What are you watching and enjoying?

[Dread]

Last One Laughing Canada: dumb fun gameshow where comedians are locked in a room and get kicked out if they laugh (or even smile broadly). It's funny, obviously and I would last about fourteen seconds. Some new younger Canadian comedians and Colin Mochrie, Dave Foley, Caroline Rhea and Tom Green. Good lineup. I can't not laugh right now when I think of back in episode 2 (I think?) where Tom Green just repeats the words "delicious cheese sandwich."

The Kumail Nanjiani episode of Murderville (episode 3) is by far the best thus far. It felt very improvised and captured a lot of funny reactions from Kumail. I mean, he's a pro comedian and still couldn't keep a straight face. Conan O'Brien did, but he has lots of experience in improv and sketch comedy. Marshawn Lynch kept a straight face for god's sake!

[Dread]

Put the first few episodes of Ozark down last night on the recommendation of a friend. Girlfriend and I enjoyed it immensely.

[Dread]

First season of Ozark in the can, and it's pretty great.

Edit: season 2 is almost done and dusted. I can't imagine two more seasons of shit getting deeper and deeper, so I'm wondering when the shit hits the actual fan.

[Dread]

This week's episode of Moon Knight was either horribly directed or horribly written or both. It felt like a bunch of weightless scenes with zero connection to each other. That said, it's still better than a lot of the Marvel TV stuff. Just really disappointing for what has been a stellar series thus far.

[dc20willsave]

I was thinking the same. It was a very meh hour that made me a little less excited for the back-half of the series.

[S-T]

Little House on the Prairie. It's on Peacock. I don't remember much of it, since it has been over 35 years since I watched regularly in syndication.

Also, get off my lawn.

Also, digging The Flash. I wish I had got into this show years ago.

[Dread]

Episode 4 of Moon Knight was way better than 3. Also, that wall of captive gods and the casting of a woman going by Bastet in Thor Love and Thunder has me thinking that Gorr the God Butcher will start in Egypt.

[Dread]

Finished Moon Knight (super-underwhelming) and Ozark last night. That second half of season 4 of Ozark started with a cannon blast but the cannonball immediately got lost. Man, what were they thinking?

As far as MK is concerned, if they're never doing a second season then why tease and introduce us to

Spoiler

Jake Lockley without ever showing us HIS Moon Knight costume?

That all said, I HATED the final seconds before the credits of MK as well as episode 3 entirely, but Isaac was absolutely incredible in this show from word 1. Best performance by a wide margin in an MCU product.

Edit:

Now there's a new season of Barry and that new music show on Youtube (No Cover) to watch next.

[Dread]

Watched a couple episode of NO COVER, the new music reality show free on youtube. Not bad. Decent group of judges, and unsigned bands/artists playing original songs. I'm enjoying it.

[Donomark]

Moon Knight was a very mixed show for me, in part because the demands of the source material's tone got swept up by the needs of it being a Disney Plus Marvel show, and the fact that this thing's totally swallowed up by the now tried and true MCU formula.

From the beginning I disliked what they were doing with Steven Grant. It makes more sense by the end, but for a while the episodes he was carrying made the show mostly broad comedy, and the viewing experience really tedious. Once we saw more of Marc Spector though, especially as Moon Knight, things tightened up. The best part of this whole thing is Oscar Isaac, who never needed to prove himself as a great actor, but he so seamlessly switches back and forth between Marc and Steven that you instantly forget they're the same man. 

Ethan Hawke as Arthur Harrow was a very good performance for a middling, sometimes better than average villain. I know Hawke's like 50 but he did a great job playing even older, and even though the character archetype (villain who sees himself as a hero and wants to save the world through mass genocide) is way past played out, I did believe the character insofar as his convictions went. He was even better in episode 5 as the Ned-Flanders-Meets-Stan-Lee psychologist.

That 5th episode is one of the best single eps Marvel has had since the Netflix days. It represented the potential for drama that Moon Knight as a character promised, and really dug its heels into the tragedy of Marc Spector, even if they fudged his backstory from the comics a bit. I even liked the invoking of Egyptian Gods like Tawret, as it kept the mythical elements of the character uncompromised. Sure, the CGI was dodgy but I rarely care about stuff like that. And, like Loki, the ending credit music of the 5th episode was blazingly exciting and moody.

The season finale exemplified my mixed feelings. Too many things happened way too easily, like Harrow easily dispatching of the other Gods, off-screen even. But the Moon Knight final battle was kickass, and terrifically choreographed and storyboarded. Layla being a surprise super hero feels like...a need for female heroism that the show hadn't been screamingly requiring, yet I'm not gonna say it bothered me either. It did kind of come out of nowhere, but so what. I liked Marc resolving not to kill Harrow in the end, as that was built up over the series.

Spoiler

The VERY very end with the reveal of Jake Lockley was great, and a great way to keep Khonshu tied to Moon Knight and to make Marc's DID even more tragic.

Overall, I keep thinking that if Moon Knight and been the last Defender show and Iron Fist was Disney Plus, the tones would've been better applied for the betterment of the shows. Credit to Marvel for finally introducing a brand new hero after seeding this Disney+ experiment for a year with the Avengers also rans. I can't say it's the best of the shows, and they're all flawed, but I felt the first three series definitely had more going for them than this or Hawkeye did.

