I Hate Television

[jon abbey]

yes, they've said they're going to do more Gene (the Cinnabon manager) at some point. Kim is from Nebraska originally, which is where Gene is now, so I wonder if they will end up together in the end after whatever devastating thing is coming soon to split them up.

[walto]

My daughter turned me onto Terrace House recently. I'm now addicted.

[Steve Minkin]

Watched the premier episode of "Miracle Workers," a 30 minute, 7-part comedy series. Steve Buscemi is the executive producer and plays God, a disheveled and reprobate God on the verge of destroying Earth ("When was the last time someone sacrificed a ram to Me?") Plot centers on the efforts of the two members of the Department of Answered Prayers, an understaffed office in a corner of the boiler room of Heaven, Inc. More farce than wit, but promising enough that I'll be back for at least the next couple of episodes.

[Steve Minkin]

Still enjoying Miracle Workers, some laugh out loud moments in recent episodes.

But mostly I'm binge watching The Twilight Zone. There's a new Twilight Zone scheduled to start the first of next month. But I'm very impressed with the quality of the original series, which I followed religiously during its first few seasons. The writing is consistently good (the repetition of themes and ideas notwithstanding) and the cast features many fine actors, including a lot of stars-to-be. More than a few of the episodes are classics of storytelling, some reminiscent of Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine's O'Henry-like stories from the fifties, and some looking ahead to the more psychological and sociological sci-fi of the 60s and 70s; but all well-crafted and unafraid to tackle big themes and bold phrasing. Many of the episodes were based on previously published stories, a huge plus. (As well as the sublime episode that transferred an entire short French film based on Ambrose Bierce's "An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge.")

[walto]

Re Twilight Zone, Richard Matheson could WRITE.

[walto]

The perfect ending of Phoebe Waller-Bridge's Fleabag reminded me of the perfect ending of Beckett's Unnamable:

I don't know, I'll never know, in the silence you don't know, you must go on, I can't go on, I'll go on.

[Piano Mouth]

Is the second season out now?

[walto]

Yep.

[Steve Reynolds]

Very enjoyable to fill up a slow day reading this thread.

I'm a fairly recent convert to streaming via mostly Amazon & Netflix and here are my rankings for what I've watched over the past couple of years:

1) The Wire
2) Breaking Bad - some people hated Hank (he was despicable but I loved the execution of his character). Mike remains the best ever character for me - although he looks 80 as Better Caul Saul slowly moves onward
3) Mad Men - yes to everything people say about the lead character's emptiness but that is a good part of what makes it great. The character building for the lesser seen people ranges from Ok to wonderful
4) Catastrophe - I'm not usually a fan of Brit comedy but these short episodes are an absolute HOWL
5) Ozark - you haven't tried this, Jon? waiting urgently for season 3
6) Sneaky Pete - especially Season 1 - but I have trouble dealing with the ages of the grandparents and grandadults. Peter Gerety is priceless.
7) Better Call Saul - still liked the last season despite the glacial pace and Mike's age issue
7) The Americans - still recommended although it faded but I stuck with it through the end
8) Sorry - hard to watch as the lady is so embarrassing but I think it's hilarious
9) Boardwalk Empire - I'm in Season 4 and I'm seeing the decline but I still really like it
10) Animal Kingdom - silly but me likey - I'm in season 3

[jon abbey]

the thing is if you go back and watch early Breaking Bad again, Mike kind of looked 80 from the start.

no, no on Ozark, don't like Jason Bateman.

you should try Rectify sometime if you haven't, it is super super slow but extremely well done and rewarding.

[walto]

Poll:

Who's the pertest/snarkiest/cutest: the star of The Good Place, the star of Juno, or the star of Pitch Perfect? Who's the most annoying?

[negative potential]

2) Breaking Bad - some people hated Hank (he was despicable but I loved the execution of his character).

Strong disagree on Hank being despicable. Obviously with Walt being the protagonist of the series, it's built-in that the viewer is going to root for Walt, but Hank, however flawed as a person, has a moral compass.

Boardwalk Empire is a tragic case of unredeemed promise for me. I really think it had the potential to be this grand exploration of the theme of corruption and the shabbier side of American history (like Deadwood), with the focus on urban machine politics, but instead they opted to make it just another gangster movie. It's The Sopranos with period costume, but not as good.

Love the Americans personally, but I think it's objectively kind of "trashy". But it's gripping viewing, and I love the period setting and ambivalent politics.

[Steve Reynolds]

2) Breaking Bad - some people hated Hank (he was despicable but I loved the execution of his character).

Strong disagree on Hank being despicable. Obviously with Walt being the protagonist of the series, it's built-in that the viewer is going to root for Walt, but Hank, however flawed as a person, has a moral compass.

Boardwalk Empire is a tragic case of unredeemed promise for me. I really think it had the potential to be this grand exploration of the theme of corruption and the shabbier side of American history (like Deadwood), with the focus on urban machine politics, but instead they opted to make it just another gangster movie. It's The Sopranos with period costume, but not as good.

