Category: Television

  • Personal Review: The Real World, Season 1, 1992

    The wife and I have been looking for a TV show to watch at night. Something to wash the pallet clean at the end of the day, but not too serious, but also not totally dumbed down. After searching around all the streaming services, we landed on The Real World from MTV on Paramount+.

    When we started season 1, which took place in 1992 New York City, it was a fun reminder of what early 90’s life was like, as we were in high school when the show premiered, and it was a neat snap shot of what pre-Giuliani New York was like. Also, this was the show that birthed the “reality” genre, so to go back to the source, so to speak, was enlightening; not only for the way things were, but how they are now.

    I was 15 when I watched the show originally, and my memory of the show had holes, but it was rather intact. Now, 44-year-old me watched it with a more cynical eye, and found the show slanted to a very specific perspective.

    Of the seven cast members, six of them were currently living in New York at the start of the show, while one member, Julie, was from out of town, Alabama, but she has aspirations to be in New York as a dancer. Thus, the fish out of water storyline that followed through the whole season. The other six members were all in the arts, at the start of their careers; one writer, three musicians, one painter, and one model. A very liberal arts group.

    15-year-old me remembered that this was my first experience with seeing people of my generation pursing the arts, and struggling. Before this show, if I wanted to see young people in the arts, it was either the Lost Generation of the 20’s, the Beats of the 50’s or the Hippies in the 60’s. What the 44-year-old me saw was that some of the people were working much harder than others. My memory of the show was that it had a very voyeuristic quality, but remained true to the proposition that it was showing people being “real.” Older me, having experienced other “reality” shows, could see the manipulation of the cast and certain situations.

    As I finished the first season, it was much tamer than I remembered. Knowing what is coming down the pipe with the reality television genre, you can see the start of how things will be edited and presented to have a desired effect. It was like a quarter of the way through the season, the producers realized that this wasn’t a documentary, but a story that needed to be compelling, so the audience would tune in next week.

  • Personal Review: WandaVision (Spoilers!)

    (You are warned! SPOILERS AHEAD! And this is a long one.)

    So, I finished WandaVision last night, and nothing was ruined for me; No internet troll, no idiot fanboy friend, and no spoiler reveiling headline. I was able to watch, and enjoy what unfolded. Just like our ancestors of old.

    The first thing is that I am really surprised at how much I enjoyed WandaVision, as it made me look forward to Friday night. The group of people who put this together did a great job of keeping the story well paced, revealing this mystery piece by piece. I wasn’t sure at first, to be honest. The first two episodes moved slowly, but as the show progressed, it did feel like a runaway train, building speed, and you knew it was headed for a crash of a climax. I keep thinking that at some point I will get tired of superhero shows/movies, because Martin Scorsese is right; you know the good guy always wins, so there is nothing really at stake or in peril. Yeah…

    …But what I enjoyed most was that this was a superhero story about grief and mourning. I think when it comes to “big ‘splosion movies” like Hollywood makes, not a whole lot of time is given to the emotional toll that these trials and losses have on the characters. (I remember when Carrie Fisher said that Princess Leia was the strongest character in Star Wars because Leia was captured, tortured, watched her home planet get destroyed which killed her parents and family and friends, got in a shoot-out, still had time to empathize with Luke’s loss of Ben, and then went on to help lead the attack on the Death Star which caused her to, yet again, face imminent death. And through all of that, she never broke down. That’s an emotionally strong character.) When you think about Wanda, that character has been through too much grief; parents, brother, and her partner in Vision. How would a character with unlimited power deal with all of that death? As she went through the stages of grief, why wouldn’t she use her powers?

    Grief doesn’t make sense. As I watched this show, it made me think about how I have grieved for my mother. Clearly, if I could bring her back I would do it, but I know that will never happen. But I do sometimes find myself having the fleeting thought that I might still get a phone call or text from her. It’s a thought that enters my mind, only to be quickly dismissed by logic, but it lasts long enough for there to be a catch in my throat, and that sad sinking feeling in my stomach. My grief doesn’t stop me from functioning, because my kid makes me keep going, but my grief is always below the surface. It’s a sadness that always seems to be in the back of the room, just out of the corner of my eye. It holds me back from being very excited about anything, or opening myself up to any deeper emotions, or even the joy of looking forward to something.

    And that is the thing that WandaVision did for me. When I figured out this was a show about Wanda’s grief and how it had manifested itself, I didn’t run from it. Watching this show was admitting that it was going to bring up things in me that are still raw. Two and a half years after my mother’s death, I can talk about it, but I’m still not ready to feel that pain again. Watching Wanda and Vision say goodbye to their boys, that hurt. Watching Wanda and Vision say goodbye to each other, oh that hurt as well. But what hurt most was watching that red energy field contracting; the inevitable visual end, the looming death, that was moving toward them. That image for me was how my mother’s death felt. As she lay almost comatose in hospice, we all knew death was coming. We couldn’t stop it, and as every minute ticked by, we knew it was getting closer. I would have done anything to stop it. But I couldn’t. That hurts still.

