KJ

Only Murders in the Building, Season 2: Through most of the first season of this show, I had no idea how they were going to make a second season work, but the turn in the final episode set it up so well that I wasn't particularly worried. And they did, indeed, manage to capture the magic twice, with wonderful chemistry among the actors and a plot that kept me guessing until almost the very end. And we're getting a third season; once again, they presented a fantastic twist in the last episode, and I'm now officially willing to go wherever this show takes me.

She Hulk: Attorney at Law, Episodes 1-2: It's nice to get a pure comedy out of the MCU. Early Wandavision had some comedic aspects, as did Hawkeye, but the former showed its underlying darkness early on, and the latter was more of an action-comedy (like the Ant Man movies). Tatiana Maslany is clearly having a lot of fun in the role, and I'm excited to see where the story goes.

Lightyear: I didn't have many expectations for this, so I found it a fun watch. I do have questions, though, about positioning it as movie beloved by six-year-olds in 1995 that was designed to sell a ton of toys to children. The time travel aspects are a bit confusing, and I don't know how a young child would relate to the set-up, with the idea that the life of the world is passing by Buzz as he focuses on his mission, a clear metaphor for letting yourself become too consumed by your work. It's also interesting to reconsider the world-building of Toy Story's setting as a culture where a kids' movie can have a background same-sex relationship and an out lesbian character (when Alisha tells Buzz she's getting married, he asks "what's her name?" without missing a beat) and no one treats it as remarkable. (Note that, in our world, this wasn't even really possible in 2022, much less 1995, given that even a movie as mild as this got homophobic backlash).

This is, of course, not everything I watched in July, but it is everything I wrote a little about and never got around to posting. Other media from July I could talk about, and possibly will later (especially if anyone is interested): Severance, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Better Call Saul S6.5, Stray, Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Upload: I don't think I ever posted here about the first season of Upload, an Amazon Prime series about the digital afterlife, so even though I watched it over a year ago, the occasion of finishing Season 2 is a fine time to talk about the series as a whole. I feel like I haven't heard a lot of buzz in fandom circles about Upload, and it's a shame, because it's a solid sci-fi comedy drama with clever writing and excellent chemistry between the leads. The premise: it's the near future, and we've figured out how to upload full human consciousnesses to the cloud at the time of death. But because we live in a capitalist society, the digital divide carries over into the Great Beyond, with those who can afford it living in posh resorts, while lower-cost solutions feature bare-bones accommodations and strict data limits. Our two protagonists are Nora, who works as a sort of digital assistant in Lakeview, one of the higher end residences, and Nathan, a programmer who was working on a more egalitarian solution when he died unexpectedly in a car accident... or maybe it was murder. Lots of clever skewering of corporate greed, a charming romance, and excellent character interactions. Both the first and second seasons have ended on extreme cliffhangers, and I can't wait to see where it all goes.

Ms. Marvel: I wanted to post about this as we were watching it, and I kind of wish I had, because I probably would have been more enthusiastic. This is a show that started off amazingly strong, then devolved into Marvel's usual third act problem of raising the stakes too high and forcing a CGI-heavy mega-battle to round things off. That said, when it hit, it hit. Iman Vellani was born to play Kamala Khan -- most spot-on casting since Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, and I am not exaggerating, and I loved everything about her interactions with family and friends (even parts of the CGI mega-battle). So excited to see how they work her into the movie universe.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: I mentioned earlier that I watched the first episode of this show; I enjoyed it, but it took a little motivation to continue. Upon reflection, I think my reluctance was caused by Star Trek saturation (watching two seasons of Discovery in a little over a week plus a season of Lower Decks and a few episodes of Picard S2), nothing to do with the show itself. So T and I decided to give up on Picard for now and watch this instead, and it was an excellent decision. While I generally prefer my TV serialized, it's nice to get a break from it, too, with a show that carries character development and motivation across episodes but also tells a self-contained story in each show. I could quibble with some of its decisions, but overall I thought it was great and look forward to the next season.

Exandria Unlimited: Calamity: A beautifully tragic tale, well-told. This Critical Role four-episode miniseries explores one of the incidents that kicked of The Calamity, a centuries-long war between gods that helps define the history of the game's setting. As a prequel, you know to a certain extent how it has to end, but that took nothing away from the journey of getting there. I wasn't at all familiar with Brennan Lee Mulligan before this, but I was very impressed by the emotionality of his storytelling and what felt like an instant rapport built at the table (though I heard a couple of mentions of a session zero, so of course it couldn't have been). I also fell totally in love with Lou and Luis, both in terms of their characters and as players, and of course Aabria is always brilliant. ( Minor character spoilers. )

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Season 5: I don't mind that Midge is often a terrible person -- it makes for an interesting character. What I mind is that she never, ever realizes when she's being a terrible person. ( Spoilers )

