Mel, who’s been mostly great in this series, was really starting to crack under the pressure. I enjoyed watching everyone wear down differently but she keeps running for attending and leaving students to make hard decisions. And she seems so frazzled. Growing pains for my favorite doctor.
The anecdote about hating Michael Scott after the pilot is so appropo given the premiere of The Studio this week. The protagonist is spineless, inconsiderate, a serial liar, a meddler, and lacks any self-awareness... so yeah, I pretty much hate Matt after these first 2 episodes The problem isn't that he's a flawed antihero it's that Seth Rogen and company seem to believe Matt is a loveable, dream-chasing screw-up that the audience is supposed to root for. This dissonance seems like it'll be a huge problem for me because I generally like everything else about the show.
I'm really glad that it seems that David is not the shooter. Just from a logistical perspective, it would make no sense. Given the number and severity of the casualties, the shooter or shooters would have to have had a high-powered weapon, a lot of ammunition and some training or experience with firearms.
Not to go off on a rant here, but I feel the way that David has been treated has been pretty shabby. He's lost his father and his mother is so avoidant that she has to make herself sick so she can get someone to talk to him about his issues. Pretty much every doctor is ready to lock him up solely based on disturbing and angry private thoughts he wrote in his journal.
There are angry private thoughts, and then there is writing a list of girls who should be "eliminated." Given the state of the world, and how shockingly frequently thoughts like that get turned into action these days, McKay and Robby would have been falling down badly on their oaths if they didn't try to ensure he wouldn't do harm to others.
I feel like they treated the storyline well because Robby was defending him pretty hard at some point if I recall correctly. When he was telling McKay a few episodes back that she could be ruining this young man's life and McKay kept saying "what about the girls". For me the fact that he wrote the list AND his mom was worried enough to fake an illness just to take him to the hospital. It's definitely concerning enough to get the police to look into him. I will agree that they jumped to the conclusion that he must be the killer a little too quickly. So I'm glad he doesn't seem to be.
Having seen the first two eps of The Studio, I was assuming the name Griffin Mill was meant to be an homage to The Player, but you’re saying it’s actually meant to be the same character?? I love Cranston’s performance, but I’m having a heard time seeing the continuity between the affects of the two Griffins.
I'm not sure what the legal issues would be in this case, whether Rogen and Goldberg would need to have the rights to The Player, whether "Griffin Mill" is considered a common enough name to have another studio executive in another showbiz satire with that name, etc. I just assume it's meant to be the same guy.
Personally, I'm really enjoying Born Again. I find an alarming amount of it to be pretty sloppy and almost all the new characters are underdeveloped, but Matt and the Kingpin are two of my favourite characters ever and I think their arcs are pretty compelling. I'm hoping season two stays episodic and doesn't get too streaming bloaty (which is probably why I've never revisited the Netflix show). But yeah, I'm hopeful a lot of my issues and the ones highlighted in your review are improved come Season 2.
I haven’t watched E6 of Daredevil yet, but the bank episode was hands-down my favorite of the season so far. It’s not just that it was a well-executed hour of TV. It’s that Matt is showing his strengths as a character — he knows he’s in a serious situation, but he’s still a little bit cocky and brash, is clearly having a good time, and wins as much with his brain as his fists. (I do wish the fight scenes had been less choppily edited, but I know you can’t have A-level choreography in every episode.)
I’m enjoying the series well enough so far, but it leans too much on the darkness for my taste and not enough on the fun. (I say this as a big fan of Mark Waid & Chris Samnee’s run on the comic, which managed to do both.) I’d say I like it better so far than S2 of the original series, but not as much as S1 (the best) or S3.
I’m actively angry, though, that the new showrunners brought Foggy back just to kill him off. It seems like a very big middle finger to fans of the Netflix series.
I just wanted a Daredevil show with Foggy and Karen, where they had mostly self-contained stories combining superheroics and legal procedure, with Matt winning cases because he's a good lawyer but also Daredevil. And I feel like I got bait and switched with the marketing, especially around Foggy and Karen getting added in.
The bank heist episode was a treat, though it was too short. The amount of ADR in the following episode, particularly where Fisk met his new goon squad, really showed the seams between version of this season.
You watch the opening sequence of the season, before Bullseye shows up, and why would you NOT want to just make a show built around those three working together? It's maddening. Especially because in comparison, Foggy and Karen's respective replacement characters are so threadbare, and have barely any chemistry with Charlie Cox.
