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Jan. 9th, 2018 08:26 pm1. Finally got an ENT (ear nose throat) doctor appointment for tomorrow after work. Took forever. Lots of calling back and forth, waiting on hold, etc. Did make it to work today, but my balance felt slightly off. And battling sinus headaches off and on all day.
As result, I'm irritable.
Work didn't help, which was also irritating. Nor the commute...it took two hours to get home, by subway. I left around 4pm, got home around 6pm. Why? There were signal problems at Atlantic Avenue Terminal/Barclays Center, so they suspended trains in both directions. Only way home was via subway. And the subway, as a result, was packed the whole way. So two hours on a packed subway. Oh well, at least I got a seat. Hard to read though, sort of scrunched in. And people kept jarring me. I don't how people listen podcasts on these trains...I'd be unable to focus on them. At least with reading, I re-read over the part I missed.
So, make that highly irritable. I don't trust myself to read anything social media at the moment, I'm liable to fork someone. [ETA: Had to continuously edit out the snarky comments in this post due to pronounced irritability.]
2. Finished streaming The Marvelous Mrs. Maizel, the new Amazon Prime series by Amy Palladino-Sherman and Daniel Sherman. Which won the Golden Globe for best television comedy series.
It's written by the same people who wrote The Gilmore Girls and Bunheads. So if you liked either of those series, you'll like this. Same rapid fire dialogue, and dry wit. Although I think this series may actually be better than the other two -- because the writers appear to be writing what they know for once. It's about a Jewish Female Comedian in the early 1960s, circa 1960/1961. Shows how she became a comedian, why, and what was involved, along with her family life and separation from her wannabe comedian husband.
What's interesting about it -- is we follow multiple points of view, Mirim "Midge" Maizel, Joel Maizel, Suzie Meyerson (her agent), her parents (father is played by Tony Shaloub), and her mother.
Sort of similar to Gilmore Girls in that way, and Bunheads.
Also it takes place in the 1960s, so it's sort of a breezy Mad Men. Although I like it better than Mad Men, characters are actually likable.
Only eight episodes, nice and compact. Looking forward to season 2 when it arrives.
3. Winter Television Shows
* Last Season for Nashville -- CMT is unwisely switching to non-scripted reality show fare, which is cheaper. This means? I can scale back my cable to standard or basic after this year. Which I've been considering for a while now. I wish I could say I'm surprised or upset...but, there's really nothing on that they could cancel that would upset me. I'd find something else. (I'm not fannish about anything at the moment. Haven't been for a very long time. Since Buffy really.)
* The Alienist -- this is a series based on the unfilmable Caleb Carr novel "The Alienist".
Starts on TNT on January 22 at 9PM. It's a 10 episode mini-series. Stars Daniel Bruhl, Dakota Fanning, and Luke Evans as three law enforcement outsiders with their own forensic methods solving a series of child murders in late 19th Century NY.
If you haven't read the book, you should. It ranks in my top ten of best mystery novels. (I binge-read mystery novels up until roughly 2008.)
* 9-1-1 -- by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuck, and Tim Minear. Stars Peter Krause, Angela Bassett, Aish Hinds, Connie Britton, Mariette Hartley and Kenneth Choi. So...worth looking at just for that lineup. Also, Krause and Britton who were horribly miscast in their last outings (The Catch) and (Nashville) respectively, are well-cast here.
The pilot was...not that good. A bit cliche laden, but it had potential. It's about EMS workers, or basically fire, police, EMS, and emergency response operators and their day to day lives.
And I tend to find Tim Minear to be an interesting writer. Also, I like Bassett, Krause and Britton.
This is on Fox at 9PM, started Jan 3.
* Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G which is by Kyle Long, and stars Wavvy Jones, Marcc Rose, Jimmi Simpson, and Josh Duhamel. It's a fictionalized account of the attempts to solve the murders. And is set across three different timelines, early 1996, 1997, and 2006.
This starts on February 27 on USA.
* Good Girls by Jenna Bans, stars Christina Hendricks, Mae Whitman, and Retta. About a bunch of suburban moms who rob a grocery store with toy guns in order to feed their families and stay afloat. Then they rob a gangster, and well...
