Now that Presumed Innocent is over, and the ending has been changed (for no logical reason), I’m fondly reminded of the Kids in the Hall sketch where Kevin MacDonald and Dave Foley play their “Masters of Darkness” characters and prove their “evil” by spoiling the end of the film: https://youtu.be/rADdKqPNdaM?feature=shared
I'll never forget watching "Love's Labor Lost" on the broadcast schedule back in 1995, forging my go-to anecdote for what "Must See TV" really meant. That Friday morning-after we went out for breakfast in Austin, and we overheard 3 other tables talking about the episode! Truly driving the cultural conversation in real time.
I never got to watch Homicide when it was on. I'm very excited to see it for the first time. I guess this means I'll have to pony up for Peacock, but NFL season is coming up so I was probably going to do that anyway.
Shows about politics just really annoy me. I've tried to watch Veep several times and I just keep bouncing off. I only know West Wing from clips suggested to me on YouTube, but I've been impressed how often the show is both so confidently wrong and yet so insufferably pleased with itself at the same time.
With respect to the current political situation, the media have been hoping for some serious drama at a national political convention as long as I've been following politics. When the announcement came on Sunday I think it set hundreds of journalists hearts aflutter thinking they might see the mythical "brokered convention". Less that twenty four hours later, those hopes were dashed and I think a lot of people are going to be salty about it for some time to come.
PRESUMED INNOCENT SPOILER: I watched all of “Presumed Innocent” without enthusiasm but with curiosity as to how David Kelley would change the ending of the book and the movie (which I remember). I assumed he would and he did but there was no reason for it to be the daughter as opposed to the son. Either could have walked through the door and confessed and that made the “surprise” uninteresting to me. A change for the sake of change.
Seeing Evil appear in the top 10 of streaming shows makes its cancellation even more baffling. It’s not like Paramount+ is drowning in hit programming. I love the show, hate it’s ending, but glad Alan is going to write about it once it ends.
Alan, I am DELIGHTED you decided to pick Evil back up - I don't think you'll be disappointed. I've found it to be one of the most enjoyable shows for me in the past few years. Despite the subject matter (pretty dark), it never feels dark - and is often quite funny. The chemistry between the three leads is amazing - and it feels like a throwback in the sense of I just wanna hang out with these people every week forever.
About Presumed Innocent: My enjoyment of the show was definitely hampered by my feeling that the movie was so well cast and well done. I didn't like Jake's performance - it was way too roided out for me; I didn't like the Carolyn actor very much (vs Greta Scacchi); I was a huge Raul Julia fan and obv his character was absent; and I thought Bonnie Bedelia was amazing and Ruth Negga was given almost nothing to do until the last 5 min. I thought the ending of the show was preposterous and completely unearned. So basically the movie was better than the show in every way for me.
What about Scandal? Seeing Malina name made me think about the show. It's without a doubt very intense.
On Presumed Innocent, i enjoyed the show, in particular because of the supporting characters. They are great, and Sarsgaard and Camp are incredible. The problem for me was the Sabich family. Everything that the other characters had, they lacked. Even though Ruth Negga is incredible. Hope there is no more Rusty Sabich at season 2, but would be happy with more Tommy Molto. The ending made no sense at all, it was just for the sake of the twist.
The only thing missing now from the Homicide streaming collection will be episodes when the cast members crossed over on Law & Order. Only post-S12 episodes of the latter are available to stream (at least the H:LotS eps have recaps to make it slightly less confusing for new fans). One big reason still to keep the DVD collection.
P.S. Speaking of crossovers, ER’s only one ever specifically involved Susan Lewis. I’m not sure if you watched it on last binge her crossover episode on Third Watch (which resolved the storyline) but it’s on Tubi. As the storyline was resolved on another show, they then mentioned the ending on the very beginning of next ER episode for anyone who didn’t watch the 2nd-half of crossover.
While DVD distributors do try include both halves of a crossover (eg. Magnum/Murder, CSI/Trace), the odd thing is ER’s S8 DVD set doesn’t have it even though ER & Third Watch had same producer (John Wells) & production company (Warner Bros).
The only official crossover, but one of the season 2 eps I watched after writing the newsletter features a cameo by Eric Laneuville (who was directing episodes that season) playing his orderly character from St. Elsewhere. Which definitively puts ER into the Tommy Westphall Universe.