It sounds like Karen at least will be back next season, but that leaves this season feeling yet again like one of those "well you have to get through the first season before it gets going" situations.
Supposedly, Elden Hensen is also returning, likely as a ghost/flashback but wouldn’t be surprised if they somehow reverse Foggy’s death (or maybe a misdirect).
I enjoyed so much of The Residence - the gleeful casting, the big performances, and the lovely visual sensibility - but it did feel like it dragged a bit (or became a bit threadbare) in the final episodes. You've talked before about the tyranny of the Netflix 8 episode format and I felt that this series suffered from it. I might have preferred a clean and tight 6 episode run more.
But overall, so pleased to see this sort of work being created with such a delightful cast.
I enjoyed the pacing, with each episode dedicated to a particular suspect or piece of evidence, but my wife was worn out by the end. I have found that six episodes is the platonic ideal for British procedurals.
I did find that the finale went on too damn long. The committee finds Cupp a gripping storyteller, but she is just long winded. Too many bird metaphors. Fewer episodes would have meant fewer comparisons to birds.
I tried watching the pilot after reading Alan's feedback on it last week but I really couldn't get into it. Maybe it was a me thing, I might try again a little later.
I love this type of quirky murder mystery shows but I also found it difficult to fully get into the first episode. I think it might be one of those shows where I need to stick it out for 2-3 episodes to fully get into the story. We'll see! Curious to hear if you managed to watch it in the end :)
It has a very strong sensibility to it that can be hard to breakthrough at first. It also very intentionally leaves a lot of first episode events unexplored so that it can unpack them in subsequent episodes.
Definitely not just a you thing, but I'd also say it's not a series that will appeal to everyone.
Liking the Knives Out movies is probably going to be the most reliable guide of whether someone will find this entertaining, honestly.
I love the Pitt, and Noah Whyle's performance is outstanding, but I'd love for Abbott to be more involved in season two because I think he provides a good counterpoint. Am I the only one who, in every medical drama where they're waiting for a helicopter, instantly thinks of Rocket Romano?
I’m happy Dark Winds is back, although Chee is still largely a wet noodle — dunno how much of that is the script and how much the actor — and my preference would be for Bernadette to have simply taken his place rather than him being the bridge between her and the Leaphorns’ storylines. Unless I missed something, too, I don’t get why the visiting Fed shows up already projecting suspicion about Joe if not specifically Vines’ disappearance. Whether his visions are mystical or entirely projections of his subconscious, like the fleeting visions of the bugs in the sink last week, or kinda both, I don’t need answered necessarily, unlike…
Yellowjackets, which as I think Alan noted a while back really needs to, uh, fish or get off the lake when it comes to the supernatural. The last couple of episodes in particular have seemed to point awfully hard in one direction only for the question to be raised again. Meantime, I very nearly proposed fast-forwarding through the present-day stuff when it hit its absolute nadir in the undercover farce at Lottie’s father’s condo; Shauna’s final scene with the dad was touching but overall it was just deadly ridiculous and Walter’s so awful he makes Jim Chee look good.
I’m aware that Peak TV has waned but, man, there’s still too much to keep up with and full series drops are just a killer. Binges are neither practical nor enjoyable for me even without trying to schedule couple or family viewing. My wife and I like a lot of the same stuff and luckily one/both of the kids left at home enjoy watching with us when practical.
The Residence is up our alley but we haven’t been able to start it yet — heck, we still haven’t gotten to Black Doves. Netflix has been feast or famine lately. Our last concentrated bursts were A Man on the Inside and The Diplomat last year, although we started the Japanese family drama Asura before life stuff blew up schedules for a while. (I hope to catch up with The Pitt but somehow it’s twelve episodes in already.)
We did get to both episodes of The Studio last night and enjoyed it. Seth Rogen can be a bit much for me but this role suits him, Cranston was fun, and Sarah Polley was indeed great. I’m looking forward to the rest of the guest cast based on Alan’s review, especially if there are more delightful surprises like Greta Lee.
re: Tim Robbins, I figured it was a rights issue. If it were the same character, played by the same actor, that would trigger a legal headache (not to mention money owed) that I can't imagine they'd want to deal with.
I watched the first episode of The Residence and I don't know. I think it's just one level too broad for me to buy-in, given the events. Aduba is great, though. Maybe I'll try again.
