Y’all. The past weeks have been a year right? I’ve leaned heavy into entertainment and a lot of it really, really sucks. My god. For every brilliant thing, there are 10 mediocre and 100 terrible. But the good, it’s so good.
Watching
Only Murders in the Building S2 (Hulu). I finished it and like I said before, it’s exactly like S1. They told me Amy Schumer and Michael Rappaport were going to be in it and that was almost enough to completely turn me off but Rappaport played someone fitting of his talent, and Amy Schumer played herself and I was only marginally sick of her. (I hate Amy Schumer because I was mad she was doing a comedy special at the Apollo and tweeted about it and she was like “Well Chris Rock approved” and I was like and? and we see how well Chris Rock’s approval has worked out.)
Loot S1 (Apple+). I finished S1 and it’s just an okay show but it’s beautiful and the soundtrack is fantastic and I will watch S2 whenever Apple does their seasons. I have absolutely no idea. THey just had the big Apple announcement day but all I cared about was when Severance S2 comes out.
Uncoupled S1 (Netflix). When I was on E2 or so I was like “man this show is not great” and then it never got better and I just didn’t stop watching it. And it ended where they really want you to have these cliffhanger moments but by the time S2 comes out I’ll really not care what happens and I’ll still watch it anyway. Like Emily In Paris. I haven’t even considered hitting play on S2 but I watched S1 in a single day. What did she do?! Not speak French? And the chef was hot?
Over Labor Day weekend we did a bunch of nothing but watch Netflix. The Man From Toronto (2022) is absolutely just bad. Jesus it is bad. Buzz’s girlfriend, WOOF. When the movie started I was like “which insanely attractive Black woman will Kevin Hart be married to” and it was Jasmine Matthews. I don’t know her but she is very, very attractive. We also watched The Bubble (2022) which is a movie about making a movie in a pandemic so like the bar was low, but then Judd Apatow dug up under the bar and placed his movie there. Both movies meet the Netflix standard of entertainment but they were bad even for that.
Addy made us watch The Sea Beast (2022) and it was fantastic. So yay Netflix animation, except Netflix laid off a bunch of animation staff.
3000 Years Of Longing (2022). Idris Elba is a jinn and Tilda Swinton is a nerd who doesn’t want to use her wishes and Idris tries to convince her to use them. Now, this movie spoke to my indie heart in a special way. Mostly because it is just a beautiful film. You have to say film. It’s like The Fall (2006) that nobody has seen but I immediately bought on BluRay after I rented a copy from Netflix in the MAIL. It’s just really, really pretty and a little quirky but you haven’t seen Tilda in a movie that’s not quirky. You don’t need to see it at the theater, you can wait till it’s streaming on a service you already pay for.
Honk For Jesus, Save Your Soul (2022). Regina Hall and Sterling K. Brown are a pastor’s wife and pastor dealing with a scandal that has made their congregation dwindle from 25,000 parishioners, to just 5. They have a documentary crew following them for their church’s re-opening. This is a very dark comedy. My favorite thing has been commentary from churchgoing Facebook aunties that did not know what they were in for. Is it great? No. But it’s for anyone with a sense of humor that has been to a Black ass church at least 3 times.
Billions S2 (Starz) – me and Brownlee just finished S2 and the way these rich white men will bring everything around them down just to attack each other is RIVETING. I haven’t rooted for terrible white men like this since…Succession.
The Flash S3 – me and Addy are still slow-going it, but the last episode we watched was a Supergirl crossover. It was a Valentine’s Day musical episode and it really truly made me miss network TV shenanigans. Steaming shows do not do seasonal episodes. You don’t know what month it is. You don’t really know how much time has passed. Like yes, Barry and Kara dancing in a 50s bar like it was West Side Story was cheesy AF but it was delightful. DELIGHTFUL!
The Sandman S1 (Netflix) – I’m going to start off by saying this show is not for everyone. But you know who it is very specifically for? Me. I have yet to dig into why, but there are many, many Black women in this show. But the storytelling is so well done, the series could go in 100 different directions and tell 100 different stories and I would watch all of them. I watched E1-10 and gave it a break (like 4 days) and went back for the bonus E11 and then the next day went back to E1 to start over and catch what I missed now that I know the story they want to tell.
Rick and Morty S6 has started. I’ve learned that if I watch it On Demand there is a little bonus commentary from the show writer and creator. Dan Harmon looks like a warlock but I haven’t seen director commentary on shows or movies in so long. I forgot how much I missed it.
A few years ago I was geeked that they turned The Leftovers into a tv show. But there was a scene in S1E4 or 5 that was so disturbing I stopped watching. But I restarted it today since I know Lindelof (The Watchmen) ended the show where he wanted, and it’s only 3 seasons. It’s my lunchtime watch.
Days of Our Lives
At the top of the panny when things were terrifying, but we were still optimistic, I started watching Days of Our Lives again (I watched in the late 90s in high school. We taped it on the VCR everyday). They never stopped production. It was on every single weekday. And the drama was so dramatic, it was a break from real life. And now NBC has taken it from me and put it on Peacock. Yes I already subscribe to Peacock but there is no “oh hey my stories on!” or “let me see what they’re up to today”. It’s just streaming. So I can watch it at any point in the day. And the run time is only 37 minutes. I can not time my day to a 37-minute reprieve. AND they did it before the “season” was over. So today I had to watch S57E239. No lie.
The only good thing is that it doesn’t get interrupted by “breaking news”.
Reading
I knocked out two romance novels over Labor Day weekend as well. Playing with Seduction is the last book of the Pleasure Cove series by Reese Ryan. And I read Make A Scene by Mimi Grace. She wrote a second in the series and I’ll be reading that soon as well.
Watchlist
- American Gigolo started 9/9 on Showtime and I never watched The Punisher but IG has put me firmly in the Jon Bernthal hive.
- Atlanta S4. The final season starts on FX 9/15
- Reboot looks like it will be kinda funny. FX/Hulu?? 9/20. Maybe Keegan-Michael Key is just funny to me. EXCEPT FOR THE BUBBLE.
- Despite the shitshow that probably only the Chronically Online know about, I still want to see Don’t Worry, Darling when it comes out in two stupid weeks from now. Why isn’t it streaming already?
- Reasonable Doubt starts on Hulu 9/27. It looks Black AF but the only thing that really matters is Michael Ealy is in it. So it’ll be good enough.
- Wedding Season. Not to be confused with the romcom I watched the other week, this is a horror comedy series on Hulu. Which, I keep watching the whole thing of these types of series for an unknown reason. (Boredom is the reason I guess)
The Best Thing On The Internet
As I was typing this, Sheryl Lee Ralph won an Emmy for Best Supporting Actress in a comedy. The only other Black woman to win this was Jackeè (who is also on Days) for 227. Anyway, here’s a snippet of Sheryl’s acceptance.
Sheryl Lee Ralph just gave the most moving acceptance speech in #Emmys history. #AbbottElementary pic.twitter.com/IvNdXQx94o
— Jarett Wieselman (@JarettSays) September 13, 2022
Is there even anything good that you’re watching? Please tell me. HBO won’t tell me when Sucession is back and Apple won’t tell me about Severance. There has to be good stuff left that I haven’t seen that is not Dragon or Hobbit based.