What is everyone watching this week?
I'm finally into Manifest. (That's your doing, Victoria – you started reviewing it. Shades of exactly the same thing I did with The Umbrella Academy.)
When Manifest initially aired, I had given up about halfway through the first season, and of course, it started picking up right after that, IMHO. The second half of the fourth, final season isn't out yet, so that's giving me something to look forward to.
Shari: Rats. Now I'll have to go back and start watching again. LOL.
Billie Doux: Yeah. Now I have to make myself give a new show more than half a season.
But maybe that also means I can stop watching La Brea now. It's been a season and a half and I keep mystying and eye-rolling while watching it. It's been renewed, but maybe it's time for me to stop.
Victoria Grossack: I am watching Manifest so that I can do the reviews. There are a couple of things that I really like about the show: in addition to the weird situation, it incorporates a whole bunch of religious and philosophical views, and the characters are also trying to understand what is going on. Some of the answers they come up with surprised me but are good. The big question is: will the creators tie everything together or not? There's an obvious love of math and attention to detail, so I'm hoping they will, but I have also noticed one or two miscalculations. Rumor is that the second half of season four will drop on April 7, as that would be (spoiler removed :) years from when 828 took off from Jamaica.
Manifest is also such a great title: the list of passengers, to make manifest as a demonstration of the divine; a demonstration or fair or parade in many places.
I've also been watching a bit of a show that may be inaccessible to most: The Undertaker – or, in German, Der Bestatter. The language options I have are Swiss German and German. It's a detective show, about a police chief who was forced to quit and then took over his father's funerary business. Reminds me a bit of Donna Leon's detective novels set in Venice, as Der Bestatter is so very local, in this case the city of Aarau in the canton of Aargau (the Aare is present too). I understand it's very popular in Switzerland but I'm curious as to whether anyone else has seen it. Note there are other Undertaker shows that are different.
Also, there's no pressure to actually watch it...
Shari: The only pressure is that there are too many good shows that I have not seen. And what do I do? Instead of watching any of them, I rewatch the 1985 western, Silverado. Granted, Kevin Kline, Scott Glen, Kevin Costner, and Danny Glover are just a few of the amazing actors in what was a thoroughly fun movie. But it doesn't make my "To Be Watched" list any smaller. I haven't watched anything else. But hopefully, I'll change that before the week is over.
I have been reading. I just finished listening to The Lincoln Highway which is Amor Towles' follow-up to The Gentleman of Moscow. While the stories are nothing alike, both are beautifully written and filled with characters that feel like people you know by the time story is over. I also finished reading The Justice of Kings which is a debut epic fantasy by Richard Swan. As a member of my book club put it, "It's The Witcher meets Sherlock Holmes."
Adam D. Jones: Everyone, stop everything and watch Cunk on Earth.
Billie Doux: Thanks, Adam. I just watched the first episode of Cunk on Earth and made myself sick laughing. I'm sure my neighbors are upset with me.
Billie Doux: Actually, that was exaggeration. My neighbors are very nice.
Adam D. Jones: Show them Cunk, and they'll forgive you. My stomach hurts from laughing after I watch her interviews.
Josie Kafka: I'm watching Poker Face and absolutely loving it.
Since I have Peacock now, I'm also watching The Resort, starring Chidi from The Good Place and the Mother from How I Met Your Mother. They're a married couple on a ten-year anniversary trip to the Mayan Riviera, hoping to rekindle their relationship but falling into a fun mystery along the way. It's sort of a thriller, sort of a comedy, and sort of a drama.
I haven't watched it yet, but I found out today that Peacock also has a show called We Are Lady Parts, about an all-female Muslim punk band. I remember hearing about it when it came out, and it sounds right up my alley.
This post was not sponsored by Peacock.
Shari, you have wonderful taste in books! I really liked the Lincoln Highway, although not as much as Gentleman in Moscow. How could I, though? GiM was such a perfect, lovely book.
ReplyDeleteI started watching Cunk, too! You all, with the peer pressure. I really loved her reenactment of what a medieval feast would be like, complete with Robin Hood and ogres.
