No real preamble this week, as I watched a lot of stuff that we need to discuss!
My viewing habits were all over the place this week, as I kinda got tired of Portlandia. I figured I’ve probably seen about 75% of the series, and that’s probably enough. Another wrinkle entered the equation, however: YouTubeTV wants another location verification, which will surely place me back on Mountain Time, therefore thwarting the concept of “live watching” anything (I’m on the East Coast). So, instead of dealing with all that, I’ve found myself rediscovering Pluto TV.
As someone who longs for the days of independent channels full of shows in off-network strip syndication (that’s the technical phrase for when they’re like “Full House, now five nights a week!”), Pluto TV is a godsend. Longtime readers will remember I felt this way a few years back, when I was using it to binge The Love Boat and the Stargate franchise. It’s come a long way since then, however, as it seems Paramount is finally opening up the vault. There’s the TV Land channel, and the I’m pretty sure I found a channel that was just Comedy Central’s Drunk History. I’ve spent most of the time, however, on Black Classics as I haven’t watched Webster or 227 in a while, and it scratched that itch. That said, Webster is NOT a “Black sitcom”. You can make that my “Die Hard isn’t a Christmas movie”, and I will die on that hill.
Anyway, I’ve rediscovered so many shows. The New Adventures of Old Christine was Julia Louis-Dreyfus at her absolute best. Meanwhile, I get the pun of Just Shoot Me‘s title (They work for a fashion magazine), but surely that’s what the NBC execs said when they watched that pilot. God, that’s a terrible show, yet I’m pretty sure I watched all 7 seasons when it originally aired. Even the last season, where Rena Sofer joined the cast, and had that horrible accent (I would watch anything with Rena Sofer. Hollywood really missed a gem there). That’s what we did back then: We didn’t necessarily like these shows – they’re just what was on. And they even air Married…with Children season 1, with the original opening credits that are just cast names on a black screen. I say all this to convey that I’m beginning to realize I don’t really need anything back in the “real time” TV world. All my FXX shit? It’s next-day on Hulu. If I ever want to go back and catch up on Abbott Elementary? Hulu. When American Dad returns to Fox? Hulu. And, for everything else, there’s Pluto TV. I know I’m jinxing myself, though. I’m almost certain that David Ellison (owner of Skydance, and now Paramount) will announce some changes coming to Pluto TV soon. Oh, you didn’t know it was owned by Paramount? You mean the 13 channels devoted to Star Trek didn’t tip you off? Eh, things are good now, but if that happens I’ll just go back and catch up on the 25% of Portlandia I didn’t get around to watching.
Speaking of Hulu, I binged the new FX comedy Adults, which premiered back in May on the network, with the full-season drop on Hulu. Say what you will about FX, but they’re one of the last networks that really seems to push all of their new series. Sure, the “FX on Hulu” experiment was a crash course in brand confusion, but any money not being used to promote The Bear is clearly split amongst the rest of the network’s offerings. Since FXX is probably the channel I watched most when we had cable, I was constantly seeing ads for their upcoming series. So, I knew about Adults, but I felt like I was somewhat outside of its demographic. I mean, up to this point, I had sort of “grown up” with that channel. When Jay Baruchel starred in Man Seeking Woman, I was at that same point in my life, and really related to it. Hell, I related to a lot of You’re The Worst, which I binged during the pandemic. Adults, however, made me feel like I first felt watching Blockers: “Am I too old for this teen sex romp?” Now, the characters in Adults are recent college grads, but I still relate to pretty much nothing going on in their lives.
So, Adults follows five friends in their early twenties who live together while trying to figure out their lives. All of the characters are interesting in their own way, even if a bit tropey. Samir is what the manosphere would call a “soy boy”, in that he lacks confidence and is far from being an “alpha”. It’s his parents’ house in which the group lives, which is seemingly enabled by the fact that he’s a pushover. Over the course of the season, there’s a push and pull of him trying to gain agency over his life. For example, he aces a job interview over Zoom, but when he’s encouraged to celebrate with a little dance, he ends up pulling down his pants and mooning the hiring team. With the offer rescinded, he starts DoorDashing, where he ends up at a house where it’s clear he’s been hired by teens to bring them alcohol. Before he can leave with the alcohol, they convince him to hang out and play Mario Kart, and he sets himself up as their “chaperone”. He now thinks he has a bunch of 14 year old new friends who respect him, when it’s clear to everyone they’re using him. He was childhood friends with Billie, and it’s clear there’s future potential for a Will They/Won’t They, but he doesn’t yet have the confidence to act on it.
