Where Am I Now... and Why? - Friday Video Distractions with Mike Norton

   This week's main piece (I also have a separate one, appearing on the blog today just before this post, looking ahead to August's month of star spotlights on TCM) includes a time-looping romantic comedy I recommend, a black comedy sci-fi anthology I'll merely point out, with a shade of suggestion, closing with a quick reminder for a returning, niche series.
  Two weeks ago Hulu premiered a romantic comedy I only just got around to this mid-week. Generally I'm not rushing to see that sort of thing, but the mentions I'd seen had been good. Starring Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti, Peter Gallagher and J.K. Simmons, Palm Springs (2020, R, 90 min.) is conceptual kin to the 1993 Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day. Skewing a tad younger, much raunchier, and involving some darker aspects that were part of the original concept for that earlier film, only wisps of which made it into the finished '93 script, this is a movie with its own footing.

   Time will tell if this will stick around for as many rewatches as Groundhog Day has gotten since 1993 -- the two biggest strikes against it are that the era and setting will see it age poorly, and that it's in no way as broadly "family friendly" as the earlier film was, between the sex and violence alone -- but I enjoyed it enough to think I'd want to give it a second viewing sometime in the not so distant future.

   I do like that it at least brushed against one of the things that concerned me when it came to the basic concept -- that someone who'd been trapped in the same cycle again and again possibly for more years than any human has ever lived would at least have trouble even remembering the details of the life they had just before being falling into the loop. I also like that via bringing two other perspectives into the process they explore some drawbacks to it better than the earlier film did. J.K. Simmons' character's arc, for instance, is instructive on at the drawbacks of an arrested, looped existence for a family man. With over a quarter century of people having the Groundhog Day scenario to ponder, it's good to get a new run at it.
   Also greatly appreciated is the thought that went into the experience of going through this loop, where while all physical damage is erased with each reset, the experiences and memories of the same persist. If anything, the lesson that one's internal life is the only linear, growing thing, seems to be an underdeveloped element here. Oh, it's there -- and it's completely understandable that ultimately boredom with the known would drive most people beyond the appeal of this style of eternity -- but not necessarily everyone. Fans of The Good Place (and are there any who watched it who didn't become fans?) should have reason to do a little compare and contrast with the revised afterlife of the final episodes of that series.
  When I do eventually rewatch it, I'm afraid I might be impatient through much of it because I'll be wanting to get to the final scenes, including the mid-credits scene. I'm bothered by a point or two, especially the temporal mechanics implied in that last scene.

  Anyway, I found it worth the time, and believe it's a good conversation-starter of a film.
  Also on Hulu, I recently got around to a 6-episode anthology series, Dimension 404, from 2017.
A black comedy approach to an Outer Limits (90's version) type show, each episode is its own, separate scenario and cast, so they can be watched in any order. It's nearly certain some will work better for you than others, though there's the possibility that none of them will, if you're going to insist on a well-rounded and satisfying story. Definitely no hard-sell here, I almost didn't bother to write about these. Having just spent the time to watch them, recognizing that each has a concept to play with (something at least to suggest a better story for each), the casts have their points of interest, including Mark Hamill providing the narration, and that they're not major time investments, I decided they're just over the threshold of worth being mentioned.

   Much as with the majority of the stories in Black Mirror (all of which are available over on Netflix) this is not the place to go for upbeat tales, which isn't to say there aren't some upbeat elements here and there. The trap door that because it's ultimately intended to be comedic that we're expected to forgive plot holes will likely never sit comfortably with me. Sloppy plotting is sloppy plotting, and I don't accept that we may be expected to apply the same suspension of disbelief to a story as we would to a "duck walks into a bar" joke. Your mileage may vary, and I'm open to the idea that something that didn't seem to work for me on first view might turn out to be a matter of perspective. It's not life or death, after all, just entertainment.

  Also as with Black Mirror, there are elements of tech that are key to each story.
  So, with the proviso that you understand it's an anthology series, with one story having nothing to do with the next - you may hate one but enjoy the next - I can suggest giving these roughly 29-46 minute tales a look.
  Even while you're not uniformly entertained, each gives something to roll over in the mind, and to at least briefly discuss afterwards if you're watching them with someone else. Having just shot through these in a short stretch I'm reluctant to rank the six episodes, though I'll say that the fourth story, "Polybius", is probably the biggest mess in the mix - which virtually guarantees that eventually someone who reads this will find this to be a favorite episode.  If nothing else, you should have plenty of "Oh! That's the guy/gal from <movie or tv series>" moments as you roll through these.
  Oh, as I know I'm not the only one who loses track of shows with spotty broadcast histories, I want to mention that the Syfy channel's supernatural Western series Wynona Earp will be returning for its fourth season this upcoming Sunday night, July 26th.
   It was renewed for this to be another 12-episode season, but indications are that they didn't get started on filming until 2020, and - like every other show - had their production suspended by COVID-19, so I'm unsure how many episodes they managed to put together. I won't be surprised to find this is just a partial season, with them wanting to get what they had out there for the sake of ad revenue and keeping the show alive. After all, I've just learned, when approval was given for season four it was also given for a season five, so it's not set to just sputter out this season.

  Being used to having Syfy shows just quietly fade away, I suspect this is one of those shows that's slipped some viewers' minds, and if it did cross their minds in recent months it was probably to just presume it had been canceled. I'm fairly sure I didn't see past its second season, so I'll need to catch up on season three first -- the first three seasons are all over on Netflix. (Well, Amazon Prime has them, too, if you want to pay extra for them.) In the meantime I've set the DVR up to start recording the new ones.
   That's enough for this week. Next Friday I expect to be indulging in the new season of Umbrella Academy (Netflix), as I'd mentioned last time.
   Enjoy your weekend, and try to keep cool, wherever you are.  - Mike