This week, I was super-excited to discover the original Unsolved Mysteries on Tubi! I’ve been listening to Robert Stack as he talks about unsolved crimes and a paranormal mysteries and I have to say that Mr. Stack was truly an American treasure! I like that most of these episodes have updates and it looks like they’re still being updates. That said, I find the mysteries with no updates to be the most intriguing.
In other news, Case and I are nearly finished with Dark. We’ll be watching the final episode next Tuesday.
I am now caught up on Kitchen Nightmares. Chef Ramsay is saving restaurants that don’t really deserve to be saved. I don’t care if Gordon showed them their aware of their ways. There’s no way I’d eat in any of those places!
I watched a good deal of the news stations — BBC, FOX, C-SPAN, CNN, a little MSNBC, though that network is kind of annoying and whiny right now — this week. I won’t go into too much detail but I think I’m starting to become a news junkie.
I went over to Pluto TV this weekend and I turned on Dr. Phil for background noise. This poor woman was convinced that she was married to Tyler Perry.
King of the Hill on Hulu has definitely been my comfort show this week. It’s a Texas show and I’m a Texas girl.
This what yet another week where I didn’t really watch any television, beyond the shows that I review for this site and also the weekly episode of Darkthat I watch with Case Writes. I’ve been busy getting ready for Monday, which is both St. Patrick’s Day and Kurt Russell’s birthday. But I have to admit that, even since my Dad passed away last year, watching silly reality shows hasn’t really appealed to me the way that it used to. I don’t how to explain it. I guess tastes change!
Anyway, maybe I’ll get caught up on Abbott Elementary, Survivor, and all the rest next week! I guess I’ll have to or else this weekly post is going to start to feel a bit superfluous!
I watched the Oscars on March 2nd. I originally intended to watch it on Hulu but Hulu struggled, just as Netflix did during its first time out, with streaming such a large event and I ended up just watching the ceremony on boring old ABC. I liked the Oscars this time around. Conan O’Brien was a good host. The politics were kept to a minimum. The ceremony moved along efficiently and it was hard not to get caught up in Sean Baker’s enthusiasm. I cheered when Flow won. I groaned when the Best Documentary winners started their long ramble. The ceremony felt like a throwback to the old Oscars. The ratings were not good, regardless of how they’ve been spun. Eventually, the Oscars will be something that will be exclusively streamed on Hulu and that’s it. Hopefully, Hulu will get the bugs out of the system before next year.
Before I watched the Oscars, I watched Devil In The Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke, the latest creepy true crime docuseries on Hulu. I watched as Ruby went from a successful mommy vlogger to a convicted felon. Interestingly, most of the people hurt by Ruby went on to become influencers themselves. The docuseries was an intense look at just how crazy people can get in a world where everyone is famous.
Also on Sunday, I watched Gordon Ramsay rescue a gastropub on Kitchen Nightmares. Come Thursday, I watched another episode of Dark with Case.
Throughout the week, I watched my usual shows for my Retro Television Reviews. I didn’t watch a lot and I need to get caught up on Abbott Elementary, Survivor, and a few others. But this week was still an improvement over last week!
Well, that’s not quite true. I watched an episode of Dark on Netflix with Case. It’s time travel with a macabre, very German twist. We’re on the third season now and the show’s mysteries are truly intriguing.
And then I watched the final episodes of Cobra Kai, also on Netflix. If we’re going to be honest, Cobra Kai probably went on a season or two longer than it should have. Towards the end, the show really was stuck in a repeating loop. That said, I still got a little teary-eyed while watching that final episode. I feel like I’ve really watched these characters grow up and that includes the ones who should have grown up decades earlier, like Johnny Lawrence. I hope William Zabka is cast in more movies and shows after this. If he’s not, at least Johnny got his chance at redemption.
Otherwise, I was sick this week and I watched nothing. But fear not, I’ll be watching the Oscars in about 19 more hours!
Yeah, I’m running late with this. That seems to be the theme of my life this weekend but no matter! Here it is, my week in television.