    WandaVision ended up being something more than I thought it could be. What I thought would be a one note joke of being trapped in old TV shows, or a vehicle to set up “Phase 4” or “Phase 5,” actually was one of the better shows that I have seen a in long time. There was something at stake, and there was peril. Sure, that bad guy was defeated, but the grief survived. Grief can be a gift, as it does show us who and how deeply we truly loved, but if grief is not confronted, it can destroy us.

  • Don’t Ruin WandaVision

    Seriously, people! Don’t ruin WandaVision for the rest of us. Don’t go and spoiling all the fun and surprises. Some people have kids and jobs and can’t watch it until tonight, so shut it!

    Also, this means I have to stay off social media today as well.

    Honestly, let’s all be cool here.

  • The Mandalorian Season 2 Finale (Stupid Fanboys!, Not a Review)

    CLEARLY!!! THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS!!!

    I have stated many times before that I dislike fanboys. (Oh, you know who I am talking about.) But I would also like to add that I have a new level disgust with a new emerging fanboy; The Middle-Aged Fanboy.

    Let me tell you a story.

    This past Friday was the Season 2 finale of The Mandalorian. My wife works, I take care of the kid, so we don’t watch the episode when it debuts early in the morning. We check it out after the kid goes to bed at night. This means that on Fridays, the wife and I try very hard to stay off social media for even the hint of a spoiler. All was going well this Friday.

    Then, a good friend of ours birthday was on this Friday, and his wife organized a huge Zoom group to wish him happy birthday. The group was made up of theatre professionals, and tech people. A strange grouping, but we all get along well, as we are all sci-fi nerds; STAR WARS, Dr WHO, STAR TREK, you name it.

    So, as we are chatting, our birthday friend tells us that his wife surprised him with a PS5 as a gift. Then another person, and I won’t call him a friend, then said, “Was it as big a surprise as Luke Skywalker on The Mandalorian?”

    The chat exploded into two camps, those that had seen the episode and those that hadn’t, but on the whole, everyone booed that guy.

    He spoiled it. He ruined all the fun, and he knew it. That was the point; the make people upset, and miss out on the fun. And that was executed by that annoying middle-aged fanboy. Yes, that guy who’s only argument is that, “It wasn’t as good as the original.” Well, no shit. Nothing is ever going to make you feel like the eight-year-old again, so please stop punishing the rest of us for your sad realization.

    Now, the realization that I had after I watched the episode was that so many people working on the production of The Mandalorian did a great job at keeping this secret. Think of all the crew, and editors, and production assistants. They all knew that they had something fun under their hats and they kept it quiet. I appreciate all their hard work on that.

  • TV Review: Ted Lasso

    I try really hard not to be a judgmental person, which is all the more funny, as I am about to write a review of a tv show. I like to think of myself as a person that does not prejudge, and goes into situations with an open mind, but when I heard that Apple TV had made a show, Ted Lasso, out of the commercial for NBC broadcasting the English Premier League, it didn’t strike me as a good idea. I do think Jason Sudeikis is a pretty funny guy, but from what I remembered about the commercials, I thought it would be a one note joke about an American not understanding football.

    So, that was August of this year, when Ted Lasso debuted, and I never thought about the show.

    Then, I started to hear things about it. “It’s not so bad…” “Jason Sudeikis is really funny…” “It’s a good sports show…” “It’s a good workplace comedy…” “The cast is awesome…” and then, “It’s the best comedy on tv…”

    I still wasn’t convinced. And then I had a friend say to me that Ted Lasso isn’t the best show on tv, but it’s the only show that makes you feel better for trying to stay positive.

    Now, I was intrigued with that assessment.

    If you don’t know, Ted Lasso is bout Ted Lasso, a Division II college (America) football coach who just won a championship, who is hired to manage an English football (soccer) Premier League team, AFC Richmond. What Ted doesn’t know is that the team owner, Rebecca Welton, got the team in a divorce, and wants to run it into the ground to spite her ex-husband. Ted and his American assistant coach bring all their America positive attitude and can-do spirit to a jaded and bitter football club.

    I am sure you are like me and pretty much see where this is going; Ted’s positive attitude rubs off on everyone, who in the end comes to love Ted, and the team is successful. And you are not too far off. But I found myself binging through the episodes.

    First of all, it is funny. The writers and cast swing from word play, to spit takes, to sight gags, and every comedy convention in between, and somehow keep the feeling of realism without spinning out into parody or British silliness. But what kept me locked in was watching each of the characters make huge mistakes, or betrayals, and instead of what a lesser show would do, which is make the character learn a lesson and move on, Ted Lasso, plays on the characters finding reasons to be honest. In most of the cases, it is because they start seeing their co-workers as friends, and as such, they owe their friends honesty, and forgiveness. That building friendships, especially for adults, is very hard, and Ted Lasso is a show that was willing to take it’s time with ten episodes, to allow those relationships develop, in a wonderful and hilarious way.