It's funny you're critiquing Robby for telling Jake he wouldn't remember Leah but TBH if Jake wasn't a teenager I would've drop-kicked his ass for piling onto Robby lol. I know, his pre-frontal cortex isn't fully developed, but wow was that was harsh for him to lash out at Robby like that.
What do you think about the patient who won't speak who Mel's attending to? She's very suspicious to me. I was honestly panicked she would bring out a gun in the ER - like, is she the shooter?? Maybe she knows something about the shooter.
Mel not being able to find her words well as a result of the extreme pressure was really a wonderful, human touch. Not everyone rises to the occasion like Mohan and Santos.
Those glances between everyone else as Robby was trying to revive Leah - just brutal. I think millions of us were yelling at the TV, "just call it!!!!"
I think that silent patient is traumatized or has pre existing mental issues. But that’s an interesting idea that she’s the shooter or knows something.
Daredevil was good for about 10 minutes: the opening scene of the premiere with the trio, the fight with Bullseye from downstairs to the roof and the diner scene between Matt & Fisk. That's it. Everything else was forgettable. I honestly can't remember a single name from the new cast. It feels like The Punisher's appearance was there just to tell people "hey, this guy was in the previous show as well". This show is a total slog, just like all the therapy session scenes, which I legit fast-forwarded. Also, I have a (bad) feeling there will be some sort of project in the future involving Ms. Marvel and White Tiger (Hector's niece, Angela del Toro, just like in the comics). The marketing for this show was a lie, there is nothing on this Disney version that resembles the original from Netflix, a couple of scenes with "blood" on screen won't do it.
Between this show, the total disappointment that was Severance S02 and Yellowjackets having one of the worst seasons I even saw on TV, I'm just happy Dark Winds continues to be great and Harry 'f@cking' Bosch is back this week to cleanse the palate.
Mel, who’s been mostly great in this series, was really starting to crack under the pressure. I enjoyed watching everyone wear down differently but she keeps running for attending and leaving students to make hard decisions. And she seems so frazzled. Growing pains for my favorite doctor.
yes, I feel like that was so human and believable. She could barely find her words.
The anecdote about hating Michael Scott after the pilot is so appropo given the premiere of The Studio this week. The protagonist is spineless, inconsiderate, a serial liar, a meddler, and lacks any self-awareness... so yeah, I pretty much hate Matt after these first 2 episodes The problem isn't that he's a flawed antihero it's that Seth Rogen and company seem to believe Matt is a loveable, dream-chasing screw-up that the audience is supposed to root for. This dissonance seems like it'll be a huge problem for me because I generally like everything else about the show.
I'm really glad that it seems that David is not the shooter. Just from a logistical perspective, it would make no sense. Given the number and severity of the casualties, the shooter or shooters would have to have had a high-powered weapon, a lot of ammunition and some training or experience with firearms.
Not to go off on a rant here, but I feel the way that David has been treated has been pretty shabby. He's lost his father and his mother is so avoidant that she has to make herself sick so she can get someone to talk to him about his issues. Pretty much every doctor is ready to lock him up solely based on disturbing and angry private thoughts he wrote in his journal.
There are angry private thoughts, and then there is writing a list of girls who should be "eliminated." Given the state of the world, and how shockingly frequently thoughts like that get turned into action these days, McKay and Robby would have been falling down badly on their oaths if they didn't try to ensure he wouldn't do harm to others.
I feel like they treated the storyline well because Robby was defending him pretty hard at some point if I recall correctly. When he was telling McKay a few episodes back that she could be ruining this young man's life and McKay kept saying "what about the girls". For me the fact that he wrote the list AND his mom was worried enough to fake an illness just to take him to the hospital. It's definitely concerning enough to get the police to look into him. I will agree that they jumped to the conclusion that he must be the killer a little too quickly. So I'm glad he doesn't seem to be.
Having seen the first two eps of The Studio, I was assuming the name Griffin Mill was meant to be an homage to The Player, but you’re saying it’s actually meant to be the same character?? I love Cranston’s performance, but I’m having a heard time seeing the continuity between the affects of the two Griffins.
I'm not sure what the legal issues would be in this case, whether Rogen and Goldberg would need to have the rights to The Player, whether "Griffin Mill" is considered a common enough name to have another studio executive in another showbiz satire with that name, etc. I just assume it's meant to be the same guy.
I posted about the Griffin Mill thing on Reddit after reading your review, and Michael Tolkin's daughter responded: https://www.reddit.com/r/blankies/comments/1jjjux9/til_the_studio_is_a_stealth_sequel_to_the_player/mjxsonb/
"Lmao for the record Michael Tolkin didn’t have any idea about this (source: he’s my dad) but he isn’t mad."
