Bear-Season 2 (2023)
Wonderful. A+ television. The restaurant is getting an overhaul and its stressful for everyone. Bear meets up with an old acquaintance that distracts his attention, Sydney starts to doubt Carmen, the staff goes to culinary school, cousin has to step up, we get an awesome flash back episode with Jamie Lee Curtis that fills in a good chunk of background. Great writing shows you what the characters are feeling and why without explaining everything to you. The characters have real depth. Even Pete has two very brief but very impactful scenes that flesh him out as a character (in the Christmas episode and season finale) and give him meaning and space. This show is still awesome and super bingable. I banged it out in two days.
Dragonball Z Kai
DBZ Kai was released as a “remaster and recut” version of the original anime for its 20th Anniversary back in 2009. Originally stopping after the Cell saga, the entire show was eventually re-mastered. Major edits were made including cleaning up color palettes and new music. Most notably, run time cut the series from the original 291 episodes to 167 by chopping out unnecessary filler that was notorious in the otherwise fantastic show I remember from my childhood. Despite numerous issues including voice acting, music copy write infringement and various other disputes the entire English version of the show had aired in the US by 2018, around DBZ’s 30th anniversary. It’s currently streaming on HULU and only checked out the first three episodes where Raditz invades Earth, but the show does seem much faster paced. I’m sure I’ll pick up on more differences as I continue into more familiar storylines and I might skip into the Frieza saga which is where I first watched the show. I’m excited to dip in-and-out over the next couple years as I make my way back through the DBZ universe.
Better Call Saul-Season 6 (2022)
I’ve been slowly grinding through BCS and powered through the end of the series this month. Although good writing and character building, the show can be painfully slow burning with little payoff. It really feels like a true character study of how Jimmy McGill became Saul Goodman. The loss of his foil, anchor, and brother started to unravel his moral base further. Kim Wexler saw an interesting character turn as she moved from someone seemingly influenced by Jimmy to worse than him through a series of events. Mike finds a place with Gus Fring. The appearances of his daughter-in-law and granddaughter gradually diminish. The Breaking Bad tie-ins with Jessie Pinkman making an appearance and the building of the underground lab are excellent. The back-and-forth ending that flashes to post-Breaking Bad moments wraps up the Jimmy story. I’m not sure I’d rewatch the show but I appreciate the storytelling and look forward to discussing it with others.
Sexify-Season 3 (2023)
A Polish TV show that’s well dubbed, I’m not sure Sexify has received much attention stateside. In season 3 Monika, Natalia, and Paulina have are tech superstars launching their app “Sexify” centered on helping woman achieve orgasm. Things don’t go to plan a male version of the app is released and complicates the launch, funds get tight, the company falls out of their hands…..and I’ll leave the rest for you to find out. We have great performances by our three leads again, the humor we expect and a great set palette. It’s an entertaining ride with much higher stakes than the first two seasons. The show feels emotionally flat and sitcom like most of the time, so don’t expect a deep character study. This show was a fun, funny, snappy show to wash the palette after finishing Saul.
Black Mirror-Season 6 (2023)
It’s been a few years and I haven’t checked out the 2021 Interactive Black Mirror film year, but the TV show is back with 5 episodes. The longest running space/artificial body episode was my favorite in terms of “what would you do?” moments and topics for discussion. We get an eerie murder-mystery episode that’s creepy, an AI eppy with a huge guest start, an episode that puts a twist on modern celebrity, and a real off-the-wall episode that involves dark comedy and a demon. A solid slate that I enjoyed binging over a few days. I appreciate the show can take modern topics like AI, brain chips, celebrity status, mental health, and interracial relationships and put stories together that are interwoven between some of these themes without being beaten over the head with them. If the topic isn’t relevant to the core plots then its shown why it’s important and not explicitly explained as if you’re an unintelligent viewer. It’s good writing and keeps the stories current. I can’t wait for more or this modern Twilight Zone.
Mark Norman:Soup to Nuts (2023)
A quick watch at under an hour, I thought I’d check out Norman’s special when I scrolled past. I haven’t been a fan of most specials recently including Bill Burr, Bert Kreischer, Kevin Hart, they all just fall flat. Listening to all these folks on podcasts now and hearing the humor come out in natural conversation sounds much more pleasant than everyone having a take on transphobia, fake news, or “social media is ruining the world” on each of their specials. Comedy can be very much be beholden to a moment in time, but it doesn’t have to. Mark skips around and hits all the hot topics and a wide range in rapid fire with his dry delivery. The zingers and topic keep everything moving and the audience on their toes. Its not my favorite, but it wasn’t bad.
Quarterback (2023)
I have to bang out the last couple episodes, but I can comfortably give a few thoughts on the Netflix hype. This wasn’t going to be a groundbreaking series with all the coverage the NFL receives, but it does a good job of giving us Kirk Cousins and Marcus Mariota behind the scenes. Kirk Cousins isn’t the most interesting human being but seeing how he prepares mentally with different scans is pretty awesome. Marcus Mariota was crushed on the show unnecessarily it seems after how poorly the seasons went and what he had going on with the birth of his daughter and his knee injury. It was still interesting to see a journeyman QB that doesn’t get much air time behind the scenes. Patrick Mahomes gets more coverage than anyone in the league but I’m not sure he’s that interesting a follow either. His wife, a former soccer player and partial soccer team owner, who gives birth to their second child in the show is an interesting character despite her reputation as being an annoying side-character. His brother’s legal case won’t be touched I assume. I wish the show had more film to show the on-field storyline of the key games unfolded and not just when the QB held the ball. More teammate interactions would be great too. With football seasons coming this was a nice dabble back in the pool but an unexciting series otherwise. I want to see Lamar Jackson, Geno Smith, Josh Allen for a mix of personality, culture difference, career paths, story arks, on next season.
