The TV thread

Damn, I didn't know "I'm Sorry" had been canceled. Loved that show.

 

I am so fucking watching this shit.

 

With my daughter home from college for Christmas time, we just got done watching Season 4 of The Crown.

Enjoyable overall, although the Charles-Diana stuff was familiar ground to me. My daughter enjoyed it all, and now is watching/reading more about Diana.

Personally, I think the shows strongest episodes involve (A) little-known (to me, anyway) bits of history, expertly recreated, and (B) episodes featuring Princess Margaret.

So IHMO the best Season 4 episodes were about the guy who broke into the palace, and the Queen Mother's nieces shuttered up in a mental institution.

 

My wife and I are a bit late to the party on Queen's Gambit, but we watched the first two episodes today and will be watching the rest.

 

Queen's Gambit just keeps getting better as it goes. Even parts they telegraph were done well.

 

Wife and I binged Schitts Creek over the last couple of weeks. I really wish I had found this show earlier. It was so good. The love story between David and Patrick was perfect and I wish I had time to marinate in it. At one point they mention they had been together for two years but it felt like it just started. And there were bits of each character I could see members of my own family in which really helped with the connection.

We watched a short documentary on the show and Dan Levy said when they first conceived of the show, they spent weeks doing nothing but character planning. It showed. Everyone stayed true to who they were even as they developed.

Lastly, it isn't often a comedy makes me cry. I cried twice watching it. I think the last time was HIMYM when Marshall lost his dad. I noticed the countdown early and really really thought it was building to a pregnancy announcement. Then Lily gets out of the car and she's crying. And they didn't tell a joke. Just let it stand. And Schitts Creek did the same thing. They let the emotional parts just be their thing and didn't break the tension with a joke.

 

It doesn't strike me as my sort of humor, but I will have to watch Schitt's Creek at some point. How I Met Your Mother had some serious flaws, the worst of which was the ending, but that show knew how to deliver an emotional gut punch. Ted finally gets together with Robin, then comes home to find Marshall alone on the steps, having broken up with Lilly was a good one. Lily telling Marshall his father died blew that scene out of the water. Of course, it is better if you notice the countdown, which I didn't on the first viewing. Then they go from Marshall filled with joy and excitement about finding out his swimmers were fine, and then running outside to share the news with his father to "I'm not ready for this." I assume it is more powerful for anyone who has lost a parent. Even without the context, the scene works. I have heard that the actual script initially had Lily telling Marshall that she was pregnant, then they switched it and didn't tell Jason Segal. The shot they used was his improvised reaction. I don't know if that is true, but it's a cool thought.

The countdown just makes it better.

 

Everything I've read of that moment says Segal didn't know it was coming so they could get a genuine reaction. I think I said it on a thread here after it aired, but the "I'm not ready for this" was the perfect reaction in that moment. I don't know how Segal channeled that line, but you can see the gut punch in his face and the disbelief when he repeats "my dad is dead?" His line as they fade to black just made you want to call your parents and tell them you love them.

And now I'm getting verklempt. Talk among yourselves.

 

Jumped back on Peacock and putzed around looking for something I've never seen and started Wiseguy. I remember my dad watched it but I never had interest. Mostly thru episode 1 and it's interesting but cliché but interesting enough to make me want to keep going. I like that Jonathan Banks is in it, he was in 3-4 episodes of Lou Grant and plays characters well. Looking back at 1987 is lol now. I was 16.

 

My three favorite from season 4: the Buckingham break-in, the Australia trip and the apartheid episode

From season 3: the art collection director and Aberfan

 

I'm rewatching. Alexis just graduated and it was David's birthday and it made me teary eyed. I love these people so.