That brings us to Billie, who was the overachieving former editor of her high school newspaper. Now, she’s trying to make a name for herself in journalism, but she’s found herself as an unappreciated intern. When she tries to leverage a local sexual harassment scandal to get bigger assignments at work, she ends up getting fired and her life simply implodes. So, she spends most of the season throwing herself into one self-destructive situation after another. She frequently visits her high school, dropping in on classes. She’s clearly doing it since it’s the last place where she felt like a success, and she does it under the guise that she’s available to give advice to current students, but she’s done it so much that they’ve noticed and they think she’s weird for it. Then, she ends up dating her former teacher (played by Daredevil himself, Charlie Cox), and she polishes off the season by having a threesome with a married couple that includes The Good Place‘s D’Arcy Carden.
Next up is Issa, who’s the sexually charged attention whore of the group. She will pretty much do anything for the spotlight, but throws around buzzwords like “liberation” and “agency”. Issa is actually the latest entry in a fairly recent trope: the sex-positive Indian girl. I first encountered this in the aforementioned Blockers, with the character of Kayla (played by Geraldine Viswanathan) who was John Cena’s daughter in the film. I remember thinking “I haven’t seen this too often!”, yet it was pretty quickly followed up by Amit Kaur’s Bela character in Mindy Kaling’s The Sex Lives of College Girls. In this instance, Issa is pretty much the “fuck-up” of the group, which isn’t a very high bar. She’s all impulse and instant gratification. Damn the consequences! This makes her the Irresponsible One, so her arc over the season finds her trying to change once she realizes her friends don’t actually take her seriously. She’s in a new relationship with “fluid” Paul Baker (he is ALWAYS referred to by both names), making him the newest addition to the friend group. He doesn’t really get his own entry here, as most of what we learn about him is in regards to how he interacts with the others. He’s both a mirror and prize to be won.
Finally, that brings us to Anton, who is the tropey catty gay guy of the group. In fact, he’s the black guy and the gay guy of the group. Anton SUCKS. He’s snippy and superficial and almost not a Real Person™. None of his interactions are genuine, which is something the series explores. He’s something of a “friend slut”, in that he’s so desperate to be liked that he sorta befriends everyone he meets. He’ll have these deep conversations, and claim to want to run off with them, yet forget their name and face if he runs into them on the street the next week. You begin to realize there’s layers (and damage) to him, and he certainly ends the season in an interesting place, but he’s unlikeable AND wasted throughout most of the series.
In all, it’s a good binge. It’s a smart show, and it’s a funny show. My hang-up is that every FX dramedy teaches me that the young folks are all doing coke and butt stuff. Is that true? Am I that out of touch? Anyway, it’s only 8 episodes, so you can do it fairly quickly and the characters will grow on you. That said, it hasn’t been renewed yet for a second season (FX always waits til the 11th hour for renewals), so I’d almost say it’s not worth the investment until its fate is decided.
Also on Hulu, I watched the movie Poolman. It was not what I intended to watch (I was planning to watch that Lilith Fair documentary, if you can believe it), but I noticed Poolman in my suggestions, and I’d heard good things about it from a friend. Starring, written by, and directed by Chris Pine, I’m gonna have to take you on a bit of a walk to really explain this film.
So, you know how America adapts UK shows, and then strips all the “UK” out of them, thereby nullifying a lot of what made the shows work in the first place? For example, when MTV adapted Skins, they still weren’t going to be able to replicate on basic cable what E4 had accomplished in the UK. So, Skins US only lasted one, low-rated season. US networks simply weren’t ready to “go there” at that time, which is funny because anyone shocked by Euphoria clearly never saw the original Skins. And anyone shocked by Skins clearly never saw KIDS. It’s like we’ve been volleying teen shock entertainment back and forth across the Atlantic for the past 30 years. Anyway, you get what I’m saying about the whole localization aspect, right? OK, well, you know how Wes Anderson movies always have something of a French arthouse vibe? Well, Poolman is like Chris Pine set out to make his own American Wes Anderson movie, and…well, it just doesn’t work.
Pine plays eccentric pool cleaner Darren Barrenman who’s responsible for cleaning the pool at a dingy LA apartment complex. He’s a native Angelino, and he’s always focused on plans and schemes that he feels would improve the city. The problem, however, is the local government thinks he’s just some kook, and they never take him seriously. Why would they? He looks like a middle-aged burnout, who makes origami gifts for everyone he meets, and regularly writes letters to Erin Brockavich (the real one, not Julia Roberts), whom he has seemingly roped into a one-sided pen pal dynamic. He’s been filming his own documentary about the history of LA, when he stumbles into a government coverup. He’s then recruited by a femme fatale who wants him to investigate this supposed coverup for her.
