What's To Watch? - March 24-30 - Oh, My!

     We've officially wandered into spring since last time, though how much the experience outside your window matches that is likely to vary widely.

      This past weekend - another of those thanks to a friend situations - I got to see Cocaine Bear (2023 R 1h 35m). A bloody action comedy, only remotely based on actual events. It's not even so much a case of "print the legend" as write the screenplay based on what a few, likely drunk writers imagined might happen if an air-drop of cocaine went awry, a bear found it, and decided she definitely wanted the rest of it.

     A period piece, it's set in the mid-'80s, so no cell phones, and the War On Drugs was making life worse for pretty much everyone. An entertaining cast and over-the-top violence by men, women, and bear, along with players on each side of the drug war, make for a brisk, often funny (providing the violence and blood doesn't muffle that for you) little over 90 minutes. It even has two kids among the main characters, and they were never annoying.
     The closest thing I had to a complaint was about three quarters of the way through we have a stretch of the film that's set in the forest at night. I've been in the woods on a moonless night, so I know it can be so dark one can walk face-first into a tree; I was with an older cousin when she did that. I would have forgiven the director for a less-realistic simulation of it, as when I'm watching a movie I'd prefer to have something to watch all the way through.
     One of Ray Liota's last projects, the film includes a dedication screen to him at the end.
     Out in theaters since late February, it's now well into its video on demand stage. Once again, that's Cocaine Bear.

     Not watching network tv feed as a default these days, new shows are promoted and arrive that I'm not aware of because I don't see their promotional campaigns. One such item is a freshman sitcom that arrived on ABC this season.
      Starring Gina Rodriguez as a young journalist who derailed her career five years earlier in the name of love, going with her fiance to London - the next step of his career arc - only to have the relationship falter and die. Having completely lost her career momentum, she returns to the states and attempts to pick up where she left off. Old friends and acquaintances have moved on and up since she checked out, and she has to start all over again, newly single and essentially at the bottom of a career she'd walked away from. She's given the assignment of writing obituaries, but there's a twist (this is laid out in the trailer, too, as it's the series' hook) she's immediately visited by the deceased, who only she can see and hear. They don't go away until she files the obituary.
     It's Not Dead Yet (ABC/Hulu)

     While confusing and frequently leading to embarrassing situations, you likely won't be surprised to find it's ultimately a mutually-beneficial relationship. It also helped that the first spirit she's tasked with is a character played by Martin Mull.
     I ended up binging the seven episodes, which made for a good way to settle the various recurring characters into place. Yes, there are formulaic sitcom elements in play, but at least in 2023 one gets ample cover for talking to people no one else can see or hear, just by having visible earbuds in.
     The series is based on British writer Alexandra Potter's 2020 novel Confessions of a Forty-Something F##ck Up.
     There are seven episodes in place so far, they took a broadcasting break since mid-March, but the next new one is set for next Wednesday, April 5th. You can find the episodes to date on Hulu, or free over on ABC.com.

     Roughly midway through 1977, a collection of various new and older animations, from traditional drawn to claymation/stop motion, was released as The Fantastic Animation Festival. One segment roughly three quarters of the way through, was decades old, originally released in late November 1941, yet I'd never seen it before. It was the second of the Fleischer Studios Superman cartoons, The Mechanical Monsters. While I had been a huge comics fan for over a decade at that point, I really wasn't a Superman fan, but seeing this on a huge screen bowled me over. While I continued to enjoy the rest of the Animation Festival mix, part of my mind was stuck back on that Superman cartoon.

     May 16th will see Warner Bros. Discovery releasing of "meticulously remastered" editions of the seventeen Max Fleischer Superman shorts from 1941-43, both in digital and on Blu-Ray. (Prices for each are to be $14.99 for digital, and a MSRP of $33.99 for the Blu-Ray.) I'm mentioning it now as an early heads-up, particularly for any who will be going for the Blu-Ray and may want to watch for the best deal.
     They returned to the source, 35mm masters, and used the latest tech to restore image and sound to its original standards. Technically, all of these fell into the public domain around 1968, when DC Comics failed to file a renewal, but all of the source materials - and certainly the characters - remain theirs. Still, it was that fall to public domain status that was why one of those cartoons had been folded into the Animation Festival.
     Bud Collyer and Joan Alexander, who performed the parts on The Adventures of Superman radio show, provided the Clark/Superman and Lois Lane voices for these cartoons, which must have been a pleasant touch for theater-going fans back in the forties, having the continuity of voices from the radio program.
     There's so much history tied up in the story of these

productions, I'm hoping the featurettes (see below) adequately cover it. One tidbit I'll mention now is that these cartoons were what originally granted Superman the power of flight. While the comics were already fantastically popular, at that point the "leap tall buildings in a single bound" line was an accurate description. Superman originally didn't fly. When the Fleischers' team started pulling test materials together, going the way of the source material with him jumping about - however prodigiously - they felt it looked too silly, and asked the publisher for permission to up his game, which they granted.
     
