Discussion: What Have You Learned from TV?

We haven’t done a discussion in a while, and I’ve been pondering this question a lot recently.

The Lazarus Project: Season One Review

"You can time travel."

I could tell you that The Lazarus Project is Groundhog Day meets Mission Impossible, but that wouldn't be accurate. It's a set of fascinating character studies, an exploration of the complexity of human relationships, and one of the few shows I've watched recently that accurately portrays how messy human actions are, not just for an individual, but for entire groups.

This review is safe to read before watching the show. Also, I don't think this show has anything to do with the Paul Walker movie that I have not seen.

Poker Face: Season Two Review

"Yippie ki-yay, oystershucker."

This review contains spoilers for all of Season Two.

Movie Review: Mountainhead

"Eat the chaos."

I told myself I wouldn't watch this. I told friends I wouldn't watch it. Then I told myself I'd try it for 15 minutes, and immediately got sucked into this excellent, hilarious, brutal movie about the most terrible people in the world, directed by subject-matter expert Jesse Armstrong of Succession.

Season One Review: Kaos

"A line appears, the order wanes, the family falls, and Kaos reigns."

We can file Kaos in the "gone too soon category," or even under "What were they thinking?!" Not because the show is bad. (It's amazing.) But because I can't understand why Netflix would cancel a buzzy, interesting, diverse, and fun original show. The Netflix gods must, indeed, be crazy.

Mobland: Season One Review

Mobland is a Guy Ritchie-produced gangster soap opera set in London starring Tom Hardy. Sadly, it is not quite A Tom Hardy Show. Mobland is bingeable, mildly forgettable, and worth watching if you’re already subscribed to Paramount+ for something else.

Murderbot: Risk Assessment

"Who the hell ever said I was part of a team?”

In our third episode, Murderbot struggles with both annoying humans and violent SecUnits. The pesky human emotions bother Murderbot more than the violent SecUnits, because it’s easier to punch something than talk about feelings. So say we all.

Murderbot

Season 1 | Cast |

Programming note: Murderbot reviews are now on hiatus. We're not sure how we feel about the show.

Murderbot, based on the award-winning book series The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, is about a security android that managed to hack its own programming and while still working security, is now contemplating issues of free will. Murderbot dislikes humans and its job protecting them. But it does like online soap operas, particularly one called The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon.

Season One

1.1 FreeCommerce
1.2 Eye Contact
1.3 Risk Assessment
1.4 Escape Velocity Protocol
1.5
1.6
1.7
1.8
1.9
1.10

Programming note: Murderbot reviews are now on hiatus. We're not sure how we feel about the show.

Cast

Alexander Skarsgård (Murderbot)
Noma Dumezweni (Mensah)
David Dastmalchian (Gurathin)
Sabrina Wu (Pin-Lee)
Akshay Khanna (Ratthi)
Tamara Podemski (Bharadwaj)
Tattiawna Jones (Arada)
Jennifer Sendaula (Bystander/Roughneck Miner)
John Cho (Captain)
Alex Cruz (Alderman Friess)
Clark Gregg (Lieutenant)
Chantria Tram (Rescue Worker)
Jack McBrayer (Navigation Officer)
DeWanda Wise (Navigation Unit)

An Appreciation of Val Kilmer, 1959-2025

“I’m your Huckleberry.”

Val Kilmer passed away on April 1, 2025.

Slow Horses: Season Three Review

“Clear the board.”

Although every season of Slow Horses takes place in just a few days, Season Three makes the most of the compressed timeframe, with the bulk of the action (excepting the cold open) taking place in about 36 hours.

David Lynch, 1946-2025

David Lynch died this week, at the age of 78.

I feel like I should say something, but I don't know what to say.

Movie Review: Flow

"Meow."

Flow, directed by Gints Zilbalodis, is a Latvian animated film about a black cat's adventures. It is beautiful.

Josie’s Best of 2024

It was neither the best of times nor the worst of time for me this year: I read and watched a lot, but there were very few standouts. Many books I simply didn’t finish; many shows, ditto. I haven’t seen a movie in the theaters since Oppenheimer.

Slow Horses: Season Two Review

"They play a long game.”

The first season of Slow Horses was grown-up fun with a decorous amount of stakes. The second season adds another turn of the screw, ratcheting up the tension with some genuinely frightening villains and a higher body count.

The Tourist: Season Two Review

"This whole situation is banana cakes."

This review spoils everything.

Rings of Power: Season Two Review

“It is not strength that overcomes darkness, but light.”

This review spoils mostly everything, none of which is very surprising.

Evil: Fear of the End

“Actually kind of satisfying.”

Well, it ended. Not with a bang or a whimper, but with some cool Italian sunglasses and just enough possibility for the future that I’m going to hang onto hope. “Despair is Satan’s masterpiece,” after all.

Movie Review: Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

“Cancel the kitchen scraps for lepers and orphans, no more merciful beheadings, and call off Christmas.”

This movie is an absolute turkey: overstuffed, bland, and way too American. It’s also 143 minutes long, but those are 1990s minutes. Adjusted for 2020s inflation, that’s approximately infinite amounts of time.

Evil: Fear of the Unholy

“This seems... mean.”

Twenty-five years after Robert Putnam warned us of the dangers of bowling alone, those of us who live in WEIRD Anglophone cultures are beset by loneliness. The US Surgeon General declared it an epidemic. The UK has a loneliness minister. The World Health Organization called it a “global public health concern.” It’s as bad as smoking 15 cigarettes a day and is likely caused and causing the “ruins of civil society.”

Robin Hood: Men In Tights

"Why should the people listen to you?"

"Because, unlike some other Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent.”

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves came out in 1991 and earned nearly $400 million dollars. Two years later, comedy legend Mel Brooks created Robin Hood: Men in Tights, a wacky musical parody of Prince of Thieves and most other Robin Hood movies.