Yearly Archives: 2022

Miniseries Review: The Offer (dir by Dexter Fletcher, Adam Arkin, Colin Bucksey, and Gwyneth Horder-Payton)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Almost despite myself, I enjoyed The Offer.

That may come as a surprise to some.  The Offer is a 10-hour miniseries about the making of The Godfather and how Hollywood politics aren’t really that much different from Mafia politics.  As anyone who has regularly read this site over the past few years should know, I absolutely love The Godfather.  It’s my favorite movie.  It’s a movie about which I’ve done a lot of personal research.  There’s very little about the making of The Godfather that I don’t know.  If we’re going to be honest, I’m probably a little bit of a snob about it.

So, like many people, I was a bit skeptical when I first heard about The Offer.  It didn’t seem like something that was particularly necessary and it was hard for me to imagine how the miniseries would ever be able to convincingly cast anyone as Marlon Brando or Al Pacino or, for that matter, Francis Ford Coppola.  My skepticism only increased when I learned that the story was going to be told from the perspective of the film’s producer, Al Ruddy.  Everyone agrees that Ruddy was an important part of The Godfather team but he’s never been quite as compelling a figure as the brilliant but often self-destructive Brando or the neurotic but playful Pacino.  When people talk about what makes The Godfather such a brilliant film, they talk about the quotable dialogue.  They talk about the masterful performances.  They talk about Coppola’s skill as a storyteller.  They talk about the way that Gordon Willis lit the scenes so that the characters often seemed to be on the verge of being swallowed by their shadows.  They even talk about how Robert Evans insisted that the film could only be directed by an Italian and how Evans defied Paramount when the studio originally demanded that Coppola cut the film down to two hours.  When Al Ruddy is praised, it’s usually for staying out of the way.

I knew that I would have to watch The Offer eventually but I avoided it while it was actually airing and I made sure not to read anyone else’s opinion to it.  Despite my own obvious biases, I did want to try to maintain as open a mind as I possibly could.  That said, I wasn’t expecting much when I finally watched The Offer this weekend.

But, as I said at the start of this review, I enjoyed it.

Don’t get me wrong.  It’s a bit of a silly show.  If The Offer was a sitcom, it would be called Everybody Loves Ruddy because the main theme of the show seems to be that Al Ruddy (played by a miscast Miles Teller) was literally the most important man in the entire history of Hollywood.  There’s not a problem that Ruddy can’t solve, whether it’s convincing CBS to air a tasteless sitcom called Hogan’s Heroes or convincing Paramount to take a huge risk on a mercurial director named Coppola and an unknown actor named Pacino.  When gangster Joe Colombo (Giovanni Ribisi) tries to interfere with production, Ruddy befriends him and is soon a popular guy with the crew.  When Al Pacino (Anthony Ippolito) signs a contract with MGM, Ruddy puts the pressure on Paramount to find a way to get Pacino out of it.  When Coppola (Dan Fogler) has a fight with Gordon Willis (T.J. Thyne), Ruddy convinces them to make up.  When Robert Evans (Matthew Goode) goes on a coke binge, Ruddy snaps him out of it.  When …. well, you get the idea.  There’s nothing Al Ruddy can’t do!  When Evans mentioned that Henry Kissinger was coming to the Godfather premiere, I half expected Al Ruddy to negotiate a ceasefire in Vietnam.

From the start, The Offer is full of visual cues and dialogue that pay homage to not only The Godfather but the other films of the period.  The first line of the miniseries is Joe Colombo telling someone to, “Leave the cannoli.”  At first, I groaned but, slowly but surely, the show won me over.  By the end of the first episode, it was obvious that The Offer was not necessarily meant to be taken literally.  The Offer doesn’t tell the story of what Hollywood was really like in the late 60s and early 70s.  Instead, it tells the story of how people like me, who were born a few decades too late, imagine it was.  It’s less about the decade itself and more about how that decade continues to fascinate us and spark our imagination.  In our imagination, Robert Evans is snorting coke in his office, Ali MacGraw is lounging by the pool, Frank Sinatra is making angry phone calls to Joe Colombo, Al Pacino is so nervous that he can’t look anyone in the eye, and Marlon Brando is wandering around his mansion in a kimono and talking about how he can’t get anyone to see his latest, politically-charged film.  In our fantasies, it only makes sense that Evans and his assistant Peter Bart (Josh Zuckerman) would spend all of their time dropping titles of well-regarded, still-remembered films because why would anyone fantasize about them discussing a film that was forgotten?  And, of course, no one is going to fantasize about people discussing some actor who was briefly big in 1972 and then spent the rest of their career on television.  Instead, in the fantasy, it’s all about Robert Redford, Jack Nicholson, Liz Taylor, and Marlon Brando.  It also makes sense that only classic 70s music would be heard in the background of every scene because, seriously, who ever fantasizes about a bad song playing at a party?