That’s really all I’m going to give you, as there are a bunch of twists and turns and betrayals. I mean, it pretty much goes the way you think it will. The cast is great, though, as it’s got Danny Devito, Annette Bening, Clancy Brown, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ray Wise, and Stephen Tobolowsky in supporting roles. With a weak script, their performances are doing the heavy lifting. Also, I was surprised by DeWanda Wise, who’s a Maryland native that I’d never seen in anything before. Apparently, her role had been filled by Ariana DeBose, who had to leave the film due to scheduling conflicts. Anyway, Wise was incredible, and she clearly understood the assignment. We’ve seen this character time and time again, but I’ve never seen a black actress play this character. It brought a new, subtle dynamic to the goings on.
Anyway, there were several times where I’d think to myself “I’m at home. I don’t have to finish this thing.”, but I ain’t a quitter. So, it’s done. But I don’t recommend it.
Run The Numbers
I finally did it, fools! I finally read a book. A BOOK. The kind with typed words, but no pictures! I’m cutting it pretty close with that 6-book goal, as I didn’t read my first until September, but I think I’ve got a fire lit under me now. Anyway, this is not the 500-page book I’d mentioned a while back, as I sort of got tired of it. I’ll finish it, but this is a book I started on a whim, and turned out to be a quick and enjoyable read.
So, when it comes to books, I skew toward nonfiction, as I feel I get enough fiction everywhere else. Ya know, comics, TV, Twitter. That kind of stuff. So, I end up reading a lot of autobiographies and oral histories. If I have even a passing interest in a notable figure, I’ll read their book. And that’s what led me to pick up I Want To Be Where The Normal People Are, by actress Rachel Bloom. Though she first rose to fame via her viral comedic videos, like “Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury”, she’s probably best known as the co-creator and star of The CW’s musical comedy Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. This was a series that originally launched as something of a dramedy, but eventually turned into an exploration of mental illness over the course of its 4-season run. Bloom became a series star almost overnight, and this book sort of details how she always wanted to be “normal” and to fit in, yet it’s her abnormality that led to her eventual success.
Bloom grew up an awkward kid in California, who was seemingly targeted by the cool kids, who bullied her for their entertainment. Despite all this, she was an unabashed theatre kid who found safety in performance and writing. So, she looks back over her life, highlighting her bouts with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and anxiety, and how she allowed these to, at times, hurt relationships in her life. At the end of the day, she knew she was talented, and she equated her talent with her self worth. So, every lost role, every failed audition, every rejection from Upright Citizens Brigade took a toll on how she felt about herself. She shares some diary entries from those points in her life, to sort of gain some understanding of all the parts that contributed to her sense of self.
She also covers how Crazy Ex-Girlfriend was a fluke, in that had been ordered to pilot by Showtime, then killed by Showtime, and then picked up by The CW 10 days later. By the time The CW entered the picture, they were finalizing their fall schedule, and said they wouldn’t be able to give it their full attention until the summer. Then, they realized they hated all of their fall pilots, and they decided to order it to series for the fall. So, Bloom now had a show picked up for the fall, with no official cast, crew, writers, or directors attached. If you’re a fan of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, however, you might be disappointed, as the show isn’t given as much focus as you might think. In fact, I read the paperback version, which had an extra chapter not featured in the original release, of nothing but Crazy Ex-Girlfriend content due to reader feedback.
I wouldn’t say I’m a Bloom Superfan, though I did share my thoughts on the show when it launched. I enjoyed it, but I didn’t stick with it, as there was simply too much TV to watch (and it’s even worse NOW!). Still, I always kinda felt a kinship with her, as a fellow weird theatre/a cappella nerd. I don’t talk about that nearly enough: I was BIG into musical theatre once I started performing in musical theatre. Had all the soundtracks. Knew all the hits. But just like I forgot all my piano lessons when I started a cappella in college, so did I forget about musical theatre. So, there were aspects of this show that sort of brought it all back, and when I’d see Bloom I’d think “One of us! One of us!” Anyway, I really related to a lot of the mental health stuff in the book, and it seems like her trick was “fake it til you make it”. She tried to be “cool”, usually failed miserably, and then ended up realizing she was more comfortable being herself, which tended to work out in her favor anyway. It was a hilarious read, and I breezed through those 300 pages, so I highly recommend it.