Think Breaking Bad but with more humor and stronger female roles.
Starts on Feb 26, NBC, at 10PM.
*The Assassination of Gianni Versace - American Crime Story by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck again...this has an interesting cast, it stars Edgar Ramirez as Versace, Darren Criss (as his killer, Andrew Cunanan), Penelope Cruz (as Verace's Sister Donatella).
Starts Jan 17 on F/X.
(Honestly I'm wondering when Murphy and Falchuck have any free time, they are doing multiple tv shows, and very dark ones. They've managed to pull off what Whedon and others have tried and failed. I think the only other show-runner who pulled this off recently was Shondra Rhimes.)
* Counterpart starring JK Simmons in a dual role, by Justin Marks. It's on Starz, Jan 21. And makes me want to do Starz on my Fire Stick next. It's a alt-reality spy thriller. Set in an alternative version of present-day Germany, with the Berlin Wall still standing and serving as a metaphysical construct -- a crossing point between two parallel worlds that formed 30 years ago when an experiment gone wrong split reality.
* Black Lightening which is a Superhero show that features two rarities: 1) a predominantly black cast, and 2) has adult content and is targeting an adult audience.
The conflict here is real-life problems in inner city neighborhoods -- such as drugs, corruption, gun violence, and oppression below poverty lines.
It is about a retired vigilante/superhero, who is currently a principal at a charter school. When a local gang threatens his daughters, he's pulled back into the game. It's focused more on the family dynamics. The show-runner is Salim Akil and Mara Brock Akil, starring Cress Williams.
* Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams starts streaming on AMazon Prime Jan 12, stars Anna Paquin, Terrence Howard, Brian Cranston, etc. It's sort of Amazon's version of Black Mirror, but focuses on developing various Philip K. Dick short stories.
Definite for Philip K. Dick and Brian Cranston fans.
* Masterpiece: Victoria airs Jan 14 -- second season of the BBC series Victoria starring Jenna Coleman.
* Altered Carbon airs Feb 2 on Netflix -- no clue what it is about, just that it is a sci-fi drama.
*Mozart in the Jungle comes back on Amazon on Feb 16.
Nothing on Sense8 air date, dang it.
As result, I'm irritable.
Work didn't help, which was also irritating. Nor the commute...it took two hours to get home, by subway. I left around 4pm, got home around 6pm. Why? There were signal problems at Atlantic Avenue Terminal/Barclays Center, so they suspended trains in both directions. Only way home was via subway. And the subway, as a result, was packed the whole way. So two hours on a packed subway. Oh well, at least I got a seat. Hard to read though, sort of scrunched in. And people kept jarring me. I don't how people listen podcasts on these trains...I'd be unable to focus on them. At least with reading, I re-read over the part I missed.
So, make that highly irritable. I don't trust myself to read anything social media at the moment, I'm liable to fork someone. [ETA: Had to continuously edit out the snarky comments in this post due to pronounced irritability.]
2. Finished streaming The Marvelous Mrs. Maizel, the new Amazon Prime series by Amy Palladino-Sherman and Daniel Sherman. Which won the Golden Globe for best television comedy series.
It's written by the same people who wrote The Gilmore Girls and Bunheads. So if you liked either of those series, you'll like this. Same rapid fire dialogue, and dry wit. Although I think this series may actually be better than the other two -- because the writers appear to be writing what they know for once. It's about a Jewish Female Comedian in the early 1960s, circa 1960/1961. Shows how she became a comedian, why, and what was involved, along with her family life and separation from her wannabe comedian husband.
What's interesting about it -- is we follow multiple points of view, Mirim "Midge" Maizel, Joel Maizel, Suzie Meyerson (her agent), her parents (father is played by Tony Shaloub), and her mother.
Sort of similar to Gilmore Girls in that way, and Bunheads.
Also it takes place in the 1960s, so it's sort of a breezy Mad Men. Although I like it better than Mad Men, characters are actually likable.
Only eight episodes, nice and compact. Looking forward to season 2 when it arrives.