Once it is accepted that it is all meant to be a fantasy, it becomes much easier to appreciate The Offer for what it is, a gossipy, Hollywood story with a Mafia subplot and an overabundance period detail.  Once the viewer accepts The Offer is a fantasy, the viewer is freed up to appreciate the 70s-chic wardrobe.  Once the viewer gets past the fact that the cast is playing characters based on actual people, it becomes much easier to appreciate the performances of character actors like Colin Hanks (who plays an uptight executive) and Burn Gorman (who plays the notoriously eccentric businessman, Charles Bluhdorn).  Patrick Gallo is slyly funny as Mario Puzo while Dan Fogler does a credible enough job as Coppola, even if he never quite captures Coppola’s larger-than-life persona.  Even Lou Ferrigno gets a nice bit, playing a mob enforcer turned unwilling actor.  At the center of it all is the absolutely brilliant Matthew Goode, giving a charismatic performance as the brilliant but sometimes unstable Robert Evans.

As a history, The Offer won’t win any points for accuracy.  But, as a fantasy, it’s undeniably entertaining.  It’s not so much the story of how The Godfather was made but the story of how we wish it was made.

Music Video of the Day: A Whiter Shade of Pale by Procul Harum (1970, dir by ????)

Posted on by Doc Bowman

This is an alternative version of the better-known video for A Whiter Shade of Pale. This song shows up in a lot of movie and shows, most recently in The Offer. When Al Ruddy walks through Times Square after Al Pacino says that he can’t do The Godfather, this is the song playing.

Meow!

Lisa Marie’s Week In Review: 6/13/22 — 6/19/22

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

This year’s Emmy submissions were finally posted online on Thursday and, looking them over, I quickly realized that I have a lot of things to watch and not much time to watch them.  So, I’m just going to post what I watched and listened to this week and then I’m getting back to watching The Offer.

Films I Watched:

  1. The Bird With The Crystal Plumage (1970)
  2. Cone of Silence (1960)
  3. Controlling Britney Spears (2021)
  4. The Eye: Calanthek (2021)
  5. Heathers (1989)
  6. I Bury The Living (1958)
  7. Keeping Company with Sondheim (2022)
  8. The Last Hunter (1980)
  9. A Little Dead (2022)
  10. Merry Wives (2022)
  11. Rita Ora At The Eiffel Tower (2021)
  12. Shatner in Space (2021)
  13. Spell (2020)

Television Shows I Watched:

  1. 2022 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards
  2. Allo Allo
  3. Angelyne
  4. Archer
  5. Bob’s Burgers
  6. Brooklyn Nine Nine
  7. Cheer
  8. Collector’s Call
  9. Community
  10. Dr. Death
  11. Full House
  12. Hart to Heart
  13. I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson
  14. Inspector Lewis
  15. Making the Cut
  16. Married at First Sight
  17. The Offer
  18. Rick and Morty
  19. Robot Chicken
  20. Selling Sunset
  21. Slippin’ Jimmy
  22. Step Into …. The Movie With Derek and Julianne Hough
  23. Taylor Tomlinson: Look At You
  24. The True Story With Ed and Randall
  25. Two Minute Horror Stories
  26. Undone
  27. Voir
  28. We Need To Talk About Cosby
  29. What If….?
  30. Whose Line Is It Anyway?
  31. You

Music To Which I Listened:

  1. BTS
  2. Cannons
  3. Carly Simon
  4. The Chemical Brotherrs
  5. Coldplay
  6. Demi Lovato
  7. Edgar Allan Poets
  8. Foreigner 
  9. Halsey
  10. Holly Humberstone
  11. Julia Jacklin
  12. Michael Fredo
  13. Muse
  14. Public Service Broadcasting
  15. Radiohead
  16. REO Speedwagon
  17. Rita Coolidge
  18. Saint Motel
  19. t.A.T.u.
  20. Yvonne Elliman

News From Last Week:

