What a week! Baltimore Comic Con was last weekend, and I have thoughts. About $300 worth of thoughts, but we ain’t getting around to that in this entry. No, we’ve got new shows to discuss and all the week’s pop culture news, so let’s get to it!
This is shaping up to be a strange TV season for me, as I’m actually taking a chance on new shows again. In recent years, I would wait to see if it was looking like a show would evade cancellation before jumping in, but I’m currently at a point where I have a new series to watch almost every weeknight. The show I’m about to talk about, however, will not be added to my list.
Brilliant Minds launched on NBC Monday night, and I only happened to see it because I was visiting my mom, and it came on after the America’s Got Talent she was watching ended. Otherwise, I never would have watched this show because I don’t necessarily see Zachary Quinto as a leading man. Have you ever watched House? Then you’ve seen Brilliant Minds. I hated so much about this show that I longed for an interactive voting system, where I could downvote the show as it aired, ensuring its cancellation by the end of the hour. THAT is how bad it was.
Quinto is playing that tired trope of the the condescending, arrogant miracle worker who doesn’t play by the rules. But they don’t even try hard enough this time around. At least Dr. House was addicted to painkillers. But what affliction has befallen Quinto’s Dr. Wolf? He has face blindness. That’s right – he doesn’t remember faces. What the actual fuck?! So, he only remembers people by paying attention to certain traits and mannerisms, but don’t you dare pop up and ask him “Do you remember me?”, because he doesn’t. Because he’s blind. To faces. We’re led to believe this is not only a terrifying thing for a person, but also something he has to constantly fight to overcome. So, if you keep getting introduced to someone you’ve met several times before, take it easy on them. They might be face blind.
Anyway, after getting fired for doing one of his Daring Dr. Wolf adventures with a patient (He takes a dementia patient out of a hospital without permission, so they can attend their granddaughter’s wedding), he retreats to his dark abode, where he…grows plants? That brings up another problem: THERE’S SO MUCH LENS FLARE! It’s like the only thing Hollywood seemingly took away from the Abrams Star Trek reboot was “Quinto should always be set against lens flare”, because there’s a LOT of it. How can a hospital be so dark, yet so flare-y at once? An old colleague drops by, offering him a job at her hospital. But he reminds her that he can’t take the job, and she should know WHY. But guess what? We’ve got a show to create, so he takes the damn job. And there he’s teamed up with a spunky group of diverse interns. It’s like the frickin’ Burger King Kids Club were doing their residency. They each have a distinctive trait: She’s the Black girl, he’s the Black guy, this one is the White kid from a small town, this is the Asian girl, and she likes pills. All pretty one-note.
So, they’re quickly assigned to a case involving a woman who had undergone brain surgery, and emerged thinking that her teenage sons had been replaced by clones. The thing about Dr. Wolf is that The Patient Always Come First. We must always listen to The Patient, and give them what they need. He feels that’s his magical gift: He cares, when others don’t. So, he’s all “I’ll listen to you, Crazy Lady. We’re going to get to the bottom of this!” And they do. Long story short, they have to sort of reboot her brain through sense memory, but in order for it to work, she has to be blindfolded. So, she starts each day, calling her sons on the phone, so she can establish an emotional connection without visuals coming into play. Then, they get her some glasses that actually distort her vision, because she can’t think her sons are clones if she can’t even really see them. And it works! Then, Dr. Wolf makes the courageous decision to tell his Scooby Gang about his terrible affliction. But that’s not the only hill he must climb. The colleague who got him the job drops by and tells him that he really needs to go up and visit the Chief, as they’ve been asking about him. So, he does just that, and we discover that the Chief of the hospital is also his estranged mother. Dun dun DUNNNNNN!
