Tag / Showtime

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Post Mortem – Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty

NBA legend Jerry West, who passed away earlier this week at age 86, objected to his portrayal in Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, saying it was “cruel” and “deliberately false.”  Which is totally how the Jerry West played by Jason Clarke in the show would have reacted.

The Showtime era of Lakers basketball, led by Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and coach Pat Riley, featured an up-tempo offense and resulted in five NBA championships and four additional Finals appearances.  Winning Time, with a changed name because its home network of HBO competed against Showtime, dramatized the early days of the era, starting with the drafting of Johnson and the first championship won during his rookie season of 1979-1980.  A second season, covering the next four NBA campaigns, aired starting in August of 2023.

With Kareem retiring in 1989 and Pat Riley stepping down as coach the following year, the Showtime era came to a close in 1991, following a Finals loss to Michael Jordan and the Bulls and Magic Johnson retiring after testing positive for HIV later that year.  Winning Time came to an end in September of 2023, when HBO announced it was cancelling the series after just two seasons.

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Book 30 – The Misadventures Of Awkward Black Girl

The Misadventures Of Awkward Black Girl – Issa Rae

Issa Rae, a writer, actress, and producer, tells of her years growing up as the awkward black girl.  Born in Los Angeles, Rae spent time growing up in Senegal, her father’s homeland, and Maryland before returning to LA in the sixth grade.  This led to her being the odd-fitting one wherever she was, either the American in Africa or the black girl in a predominately white Maryland neighborhood, which fed into her storytelling style, leading to the web series Awkward Black Girl and, subsequently, this book.

To be honest, my interest in Rae’s work is more recent and this book, released in 2015, predates any of the things I am familiar with.  That must be why I didn’t really connect with this.  Not saying it was bad in any way, but I wasn’t as hooked as I have been by other memoirs from her peers.  Maybe there will be a follow up one day, with tales of her move from YouTube to Showtime and the big screen.

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Post Mortem – Shameless

In January 2011, Showtime debuted a show focusing on a poor family on Chicago’s south side, headed by a deadbeat father and an older sister who holds everything together.  10 years and 11 seasons later, Shameless wrapped up its run this past April as Showtime’s longest running original scripted series.

Adapted from the long-running, British television drama of the same name, the show starred William H. Macy and Emmy Rossum as father and daughter of the Gallagher clan.  Rossum left after season 9 in 2019, and my interest waned soon after that.  I think I’m two or three episodes into the 10th season, with the rest of the series sitting on the DVR, so I hope I’ll find my way back at some point in time.

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Post Mortem – Homeland

In August of 2019, Showtime announced that, after 8 seasons, Homeland would be coming to an end.  Starring Claire Danes as a CIA operative, the show jumped back and forth between the US and the middle east, as Danes’ Carrie Mathison worked to make the world more secure for the United States.  After struggling to find its way after a successful first season, which led to keeping the engaging Damian Lewis’ Nicholas Brody for far too long, the show found its footing by turning its focus back overseas.

 

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Midseason Review – Sundays

With the advent of winter premieres, the start of the premium cable network shows, and with February sweeps around the corner, it’s time to revisit my thoughts from the beginning of the season and look ahead at what’s to come for Sunday nights.

7:00

Batwoman – The Arrowverse expands once again, with this entry coming out of last year’s crossover event.  Ruby Rose puts on the cowl to protect the streets of Gotham.

Outside of the Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover episode, I haven’t actually gotten around to watching this yet, though the episodes are piling up on the DVR.

7:30

God Friended Me – The latest “do-gooder has a direct line from God” returns for a second season after being surprisingly entertaining.

I’m still enjoying this, but I am a little concerned that they’ve already leaned hard into the “keep the obvious couple apart for dubious reasons” trope.

8:00

Supergirl – The fifth season sees the return of Jeremy Jordan and the exit of Mehcad Brooks.

We’ll see how the outcome of the Crisis crossover impacts the show moving forward, as it looks to have a completely new status quo.

9:00

Silicon Valley – The Pied Piper gang returns for their final season.

The show got an honorable wrap up, with the crew finally succeeding, but forced to kill their own creation for the good of the world.

Shameless – Season 10, the first without Emmy Rossum, may be a bit of a stretch.  But, I guess if I’ve watched this long, why stop now?

I am slowly working through the season, which is turning out to be a bit of a slog without Emmy Rossum.  It’s been renewed for an eleventh, and final, season, so I may as well keep going with the finish line in sight.

New entries hitting the screen this winter include:

Doctor Who – Jodie Whitaker returns for her second go-around as the Doctor.

Homeland – The Showtime drama returns for its final season.

Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist – Jane Levy returns as a coder who starts to hear people’s inner musical dialogue.

