The TV thread

Yeah, I just can't really follow the point anymore.

 

First episode was pretty good.

 

I saw a promo for a CNN documentary about a kidnapping of a school bus in Chowchilla, CA.

Stunned I had never heard of this crime story.

The show wasn't that good. Slow and there wasn't a great mystery. There were some interesting subplots, but there were no answers. The stories about the victims after were sad.

 

Does subtlety exist in the Fargo universe?

 

Scared the hell out of us CA kids back then.

Just saying “Chowchilla” is chilling.

 

Why isn't it some touchstone crime? I can't believe I had never heard of it it in fifty years in the time of Dateline, 48 Hours, and true crime podcasts?

 

I remember it well. On top of everything else, one of my grandmothers was bridge buddies with the mother of the brothers. The father had a podiatry practice in an upscale city on the SF Peninsula. He even did some work on my feet in my teens. Hope the kids aren't depending on an inheritance, since every dime went to their lawyers.

Years later I went to Chowchilla High a couple of times to cover football, but was never there long enough or when there was enough sunlight to see any memorials/commemorations. And when I worked wire desk, would let the higher-ups know one of the three had been denied parole - again.

(Chowchilla High had one of the most awesome walk-ins I've ever seen. They'd march in accompanied by about two dozen Harleys, all revving. But I digress...)

Biggest takeaway I got from the documentary was how little we knew how the victims were affected mentally by the kidnapping and how little help there was for them. I know the running gag on Poin threads is "counselors are available for students," but that is the new norm. Mental health pros are on the scene at major events alongside paramedics, doctors and nurses.

 

It happened before cable news- probably broke after the east coast news cycle went to sleep. It was "over" the next day, even before the kidnappers issued their ransom demands. But I agree - cable news would have been all over it with "Where Is Chowchilla School Bus" chyron, special theme music etc for the duration.
Sidenote - Lou Grant did a "take" on the aftermath, suggesting parents in a fictionalized version of the story coached their kids to be more "traumatized" than they actually were. Which I thought was pretty bold for a TV show to do.

 

It doesn't need to. Tell me it doesn't keep you engaged.

 

When I read or watch something, I don't like feeling I have been whacked over the head by a 2x4.

The movie Lone Star is the best example.

 

The Albert Brooks documentary on Max was fantastic

 

Somebody mentioned this well above, but - as someone who doesn't spend much time on TV - will highly recommend Berlin Station. Spy series that includes some of the spycraft in the action. No out-of-this world, James Bond-type maneuvers ... just acts that would seem to be in the realm of possibility (some of the person-to-person combat excepted). Third season mentions 2014/Crimea a lot and has considerable resonance with pre-February 2022 Europe.

Negatives include a tendency to lean on unnecessary car chases as the series moves on and the end-of-the-run "mental" issues for the No. 2 at Berlin Station. It might just be me, but there was a lot less smoking after the first season; in that one, it seems as if every scene had someone(s) lighting up.

Best part of all: The character played by Rhys Ifans. I'm not sure I've encountered him before this. His look - as if he's perpetually hungover, scornfully angry and disdainful - pairs perfectly with his character. Among the most compelling characters I've encountered in all my years of watching television.

Got it as part of a free trial on MGM+ ... and was able to plow through all three seasons before the free trial ran out.