Love the Americans personally, but I think it's objectively kind of "trashy". But it's gripping viewing, and I love the period setting and ambivalent politics.

I'm probably exaggerating my judgment of Hank as he was my favorite character besides Mike.

I think I need to put Deadwood on my 'to watch' list.

I'm caught up on Animal Kingdom and I'm now going to watch week-to-week on TNT. It's gotten a bit sillier but for me it's thoroughly engaging. Probably getting better as contrasted with "The Americans" or "Boardwalk" which declined during the later seasons.

I'm towards the end of Season 4 of Boardwalk and it's currently tough sledding. Been watching an episode every week or so at best but I'm determined to get through the final 5th season. It can't be worse than the final season of House of Cards which was maybe the worst thing I've ever watched on TV EVER.

[walto]

One nice thing about The Americans is that its Welsh star has a much better American accent than the English star of The Wire. McNulty sounded British at least once in every episode in which he appeared.

[negative potential]

I think I need to put Deadwood on my 'to watch' list.

Absolutely! If I were being totally objective, I'd have to put Deadwood second place in the trinity of all-time greats The Wire, Deadwood, and The Sopranos, but on a personal level I like the Sopranos more because of the heavy emphasis upon personal psychology and relationship dynamics. Deadwood is definitely more like The Wire in that society itself is the main character.

[Steve Minkin]

KEN BURNS' COUNTRY MUSIC – An 8-part, 16 hour first season, which I started watching skeptically since I've hated everything Burns has done since the Civil War -- bailed on his Baseball and Nam, and only watched his Jazz all the way through to distill my venom for him. So I was shocked and excited to see that he did a commendable job on this one, lots of cool stories and great music, fewer dubious choices.

Country music is too big a topic for any documentarian to do perfectly. But there was clearly way too much Johnny Cash in this one, and -- given the many many sinful omissions and slights (see below) – it warped the overall picture. There was also a perhaps inevitable (given TV) overcycling of some of the central figures of country, which may help the narrative cohere and emphasize the conscious role of tradition in country but it also shrinks the big picture.

Burns' series on Jazz had a decidedly rear-view mirror slant, which I hated. (The Dreaded Wynton actually makes a couple of inexplicable, word salad appearances in this series, mercifully devoid of any references to gumbo.) This series also has a bias, overestimating the folk/hippie/rock influence on country music. I'm in sympathy with the intention and have a decided affinity for that part of country's Wenn diagram -- but the bias does distort the reality.

Burns gives some attention to country music's problematic histories with race and with politics, without actually tackling the questions. We see the Byrds getting booed at The Grand Old Opry because they looked like the hippies they were, we see the 'We Love Nixon" signs at the concerts, we hear from Charlie Pride about how his race was initially veiled from the Nashville audiences. And I'm sure Season Two will cover the Dixie Chicks/ Toby Keith dust-up, Darius Rucker and Jimmy Allen, etc. The stories are reported, but the op eds are missing, so there's a superficiality to their presentation.

Here are a few of the choicer stories:

Roger Miller was well-known to be a speed freak, and an interviewer asked his manager how long he could stay awake. The manager replied, "I've only been with him a year-and-a-half, before that I can't say."

"He Stopped Loving Her Today" is often named as the quintessential country song, would make most country fans' list of top five country songs. But George Jones didn't like the song when it was presented to him, recorded it reluctantly, and when it was finished he told the producers, "Well there's your record, but nobody's going to buy that morbid son-of-a-bitch."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es1uCh48TNY


In 1975, at the Country Music Awards, previous winner Charlie Rich announced the Country Music Entertainer of The Year Award, which goes to ... and Rich opened the envelope, and set the result on fire with a lighter! Then announced, "My friend, John Denver." It's a famous story and a dramatic piece of film, and Burns shows it twice, clearly with the implication that Rich was dissing the choice, which is how history has generally interpreted the moment. Charlie Rich's son, however, claims his father liked Denver, liked 'non-redneck' country music, and was just too loaded from pain meds and liquor to think clearly that night. It's a helluva clip, anyway.


The pioneering producer of country (and 'race') records, Ralph S Peer, set up the first country music recording studio for the Victor Talking Machine Company in the little town of Bristol, Tennessee, in the middle of nowhere, on the advice of musician Pops Stoneman (his big hit was "Skip To My Lou, My Darling”) who convinced Peer that he needed to be geographically closer to the country musicians he was searching for. Shortly after it opened, and within TWO DAYS of each other, The Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers showed up, the two seminal acts of country music. Although Burns doesn't mention it, this is now known as The Big Bang of Country Music.

