The TV thread

Looking to check out Reboot on Hulu from the creator of Modern Family about a cast from a '90s sitcom giving it another go 30 years later.

 

That show looks really good, and I'm kind of shocked at how good the cast is. Also, Judy Greer is aging like fine wine.

 

Which has nothing to do with Fuller House?

 

For true crime people out there, you've probably heard of the batshit insane story of Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell. There's cults. There's multiple murders. There's beauty queens. And the overarching mystery: what happened to Lori's two youngest children, Tylee and JJ.

That case now has a three-part Netflix series, Sins of Our Mother.

These people are crazy. Those poor children.

 

Fun fact about this miniseries: the filmmakers stole my station's video for this. Like, blatantly.

Co-worker who has covered the case extensively from near the beginning watched the documentary and was surprised to see himself pop up interviewing Lori's mother and sister (I think) in what is a fairly key plot point of the case.

They never asked us for permission or the ability to license the video. Hope they got a good payday from Netflix because they're going to end up writing us a substantial check.

(Also, they have some kid from the local Fox affiliate in the doc announcing that he's the only local reporter who covered the story. My station has been all over it for years and even made repeated trips to Idaho.)

 

The plus side: More scripted TV.

Why can't a character just be from Alaska?

 

I love Judy Greer.

 

The new "Quantum Leap" - Somewhere between 'wait and see' and 'meh' for me. The two leads have some chemistry. But unlike the original, about a quarter to a half of the first episode is navel gazing about the project itself, and talk of a conspiracy that pretty much gives away the twists that are going to be teased or happen on that side later in the season. This FEELS like a show that had a ton of executive meddling, straight down to there being a voiceover narration in the opening minute. Since it's on Mondays opposite football, it's probably going to get slaughtered.

 

That's a good take. I may be misremembering, but there also seems to be a lot more interaction between the leaper and his hologram guide than there was between Beckett and Al.

 

I think the original made the smart decision to give you very rare glimpses of the project itself, rightly thinking that it was better to let you imagine about what "future computer technology" would look like. Also, well, it kept casting costs down - Bakula and Stockwell were the only regulars you needed to pay.

The new series (I believe) retcons the date of the original experiment to around 1995, which is one of those details that only invites more questions rather than providing useful information. Also, the techies are absolutely the same group of weirdo, quirky folks you'd see on any other TV show, whether they've investigating crime scenes for the NYPD or the Navy or Red Reddington. I can understand wanting to supply a "mystery box" aspect to the proceedings - the last few seasons of the original did this, with the evil leapers and the final episode - but they gave away the whole damn show with the reveal in the final minute of the premiere.

 

I'm just curuiou how far they go with recent history on QL. A 9/11 episode? Trump? Hurricane Katrina? Jan. 6th? Whe at is interesting about the premise - and the reboot - is they can go anywhere within the leapers lifespan. Watched a few of the old episodes during a marathon and realized the opening leap was a great "hook" (how is he going to get out of the immediate situation), then you want to find out what the story is/why its "important" - and then where he leaps to next (and before I knew it, I was watching another episode and killing another hour. The other thing I realized is that each episode could have easily have been just a self-contained story about someone facing a crisis/pivotal moment (I imagine the show was a popular choice to send "spec scripts" for writers) and then just throw in the various QL stuff.

 

A big difference with this one is the team can now Google the person or event and see what it is they are trying to change. They didn't have that capability with the original.

So, for example, they can research and see that Billy Smith got runover by a train, so they know to keep Billy away from the tracks.