  1. French screen icon Jean-Louis Trintignant dies aged 91
  2. Two actors from Netflix show ‘The Chosen One’ dead after horrific van crash
  3. Warner Bros. Calls It Quits With Ezra Miller’s The Flash
  4. Box Office: Pixar’s ‘Lightyear’ Underwhelms With $51 Million Debut as ‘Jurassic World’ Stays No. 1
  5. Paul Haggis Arrested in Italy on Sexual Assault Charges
  6. Kevin Spacey receives unconditional bail from UK court in sexual assault case

Links From Last Week:

  1. Michael Jackson! Elton John! Journey And Brothers Johnson Too! Here’s “Music With A J!”
  2. The World’s Common Tater’s Week in Books, Movies, and TV 6/17/22

Links From The Site:

  1. Ryan reviewed Gecko, Perry Midlife, and Town & County!
  2. Erin shared Flying Aces, Astounding Science Fiction, Thrilling Wonder Stories, Codeword: Nemesis, Walk The Dark Streets, The Storm Lord, and Protest!
  3. Doc shared music videos from Blind Channel, Holly Humberstone, Demi Lovato, t.A.T.u, Julia Jacklin, Halsey, and BTS!
  4. I shared my week in television!  I reviewed A Little Dead, Angelyne, and Shatner in Space!

More From Us:

  1. Ryan has a patreon!  Consider subscribing!
  2. At her photography site, Erin shared: peace, overseeing his kingdom, wagon, flags, Red Flowers, Overgrown, and Rain Behind A Window!
  3. At my music site, I shared songs from Halsey, Holly Humberstone, Public Service Broadcasting, Edgar Allan Poets, Michael Fredo, Radiohead, and Cannons!

Want to see what I did last week?  Click here!

Miniseries Review: Angelyne (dir by Matt Spicer and Lucy Tcherniak)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Who is the real Angelyne?

That’s question that is at the heart of Peacock’s new miniseries, Angelyne.  The obvious answer is that Angelyne (played, quite well, by Emmy Rossum) is a Los Angeles icon who, in the 80s and 90s, was known for having her image plastered on billboards across the city.  The billboards usually featured a provocative picture of Angelyne, her name, and a phone number that one could call.  Billboards, of course, are used for advertising and Angelyne was advertising herself.  What service did Angelyne provide?  She provided the service of being a celebrity that people might actually run into while walking or driving around the city.  She drove her pink Corvette across Los Angeles, waved at tourists, and sold merchandise to her fans.  She even twice ran for governor.  Before the Kardashians and the explosion of social media, Angelyne was famous for being famous.  And when people asked who Angelyne was before she became Angelyne, she replied that she had always been Angelyne.  Sometimes, she said she was someone who had come to Los Angeles from another state.  Sometimes, she said that she was a literal angel, sent down to spread peace and help people believe in themselves.  Other times, she suggested that she was an extra-terrestrial.  Perhaps her most honest response was that she was whatever the person looking at her wanted to be.  People saw Angelyne and they projected their own feelings onto her.

Filmed in a manner that combines faux documentary footage with flashbacks, each of Angelyne‘s five episodes focuses on someone from Angelyne’s past as they talk about their role in Angelyne’s enigmatic life.  Often times, they seem to be struggling to come to terms with the fact that they’re obsessed with someone about whom they actually know very little.  A smarmy reporter (Alex Karpovsky) and a twerpy filmmaker (Max Allen) both investigate Angelyne’s past and it’s hard not to resent their efforts to bring her down to Earth.  (The reporter, at one point, actually says that Angelyne lost her right to privacy when she ran for governor, as if anyone seriously believed Angelyne was going to be the next governor of California.  Seriously, most viewers will want to smack him.)  Cory Hunt (Philip Ettinger), the lead singer of a band that Angelyne was briefly a member of, tries to take credit for creating her persona but he’s never credible and Angelyne even interupts their flashbacks to say that he’s lying.  Wendy Wallace (played by Molly Ephraim) struggles to come to terms with the fact that her father, Harold (Martin Freeman), not only bankrolled Angelyne’s billboards but also neglected his family to “manage” Angelyne’s career.  Angelyne’s assistant, Rick (Hamish Linklater), devotes his life to supporting and protecting Angelyne but sometimes, even he has to take a break.