     Along with the 17 shorts will be three special featurettes:

New Featurette – Superman: Speeding Toward Tomorrow – Superman’s exploits in the Fleischer series modernized the monomyth of the Greek godlike hero and expanded and romanticized the prevalent themes of sci-fi and fantasy. It was this combination of heartfelt storytelling, relatable heroes and amazing visuals that has endeared the Fleischer series to fans as one of the greatest superhero stories of all time. This featurette explores the visual storytelling as the lavish animation, with special attention paid to all the atomic age technology, pushes science fiction closer to becoming a powerful social and pop culture force.

Featurette – First Flight: The Fleischer Superman Series – The Origins and Influence of This Groundbreaking Cartoon Series – A gathering of contemporary animators, comic book & animation historians, and legendary Fleischer artists examine these beloved shorts, focusing on the animation and the breakthrough techniques that created it, as well as studying the title character’s place in history.

Featurette – The Man, the Myth, Superman: Exploring the Tradition of Superman Heroes on the Page and Screen – A fascinating study of Superman-esque characters throughout history – in ancient myth, literature and film – that bring forth imaginative, super-human qualities, captivating audiences and enduring the test of time.

      As we look at the pundit-filled media landscape (I avoid  most of it myself, but it's all around us) there's always some degree of interest in how we came to this. If we're honest about it, we know that loud fire-breathers are not unique to any age, but the number of imitators and a general lowering of standards of civility tends to happen over time. Each of these characters erodes things a bit more.

    Over on Tubi, a documentary from 2012 traces the history and cultural footprint of one such person that most of us who were in (or, I suppose, near) adulthood in the late '80s couldn't help but be at least peripherally aware of: Morton Downey, Jr.
     Probably the most surprising thing about it, in retrospect, is to see how short-lived his time in the spotlight was. Then again,

for those who were too young to be aware of him at the time, or who came afterward, it's likely as if he never existed. Name-dropping him now to that age group would likely have them wondering if we were screwing up actor Robert Downey Jr's name. There's at least some small comfort in that, that he could have been so widely-known in his narrow, specific time, but be so generally forgotten now. Like a loud source of noise in a neighborhood, or a bout of food poisoning -- nearly impossible to ignore at the time, but quickly and mercifully forgotten in the blessed absence that follows.  Similarly, someone I know was mentioning in the past year how Rush Limbaugh, who had a far deeper cultural footprint and range of influence, and for a far longer period of time, has disappeared from conversations in the just over two years since his death.
     The Morton Downey, Jr. documentary is available to all over on Tubi: Evocoteur (2012 R  1h 29m)

    Seeing some of the crowd rallying scenes, it's impossible for me to not be immediately reminded of the niche Donald Trump has come to fill. Ideally, we'll see his time pass, too. May we live to see a time when something will remind us, and we'll be pleased to realize how long it's been since we last heard the name.

     This past Monday, the 20th, was the 40th anniversary of an NBC special event project, a renewed Cold War era piece of fiction masquerading as a Special Bulletin (1983  105m).
      This NBC project ran as an imagined network, RBS, complete with commercials and clips for shows. These are interrupted by a switch to events unfolding at the docks in Charleston, South Carolina, where local coverage of a dock workers' strike finds a local reporter inadvertently in place as a small group tries to use the threat of a nuclear device as leverage for nuclear disarmament. Shot on video, to give it the look of tv newsfeed from the era, so, it's all done after the fashion of Orson Wells' War of the Worlds 1938 radio broadcast.
     Here's the special, sitting free over on YouTube:

     Thick with actors from movies and shows, it has that almost party game element going for it, too.

     One bit of disappointing recent news is that Amazon Prime didn't opt to greenlight a second season of the excellent Three Pines, one of the late-year treats from 2022. I'd first mentioned it back on December 9th, after the first two (of eight) episodes appeared. As noted, it had an excellent cast, the positive critical response, the general enthusiasm expressed by cast and production, and the depth of source material (some 18 novels) waiting to be drawn on all indicated a series that would have strong legs. My impression is that Alfred Molina likely wished for the role of Chief Inspector Armand Gamache to have lasted long enough that it would become one of his signature roles.
     Any statements from Prime have been limited, giving the general impression that they were interested but that they couldn't make the numbers work for a continued commitment.
     Regardless, I'd still recommend seeking it out. Yes, it was left with considerably more tale to tell, but they produced eight very worthwhile episodes, including some very interesting cultural touchstones and a dark legacy of once-official treatment of indigenous peoples, and there's a great deal there to be appreciated. I also have no idea whether or not there's any option to allow them to shop this project around.

     Over on Paramount+, the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard has hit the start of the back half of its ten-episode season, as the re-collection of the Next Generation cast continues. It continues to fun to see fan reactions, as everyone commenting on it appears to be enjoying it, whether or not they've generally been fans of the newer Trek shows. That's new episodes each Thursday, with four episodes to go.

     That's all the time I have this week. When we next get back together it'll be the last day of March. - Mike