Category: Television

  • The Chef Show (Sort’a Review)

    I don’t actually like writing reviews of show. (Though I did it for Trotsky on Netflix, and somehow got a bumper crop of readers.) I never feel that I get down to the real reason why I like a particular show, but when I have a dialogue or conversation, I feel like I do much better. Either way, I don’t do it often, but here we go again.

    I started watching The Chef Show with Jon Favreau and Roy Choi, and it is presented like a companion piece to the movie Chef that came out in 2014. Though the movie was a little weak on plot, it sure made up for it with the passion its characters had for the food they made. It reminded me of Big Night, and Jiro Dreams of Sushi, as both of those movies were infused with an infectious love of not just food, but the joy of preparing food.

    Which gets us to The Chef Show, which isn’t like a normal cooking show. What is being presented isn’t for me to learn how to cook anything. It’s more like I’m being shown the joy of preparation and being around other chefs. The one detraction I have is that it does have a Food Network/reality show feel to it, like “would you believe that we happen to run into…” ya-da, ya-da. (Like Jeffery just “happens” to be walking by Ina’s kitchen when she is finishing making a meal.) We all know it’s staged.

    The best parts are just Favreau and Choi working together in the kitchen. There is a feeling of friendship between the two of them, and also a teacher/student relationship. Which is fun to watch because Favreau is an A-Lister in Hollywood and has more money than all of us, and doesn’t have to do anything he doesn’t want to, and there he is being politely yet firmly being chided by Choi on his knife skills, and Favreau takes it with a smile. It’s fun to watch, but more than that, it is enjoyable to see the joy in the hard work of preparing food.

  • Trotsky on Netflix: Update

    I am now four episodes in on “Trotsky,” and I am having some thoughts.

    When last I wrote about the show, I was asking if the miniseries was indicative of how Russians view Trotsky now, after Stalin had him purged from the history of the revolution, and moreover, how the Russia people view themselves?

    First of all, dramatically, then series is set up so that Trotsky comes across as an anti-hero. The Don Draper or Walter White of the Russian Revolution. He gets laid a lot while trying to change Russia and the world. I find it fascinating that “anti-hero” is the new way of presenting complicated male characters. Trotsky makes the tough decisions, but is all broken up inside though he can’t admit it, and women can’t say no to him. Yes, I am making a joke, but is this now the way male characters will be presented? For that reason, the show has given me pause as I move forward.

    The next thought is that I am unsure how the series feels about the anti-Semitism in Russia at the time of the revolution. I know the awful history of how difficult and freighting it was to be a Jew in Russia at that time and before, and that Trotsky was able to rise to power in the face of so much hate is impressive. Where I feel the show is lacking is that Trotsky doesn’t seem to fight the anti-Semitism he and others face, but rather just puts up with it. I do know that one of the reasons the Soviets wanted an atheistic society was to combat religious hatred and bigotry that they saw as endemic and destructive to society. Trotsky is being presented as an atheist, but for personal reasons, and not also as a requirement for the new Russia he is envisioning. This does leave me feeling uncomfortable with how the series is dealing with this serious issue, but I know I need to finish all episodes to find out what their conclusion is.

    I am still moving forward with the show. Like I said, I finished episode four, and I have four more to go. This is the crux of the show, if it follows the classic dramatic structure, so everything might change.

    I am still fascinated by watching how Russians view their history. It does make the 1917 Revolution look like a chaotic event that was scary to live through. I am curious what the payoff will be when it comes to the founding of the USSR, and how they treat Trotsky’s exiles.

  • Trotsky on Netflix

    I stumbled onto a new show that Netflix seems to be very desperate for me to watch. It’s called, “Trotsky,” and it’s about Leon Trotsky. Not the most original title for a show about Trotsky. Complete disclosure; I’m only two episodes in, so I can’t give a review of the show. Maybe at a later point. What I want to discuss is why Netflix thinks I need to see this show, and being that this show was produced in Russia, what does it say about how Russians view their own history.

    First, Netflix. So, if I watch “Civilizations” and “Empire Games,” they must think that I will love a miniseries on a Soviet revolutionary. I guess this is how it works. I mean, they aren’t wrong, I just would like to know if that was all it took. Is this the action of a Russian troll who is trying to get me to be more sympathetic to Russia?