Well, there you go.
Whether or not The Studio’s Griffin Mill is The Player’s Griffin Mill, he’s nearly a dead ringer for 1970s Stan Lee.
Personally, I'm really enjoying Born Again. I find an alarming amount of it to be pretty sloppy and almost all the new characters are underdeveloped, but Matt and the Kingpin are two of my favourite characters ever and I think their arcs are pretty compelling. I'm hoping season two stays episodic and doesn't get too streaming bloaty (which is probably why I've never revisited the Netflix show). But yeah, I'm hopeful a lot of my issues and the ones highlighted in your review are improved come Season 2.
Their sitdown was great. They need to have more scenes together.
I haven’t watched E6 of Daredevil yet, but the bank episode was hands-down my favorite of the season so far. It’s not just that it was a well-executed hour of TV. It’s that Matt is showing his strengths as a character — he knows he’s in a serious situation, but he’s still a little bit cocky and brash, is clearly having a good time, and wins as much with his brain as his fists. (I do wish the fight scenes had been less choppily edited, but I know you can’t have A-level choreography in every episode.)
I’m enjoying the series well enough so far, but it leans too much on the darkness for my taste and not enough on the fun. (I say this as a big fan of Mark Waid & Chris Samnee’s run on the comic, which managed to do both.) I’d say I like it better so far than S2 of the original series, but not as much as S1 (the best) or S3.
I’m actively angry, though, that the new showrunners brought Foggy back just to kill him off. It seems like a very big middle finger to fans of the Netflix series.
I just wanted a Daredevil show with Foggy and Karen, where they had mostly self-contained stories combining superheroics and legal procedure, with Matt winning cases because he's a good lawyer but also Daredevil. And I feel like I got bait and switched with the marketing, especially around Foggy and Karen getting added in.
The bank heist episode was a treat, though it was too short. The amount of ADR in the following episode, particularly where Fisk met his new goon squad, really showed the seams between version of this season.
You watch the opening sequence of the season, before Bullseye shows up, and why would you NOT want to just make a show built around those three working together? It's maddening. Especially because in comparison, Foggy and Karen's respective replacement characters are so threadbare, and have barely any chemistry with Charlie Cox.
It sounds like Karen at least will be back next season, but that leaves this season feeling yet again like one of those "well you have to get through the first season before it gets going" situations.
Supposedly, Elden Hensen is also returning, likely as a ghost/flashback but wouldn’t be surprised if they somehow reverse Foggy’s death (or maybe a misdirect).
Let's all welcome his long-lost twin brother Boggy Nelson!
And now read the comics history of Mike Murdock
I enjoyed so much of The Residence - the gleeful casting, the big performances, and the lovely visual sensibility - but it did feel like it dragged a bit (or became a bit threadbare) in the final episodes. You've talked before about the tyranny of the Netflix 8 episode format and I felt that this series suffered from it. I might have preferred a clean and tight 6 episode run more.
But overall, so pleased to see this sort of work being created with such a delightful cast.
I enjoyed the pacing, with each episode dedicated to a particular suspect or piece of evidence, but my wife was worn out by the end. I have found that six episodes is the platonic ideal for British procedurals.
I did find that the finale went on too damn long. The committee finds Cupp a gripping storyteller, but she is just long winded. Too many bird metaphors. Fewer episodes would have meant fewer comparisons to birds.
I tried watching the pilot after reading Alan's feedback on it last week but I really couldn't get into it. Maybe it was a me thing, I might try again a little later.
I love this type of quirky murder mystery shows but I also found it difficult to fully get into the first episode. I think it might be one of those shows where I need to stick it out for 2-3 episodes to fully get into the story. We'll see! Curious to hear if you managed to watch it in the end :)
It has a very strong sensibility to it that can be hard to breakthrough at first. It also very intentionally leaves a lot of first episode events unexplored so that it can unpack them in subsequent episodes.
Definitely not just a you thing, but I'd also say it's not a series that will appeal to everyone.
Liking the Knives Out movies is probably going to be the most reliable guide of whether someone will find this entertaining, honestly.
I love the Knives Out movies, so I’ll give this one another go. Appreciate the feedback!
I love the Pitt, and Noah Whyle's performance is outstanding, but I'd love for Abbott to be more involved in season two because I think he provides a good counterpoint. Am I the only one who, in every medical drama where they're waiting for a helicopter, instantly thinks of Rocket Romano?
