July 2020 – TV Quick Hits & Misses

Creepshow (Shudder / AMC) – This anthology series, based on the original 1982 anthology horror film collaboration between Stephen King and George A. Romero, delivers two unique, and supposedly frightening, stories per forty-four-minute episode. Those stories include eight short story adaptations and four original works. One of the adaptations is a personal favorite, Stephen King’s “Gray Matter”, while the notable original work is “Night of the Paw”, as it most closely resembles something from the original film.

Utilizing practical effects and occasional animation, the series prides itself on being a genre throwback. Perhaps to some it will impresses as such, but to more seasoned viewers these simply aren’t particularly “thrilling” tales. Instead, they feel more like leftovers from a series that was made during the eighties but is only now airing; warts and all. Ultimately, the series works well enough to keep audiences from hating it but doesn’t do a whole lot to make them love it either.

Note: The comic book/episode lead-ins are only slightly troubling as they portray comic book pages that you really want to pause and read over, but they don’t seem to proport any surprises or easter eggs when you do; bummer, Yo!

Note 2: New updates state that while the second season was in production, a third season of scripts were ordered. Whether the series gets a third season renewal remains to be seen, but at least they’re putting the States-side lockdown to good use.

Gentefied (NETFLIX) – This series explores the lives three Hispanic cousins and their grandfather’s struggle to maintain a family taco shop in East Los Angeles. The family dynamics are interesting and somewhat brutal, actually. One cousin, Chris, who dreams of international culinary success, is consistently called out for not being Hispanic enough, while the artistic Ana navigates an interracial same-sex relationship, and Erik, a tough and well-read street-type, attempts to cope with impending parenthood. All under the heavy-handed guise of financial difficulties, pride, family, and inner/outer cultural racism.

It’s actually a fun series that boasts some great characterizations from its principle actors.

Note: The series uses a mix of flowing English and Spanish, so prepare for a healthy amount of subtitles.

Quotes of Note:

1. “Peace out, cub scout”
2.  “Have you tried the barbacoa tacos up there (in San Francisco)? They’re barba- caca!”
3. “That you can create a legacy for your family only to discover it’s not enough to         save them.”

Losers (NETFLIX) – Losers is an eight-episode documentary series that examines athletic success stories through the arcs of the failures that endured them. Realizing that it’s never been about winning, but rather perseverance, the series ultimately looks at Failure as a matter of perspective rather than as a level of achievement.

Interviews include so many friggin’ people that I can’t even begin to list them, but the first episode, “The Miscast Champion” includes a mighty impressive list and gives you an idea of what to expect throughout: “Bull Durham” screenwriter Ron Shelton, boxing commentator Larry Merchant, boxing manager Stan Hoffman, trainer Freddie Roach, actors Mickey Rourke and Harold Perrineau.

Quotes of Note:

1. “After the Finish Line, there’s a Starting Line.”
2. “Sometimes, it takes a long time, to learn to play like yourself.” – Miles Davis
3. “Unlike boxing, actors are open to failure; and even seek it out.”
4. “People who are considered winners, are, in my mind, some of the great losers of all time, and people who are called losers are, to me, some of the great winners of all time.”

Episodes Include:

1. “The Miscast Champion” – WBO Heavyweight Champion, Michael Bentt, details the personal struggles of becoming a world championship boxer when you haven’t the desire to be one.

1. “The Jaws of Victory” – A look at the 1986-87 season of the Lower Division Torquay United Football Club, The Gulls. Consider this one like watching the Bad News Bears of English soccer, and their mad dash for last place; that would of course, hinge on the final game of the season.

1. “Judgement” – The story of figure skater, and 3-time World Silver Medalist, Surya Bonaly, and the unwelcoming she received on the international stage. Is her legacy one of poor sportsmanship or justified frustration with the system in place? Look closer, Yo!

1. “Stone Cold” – An in-depth look at “The Brier”, Canada’s Championship Curling Event, through the 1980s. More specifically, the episode breaks down the amazing win at the 1985 men’s event, an event that boasts the impressive Hackner Double and led to the building of the Ryan’s Express curling team. A team that was so good they became responsible for almost killing the sport. The episode breaks down the basics of curling play as well; so, The More You Know, Yo!

