KJ

Better Call Saul, Season 6.5: Possibly the best prequel ever made. It can be a tall order to tell a story whose ending is known from the very beginning, where the ultimate fate of most of the characters is known, and everyone is set on a downward trajectory. But this show confounded my expectations at every turn: in many ways it was the story I expected, but I could never have imagined how it got there. ( Spoilers for the last few episodes )

I thought Breaking Bad was brilliant, but Better Call Saul was so much better. Jimmy/Saul/Gene is a more compelling lead than Walt by far, Rhea Seehorn is brilliant as Kim, and I found the details we learned about the characters and the world fascinating.

Oklahoma!: I've never seen any performance of this classic musical, and since I've found that many such shows haven't aged particularly well (as I've discussed before in my comments about My Fair Lady; other revivals that left me cold included Hello Dolly!, Miss Saigon, and An American in Paris), I wasn't particularly excited by the prospect, until I talked to a couple of coworkers who saw different instances of this same touring production -- one in Washington DC, the other in Nashville -- and they told me how interested it was, how the staging completely changed the meaning of the show without altering a word of the text or a single song lyric. So I approached it with curiosity instead, and while I'm not sure I could say I "enjoyed" it -- it's dark and disturbing in many ways, and some of its more experimental aspects were a bit lost on me -- it was a worthwhile and thought-provoking experience. Instead of a frothy costume period piece, this performance is done in a bare-bones style, set entirely on a stage that looks like a high school gym or the rec room of a community center, but for the shotguns that line the walls. There's no chorus, all the actors and the band are on stage most of the time, and every choice helps highlights the darker aspects of the original story. Dark as it was, I think I would find the traditional light and fluffy version much harder to watch -- presenting some of the things that happen in this story (e.g. bullying, murder, treating women as prizes to be won, show trials) as perfectly find and normal is far more disturbing to me.

Supergirl: Since we resubscribed to Netflix specifically for The Sandman, then canceled it again, and I had never gotten around to finishing this series, I decided I had better wrap it up while I still had access. I had four more episodes to go, and I watched them all today. The pacing of this season was really weird, to the point that I wonder when the cast and crew were told that this would be the final one. Lena's plotline, in particular, felt rushed and out of place, and I wasn't really a fan of it. ( Spoilers for Lena's final arc, and also mentions of Brainy's. )

I did enjoy the final episode overall -- quickly dispensing with the big bads to focus on what Kara and her found family will be up to was the best choice this show could have made. ( Spoiler for the finale. ) But I really think they either could have used one more season if these were really the stories they wanted to tell.

The Sandman, Episode 11: Surprise extra episode! This was kind of a genius move on the part of Netflix and Gaiman's team, to drop a special episode just as the initial buzz for the show was starting to wear off. I had been wondering whether they would adapt any of the anthology stories; it seems the answer is yes, and I think this is a good way of going about it. "Dream of a Thousand Cats" is a fun little self-contained story; "Calliope" is disturbing and difficult, and I'm not sure it's the one I would have chosen to end on, although I suppose it makes sense to set up Orpheus for the next arc. Anyway, given that this is the story they decided to tell, I think they did a good job with it.

Hadestown: I've long been curious about this musical, and after a couple of postponements, it's finally come to San Francisco. I don't usually listen to album versions of musicals I don't know (Hamilton being the big exception), so I wasn't familiar with the music at all, and knew very little else beyond it being a retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth. It's a brilliant show -- strong cast, both acting and musically, excellent music, beautiful production values. It's interesting watching this so close on the heels of playing Hades, which isn't really an Orpheus and Eurydice retelling, but it does focus strongly on the romance between Hades and Persephone, which is the main secondary plot of Hadestown. To be honest, I think I prefer how the game set up their story and resolved it. ( Spoilers for both the show and the game )

I should do some reading on Hadestown and what the storytellers were intending their message to be, as well as other takes on how people read it.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: I've watched the first episode. It was good, and yet somehow I'm not compelled to pick up the next one. Am I done with purely episodic Trek? But I liked Lower Decks. I've heard so much positive buzz about this one that I'm sure I should just keep going. Anyone have thoughts (no spoilers please)? Not sure why I'm so uninspired by it. (I do know why I'm not super inspired by the first two episodes of Picard Season 2, but that's a different topic, and I'll get back to it later.)

I know this looks like a catchup post (and it's also true I haven't posted in awhile), but this really does all represent shows I watched (or seasons I finished) last week.

Arrowverse update: Caught up on Supergirl as of now, undecided as to whether I'll try to catch up on anything else. ( Spoilers for the end of S6 E15 )

Ted Lasso, Season 2: We watched this second season with our TV group (except for the last two episodes which we ended up watching on our own). I know some corners of the internet didn't like this season as well as the first, but I thought it was fantastic, taking some of the characters in new directions and building on everything that happened before. There are lots of character developments that I could talk about, but I'll limit myself to two: Ted and Nate.

( Spoilers )

Black Widow: Finally watched it now that it's on the regular Disney+ subscription. I find I don't have a ton to say about it. I'd say it falls somewhere in the middle of the MCU movie scale. The plot was fine, some decent action, Florence Pugh's Yelena is the best thing about it, it's hard to care much about the family themes when we already know Natasha's eventual ending. I think it would have worked much better in actual chronological order, not as an extended flashback. Still, it was nice to finally get a bit of real backstory on Natasha.

