Winter 2022 TV
Feb. 7th, 2022 10:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroWhat We Do in the Shadows (Hulu, Season 3) – While nothing in this season rivals Jackie Daytona, Human Bartender, there’s some solid material as the main cast gets put in charge of the vampire council that Guillermo slaughtered last season. Everybody gets some character development and the jokes continue to work better as they continue to move beyond just carrying the “these guys are losers and vampires” joke from the movie. I have no idea if they’re getting another season, but boy did they set up a messy cliffhanger…that I suspect they could get back to nearly the status quo in a single episode.
Ted Lasso (Apple TV, Season 1) - I understand why all of my coworkers were gushing over this: It’s a feel-good sports comedy (that you don’t really need to know or like sports to appreciate), and most of the humor comes from the fact that Ted is so gosh-darned nice. There’s fish-out-of-water comedy but never the cringey kind. It’s clever and funny and still manages to interject some real pathos (it features an amazingly realistic depiction of a panic attack), and my only complaint is that Apple TV shows are a pain in my butt to access.
Resident Alien (SyFy, Season 1) - This show is fascinating in that it’s full of things that I like but it has a real issue making them all gel: Alan Tudyk doing fish-out-of-water comedy. Solid native American representation that doesn’t do the “magical native” trope. Female characters with real depth and complicated lives and friendships. (And a hilariously competent little Muslim girl.) Guest appearances from Linda Hamilton. It’s all there, but it takes the entire season for Harry (the alien) to really develop as a sympathetic character (he tends to switch off between unrepentant murderer and generic asshole) and it’s really hard to gel a show are a main / heavily-viewpoint character who you don’t like. I oddly hope this only gets one more season and that the creators know that already, because they could wrap up a lot of the mysteries very neatly and have an extremely satisfying 20-episode arc…or ramble it out for four seasons and suddenly end without resolving anything. I’ll consider watching more when I hear the reviews for season 2.
At my dad’s recommendation, I bought the first omnibus of the comic this was based on. The comic is very genial, kind of a "Miss Marple as an alien refugee" set of fun whodunits. The show is clearly...not. I'm reminded of the TV adaptations of iZombie or Lucifer, where the one-paragraph description is the same and literally everything else is changed around it. I hope Peter Hogan gets a nice check every month, regardless—I absolutely recommend the comic.
Ted Lasso (Apple TV, Season 1) - I understand why all of my coworkers were gushing over this: It’s a feel-good sports comedy (that you don’t really need to know or like sports to appreciate), and most of the humor comes from the fact that Ted is so gosh-darned nice. There’s fish-out-of-water comedy but never the cringey kind. It’s clever and funny and still manages to interject some real pathos (it features an amazingly realistic depiction of a panic attack), and my only complaint is that Apple TV shows are a pain in my butt to access.
Resident Alien (SyFy, Season 1) - This show is fascinating in that it’s full of things that I like but it has a real issue making them all gel: Alan Tudyk doing fish-out-of-water comedy. Solid native American representation that doesn’t do the “magical native” trope. Female characters with real depth and complicated lives and friendships. (And a hilariously competent little Muslim girl.) Guest appearances from Linda Hamilton. It’s all there, but it takes the entire season for Harry (the alien) to really develop as a sympathetic character (he tends to switch off between unrepentant murderer and generic asshole) and it’s really hard to gel a show are a main / heavily-viewpoint character who you don’t like. I oddly hope this only gets one more season and that the creators know that already, because they could wrap up a lot of the mysteries very neatly and have an extremely satisfying 20-episode arc…or ramble it out for four seasons and suddenly end without resolving anything. I’ll consider watching more when I hear the reviews for season 2.
At my dad’s recommendation, I bought the first omnibus of the comic this was based on. The comic is very genial, kind of a "Miss Marple as an alien refugee" set of fun whodunits. The show is clearly...not. I'm reminded of the TV adaptations of iZombie or Lucifer, where the one-paragraph description is the same and literally everything else is changed around it. I hope Peter Hogan gets a nice check every month, regardless—I absolutely recommend the comic.
