The month of May is almost over and we’ve gone through a bunch of shows recently and are getting back into the mindset of digging into some new properties to check out. One of the things that I’m getting better at is abandoning a show if it’s not something that has really grabbed me enough to watch to continue on with, and that’s important. There are simply so many things out there if you like a variety of genres and types of show so you really do have to be a little judicial with these things.
Current Netflix queue: I Am Woman, Rebecca, Cool Hand Luke, The Dig, Shadow and Bone, Kominsky Method S3, Lucifer S5B
HBO Max queue: David Bowie: The Last Five Years, Westworld S3, Greenland, Zack Snyders Justice League, The Head, Bright Young Things
Hulu queue: Das Boot, Swing Things, I Kill Giants
This week had me digging into plenty of my ongoing things as the season wraps up for primetime TV with shows like The Goldbergs and others like that. We had a lot of our regular primetime stuff, which is mostly sitcoms, wrap up with very little left on the ongoing side. What that leaves me with are things like The CW Arrowverse shows and whatever iteration of The Walking Dead is on.
When the Watchmen TV series came to HBO I didn’t have it at the time and then when I got HBO Max I was waiting to watch it with my viewing partners. That’s not panned out for the past year so I’m starting it myself. I’m only halfway through it but thoroughly loving how it launches from the original comic itself but has ties that feels like it leans into the movie as well at times. It’s just amorphous enough to enjoy on both fronts. With it being a single-season shows, I’m loving all the performances across the board but I continue to be the most delighted by Jean Smart. Having enjoyed her as the kind of ditzy one on Designing Women in the 90s, I never thought we’d see her in things like this, Legion, and Fargo delivering such strong genre performances that really make her a powerful player.
One area where I slip in some simple backlog sitcom silliness is with New Adventures of Old Christine. I had never watched it when it originally aired but I like everyone in it and it’s nice to have five or so seasons of it to work my way through. It’s very basic, has plenty of stupid moments, but still manages to make me chuckle with its absurdity and it’s the perfect light mental meal before heading to bed at night.
While I’m still just an hour into Zack Snyder’s Justice League film, I shifted gears over the weekend and watched Army of the Dead over the course of two nights because it’s two and a half hours long. It really didn’t need to be. The film, as others have said, is basically a huge riff on Aliens in a lot of ways and is an “homage” at best if you want to be polite. There are some pretty good moments throughout and some nice ideas being played with, but like a lot of Michael Bay films to me, it has those interesting concepts such as at the beginning with the military convoy that end up not really being explored. Perhaps some of it will show in the upcoming anime spinoff prequel. Dave Bautista ends up coming across the best here just in being able to show a lot more range than his roles usually allow him and there are fun moments with a lot of the other character archetypes we get here. And, like a lot of Snyder films, the opening credits sequence is one of the best parts of it. There are some good music choices as well but it again reminds us that we’re in the middle more of a music video than a film with some of them as it takes you out of it.
One show that I found myself revisiting as it came up on my Paramount+ account that I’m trying to get a little use out of in-between the main shows I watch is Bar Rescue. I’m fully aware of what kind of “reality” show this is but it scratches that it well enough and it’s a good second-screen kind of show. I’ve got the sixth season that I started on because it’s the most recent that’s included in the app and there are like 40 episodes in the season. I think I’ve got like 10 episodes left because this thing is very easy binging.
In catching up on older things that I’ve got in my collection that I’ve revisited while working while trying to avoid streaming so as to not use up my data cap, it’s an odd mix this week. Over the course of the week, I’ve background watched:
- Nothing this week, just TV shows!
Movie reviews this year:
- Feeling Through Review
- Two Distant Strangers review
- Yes-People Review
- A Love Song for Latasha Review
- If Anything Happens I Love You Review
- Burrow Review
- Godzilla vs Kong
- Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story Review
- Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years Preview
- Raya and the Last Dragon Review
- The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run Review
- The Little Things Review
- In Other Words Review
- Earwig and the Witch Review
What did you watch this past week?