I’m happy Dark Winds is back, although Chee is still largely a wet noodle — dunno how much of that is the script and how much the actor — and my preference would be for Bernadette to have simply taken his place rather than him being the bridge between her and the Leaphorns’ storylines. Unless I missed something, too, I don’t get why the visiting Fed shows up already projecting suspicion about Joe if not specifically Vines’ disappearance. Whether his visions are mystical or entirely projections of his subconscious, like the fleeting visions of the bugs in the sink last week, or kinda both, I don’t need answered necessarily, unlike…
Yellowjackets, which as I think Alan noted a while back really needs to, uh, fish or get off the lake when it comes to the supernatural. The last couple of episodes in particular have seemed to point awfully hard in one direction only for the question to be raised again. Meantime, I very nearly proposed fast-forwarding through the present-day stuff when it hit its absolute nadir in the undercover farce at Lottie’s father’s condo; Shauna’s final scene with the dad was touching but overall it was just deadly ridiculous and Walter’s so awful he makes Jim Chee look good.
I’m aware that Peak TV has waned but, man, there’s still too much to keep up with and full series drops are just a killer. Binges are neither practical nor enjoyable for me even without trying to schedule couple or family viewing. My wife and I like a lot of the same stuff and luckily one/both of the kids left at home enjoy watching with us when practical.
The Residence is up our alley but we haven’t been able to start it yet — heck, we still haven’t gotten to Black Doves. Netflix has been feast or famine lately. Our last concentrated bursts were A Man on the Inside and The Diplomat last year, although we started the Japanese family drama Asura before life stuff blew up schedules for a while. (I hope to catch up with The Pitt but somehow it’s twelve episodes in already.)
We did get to both episodes of The Studio last night and enjoyed it. Seth Rogen can be a bit much for me but this role suits him, Cranston was fun, and Sarah Polley was indeed great. I’m looking forward to the rest of the guest cast based on Alan’s review, especially if there are more delightful surprises like Greta Lee.
re: Tim Robbins, I figured it was a rights issue. If it were the same character, played by the same actor, that would trigger a legal headache (not to mention money owed) that I can't imagine they'd want to deal with.
I watched the first episode of The Residence and I don't know. I think it's just one level too broad for me to buy-in, given the events. Aduba is great, though. Maybe I'll try again.
It's funny you're critiquing Robby for telling Jake he wouldn't remember Leah but TBH if Jake wasn't a teenager I would've drop-kicked his ass for piling onto Robby lol. I know, his pre-frontal cortex isn't fully developed, but wow was that was harsh for him to lash out at Robby like that.
What do you think about the patient who won't speak who Mel's attending to? She's very suspicious to me. I was honestly panicked she would bring out a gun in the ER - like, is she the shooter?? Maybe she knows something about the shooter.
Mel not being able to find her words well as a result of the extreme pressure was really a wonderful, human touch. Not everyone rises to the occasion like Mohan and Santos.
Those glances between everyone else as Robby was trying to revive Leah - just brutal. I think millions of us were yelling at the TV, "just call it!!!!"
I think that silent patient is traumatized or has pre existing mental issues. But that’s an interesting idea that she’s the shooter or knows something.
Daredevil was good for about 10 minutes: the opening scene of the premiere with the trio, the fight with Bullseye from downstairs to the roof and the diner scene between Matt & Fisk. That's it. Everything else was forgettable. I honestly can't remember a single name from the new cast. It feels like The Punisher's appearance was there just to tell people "hey, this guy was in the previous show as well". This show is a total slog, just like all the therapy session scenes, which I legit fast-forwarded. Also, I have a (bad) feeling there will be some sort of project in the future involving Ms. Marvel and White Tiger (Hector's niece, Angela del Toro, just like in the comics). The marketing for this show was a lie, there is nothing on this Disney version that resembles the original from Netflix, a couple of scenes with "blood" on screen won't do it.
Between this show, the total disappointment that was Severance S02 and Yellowjackets having one of the worst seasons I even saw on TV, I'm just happy Dark Winds continues to be great and Harry 'f@cking' Bosch is back this week to cleanse the palate.
It's a shame The Studio didn't book Armeson. You know they tried.
I really didn't like that episode of The Pitt that much but I did enjoy everything that didn't involve Dr Robby.
We did watch the first ep of The Residence and I had to wonder at all the Wes Anderson of that production design.