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This Week: Yet Hope Springs Eternal

Billie Doux: Josie suggested we shake it up this week with... Instead of what are you watching, what are you looking forward to?

Easy for me, since Strange New Worlds starts this week. I've been waiting for this particular show since 2019.

I'm also really looking forward to the next season of The Umbrella Academy and The Handmaid's Tale. I had been looking forward to the end of Ozark, but I found it disappointing. My current favorite show, Outlander, just ended their too brief pandemic season with a cliffhanger, which was also disappointing.

So I think mostly I'm looking forward to falling in love with something new, I know not what. What about you all?

An Honest Fangirl: I’m really looking forward to Obi-Wan later this month! The new trailer that dropped yesterday (May the Fourth Be With You!) gave me chills at the end of it. There’s so much I’m excited for. Inquisitors! Uncle Owen! Obi-Wan using a weapon from a less civilized age! Vader and/or Anakin! I really, really hope it’s good. Please be good.

Panda: I’m surprisingly excited for Girls5eva’s second season. The first was a wonderful surprise, and it sounds like the second has managed to maintain the signature style that made it such a comforting watch.

I’m also eager to start The Flight Attendant’s second season as soon as it’s available here. I couldn’t imagine a more perfect role for Kaley Cuoco than Cassie and she really shines in every scene, even when the character is at her lowest.

Lamounier: I'm looking forward to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, mostly because of Wanda. She's been my favorite MCU character for a while and I really want to know what her journey is post WandaVision.

And I too want to fall in love with something new. It's been quite some time since a show captured my full attention and heart.

Mark Greig: I'm looking forward to both Obi-Wan Kenobi and Strange New Worlds, which we won't get here until Paramount+ launches in June. The wait is going to be unbearable and the avoidance of spoilers impossible. Also can't wait to see Multiverse of Madness tomorrow and then Thor: Love and Thunder in July, but not feeling the buzz for all the other upcoming Disney+ shows except for Echo, and that's only because it could potentially feature Daredevil in a main role.

With MoM out now, this week's comic art is a psychedelic splash by Tom Sutton from Doctor Strange (1974) #27.


Victoria Grossack: I'm also looking forward to The Umbrella Academy. And I'm hoping that someone does good English subtitles for the Ukrainian Servant of the People.

And, finally, I have been working on some reviews that I will post soon! I've mostly been in documentary mode. Less emotional.

Billie: Quantum Leap reboot just announced! I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to yet another reboot, though. Especially on a major network.

Mikey Heinrich: I gave in and watched the first episode of Strange New Worlds. The new version of Nurse Chapel is without doubt my absolute favorite Star Trek character ever. I hard core love the crap out of what they've done with the character.

Billie: I loved it. Absolutely loved it. Review should be going up today. (And here it is!)


Mikey: I can't wait to read it. I also loved it from beginning to end. Strange New Worlds has by far the strongest pilot episode of any Star Trek series. I'm very glad I started my Star Trek watch over a year ago and didn't miss it.

Josie Kafka: I'm looking forward to so much! LitHub has a great article on upcoming literary (and literary-adjacent) streaming for May, including some old stuff. Standouts for me include:

Mincemeat (Netflix, May 11). It's a WWII spy thing, which doesn't thrill me, but the cast does: Colin Firth, Matthew Macfadyen, and Kelly Macdonald.

The Essex Serpent (Apple+, May 13). The book of the same name was really excellent, a lovely feminist semi-mystical novel about a woman walking her own path in the late Victorian era. Also, Claire Danes and Tom Hiddleston. The Essex Serpent may be the thing that pushes me to finally subscribe to Apple+. Severance, Dickinson, Pachinko (loved the book!), and Foundation all sound really interesting, so if I diligently watch TV all day long for a month, I might be able to justify signing up for another streaming service.

On Peacock – another streaming service I don't currently subscribe to – there's the new Firestarter movie (May 13). But am I going to subscribe to a streaming service for just one movie?!


On Paramount Plus (again, I am not currently subscribed), we get the new season of Evil on June 12th! I will subscribe for Evil. Evil is perfect.

I may not be able to watch it right away, of course, since the sixth season of Peaky Blinders premieres on Netflix June 10th. I will review the fifth season soon! I'm working on a "Tommy and Arthur are totally Jean and Jorts" joke, though, and I haven't quite figured out the punchline yet. (Classic Jorts.)

Also on Netflix: Ozark. My little brother really wants me to watch it. Billie recommended it, too. But I think I'm freaked out by the idea of Jason Bateman playing someone who isn't a loveable loser. And as I type that, I realize it's exactly what Malcolm in the Middle fans said about Bryan Cranston before watching Breaking Bad.

I'm behind on Outlander, too. I'm so behind that Amazon emailed me to remind me that I had subscribed to Starz just to watch Outlander. It was so kind of Jeff Bezos to provide me with that level of personal attention.

I recently binged Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Quartet novels, but I'm hesitant to watch the TV adaptation (HBOMax). I can't imagine that it would come close to the almost claustrophobic interiority of the novels. I suppose the worst thing that could happen would be that I dislike it and turn it off... Has anyone else watched it?

Billie: Josie, I could be wrong but I think Peacock is free. There might be commercials involved, though. And I gave up HBOMax awhile back because it's not free. At some point, I'll get it back and binge on all sorts of things. That seems to be my pattern lately. I've already dropped Starz. Did you hear they finally cast Jamie Fraser's son William as an adult?

Ozark's ending did not please me, FWIW. Although Jason Bateman was terrific in it, deeply involved, producing and directing as well as the lead. Laura Linney and Julia Garner were also fantastic.

