What's on TV?

Hot takes in no particular order

I know. I watch too much TV. But I do other stuff, too. For instance, here’s my new sign for No Kings Day.

I’ve also been building our resistance website and creating graphics. It’s rewarding work for a volunteer, but it’s not keeping me flush with cash.

Speaking of kings, I broke a crown, which set us back almost $600. It’s coming up on the 31st anniversary of the honeymoon that broke my crown in the first place. Fun story to come.

Nature has been a bitch, too. Yesterday, on our way to our weekly street corner sign wave, we passed a baby grackle that was both blind and mute. He was standing in the alley crying for food, no sound coming out of its mouth, no parent noticing he was there.

What did I do? Well, this year, rather than save all the injured animals by taking them to a wildlife rescue, I recognized that I cannot save the world. I deal with that by crying. I cried on the way to the sign wave and then again during it.

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Now, as promised, hot TV takes.

Your Friends and Neighbors, Apple+

I can’t remember a time I didn’t want to watch Jon Hamm do anything. But this series follows Hamm’s “Coop,” who, like all his friends, cares only about money. His best friend steals his wife, then Coop loses his job, so he turns to a life of crime, stealing expensive baubles from said friends’ homes. It’s all ugly, but the ugliest moment comes when Coop’s ex-wife, Mel, played by Amanda Peet, steals a jar of jam from a mom and pop shop, just for the hell of it. Rich people being hateful hits too close.

The Handmaid’s Tale, Hulu

Speaking of hitting too close…. Even though everything happening on this show is happening in real life, TV has rarely been better than this. (It’s The Good Wife good, and this season even features Josh Charles.) The acting, lighting, set, music, and story are perfect. There is not a second of dialogue or camera lingering or pregnant pause that isn’t captivating. Elizabeth Moss is a gift, and her June is the embodiment of resistance. She’s my role model. I think I know why this is its last season, and that doesn’t bode well for humankind. But it is high art, and I would rather watch this than anything else.

Black Mirror, Netflix

The first episode of season 7, “Common People,” is poignant, frustrating, heartbreaking, and completely plausible. I had a hard time sleeping after I watched it. “Bête Noire,” episode 2, is creepy but entertaining and not really plausible, which is helpful. The other four episodes are a bit of a snoozefest. Twilight Zone is better.

The Four Seasons, Netflix

This series, adapted by Tina Fey, is based on Alan Alda’s film. It’s entertaining and has a few chuckles. A good binge. Human. Plus, I had been wondering what the hell Steve Carrell was doing.

Hacks, Netflix

Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder have great chemistry, and the series, about a comedy legend and her young writer, is well-written and spitefully funny. I love it, and season 4 is the best yet. Ageism is a strong theme, and the truth of it is irritating and hurtful, especially in the way Smart’s Deborah Vance accepts the insults flung her way and the way young people fling them.

The Rehearsal, Max

Nathan Fielder is one of those folks you either love or hate. Guess where I fall? Not on the cool side, apparently, because he is annoying, and this show is like the Milgrim experiment. It feels wrong and harmful. I gave up.

Righteous Gemstones, Max

Funny, silly, stupid—just fine for these times. It stopped two seasons too late, but seeing Walton Goggins’s prosthetic penis was worth it.

The Pitt, Max

If you’d always wanted to see a vaginal birth, this is the place to see it. The Pitt is one of the goriest hospital shows, with lots of exposed organs and decapitations and wounds and who knows what else. But if an emergency ever happens, it should not happen in Pittsburgh. I’ve been to a lot of ERs, but I’ve never seen one with a waiting room that full and a wait time that absurd. Good acting, lots of drama, but meh. It’s like watching the Drumpf regime—one disaster after another, everything, everywhere, all at once.

The Studio, Apple+

Seth Rogen plays Matt Remick, a schlamassel show producer with self-esteem issues in what seems like an old-timey slapstick series. I don’t know that it needs the gimmick of a single-lens, single camera, no-cut film style because it can’t turn this cringe fest into good art. But the cameos are cool, and the schtick is absurdly funny sometimes, especially when all the characters OD on mushrooms (including Brian Cranston and Zoë Kravitz) because nobody knows what Remick means when he says he has an “old-school Hollywood buffet.” Bonus: Kathryn Hahn and Catherine O’Hara.

Tracker, Paramount+

So dumb and bad and serious about it. Yet I can’t stop watching it. Is it Justin Hartley’s good looks?

Reacher, Amazon Prime

Alan Ritchson is a muscle-bound hottie who hates Trump, and his Jack Reacher kills bad guys. What could be better? I mean, if you like shoot-‘em-up TV.

Will Trent, Paramount+

One of the best cop shows I’ve ever seen. Will Trent is warm and touching and full of good drama. Ramón Rodríguez plays a dyslexic investigator who can’t read. And while that premise sounds a bit far-fetched, it works. Character flaws, redemption, and overall good TV.

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Until next time, fight.