Television

My friend recommended the Patriot on Prime Video, and I’d never heard of it but really enjoying it so far. Three episodes in now. I hear it got cancelled after the second season but I still have 17 more episodes to enjoy so I’ll take it.
Whew, I thought you talking about the Mel Gibson Colonial Action flick.
 
Blasted through these in the last couple of weeks:

Dave - liked this way more than I expected considering I’m pretty indifferent on Lil Dicky. Not sure if this was his intent, but I found myself simultaneously rooting for and irritated by his character.

Lupin - went into this blind, and thought it was great. The ending/cliffhanger kind of seemed detached from the rest of the show though. Also, I didn’t know it was originally in French at first as Netflix auto selected the overdubbed English audio. It was awful, I only lasted a few minutes through the first episode before nearly giving up. Then I realized the original audio was French so I switched the audio and turned on subtitles. So much better 😂

Ted Lasso - absolutely loved it. Unexpectedly wholesome
 
Babylon 5 is still pretty dry, but at least they developed the characters. I'm into season 3 now.

It's kind of surreal how many guest actors, or "alien of the week," are the same actors that were guests in Star Trek shows.

Poor Brad Dourif... always cast as a psychopathic killer.
 
Wire rewatch update:

I just finished season 4, having forgotten basically all of what even happened last time I watched it (over a decade ago). That season ends on such a (creative/thematic) high that I'm nervous going into 5.

I should do some digging into interviews/articles about the season's production, as well as the overall series, because from what I remember 5 is just such a strange note to end on. I hate seeing McNulty spend season 4 on the sidelines and happy, just to backslide right into the heel we knew him to be in seasons 1-3, arguably even worse, considering (again, hazy recollection) he spends season 5 forging evidence. Heck, the way it starts with Omar happily living in another country, just to pull him back to Baltimore...I just recall feeling like the whole season has this tone of "welp, here's one more of these," and doesn't land the plane so much as cut to a quick montage of a few passengers at the baggage claim.

A couple stray thoughts:

- Bubbles' story just ain't hitting right for me; I always chafe at "getting clean then relapsing" as a plot device, and he basically spends the show on the sidelines, getting let down by the cops (twice in the same way, where a cop was supposed to be literally, physically there for him, and they forgot), and losing protegees to the needle repeatedly.

- I honestly forgot most of the Herc and Carver plots, and it's been nice revisiting those characters realizing they had a little more depth and story.

- I also misremembered how Prez left the force; I thought he'd shot a kid. So when he goes on foot after that perp and McNulty comes around the corner to see him with a grown-up body, I thought for a sec "oh, maybe I remembered this wrong, and he's just affected by having taken a life, even a criminal's life." Then McNulty kneels down and finds the badge around the corpse's neck...such a sinking feeling.

- The kids' storylines in season 4 snuck up on me twice. First time around, I just didn't really dig the kids, didn't really see the point. But by the season's end, you're completely invested in all of them. It's heartbreaking. On rewatch, I knew their stories would pay off, but I still had this feeling of "eh, this is fine," and was all-in once more by the finale.
For all you lovers of the Wire, you should check out the book 'All the Pieces Matter' by Jonathan Abrams. Its terrific.
 
Babylon 5 is still pretty dry, but at least they developed the characters. I'm into season 3 now.

It's kind of surreal how many guest actors, or "alien of the week," are the same actors that were guests in Star Trek shows.

Poor Brad Dourif... always cast as a psychopathic killer.
A couple friends have told me that I would love Babylon 5. I'm not sure if I'm ready to get into a long scifi series until I catch up on the Expanse.
 
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