This show was horrible for several reasons, one of which is that they somehow managed to come off like they were simultaneously trying and NOT trying the whole episode. Also, Quinto is off-putting. I’ve always said that. He’s a weird dude. In fact, I recently posted on social media that he seems like the kind of guy you’d hate to corner you at a party. He’d get you off to the side, and start an intense discussion about some bullshit you don’t even care about. This “weirdness” is why he worked as Spock. At the same time, he also comes off like someone with bottled up rage, which is why he worked in the unfortunately maligned The Slap. He’s cold and he doesn’t work well as a leading man. Most of the interesting stuff is gonna have to be done with the interns, as I can’t see a “Dr. Wolf Goes On A Date” episode or a “Dr. Wolf Gets Locked In A Freezer” episode. Oh, and did I mention he rides a motorcycle? That’s so the audience knows he’s a badass. I hated this show so much.
Trailer Park
Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara (Hulu, Oct 18)
I want to take you back to a simpler time: 2010. Obama was in the White House, the first iPad was released, and society was about to learn a new term: catfish. Can you believe there was a time when that concept wasn’t a common part of our online vernacular? Anyway, it was the result of a documentary, of the same name, where a young man named Nev Schulman discovered that he had entered into an online romantic relationship with a fraud, who eventually revealed her name as “Catfish”. Well, Nev became “The Catfish Guy”, which he has ridden all the way to the bank. MTV would go on to give him a show that has already aired *nine* seasons. In fact, the way that the documentary was filmed, along with the existence of the show, has sort of tarnished the very thing it helped to create. Most folks think “Sure, it’s a good story, but is it real?” So, we know what a Catfish is, but we always doubt that’s what’s actually going on when met with one of those situations. Plainly put, the “catfish” concept has lost its luster. So, this documentary is serving to reel us back in.
I’ve always known about Tegan and Sara, but I never really knew their music. They were also labeled “queer artists”, and it’s not that that kept me away, but rather I felt like an imposter if I was trying to sort of glean their experiences from their music? Does that make sense? Anyway, I used to hear about how interactive they were with their fanbase, so it’s sort of amazing to find out it was all fake. I mean, 2024 online folks aren’t surprised, but 2010 online folks thought we could actually trust these strangers we met online. Anyway, this looks really good, and I think I might go Spotify some T&S songs.
Thunderbolts* (Theaters, May 2025)
Ya know, I’ve never loved the Thunderbolts concept, but I’m also amazed it took me this long to realize they’re just Marvel’s Suicide Squad. I mean, the original concept of the series – villains masquerading as heroes – was sort of clever, but over time the team has evolved into a sort of Marvel black ops group comprised of folks who wouldn’t pass the background check for the Avengers. While they don’t have the whole “chip in your head will kill you if you don’t fulfill the mission” MacGuffin, they tend to have a roster of pretty expendable people, led by some B/C/D-lister hero who’s apparently somebody at Marvel’s favorite. Here, it seems that role is shared by Yelena Belova and Bucky Barnes (I mean, is he canonically still calling himself “The Winter Soldier”? Isn’t that what his whole excursion to Wakanda was all about?).
One of the biggest complaints about the MCU was how it killed pretty routinely killed off the most promising villains, so this is a good project to remind the audience, “Hey, we didn’t kill all of the villains!” Still, I don’t see a lot of folks making it out of this movie. Red Guardian was always a joke, so that means he gets a hero’s death. John Walker will never be Captain America again, but he finds his own way to do things, maybe getting a hero’s death. Meanwhile, I think folks pretty much hated Ghost, and they LOATHED the MCU interpretation of Taskmaster, so I see them both getting tragic deaths. Like, maybe Ghost completely fades away or something. Meanwhile, Sentry has no place on a team like this, as he’s WAY too overpowered for this concept. I feel like the team’s heist is to free him, and then he flies off, only to resurface during the next Avengers or something. You don’t waste a character like Sentry, and I feel like they had bigger plans for him when it was still The Walking Dead‘s Steven Yeun and not Bill Pullman’s kid. Anyway, at the end of the film, only Yelena and Bucky are left standing, but hopefully the movie will serve to move the MCU forward instead of serving as a “circling back to tie up a few ‘loose ends'” vehicle. I say all this, and it makes it seem like I don’t have faith in the film, but I actually really liked this trailer. I’m not prepared to say “The MCU is BACK, baby!” but it feels like a step in the right direction.
