Author / jim

by jim

Post Mortem – Daredevil

On November 29, 2018, Netflix announced that they were cancelling Daredevil after 3 seasons.  The move coincides with the ending of most of the Marvel shows produced for Netflix at a time when the studio’s parent company, Disney, is looking to launch their own streaming service.

Daredevil was the first of a burgeoning stable of Marvel shows on Netflix, leading the way for Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Punisher, and The Defenders.  While technically set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Netflix shows only tangentially referenced the events and the heroes of the movies, sometimes going to great lengths to avoid it.

New Marvel shows will be moving to Disney+ after it launches later this year and those are expected to be more closely tied to the MCU.  While it is technically possible for Daredevil to continue on that service, odds are against it.

by jim

Post Mortem – Another Period

After 3 seasons, Comedy Central pulled the plug on Another Period, the mock mashup of Downton Abbey and Keeping Up With The Kardashians created by comics Natasha Leggero and Riki Lindhome.  I think I fell off some point during season two, so I’m not sure how it ended, but I’d certainly like to go back at some point and catch up.

by jim

Post Mortem – Murphy Brown

While it certainly seems like everything old is new again when it comes to network television, sometimes those returns to the past just don’t work out.  Such is the case with Murphy Brown, which returned to CBS last fall and failed to capture much of an audience.  For whatever reason, the revival just didn’t work.  The show felt out of place and the jokes seemed hackneyed.  Sadly, this probably won’t interfere with the next old show brought back to life.

by jim

Speed Trap

It has been nearly three years since I last took a look at the internet speeds being delivered to me by our good friends at Comcast.  At the time, my download speeds had improved by nearly 4 Mbps over the previous year.  Can I expect a similar jump now?

Google Chrome

No, I most certainly cannot.  Compared to my last test using Google’s Chrome browser, I’ve gained a more than 22 Mbps of download speed over the past 31 months.  Upload speed has stayed pretty consistent.

Microsoft Edge

Thing are a little worse on the Microsoft side of the house.  The Edge test finished a good 6 Mbps behind Chrome, gaining a little more than 6 Mbps from the last test.  Upload capabilities were pretty much the same.

by jim

Two Non-Tenders, A Trade, And A Pizza Place

Earlier today, the White Sox began clearing the deck of pieces they do not expect to be part of the team’s future success, dealing catcher Omar Narváez to the Mariners and not tendering 2019 contracts to Avisail García and Matt Davidson.  In return for Narváez, the White Sox received relief pitcher Álex Colomé.

Narváez, who broke out offensively last year and led the White Sox in fWAR, would, at first glance, seem to be someone to contribute to the future success of the White Sox.  His poor defense, however, would seem to say otherwise.  He was near the league’s worst in both passed balls and pitch framing, according to publicly available metrics, and the White Sox obviously thought he had little chance of improving.  Colomé should help improve a bullpen that was in dire need of talent at the end of 2018.

As for García and Davidson, the decision to cut ties with the duo probably had as much to do with their expected arbitration numbers than anything else.  García’s expected salary was around $8 million, which is chump change if he were to duplicate his 2017 season, but, at this point in his career, that does looks more and more to be an outlier.  With Eloy Jimenez expected to join the White Sox in mid-April, García became expendable.  Davidson, despite providing some unexpected flexibility last year as a mop-up reliever, never truly lived up to his potential.  He can still hit for power, but not much else, and the White Sox obviously thought they had seen everything there was to see from him.

García’s, Davidson’s, and Narváez’s numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were: Continue reading →

by jim

Post Mortem – Pretty Little Liars

Loosely based on the novel series of the same name written by Sara Shepard, Pretty Little Liars followed the lives of four (and eventually five) estranged friends who are reunited when they begin receiving messages from a mysterious figure, named “A”, who threatens to expose their deepest secrets.  The show was one of the first breakout original hits for the ABC Family network when it premiered in 2010.  On August 29, 2016, Freeform (the rebranded ABC Family) confirmed that the series would be ending after its seventh season in 2017.

As teen soaps go, this was one of the better ones.  A time jump in season 6 avoided the going-away-to-college problem and gave the series a spurt of freshness, but, by the time season 7 wrapped up in late June 2017, it was time to go.  I’m certainly looking forward to what comes next for Amber Benson, Lucy Hale, Shay Mitchell, and Troian Bellisario.

by jim

Post Mortem – Once Upon A Time

After 6 seasons, and with most of the main cast announcing that they were leaving the show, Once Upon A Time wrapped up its story and looked like it was ready to call it a day.  Unfortunately, ABC wasn’t quite ready to let it go just yet, so it was brought back for a 7th season, with a time jump, a new storyline, a new curse, and a move to Seattle.  In February, ABC announced that this would be the final season of the show.

While never a great show, Once Upon A Time was usually a reliable way to spend an hour, up until the last season, despite basically being a way for Disney to re-use its existing intellectual property.

by jim

Post Mortem – The Americans

On May 30, the sixth and final season of The Americans wrapped up on FX.  Featuring the now married couple of Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys, the show told the story of 2 Soviet spies raising a family in 1980s Washington while reporting back to their homeland.

This will go down as one of the better works of the decade, and I look forward to seeing how it ends once I watch the final four episodes.  Any day now.