The return this past Friday of the Queer Eye series on Netflix is a huge one for me. It’s one of a handful of shows that simply works its manipulations perfectly to make emotional connections and really make you feel. I had enjoyed the original series years ago and back in my youth got some good grooming tips out of it for things that I was never taught by my father. With the new series, spreading to more than just dealing with guys and being “hey, we’re nothing to be afraid of” aspect, it’s really become something more that can be incredibly touching in a way that few shows are or even try to be, instead focused on tension, anger, and so forth. I enjoy a lot of things in those lines but works like this and Parts Unknown that truly work to bring people and their stories into your life in this way are few and far between and even fewer that are successful at what they do. I’m only two episodes in as I don’t like binging this kind of work, allowing it to really fill my heart some, and it’s just as strong if not more so than the first two seasons.
This past week did have me working through two series that I absolutely love and are at the top of my current list of great television. Two more episodes into Doom Patrol and I want to shake strangers on the street demanding to know why they aren’t watching it. Few shows make me feel that way and I’m excited for a binge version of this when all is said and done. Similarly, I finished off Umbrella Academy finally with my viewing partner and we absolutely loved it. One hell of an ending that naturally demands a second season but the whole thing was filled with great sequences, some very powerful moments, a lot of uncertainty, and great music. I love the story, familiar as it is to comic fans going back decades, but it was such a polished and engaging piece with so much to explore that I can’t wait to see more of it.
We had the season finale for I’m Sorry this week and that was definitely fun, though the show is very much an acquired taste. I picked up the first season on the cheap from iTunes and have replayed it in random a bit already and it just reinforces my enjoyment of crude and awkward humor in all the right ways. Of course, I was then recommended by a friend to watch Pen15 and now I’m getting a whole lot of crude and awkward humor from a whole other direction.
I’m getting excited for the return of Legends of Tomorrow soon as all I’ve been watching is Arrow as my viewing partner and I are backlogged on Flash and Supergirl as we’ve been favoring Netflix as of late. The CW slate of shows continue to delight even if I do wish they were tighter shows coming in at twelve or thirteen episodes. When Agents of SHIELD broke its season out into three storylines of seven/seven/seven, it reinforced that these kinds of properties need to find a better way of telling their decompressed tales, or focus on smaller tales that wrap up better instead of over more than half a year.
The latest round of sitcoms and HGTV shows all had their bit of fun but most were unmemorable in long run, providing momentary delights which is all I wanted out of much of it. We’ll be seeing what’s going to get picked up for the fall relatively soon and I find myself working to ensure that I pick up fewer and fewer from the main networks each year, especially as we get more ten-episode runs of interesting ideas on the cable networks. There’s so much to watch and I don’t think we’re quite at peak viewing just yet, which is frightening in itself.
