I spent most of this week working on Christmas stuff but I did watch a few shows.

Bar Rescue (Weekday Mornings, Paramount)

I watched three episodes while I was trying to wake up on Wednesday.  Jon Taffer and “the experts” yelled at a lot of owners and reduced their employees to tears but I guess it’s all worth it in order to make sure that alcoholics have a fun place to hang out.  The third episode that I watched was actually filmed in my hometown and I totally recognized the bar that Jon was rescuing.  (I don’t drink so I’m usually the girl at the bar who gets weird looks for asking for a glass of water.)  Jon described my hometown as being upper middle class.  Thanks, Jon!

Baywatch Hawaii (Prime)

On Friday, I watched episode 14 of this show.  There were three subplots, all of which were repeats of storyline that had previously happened on the original Baywatch.  An all-nude protest went wrong.  Sean flirted with the new boss.  JD and Jessie bickered about their relationship.  Despite being top-billed in the credits, David Hasselhoff was only in the show for a minute, boarding a plane back to Los Angeles.  It’s hard not to feel that the Hoff just wasn’t that invested in Baywatch Hawaii.  For that matter, neither am I.  This show only lasted two seasons and it’s still taken me a month and a half to even make it through the first half of the first season.

I then watched Episode 15, which was weird.  Basically, it started with Jessie getting lost in an underwater maze.  Once she was rescued, suddenly it become about Jason and Allie working together on the beach and Jason being haunted by the death of a previous lifeguard.  And then Dawn went on a date with some strange guy who insulted her by assuming that he knew everything about her.  I know where Dawn’s coming from but still, none of these random stories really seemed to go together.  One gets the feeling that this episode’s script was a combination of scenes that had been cut out of previous episodes.  Again, it’s hard not to suspect that the people in charge of the show just didn’t care.

Dexter: New Blood (Sunday Night, Showtime)

I reviewed Dexter here!

Dude, You’re Screwed (Friday Morning, Discovery)

So, I guess the idea behind this show is that three ex-military guys toss some someone in a hostile environment and then they watch to see if that person can make it back to civilization without dying in the process.  On the episode that I watched, they stranded some guy in Tanzania and then watched as he spent two days being chased by lions and trying to run in 98-degree heat.  Luckily, the guy did make it back to civilization.  He met some local hunters who were on the verge of killing him for trespassing before the hosts showed up to whisk him away.

It was kind of a fun show actually.

Fear The Walking Dead (Sunday Night, AMC)

I wrote about the latest episode here!

It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia (Wednesday Night, FXX)

Yay!  The Gang’s back and they’re as terrible as ever!  Two new episodes aired on Wednesday, featuring the gang fearlessly taking on the brave new world of the 2020s.  In the first episode, they discussed what they did during 2020 and what they spent their PPP money on.  In the second episode, they made Lethal Weapon 7, while trying to avoid remaking the mistakes that they made with Lethal Weapon 5 and Lethal Weapon 6.  They’re a terrible group of people and I love them.  They’re what this country needs right now.

Killer Cases (Wednesday Night, A&E)

The latest episode of this A&E true crime series took a look at the murder of Mollie Tibbets.  On the one hand, I feel like shows like this are terribly exploitive and insensitive.  On the other hand, I always end up watching.  So, I’m as much of a hypocrite as anyone.

The Office (Everyday, Comedy Central)

I watched two episodes from season 3 on Thursday night.  The thing is …. Jim knew that Andy had anger issues so hiding his phone and then repeatedly calling it through the day was really a dick move on his part.  Bullying is never cool, Jim!

Survivor (Wednesday Night, CBS)

I wrote about Survivor here!

Talking Dead (Sunday Night, AMC)

Oh, hey, this is back!  Chris Hardwicke did his best to try to make Walking Dead: World Beyond sound interesting.  I respected him for trying.

Upstart Crow (Sunday Night, PBS)

After being absent from PBS for a few months, Upstart Crow returned on Sunday.  PBS aired the show’s three Christmas specials, though not in chronological order.

As such, the first Christmas special that was aired was actually the show’s third, from December of 2020.  In this special, Will and Kate were stuck in Will’s London home, under quarantine due to the Bubonic Plague.  As Will tried to write a “Scottish play,” they discussed how the world had changed due to the plague.  Needless to say, it was a pretty obvious and heavy-handed commentary on the UK during the Coronavirus lockdowns.  The episode was both hopeful and angry.  It had its funny moments but overall, it was a rather dark episode.  Then again, December of 2020 was a rather dark time for many people.

This was followed by “A Christmas Crow,” which was the show’s fist Christmas Special.  Airing long before COVID (or, for that matter, the episode the featured the death of Will’s son), A Christmas Crow was an enjoyably light-hearted “look” at how Eighth Night became Twelfth Night.  Emma Thompson appeared as Queen Elizabeth I and was funny, sympathetic, and somewhat terrifying.

The final Christmas special shown was “A Crow Christmas Carol.”  Still mourning the death of his son, Shakespeare met a mysterious stranger (Kenneth Branagh) who told him a story about a miser who changed his ways after being visited by three ghosts.  Shakespeare and his friends attempted to pull the same thing on the villainous Robert Greene in an attempt to get Greene to change his ways.  The highlight of this episode was, not surprisingly, Kenneth Branagh’s effectively creepy cameo as the Stranger.

Walking Dead: World Beyond (Sunday Night, AMC)

Eh.  Who knows?  There was a lot of death and paramilitary stuff going on.  The show briefly had my attention a few weeks ago but the last few episode have just been kind of dull.  It’s nearly over.