All of them get their chance to tell their story and, as played by Rossum, Angelyne gets to tell her story.  Not surprisingly, Angelyne’s story often differs from the stories being told about her.  Frequently, a flashback will come to a halt as soon as Angelyne announces, “That’s not what happened.”  When the twerpy filmmaker claims that he got Angelyne to admit the truth about who she was before she remade herself as Angelyne, Angelyne pops up to tell us that it never happened.  Even after the “truth” of Angelyne’s past has been revealed, Angelyne shows up to assure that the story isn’t true and, if it is true, it’s only halfway true and it’s impossible not to respect Angelyne’s refusal to accept or admit to being anyone other than a Los Angeles icon named Angelyne.  The miniseries suggests that Angelyne is someone who dealt with unimaginable pain and trauma by creating herself as almost a cartoon of what it means to be a celebrity.  The miniseries also suggests that, at the very least, Los Angeles should be thankful that she did.

In many ways, Angelyne feels like a superior companion piece to Hulu’s Pam & Tommy.  Both miniseries are about the curious nature of fame and the America’s bizarre celebrity culture.  The main difference is that while Pam & Tommy was thuddingly literal and featured Seth Rogen wandering around with that stupid mullet, Angelyne is stylish and imaginative and there’s not a mullet in sight.  Whereas Pam & Tommy struggled to justify its existence, Angelyne features a scene where the title character flies a UFO over Los Angeles.  Whereas Pam & Tommy presented Hugh Hefner as being a benevolent father figure, Angelyne features a scene where Angelyne tells off a smug Hefner and informs him that there’s nothing his magazine can do for her that she can’t do for herself.  For that scene alone, Angelyne deserves to be seen.

Lisa’s Week In Television: 6/12/22 — 6/18/22

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

As opposed to last week, where I didn’t watch anything except for old episodes of King of the Hill, I ended up watching a lot this week. That’s because the official Emmy ballots have dropped and I now know everything that was officially submitted this year. That ballots have given me a roadmap of what I need to check out over the next week and a half, before I announce what I would nominate for the Emmys, if I was an Emmy voter and had all the power.

So, without any further ado, here are some thoughts on what I watched this week:

The 2022 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards (Shudder)

Now, really this is what all award shows should be like!  The show honored “the best in horror,” and while I didn’t necessarily agree with all of the winners, I did appreciate that it only took them 90 minutes to hand out all the awards and that the show didn’t take itself too seriously.  Maybe the Oscars should move to Shudder.

Allo Allo (Sunday Night, PBS)

Rene tried to flee to Spain while Michelle decided to smuggle the British airmen out of France in wine barrels.  Needless to say, nothing worked out.

Archer (FX)

While searching for the mysterious assassin known as the Dingo, Sterling Archer confronted painful memories of his past.  For whatever reason, I never seem to get a chance to watch Archer as much as I probably should.  Whenever I do catch an episode (and I watched this one on Hulu on Thursday), I always enjoy the show’s Bond-parody humor.

Barry (Sunday Night, HBO)

Barry’s third season came to an end on Sunday night and oh my God!  What an amazing episode!  From Gene betraying Barry to Barry breaking down in the desert to NoHo Hank somehow managing to escape in Colombia to Sarah Goldberg’s amazing performance as Sally, this was an incredible episode.  That said, it played like a series finale.  I have no idea where the show can go from here but I’m looking forward to finding out.

Bob’s Burgers (Fox, Sunday Night)

I’ve lost track of how long Bob’s Burgers has been on.  I don’t watch it regularly but, whenever I do, I usually laugh a few times.  The episode that I watched this week was also the show’s Emmy submission.  After being made fun of yet again at school, Tina escaped into a Blade Runner-inspired fantasy world.  Bob and Teddy, meanwhile, dealt with their insecurities about running a crappy restaurant by obsessing over some derogatory graffiti.  I laughed enough to enjoy the show.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Hulu)

I finally watched the final season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine on Friday afternoon.  (It was only nine episodes long.)  I know that a lot of people complained that the final season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine was too political and anti-cop and, if I had seen the show when it originally aired, I probably would have agreed.  But, seeing it in 2022 and with the failures of the Ulvade cops still on my mind, I didn’t mind that the main villain was the head of the policeman’s union and that a major theme of the season was that police reform is going to have to start with the culture of policing itself.  Fortunately, the Andy Samberg-led ensemble was as strong as ever and helped make the more heavy-handed moments palpable.  The highlight, for me, was the episode where Peralta’s previously unmentioned nemesis, Johnny Franzia, returned.  It worked as both a domestic comedy and a parody of shows like Law and Order: Criminal Intent and the CSIs.