Burns does show some of the great Los Angeles session between Jimmie Rodgers and Louis Armstrong, although he fails to mention that Pops was on the west coast trying to get away from his marriage to Lil Hardin Armstrong, who caught up with him and is on the recording session (on Pops recommendation), although he never reconciled with her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY0oizcLLHU


Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard were looking for a featured title track for their first collaborative album. Late one night, Willie's daughter played him a track from an Emmylou Harris album (Luxury Liner), which Willie liked so much he woke up Merle and they recorded it immediately. Burns traces "Pancho and Lefty" from its composition by a purist, folk-oriented songwriter (he earlier featured Townes van Zandt in a segment with Guy Clark and other Nashville outsiders), recorded by a hippie folk-rock singer, and made famous by two outlaw country legends. It makes a dramatic finish to Episode 7, and suits Burns' slant (mentioned above) so well that one may wonder if it was contrived. But, no, it's an authentic story, and beautifully illustrative of eclecticism Burns is pushing. But it's also atypical. Legit, but atypical.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbZ3VdYb90o


Marty Stuart plays a huge role as the leading country musician commentator in the series, and he is consistently knowledgeable and insightful, a good choice. He (along with Ricky Skaggs) played in Emmylou Harris's great Hot Band, he played with Bill Monroe (creator of Bluegrass), Lester Flatt, Johnny Cash, etc. When Marty was in elementary school he went to a park concert by Connie Smith (my favorite woman country singer), and the documentary shows pictures of Connie signing an autograph for him there. He told his mother that night he was going to marry Connie Smith some day. And, twenty-five years later, he did! (I personally would have liked a lot more Connie Smith on the show!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfJN4v2K33A

Dwight Yoakum is another frequent and knowledgeable commentator. And Burns does a great job covering the Bakersfield scene (Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Yoakum, etc.). Here's Yoakum's classic "Streets of Bakersfield," with Owens and my man Flaco Jimenez:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB7oUI32E1Y

All-purpose muli-instrumentalist session musician Charlie McCoy makes multiple appearances in unexpected settings, all welcome.

Surprised but pleased to see Little Jimmy Dickens making more than one appearance, although they shoulda played this one instead of "May The Bird of Paradise Fly Your Nose."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fUELwyIggM

Very surprised and glad to see mutliple appearances by the master Tex-Mex accordionist Flaco Jimenez. (I'm all for a 16 hour special on Flaco, The Texas Tornados, etc.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmyDf0_L5Wk

OK, time to bitch about what he got wrong:
A good amount of time is devoted to bluegrass, so it's kind of shocking that Jimmy Martin (The King of Bluegrass) is mentioned only once, as part of a list of country legends invited to perform on The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's classic (first of three) "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" album. Sinful (and Mac Wiseman isn't mentioned at all).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIHyWAH8Z5M
Vassar Clements, arguably the greatest of all country fiddlers, appears only once, on the same Nitty Gritty list, in passing. The great honky tonk pianist Moon Mullican is mentioned only once, with no mention of the story of how Hank Williams, desperate to keep his streak of #1 hits going, bought "Jambalaya" from him for $10,000.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nG7-tsqDRYE
Tennessee Ernie Ford gets one brief look (for his crossover hit of "16 Tons") and Speedy West and Jimmy Bryant aren't mentioned at all – a segment of Ford's radio show, which featured the two virtuoso instrumentalists (Country BeBop) should have been obligatory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDM5lwp0y58
The Louvin Brothers are mentioned too briefly; curiously, there are many respectful references to them throughout the show, but virtually none of their music is played, and it would have enriched the show more than some of the featured faddish musicians that were given real coverage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STlt1Pb2LRQ



But, all in all, a very pleasant surprise. Much to enjoy here, highly recommended.

[Wombatz]

finished the complete emma peel avengers with my 10-year-old yesterday (with the last b/w episode, we'd seen the color ones first ... never watched this before btw, must have been on private channels when i was a kid?) ... of course, bonding with the boy irregularly enhances the viewing pleasure (interestingly, his older brother didn't like these at all as he wants to empathize with characters and has a less subversive sense of humor), but this was huge fun and constantly inventive and it now holds an official third place in my list of all-time favorite series, after the prisoner and the original star trek.

[Steve Minkin]

My favorite new series is Nora From Queens, girl in her late 20s living with her Chinese father and grandmother, very raunchy, funny and down to earth. The grandmother's a gem.

http://www.cc.com/episodes/ihuq93/awkwa ... n-1-ep-101


Was watching all the original Star Treks, but have taken a break midway through season two, seems a little dated and contrived, although I always enjoyed the shows in real time when I saw them in the 60s.

Binge watching the only western I was ever into, Have Gun, Will Travel, and like the shows even more now than I did as a kid, almost always very well written, effectively filmed, and Paladin is the surely the most erudite and culturally knowledgeable of all TV heroes regardless of genre, constantly quoting Shakespere, Byron, Confucius . . . Many guests stars (some in their pre-star years) wander through the casts. Recently saw a wonderfully daffy episode with Vincent Price, Patricia Morrison and Morrie Amsterdam in a tale about a production of Othello during roundup week in San Diego. Loving the series, enters my all-time top three along with The Prisoner and Columbo.