Awesome! I never knew this. I always like these small connections that appeal to tv nerds like us.
Along similar lines, I didn't realize until recently that Dr. Victor Ehrlich was mentioned on Homicide a couple times (including being Bayliss' doctor) even before appearing briefly on the reunion movie.
Haven't watched Presumed Innocent, and probably won't. But reading Linda's review did make me think of Mare of Easttown; I guessed the final twist on that show very early on based on the premise "this would be the most depressing thing they could do, and this seems like a show that would do the most depressing thing they could". I feel like a lot of these shows now are operating on that premise.
Having been a massive China Beach fan (another great not-streaming show) I loved seeing Mimi Leder's name on ER credits. And as a Day 1 Homicide fan and former member of a dial-up chat list devoted to it, I'm beyond thrilled for the rewatch that's ahead.
In preparation for the Blank Check marathon, I've gotten into Twin Peaks. Did you ever give that a proper review anywhere, if not an episode-by-episode breakdown? All I can find from you are references to its greatness.
I wrote some stuff for Uproxx around the time of Twin Peaks: The Return, including an article about all the weird/ridiculous stuff from season 2, and Keith Phipps and I had weekly conversations about Return episodes there. Plus, there's an essay on it in TV (THE BOOK), though I think Matt wrote some or all of that.
So…. Homicide LotS was mandatory watching for me on Friday Nights. When I went to college outside Bal’more, Eventually I went to THAT bar “owned” by the characters in the show. Amusingly much later, I bumped into Andre Braugher with his kids at a bookstore in my town of Livingston NJ. So i need to subscribe to Peacock for once.
But this brings up a point which has been sore about you Alan.
You’ve run long on the campaign that The Sopranos was the start of Peak Quality TV. Literally above here you name “er” HLotS AND NYPDBlve. Were they NOT all the qualities of Peak TV thereby moving the startline to 1992 or 93?
Now that Presumed Innocent is over, and the ending has been changed (for no logical reason), I’m fondly reminded of the Kids in the Hall sketch where Kevin MacDonald and Dave Foley play their “Masters of Darkness” characters and prove their “evil” by spoiling the end of the film: https://youtu.be/rADdKqPNdaM?feature=shared
I will *always* think of that sketch whenever the movie comes up.
I'll never forget watching "Love's Labor Lost" on the broadcast schedule back in 1995, forging my go-to anecdote for what "Must See TV" really meant. That Friday morning-after we went out for breakfast in Austin, and we overheard 3 other tables talking about the episode! Truly driving the cultural conversation in real time.
As someone who is always trying to get people to watch Evil, I’m so excited. This week’s would have been season finale was fantastic.
I never got to watch Homicide when it was on. I'm very excited to see it for the first time. I guess this means I'll have to pony up for Peacock, but NFL season is coming up so I was probably going to do that anyway.
Shows about politics just really annoy me. I've tried to watch Veep several times and I just keep bouncing off. I only know West Wing from clips suggested to me on YouTube, but I've been impressed how often the show is both so confidently wrong and yet so insufferably pleased with itself at the same time.
With respect to the current political situation, the media have been hoping for some serious drama at a national political convention as long as I've been following politics. When the announcement came on Sunday I think it set hundreds of journalists hearts aflutter thinking they might see the mythical "brokered convention". Less that twenty four hours later, those hopes were dashed and I think a lot of people are going to be salty about it for some time to come.
PRESUMED INNOCENT SPOILER: I watched all of “Presumed Innocent” without enthusiasm but with curiosity as to how David Kelley would change the ending of the book and the movie (which I remember). I assumed he would and he did but there was no reason for it to be the daughter as opposed to the son. Either could have walked through the door and confessed and that made the “surprise” uninteresting to me. A change for the sake of change.
Seeing Evil appear in the top 10 of streaming shows makes its cancellation even more baffling. It’s not like Paramount+ is drowning in hit programming. I love the show, hate it’s ending, but glad Alan is going to write about it once it ends.
Alan, I am DELIGHTED you decided to pick Evil back up - I don't think you'll be disappointed. I've found it to be one of the most enjoyable shows for me in the past few years. Despite the subject matter (pretty dark), it never feels dark - and is often quite funny. The chemistry between the three leads is amazing - and it feels like a throwback in the sense of I just wanna hang out with these people every week forever.