Jesus Christ Superstar: This production is part of the 50th anniversary tour and was my first time seeing live theater since The Last Ship in February 2020. I probably wouldn't have sought out live theater just yet, but my season subscription is starting up and the theater requires masking and vaccination, so we decided to go. JCS might be the musical I've seen live the most times, and it's almost certainly the one I know the best -- we owned a copy of the original concept album when I was growing up, and I listened to it a lot, so I have it effectively memorized. The vibe of this one was interesting, almost more like a concert staging than a play, with all the main performers using hand-held mikes. Some effective use of the cross motifs and especially glitter -- gold for Jesus, silver on Judas's hands at an opportune moment. I didn't love every choice they made, but overall it was enjoyable.

Major League Baseball: The playoffs continue, but the Giants are done, after a 107-win series, one of the most incredible division races in baseball history, an epic five-game series with the Dodgers (I watched them all except for game 4), and a blown call on a checked swing that will go down in infamy. It was a hell of a ride, and I'm excited to see what the team puts together for next year.

My Broadway tour adventures continue with my third season as a member of SHN, the local company that sponsors large scale shows at two venues. Tonight was my first show of the season: Miss Saigon, which I hadn't seen before. All I knew about it was that it has to do with the Vietnam War and features a helicopter on stage, so I went in with pretty low expectations.

The verdict? Well, it's kind of a mess -- the tragic romance didn't work well for me at all, and the depiction of the Vietnamese characters had multiple problematic aspects. Viewing the story through a political lens, as an indictment of the American tendency to step into the affairs of other countries, then leave a thorny mess behind, redeems the story somewhat, but I'm not sure that makes up for the objectification of the women, a failed white savior narrative, and all the Asian men being shown as sexist skeezeballs. This review of the recent Broadway revivial has good thoughts, as does this conversation with two Filipino-American theater directors. I can admire the attempt at political commentary while accepting that maybe two white French guys don't have the best perspective to tell it.

As always, the production was gorgeous. I have never walked away from an SHN show disappointed by sets, costumes, or choreography, and this was no exception. The performers were solid, though not amazing; I'd say the strongest was probably the actor who played Chris, and for the little we saw of her, I also really liked Gigi. (Now there's a secondary character whose story I'd love to see someday.) So, was it worth seeing? I'd say probably yes, if only because it's a classic musical I hadn't seen, and I appreciate filling gaps like that. But I don't know that I'd go so far as to say I recommend it.

I saw Hamilton last night!!!!!

When it was announced that the touring production of Hamilton would open in San Francisco, I decided with some friends that we were not throwing away our shot, and we bought season tickets to guarantee that we'd get to see it. (As it happens, I also got lucky with the general on-sale, and was able to buy tickets to a second show in June.) So we've been going to the theater since last fall, seeing The King and I (which was fun; despite its problematic elements, it's a childhood favorite of mine, so I had quite a bit of nostalgia for it), Finding Neverland (eh -- although it had nice production values), and Into the Woods (which I'd never seen in any format before, so I was pleased to finally have the chance). But it was all about Hamilton, really, so I've been bouncing about this for weeks. I think it's safe to say that the experience was pretty much everything I had hoped for. Even knowing the words nearly by heart, and having seen a few clips and GIFs here and there, there were still quite a few surprises in store, and the energy of the live performance was incredible. The audience was hyped, too -- I don't think I've ever been at a play where the theater erupted into cheers when the lights went down.

I went with an interesting mix of people, as far as their past experience with the show was concerned: two friends who had already seen it twice (once with most of the original cast in New York!), a few who had listened to the cast album a couple of times, and two who went in completely cold. Everyone enjoyed it a lot, and even the folks who were unfamiliar were able to follow along, although at least one commented that they were occasionally confused by the double casting.

Afterward, we happened to walk by the stage door, and we were able to get signatures on our programs from the actors who played Lafayette/Jefferson, Mulligan/Madison, and Hamilton. So that was fun! Although a part of me wishes I had gotten the opportunity to see the original cast, I thought all the touring actors did a fine job. (The only main cast member who rejoined from New York is Rory O'Malley, who plays King George, although some of the leads are played by former members of the chorus.) Some of them were clearly channeling the original actors (especially Joshua Henry as Burr), while others put a bit of their own spin on things (Emmy Raver-Lampman as Angelica, and to a certain extent Michael Luwoye as Hamilton, particularly in Act Two).

Anyway, I am very, very happy I had the opportunity to see this show, and am really looking forward to doing it all again in June. :)

Maybe a month or so ago, T got an email announcing a pre-sale of tickets to "An Evening with Neil deGrasse Tyson". It sounded like fun, and we had no known conflicting plans, so we decided to go despite the lack of details about what, specifically, the evening might enail. The show was tonight, and it was just as great as we hoped it might be.

The first thing Dr. Tyson did after taking the stage was point out how trusting we were, to buy tickets and come out to the theater based on such a vague program title. The second thing he did was take off his shoes. And then, sock-foot, he introduced the topic of his talk: "An Astrophysicist Goes to the Movies." It was a fun journey through the science of film, television, and a surprising number of beer commercials, what they get wrong, and what they get right. He talked about some of his more infamous run-ins with Hollywood and fandom -- his tweets about science errors in Gravity and The Force Awakens, getting James Cameron to change the erroneous night sky in Titanic for the 3D rerelease (although he tells the story somewhat differently) -- but there were some unexpected topics, too, like the topography of underwear in Zoolander, clever uses of surface tension in A Bug's Life, and how a mathematical equation helped enhance The Expendables 2. And he was hilarious throughout, as well as informative. If you ever get a chance to see him, I recommend it highly.