While I may not have kept up with movies well in the past couple of weeks it’s been all about the TV side of things. Some of that was binging to finish up in preparation for the fall season where I was going to get a lot of things to check out. One show I’m still surprised I’m enjoying as much as I am is Fear the Walking Dead as this season has worked really well, especially in its back half, with the shift in tone, dynamic, and the kind of bleakness that it’s working with. The finale is tonight and I’m admittedly more excited about this series than the mothership series now.
Netflix didn’t get a ton of viewing time from me but I did burn through some good stuff. I made it through the end of the first season of The Good Place and burned through the second season fast, allowing me to watch the third season premiere live this past week. Netflix also saw me finishing off Iron Fist in anticipation of Daredevil coming up next month (and my intent to binge Sabrina hard). Iron Fist made out better with a smaller episode count overall and the final couple of episode delivered everything that I wanted, giving me big hopes for the third season.
The new fall season is one that doesn’t have me picking up much in the way of new shows simply because I have a bunch already and The CW superhero shows consume a lot of (enjoyable) time. I did give Single Parents a try but it’s just such bad caricatures of an interesting area to explore that I barely made it through the first episode. I also tried I Feel Bad since I like Saryu Blue but the show was even more problematic in how it presented things because it leaned so hard into something so utterly common in sitcoms when it comes to mother characters and family dynamics. I wanted to just slap everyone.
I’ve got Murphy Brown in the queue but want a couple of episodes for them to find their rhythm again. I adored this show back in the 90’s but am just afraid of it in the modern setting.
In addition to getting the third season of The Good Place, which looks like it’s really going to have fun going in a new but familiar direction this season, I also got to soak up two episodes of The Big Bang Theory. The season opener was weak for me but the second episode worked a lot better in handling the cast and stories. Similar can be said of Young Sheldon which I know I should not like but has such a fun cast that I want to enjoy the aspects that do work for me.
The Goldbergs dealt with a Sixteen Candles kind of storyline that didn’t deal with the harsh reality of how badly that filmed has aged and I was kind of glad for that since most of the dialogue at the time was a deep love of the film. American Mom continues to frustrate as there are fun things to work with here but it sticks to Katy Mixon’s yelling more than anything else, which undercuts the sweeter scenes. The kids still feel like they’re fitting into the town by becoming more wooden actors as it goes along as well. And I continue my love for Modern Family where it just does weird stuff. I keep wishing that the young side of the characters would get some good settling down moments but after ten years I have little actual hope. That said, these are characters that I feel very “comfortable” with so it’s an enjoyable twenty minutes a week.
My HGTV side for new stuff was mostly catch-up as I had a pair of Property Brothers to devour and some fun with Love it or List it as there were two weeks to catch up on. My time away had me watching a bunch of shows on it while chilling in the hotel at times but it was all the usual classics like House Hunters.
I’ve still got a couple of weeks before my dramas come back so it’s mostly sitcoms for a bit yet.
