Surprisingly, around the presents, phone calls, food, and other holiday shenanigans I managed 5 shows, and two movies. Not bad. Obviously, there wasn’t any major news coming out of Hollywood. Could you imagine if your show got cancelled on Christmas? Damn.

1) Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (Netflix)

English Audio Description?: Yes

Status: Limited

After figuring out that Scott may not be dead, Ramona goes and visits Scott’s ex girlfriends to see if they have any info to offer. The list is short.

Episode Grade: A-

2) The Santa Clauses (Disney Plus)

English Audio Description?: Yes

Status: Unknown

Santa has to take over Easter, since the bunny got transformed. Will Disney pick this up for a third season? Please, just let Tim Allen reboot home Improvement instead.

episode Grade: C

3) Our Flag Means Death (MAX)

English Audio Description Provided By: point 360

Narrated By: Roy Samuelson

Status: Not Yet Renewed

A big battle leads to an unlikely team-up, a wedding (?), and the loss of a crew member. Looks like they’ll have to get there… revenge.

Episode Grade: A-

4) Billions (Paramount Plus)

English Audio Description?: Yes

Narrated By: Paula Hoffman

Status: Final Season

Chuck Sr. Gets in trouble for trying to bribe someone at the DMV to give Kevin a license, which just serves as a wake up call to Kevin’s parents that they need to do more actual co-parenting. Also, the existence of self-repairing concrete puts one member of the trading floor at odds with doing his job, and stabbing an old friend in the back.

Episode Grade: A

5) Black Cake (Hulu)

English Audio Description?: Yes

Status: Limited?

The bombshell at the end of the last episode involved the brother/sister duo finding out they have a sibling. Honestly, while I’m usually all for calling out cultural appropriation, the way in which it’s done in that interview, almost like a “gotcha” moment made me hate their cause. I got what this food historian was trying to do, which was point out that a dish is so heavily recognized for being from a certain place, when it really is more of a global dish since it involves crops that are not native to that land. Had sugar not been brought to Jamaica, Jamaican Rum cake wouldn’t exist. She’s not trying to say white people are responsible for the cake, if anything, she points out that Sugar came from Asia to Jamaica, which is a blend of those cultures, which I thought was part of the reason of this show. Didn’t our matriarch mention she was part Asian in the first episode? I know it’s fake, but if I was supposed to get what those journalists were doing, I just ended up rolling my eyes at their inability to process information.

episode Grade: B+