Hysteria! (Peacock, Oct 18)
This is one of those concepts where I would have been on board had it been a film, but I don’t feel like investing in a series. The whole Satanic Panic thing is always interesting to me, as I wasn’t really old enough to experience it at the time. By the time I was buying music, Tipper Gore was making all the rappers put labels on their albums, but the Devil was no longer in the details. I’ll say that Julie Bowen and Anna Camp are *perfect* casting for a couple of 80s era suburban Karens, but I think it loses me with the whole “There are actual murders going on” thing. Like, I would have been entertained by a teenage band exploiting 80s suburbia’s fear that all teens were one bad song away from being card carrying Satanists. There’s your movie right there! But to add in an actual murder spree, and try to tie the 2 together? I’m already exhausted. Plus, I applaud the colorblind casting and all, but ain’t no Black kid going near anything where the Devil is advertised to be involved – even if fake, because his mama would tear his ass UP!
Mickey 17 (Theaters, January 31, 2025)
I first learned about Mickey 17 from my pals over at the After Lunch Podcast. You see, they have a series called the After Dinner Lounge, where they go around and discuss what they’ve been reading, watching, listening to, and thinking about. It’s a 2-part, 4-6 hour, monthly endeavor, and it’s one of the things I most look forward to in this world. I learn about a bunch of media that would probably pass me by, and the Mickey 17 book was one example of this. Co-host Rob had read the book, and his description of it a few months back made it sound really good. This…this does not look like that. Maybe it’s the tone of the trailer, or using “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head”, but it feels like a tongue-in-cheek indictment of what does “life” mean, and whether it has meaning if it can simply be recreated. Remember the stuff I said last week about Civil War? This feels like it’s trying to send a similar message, only without the backdrop of war. I also don’t really love Robert Pattinson, so I have a better chance of reading the book than seeing this movie. And I haven’t read a book since Trump was in office, so…
Things You Might Have Missed This Week
- The Pretty Little Liars reboot was canceled after 2 seasons on Max.
- Kyle Chandler has reportedly been cast as Green Lantern Hal Jordan in the upcoming Lanterns series. The choice went from Thanos to Early Edition? Someone’s budget got cut…
- Lady Gaga (it’s starting to feel weird calling her that, but I’ll be damned if I call her “Stefani Germanotta”!) announced the release of Harlequin, which is a companion album to Joker: Folie à Deux, where she will play Harleen Quinzel.
- After years of playing the straightwoman to a day drunk Kathie Lee Gifford, or lending journalistic legitimacy to Jenna Bush Hager, Hoda Kotb announced that she’ll be leaving NBC’s Today in 2025, transitioning to a new role at NBC News. Anyone else find it weird that Hoda and John Cena are leaving their jobs around the same time? Do I smell “syndicated morning show”? I would call it Hoda/Cena, and the theme song would be a remake of “Have You Seen Her” by The Chi-Lites (but they’d be singing “Hoda Cena”).
- Although Young Sheldon was a single cam sitcom, its spinoff, George & Mandy’s First Marriage, will return to its Big Bang roots as a multicam show, with a laugh track.
- In an interview with Esquire, Hasan Minaj admitted that he had landed the job as Trevor Noah’s replacement to host The Daily Show, only to lose it following the revelation that he had embellished some of the more race-centric stories in his stand-up act.
- In another interview, Eric Stonestreet revealed that ABC had passed on a pitched Modern Family spinoff, which would have focused on Cameron and Mitchell as they move to another state for Cam to accept a coaching gig at the University of North Central Missouri. If ya ask me, Bullet Dodged!
