What's To Watch? - Aug 25-31 - Continuations, Deviations, and Endings

 

    The professional event I'd been tied up in knots over in recent weeks technically went very well, though one person's bureaucratic power-trip continues to threaten as of this writing. I sincerely hope she will be made to see the light, this threat will fade, we can take our accomplishment in stride and move ahead into a brightened future. If nothing else, there has been much in recent weeks that has gone into my mental Things I Will Not Miss In Retirement file. Among the things to remind me of reality when  inevitably memory will go selective and I'll catch myself missing the good aspects of the job. All that, at least as plans currently go, is still a few years off, though.

     Back to more entertaining and immediate things.

    A couple of the ongoing FX series that I catch weekly on Hulu continue to move through their latest seasons.
     Reservation Dogs is in its third and final season. While I've continued to enjoy it both for the characters and the comparative culture elements, perhaps because they knew this was their final season it's taken more serious, darker turns along the way, reminding me distantly of the shifts we were seeing as Donald Glover's Atlanta (also on Hulu, and also well worth checking out) did in its final season. As each was in large part bringing to us on the outside, insights into another culture - each with long, troubled, ongoing and complicated histories with mainstream, white culture - it shouldn't be surprising.
     Meanwhile, vampire mockumentary series What We Do in the Shadows continues through season five, allowing all the main players some time in the spotlight but, at its plot core the season is centered on Nandor's familiar, Guillermo. Episodes 9 and 10 will land next week, closing the season -- though season six was already confirmed. The series continues to entertain.

     Rounding out FX items I'll be watching via Hulu,  next Wednesday sees the return of the self-absorbed, self-medicated, self-aggrandizing, animated superspy series Archer, returning for the start of its 14th and final season on FXX, episodes arriving on Hulu the following day. The first two episodes of the season arrive this week, then one each week thereafter for... we're not sure how many weeks. While recent seasons have been 8 episodes, they've made no announcement about the length of this season. At the moment there seems to be the possibility it could be as few as six episodes.

     Last here with season two back in late May of 2021, the Norwegian fantasy series Ragnarok returned to Netflix with its third and final (is there an echo?) season just yesterday. It centers on the return of Norse gods via reincarnation, set against the ongoing plans of supernatural beings (Jotnar) who have been here all along, posing as a family of wealthy industrialists.
     While I enjoyed the first two seasons, there was some frustration with what felt like a glacial pace of developments, feeling as if it would finally get to a point where some godly action would happen... and we'd be at the end of the season.
     In fairly typical Netflix fashion, the trailer is in its native language with English subtitles, but you know the drill - there will be options, and depending on your settings there it'll likely default to the English dub. Either way, here's the trailer for season three of Ragnarok.

     As with the first two seasons, this is a six-episode block. As it's named for a final, apocalyptic battle, it's hoped this will live up to that.

     This weekend I'll likely get to see this year's DC/Warner superhero commercial bomb The Flash as it arrives on HBO Max today, and on HBO itself Saturday evening. It's been repeatedly raked over the coals enough that I doubt it can live down to much of its reputation, and being able to casually watch it at home at no additional cost won't hurt the experience. As a long-time comics fan it's going to be more geared toward me, with the time travel element bringing in a multiverse of versions of various characters. Honestly, as a home video experience that's highly unlikely to fit in with the plans of the current regime's plans for the next five years, oddly enough I'm looking forward to it.
     Anyway, it's The Flash (2023  PG-13 2h 24m)

 
     TCM's Summer Under the Stars rolls into its final week of daily star spotlights. From 6am 'til just before 6 am the following day, full 24-hour blocks of films that include the day's star. This final week of August will bring us:
         Friday Aug 25th: Ernest Borgnine (I relented, and since Escape From New York is part of this block, I used a shot of Cabbie from that film as the header -- replacing the pic from Flash.)
         Saturday Aug 26th: Doris Day
         Sunday Aug 27th: Humphrey Bogart
         Monday Aug 28th: Ann Sheridan
         Tuesday Aug 29th: Woody Strode
         Wednesday Aug 30th: Sophia Lauren
         Thursday Aug 31st: John Caradine

     That Summer Under the Stars hyperlink will pop out as a new page, with each film listed being its own hyperlink to more info about the film.

     Next Friday will mark the start of a new month, and will do so with a holiday weekend. My hope, ever my hope, will be that I'll have the things currently tasking me sorted by then, and will be able to better enjoy the time. For now, I have to try to push work items out of my mind and focus on some of the disarray in what's supposed to be "my life." Good luck to me, and a happy weekend to you all. See you next Friday. - Mike