2023: The Year In Television

With less and less good productions airing on network and cable and moving to the various streaming platforms, that seems to have taken over as my main form of television watching. Now that I work from home full time, I have plenty of time to take in whatever they have to offer. Since we cover the network and cable shows that I watch elsewhere, let’s take a look at the 23 seasons of shows I streamed on eight different platforms this year.

Black Mirror Season Six (Netflix)
The British anthology returns with a five-episode season that started strong, with one of the best episodes of the show’s run, but ended poorly.

Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 16 (Paramount+)
The BAU returns, minus a few key resources, to hunt down the most prolific serial killer they’ve ever faced.

Daisy Jones & The Six (Amazon Prime)
Based on the book by Taylor Jenkins Reid, it is the tale of how a garage band from Pittsburgh morphed into the biggest band in the world, and then how it all blew up.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow Seasons 6-7 (Netflix)
The Legends see their travels through time and space come to an end.

Dead to Me Season Three (Netflix)
Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini return for one last go-around.

Doctor Who Specials (Disney+)
David Tennant returns and helps Ncuti Gatwa usher in a new era for Doctor Who.

The Flash Season Nine (Netflix)
The show, and the CW’s Arrowverse, winds down with one final go-around.

The Flight Attendant Season Two (HBO Max)
Kaley Cuoco returns for another go-around as the alcoholic flight attendant who also works for the CIA.

Ginny & Georgia Seasons 1-2 (Netflix)
Imagine Gilmore Girls if Lorelai came from nothing and was somewhat amoral and Rory was bi-racial.

How I Met Your Father Season 2 (Hulu)
The second and final season leaves us hanging as to who the father would have been.

The Last Thing He Told Me (Apple TV+)
Jennifer Garner stars in the adaptation of the Laura Dave novel. Continue reading →

2018 New Fall Season – Sundays

It is time once again to dive in to the new fall lineups for the television season that kicked into gear two weeks ago. We start this year with Sunday night’s offerings, which features a little more programming that interests me than last year.

7:00

God Friended Me – What if you took last season’s Kevin (Probably) Saves The World and add in social media?  Then you probably get this show.

Supergirl – The CW expands to a new night, and moves one of their DC hits to kick off the festivities.

8:00

Charmed – A reboot of the old WB hit, replacing the Halliwell sisters with a new collection of witches.

Shameless – Season 9 of the show started a few weeks back.

Ray Donovan – The show returns for its sixth season at the end of October.

Doctor Who – The 11th season kicks off with a new show runner and a new Doctor, Jodie Whitaker.

9:00

Camping – Jennifer Garner and David Tennant team up for this adaptation of the British comedy.

25 Years Of Fox – Drama

The Fox network celebrated its 25th anniversary last Sunday night in a 2 hour retrospective.  Here’s a final look back at some of the dramas they have broadcast over the years, based on Wikipedia’s list:

24: One of the best shows ever to air on any network, let alone Fox.  The nation’s introduction to Jack Bauer and the Counter Terrorism Unit was ironically delayed, as the pilot was pushed back following the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Ally McBeal: David E. Kelley’s special brand of whimsy took hold at a Boston (where else?) law firm featuring young, mostly attractive lawyers who lived for their quirks.

Beverly Hills, 90210: It started off as a show tackling the relevant teen issues of the day, but took off when it embraced its inner soap.  Who can forget Dylan and Kelly on the beach while Brenda was in Paris, Brandon leading the student body protest declaring that “Donna Martin Graduates”, or Donna trying to keep her virginity for years and years, before finally giving it up to young David Silver.

Boston Public: David E. Kelley again infiltrates Boston, this time focussing on the teachers and administrators at a school.

The Chicago Code: A one season wonder focusing on a group of cops trying to take down corruption at city hall.

Class of ’96: I enjoyed the show, but it tried to be the original issues-based 90210 except in college, and who needed that when we had the current 90210 in college?

Dark Angel: Jessica Alba starred as a genetically altered being trying to take down the people that created her.

Drive: Only four issues of this show starring Nathan Fillion and a young Emma Stone ever made it to air.

Dollhouse: Somehow Joss Whedon and Eliza Dushku got two seasons of Dollhouse on the air.

Continue reading →

2010 Review – Movies

A likely part of the reason I only made it through 8 books last year was the 119 movies I saw, making it the 5th most prolific year of my life.

Amy Adams, Mila Kunis, and Nicolas Cage each starred in 4 films I saw, tying for the yearly lead.  Bruce Willis starred in 2, giving him the all time lead with 27.

For fun, here’s a quick review of the films and what recollection, if any, I have of them.  They are listed in the order I saw them.

District 9 (2009)

Aliens invade South Africa.  One of the surpise hits of ’09.

Extract (2009)

Mila Kunis works with Jason Bateman at a spice factory.

Moving McAllister (2007)

Mila Kunis is some muckety-mucks daughter and some dude helps her move to get in good with the dad.

Welcome (2007)

Streak (2008)

Spleenectomy, The (2008)

Three shorts I downloaded from iTunes.  Anna Faris pretended to be a doctor in the last one.

Continue reading →