Endings, Returns, Extentions and Horrors Where You Find Them - Friday Video Distractions with Mike Norton
Friday, Once More!
Of the new shows I mentioned last week, the only one I made time for was the 10-part first season of Upload
(Amazon Prime). Generally light comedy, though with some darker
elements, as it wrestles with elements of mortality, along with the
features, problems and potential existential horrors of a manufactured,
pay-as-you-go afterlife. Layered in on this are the problems of a new
class of long distance relationship, and a mystery or two. A commercial
virtual reality Heaven requires either some serious personal dumbing
down or simply letting go in order to avoid dwelling on the potential
terror 
of
being reduced to code and have your new, potentially eternal reality
overseen by struggling wage slaves, often petty middle managers, and a
system that wants your (or, well, your estate or benefactor's) monthly
money, your official approval, but in general quality of afterlife will
largely depend on one's budget. Ultimately, the only thing we really
maintain control of is our own attitude.
I enjoyed the series, and am hoping we'll see a second season -- in large part because it closes with several cliffhangers. So far I'm not at all convinced Amazon's gotten a good handle on committing to their shows. In this modern, original, streaming content world, I firmly believe they shouldn't greenlight a project unless they're committed to budgeting for an ending. If a season wraps and they decide it doesn't merit another season, they should have a reserve set aside to at least deliver the production of a series-wrapping special. That they're building an exclusive library of content that people must (at least for legal viewing) come and subscribe to in order to see, should get them to want to wrap shows as complete projects. I know I'm going to be reluctant to recommend a series that just trails off, ending on a cliffhanger episode.
Between Amazon's extremely guarded viewer metrics, and the COVID-19 production shutdown that's halting all new filming, who knows if or when a second season of Upload will be shot?
Next Tuesday, May 12th, will see Netflix' second interactive special project (the first being Black Mirror: Bandersnatch) as a special coda for one of their original comedy series The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs The Reverend.
of
being reduced to code and have your new, potentially eternal reality
overseen by struggling wage slaves, often petty middle managers, and a
system that wants your (or, well, your estate or benefactor's) monthly
money, your official approval, but in general quality of afterlife will
largely depend on one's budget. Ultimately, the only thing we really
maintain control of is our own attitude.I enjoyed the series, and am hoping we'll see a second season -- in large part because it closes with several cliffhangers. So far I'm not at all convinced Amazon's gotten a good handle on committing to their shows. In this modern, original, streaming content world, I firmly believe they shouldn't greenlight a project unless they're committed to budgeting for an ending. If a season wraps and they decide it doesn't merit another season, they should have a reserve set aside to at least deliver the production of a series-wrapping special. That they're building an exclusive library of content that people must (at least for legal viewing) come and subscribe to in order to see, should get them to want to wrap shows as complete projects. I know I'm going to be reluctant to recommend a series that just trails off, ending on a cliffhanger episode.
Between Amazon's extremely guarded viewer metrics, and the COVID-19 production shutdown that's halting all new filming, who knows if or when a second season of Upload will be shot?
Next Tuesday, May 12th, will see Netflix' second interactive special project (the first being Black Mirror: Bandersnatch) as a special coda for one of their original comedy series The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs The Reverend.
Kimmy ran for four seasons - 51 episodes
- and tried to give the show a proper measure of closure when those
final episodes rolled out late January 2019. It was never a show that I
loved, and at first bite I set it aside for a little while, finding the
majority of the characters unlikable, but when I gave it a second chance
it worked better for me.
As a once-upon-a-time fan of Project Runway, there's some interest in checking out Tim Gunn's latest co-project, Making The Cut (Amazon Prime), but I'm not sure.
In this series, rather than working with untested unknowns in competition for a first, professional break, it's a competition among people who've already broken into the world of fashion design, but are now looking for capital and a spotlight to allow them to launch as a global brand. I haven't seen more than this trailer, and I can't tell whether it's not sparking or if my potential enthusiasm's just a little too damp to catch. It's been years since I last got into any reality show competition, and it's possible I've just quietly aged out of that era of entertainment's appeal.