[Dread]

Almost finished with season 2 of Key & Peele. I've never watched the show before, but I've seen dozens of clips. What I didn't know before watching the show is that there are interstitial segments where they talk to a live studio audience to introduce bits of whatever and it's sometimes funnier than the sketches.

[Donomark]

Finished Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, which was furiously recommended to me by a co-worker.

I liked it. It's a solid 2000s era series that doesn't really watch like any Shonen I've seen. It's a kind of byzantine plot with the world and warring factions, much more like an average Gundam series. It also subverted my expectations a number of times. The two leads are likable, whereas I went in thinking Edward would be far less tolerable and typical of a yelling anime protag than he ended up being. The cast overall are far more intelligent than the average anime cast. Several times they'll have outwitted the bad guys in ways which made total sense and wasn't a simple game of one-upping each other. The show is also a lot darker than I was expecting, right away with the creepy father and daughter tragic episode.

I liked it but I didn't love it, and I'm still mulling over why. The only thing that I noticed throughout the show, definitely in the second half is that the focus on the other characters often puts Ed and Al in the backseat. Their storyline of trying to regain their bodies is far more concrete than Col. Mustang's aspirations of overthrowing King Bradley and everything else with Briggs army and Scar and the various Homunculi and Father and Van Hoenheim and all that. I got to thinking that if I watched this on Adult Swim over and over again, the plot would've become more familiar and less abstract to me, and I might've liked it more than I did. For some reason I kept comparing it in my head to Yu Yu Hakusho, which is a very different series and one of my all time favorites. I wondered that if started that series now, would I still have the same feelings for it that I do since I watched it in junior high...

FMA: Brotherhood is a very solid show, and one that I respect, but it's not something that deeply affected me. Recent series' I've seen like My Hero Academia, and even further back like Kill la Kill and definitely Evangelion I found far more affecting. But at the same time, I definitely enjoyed the show. I really liked the Elric brothers and can see why this captured a young millennial American audience when it did. 

[Dread]

The new season of Barry is pretty full tilt.

[Dread]

NOS4A2 season one is done. Season 2 started off really well too.

Three episodes in to the new Kids In the Hall and it's some of their best work. Having all of their shit in my head since childhood and coming off binging five seasons of Key & Peele, I was virtually guaranteed to find the new KITH underwhelming. But no. It's fucking great. Episode 3 has "best single episode of a comedy show of all time" appeal.

Edit: NOS4A2 season 2 is almost punishingly slow. They only had half a story going into it. Pretty easy to see that.

[Dread]

Two episodes into Obi-wan Kenobi and it's already way better than Mandalorian (which I never bothered to watch the second season of). It's got heart. That shot of little Luke pretending to drive a podracer gave me episode one douchechills, but overall, I really dig it. Enjoy the villains. Great to see EG playing the character in a show with a director who gives a shit about actors. Good stuff.

[Davedevil]

Ms. Marvel - They nailed it. So much fun, so endearing. I'm a little weirded out to have an MCU convention in the MCU, but hey. I don't mind the change to the origin, I kind of like it better, even.

[Dread]

Started Inventing Anna last night. Julia Garner is great and so is Anna Chlumsky. I'm in for the long haul.

I think there's only one more episode of Barry this season, which seems insane after the latest episode.

[Dread]

Caught up on The Boys. Gleefully chaotic.

Started Hacks season 2. Still one of the best shows on TV.

Watching Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and loving it.

[Dread]

Barry season finale sure felt like a series finale.

[Dread]

After catching up on ST:SNW I watched The Cage (the original pilot of ST). And while it's got some great ideas (definitely of the Twilight Zone variety) you can REALLY see why they went back to the drawing board with the cast before going to series.

[Donomark]

Caught up with this year's season of Demon Slayer, after skipping the episodic recapped Mugen Train movie arc since I already saw it in theaters. I like Demon Slayer okay, it's definitely the flavor of the moment but not terribly spectacular in story or characters. They're fun, but nothing stand-outish. The animation is gorgeous however. This season was an improvement, because the violence and action scenes really ramped up. Things just kept growing more and more intense, it felt like classic Dragon Ball Z, to the point where characters are getting stabbed in the jaw and eyes slashed out and poisoned and there's blood everywhere. I loved it.

[Dread]

I'm on season 3 of Star Trek Discovery now. Digging it immensely.

[Missy]

Des, were you always into Trek, or is that something new? Can't recall you mentioning it before your recent SNW posts.

[Dread]

18 hours ago, Missy said:

Des, were you always into Trek, or is that something new? Can't recall you mentioning it before your recent SNW posts.

I haven't really watched ST since I couldn't get through an episode of Voyager. Big fan of DS9 and my dad and I watched TOS and TNG together. I haven't been "into" Trek for a while, though. Not particularly a fan of the movies and never bothered with the new ones.

But I much prefer my Star to be Trek than Wars. It's a smarter and more engaging universe for me.

Once I'm caught up, I'm going to rewatch DS9.

Edit: Oh yeah, I guess I watched a chunk of Enterprise (season 1 and part of 2 maybe?) but wasn't super into it. Hence, forgetting it existed until just now.

[You Know Who]

1 hour ago, Dread said:

Once I'm caught up, I'm going to rewatch DS9.

I've actually been rushing to catch as many DS9 episodes as possible lately before it leaves US Netflix on July 1st.