Recent Viddy -- by Mike N.

 No binding theme this week, save that these are some of the things I've watched/finished watching within the past two weeks. Some exclusive to cable channels, or streaming, but also at least a couple out on broadcast tv. 
 Just this past weekend, AMC finished the fourth and final season of their generally delightful, not at all for the kiddies nor those averse to violence, sexual content and/or the profane, adaptation of Preacher.
  Based on a 66-issue Vertigo (a mature readers imprint of DC) comics series from the 1990s, it centered on Jesse Custer, the titular preacher, who ends up on a very personal, often brutal, somewhat vengeful search for God. His main companions, Tulip O'Hare and (Pronsius) Cassidy, are the extremely rough-and-tumble love of his life, and an Irish vampire who's roughly at the century mark, respectively. Along the way is a rich cast of supporting characters and antagonists, most of whom one wouldn't want to know in real life.
 While I enjoyed the comics series, the adaptation to screen brought considerable depth to the characters, too many of whom were little more than walking punchlines or simply stereotypes in the source material. Each of the tellings was worth the time, though.
  The first three seasons of the series are already available on Netflix. I'm not sure how long it'll be before AMC releases the final season there - usually they hold onto it until they're coming up on a new season, but with no more to come I can't use that measure. As they launched their AMC Premiere pay streaming service earlier this year, and all of this season is up there, they may want to keep it as exclusive to there as long as they can as they hunt for more subscribers. The Vertigo comics series has long been collected in six reasonably-priced trade paperbacks, or three (rather expensive) omnibi.           ABC recently launched another comics-derived series, though this one of a much more down-to-Earth nature: Stumptown.
   Dex Parios, an ex-marine with PTSD, gambling debts and borderline alcohol abuse problems ends up putting her wartime training in military intelligence to civilian use as an unlicensed private investigator, helping people who are in trouble who for one reason or another don't believe they can go to the police for help. As of this writing I've only seen the pilot episode (from last week, so the second episode aired this week), which I sought out after reading a couple of praising reviews. Sure, it has its share of cliches, but there's enough appeal to give me hope the characters and situations will remain interesting. The opening scene helps start the series off with a kick, too, so I'd at least recommend giving the first ten minutes or so of the pilot a look. (ABC, Wednesdays at 10 PM Eastern, over on Hulu the following day, and probably the next day on ABC's website, too.)
   Update: I watched the second episode, and am still sufficiently interested in the characters to want to come back for the third.
  To remind the world that not everything on the screens these days began as a comicbook series,I also caught (last week) the pilot episode for NBC's new sitcom Sunnyside (Thursdays at 9:30 Eastern.)
  The series centers on Garrett Modi (Kal Penn), a recently-ousted New York City city councilman who used a mix of his ethnicity and general con man speaking skills to win his election back in 2004, and then coasted in that role until he left the office in disgrace after attempting to bribe his way out of a DUI. The incident was recorded and made a major splash on the Internet. With no other skills, he continues to play off his celebrity via making paid appearances. A varied group of long-time resident immigrants (a brother & sister pair of them with casually deep pockets) hire him to help them prepare and jump through the necessary hoops for legal citizenship. At first he mostly just spends time with them to collect his fee, but a crisis of conscience leads him to do all that he can to help them through the process in an era that's especially hostile to the foreign-born. 
  The first episode was a mixture of uneven and formulaic, but there were enough small points of encouragement to get me to want to see another episode or two, especially as the cast is large enough that most didn't get much natural time to interact and establish themselves beyond the two-line descriptions likely written about each in the pitch. 
   One thing that might help the early fortunes for the show is that it has an excellent lead-in, as the 9PM Thursday slot belongs to the fourth (and final) season of The Good Place. For that show - a wonderful, twisting fantasy about the afterlife - I have to insist that anyone who hasn't watched it before go back and watch it from the first episode of the first season. (I know Netflix has all three earlier seasons.)
  Each season is only 13 episodes, so it's not a huge backlog to get to. It's extremely episodic, so taking any of it out of sequence will both majorly spoil earlier episodes should you get to them later, and lesson the significance of the new ones as character development is central to the story. Additionally, each season ended with a game-changer that set up a new dynamic for the following season.
    Updates: While The Good Place continues to draw me in and remains highly recommended, the second episode of Sunnyside was so poor I didn't make it halfway through the episode. The characters have already become unfunny parodies of themselves. It feels as if it's being written by an algorithm. I won't be back anytime soon for more of that show.
   Over on Amazon Prime, I finally got around to watching the 8-episode first season of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan. I'd only heard and read good things about it since it premiered just over a year ago, and upon recently seeing that the new season will land November 1st I decided to finally dive in.
  I'm not an easy target for any show with a military intelligence vs terrorist angle, which was a big part of why this sat on my virtual shelf for a year despite all the praise. Happily, it's not thick with nationalistic jingoism, at least not from any character we're given any reason to respect. A good deal of the subtext of the series is given to how casually cruel divisions of race, nationality and religion destroy lives and raise the risks of radicalizing the survivors. It's thoughtfully handled, even down to a side-plot where we follow some traumatic events in the life of a drone pilot with a conscience.
     The eponymous lead is played by John Krasinski, whose only previous work I'd seen was as the head of the family in 2018's A Quiet Place. I presume a great many people know him best from the American version of The Office, especially as it appears his character (Jim Halpert) was a regular throughout the entire 2005-2013, 188 episode run. I'll note simply as a matter of fact, and with no judgement, that I've never watched an episode of that version of the show. So, following him in Jack Ryan is my first prolonged exposure.
  He's solid and generally believable in the role, but I have to confess from the first close-up to the last, I couldn't completely shake the impression that I was watching Zachary Levi wearing a putty nose. (And maybe with something pushing his ears out a little.) It's not that it's either completely over the line into the territory of some Cyrano or Karl Malden absurdity, but it does seem to be a mildly ill-formed bit of asymmetry, especially when viewed straight on. My eyes kept being drawn to the center of his face. It's utterly trivial and completely unfair, but I'm just being honest about it.
  That's all I have the time for this week. Hopefully there's something in there you will (or already do) like.

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