Big Brother 27 (CBS, Paramount+, Pluto TV, 24/7)

Only one more month of this crap left!  I’ve been writing about Big Brother, on an increasingly irregular basis, over at the Big Brother Blog.  I’ll be happy when Survivor and The Amazing Race return.

The Dark Side of Comedy (Hulu)

I watched a few episodes of this show because I was bored.  The Dustin Diamond episode was sad.  You know what wasn’t sad?  The Family Matters episode, in which the only two members of the cast willing to be interviewed complained endlessly about being overshadowed by Jaleel White.  I mean, admittedly, if my big chance at stardom was short-circuited by Urkel, I’d probably be bitter too but still, there comes a time when you have stop whining.

It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia (Hulu)

I finished up the latest season.  I have to admit that the trip to the dog track almost made me throw up, it got so (intentionally) disgusting.  But no matter!  Frank as the Golden Bachelor?  Brilliant!  Now, I want to see Dennis and Mac on The Amazing Race.  Or maybe Charlie and Frank on The Amazing Race.  Or Dee and …. well, she’d probably end up running alone.  It would still make me laugh, though.

The Paper (Peacock)

From the creators of The Office …. oh, I really wanted to like this.  And the show had its isolated funny moments but what it didn’t have were any characters who were, in any way, as interesting as the folks on The Office.  The Paper mixed the format of The Office with the earnestness of Parks and Rec and I was pretty bored by the sixth episode.  One thing that this show didn’t seem to get is that people could see themselves in The Office because everyone hates their job.  Everyone could relate to Jim’s frustrations and Pam’s boredom.  The Paper, on the other hand, is about people who love their job to an almost obnoxious extent and, as such, the characters just weren’t relatable.  If anything they were kind of annoying.  The show attempts to do a Jim-and-Pam thing with the characters played by Domhnall Gleeson and Chelsea Frei but it doesn’t work because 1) he’s her boss and 2) the two actors don’t really have much chemistry.  Their scenes together felt forced.  (I was happy to see Oscar Nunez again, if just because he brought so much needed cynicism to the show.)  I’m a big admirer of producer Greg Daniels and the King of the Hill reboot was brilliant but, in this case, I think he overestimated that amount of nostalgia that people have for newspapers.

The Serial Killer’s Apprentice (HBOMax)

This documentary took a look at the disturbing life and crimes of Texas serial killer Dean Corll and it featured an interview with Elmer Henley, the young man who went from being Corll’s accomplice to eventually being Corll’s killer.  Henley is still serving a life sentence.  This documentary featured an interview with him and it made the mistake of featuring an actor playing the older Henley as he spoke on the phone in the jail.  It’s an interesting story and I’m surprised that it hasn’t been turned into a cheap B-movie like so many other real-life serial killer tales have.  That said, this documentary was a bit on the shallow side.  Elmer Henley may have ultimately killed Corll but, before that, he helped Corll kill a lot of people.  Henley is right where belongs, in prison for the rest of his life.