September 16, 2022
This past year (and the television world in general) has been jammed with so much content, I just had to split this series into two parts, and that’s with a part one that was insanely long. Well, at least I’m only posting once a week, so you can split reading this over multiple cups of coffee throughout the weekend. Anyway, if you missed part one, you can read it here. Let’s jump into part two.
The Best Streaming Service Right Now
Last week’s post concluded with two fantastic series that aired on HBO Max this past year and this week, I’m going to highlight a few more that we’ve been really enjoying. Simply put, HBO has been the prestige cable channel for forty years and they have not shown any signs of slowing down, even with the advent of the streaming wars. That being said, their parent company just went through a major corporate event that has resulted in some decisions that are pretty common in any business after a merger, but can seem foreign to an entertainment industry that is used to high budgets and endless demand for content, regardless of the cost.
Earlier this year, Warner Brothers Media (the parent of HBO) was spun off by AT&T and merged with Discovery Networks (which features mostly nonfiction shows on channels like HGTV and Food Network) to form Warner Bros. Discovery. Why does this matter when it comes to television and movie content? Well, like any other corporate merger, there is now a ton of debt on the Balance Sheet and the company has promised Wall Street a boatload of synergies (read: cost reductions) for its investors. Following the deal closure, layoffs ensued, projects were scuttled, and even some high-profile initiatives were thrown on the trash heap (CNN+, we barely knew ya). CEO David Zaslav (who came from the Discovery side of the house) has shown no mercy in taking both a scalpel and chainsaw to the budgets.
Time will tell what will happen with the television landscape at HBO going forward, but there are already some nervous writers and producers who are worried about jumping on board if their projects can get scrapped months after being approved because the budgets got too big. This is the reason that the creative-types in Hollywood love going to Netflix, Apple and Amazon. As of now, they are still throwing tons of money at projects, although (as I covered last week), Netflix has started some belt-tightening given their weak subscriber growth in recent quarters. It’s not just the television world impacted by this merger – Warner Bros is still a major producer of movies and caused headlines recently by scrapping a movie that was almost completed because it gave them a tax benefit. That’s a long story that I will probably get into a little more during my fall movie preview next week. Let’s get back to the world of television.
Despite my slight concerns over the business side of the house, the creative side of HBO is still delivering fantastic content, which is why if I have one recommendation for a streaming service, it’s still HBO Max. It’s on the pricier side compared to Apple TV+ or Disney+, but is comparable to Netflix (in terms of price, but beats Netflix by a mile when it comes to quality) and you can usually find a good deal for a trial subscription or discounted introductory price. Last week I wrote about Tokyo Vice and We Own This City, two top-notch series on HBO Max. The streamer was also the big winner at last weekend’s Emmys, including wins for Euphoria, Succession (the best show on television), The White Lotus (a fantastic comedy-drama) and the A+ comedy I’m going to cover next.
No Sophomore Slump – Hacks
I don’t want to say it’s easy to make the first season of a television show – getting a show written, greenlit, casted, and produced takes a hell of a lot of effort. But what is even harder is following up on a successful first season with the sophomore effort. So many shows fall off of a cliff after a successful debut. The premise seems great, but the writers run out of ideas (or at least quality ideas) and you feel like you are on a treadmill to nowhere.
A recent example I can think of is The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which recently aired its fourth season on Amazon Prime. The series is the story of Midge (played by Rachel Brosnahan), who decides to try out her dream profession when her marriage falls apart – stand-up comedy. What’s the big deal? Well, it’s late 1950s New York City and the world wasn’t quite ready for a Jewish-American housewife telling jokes. That was the brilliance of the story – the fish out of water woman who succeeded despite roadblocks along the way. Brosnahan was excellent, as was the supporting cast (including Tony Shalhoub and Marin Hinkle as her parents), and the series won a slew of Emmys. But something happened in the second season for us. What was charming about the first season, particularly the over-the-top comedy and rat-a-tat dialogue, became tiresome and exhausting (especially Alex Borstein as Midge’s manager). The creators took the show to new locations and brought in new characters, but couldn’t overcome the reliance on its comedy style. Sarcasm is funny every once in a while, but if it is every single joke, it becomes tiresome, like “Dad jokes” at every turn. What starts out as chuckles at jokes, turns into groans, and then you are screaming “Enough already!” We gave up midway through season two on this one.
