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booksandabeer · 2 months

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TV Round-Up | Jan-Feb 2024

One of my "goals" this year is to keep better track of things I read/watch/listen to (well, other than fanfic) because I'm getting old and forgetful and there's just so much stuff. And isn't this what ✨blogs✨ are for? Due to The Worst Flu in the History of the World, I've been watching a lot of TV recently, so let's start with that:

Barry | Started watching this on a whim about a week ago, am now already on season four and completely losing my mind over it. Why the fuck did no one tell me how good this show is? I mean, I know a lot of people love it and it has received a fair amount of critical praise and awards attention, but that in no way prepared me for just *how* good it is. It's unlike anything else I've ever watched; I wouldn't even know what to compare it to. Maybe Breaking Bad /Better Call Saul, but not because it's thematically or even tonally similar, but because, just like with the Gilligan shows, you never know what the fuck is going to happen next. It takes some WILD swings but until now every single one has landed for me. Season one was very entertaining, season two really hooked me, and season three was mind-blowingly good: It's the showrunners—and the show itself—slowly turning towards the audience until they're looking them right in the eye, and going 'See? This is what we’ve been doing all along. You felt safe in the assumption that this is a comedy, but really, none of this was ever truly funny to begin with; you simply chose to laugh about it. And what does that say about you?' MASTERFUL.

Masters of the Air | Given that I'm a Band of Brothers superfan, I'm the primary target audience for this...and yet, 4 episodes in, I cannot muster up more of a reaction than 'eh, it's fine?' The first warning that this would be a bit of a disappointment came in the form of the overlong opening credits sequence, which is dripping with patriotic kitsch (and yeah, if you already thought that was one of BoB's flaws, believe me, you are not prepared for this). Everything is too clean, too glossy, there's an artificial sheen and a flatness to it that prevents any real immersion into the story. It doesn't help that I do not for a single second buy baby-faced Austin Butler (still doing the Elvis voice!) as a tough USAF major, leading his men into aerial battle. Callum Turner and Barry Keoghan are slightly more convincing in their roles, but it's all giving 'Boyband Goes to War.'

The Curse | I've watched four (?) episodes of this now and I'm not sure if I'm going to stick with it. It's not a bad show at all, but essentially, it's the Succession problem for me all over again. Just like Succession, The Curse is very well acted, produced and directed; it's sharp and funny in that relentless 'secondhand embarrassment' way that you either love or hate (and I don't love it), but in the end, it's a show about terrible people doing terrible things to themselves, each other, and—because they have so much money and power—to the world at large. And I just don't know that I have the energy or the desire to watch them do it for 10 hours—especially when it's often presented in such an irritatingly smug way.

True Detective: Night Country | This is a bit of a weird one. There are a lot of things that I like about this season. The two female leads radiate with impressive presence individually and have great chemistry together; the set design feels both authentic and telegenic; there are brilliantly staged atmospheric and/or body horror sequences (I love The Corpsicle!). And yet there are also a lot of things that don't really come together for me; subplots or characters where I'm left to wonder why they were included at all? Like, Christopher Eccleston, good to see you sir, but why are you even on this show? Everything hinges on the final episode which will (hopefully) reveal that a lot of the elements that are not quite working for me now were in fact not evidence of bad writing, but instead either clever misdirections or hints towards an explanation that is both surprising and satisfying. I sure hope for the latter.

The Fall of the House of Usher | Look, there's no nice way to say this, so I'll just say it: I hated this. It's silly, trashy tv masquerading as a prestige drama. It certainly looks expensive and it has some good or at least beloved actors in it, and...yeah, no that's all I got on the positive side. Not to bring up Succession again, but it really felt like the brief here was 'Succession but dumber and with more gore and sex and mystery!' I made it through 2.5 episodes before admitting to myself that I didn't care about any of the characters and was almost spectacularly uninterested in the central mystery. This was the second TV show that I've started watching based solely on one (1) tumblr gif-set. Unfortunately, it was not nearly the delightful surprise that IWTV turned out to be.

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Back in early January, I also finished the fifth season of Fargo (excellent performances by Juno Temple and Jon Hamm; overall very good season even if some of the narrative threads felt unresolved; the puppet theater sequence remains an absolute highlight) as well as the third season of Slow Horses (just highly entertaining spy tv; Unlike its protagonists, everything about this show exudes competence and yet no one seems to take themselves too seriously. Kristin Scott Thomas as "Darth Tavener" is magnificent—as is her character's wardrobe. I love this show and I hope they'll renew it forever.)

#tv ramblings #tv round-up

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