American Murder: Gabby Petito (Netflix)
Netflix’s Gabby Petito documentary didn’t necessarily tell me anything that I didn’t already know about that tragic and awful case. Indeed, I kind of found myself getting angry at the documentary as I watched the endless footage of Gabby because it reminded me that Gabby Petito — and every other crime victim — deserved more than to be the latest subject of America’s fascinating with the morbid and the sordid. (Of course, it’s hypocritical of me to judge as I was the one watching the documentary.) But, in the end, I did feel that the documentary made an important point. There were so many red flags about Brian Laundrie but no one wanted to admit it, not the cops and not Gabby’s friends. Gabby was failed by so many people.
Up until I saw this documentary, I was not convinced that Brian’s family really knew the full extent of his crimes. Now, I’m convinced that they not only knew but tried to help him cover them up. It’s infuriating.
Check it Out! (Tubi)
I reviewed Check It Out! here. I’ll soon be finished with this show and I have to admit that I’m kind of proud of being the only person to have actually sat down and reviewed every single episode.
Case and I have now started the third and final season of this creepy German show. It’s all about time travel, black holes, and people having nonstop sex without any emotional connection. The architecture is brutalist, the cinematography is dark, and everyone seems to be fairly depressed. It’s very German and very intriguing.
Chef Ramsay was back in New Orleans, helping out another surprisingly ugly restaurant. Seriously, how can a restaurant succeed when it looks like a trailer? Again, a former football player was brought in to provide emotional encouragement. I will undoubtedly find myself in New Orleans in the future but I’ll probably never eat there.
I finished up Scamanda this week, watching the final two episodes. For all the build-up, the finale was a bit disappointing. Amanda was arrested and convicted and then, for 30 minutes, we listened to a bunch of podcast hosts talk about how they came across the story and went viral with it. I love true crime documentaries but true crime podcast hosts are always so annoying and self-important.
I loved the science fair episode, which I watched on Hulu on Wednesday afternoon! Ava is my favorite character so I enjoy any episode that deals with her troubled past, her unique principal style, and the moments where she actually turns out to be good at her job.
I also enjoyed the latest episode of Abbott, with Ava helping out the other schools and Jacob giving an impassioned speech to the school board that will probably come back to haunt him at some point in the future. After the previous season’s somewhat uneven mix of episodes, it’s nice to see Abbott Elementary going strong again!
Case and I finished up season two this week. Onward to the season three next week!
Extracted (Monday Night, Fox)
In this new reality show, out-of-shape people go into the wilderness and try not to die. From a control room, their family members watch and debate whether or not to pull them out of the game. On Wednesday, I watched the first two episodes on Hulu. The show is ludicrous but it’s entertaining, as most good reality shows are. I would hope that my family would pull me out after the first ten minutes.
Kitchen Nightmares (Tuesday Night, Fox)
Finally leaving the ugly restaurants of New Orleans, Chef Ramsay helped out an ugly restaurant in Houston. Seriously, how does the show find these ugly places? This time, the restaurant owner got mad at Ramsay and even called him into the storeroom for a talk. Ramsay was still able to get through to her and save the restaurant. Yay!
Scamanda (Hulu)
On Tuesday, I watched the second episode of Scamanda, which revealed a bit about Amanda’s background and also her husband. The episode suggested that Amanda based her scam off of her husband’s stepdaughter from his first marriage and her very real battle with Leukemia. Not only does this show how twisted Amanda was but it also indicates that her husband was very much a part of her scheme. The second episode was marked improvement over the first. I’m looking forward to the third.
The Story Behind (Tubi)
I watched two episodes. One featured the story behind Beverly Hills 9o210. The other was the story behind Full House. Neither really told me anything that I didn’t already know.
Super Bowl LXI (Sunday Night, Fox)
The only thing more boring than the game were the commercials. A lot of people are making a big deal about Taylor Swift getting booed at the game. The Swifties are in an uproar but, honestly, it’s an American tradition to boo celebs at sporting events, especially ones who are only there because they’re dating a player. Taylor’s apparent shock at being booed has become a meme but it was actually a very relatable and human moment. I prefer Taylor’s “What’s going on?” to the celebs who either pretend to not to care or the ones who go into a rage mode the minute they have to deal with public opinion.