The Outsider – Based on a Stephen King book, the new HBO drama stars Jason Bateman.

Avenue 5 – A sci-fi comedy from the creators of Veep.

by jim

Post Mortem – Dice

After 2 seasons of poor ratings, Showtime decided to officially pull the plug on Dice in January.  The series portrayed the flamboyant comedian as an unemployed, struggling comic in the Vegas suburbs trying to be a loving father, a devoted boyfriend and a professional gambler.

If this series did anything, it showed another side to the one-note comic who was hilariously funny when I first discovered him in high school, but who quickly fell out of favor for more diverse and interesting comics.  If Andrew could ever truly put the Dice persona behind him, he might have found more success over his career.

by jim

Post Mortem – Episodes


After 5 seasons, Episodes drew to a close last October.  The fictionalized tale of Matt LeBlanc’s post-Friends career was a joint production of Showtime and the BBC.

While the show had a ridiculous premise, it was mostly entertaining.  It probably could have hung on for a few more seasons, but if those Brits are good at anything, it is getting off the air before they overstay their welcome.

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You Ought To Be In (19) Pictures

Movie_Reel_22Many years ago, using the weekly TV guide that came with the Sunday Chicago Tribune, I started keeping track of all of the movies I had seen over the course of my lifetime.  The guide would list the two main stars for each movie, and that is a tradition that I’ve carried on in my database ever since.  So, given those guidelines, it is time to look at all of the actors that have starred in at least 10 films that I have seen, as of July 1st.

Today, we dive into the 4 actors that have starred in 19 movies that I have seen.

Jennifer Aniston

Tied for the highest total for all actresses last time around, Aniston has jumped up one slot but fallen into 3rd place among her gender.  We’re The Millers, which I saw in 2014, is her only new addition.

Tom Cruise

A 3 picture jump for Tom Cruise puts him near the elite of my personal list of movie stars.  The first and most recent installments of the Mission: Impossible franchise were the last films of his I’ve seen back in 2015

John Cusack

A little known film I saw in 2015 called The Factory gives Cusack his only new entry.

Eddie Murphy

No change for Murphy, as it continues to be more than a decade since I’ve seen one of his starring perfromances, as I suffered through both Showtime and Adventures Of Pluto Nash in 2004.

by jim

Post Mortem – House Of Lies

house-of-liesLast month, Showtime announced that the fifth season of House of Lies, which concludes tonight, will be its last.  Starring Don Cheadle and Kristen Bell as the leaders of a team of management consultants, the show satirized a corner of the business world that, at the time the show started, was very much affecting me at the office.  Because of that, I had a certain appreciation for the ridiculousness of the show and how much it mirrored real life.

The stars of the show are sure to land on their feet, with Don Cheadle continuing to portray Rhodey in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Kristen Bell popping up on NBC’s fall schedule.  Their underlings are also likely to enjoy future success.

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Midseason Review – Sundays

old-tv-set1With the advent of winter premieres, the start of the premium cable network shows, and with February sweeps around the corner, it’s time to revisit my thoughts from the beginning of the season and look ahead at what’s to come for Sunday nights.

7:00

Once Upon A Time – The fairy tale show is back for season 5, after an uptick in quality during the past season.  With little else in competition, I see no reason not to continue turning in.

I must say, I wasn’t hugely enamored with the first half of the season, thanks to the “Emma is the Dark One” storyline.  With that wrapped up, hopefully the back half is more to my liking.

7:30

Brooklyn Nine-Nine – FOX’s comedy hit returns for its 3rd season amid little like-minded competition.

Still funny, but now airing on Tuesdays in a revamped comedy block from FOX.

8:00

The Good Wife – After a so-so season that saw Alicia running for states attorney and mostly separated from the rest of the cast, the 7th season finds Julianna Marguiles surrounding herself with a whole new crew.

The signs of aging are starting to show, but it is still one of the more enjoyable hours of my week.  With the Peter running for President storyline having wrapped up, the show faces a fresh path forward, though rumors do persist that this will be the last season.

The Leftovers – After burning through the original source material in season 1, Damon Lindelof and crew have a whole new location for season 2, as the survivors move on to a town where nobody departed.

Season 2, which can only be described as brilliantly absurd, ended in December.  The show was renewed for a brief 3rd season to wrap things up.

Homeland – The fifth season starts with Carrie Mathison having left the CIA behind, but I’m sure she will be pulled back in to the fold relatively quickly.  Last season proved the show could continue without Damian Lewis on board as Brody, but I think they’ll want Claire Danes back in the middle of things sooner rather than later.

It was a bit of a down season for Homeland, which wrapped up last month.  Hopefully, it can find its footing moving forward.

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