Cheer (Netflix)

I watched the second season of Cheer early on Saturday morning.  The Navarro cheerleaders are still obsessive perfectionists who seem to take cheerleading maybe a little too seriously.  This season deserved some credit for being honest about how disruptive their sudden fame was.  (That’s one of those things that many reality shows chose to avoid.)  The first episode featured an unforgettable montage of smarm as we saw everyone from Ellen to Colbert to a dazed-looking Biden talking to the cheerleaders.  The show also acknowledged both the legal troubles of one of the first season’s breakout stars and the outsized influence that Varsity Brands has on the cheerleading industry.  All in all, it was a good show even if you kind of wanted to tell the cheerleaders to take it down a notch and maybe enjoy their time in college. 

Community (Netflix)

“We had name for people like you in prison.  We called you …. the mean clique!”  Still a classic.

Dr. Death (Peacock)

I watched this Peacock miniseries on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Joshua Jackson played an incompetent and possibly sociopathic surgeon while Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater played the two doctors trying to, at the very least, get Jackson’s license suspended.  It was a good and disturbing miniseries, though I imagine that some of my reaction was due to the fact that my Dad is currently having issues with back pain and is exactly the type of patient who was victimized by Jackson’s coke-snorting surgeon.  This show is based on a true story.  It was also set in Texas but, for the most part, it avoided all of the stereotypes that usually make me cringe.  When Slater dismissed Jackson as being an arrogant yankee, a part of me cheered.  Of course, the show had to feature a character blaming everything on Rick Perry, which was dumb and felt out-of-character, but that’s the entertainment industry for you.

On a final note, the show was very well-acted and, yes, that includes Alec Baldwin.  When Baldwin wants to be, he can still be a very good and, dare I say, subtle actor.

Full House (MeTV, Sunday Evening)

I watched two episodes of this stupid show on Sunday.  First, Jesse went to his high school reunion, performed with his old band (how many bands did this dude have?) and was tempted to leave Aunt Becky for his high school girlfriend.  Why was Jesse always tempted to abandon Aunt Becky?  Jesse was supposedly only 28 so he was still a little bit young for a midlife crisis.  (In other words, STOP CRYING, JESSE!)  This was followed by an episode where Danny suddenly had a girlfriend and he had to look after her obnoxious son.  It was pretty dumb.

Hart to Heart (Peacock)

Kevin Hart interviews his celebrity friends.  I watched two episodes on Thursday, mostly because the show was submitted to the Emmys.  Kevin Hart is not a bad interviewer, though none of the conversations were really that in-depth.  This is a good example of the “Famous Person Knows Other Famous People” talk show genre.

I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson (Netflix)

This short comedy sketch show is best-known for being the source of the “We’re all trying to figure out who did this” meme.  I watched the show’s second season on Thursday night.  (Each episode is less than 20 minutes long so the season went by quickly.)  While the 2nd season never quite reached the heights of the “We’re all trying to figure out who did this” skit, it was still amusing.  A bit about an “aggressive store” that sold “busy” shirts to men was a highlight.

Inspector Lewis (YouTube)

I watched this British detective show from the aughts with my friend Shirley on Tuesday.  Inspector Lewis and Inspector Hathaway investigated a series of murders surrounding a quiz competition.  The episode took place at Oxford and the scenery was lovely.

Making the  Cut (Amazon Prime)

After Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn left Project Runway, they began to appear in Prime’s Making the Cut.  Making the Cut is basically the same show as Project Runway, just without Nina Garcia or the lingering stench of the Weinstein Company.  I binged the second season on Tuesday and I loved it.  Tim and Heidi really were Project Runway‘s main selling points and watching them on Making the Cut filled me with nostalgia for a time of fun reality shows, as opposed to what’s going on now.

Married at First Sight (Lifetime, Wednesday Nights)

It has been forever since I watched an episode of Lifetime’s apparently immortal Married at First Sight franchise so, on Saturday morning, I watched two recent episodes on Hulu.  It was pretty much as I remembered.  Five couples, who had just met and married, took part in a group honeymoon in Florida and tried to get to know each other.  One couple split up.  Another couple debated whether to get undressed in front of each other.  Even though the episode were from the most recent season, they left like they could have been from any season of the show.  Don’t mess with success, I guess.  It’s a silly show but undeniably addictive, as silly shows often are.

Rick and Morty (Adult Swim)

On Thursday, I watched the episode of Rick and Morty that was submitted to the Emmys.  Morty made the mistake of landing a spaceship in the ocean, which led to Rick having a summit with his arch nemesis, a flamboyant sea king of some sort.  Morty tried to keep his date with Jessica while all this went on.  An attempt to get wine for the summit led to a centuries-old civilization being developed around the idea of Morty being a demon who had to be destroyed.  It was chaotic and it made me laugh.

