This Week: At Least We'll Always Have David Tennant

What are you all watching?

I have to say that Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is not working out for me. I keep doing that painful yawning where tears come into your eyes. I was so thrilled when they cast Holly Hunter as the lead, but what are they doing to her? Two or three times in an episode, she does something so silly and unprofessional that it makes me cringe. It mostly involves her draping herself on chairs in strange positions, and running around in bare feet. Is this supposed to be a commentary on the fact that she's part Lanthanite and extremely long lived making her unusually childish?

Let me add that I absolutely adore Lora Thok, Jett Reno, and the Holodoc. But they're not lead characters. The students all feel like caricatures. I want every Star Trek show to succeed and I am getting the feeling that this one will not.

Morella: I haven't been watching anything these days. After finishing the main Discworld books, I finished a collection of Sir Terry's short stories, and started the second short story collection that also has some Discworld shorts. Been playing a lot of Hytale and WoW as well.

Victoria Grossack: Doesn't it feel as if there are too many Star Trek shows? Anyway, I don't have access to Starfleet Academy, so I'm not watching that.

Smallville has dropped into Netflix in my part of the world, so I have watched a few episodes. Although young Tom Welling is VERY easy on the eyes, I'm not that keen on the acting and I am tired of actors in their mid twenties pretending to be sophomores in high school. I do like the idea of kryptonite being everywhere though. Question: is it worth more time? Because I fell asleep, but that's because of when I was watching, not the show.

Also watching reruns (Stranger Things, A Man on the Inside).

Billie Doux: Is there too much Star Trek? Good question. I'm of the opinion that if there weren't an audience for it, it would go away. Until this past season, I was crazy about Strange New Worlds. But I wasn't that crazy about Discovery, and Starfleet Academy is set in the same time period.

Ah. Smallville. I started reviewing Smallville when it was airing because my audience asked me to do it, and if I had that decision to make again, I would never have started. That said, seasons two through six had some really terrific episodes, and they brought in a wonderful Lois Lane. And then my two favorite actors left the show and it kind of limped its way through its final seasons. Smallville is one of our top twenty hitting shows on Doux (more about that in this article) but that is probably a result of ten seasons, times 22 episodes per season, times the number of years that it's been on the site, which is a lot.

Mark Greig: Despite being a life long Trekkie, I haven't been that into any of the recent series. I dropped off Discovery, SNW and Lower Decks, and never bothered with Prodigy or Starfleet Academy. I wouldn't say any of the shows are bad, it's just that the franchise isn't clicking with me lately.

After over a thousand episodes, my One Piece watch is finally nearing its end. Just 60 more episodes to go and I'll be all caught up by the time the new arc starts in April. Been a struggle at times, I nearly threw in the towel during the Marineford arc, but I'm glad I persevered because the last few arcs have been great.

Before I get started on the final batch, I'm taking a break to have a big Poirot rewatch. Been so long since I watched the early seasons, back when it was Poirot, Hastings, Japp and Miss Lemon solving the cases before Christie retired the others. The shorter episodes are a mixed bag, so easy to see how green Dame Agatha was when she wrote a lot of these plots, but the interactions of the main characters is always a delight. Dreading getting to the later seasons when it is just Poirot and Christie's own self parody.

Sunbunny: I typically only watch the later ones that have Hastings. My idiot son. Without the supporting cast the show feels too heavy and serious.

Billie Doux: It was just announced that House of the Dragon will be ending with season four, probably airing in 2028. Season three is coming this summer, no firm date yet. It was originally supposed to be four seasons, so maybe that isn't a surprise. I don't watch it. What do you guys think?

Mark Greig: Like a lot of recent fantasy/sci-fi series, HOTD has lost a lot of momentum because of the long gaps between seasons due to rising costs and extensive post-production FX. No surprise that HBO now seems to be shifting focus to A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms since it is smaller scale, lower budget, able to release annually, and GRRM has shared the plots for the remaining novellas he has planned, but we all know he is never going to write.

Mikey Heinrich: I've been doing a lot of comfort watching lately (no reason...) Random episodes of Legends, Doom Patrol, stuff like that. But then I found myself getting around to watching Wednesday, which I enjoyed very much, although it's not perfect. I thought the whole Siren/Mean Girls thing was a little heavy handed, for example, although the main one did develop into a much more interesting and nuanced character in season two.

Thankfully I knew nothing about the creepy real world stuff involving 'obvious love interest' guy until it occurred to me to wonder why he'd just unceremoniously vanished between seasons and looked it up. I'm glad I didn't know at the time, because it would have really colored my feelings about things. Oh, and Catherine Zeta Jones is fab as Morticia. Oh, and I'd watch Gwendoline Christie do anything.

This led to the obvious series double feature of pivoting to The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and the two shows make a really good pairing. Enough similarity in premise and character archetypes, but tonally so different. I'm so close to writing a comparison/contrast paper, you have no idea.

Obviously the main draw for me in CAoS is Michelle Gomez, and equally as obviously she remains extraordinary, riveting, and stunningly gorgeous. She is my current girl-crush. (Mental self-test exercise... There's a huge fire and you can only save Michelle Gomez or Caity Lotz...who do I choose...? Ow. I think I just broke myself...)

The thing I'm consistently impressed with on Sabrina is how straightforward they are with the whole, 'Oh yeah, we all worship Satan unironically, it's a witch thing.' They'd never get away with that on broadcast television. I suppose the only reason that right wing fundamentalists aren't constantly screaming about it is a combination of that they're currently too busy successfully burning down the country and that they've never heard of the show.

Sunbunny: Caity Lotz because she's not working on J.K. Rowling's new audiobook.