3. Winter Television Shows
* Last Season for Nashville -- CMT is unwisely switching to non-scripted reality show fare, which is cheaper. This means? I can scale back my cable to standard or basic after this year. Which I've been considering for a while now. I wish I could say I'm surprised or upset...but, there's really nothing on that they could cancel that would upset me. I'd find something else. (I'm not fannish about anything at the moment. Haven't been for a very long time. Since Buffy really.)
* The Alienist -- this is a series based on the unfilmable Caleb Carr novel "The Alienist".
Starts on TNT on January 22 at 9PM. It's a 10 episode mini-series. Stars Daniel Bruhl, Dakota Fanning, and Luke Evans as three law enforcement outsiders with their own forensic methods solving a series of child murders in late 19th Century NY.
If you haven't read the book, you should. It ranks in my top ten of best mystery novels. (I binge-read mystery novels up until roughly 2008.)
* 9-1-1 -- by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuck, and Tim Minear. Stars Peter Krause, Angela Bassett, Aish Hinds, Connie Britton, Mariette Hartley and Kenneth Choi. So...worth looking at just for that lineup. Also, Krause and Britton who were horribly miscast in their last outings (The Catch) and (Nashville) respectively, are well-cast here.
The pilot was...not that good. A bit cliche laden, but it had potential. It's about EMS workers, or basically fire, police, EMS, and emergency response operators and their day to day lives.
And I tend to find Tim Minear to be an interesting writer. Also, I like Bassett, Krause and Britton.
This is on Fox at 9PM, started Jan 3.
* Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G which is by Kyle Long, and stars Wavvy Jones, Marcc Rose, Jimmi Simpson, and Josh Duhamel. It's a fictionalized account of the attempts to solve the murders. And is set across three different timelines, early 1996, 1997, and 2006.
This starts on February 27 on USA.
* Good Girls by Jenna Bans, stars Christina Hendricks, Mae Whitman, and Retta. About a bunch of suburban moms who rob a grocery store with toy guns in order to feed their families and stay afloat. Then they rob a gangster, and well...
Think Breaking Bad but with more humor and stronger female roles.
Starts on Feb 26, NBC, at 10PM.
*The Assassination of Gianni Versace - American Crime Story by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck again...this has an interesting cast, it stars Edgar Ramirez as Versace, Darren Criss (as his killer, Andrew Cunanan), Penelope Cruz (as Verace's Sister Donatella).
Starts Jan 17 on F/X.
(Honestly I'm wondering when Murphy and Falchuck have any free time, they are doing multiple tv shows, and very dark ones. They've managed to pull off what Whedon and others have tried and failed. I think the only other show-runner who pulled this off recently was Shondra Rhimes.)
* Counterpart starring JK Simmons in a dual role, by Justin Marks. It's on Starz, Jan 21. And makes me want to do Starz on my Fire Stick next. It's a alt-reality spy thriller. Set in an alternative version of present-day Germany, with the Berlin Wall still standing and serving as a metaphysical construct -- a crossing point between two parallel worlds that formed 30 years ago when an experiment gone wrong split reality.
* Black Lightening which is a Superhero show that features two rarities: 1) a predominantly black cast, and 2) has adult content and is targeting an adult audience.
The conflict here is real-life problems in inner city neighborhoods -- such as drugs, corruption, gun violence, and oppression below poverty lines.
It is about a retired vigilante/superhero, who is currently a principal at a charter school. When a local gang threatens his daughters, he's pulled back into the game. It's focused more on the family dynamics. The show-runner is Salim Akil and Mara Brock Akil, starring Cress Williams.
* Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams starts streaming on AMazon Prime Jan 12, stars Anna Paquin, Terrence Howard, Brian Cranston, etc. It's sort of Amazon's version of Black Mirror, but focuses on developing various Philip K. Dick short stories.
Definite for Philip K. Dick and Brian Cranston fans.
* Masterpiece: Victoria airs Jan 14 -- second season of the BBC series Victoria starring Jenna Coleman.
* Altered Carbon airs Feb 2 on Netflix -- no clue what it is about, just that it is a sci-fi drama.
*Mozart in the Jungle comes back on Amazon on Feb 16.
Nothing on Sense8 air date, dang it.