Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-05-24 (Friday)

On 5/25/2024 11:20 AM, Alfie Robertson Alfie Robertson wrote:

In article <UBI20240525@dont-email.me>, weberm@polaris.net wrote:
 

I watched:
>
THE UNXPLAINED:
"Mysterious Earth".
>
THE UNXPLAINED:
"Venus: Earth's Evil Twin".
>
What did you watch?

 Night Court - "The Best Dan" - 03/26/2024 (08:00PM - 08:30PM) (Tuesday)
: Roz finds herself in court after her wedding venue falls through,
prompting Abby to offer up the courthouse for the big day. Dan strikes
up a connection with a wedding guest who has ties to his past, only to
realize that his reputation precedes him. Abby and Jake set rules to
keep their relationship casual. Gurgs suspects foul play and enlists
Olivia, Wyatt and Flobert to investigate.
 The guy playing Jake looks kinda familiar to me.

He's been in a bunch of stuff and was a regular on Veronica Mars and 2 Broke Girls.

 I liked the courtroom wedding, too, that was lovely :). Dan and Roz are
a lot of fun together indeed. Dan's memories about his history with
Christine were touching, too.
 Abby and Jake are cute. I feel Jake has a bit of a resemblance to her
fiance from the first season in some ways, but they do have a fun
chemistry and play off each other well. I'm glad they're planning to
get a litlte more serious.
 Wyatt's ranting about his divorce was funny. And sad. But mostly funny
:p.
 And ooh, yes, that ending indeed! Would be interested to see where
they'd go with that in a season three.
 9-1-1 - "Ashes, Ashes" - The 118 are presented with the Medal of Valor
for their work on the cruise ship rescue. Hen and Karen encounter an
unforeseen hurdle in their foster care journey. Eddie's emotional
affair develops further.
 So the thing is, that was a pretty good hour of television. But it just
didn't feel like 9-1-1.
 First of all, too relentlessly depressing. What really attracted me to
this show in the first place over all the host of other
firefighter/medical shows on television was the lighter tone, the great
comedy punctuated by the profound and dramatic moments, which were made
all the better by the juxtaposition. It wasn't a soap opera about the
character's lives with their jobs as just a backdrop.
 Second, absolutely no 9-1-1 calls this episode (unless you count the
stupid slo-mo perfunctory fire set to, once again, a poor musical
choice that had no impact, which I don't). Where are the 9-1-1 calls?
 The acting was great as always.
 The Eddie story wasn't actually as bad as I feared two episodes ago
when this stupid plot started. And yes, I still think it's a stupid
plot. It's completely rewriting history to try to make Shannon the love
of Eddie's life as if they had some kind of epic saga going on. But
really, this was about the best I could hope for — it turning into a
way for Eddie to say goodbye — once we had Buck meet her and knew for
sure she did, indeed, look exactly like Shannon and wasn't just some
kind of delusion Eddie was having. But I feel like 9-1-1 of old
wouldn't have gone for the cheap drama of having Marisol and especially
Christopher walk in on them. Ugh. Not looking forward to where this now
has to go next. That moment would have been right at home on a daytime
soap.
 Apparently in the rewriting department we also seem to be conveniently
forgetting that Bobby has special blood needed to save thousands of
children, which is why he really decided he wasn't allowed to commit
suicide after saving 148 people. So he accepted he was going to have to
live and made himself a life and chose to live it, instead of just
exist. I know mental health isn't linear, but just like with Eddie's
plot, this feels like we're moving backwards with the character. Bobby
better not damn well retire — or die of a heart attack (though I don't
think he will). Honestly, the only person I'd really be worried about
them killing off is Tommy, since Buck seems to actually be happy, and
the show doesn't seem to want any of the characters to carve out even a
moment of happiness. Though one more dead "love-of-my-life" and I think
I might scream.
 Hated Hen's plot. Hated it. The evil, delusional, omnipotent politician
story is completely off the rails for this show and seems like cheap
drama, again. It was proven that Hen was not responsible for her son's
death after the car crash and the mother would know it. And if she's
not a deranged psycho, this plot just doesn't happen. Too soap opera by
far and once again it seems entirely off-brand for 9-1-1. The last time
Hen and Karen lost an adoption (another plot retread, hmmm) it was
because the mother got herself together and wanted the child back.
Heartbreaking, but also completely realistic. Not this far-fetched
revenge nonsense.
 

I think I missed how that woman was even in a position to mess with the adoption since she had a clear bias.
And listing everyone who ever had a bad outcome to someone who works in the emergency medical field was just ridiculous.  Of course patients will sometimes die.  That's hardly suspicious.  And has zero to do with her competence to care for the child.

I liked that Buck confronted Eddie, but even that conversation seemed a
little off, just like Athena and Bobby.
 I think Amir is going to end up being a misdirect as we contemplate who
set the fire (though it was so thorough that it sure looked like
someone certainly did). I wonder if it's going to tie back to Harry and
his seeming acting out from the beginning of the season (not that he
set the fire, but that he's gotten into some trouble that caused
someone else to).
 I'm disappointed in this season so far, and I think the reason is that
ABC seems to have turned this show into just another primetime drama.

It hadn't occurred to me this was ABC's doing.  But they may be behind the drop in quality.  Not that the show was every that high in quality to begin with, but this season season does seem to have extra nonsense.

But there's a reason I don't watch most of those. I think the writers
and all of the other powers that be need to watch some back episodes
and get back in touch with what made this show unique and special so
they can start over next season.
 I can't say there are many episodes this season that I would enjoy
rewatching. Many more episodes like this, which was too deep a dive
into the drama pool without enough comedy and action to balance it out
and I don't know how long I'll stick around. They've got some of the
best characters on television with one of the most talented casts. I
hope they can right the ship.