As a once-upon-a-time fan of Project Runway, there's some interest in checking out Tim Gunn's latest co-project, Making The Cut (Amazon Prime), but I'm not sure.
In this series, rather than working with untested unknowns in competition for a first, professional break, it's a competition among people who've already broken into the world of fashion design, but are now looking for capital and a spotlight to allow them to launch as a global brand. I haven't seen more than this trailer, and I can't tell whether it's not sparking or if my potential enthusiasm's just a little too damp to catch. It's been years since I last got into any reality show competition, and it's possible I've just quietly aged out of that era of entertainment's appeal.
In the New To Me category this time, I've finally just gotten around to starting to watch the IFC series Brockmire. "Just" as in watching the first few episodes last night.
Starring Hank Azaria, based on a character he created for an episode of Funny Or Die back in 2010, it's the story of a Kansas City baseball announcer who in 2007 had an alcohol-fueled meltdown while covering a play-by-play for a game, in which he starts to interject the tale of recently finding out about his wife's orgiastic infidelities. He tells the tale in increasingly profane detail -- all while at least at first continuing to smoothly cover the game -- until they pull the plug on his broadcast. A press conference to try to clear the air, apologize, and possibly salvage his career turns out to be far too soon for someone who has only begun to process his betrayal and loss, so he melts down all over again -- this time on camera. Following that, he left the country, and spent most of the following ten years in Asian countries as an announcer for other sporting events, including cockfighting. During that time his substance abuse issues expand, as does general, wanton debauchery as he continues his descent.
The series sees him back in the states in 2017, lured by a job offer to be the official announcer of a minor league team in Morristown, PA, the Frackers (formerly Savages.) It's a town that's also tapping the bottom of its descent, much like Brockmire himself. It's here that Brockmire discovers that in the years he's been gone his on-air meltdowns and the surrounding circumstances had gone viral on the Internet, becoming well-known memes. With really nowhere else to go, he decides to provisionally stay on the job (which had been misrepresented as something grander), as he tries to rebuild his life and career in a world where his moments of greatest emotional pain have become well-worn jokes.
General, unabashed profanity, graphic sexual references, and drug use all mark this as something other than family-friendly (well, I suppose it depends on the family), but so far it's proving to be entertaining. The biggest stumbling block so far is that it's maybe a bit heavy on the aging male lead sexual fantasy front, as he of course, quickly gets into a relationship with the hot, younger female co-star, Amanda Peet. To be fair, Azaria's only 8 years older than Peet, so it's not the grotesque half-his-age relationship more commonly seen in these fantasies; the sense of age difference is mostly intensified by how frozen Brockmire's professional fashion sense is in an earlier era.
The series just recently (as in, I now see) this past Wednesday wrapped its fourth and final season, each 8 episodes, for a total of 32 episodes, each around 22 minutes long. The first three episodes are on Hulu, and at least for now I see that the full 8-episode fourth season is available as on-demand for me as IFC is part of my cable package.
Starring Hank Azaria, based on a character he created for an episode of Funny Or Die back in 2010, it's the story of a Kansas City baseball announcer who in 2007 had an alcohol-fueled meltdown while covering a play-by-play for a game, in which he starts to interject the tale of recently finding out about his wife's orgiastic infidelities. He tells the tale in increasingly profane detail -- all while at least at first continuing to smoothly cover the game -- until they pull the plug on his broadcast. A press conference to try to clear the air, apologize, and possibly salvage his career turns out to be far too soon for someone who has only begun to process his betrayal and loss, so he melts down all over again -- this time on camera. Following that, he left the country, and spent most of the following ten years in Asian countries as an announcer for other sporting events, including cockfighting. During that time his substance abuse issues expand, as does general, wanton debauchery as he continues his descent.
