The TV thread

My wife likes to leave ION on when she's doing chores, so I'll see NCIS episodes from a season or two ago, and it's amazing how much the formula is still the same. Like Harmon finally left, and they just have Gary Cole in there doing the exact same thing, playing pretty much the same character! The tiniest bit more outgoing, but still. Sean Murray (McGee) is the one holdover now and a completely boring nepo-baby casting act.

 

All of the shows are just standard cop shows - tweaked to somehow fit into NCIS jurisdiction. The show always seemed to be like one of those fake TV shows the cops on Law and Order would visit to interview someone involved with a case. Glad the people involved made a pile of money, but I never hooked into it. It even grinds my gears to see former Shield creator Shawn Ryan doing SWAT. The Shield was amazing. SWAT is not that.

 

SWAT is doing the same thing with changing out cast members. Chris (the super-hot, ass-kicking woman) is gone, also the guy she ended up with, Street. Now Luca is gone and Deac (apparently) is going. I don't like the replacement woman, Zoe Powell. Nor the two who come over from the other team to help out.

 

It's great as a period piece. Beloved for a reason. Brett's was a bit more current while staying true to the original.

Cumberbatch is a whole new world, of course.

It's interesting, the many portrayals of an iconic character.

 

It just bugs me when showrunners try to spin things as "creative" or "storytelling decisions" when really, they are told by the network to cut costs, cut salaries or the show will get the ax. Not really much of a "surprise" when SWAT was extended after losing a few original characters.

 

I unknowingly ran into a series called "Flaked" in which star Will Arnett is tooling around Venice, Ca., which is next to where I grew up. He has a bedroom scene with the former Chris character from SWAT, real name is Lina Esco.

 

CBS is into getting shows into syndication. That's about how far its interest extends.

 

Sugar just became a show I’ve never seen before.

 

And it’s awesome.

 

Jesus Christ, Reindeer Baby episode 4.

 

Sorry, I thought it was just awful. I had read that a huge twist was coming up in episode 6, but that’s just the dog ate my homework stuff. If Sugar was just a 1940s-50s detective in modern day LA, that would have been better than this nonsense.

 

I had to stop watching. I read recaps of the rest of the episodes because it was all too disturbing for me.