Lots of sixes yesterday. The month, day, and year all ended in a six. 666. I’d say the devil has risen, but I’d argue… people are saying… it’s gonna be huge… like no one has ever seen before… that maybe he’s already here. And on a TV related note, the creator of Adolenscence got a straight to series order for a new series with David Harbor and Millie Bobby Brown. They’ll play father and daughter, a dynamic I’m sure is new to them.
TV Shows Watched: Free Bert: S1E8 (Netflix) with audio description, Monarch: S2E9 (apple) with audio description, The Bear: S5E1 (Disney Plus) with audio description, The Miniature Wife: S1E4 (Peacock) with audio description, and The Madison: S1E6 (Paramount) with audio description
Free Bert- I actually liked the show, even though I don’t like the comedian. He’s a one-joke standup, but in this sitcom, he’s perfectly written into a show that works for his brand. I’d argue this exact same show could have been made 15 years ago for Dane Cook, but I digress. the AD here is fine, and helpful at the end when Bert makes his stand.
Monarch- The season nears its climax as all the titans are in the same place at the same time. I love that there’s a human here trying to end them, as if this whole franchise, which has several films, could POSSIBLY be ended by some random in the second season of Apple’s series that hasn’t even gotten a third season yet because it doesn’t have a clear viewership metric like Foundation, which has aired three seasons and is shooting its fourth, or Invasion which has aired three seasons, and is still awaiting word on if they get a 4th and final season. If Apple is hesitant to take Monarch to a third season, there’s a reason, and it isn’t purely budgetary.
The Bear- I realize watching just this episode, which is all set up, and judging the season from it, is not great, but I didn’t like the first episode. It feels too pretentious now, like it knows it has this critical acclaim, ignores the criticisms of the past few seasons, and instead of shooting a complete episode, basically shoots a long promo for the upcoming season. We’re bringing the gang back together for one last… something. I guess things will be better explained in the next episode? This coming from someone who didn’t love The Bear initially, but it grew on me, especially in Season 2 as Evan Moss Bachrach got a serious character. Roy Samuelson is doing the narration again, for those who prefer to hear the same voice every season. I liked the AD, and what it does with the storm drains, and mundane things like a blue paperclip.
The Miniature Wife- Elizabeth Banks continues to kill it in a show that squanders its premise. we spend far too much time with characters that aren’t shrunken. She-Ra narrates here, and the writing wasn’t terrible. I’d say that of the shows I watched, it has the weakest description, but a movie I saw outside of the diaries had some mixing issues that would make it below this.Reverse audio ducking, where sometimes the film is so loud you can’t hear the AD, usually a problem for theaters and headsets, but weird when it is the final mix for streaming.
The Madison- This finale is silly. She got in that taxi, and the cabbie asked her where to, and I immediately said “Wyoming”. I knew where they were going. Her kids are insufferable. However, did she even leave with money? She left her phone behind, so it was unplanned, and for someone who usually has a driver, was she ready to pay the taxi when it was a spur of the moment decision? Then, somehow, she makes it to the middle of nowhere, climbs through a fence, and lies down. Where’d she get the gun? She didn’t get on the plane with it, and she clearly has nothing with her. I also love Taylor Sheridan’s interpretation of vapid lefties, like we all sit around and have conversations about how people who use private planes deserve to die in plane crashes. It’s such a weird take from a guy whose entire catalog is preservation porn, showing us these big wild open spaces, with characters often fighting development or big business. So, this evil bitch liberal is worried about carbon footprint, as is Will Arnett as Pfeiffer’s therapist, and Kurt Russell’s character was all about the beauty of nature in the middle of nowhere, but somehow while everyone is saying spiritually the same thing, he finds a way of making it feel like city folk are assholes, even though their save the planet overreach is actually the entire message for this show to begin with. Sheridan knows his audience, but does he? I’d argue he probably has a lot more of the audience that he makes fun of watching him than he’s willing to admit.