Star Trek: Discovery, Season 4: Despite some pacing problems (Jessie Gender's otherwise-positive review does a good job detailing them), I thought this was an excellent season, with some beautiful relationships and performances, lots of emotional resonance, and great character development. And the overall season conflict had the most classically Star-Trekian feel of any new Trek series yet. ( Cutting for major spoilers )

Yellowjackets: I'm not entirely sure what to make of this one. The cast is incredible, the writing and plotting is generally pretty tight, and I'm totally sucked in to the story, but I'm not sure I like it. I was expecting more psychological thriller and suspense, less horror, and it might be further over the horror line than I really wanted. But I'm invested enough in finding out what happens that I expect I'll keep watching. ( Spoilers for the premise )

Russian Doll, Season 2: Not quite the amazing experience of the first season, but that's a high bar. Season 1 was about personal trauma; this season is about generational trauma. And it plays some neat tricks with time travel I haven't seen before. ( Spoilers of course. )

Gilmore Girls rewatch: Yes, even including A Year in the Life. The YouTube algorithm has been showing me a lot of fun Gilmore clips recently, and I kept realizing that I didn't remember the context for most of them. So I decided to watch a few episodes, and before I knew it I was almost finished. In some ways it holds up; in others it doesn't -- I had forgotten the blatant fatphobia and homophobia (the latter is better in the reboot, but the former is much worse thanks to that awful poolside scene in "Summer"), and just how frustrating I find Rory and her sense of entitlement. But I'm glad I revisited it.

Star Trek: Lower Decks, Season 1: I've been meaning to catch up on Star Trek content for awhile now, and the release of Picard S2 gave us a reason to resubscribe to Paramount+, but we were in the mood for something lighter, so we decided to give Lower Decks a try instead. It's pretty fun, if a little overly silly and dependent on gross-out humor at times. Mariner is pretty great, Boimler is appropriately annoying, and I like the chemistry between Tendi and Rutherford. The callbacks to TNG-era Trek are really great -- gives you the sense of a big interconnected universe, without overwhelming the original characters and plots. Looking forward to watching Season 2.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart: We finished this yesterday, and found it an enjoyable wrap-up, although the character development feels like it only got halfway there and needs another game to finish the full story of Ratchet, Rivet, and especially Kit. Fun gameplay, relatively light story, great voice performances (par for the course when Jennifer Hale and Armin Shimerman are in the house)

Top Chef: We somehow missed that the 19th season premiered at the beginning of March, so we're still catching up. As of this writing, I've seen the first four episodes (including the related Last Chance Kitchens). Top Chef is the only competitive reality show I've watched religiously, starting with Season 3 (I went back and caught up on Season 1 later, but I heard Season 2 was a rough watch, so I skipped it). It took awhile to hit this balance, but I feel like it's really matured over the last few seasons. It seems like they've stopped trying to cast for conflict and drama -- I can't remember the last time I really disliked a cheftestant and couldn't wait for them to be eliminated. I don't love them all (Gabriel from Season 18 comes to mind), but it's more like "roll my eyes" irritation than "omg get this asshole out of here." It also feels like they're putting more effort into bringing in a diverse group, rather than just a couple of token chefs of color, as well as diverse culinary backgrounds -- there are more chefs who are open about their Asian, Latin, and especially African influences, and the judges are also paying more attention to how those influences show up in their dishes, rather than just expecting classical fine dining all the time. It's great, and I hope it continues.

Exandria Unlimited: Khymal: Let's do a poodle! ( spoilers )

The Flight Attendant, Episodes 5-8: I'd say this stuck the landing, and took some unexpected routes to get there. I like how, ultimately, the heart of the story was Cassie's friendships with Annie and Megan, and that these relationships were allowed to be messy and have sharp edges. ( Spoilers )

Paul Hollywood's City Bakes: We were browsing around YouTube the other night, and the algorithm served up this show, a series from 2016-17 wherein the celebrity baker visits cities around the world, going into bakeries and touring the sights. Specifically, it showed us the San Francisco episode, and we couldn't resist giving it a try. It was a trip to see Paul outside the tent, relating to people and food differently -- although he still had strong opinions, obviously he's not critical in the same way he is as a judge. I also experienced an overwhelming sense of nostalgia for the days when I could walk around the streets of my city, popping in and out of shops, hanging out in Craftsman & Wolves (the patisserie that Paul visited, one I know well) with a croissant and a cup of coffee. Is it weird to be homesick for your hometown while you're still living there? Anyway, then we watched the Jerusalem episode, which provided a totally different experience because it's a city I've never visited and know very little about. I enjoyed it, although of course he leaned really hard into the "blend of food and cultures" and not at all into real issues of violence and oppression. We'll probably watch more as the mood strikes us, although it's not really a show where I feel compelled to track down every episode.

Encanto: This was lovely, although I suspect the strong reactions I've been seeing online had my expectations dialed up a bit too high. Not that I didn't love it -- I did! But it didn't provoke as much of an emotional catharsis as I expected. Mirabel and Bruno were excellent, "We Don't Talk About Bruno" totally slaps, as they say, and "Surface Pressure" (Luisa's song) was a wonder. And I love how clearly steeped it was in Colombian culture and tradition. This might be one to watch a second time, to look for early undercurrents of the later reveals.

