THERE'S TOO MUCH TV - Roundup July 2022

Thank you all so much for your patience as I work on the PAW Patrol video (the script is currently 23 pages). In the meantime, enjoy the monthly roundup!

“What are you watching?” is pretty much the automatic question I get when I tell people what I do for a living. I don’t have time to do full conversations on everything I’m watching but here are some stray thoughts on everything I’ve watched in the last month.

Some mild spoilers for shows that are not in season 1. We’ve got a LOT of ground to cover because this was a great month for TV (literally all of these shows are good), so some of these might be short. I usually do these in alphabetical order, but I’m gonna put them in a kind of ranking order this time—I choose violence.

The Rehearsal (Season 1) — HBOMax
CW: Extreme awkwardness

Nathan Fielder is one of the most unique talents in the history of television. His previous show, Nathan For You, was built around using stunts and legal loopholes to help small businesses, although it often turned into something else by the end of each episode. The real focus of that show, and his follow-up The Rehearsal, is to examine how the camera changes our behavior—to see what kinds of things people are willing to do or go along with. You can never tell just how serious or insane or real Nathan is (he never, ever breaks character), and I think that’s the whole point of the show. Is this a performance? Is everything a performance?

The Bear (Season 1) — Hulu
CW: Potentially triggering to people who have worked in food service

This new half-hour drama is one of the best shows of the year, following the kitchen staff at a small sandwich shop in Chicago. It is incredibly fast-paced and intense (as I’m sure anyone who has worked in a kitchen can attest), but the show also has a deep heart. Carmy, played by Jeremy Allen White in what might be the best performance of the year, has taken over the shop following the suicide of his brother and the whole show is situated around him both respecting his brother (and the shop that represents him) and moving on.

Better Call Saul (Season 6 Part 2) — AMC
CW: Violence

I’d really like to make a retrospective on the Better Call Saul/Breaking Bad franchise that has come to define an era of TV that is ending (perhaps it already has and this is the last show). It comes out once a week, it’s on cable, and it is one of the last Difficult Men shows as the genre moves into its next phase, and six seasons is probably more than most shows being started today will ever run for. Better Call Saul is brilliant, one of the best shows of the 2010s and deserves true pantheon status. A few months back I was asked if it was watchable without having seen Breaking Bad, and I’m still not totally sure if it is, but you should make time for this classic.

The Boys (Season 3) — Amazon Prime
CW: Graphic Violence and Sexual Content

The Boys remains one of the best, although crude at times, sociopolitical satires on TV. The show is both extremely entertaining and watchable, while being smart enough to depict fascism and power in mediums that Americans can finally understand: superheroes. As fascist and nationalist ideologies continue to rise in American politics, the show serves a useful purpose, seeking to shake us out of the slow boil that makes us numb to what we’re seeing unfold.

For All Mankind (Season 3) — AppleTV+
CW: The vacuum of space

If you like space and expansive, world-building sci-fi, you simply have to watch For All Mankind. There’s no excuse. Season 2 was one of the best shows on TV, and season 3 has continued to impress. Without giving too much away, I love how the show doesn’t draw things out. It doesn’t dangle history or potential missions for entire seasons. It always pushes its own limits, much like its characters.

Primal (Season 2) — HBOMax
CW: Animated Violence

The real SkipIntroverts know that I have a huge soft spot for legendary animator Genndy Tartakovsky. His ability to tell stories visually with little dialogue was already unmatched before he created Primal, a fantastical prehistoric show about a caveman and his T-Rex that has absolutely no dialogue in it whatsoever. It is a brutal and beautiful show high on action and the second season has not disappointed as Fang and Spear cross the ocean to a new land, meeting other humans for the first time.

The Umbrella Academy (Season 3) — Netflix
CW: Anti-Transphobia

Recently, The Umbrella Academy and its star Elliot Page have become a target for transphobes across the internet simply for existing. Between seasons 2 and 3 Page came out as transgender and the show addresses this very early on by his character also coming out as Viktor. It isn’t a huge plot point, and that’s honestly so refreshing. He just exists and the world doesn’t end. Well, the world does end in classic Umbrella Academy fashion but this time it’s not Viktor’s fault! Well, it’s kind of Viktor’s fault, but not because of his gender identity! This season was my favorite of the show so far. I’ve grown really attached to all of the characters and their interior lives (except Allison, she sucks) and it was one of the most fun watches of the year so far.

Black Bird (Season 1) — AppleTV+
CW: Violence, It’s a serial killer show, so they talk about graphic stuff.

Based on a true story, Jimmy Keene (Taron Edgarton) looks to have his 10-year prison sentence commuted by obtaining information and a confession from suspected serial killer Larry Hall (Paul Walter Hauser). There are some annoying copaganda elements (Greg Kinnear plays the “one good cop”), but the show is worth it just to see Edgarton and Hauser work scenes together.

Stranger Things (Season 4) — Netflix
CW: Potent nostalgia for a time never experienced

The final two episodes of Stranger Things did not disappoint. They looked worth every bit of the reported $30 million an episode they cost. There were some straight-up awesome scenes. But the actual text of Stranger Things isn’t super interesting to me though. What’s more interesting to me is how the show’s strange release schedule impacted the story it was telling. Breaking with 2 episodes left was a genius marketing move, striking a middle ground between the binge model that vaulted the first season of Stranger Things into commercial superstardom, and a weekly model that allows fans to actually discuss a show together without spoiling it. Unfortunately, that marketing move also made these episodes feel very disorienting. We were immediately dropped in the middle of a story that was reaching its climax, despite having ourselves just cooled off for a month. Also, there are just too many characters on this show—they need to thin the herd.

What We Do in the Shadows (Season 4) — Hulu
CW: Lots of dirty jokes

If you’re craving a classic sitcom, I don’t think you can do better than What We Do in the Shadows. You just can’t! Nandor’s Bachelor/harem episode is one of the funniest episodes of TV I’ve watched in a minute.

Only Murders in the Building (Season 2) — Hulu
CW: Graphic Violence and Sexual Content

Just because this is last on the list doesn’t mean I am not enjoying it. In fact, I like season 2 a good amount more than the first so far. As with most shows, the chemistry between its main characters has improved in season 2 and we get to start with the whole gang already being friends, instead of having some artificial interpersonal conflict in place for them to overcome. I also really appreciate how the show is able to weave in the history of these characters and the Arconia into the fabric of its mystery without necessarily making that history the focus of the investigation.