Will Around The Web
I was a busy bee this week! As far as podcasts, there are two opportunities to catch me. First up, I joined the Super Cinema Show for Patreon subscribers of Wizards: The Podcast Guide To Comics. We discussed the Warner Bros Home Entertainment adaptation of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s All Star Superman. I can’t post the link ’cause you’ve gotta be a patron, but surely you wanna hear that discussion, right? Spoiler alert: I hated the film. If you want to know why, then you gotta pay the troll toll! It’s worth it, ’cause those guys do great work over there!
Next up, Remember That Show? brought its “Come and Knock on Our Pod” (CAKOOP) event to a close, as Adam and I discussed the final entry in the Three’s Company universe, 1984’s Three’s A Crowd. This franchise might not have the familiarity of last summer’s Saved By The Summer event, but I’m really proud of these episodes. As a lifelong fan of these shows, I really enjoyed doing a deep dive into the origins and spinoffs, and I think it was an overall informative and entertaining undertaking. But don’t just take it from me, as you can catch up on the whole thing here.
On the blogging front, my Willfully Ignorant column made its return, where I declared The Internet “over”. It might sound like hyperbole, but I mean it, as it’s no longer a place of discovery, but rather a corporation-driven exchange. A lot of those thoughts were inspired by the first few pages of Rachel Bloom’s book. You see, those pages were filled with advance praise from the various sites and blogs that had reviewed it: HelloGiggles, Bitch Media, PopSugar, Glitter Guide – all gone, yet this book was published in 2020. You may not recognize all the names, but I can tell you Bitch Media and PopSugar were pretty big deals at one time. Then again, so were AOL, Yahoo!, Mashable, Newsarama, and The Huffington Post. Anyway, the Internet of old is gone, and it ain’t coming back. So, now that we’ve acknowledged that, where do we go from here?
Things You Might Have Missed This Week
- WWE Legend The Undertaker showed up at last weekend’s Wrestlepalooza to announce Stephanie McMahon as the first inductee of the Class of 2026 to the WWE Hall of Fame.
- Despite their own failed lifeguard drama Rescue: HI-Surf last season, Fox has ordered a reboot of Baywatch for the 26-27 TV season. More surprisingly, Burn Notice creator Matt Nix will serve as showrunner. The only way to make this work is for them to cast nothing but influencers and porn stars.
- Illness forced James Van Der Beek to drop out of a live Dawson’s Creek table read, which reunited the original cast to raise money for cancer research. Van Der Beek was diagnosed with colorectal cancer last year. He was replaced by his understudy…Lin-Manuel Miranda? Sure, why not.
- “I’m rich, bitch!” Did anyone else get their Facebook settlement money? That’s right, I was surprised to receive a whopping $36.34 in my PayPal account this week from that class action suit from, like, 2022 or something. I don’t even understand the whole thing; I just filled out a form online several years ago. For all I know, I sold them my soul for roughly the cost of dinner for a family of four at Noodles & Company. I guess that explains why I feel so empty…
Jimmy Kimmel had the West Week Ever. You know why. It’s basically been the only entertainment news story for the past week. It has also shown that Bob Iger is capable of being an even worse CEO than we had previously thought. On Monday, it was announced that Jimmy Kimmel Live! would return to the network the following night. Conservative affiliate owners Sinclair and Nexstar still refused to air the show, despite it being reinstated at the network level. And what happened? Kimmel still had his highest-rated episode ever, with over 6 million same-day viewers, despite being blacked out in 66 markets. Meanwhile, his 30-minute monologue racked up 15 million views within its first 12 hours of being posted to YouTube.
Historically, the affiliates have held all the power in this dynamic. The network might schedule something, but the affiliate ultimately gets to decide whether or not to air it. It’s the one area where the robber baron model is still going strong. If we had a just FCC, then they could lean on the affiliates, as they operate in the interest of their clients, who don’t really have a choice in the matter. For example, DC’s ABC affiliate is a Sinclair-owned station, so we didn’t get Kimmel’s return here. With a powerful antenna, maybe we could get the Baltimore affiliate, WMAR, which is owned by E.W. Scripps, but that’s a lot of work that we shouldn’t have to do. Unfortunately, the current FCC is the villain, plus affiliates are apparently allowed a certain number of preemptions, especially if they feel the content to be inappropriate. Still, Kimmel’s return showed that you can succeed, even with the deck stacked against ya.
There were all sorts of unchecked numbers flying around, about how Disney stock had lost $4B in value – the same amount the company paid for the Star Wars franchise – in the wake of Kimmel’s indefinite suspension. Folks were canceling Hulu, Disney+, and boycotting other Disney services and products. It was one of the rare examples of a successful modern boycott, and it seemingly worked.
So, we’ll count this as a win, which means there’s probably a bunch of Bad around the corner. Oh, well. For now, Jimmy Kimmel had the West Week Ever.