding season 4 very watchable! Chris Rock is, fine as the lead (though it certainly feels more of an ensemble show at this point), but you can certainly see when he butts up against the limits of his dramatic acting, his acting is never bad, it’s just fine. Jessie Buckley logs another strong performance in the short time she’s been appearing in TV/movies; Ben Whishaw (and a pretty great Irish accent to these Yankee ears) has yet to have a not-good performance; and the biracial funeral home family, both individually and collectively, are doing solid work in less showy roles, bringing heart to balance the season’s gangster turf wars