My sinuses were really bothering me this week so I didn’t watch much, other than the shows that I review for this site. I mean, it was literally a struggle for me to look at a screen, whether it my phone, a laptop, or a television for more than a few minutes without getting a headache.
I did watch two more episodes of Dark with Case. This intriguing German show gets more and more creepy with each episode.
On Sunday, Jeff and I watched a football game. It was Taylor Swift’s team vs someone else. Taylor Swift won.
I watched Kitchen Nightmares. This week’s restaurant was boring. I’m hoping for another Amy’s Baking Company style fiasco.
And I watched Hell’s Kitchen. Really? They eliminated Egypt? First Brandon and then Egypt? Weakest final two ever!
Here are just a few (admittedly, very few) thoughts on what I watched this week!
Abbott Elementary (Wednesday Night, ABC)
Unlike the characters in Abbott Elementary, I’m not a fan of the American Labor Movement but I still enjoyed this week’s episode about a bus strike. The remote learning stuff was definitely the highlight of the episodes.
Dark (Netflix)
Case and I are continuing to watch this German show on Netflix. It’s a very intriguing saga of time travel and murder.
Hell’s Kitchen (Thursday Night, Fox)
Without Brandon in the competition, who cares? It seems kind of obvious that Egypt’s going to win.
Kitchen Nightmares (Tuesday Night, Fox)
Chef Ramsay saved another restaurant in New Orleans. That’s good and all but I still wouldn’t want to eat anywhere that’s been featured on Kitchen Nightmares. Once a mess, always a mess. At least, that’s the way that I view things as far as food preparation is concerned.
The Oscar Nominations (Thursday Morning, Hulu)
The nominations didn’t do much for me this year. Honestly, I have to wonder how long it’s going to be until ABC dumps the Oscars and the ceremony is reduced to just streaming on Hulu. It’s going to happen sooner or later.
The Presidential Inauguration (Monday, C-Span)
I’m thankful for C-Span. I was able to watch the whole thing without any commentary for either side.
Oh my God, did Chef Ramsay really just say that!? I’ve watched a lot of episodes of Hell’s Kitchen but I don’t think any elimination has taken me as much by surprise as the elimination of Brandon this week. Brandon is who I expected to win this season and I know that I’m not alone in that. That said, Brandon did struggle at service. Of all the chefs to receive black jackets, Brandon struggled the most and, even more importantly, Brandon was really the only one to struggle. Ramsay didn’t have much of a choice but I have a feeling Brandon will return in a future season.
Speaking of Chef Ramsay, I also caught the second part of the Kitchen Nightmares premiere. I’m glad that Ramsay apparently thinks that he’s fixed that restaurant but I can promise that there is no way I would ever voluntarily eat at any establishment featured on this show. I don’t care if it’s clean now. Once a rat trap, always a rat trap.
This week’s episode of Abbott Elementary surfaced in comparison to last week’s but that’s to be expected considering the brilliance of last week’s show. I still laughed at Ava trying to figure out what it’s like to “date the poors.”
On Peacock, I watched the three episode documentary Girls Gone Wild: The Untold Story and yes, that was certainly disgusting and disturbing, It was even worse than Hulu’s Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action, which I also watched. I guess I felt like catching up on some sordid history this week!
Speaking of sordid, Who Wants To Marry A Multi-Millionaire is on YouTube. I watched it and I have to admit that I laughed when the “millionaire” came lurching out and started speaking in a voice that sounded exactly like Bill Hader’s. Who Wants To Marry A Multi-Millionaire was a one-time, two-hour special that aired in 2000. The man behind this fiasco (the marriage was annulled, the millionaire was not a millionaire but just a guy who was the subject of multiple restraining orders) went on to create The Bachelor.
Also on YouTube, I found all six episodes of The Starlet, a reality competition show where aspiring actresses competed for a walk-on role on One Tree Hill. Stop laughing, it was a real show. I vaguely remember watching it when it first aired. I watched it a second time on Monday because I was bored. One of the judges was Faye Dunaway. Faye was surprisingly nice. The mean judge was Vivica A. Fox.
