Back again for more shows we have binged through as we stay home, waiting for the vaccine queue to finally get down to reasonably healthy non-essential workers in their 50s. It seems like forever-ago that we were watching Tiger King. ?Anyway, there is still likely time for a lot more TV before we’re going out again. But on to what we’ve seen.
- Lupin – Netflix
The tale of Assane Diop, a Frenchman of Senegalese descent who models himself on the Lupin books of Maurice Leblanc, which makes him a one-man Ocean’s Eleven at times, and his search to find evidence to exonerate his father who was imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. Fun, stylish, compelling, and the dub into English over the French was very well done. A bad dub can be a distraction, but I barely notice this one.
However, there was one huge problem with the series… we only got half of it. We went in not knowing that we were getting five episodes now and five at some point in the future. So now we wait. Merde!
- Flack – Amazon Prime
Cynical, biting, and funny by turns, this look at public relations focuses on Robyn as US born PR exec living in London trying to balance her love life, family, friends, addiction, and self with a job that doesn’t want to allow time for any of that. And then there are the clients, as she spends times spinning stories to bail them out of their own self-made messes. Probably the most compelling episode takes place with her sitting on a trans-Atlantic flight next to a client who tells her about a problem after take off that she needs to solve before they land. Quite enjoyed the whole thing.
- Goliath – Amazon Prime
What? A lawyer show from David E. Kelly? Crazy, right?
This time around we have Billy Bob Thorton playing cynical, brunt out, alcoholic lawyer Billy McBride who lives/works out of a motel by the beach near the Santa Monica pier. When he isn’t in his room/office, he is drinking at the bar next door, only occasionally heading down to the court house to find clients like “Slippin’ Jimmy” McGill. And then a case he doesn’t want to take gets under his skin and we’re off to the races as he comes out of his daily routine to fight against his old partner. Billy Bob Thorton excels in the part.
There are three seasons, and the first two don’t have much to do with each other, but then we get to the third season where the past comes back on Billy in unexpected ways. Good, in a strange way, and season 3 involves irrigation rights in the California central valley, which is always an issue when we have a drought… and we’re pretty much permanently in a drought at this point.
- The Expanse, Season 5 – Amazon Prime
My desires for The Expanse at this point are pretty simple. I want some spaceships, some Earth/Mars/Belter politics, a few dramatic visuals, an existential threat, Amos being Amos, and an elegantly dressed Chrisjen Avasarala swearing at inappropriate moments. Give me that and I am set.
Which is why season 4 was kind of a let down for me. We spent most of the season with Holden and his crew on a planet on the far side of the ring, away from our solar system, trying to remake Prometheus. Or maybe it was Defiance. I don’t know, but it wasn’t all that satisfying.
Season 5 though was back in the black, with spaceships and Belter plots and and Holden trying to get the band back together and what was hiding under Fred Johnson’s bed this whole time. Good stuff… only now we have the long wait until season 6. I hate that part.
- The Lady and the Dale – HBO Max
Billed as a documentary about Elizabeth Carmichael and her attempt to create a lightweight, fuel efficient car in the 70s, if that was all it was about it wouldn’t have needed four hour long episodes. I am pretty sure John Oliver could have given us all the relevant facts, made it funny, and still had time to review the new and have two “and now this…” segments without going over his usual 30 minutes. But this is also the history of a con man with ten kids, trans gender acceptance, and where all those guys selling flowers on the side of the road in Texas came from. Strange stuff, and oddly illustrated, but after seeing Tucker Carlson’s dad one can at least say that the acorn doesn’t fall far from the asshole tree.
- Giri/Haji – Netflix
A detective in Japan, his dead brother, a murder in London, a missing family sword, and a bunch of actors that might wife and I kept identifying from other shows from which we knew them. The whole thing doesn’t quite fit together into a story that I was willing to believe in. Too many complications that worked themselves out, too many “no person in position x would do that right?” moments, too many people suddenly willing to work against interest. It was kind of forgettable… proven by the fact that I forgot all about it until Netflix reminded me about it under the “watch it again” header and I suddenly went, “Oh, right, the one with the woman from Boardwalk Empire, the acolyte from The Fifth Element, and the “I’m a Mac” guy!”
That said, we did watch the whole thing. So there was enough there for that. And that makes me wonder if I should do a post about the shows where we watched an episode or three and said, “Nope!”
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