Mikey Heinrich: I had not heard that! I didn't think it was possible for me to love her more, and yet here we are.

Also, part of me wants to say, 'They're both total badasses, neither of them needs me to save them' but that defeats the point of the exercise.

Oh... Or do you mean that Michelle Gomez is...

Oh, that makes me sad.

Sunbunny: Um....yeah. Also Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen. Almost every British actor, it seems.

Mark Greig: Our entire acting profession seems determined to let us down.

Billie Doux: That's the new series of Harry Potter audiobooks, then?

Sigh.

Sunbunny: Yes. It's very disappointing.

At least we'll always have David Tennant.

Mikey Heinrich: And Pedro Pascal. Not British, but my point stands.

Sunbunny: It's really sad that we can only count on actors who have immediate family members who are trans. Everyone thinks Hollywood is so "woke" but like... flash them some cash and most of them seem ready to make (in Pascal's words) that "heinous loser" more millions.

Mikey Heinrich: I feel like we can count on Michael Sheen.

Sunbunny: Miriam Margoyles feels safe as well. Here's the full audiobook cast if you really want to depress yourselves.

Mikey Heinrich: In an attempt to pull us back from despair, the new season of Shrinking has started dropping on Apple TV, and it's just such a joyous show.

Sunbunny: I keep meaning to check it out but I forget that Apple TV exists so often. lol.

Billie Doux: If you do try Apple TV, give Pluribus a chance. And Lessons in Chemistry.

Sunbunny: Oh I have it, I just forget that it exists.

Mikey Heinrich: I just borrowed the book of Lessons in Chemistry from my mom. Should I do book or TV show first?

Billie Doux: I read the book first, and I remember wishing I'd seen the series first. But I'm not sure it matters. They're both wonderful.

Mothra: I've actually been starting to catch up on my watchlist. I finally finished season one of The Leftovers, my first season of reviews for the site, so that feels like a major milestone. I'm also about halfway through The Handmaid's Tale, but I've noticed that my enthusiasm has been waning. I'm starting to wonder whether I'll make it through the whole series, in large part because I'm having a more and more difficult time rooting for June (which I realize is part of the intended flow, but it's not inspiring me to keep watching). I just finished the HBO series on the Chernobyl disaster, which was fantastic. I hadn't realized just how much worse it could have been, nor known just how many people sacrificed their health or their lives to prevent an even worse catastrophe. Stellan Skarsgård plays possibly my favorite role of his ever, which is saying a lot.

Juliette: Just catching up on messages and popping in to say I really like Starfleet Academy. I love SNW but don’t like Discovery much so I wasn’t all that excited about it, but I’m really enjoying it. It feels like proper Star Trek in a way Discovery never quite managed to me. And I like Holly Hunter’s character. Still wish they’d make Legacy but I’m pleasantly surprised by this one. I’ve actually enjoyed most of the newer Star Treks except Discovery, I just never quite got into the arc stories and it was so heavily arc-story-based. Love that Oded Fehr and Tig Notaro are in Academy though. And the Doctor!

Shari: Sorry for being MIA for so long. Life has been interesting in the Chinese curse sense. I've been watching mostly sports to avoid some things that shall remain nameless. However, I've been reading quite a bit. I know I'm late to the party but James by Percival Everett was phenomenal. And at the moment I'm reading Edge of Eternity which is the final book in Ken Follett's Century trilogy. It's nearly a thousand pages so it'll keep me busy for a while.

Samantha M. Quinn: So as far as Star Trek goes, I have mixed feelings about the newer generation of shows (see what I did there). Discovery was mixed at best with a few genuinely great episodes and characters. I feel they tried too hard and still didn't quite do enough with that show. I agree that SNW season three was not great, with at least half of the episodes feeling subpar, but apparently the writers' strike had something to do with that shortfall so we'll see. Starfleet Academy is fine; I'm not super drawn to the cadet characters, but I don't dislike them. The "adult" cast is all great, although I'm curious about the acting choices Holly Hunter is making. I'm hoping they tone her down a bit as the series progresses. As for Lower Decks and Picard, they were both hit or miss, with some exceptional stuff and honestly (at least for Picard) some really poor choices and writing.

I'm mixed when it comes to Harry Potter. I was never in love with the franchise in the first place, and I won't go into detail as to why here. Suffice it to say the fact that J.K. Rowling has come out as an unapologetic TERF (transgender exclusionary radical feminist) makes it incredibly hard to separate her from her work, because she still profits from Harry Potter related work and has actively funded anti-trans related organizations. I will not even attempt to make this argument for anyone else, but for me, if I even attempt to consume only materials created by people who share my values then I would be banging my head against a wall trying to research who does what for everything. Harry Potter is an easy one for me to mostly set aside, because I never truly loved the property. However, that doesn't mean I won't try the upcoming series. Because thousands of people, whose livelihood depends on viewership, do not necessarily believe the same way she does.

Sorry for getting a bit political.

I just finished watching The Lazarus Project and I really wish we had gotten season three, but it is definitely worth watching. The current season of The Pitt is already shaping up to be great, so let's hope it continues to hold itself up to the absolutely stellar first season. I'm quietly jonesing for Outlander season eight and I cannot wait for season three of Interview with the Vampire (officially renamed The Vampire Lestat). I've seen the first couple of episodes of the new MCU show Wonder Man and so far it is small scale and a bit silly and very fun, focusing on a couple of actors in Los Angeles trying to land a big movie... and one just happens to have powers. Finished The Boys season four and I'm kind of looking forward to season five; the trailer looked very somber and dark.

That's all I have for now.

Billie Doux: Readers, it's your turn. What are you watching this week? What are you looking forward to?