I suspect one reason I got inconsistent at posting this series is because I lose track of which shows and games in progress I have and haven't posted about. I have a preference for posting about things I've finished completely, but since I'm not going to finish a show or game every week, that means sometimes skipping completely and so not building a habit. Therefore, one of my plans for this year is to say a little bit about everything that's in progress each week, so that I have a reason to keep working on it. So have a snapshot of my media consumption for the last week of 2021.

The Great British Baking Show: We're on what Netflix calls Collection 8, which I think is season 11 of original Bake-Off -- the first season with Matt. I adored Prue immediately, I enjoyed Sandi, and I've become very fond of Noel, but I have a feeling that Matt is unlikely to grow on me, and of course I miss Mel and Sue, which I have a feeling everyone does. We've seen the first three episodes, and at one point Peter -- the young'in of the group -- mentions that Bake-off has been around for more than half his life, and Paul's reaction is very relatable.

The Next Thing You Eat: Celebrity chef David Chang's most recent television project, on the future of food and the restaurant industry. We've watched five out of six episodes so I'll hold my thoughts until we're done.

Hades: We've played through the main storyline and are probably working toward the epilogue, although we may give up on it as requiring too much grinding. This will definitely get a longer write-up once we've finished (or given up).

Derry Girls, Episode 1: We watched this last night; not much to say yet, but it's charming and funny so far. Michelle is a terrible person and somehow I still find her kind of hilarious.

The Twilight Saga: So, okay. ( This got long )

Schmigadoon!: Watched this one with my TV friends. Extremely silly and fun Apple+ show about a couple who get stranded in a town that's living out a classic Broadway musical. Takes elements of dozens of shows and throws them together in a blender with hilarious results -- Oklahoma! and The Music Man are the most obvious influences, but I caught significant references to Carousel, The Sound of Music, and others. The cast is mostly Broadway and crossover actors (Kristin Chenowith, Alan Cumming, Aaron Tvelt, Jane Krakowski...) as well as some actors who I primarily think of as TV/film actors but clearly have some stage chops (Jaime Camil being the prime example). The leads are Keegan-Michael Key and Cecily Strong, both of whom I've always loved. I was surprised that T was willing to watch this one, because he hates musicals, but he enjoyed it a lot despite not understanding almost any of the references. We both suspect it's because the Keegan-Michael Key character also hates musicals, so he had a kindred spirit to sympathize with.

Reservation Dogs: When I last posted about this show, we had only seen the first two episodes; now we have finished it. One thing T and I both particularly liked about it was how focused on different characters. Each of the four main kids got at least one focal episode, and in episodes that followed the crew, we got a sense of the whole crew, not just one or two characters. These episodes also did a good job of pulling at least one adult into the spotlight -- tribal cop Big in Cheese's episode, for example, or Bear's mom, or Willy Jack's dad. The slow reveal of the the truth about their friend Daniel's death was very well handled, also. ( Warning that is a spoiler behind the cut. )

Only Murders in the Building: Another show I watched with my Tuesday TV group. We ended up watching the last four episodes in one night because we had to know how it ended. Both hilarious and engaging, the television equivalent of a page-turner, Selena Gomez is wonderful, and her chemistry with Steve Martin is spot on. All of the cast was great, really. This show is one of my favorite genres: it parodies a genre while being itself an exemplar of that genre. I think that's what literary analysts mean by pastiche? Jane the Virgin is the example that immediately comes to mind -- a telenovela that simultaneously pokes fun at the conventions of telenovelas. Anyone have any other recs in this vein? Anyway, I don't listen to enough true crime podcasts to have a good sense of exactly all the references, but some were obvious even to me (I recognized the plinky piano theme music as a send-up of Serial immediately). ( Spoilers. )

My Fair Lady: Our most recent theater experience. I've never seen this show before, nor have I seen the movie, but I was familiar with many of the songs, and I knew the basic outline of the plot -- or at least I thought I did. An English professor of linguistics (Henry Higgins) makes a bet with a colleague that he can teach a Cockney woman (Eliza Doolittle) "proper" speech and behavior well enough that she can pass for upper-class at a society ball, hijinks and romance ensure. And while that's not wrong, exactly, there are a lot of reasons the story wasn't what I expected. ( I'm sure we're well beyond the statute of limitations on spoilers here, but I'll cut it anyway. )

As usual for these productions, the staging was gorgeous, the performances were all excellent, the costumes were amazing (clearly modeled on the costumes in the movie, many of which are so iconic that I recognized them immediately even though I've never seen it). Glad I saw it, if just to have finally experienced a show that's such an important part of Broadway musical history. But I do wonder whether some of these shows from the earlier part of the 20th century ought to stay a part of history, not be continually revived.