the way my week works, is that I typically try and introduce new shows on Sunday to my rotation, and then Monday starts going through another episode of each show I’ve decided to continue with. So, this Sunday, my watching of Sexy Beast (Paramount Plus) was so disjointed and interrupted, I decided I’d just use its “second” episode that would happen later this week to rewatch the pilot coherently. but, technically I tried. While I do really enjoy the Jonathan Glazer film on which the series is adapted, it’s been years since I’ve seen the film. At least twenty, but I saw it twice within the year it was released, and I think it was my first memorable encounter with Ray Winstone, where I really noticed him as an actor.

I did make it through Griselda (Netflix) and my initial thoughts on it were a toss up, much like the shows I started last week. It does have Sofia Vergara, which earns it at least one more episode, but tonally I’m not sure where this series is. it didn’t feel dark enough to be a serious crime drama, though it seems to want that. The audio description is a bit too light for that effect, in my opinion. In the pilot, there’s a lot of death and damaging, and when a character is struck with a machete in the arm, later he gets up. It does reference that his arm was struck, but machete’s are usually not something to fool around with, and I kinda wanted a better description of where he got hit, and how bad, since that character did end up surviving. It’s a small spoiler, I know, but sometimes to talk about a frustrating part, we have to dive in. It’s not like he was attacked with a fork. Jason slaughters people with a machete in Friday the 13th for a reason. it requires very little work.

Masters Of The Air (Apple Plus) has a nice strong start, and is for all those folk who enjoyed The Pacific, Band Of brothers, or any other war time limited series. Austin Butler doesn’t sound like Elvis, thank God, and they rolled out Laura Post for this narration. She rarely does TV it seems, but it just highlighted the importance Apple is putting on this. It does have an ensemble cast, and it will take more than one episode for us to learn who everyone is.

Ex-Pats (Amazon) has an interesting premise it nearly throws right out of the door. The show begins with the voice of a young sounding girl talking about what happens to the people who accidentally kill or maim someone, and how do they go about leading their lives. We hear that this girl is one of those, and then we spend the whole episode learning about Nicole Kidman. While there are definitely remanants of that in Kidman’s story, it also lacks the initial promise that we’d be learning about other people. I think this is just about Kidman, and her past, which makes the premise less interesting. However, even though I’m already a little bored, it’s freaking Nicole Kidman, so I’m stuck watching this for a few episodes regardless. The audio description is definitely above average, and will likely be useful as the series progresses, since it takes place in Hong Kong.

Julia (MAX) wrapped its run in the most awkward fashion, with the show within the show ordering another season, yet MAX did not. So, while the Emmy nominated French Chef would have gone on to make another season, we won’t get to see that. The final episode is truly satisfying, as with the blessing of her husband, Julia helps her work family sidestep what should be a totally illegal FBI search. The best part was watching David Hyde Pierce as the supportive husband tell the FBI that he truly doesn’t care what they say about him, because he is content with who he is as a person, and the love he has for Julia. No idea why this was axed, as it is a terribly disappointing decision.

I did also work another episode of Mr Robot (Amazon) in, which I’m still trying to get through for the first time. It has audio description for prime subscribers. At least, it has so far.