Note: Curling didn’t become an Olympic event until 1998.

1. “Lost in the Desert” – Recounts the experience of two Italian runners, Mauro Prosperi and Cinzia Pagliara, who in 1994 engaged in the The Marathon Des Sables (Marathon of the Sands), a one hundred and fifty-mile foot race held annually in the Sahara Desert of Morocco. The episode is a tale of survival and explores the selfishness of the competitor (sport vs family), and how a race of this magnitude forces one, in many different ways, to focus on priorities.

Note: The episode is told almost entirely in Italian.

1. “Aliy” –Exploring endurance and the follow-through that makes moving on possible. Aliy Zirkle, owner and operator of S.P. Kennel in Two Rivers, Alaska, and her huskies race the Alaskan Iditarod, a 1,000-mile sled dog race across the wilds of Alaska; Mush, Yo!

1. “Black Jack” – Brooklyn born streetball legend Jack Ryan (aka, Fuck-O) a basketball phenom who couldn’t overcome his attitude issues. A vain and short-fuse showoff in many ways, Jack would seek attention and self-esteem while ultimately seeing the implosion of his future in basketball.

1. “The 72nd Hole” – The 1999 nightmarish British Open Golf Tournament at Scotland’s Carnoustie (aka Carnasty, because the course is so difficult) as experienced by surprise frontrunner, Frenchman Jean van de Velde.

Snowpiercer (TNT) – Using the conceit of a murder investigation-cum-revolution, this adaptive series, based on the 2013 film by Academy Award winner Bong Joon Ho, and the 1982 (1999, 2000, 2015) graphic novel, “Le Transperceneige” by Jaques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette, is a thoroughly entertaining melodrama.

The series storyline sees our entire planet turned a frozen waste after a global-warming disaster. The last surviving members of the human race are now living, according to a bigoted class-system structure, and circling the Earth aboard Snowpiercer, a perpetual motion train that’s “1,001 cars long.”

The people of Snowpiercer are spread apart, and across, a system of class: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and the Tail. Each hates the others for either having something they don’t (food, warmth, clean sheets) or being something they’re not (stowaways, janitors, elite). 1st class is a very posh and bourgeois environment, 2nd class is less comfortable, a bit less snooty, and seems to house the upper-crust uniformed employees and working civilians (teachers, police and doctor-types). 3rd class is the working-man class, full of nightclubs, janitors, and the accepted socket-turning dregs that keep the wheels, literal and metaphorical, of Snowpiercer turning. While the Tail, and its compliment of stowaways, is a literal pit of filth and human abandonment.

So, when a 3rd class body is discovered, horribly dismembered, the powers-that-be seek the assistance of former homicide detective Andre Layton, a Tailie, to solve the crime and quell the grumblings of the discomforted upper-class passengers. However, subjugated for as long as he and his traveling companions have been, Layton uses his time outside the Tail to plot and plan a revolution.

The series is surprisingly well done and, despite the somewhat unconventional premise, is a sight more interesting than you might expect. “Snowpiercer” does interesting things, with a great cast, in an easy to grasp universe, and should see willing audiences fall smoothly and comfortably into their seats for the duration of the ride.

Black Monday: Season 2 (SHOWTIME) – Dealing with life on the lamb, continued corruption of Wall Street, politics, and the Home Shopping Network, this second season of the dark comedy is at least as entertaining as the first, if still far less work-specific. Sure, there’s plenty of talk about stock work but the day-to-day office doldrum from the first season is surprisingly limited. Instead, this season sees the bulk of shuck-and-jive take place out of the office or at parties within the office. Oh, and that bank robbery…savagely entertaining stuff.

Quotes of Note:
            Dawn: “Wow Mo-mo, this place is fucking paradise.”
            Mo:      “Not a bad first date, huh?”
            Robin: “First date?”
            Mo:     “Well, first formal date.”
            Robin: “Ha, we’ve had sex like a hundred times.”
            Mo:     “Yeah, but those are all at work.”

-m-