Sunbunny: I believe Peacock is one of those like “Watch the first episode of this amazing show? Oh, you want to watch the second episode? We’ll be extorting you now.” Operation Mincemeat looks AMAZING. WHAT A CAST! I don’t know how many true crime fans we have (it’s a guilty pleasure of mine that comes and goes) but Colin Firth is starring in HBO’s dramatization of Netflix’s The Staircase (2018). I’m rewatching the Netflix version to prepare. I forgot it was so long.

Victoria: I checked, and Peacock does appear to be free. Alas, it's not available in my current market.

Samantha Quinn: I tried watching The Conners at some point on Peacock, but they only had the most recent season was available. I believe the paywall has something to do with ads, but I'm not sure. I didn't see anything on the platform I really wanted to see, but I could be wrong there.

Speaking of streaming platforms, I really need to subscribe to Apple + so I can check out three shows on there... three. It has a low price point too, but I don't have a way to watch it until just recently because Apple isn't on Android.


I finished Arcane and I cannot recommend it strongly enough. Even if you don't like animation, the characters, storytelling and voice acting are incredible. Plus the animation is some of the best I've ever seen. What is kind of sad on my part, is after I finished watching I spent the last week checking out Youtube for people reacting to the big moments throughout the season and rewatching the music video tie in of the theme song by Imagine Dragons (Enemy) which was fully animated by the same studio that did the show.

I started season four of Agents of SHIELD and I forgot about the complex story they set up, how pieces from the early seasons played heavily in the later season. Additionally I had completely forgotten about Ghost Rider, which was surprising because he was such a big part of season four. At least Daisy is seeming more like herself, even though I don't get her reasoning for refusing help from the people that care about her.

I saw this lovely little documentary about the making of Pretty Woman and then I had to rewatch the movie. It is still as good as I remember, even with the problematic stereotypes and blatant misogyny even displayed by Edward on occasion. I also rewatched all of WandaVision in prep for Doctor Strange 2 and I have to say I'm worried about what they are going to do with her character in the movie. Given the Darkhold stuff in season four of AoS, she really shouldn't be playing around with it.

Shari: As usual, I'm late to the party. Strange New Worlds is definitely on my TBW list. And I'm actually interested in seeing Obi-Wan. Despite my undying love for the original Star Wars trilogy, I've been underwhelmed by everything since. Yet hope springs eternal.

However, the show I'm currently itching to see is Vampire Academy. I know it's filming now so I'm hopeful it'll be out this fall. It's being produced by Julie Plec of Vampire Diaries fame and it's based on a book series by Richelle Mead. Don't let the mess they called a movie fool you. The series was great. So, fingers crossed.

Samantha: I read a few of the vampire YA books several years back including Twilight and several of the House of Night series before it went completely off the rails. I tried Vampire Academy, Sookie Stackhouse (which I know isn't YA) and Vampire Diaries but couldn't get into them at all. From previous experience a lot of the YA stories do adapt well into TV rather than movies because they are almost always about romance and deep character interactions which are mostly removed for runtime in movies. So I'll give this series a shot if only because it is vampire-related and I'm still a sucker for vampires (pun not really intended).

Billie: Happy Mother's Day! They just cast the new Doctor Who!

10 comments:

  1. I lied. I loved, Loved, LOVED Rogue One!

    And you are spot on about why YA movies tend to be disappointments. Although, in this case I think it had more to do with the producers/directors want to create Buffy 2.0 out of something meant to be tonally different. This series was more class issues and political intrigue and less snark.

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  2. I'm interested mainly in The Time Traveller's wife, a tv adaptation of the book that's coming out on HBO with Stephen Moffat (Dr Who, Sherlock) as showrunner. Moffat is good at Timey Wimey stuff so hopefully it's interesting.

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    1. I'm very curious about The Time Traveler's Wife, though I'd probably watch it just for Rose Leslie. But you toss in Stephen Moffat and I'm sold.(The Moffat/Smith run on Doctor Who remains my favorite)

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  3. I find it so hard to believe the showrunners are surprised to find out people really like Silco. Like c'mon, that is not a villain you craft with accidental nuance
    I liked that the show's only 9 episodes... I hope it becomes a growing trend to shorten season lengths. I think Severance is only 9 eps too

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    1. Sisco isn't my favorite, but as villains go he is impressively nuanced and his motivations do male sense. Nine is a good number of episodes, but I think twelve is better.

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  4. I haven't gotten around to Strange New Worlds yet, but I've been hearing good things and I thought Anson Mount as Pike was the best thing about Season 2 of Discovery. I'll be checking out Obi-Wan, but it's definitely one of those shows where I'm hopeful, but not optimistic. Calling it a "limited series", implying it's a one-off, does give me a little more hope since it suggests they have a finite story they want to tell. I think it it were something they'd try to milk for multiple seasons they'd end up making a mess of it.

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  5. I'm looking forward to new seasons of Stranger Things, Carnival Row and Outlander. And desperate for Spring 2023 when Jasper Fforde's Red Side Story is finally supposed to be published. Fforde left the protagonist of Shades of Grey in mortal danger back in 2009 and proceeded to write a half-dozen other books in the interim.

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  6. Jasper Fforde is finally doing a Shades of Grey sequel?!

    I loved his stuff so much, but then sorta lost sight of him and haven't kept up with his work. But I'd be delighted to re-read Shades of Grey.

    I'm curious about the Time Traveler's Wife. The movie didn't do much for me. It wasn't charming enough to distract me from the creepiness.

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    1. Josie, mental link intact. I didn't like The Time Traveler's Wife much, either.

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  7. I think I watched around the same time I reviewed a bunch of other time travel movies, too, so it really didn't hold up well within its subgenre context. I read the book, too, which at the time I thought had more nuance, but I can't remember why I thought at.

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