    Second, is this how Russians view themselves, and what the Soviet Revolutions was? I don’t know that much about Trotsky. I know he was one of the big Soviet three, Lenin, Stalin, and Trotsky. I know he ran the military in the Revolution. I know he killed lots of people, and after Lenin died, lost the fight to take over leadership to Stalin. And then Stalin had him killed while he lived in exile in Mexico City. I also know that Stalin tried to have Trotsky completely removed from the history of the revolution and the foundation of the USSR. I even hear that Stalin is still regarded as a hero in Russia to this day.

    So… Does this mean that Trotsky is now considered a hero in Russia? Is this a romanization of that period in Russian history? Is this miniseries indicative of anything culturally over there?

    I’ll finish the show, and then see if there are any insights.

  • Roots of My Humor

    As I was writing in my journal this morning, I asked myself the question; when did I find a certain thing funny? When did I start looking at funny things as an art, and not a reaction to a situation that involuntarily made me laugh?

    The first thought that came to mind was Monty Python’s Philosophers’ Football Match sketch.

    I remember first seeing it when I was about 10 or so, on PBS. One of my older brothers was watching Monty Python on a Saturday night, and I happened to still be up and watched it with him. Just about all of it went over my head, and I couldn’t figure out why my brother found this funny at all. Then the Philosophers’ sketch came on. What I remember finding humorous about it was that ancient Greeks were playing football against Germans. The silly nonsense of it struck me as funny.

    Jump ahead a few years to high school, and I take a Humanities class, which was basically an intro to world philosophy. We learn about the ancient Greeks, the early Christians theologians, Renaissance thinkers, the Age of Enlightenment, all the way to modern existentialists. Arty/farty me just ate that stuff up. I was, in my mind, a brilliant high school artist, and all this philosophy stuff was exactly what someone like me needed to become… an artist?

    About this same time, the Comedy Channel debuts, and they happen to show Monty Python. As all nerdy boys will attest, you have to watch Monty Python; it a rite of passage. So, as I watched, the Philosophers’ sketch came on, which I remembered watching with my brother… And then I really watch it.

    It was a lightbulb moment for me.

    Funny could be really smart, and you should never talk down to your audience.

    It seems silly now, but for 17-year-old me, it was like learning that, yes, you can do this; you can be smart and funny at the same time, they are not mutually exclusive.

    As I write this, it also taught me another valuable lesson, they funniest people are usually the smartest as well.

  • MST3K: The Gauntlet (Season 12) – Fan Review

    I had been looking forward to the release of the 12th season, and even spent some time re-watching some of my favorite old MST3K episodes to gear up. Starting yesterday, I powered through this new season over two days, and the first thing that struck me as odd was how it was only six episodes. The last time they did so few movies was in Season 7, which happened to be the last on Comedy Central. Not that I’m reading too much into it, but it does feel like Netflix is trying the show out, still. Also, the six shows have a running theme of Jonah and the Bots having to “marathon through” the six movies. I can’t tell if MST3K was making a joke about binge watching the show, or if it was an order from Netflix that they need to find a way to make their show more binge-able.

    For this, the 12th Season, and the 30th anniversary of the show, I have to say that this batch of films were some of the better-quality B-movies out there. The oldest movie was from 1979, the newest from 2013, and all of them were in color. There was part of me that did miss that there was nothing in B&W, or from the late 50’s. In order, the movies were; Mac and Me, Atlantic Rim, Lords of the Deep, The Day Time Ended, Killer Fish, and Ator The Fighting Eagle.

    The humor of the show was still spot on; sarcastic pop culture references make these riffing wheels turn. What I noticed this time around is that the riffing was at a much faster pace. Compared to when the show debuted 30 years ago, there were dead air gaps between riffs, and as the years have gone by, the jokes have come faster and faster. (The re-watching of old episodes made that point to me.) Over all, the season feels as if there was a bit of fine tuning done in post just to make sure the pace stayed aggressive.

    With that having been said, I think we are looking at a show that is continuing to evolve in its presentation. Joel Hodgson is holding onto the core of the show (making fun of terrable movies,) while allowing the periphery of the show (cast, props, pace, ect…) to stay malleable to the changes in our culture. (I mean, the show now ends with “Keep Circulating the URL.”) Those of us started with the show, we traded VHS tapes, and then in the off years the new fans circulated YouTube links and uploaded clips. Now, that we are living in the streaming age, the new fans will take the show and make it their own. I just hope there are more episodes in the next season.