Monday Media on Wednesday: 2/23/22

The Great British Baking Show: Caught up! I can hardly believe it. ( Spoilers )

We still haven't watched the holiday specials yet -- are those any good? It's still so weird to think we now have to wait for the next series with the rest of the world.

The Morning Show, Season 2: I've always had some trouble deciding how I feel about this show. Sometimes it seems to be crafting redemption arcs for characters who are unredeemable -- but are they unredeemable? What messages are they trying to send? How many social issues and character arcs are too many to juggle at once? Certainly this second season bit off a lot, and I'm not convinced it always succeeded in chewing. Racism and racial insensitivity among media professionals; "cancel culture"; the fallout from sexual harassment scandals and who does and does not take accountability; the difficulty of escaping toxic relationships (Bradley and her family, Chip and Alex); the realities of being an LGBTQ public figure; bullying; the looming threat of COVID-19.... All this, and I still feel like I'm forgetting something. Even half of that would've been plenty for a 10-episode season. Try to do too much, and you run the risk of not doing any of it well.

I do want to go into spoilery detail on one plot line, and that’s Mitch. ( “Spoilers )

2022 Winter Olympics: Much as I enjoy watching the Olympics, it feels harder to support them as an institution every time. The Uyghur genocide, the pandemic, the Russian figure skating doping scandal -- and I think it's time to admit that whatever punishment the IOC was trying to impose on Russia by forcing their athletes to compete as the "Russian Olympic Team", it doesn't seem to have worked (witness Putin's pleased, almost smug expression as the Russians took the stage at the opening ceremonies) -- the dangers of the fake snow, the looming threat to Ukraine... it's a lot to ignore. So I try not to ignore it, but to watch with all of these issues in mind as context. There were still some amazing moments -- Nathan Chen's electrifying performance will long stick in my mind -- and I had fun watching. But I do wonder how much longer the Olympics will survive in their current form.