About Presumed Innocent: My enjoyment of the show was definitely hampered by my feeling that the movie was so well cast and well done. I didn't like Jake's performance - it was way too roided out for me; I didn't like the Carolyn actor very much (vs Greta Scacchi); I was a huge Raul Julia fan and obv his character was absent; and I thought Bonnie Bedelia was amazing and Ruth Negga was given almost nothing to do until the last 5 min. I thought the ending of the show was preposterous and completely unearned. So basically the movie was better than the show in every way for me.
What about Scandal? Seeing Malina name made me think about the show. It's without a doubt very intense.
On Presumed Innocent, i enjoyed the show, in particular because of the supporting characters. They are great, and Sarsgaard and Camp are incredible. The problem for me was the Sabich family. Everything that the other characters had, they lacked. Even though Ruth Negga is incredible. Hope there is no more Rusty Sabich at season 2, but would be happy with more Tommy Molto. The ending made no sense at all, it was just for the sake of the twist.
The only thing missing now from the Homicide streaming collection will be episodes when the cast members crossed over on Law & Order. Only post-S12 episodes of the latter are available to stream (at least the H:LotS eps have recaps to make it slightly less confusing for new fans). One big reason still to keep the DVD collection.
P.S. Speaking of crossovers, ER’s only one ever specifically involved Susan Lewis. I’m not sure if you watched it on last binge her crossover episode on Third Watch (which resolved the storyline) but it’s on Tubi. As the storyline was resolved on another show, they then mentioned the ending on the very beginning of next ER episode for anyone who didn’t watch the 2nd-half of crossover.
While DVD distributors do try include both halves of a crossover (eg. Magnum/Murder, CSI/Trace), the odd thing is ER’s S8 DVD set doesn’t have it even though ER & Third Watch had same producer (John Wells) & production company (Warner Bros).
The only official crossover, but one of the season 2 eps I watched after writing the newsletter features a cameo by Eric Laneuville (who was directing episodes that season) playing his orderly character from St. Elsewhere. Which definitively puts ER into the Tommy Westphall Universe.
Awesome! I never knew this. I always like these small connections that appeal to tv nerds like us.
Along similar lines, I didn't realize until recently that Dr. Victor Ehrlich was mentioned on Homicide a couple times (including being Bayliss' doctor) even before appearing briefly on the reunion movie.
And Alfre Woodard plays her St. Elsewhere character in a Homicide episode where Pembleton figures out she's euthanizing patients.
I'm so glad you're catching up with Evil and looking forward to your thoughts once it's (unfortunately) over.
Would you refer to this as a re-ER-re-watch?
Haven't watched Presumed Innocent, and probably won't. But reading Linda's review did make me think of Mare of Easttown; I guessed the final twist on that show very early on based on the premise "this would be the most depressing thing they could do, and this seems like a show that would do the most depressing thing they could". I feel like a lot of these shows now are operating on that premise.
Having been a massive China Beach fan (another great not-streaming show) I loved seeing Mimi Leder's name on ER credits. And as a Day 1 Homicide fan and former member of a dial-up chat list devoted to it, I'm beyond thrilled for the rewatch that's ahead.
Any word on if the steaming order will be the broadcast order, or the corrected order from the DVDs?
In preparation for the Blank Check marathon, I've gotten into Twin Peaks. Did you ever give that a proper review anywhere, if not an episode-by-episode breakdown? All I can find from you are references to its greatness.
I wrote some stuff for Uproxx around the time of Twin Peaks: The Return, including an article about all the weird/ridiculous stuff from season 2, and Keith Phipps and I had weekly conversations about Return episodes there. Plus, there's an essay on it in TV (THE BOOK), though I think Matt wrote some or all of that.
So…. Homicide LotS was mandatory watching for me on Friday Nights. When I went to college outside Bal’more, Eventually I went to THAT bar “owned” by the characters in the show. Amusingly much later, I bumped into Andre Braugher with his kids at a bookstore in my town of Livingston NJ. So i need to subscribe to Peacock for once.
But this brings up a point which has been sore about you Alan.
You’ve run long on the campaign that The Sopranos was the start of Peak Quality TV. Literally above here you name “er” HLotS AND NYPDBlve. Were they NOT all the qualities of Peak TV thereby moving the startline to 1992 or 93?
Alan already explained it in the intro & prologue sections of his book.
https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Revolution_Was_Televised/LU_j9rxRX5IC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover