Scattershot - Friday Video Distractions by Mike Norton

   Much less focus this week, as I've been catching up here and there, mostly on still-ongoing shows.

   Over on Showtime, this weekend will see episodes 9 & 10 close out the second season of Kidding, the Jim Carrey-starring series I'd talked about back on January 17th.
  Despite the roughly half-hour format the episodes are dense, and in a good way.
  As of this writing I've watched through episode 6, and continue to be drawn in by a show that's alternately funny and deeply touching. That they've managed to sustain the infectious earnestness of Carrey's Jeff Piccirillo is perhaps the most welcome accomplishment of the series. Nothing's for everyone, of course, but I feel a little sad for those who can't connect with the show emotionally.
  Over on HBO, another roughly half-hour format comedy series which also airs each Sunday is the sci-fi comedy Avenue 5.
  Starring Hugh Laurie, and set in the not distant future, we're aboard the titular cruise ship that's embarked on what was supposed to be an eight week tour of the Solar system. Things don't go as planned.  
  An extremely timely bit of theming, we see the cascade of errors and reactions as an operation run by a dimwitted man solely because he has the fortune to allow him to live in a personal bubble where no one tells him "no," and where he can continue to believe that he's always right and always the smartest man in the room. We as a nation are trapped in a scenario where just such a moron (well, a less endearing one) is being allowed to be in charge, and much like the very, very few technically competent characters on the show, we're left aghast by a system that seems to validate and reward the wrong people -- all while life keeps going to hell.
  Much of the show's comedy is based on failures and how they're spun, and the sense that morons, for whom perceptions are the only important reality, are controlling the narrative. The wrong people get the blame, while other wrong people get the credit, and we even get the horribly on-the-nose example of people literally being dazzled by a shit show.
  They seem to be playing it cagey with something as simple as the number of episodes in this first season - so far the 9th episode, scheduled for March 15th, is as much as is listed. That the announcement of a second season was made last month has already let us know it's not as if the story's set to end this season, but maybe they want to play with the audience a little by having the season end on an odd number of episodes.

   Over on AMC, the fifth season of the Breaking Bad prequel spin-off series Better Call Saul returned back on February 23rd.  We're three episodes into this 10-episode season, and the show continues to draw me in. (Seasons 1-4 are available on Netflix.)
   Back in 2013, when development of the show was announced, I was surprised that anyone was planning this. A show, set a few years earlier than the events of Breaking Bad, centered on one of the show's supporting characters?
  As they demonstrated to me during the first season, the prequel tale is of far greater interest than I would have ever imagined.
  Starring Bob Odenkirk as the man who would become showy huckster lawyer Saul Goodman, we were introduced to Jimmy McGill. A small-time con man with a good heart but highly elastic ethics, whose older brother (played brilliantly by Michael McKean) was a fastidious, highly-accomplished and respected corporate lawyer. The comparison and contrast, and the relationship between those two characters, was alone a justification for the series, though it's brought us so much more.  I imagine that fans of Better Call Saul are mainly of two types: Those who are grooving primarily on Breaking Bad Easter egg elements, as characters we first met on that show at a later point in their lives make appearances here, and those who've become captivated with Jimmy's journey to becoming Saul Goodman, the man we met in Breaking Bad. I'm far more rooted in the latter group. Sure, I like seeing the familiar faces pop up, knowing what will eventually happen to each, but for me those are just sideshow elements.The origin story for Saul - along with fixer Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks), and a few other supporting characters and eventual adversaries - are the things I'm mostly there for.  This fifth season marks the arrival on the scene of Saul, as the people in Jimmy's life - and Jimmy himself - begin to feel the effects of his transformation. Seeing the people who mean so much to Jimmy, yet knowing that some of these are people we never saw in Saul's life during the slightly later era of Breaking Bad, draw us more deeply into this prequel, even though some part of us is afraid of what the answers to the question "What happened to..?" in each case will end up being. We've already gotten at least one of those answers.
  It's been confirmed that this is the penultimate season - a sixth and final one, made up of 13 episodes, will air in 2021. Not at all that I want it to end, but this is good news as my biggest fear from the start was that they might let it go on too long so long as it was successful. Honestly, I should have known to give series creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould the credit they were due, and so the full benefit of any doubt.
  Could someone who hasn't watched Breaking Bad jump into Better Call Saul? Well, maybe, but the series is framed by scenes of where Saul/Jimmy is now, in the aftermath of events of Breaking Bad, so there would be a good deal of confusion, along with not knowing enough to be anxious about what one's seeing.
  Otherwise, there's a seeming embarrassment of riches on the video front, as there are more series almost by the week that I've not sampled or caught up on. Maybe I will with some of them before this time next week.     - Mike
Shows and movies hit on in previous posts:

 Sept. 20th: Mindhunter (Netflix)

     Sept. 27th: What's The Matter With Helen, The French Connection, and Frenzy. (Early '70s R-rated movies I saw with my mom)

     Oct. 3rd:    Preacher (AMC), Stumptown (ABC), Sunnyside (NBC), The Good Place (NBC), and Jack Ryan (Amazon Prime).

     Oct. 11th:  Joker (still in theaters), and In The Tall Grass (Netflix)

     Oct. 18th:  El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (Netflix)

     Oct. 25th: Dolemite Is My Name (Netflix)

     Nov. 1st:   Watchmen (HBO series), The Kominsky Method (Netflix)

     Nov. 8th:   Seconds (1966 movie, currently available as part of Amazon Prime)
     Nov. 15th: Dr. Sleep (current theatrical release, but probably not for long), Horace and Pete (2016 web-produced series, currently on Hulu)
     Nov. 22nd: NOS4A2 (AMC, now on Hulu) and Man In The High Castle (Amazon Prime)

     Nov. 29th: The Irishman (Netflix), The Mandalorian and The World According To Jeff Goldblum (both on Disney+), light touches on Watchmen (HBO) and Ray Donovan (Showtime)
  Dec, 6th: The Booth At the End (Amazon Prime), and Us (HBO).

Dec 13th:  Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon Prime), The Feed (Amazon Prime), 6 Underground (Netflix movie).

  Dec 20th:A Christmas Carol (FX), The Expanse (Amazon Prime), Killing Eve (BBC America)
  Dec 27th: Lost In Space season 2, and first impressions of The Witcher, both on Netflix.
  Jan. 3rd: Black Mirror (Netflix) and Phillip K. Dick's Electric Dreams (Amazon Prime). 
  Jan 10th: Undone (Amazon Prime), Witcher (Netflix) and Dracula (Netflix/BBC One). 
  Jan 17th: Kidding (Showtime) 
  Jan 24th: No shows, just some movie mentions as I recall some places that no longer exist.
  Jan 31st: October Faction (Netflix) and the finale of The Good Place (NBC).
  Feb 7th: Messiah (Netflix)
  Feb 14th: Locke & Key (Netflix)
  Feb 21st: Skidoo (1968 film, available free on YouTube)
  Feb 28th: The Lighthouse (2019 movie)

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