Wednesday, January 25, 2023

What Are We Watching on the Telly

 


We've been watching A LOT of TV over here. I've been watching stuff on my own, B and I are watching stuff, E and I are watching. It's a digital love fest of streaming and cable. I thought I should bring some of what we're watching in here and do some recommending. Now, we never like what everyone else likes, so maybe you haven't seen some of these because we're not watching Yellowstone, Yellowjackets, anything with dragons, or whatever everyone else is talking about. We also tried Severance but didn't get more than episode or two in. It's REALLY slow. I also tried The Office for the first time recently and I didn't get past episode two.

I don't even know how I found As We See It but I think I was googling new series to watch and it came up that the creator was Jason Katims of Friday Night Lights, so I was all about watching whatever he was doing. What a fantastic show. It's already not renewed for a second season, which I think is pretty messed up, seeing it's one of the very few, if not only scripted series currently about Quarterlifers on the spectrum. It follows their day to day lives with their life coach, from trying to just pass as typical, have relationships, work at jobs, deal with their family, etc. It's funny, sweet, sad, thought provoking, and endearing. You can find it on Amazon Prime. 

Another one we both thought was great is  Fleishman is in Trouble. Jesse Eisenberg, Lizzy Caplan, Adam Brody, Claire Danes. That's some cast. This limited series is based on a book so apparently it follows said book. I didn't read the book or even know about it. It's about marriage, affairs, divorce, losing who you were before marriage. It's about dating after divorce, dating in a tech world, careers, keeping up with the Jones', and materialism. It's also about enduring friendship and hearing both sides of the story. If you're Jewish, it's very comforting to identify with the main characters for once, but it's for anyone. You can find it on Hulu. 

If you're looking for lighter viewing fare and want some comedy, please check out two Mindy Kaling created delights, The Sex Lives of College Girls and Never Have I Ever. I'm not sure which one is funnier, as they're both hysterical. Both feature a diverse cast, lots of sexual innuendo or situations, and lots of funny women. Never Have I Ever takes place in high school and obviously, Sex Lives of College Girls takes place in college. We started with Never Have I Ever when we ran out of stuff to watch some time in the summer. We just picked it out of the blue. So glad we didn't miss it. When we were done with that, we went to the college girls and then we started The Mindy Project, because - why not? You can find Never Have I Ever on Netflix and The Sex Lives of College Girls on HBO Max.  

We also watched Hacks over the summer which was fantastic. Jean Smart and Hannah Ainbender are amazing as an almost washed up comedian and a young impulsive messy comedy writer. They were paired by their mutual agent to revive the flailing career of Jean Smart's character. I would be remiss if I did not mention Megan Stalter as the kooky nepo-baby assistant to the agent. Laughs, tears, it's all in there.

Emily in Paris I'm giving it a mention in case you haven't given it a whirl. It's cute, it give off Sex and the City fashion vibes and moves quickly. Do you have to suspend some disbelief that Emily is pretty much the only ad executive in the entire Paris area with any genius ideas in her head, but it's mindless and fun. 

We are in the second season of Loudermilk, which is not for the easily offended. I found it from seeing a Reel on Facebook with a hysterical clip of Ron Livingston and a barista with vocal fry. I posted the clip to my Facebook page and someone mentioned it being from a show. Of course that piqued my interest so I went looking and we started watching. It's super funny but also, like I said, for a certain audience that enjoys a different kind of humor. It follows Ron Livingston as Loudermilk, a guy in recovery after getting in a terrible car wreck with his now ex-wife, where he drunk driving. He leads a recovery group like an AA type of thing and it's about all the people involved in the group. 

One show we just started watching is Will Trent. E and I kept seeing commercials for it during General Hospital or something so I thought we'd try it out. It's pretty good so far. It's about a special agent who knows his way around a crime scene like none other. I can't say much more about it because we're only three episodes in, but we like it so far. You can find it Tuesday nights on ABC or on Hulu. 

The White Lotus was good but, unlike seemingly everyone else, we thought season one was better than season two. I mean, Connie Britton. The characters in season one were hateful, but there was just more humor in it. Murray Bartlett who played Armond in the first season was great. He was just funnier than the woman who basically took his spot in the second season. Also, it's really hard with subtitles, of which the second season had a lot. I think another major difference between season one and two was that you knew the intentions of the season one characters. I felt like there were a lot more of did they/didn't they going on with the second season group. It was confusing and left more to the imagination. I don't want to imagine. I want to know. It was still good, just slower too than the first.

I have also been accused of being a huge Marshmallow, as rabid fans of Veronica Mars are called. Imagine my surprise at finding a FOURTH season that I didn't know existed. Veronica Mars started in 2004 and concluded with a third season that finished in 2007. There was a crowd funded movie in 2014 and I thought that was it. Then, I found, what I call, the lost season. A fourth season was released in 2019 and I found that little eight episode gem about a month ago. I watched it in two days. It was chock full of old references, cameos of old faces, and that familiar Veronica/Logan banter. I'd say it was great except the last episode...I don't want to say any more, if you're a Marshmallow who hasn't seen that last season.  

People in the mom groups on Facebook and other message boards I'm on are always asking for stuff to watch with their tweens and teens. I can't say the ones we watch here are particularly age appropriate, but I'll say this- Felicity is free on Amazon Prime. The OC is also free on Prime. B and I watched two seasons of Outer Banks on Netflix and B would've liked to watch the third season but I really did not like that show at all. Too much on the run, misunderstandings like likes of Three's Company, and too much suspending disbelief.

B and I are watching Ginny & Georgia right now. We're about six episodes in, and it's good. There's humor with a dark underbelly. It's hard to watch as a parent though, kind of like Euphoria, which we also stopped mid first season. I'm going to stick out Ginny & Georgia, which is about a single mom with a dark past who had her daughter, Ginny, when she was fifteen. Ginny is insecure, biracial, and is finding friends and popularity, and mom has some sinister secrets she's keeping while trying to give Ginny and her little brother a nice life. It's hard to watch the teens drinking, doing drugs, taking and sending sexy selfies, doing things out of teen insecurity. You know, secondary embarrassment when the fifteen year old girl is sending the selfie in her bra because her friend told her she looks hot and too hot not to send. 

Next on tap, totally an opposite of G&G, is season two of Hunters. Al Pacino, Logan Lerman, and the rest of that cast is excellent. It's WWII Nazi stuff but in a totally different way. You think it would be a downer, all that antisemitism, murder, etc. But it's such a crazy, compelling story. After the last episode in the first season, I'm really interested to see where it goes for this new and final season. 

Ok, so that's it I think. Just wanted to put those out there in case anyone is at a loss for something to watch. E and I are caught up on General Hospital for the first time in years so that leaves me with a lot more TV time to discover new things or rewatch an old fave...




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