Case and I are continuing to watch Dark, on Netflix. What a fascinating and macabre show! I recommend it to anyone reading.
I watched the latest episodes of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test but I don’t remember a damn thing about them, other than it amused me how everyone pretended to be taking everything so seriously.
And, as always, I watched the shows that I review on a weekly basis. I’m not going to sit here and list them all because I’m tired. But you can find all my reviews on this site. Yay!
It’s a new year but there’s still much to watch. Here’s some thoughts on what I viewed during the first week of 2025!
CHiPs (Prime)
Freevee may be dead but CHiPs continues on Prime. My reviews of the show will return on Monday.
Cobra Kai (Netflix)
I watched the 2nd part of the final season of Cobra Kai on Friday. I know the regular complaint about Cobra Kai is that every season is pretty much the same and there’s actually some validity to that comment. But I don’t care. It’s a fun show and William Zabka is a joy to watch. From the start, I know this latest set of episodes would end with yet another huge brawl but, at this point, I’d be disappointed if they didn’t. The showrunners know exactly why people watch this show.
Dark (Netflix)
Case and I have been watching this atmospheric German show on Netflix. This week, we finished up the first three episodes. Case has watched the show before. He said it would appeal to my “analytical mind” and so far, he’s very much correct about that! I’m enjoying uncovering the mysteries of this macabre mystery.
Days of Our Lives (Peacock)
On Saturday, I got caught up with Days of Our Lives on Peacock. One thing that I like about this show is that you can go for six months without watching and still feel like you can jump right back into the storylines when you come back! I enjoyed watching all of the citizens of Salem celebrate Christmas and New Year’s. And I’m glad to see that Patch is still with us.
Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest (Tuesday Night/Wednesday Morning, ABC)
Jeff and I spent New Year’s Eve at my BFF Evelyn’s annual “Screw The Year That Was” party. The big annual countdown was playing on the television in one of the rooms at Evelyn’s place and I glanced in on the show occasionally. I’ve never really gotten into any of the televised New Year’s Eve celebrations. I don’t really have the attention span for them. I just find it interesting that it’s still Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, even though Mr. Clark passed away quite some time ago. It’s like Ryan Seacrest is a medium or something, letting us hear from Dick Clark from beyond the grave.
Going Dutch (Thursday Night, Fox)
After getting barraged by commercials for this show on an almost nonstop basis, I felt as if I had to watch the premiere. Denis Leary plays an army officer sent to enforce discipline on a base in the Netherlands. The base’s former commander? His daughter! I was glad that this show didn’t use the tired mockumentary format that is so popular nowadays but, overall, it still didn’t do too much for me. The mix of family drama and goofy humor just didn’t work,
Hell’s Kitchen (Thursday Night, Fox)
Hell’s Kitchen returned this week, with both Joe and Anne-Marie being eliminated from the competition. Like Chef Ramsay, I was surprised that Joe didn’t last long enough to receive a black jacket. As for Anne-Marie, she probably should have been eliminated weeks ago. She’s just too scatterbrained to be the head chef. (For the record, she would still do a better job in the position than I ever would!)
King of the Hill (Hulu)
On Sunday, after the news broke about the death of Jimmy Carter, my sister Megan and I watched the episode of King of the Hill in which Carter attempted to broker peace between Hank and his father. It turned out to be too big a job for even Jimmy. This was a classic episode and it featured one of my favorite King of the Hill lines. Upon meeting Carter, Hank says, “You ran our country …. (voice filled with reverence) America.”
Miami Vice (Prime)
I got back to watching Miami Vice this week. Watch for my review on Monday!
Saved By The Bell (Prime)
I wasn’t feeling well on Sunday night so Megan and I watched a few episodes from the Ms. Bliss era. We both agreed that Ms. Bliss was kind of a bitch.
The Twilight Zone (SyFy, Tuesday and Wednesday)
I caught a few episodes of the annual New Year’s marathon. This is a classic show and I always try to find times to catch my favorites, like The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street, Eye Of The Beholder, Shadowplay, and that one with the nurse saying, “Room for one more, honey!”
Through the Shattered Lens 