- Wanna feel old? This week saw the 20th anniversary of the premiere of Lost, as well as the 25th anniversary of the premiere of Freaks and Geeks.
Man, talk about a rollercoaster ride! When I first heard they were rebooting Matlock, with Kathy Bates, I was not impressed. Then, after watching the last trailer for the show, I was ALL IN. Well, CBS did a “sneak preview” of the show this week, after football, prior to its official premiere next month. Well, the show features quite a twist at the end – one that left me unsure of exactly how I felt about the show.
Kathy Bates plays Maddie Matlock (“Yes, like the old TV show”), who hasn’t practiced law in roughly 30 years, but uses her special power of “blending in” – as old people are “invisible” – to get information that helps her worm her way into a job at a prestigious law firm. Why does she want to work there? Well, we don’t really know. She drops hints: She needs “the big bucks”, she takes care of her teenage grandson, who “loathes” her, and her only daughter died of an overdose. But none of these really provide THE reason she’s doing all this to get into the firm.
Now, let’s back up here. I did not watch this live, and when I logged on Monday morning, a lot of entertainment sites were talking about Matlock‘s BIG TWIST. Now, I was expecting something on a Shyamalanian level, based on what I was seeing. I remember one article even compared it to Natasha Lyonne’s Russian Doll, which was a wonky, timey-wimey series, and I wondered how that would fit into this setting. So, determined to avoid spoilers, I pretty much stayed off social media for the day. Once everyone was asleep, I fired up Hulu like a 90s 13 year old watching HBO’s Real Sex with his thumb on the Last Channel button. I’m not sure why it was that deep for me, but I’m sure it’s not a common practice for projects starring Kathy Bates.
I enjoyed the show, as far as everything Kathy Bates did. She’s carrying that thing on her back. The supporting cast, however, ain’t all that dynamic. There’s Jason Ritter, who’s really only bringing “My dad was John Ritter and I get to have sex with Melanie Lynskey” to the table. Ya know, standard Jason Ritter. Skye Marshall has the unenviable task of playing the Mean Black Lady Lawyer, who understands how that looks, and what it means to lean into that role. That said, the most interesting thing about her is that she married Aldis Hodge’s brother in real life. Seriously, these actors’ lives are way more interesting than the lives of the characters they play! Ritter and Marshall’s characters are in the midst of a divorce (interesting, since they have NO chemistry), but they must continue to work together because Ritter’s dad is Beau Bridges, who just so happens to own the firm. We’re supposed to think Bridges is one of those tough as nails big city attorneys who built his firm based on his cunning courtroom skills, but this is Beau Bridges we’re talking about here. I mean, was John Slattery too expensive? Bates gets paired with a duo of young newbie lawyers, so you can already tell a big source of humor is simply gonna resort to pointing out the generation gap, as well as how much law has changed since Maddie last practiced.
So, back to the twist. I’m not gonna spoil it here. I really want you to watch it for yourself. Hell, just skip to the last 5 minutes, if you want. But I will say it upends the entire premise of the pilot. You do get that answer as to why Maddie is doing this, and it’s probably not why you think. While the show does a Keyser Soze flashback to fill in blanks, you sort of question everything you just watched, while you’re also forced to come to terms with what the show is actually about. And I’m not sure I’m still on board. Even stranger is that Bates filmed a tag for the credits, where she basically asks the audience to keep the twist a secret, in order to give others a chance to experience it for themselves. A secret? In this day and age?!
I’ve got a few more weeks before the official premiere (October 17th) to decide if I wanna stay on this crazy train, but I haven’t thought about a show this much in quite some time. It’s a concept that seemingly has an expiration date, so it’ll be interesting to see how they keep it moving. I didn’t know what I wanted, and I’m not sure I liked what I got. But I’m also not ready to turn away. So, that’s why Matlock had the West Week Ever.
