What's To Watch? - Mar 31-Apr 6 - Lines Between Instruction and Vengeance

 

     A daunting Friday ahead of me, I live partially in the hope it'll go smoothly, but there's too much in play. I'm stressed, but am trying to stay as relaxed and distracted as I can, recognizing that often I'm the greatest danger to myself. I've plenty of other things I need to get done in the meantime.
     Anyway, another scattered post this week, with a growing stack of potential items still waiting for me to get to them... but not right now.

     I've been enjoying Bob Odenkirk's Lucky Hank, and am already tired of running across people in social media who cannot allow him to play anyone but Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman, and so just show up to complain about it.
     I'm enjoying the unpacking of William Henry Devereaux, Jr's life. An English professor at a smallish college, who's never gotten past his first novel, and who lives in the shadow of a far more famous and esteemed father who seldom seemed to have the time for him.
      I've mainly only had mixed feelings about where the show's being run. On the one hand, AMC has brought us some excellent shows we'd have been unlikely to see elsewhere in their day. On the other, as I routinely belabor, AMC largely exists to be a quick feed tube for the AMC+ streaming platform, only briefly showing episodes of series and then moving on to the next episode, having almost completely abandoned the audience-building mechanic of running mini-marathons of episodes to help people who want to catch up on something they've been hearing good things about. The aim now is to turn every viewer into an AMC+ subscriber. However, I was overlooking that if someone has AMC then they should also have access to those shows On Demand, and checking my Verizon set-up I see all three episodes to date are there. The option keeps slipping my mind because I always catch any shows that have commercials in them via DVR, so I can skip most of the commercials. On Demand for such shows is much less than optimal for me.
     Anyway, recognizing that the show is taking some liberties with reality (the relentless push to be freshly-published, among them), I nonetheless wonder how it is and isn't going over with people who are themselves part of college faculties.
     Oh! While not wanting to redirect, I will mention for the sake of Netflix viewers that at long last, the sixth and final season of Better Call Saul will finally be arriving on Netflix April 18th. So, if you've been thinking of doing a series rewatch of seasons 1 through 5 and then being able to roll into those final thirteen episodes, this may be the time to do it. This is likely all happening under the strict mechanics of a deal signed years ago, so I've no idea how long Netflix will have the show. Eventually this will all disappear again behind AMC+'s paywall.

     Paramount+ recently launched a new spy thriller series, starring Kiefer Sutherland as Jon Weir, a corporate spy used to deceiving targets and ruining their lives, who now finds the tables turned on him.
     It's Rabbit Hole

     I was never into Sutherland's 24 series, which always felt too close to its early 21st century, Bush-era, "war on terror" surroundings for my taste, especially being on Fox. On the bright side, that doesn't leave me with the baggage that show's fans would likely be carrying into this, constantly likening this series' lead to Jack Bauer.  Early indications are that this may suffer from writers punching above their cleverness weight class, but we'll see.
     Two episodes are in place now, with new ones set to arrive each Sunday. I've currently no idea how many episodes this is set for, so at the moment I'd presume ten.
     
     The younger of my sons, Nick, and I used to go out to the movies together from about when he was eleven or so until he was somewhere in his twenties. We'd get out to see movies fairly frequently, so it tended to be much more than just the highly-anticipated blockbusters.
     Halloween weekend of 2004 we decided to try the newly-released horror film Saw.
 

    We were a little wary, because it was being distributed by Lion's Gate, which at the time seemed to mostly handle B- and C-list import films. We went in with cautiously-lowered expectations. As it turned out, this one was a surprise hit, and turned out to be the first of what would be an annually-expanded franchise of films through 2010. Each was taken in stride in its own year, holding up surprisingly well in-progress, including some fake-out moves in which a given film seemed to lose the instructive point of the films only to have that be a clue as to another influence in play. These were films I took in in the moment, but didn't go back to later... though the idea of eventually revisiting them remained and remains somewhere in mind.
     For the most part that original run kept itself from becoming the simple torture porn that many wanted to lump it in with, though it did get more into the grisly moments as the franchise continued.
     It appears I missed the moment for an easy streaming revisit of the franchise - it seemed to be available as a block on Peacock and HBO for a stretch - as it's more back behind an ala carte paywall now. The first movie, Saw, is still on Tubi at the moment, but only until the end of today.

     However, what prompted me to think about the franchise again, is on Hulu. It's a film starring Chris Rock in a straight dramatic role as a police detective, with a regionally-famous father (played by Samuel L. Jackson), who comes up against someone who has selectively picked up the mantle of this would-be social reformer serial killer, applying them to a specialized agenda. Making matters murkier, Rock's character is at odds with most of his fellow officers because years earlier he blew the whistle on a corrupt cop.
     It's Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021)
     Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, who had directed the second, third, and fourth films in the original franchise. The new film worked well enough for me, but I'm not one of those viewers who gets into a ego-driven competition with the filmmaker. I go on the ride, try to figure out enough to anticipate some moves, but generally let them do their job and decide afterward if what they built holds together. This one did, at least well enough to suit me.
     As mentioned, this is currently on Hulu.

     Next Thursday, April 6th, a new 10-episode comedy drama arrives, in which an incident of road rage gradually consumes the parties involved. Starrring Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, it's Beef (Netflix)   

         I'm familiar with Yeun from various acting roles, from The Walking Dead, to The Humans, and Nope. I'm not familiar with Wong, not having seen any of her Netflix stand-up specials, nor American Housewife. She was also a writer on the sitcom Fresh off the Boat for its first three seasons.
     That this is a series and not a movie has me expecting they'll be putting enough meat on the characters' bones to allow this to work in a long form. Were it a movie project I'd just be expecting a cautionary tale.

     Ideally by Friday afternoon I'll be in a much better state, mentally and emotionally, especially as I still have so much else to attend to. I'm running out of luxury space for me to just collapse in.
     Hopefully we're each starting to feel a little springtime warmth creeping in, and will each get to enjoy some of that this weekend. That tomorrow's April 1st already feels like a prank. Take care, and I'll see you back here next Friday. - Mike