Five shows go in, which one winds up on top?
1) For All Mankind (Apple Plus)
English Audio Description?: Yes
An episode that largely asked me to care about Margot right after she did Molly dirty in the last episode. Part of me would have been fine with the Russians killing Margot off in the episode, but through some nice emotional manipulation, we ended up somehow forgiving her because it’s so damn lonely on top. Meanwhile, we also had to care about Danny, who I don’t, because his obsession for Karen has caused him to break his AA streak, and it ended up being Ed, the person who he likes least in the world, who gave him the lifeline. This probably won’t work out well. Oh, and we rewrote history with that Presidential election, didn’t we?
Final Grade: A
2) Blackbird (Apple Plus)
English Audio Description?: Yes
Here’s a show that once it gets going I fully expect to start seeing at the top. Taron Edgerton stars here as a misspent youth who is so charming, he’s recruited to befriend a serial killer so he can get his sentence commuted and get out before his father (Ray Liotta) dies. Now, it’s not lost on me how insanely morbid it is to watch Liotta’s final role be this one where he’s also on deaths door. It gave me an icky feeling that really just kept this episode from the top spot. It took me out of the series, and made me remember just how great Liotta was as an actor.
Episode Grade: A
3) Harley Quinn (HBo MAX)
English Audio Description?: Yes
Oddly, I was missing a lot of the side characters in the third episode. i don’t know where they all went, but I really need a Bane spinoff. if I lose this fucking show because WBD thinks I need to say yes to that dress, there is not an adjective yet created for the feeling that will wash over me. I will let you know what that adjective is when it comes. Rumor has it, they’re already looking at dumping Titans and Doom Patrol, and those fanbases are going nuts.
Episode Grade: A-
4) Fairfax (Amazon)
English Audio Description?: Yes
Our crew get internships in middle school. And of course, things do not go as planned. That Quentin Tarantino joke cut deep though. That was a good one. Bonus points to the writers of Fairfax.
Episode Grade: A-
5) Maggie (Hulu)
English Audio Description?: Yes
i truly do not know what this show is, what it wants to be, what its plans are. I will give it originality points, but on that same note, it was so clusterfucked that I really didn’t catch much of the humor. I can see why ABC dumped this to Hulu, as it doesn’t fit remotely anywhere in their lineup. I don’t know what they could have possibly paired this with. The flashes are random, and perhaps unnecessary. I definitely need to see more before I write this on or off.
Episode Grade: B-