Robot Chicken (Adult Swim)

Oh wow, those toys are cursing and telling dirty jokes!  Stoner humor at its best.  It made me laugh.

The Rockford Files (Tubi)

This is a 70s detective show, starring James Garner as a detective who lives in a trailer on the beach.  On Sunday, I watched an episode in which a vacationing family from Indiana accidentally stole Garner’s grill and the diamonds that were hidden inside of it.  Apparently, this sort of thing happened quite frequently. 

Selling Sunset (Netflix)

This totally spontaneous and not at all scripted “reality” series is all about real estate.  A group of beautiful women work at a real estate company owned by a guy who we are told is handsome and sexy but who actually looks like a gnome and has all the charisma of a brick wall.  When they’re not selling amazing houses, the real estate agents re gossiping about each other and talk about how much they dislike anyone new who their boss hires.  Again, totally spontaneous and not at all staged, right?  

Anyway, I watched a few episodes of the latest season on Netflix.  There’s literally no one likable on the show but the houses make up for it. 

Step Into The Movies With Derek and Julianne Hough (Hulu)

This special originally aired on ABC but I watched it on Hulu.  Derek and Julianne Hough recreated classic move dance scenes.  I loved it.  The scenes were recreated with love and respect and Derek and Julianne were as adorable as ever.

Taylor Tomlinson: Look At You (Netflix)

I watched this Netflix stand-up special on Friday morning.  Taylor told jokes about her meds and discovering that she was bipolar by doing a google search on what they were all supposed to do.  That was humor to which I could relate.

The True Story with Ed and Randall (Peacock)

Everyday Americans sit down with Hollywood celebrities, Ed Helms and Randall Park, and tell the story of something interesting that happened in their life.  While they tell the story, their actions are recreated by a group of comedians.  I watched a few episodes on Monday afternoon.  The show was a bit uneven, as one might expect when everything’s pretty much dependent on the story being told.  That said, the show’s heart is in the right place and Ed and Randall seem to be genuinely interested in the stories being told.  That’s a big plus.

Undone (Amazon Prime)

This is a rather bizarre animated series, one that features time travel and alternate realities.  I watched the episode that was submitted for the Best Animated Episode Emmy.  Even though I didn’t fully understand the story, the animation was so hauntingly beautiful that I couldn’t take my eyes away from the screen.

Voir (Netflix)

This Netflix show features various film critics talking about the movies that caused them to fall in love with cinema.  I watched a bit on Wednesday.  The first episode featured Sasha Stone talking about Jaws.  This episode has been criticized, by many on Film Twitter, for focusing more on Sasha than on the film being reviewed.  Of course, some people have said the same thing about my own reviews and I actually appreciated that Sasha acknowledged that falling in love with a film has lot to do with what’s going on in your own life at the time.  The personal is important when discussing how we react to great art.  (It should also be acknowledged that 95% of Film Twitter is never going to forgive Sasha Stone for not being a Bernie Sanders-loving socialist and that undoubtedly has something to do with the out-of-proportion criticism directed at her episode.)  All in all, this is a good series and not worthy of the disdain that some have treated it with.  I get the feeling that a lot of that disdain is fueled by critics who were not invited to participate.

We Need To Talk About Cosby (Showtime)

Indeed, we do.  From W. Kamau Bell, We Need To Talk About Cosby is a four-part series about how Bill Cosby became a beloved media figure despite not really making any sort of an effort to hide his crimes.  It looks at why Cosby was so important to so many people while also taking a harsh and honest look at the reality of who Bill Cosby actually is.  Myself, I was lucky enough to grow up in a post-Cosby world but, after watching this show, I understand why so many people continue to struggle with the way they used to feel about Cosby.

What If….? (Disney Plus)

This is the MCU’s animated series, in which we visit alternate timelines and see what would happen if the heroes made different choices.  The episode I watched featured Dr. Strange turning evil and basically destroying the universe.  Yikes!  It was effective, though.  It helped that Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel McAdams, and Tilda Swinton all lent their actual voices to the show, as opposed to Marvel trying to bring in sound-alikes.

Whose Line Is It Anyway? (The CW, Saturday Nights)

Hey, it’s improv!  Improv is always uneven but it’s usually funny on Whose Line Is It Anyway.  This show would probably be more acclaimed (or, at least, more prominent as an Emmy contender) if it wasn’t a CW show.  Someday, though, the CW will break through!  I have faith in you, CW!