The series sees him back in the states in 2017, lured by a job offer to be the official announcer of a minor league team in Morristown, PA, the Frackers (formerly Savages.) It's a town that's also tapping the bottom of its descent, much like Brockmire himself. It's here that Brockmire discovers that in the years he's been gone his on-air meltdowns and the surrounding circumstances had gone viral on the Internet, becoming well-known memes. With really nowhere else to go, he decides to provisionally stay on the job (which had been misrepresented as something grander), as he tries to rebuild his life and career in a world where his moments of greatest emotional pain have become well-worn jokes.
General, unabashed profanity, graphic sexual references, and drug use all mark this as something other than family-friendly (well, I suppose it depends on the family), but so far it's proving to be entertaining. The biggest stumbling block so far is that it's maybe a bit heavy on the aging male lead sexual fantasy front, as he of course, quickly gets into a relationship with the hot, younger female co-star, Amanda Peet. To be fair, Azaria's only 8 years older than Peet, so it's not the grotesque half-his-age relationship more commonly seen in these fantasies; the sense of age difference is mostly intensified by how frozen Brockmire's professional fashion sense is in an earlier era.
The series just recently (as in, I now see) this past Wednesday wrapped its fourth and final season, each 8 episodes, for a total of 32 episodes, each around 22 minutes long. The first three episodes are on Hulu, and at least for now I see that the full 8-episode fourth season is available as on-demand for me as IFC is part of my cable package.
Much of the rest of my viewing this past week's been on shows I've already discussed in earlier Friday pieces. Killing Eve (Sunday nights on both AMC and BBC America), Penny Dreadful: City of Angels (Sunday nights, Showtime), and What We Do In the Shadows (Wednesday nights, FX), all of which I continue to enjoy.
Oh! AMC recently started to run pairs of episodes of the horror anthology Creepshow Monday nights. A series developed for the streaming service Shudder, which I don't have, so these are, again, new to me. Each have so far been enjoyable, one-and-done little horror stories, loosely, distantly evocative of old EC horror comics. The second pair of these stories will air Monday night at 10 pm Eastern.
Oh! AMC recently started to run pairs of episodes of the horror anthology Creepshow Monday nights. A series developed for the streaming service Shudder, which I don't have, so these are, again, new to me. Each have so far been enjoyable, one-and-done little horror stories, loosely, distantly evocative of old EC horror comics. The second pair of these stories will air Monday night at 10 pm Eastern.
Monday's (May 11th) pair will be "Bad Wolf Down" and "The Finger." The former is set in WWII and includes horror fave Jeffrey Combs as Nazi office Reinhard, while the latter stars DJ Qualls.
That's it for this week. While still mostly in the work-at-home camp,
I've nonetheless been working throughout this weird scenario we've all
been in since roughly mid-March, so there are limits to how much time I
have to just watch shows and movies.I hope this finds you managing to keep yourself together. -Mike
I'll have to check out Brockmire. I like HA, and recall begrudgingly taking my youngest to a Smurf movie. I perked up at the crazy dialog of Azaria's (voice over) character and decided they must have let him write it. Is this a little Bojack Horseman-like? I liked UKimmy Schmidt's first season a lot, but never got back to it. I'd definitely tune in to see Kimmy vs Th Reverend, though. I'm still hoping to see What we do in the Shadows. Loved the movie, but have yet to see even one episode of that.
ReplyDeleteBrockmire has similar themes and subject matter to Bojack. So far (I'm not far into it yet) Azaria's doing a great job of it, walking tightrope between debauched and both oddly ethical and self-aware. There are elements that remind me of Hunter Thompson, as his mind can be freewheeling and clearly under the influence of whatever he happens to be on at the time, yet he remains sharp and aware of the moment-to-moment actions on the field such that he continues to call plays in alternation with whatever else he's having a side conversation about.
ReplyDeleteWhat We Do In the Shadows has been great fun as a series. They added a character - a different variety of vampire - to the housemates and while I was initially skeptical it's not only worked, but gotten better in the second season.