Remember batshit crazy romance novelist Annie Wilkes, from Stephen King's paean to novelist paranoia, Misery? Well, we get her origin story here in a mishmash with part of King's Salem's Lot and a tenuous connection to the somewhat disappointing first season of this show. The result is a nail-biting series in which the protagonist, played brilliantly by Lizzy Caplan, is also a diabolical killer. As a bonus, we get Tim Robbins (but not as Andy Dufresne) living in the same town as Shawshank State Prison. Castle Rock is catnip for King fans who love Easter eggs from his novels.
My love for cooking is directly caused by Alton Brown's landmark series, Good Eats. Most of my techniques and favorite recipes come from those classic episodes that perfectly blend food science, cooking skills, and a Monty Python-esque sense of humor. Brown came back with a handful of new episodes that are as warm and comfortable as your favorite pair of slippers. Nothing has really changed, which is part of the appeal. Brown is a genuine foodie celebrity; Good Eats reminds us all how he got there in the first place.
Yeah, it's a total soap opera, with as much emphasis on the various personal relationships among the physicians at a hospital in San Jose, California, but like any good soap, the characters are all appealing (or repugnant, in a couple of cases), which makes their stories compelling. At the center of it all, however, is Dr. Shawn Murphy, played with unsympathetic honesty by Freddie Highmore. Shawn is a surgical genius because he's an autistic savant, and his autism is never played for humor or sympathy. His mind allows him to see medical solutions that others can't, but it also makes him frustratingly difficult to communicate or connect with, and it's watching him live this out that makes this a good hour of old-fashioned TV drama each week.
The entirety of season four has not played out yet, but in the four episodes I've seen, the series creators aren't backing off the dysfunctional dynamics of the Sanchez/Smith family in any way. In fact, they've doubled down on Rick's nihilism, Morty's existential angst, Summer's hedonism, Beth's Sphinx-sized denial, and Jerry's utter worthlessness in ways that are simultaneously sicker and funnier than the three genius seasons that preceded it. This show is definitely not for everyone, but I guarantee that if you connect with it, it will make you think more than any other show out there.
This show certainly owes a large debt to Alan Moore's Watchmen, which dealt with the idea of superheroes who were less than super (or downright evil), but The Boys puts it into the context of modern media and the gargantuan corporations that push product for profit. In this case, the heroes are, for the most part, hedonistic sociopaths protected by a corporation that owns them lock, stock, and flashy costume. Enter Karl Urban, a former cop turned vigilante leader determined to literally pull the mask off these "heroes" and their true identity. If you haven't already watched this, and you have a few days off this week, binge it. The last episode will leave you breathless and demanding a second season ASAP.
There is absolutely no explanation for why this show has lasted for seven seasons. It features literally the dumbest FBI agent in the history of the nation (Elizabeth Keen), who lives at the center of a decades-long conspiracy involving her KGB-agent mother (Katarina Rostova) and the world's most-wanted criminal, disgraced CIA agent Raymond "Red" Reddington. Each season doles out a new "mystery" about these characters and their hidden past, leading them all to get tantalizingly close to finding the answers but always falling short (usually in a season-ending cliffhanger). It should have gotten stale and used-up after maybe three seasons, but this past year has been the best of all, revealing new details that have turned our previous knowledge upside-down, most of all concerning Red's true identity. The real strength of this show is James Spader's portrayal of Reddington. Every episode is a master class in acting from the William Shatner Academy of Drama, and it is as delicious as the most decadent dessert you can imagine.
Written by Neil Gaiman based on his collaboration with Terry Pratchett, Good Omens is the best buddy comedy available right now. The six-episode series bases its plot around the rise of the Antichrist (a charming young lad from Oxfordshire) and the coming of Armageddon, but the heart of the story is the 6,000-year-old friendship between angel Azirophale (Michael Sheen), the guardian of Eden, and demon Crowley (David Tennant), the serpent who started all the fuss in the Garden to start with. Sheen and Tennant are marvelous together, and the rest of the cast do a wonderful job of grounding an immensely complex story in believable relationships in spite of the absurd situations they all find themselves in. The wit and clever humor of Gaiman and Pratchett are present in each and every episode. This series alone is worth the price of Prime membership.
This is the best series on Netflix that few of you, I'm betting, have seen. You need to watch it, and start as soon as you finish reading this blog, please. A teenage orphan, trapped in the disinterested and dismissive foster care system, is awakened in the night by an intruder, who carefully and systematically rapes her. She reports her attack, only to find herself attacked by the police, her various foster parents, her employer, and the residents of the halfway house where she lives. Literally no one believes her story except for us, the viewers, and eventually, two female detectives, one reflective and empathetic, played by Merritt Wever, the second incisive but jaded, played by Toni Collette. Wever and Collette work tirelessly to identify and capture the insidious serial rapist, and in the process, reveal the truth of the orphan woman's account. Inspired by true events, this series is not only one of the best of the year, it's one of the finest limited-run series I've ever seen.
Will someone please tell me why John Favreau wasn't put in charge of the recently concluded third Skywalker trilogy? Because, my friends, Favreau is a true fan who GETS what Star Wars is all about. This amazing series redefines the whole Star Wars universe to perfection. In the wake of the fall of the Empire after the destruction of Death Star 2 (Force Lightning Boogaloo) at Endor, the New Republic is still struggling to establish a New Order (see what I did there?). Essentially, much of the galaxy is like the Wild West. The Mandalorian is Clint Eastwood, the man with no name (literally...most of the characters call him "Mando" because his given name is a secret). Baby Yoda (don't even bother trying to call him anything else) is The Kid, an orphan adopted by the hard-edged loner. Favreau takes the best elements of Star Wars and American Westerns and blends them into such a perfect series that I'd pay twice what Disney's currently charging for a D+ subscription just to see season two. Favreau is so money...and I guarantee with this, he KNOWS he's money.
Mike Schur's afterlife comedy about Hell and human ethics keeps raising its own bar, then leaping way above it to set an even higher bar. There's no way this show should work, considering all these strange, unpopular elements (everybody hates moral philosophy professors, right?), but this series has become something like the Rosetta Stone for the Meaning of Life not only for its fans but for the cast and crew, as well. This is, quite literally, a life-changing experience, but like so many others, not everyone gets it. But besides that, it's a hilarious show with tremendously appealing characters played by equally appealing actors, most notably Kristin Bell and all-time TV MVP Ted Danson. The writing is also equally inspired, blending the philosophical with the whimsical and silly. Watch this clip for an example of what I mean. Chidi has just found out that he died and went to Hell, and it's 100 percent guaranteed that he's going there again:
I swear to God, if I'm ever approached by a drug dealer, my response will be a quote from Nietzsche. There are five more episodes to go until this series reaches its planned conclusion. Again, like most of the precious things we discover in this life, it didn't last long enough, but it was so wonderful to experience. If they stick the landing, which is so hard to do with entertainment (see: Lost, Game of Thrones, etc.), you can chisel this in stone as my favorite series of all time. For today, at least, it's at the top of 2019.