I tried the first episode of Cunk, and it is very funny. I'm a little unsure if I'll keep going though. I probably will, it isn't much of a commitment.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Peacock, I'm finding Quantum Leap to be oddly good. I'm liking the characters more and more each episode, and I'm finding the mystery to be kind of engaging. Call me surprised.
I'm finally getting into IZombie (again), I'm almost through season one, and I haven't gotten to an episode I haven't seen yet, but I think it's soon. I must've finished season one, but I honestly cannot remember.
I'm also into Manifest finally, it isn't my favorite show but I'm intrigued enough to keep going. I wanna know what is going on, and I really hope the show sticks the landing when S4 P2 finally lands (I'm about halfway through S2 at the moment).
I do need to check out Poker Face. Natasha Lyonne was great in Russian Doll (and pretty much everything I've ever seen her in) so that's a reason alone to watch. Plus I've heard it's good... Josie is loving it. That's good enough for me.
Loving Poker Face as well. I could watch Nastasha Lyonne standing in line at the DMV and be entertained. I also love the locations. Roadside/gig work America in all of its stop and go glory. There’s a "serial drama" element stemming from the first episode but this is solidly a case of the week show with the same setup each week, just different characters and locales, with the audience always knowing more than the good guys until it all ends neatly. Nice to watch, be entertained, and forget.
ReplyDeleteI liked Kaley Cuoco in "Season 1 of "The Flight Attendant", so I thought I would check out this "Big Bang" show I’ve heard so much about but never watched. You see, I don’t do sitcoms. One of the local OTA channels shows two episodes every weeknight between 7 & 8, so what the heck. Now I’m hooked, I’m starting to talk like Sheldon, or talk like Raj (unless Penny’s around), and my whole universe is in a hot dense state. Thanks to a friend’s complete Bluray set I’m trickle binging all 12 seasons, 1/2 way through S03. So much for "I don’t do sit coms".
Real love/hate with Quantum Leap. When we’re "in the jump", with Raymond Lee’s charisma and the chemistry between Ben and Caitlin Bassett’s Addison, I’m lovin’ it. When we’re back at the lab, it’s a real drag. Just office politics and huggy moments. Almost like there’s two different writing teams with the bad team doing the lab scenes.
This year’s Treks are almost here, folks!
Hmmm. The previous "Anonymous" post was by me, "milostanfield". For some reason Google is, well, being Google. Sorry bout that.
ReplyDeleteThat happens to me all the time!
ReplyDeleteI'm currently in season three of Legion, and whoever it was that recommended it as quite a ride could not have been more correct! So many things I'm loving about it, but if I had to pick one it would be Dan Stevens' cover of Behind Blue Eyes. That whole sequence is just amazing
Mikey: my issue was with Ghostery, an ad blocker. I disabled it for BD, clicked comment, had to log in to Google, and click comment again. Good from there. So disable your trackers for this site, which will hopefully help. Don't like G tracking me but at least BD is getting a bit of G's money (I hope!).
DeleteI suddenly want to get back into Legion. Can't imagine why...
Deletemilostanfield, we get very little from G, enough to pay for the domain name and hosting. I often wonder if it's worth it. Maybe I should take down the ad stuff and just ask for contributions.
DeleteJosie - did you look up the clip of him singing it? There isn't anything spoilery in it, just awesomeness
DeleteMikey, that honestly didn't occur to me. Don't I have to earn pleasure through hard work?
DeleteJoin me in the glory that is immediate gratification! Give in! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frf0HepcB7w
DeleteThank you, Mikey! I had forgotten how weird that show is.
DeleteI still think I like Giles doing an acoustic version better, though.
While we're here, talkin' 'bout my (parents') generation of music, here's Roger Daltrey doing the fiddle solo from Baba O'Riley on a harmonica: https://youtu.be/GUbsaSmKNvM
DeleteCunk! On! Earth! Just finished the last episode this evening, and now I regret that I sped through it so quickly. We need more!! So good!
ReplyDeleteI've been watching season 6 of Outlander and the second season of Carnival Row.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad we're spreading the gospel of 'Cunk on Earth.' It's brilliant!
ReplyDelete