Golden Age Update

/in /by

Long time, no update. Rather than nattering on again about how great current video (online and traditional) is right now, I’ll just update with a few examples of what’s impressed me recently.

Bullet Better Call Saul: More of a slow burn than Breaking Bad, but really enjoyable. My wife never watched Breaking Bad, but is now looking forward to now that she’s watched BeCaSa.

Bullet Fargo: Loved the movie, love the series. Again, great characterization.

Bullet Game of Thrones: I held off because we didn’t have HBO, but caught up over the holidays this year and am looking forward to seeing how it all ends (although I have theories).

Bullet Legion: Visually stunning and great world-building.

Bullet Stranger Things: Great acting, writing, music, and it’s like they were filming my entire geeky Indiana childhood.

Bullet Taboo: A little over the top with the attempts to shock the viewer, but the visceral feel of the period is communicated really well.

Bullet Archer and Bob’s Burgers: Like the previously-nominated Home Movies, great writing and comedic timing (and voiceover work by H. Jon Benjamin).

Bullet Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Reminds me of 30 Rock: rapid-fire banter and humor, with clever references (although season 3 was a little slower).

Bullet Silicon Valley and Veep: Again, don’t normally have HBO, so I’m way behind, but I’m a sucker for dysfunctional workplace comedies… especially when they’re in industries I already follow.

Bullet The Wire: Finally caught up when we had HBO (everyone’s always raved about it). It is groundbreaking and has a really interesting perspective on crime and bureaucracies. (But it can sometimes be a little pedantic, I must say).

Bullet I’ve actually been enjoying Elementary, although I gather it’s getting cancelled. Everyone talks about Sherlock, but I’ve always found the British version to be all flash and exceptionally little substance (the plotting is almost aggressively illogical and hole-filled).

Bullet At its best, I’ve enjoyed the Last Man on Earth, but the indulgent Tandy dialogue makes me want to fast forward through large parts of the show.

Bullet Colony: Although it occasionally has incompetence to advance the plot (especially given the power and technology of the occupiers) and I’m not fond of some of the casting, I’m really enjoying the simulation of how humanity would cope with an occupation by nearly unstoppable adversaries.

Bullet Documentary Now! The parodies make me want to watch the original documentaries they reference.

Bullet The Expanse: Scifi is finally going back to space operas, and this one is pretty interesting.

Bullet Good Behavior: originally started watching because of my wife’s Downton Abbey fandom, but this is a surprisingly thought-through hitman drama.

Bullet Humans and Westworld: I’m a sucker for machine sentience shows. See also Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles and Person of Interest.

Bullet People of Earth: Breezy alien abduction comedy with surprisingly deep center.

Bullet Turn: Now I’ll need to go back and find out how much of this show has taken liberties with Revolutionary War history, but with especially interesting villains (Simcoe and Benedict Arnold are both exceptionally realized) and a reasonable Washington that isn’t a caricature, I’ll enjoy the remainder of their last season.