What an oddly mediocre day of television I assembled for myself.
1) Hacks (HBOMAX)
English Audio Description Available?: Yes
IIn the 7th and likely penultimate half hour of the season, Deborah pitched her new show to the networks, only to have one that was even slightly interested. The funniest moment of the episode was Deborah coming home and finding out that a CD has been playing in her house since the last time she was there… in 2007. And the harshest moment was her “well you already did”, as a response to her agent disappointing her, when he actually quit over his agencies determination to drop her as a client.
Episode Grade: A
2) Pachenko (Apple Plus)
English Audio Description Available?: Yes
In what was the best episode of the series so far, it was marred by a couple non-sensical choices made by characters. you could call this the earthquake episode, but why on earth that boy would have escaped and tried to bond with the man who just was about to kill his father is beyond me. Meanwhile, the kid was obnoxious anyway. But the grand scale on which the episode sat, and the fact that the event actually happened, followed by end credits that reminded us of its historical significance, and the large scale amount of life lost brought that real world view to a series that has always walked the line of “based on a true story”, but now roped in a specific place and time.
Episode Grade: A-
3) The Hardy Boys (Hulu)
English Audio Description Available?: Yes
The Boys are getting closer to finding out the truths, and in true Hardy Boys fashion, who they can trust seems to be shifting. I’ve got my own bets as to who exactly isn’t trustworthy, and I think Joe might be headed for heartbreak in that department. Only 2 episodes left of the season.
Episode Grade: B+
4) The Chase (aBC/Hulu)
English audio Description Available?: Yes
The chasers found The Queen to be quite formidable. I do take slight offense to Sarah’s over praise of Victoria by calling her the smartest woman on the planet. I mean, she’s good at trivia, but I’m sure there’s a female scientist out there who is curing some disease, or sending people off world. I don’t think the lady who keeps knitting a scarf on TV is the smartest woman in the world. Nor do i believe Ken Jennings is the smartest man alive. Being a badass at trivia doesn’t equate to being able to crack a code that no one in existence has been able to crack, and create something truly transcendent that changes humanity.
Episode Grade: B+
5) Miss Marvel (Disney Plus)
English Audio description Available?: Yes
Can a girl get a real villain up in here? Poor Kamala has spent so much time this season learning her powers, learning her families backstories and truths, finding out her abilities, and just when we are now headed into the homestretch, she still has one of the weakest villains ever put into the MCU, film or otherwise. The main clandestine, whose name is so irrelevant they could change it every episode and I wouldn’t care, just seems to be popping in and doing run of the mill nefarious deeds. She doesn’t feel like some kind of insurmountable villain that a hero couldn’t put down in five seconds. This is not the moment where Wanda realizes she’s been manipulated by a stronger and more cunning witch. This is not the moment where Hawkeye has to fight a trained assassin so badass she can be deaf, kick his ass, and still get her own spinoff series. This isn’t even close to the experience of being trapped in some psychological hell with Ethan Hawke and having everything you know about life challenged. no, this is just some annoying woman that needs your powers from your bangle. And she’s not even very god at it. We do get to see a good little part of backstory regarding Aisha, Kamala’s great grandmother who once had the bangle, and how that played out. But with only one episode left, I’m still here wondering why they thought six episodes was the right count to introduce a brand new character, without the help of other established Marvel characters, her entire backstory, her powers, set up a villain with their own commanding backstory, and then pit them against each other. This determination to have a six episode count for Miss Marvel is suffocating the storytelling for what could have been easily the brightest new entry to the MCU.
Episode Grade: C+
6) Pacific Rim: The Black (Netflix)
Basically, the most interesting thing about this episode was seeing these characters deal with survivors remorse. However, these kids could have been a lot happier to see their mom again. I guess they’ve been through so much shit, they’re just kind of closed off.
Episode Grade: C+
7) The Baby (HBo/HBO MAX)
English Audio Description Available?: Yes
The fourth episode didn’t do much to connect to the third, it just kind of dumped us back in the world. I’m not enjoying this show, whose constant flipping of tone is driving me batty. Shining Veil handled the horror/comedy route a lot better than this show is. Just saying.
Episode Grade: C
