The TV thread

I finished Barry and was impressed with it Episodes 7 & 8 (the last in the season) are strong. It might not be built for the long run, but I thought the season worked as a complete story.

 

I can't believe that "Rise" has apparently been cancelled after its debut season. After almost every episode, I thought, or said aloud, what a good show I thought it was. I can't believe I was the only one. I think I liked it even better than "This Is Us," the show for which it was an interim replacement.

 

I watched every episode. I think NBC whiffed on it trying to cram that much story into 10 episodes. Making Mazzu unlikeable (intentionally or not) was tough to recover from. He still came off as a selfish jerk in the last episode.

 

Have you seen How I Met Your Mother? I think that might be a trait of the actor in general... I found him to be the least enjoyable of the regulars of that cast, tied with Robin.

 

It was the way the character was written - a white guy with no previous interest in theater approaching the principal and getting the gig over someone who has been with the program for 10 years? Yeah - that was kinda hard to take.

 

Because it is the 30th anniversary of the St. Elsewhere finale, it’s a great time to take a look at the Tommy Westphall Theory. Does almost everything we watch on TV come from the imagination of a boy staring at a snow globe?

Tommy Westphall - Wikipedia

http://www.vulture.com/2018/05/the-st-elsewhere-finale-at-30.html

 

In addition to Law and Order - all the Law and Orders when you think of it - Warren Coolidge of The White Shadow also was a regular on St. Elsewhere.

And All of SportsCenter

 

It’s not the type of show we usually discuss, but “The Middle” had an outstanding finale.

It wrapped up the series really well

 

Wife and I caught up on this in the past week. I agree the finale was really good, but they really botched the Sue-Sean thing by letting it drag on for almost two seasons.

We shrugged when the payoff came, even though it was executed well.

 

Liked the "15 years later" part at the end, especially Axl dealing with three teen-aged Axls. Well done.

 

Alan Sepinwall to become TV critic at Rolling Stone. I really enjoy his work and podcasts, so hopefully he will continue to be prolific.

 

Binged the last few episodes of "Lost in Space." Yeah, it's gonna morph into "monster of the week" like the original if it gets another season. But recasting Dr. Smith as female was a bold decision, because the inevitable catfight between Smith and Maureen is going to be epic!