I much prefer a dry sense of humor in my television shows, which is why I love Hacks. Jean Smart, who is experiencing a renaissance as a leading actress again, plays Deborah, a stand-up comic in Las Vegas, who is facing the potential end of her career when her residency at a casino is terminated. She hires a new writer (Hannah Einbinder, in her first acting role) to bring some new blood into her act. The first season showcased the talents of the two leads as they got used to each other and dealt with each other’s flaws.
What makes Hacks work so well is not just the talent of Smart and Einbinder, but their chemistry together. Their scenes feel real because you can tell that they are making each other better as actors. For the recently aired second season, the creators decided to quickly resolve the minor cliffhanger from the end of season one and move on to a new adventure as they went on the road to showcase Deborah’s new act. Hacks is an example of a textbook HBO show – it’s crisp (ten 30 minute episodes in season one, with eight in season two), it’s funny (in a smart way, not a juvenile way), and has a lot of heart. If you are looking for shows with a similar sense of comedy with heart, check out Julia (about the beginning of Julia Childs’ career), and Starstruck, about the blooming relationship between a down-on-her luck twenty something woman and a huge movie star. Hacks, Julia, and Starstruck are now all streaming on HBO Max.
Man, the Man is Non-Stop – The Taylor Sheridan Universe
Who knows? Maybe he doesn’t sleep, functions on an insane amount of caffeine, or is just an alien. Whatever the reason, Taylor Sheridan has an incredible track record the last several years and he still has a lot of projects lined up to come. Who is Sheridan? Well, he has been working in Hollywood for the better part of a decade and was best known for writing the screenplays for Sicario and Hell or High Water, two critically-acclaimed outstanding crime-drama films. But he became a household name four years ago when a little show called Yellowstone premiered on the Paramount Network and quickly became the highest-rated cable show on television. The series is the story of the Dutton family, who run a cattle ranch in Montana. Needless to say, the landscape setting is phenomenal, the actors are very good (led by Kevin Costner) and while it can get a little melodramatic at times (Beth needs to chill the f*ck out, if you ask me), the show is very good. Sheridan is the showrunner for Yellowstone and writes all of the scripts, and despite all of its success and a fifth season coming in November, he hasn’t slowed down.
Sheridan has decided to take the concept of “spinoff” and put it on steroids. Last year saw a ten episode limited series that features the ancestors of the Dutton family making the trek across the country to their land in Montana. Tim McGraw and Faith Hill were the featured stars of 1883, which was an excellent standalone story that provided some connection to the current day Yellowstone characters. Coming later this year is 1923, featuring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren in another story about the generation of the Dutton family in between the characters of 1883 and the current day Duttons. He also has 6666, which is set at a ranch in Texas (the Four Sixes) that was featured in the last season of Yellowstone, in the works. Whew! And that’s just the “Yellowstone Extended Universe”. Sheridan also had Mayor of Kingstown last year, featuring Jeremy Renner as a mayor in Michigan fighting organized crime, and in November, we will see Tulsa King, a series featuring Sylvester Stallone in his first major television role. I don’t know where he gets his energy, but I’d sure like to have the creative motivation that Taylor Sheridan does. Older seasons of Yellowstone are available to stream on Peacock (due to a contract arrangement before Paramount launched its streaming service), but the rest of Sheridan’s shows are available on Paramount+.
A Classic British Spy Story – Slow Horses
If you are like me and you are thinking of diving into a new show, you might see how many episodes you need to commit to, and take a pause before you decide to try it. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll gladly give up on something if it really goes off the rails (I had to bail on Inventing Anna – we just found the main characters way too annoying), but I’m usually a completist. Sometimes a show will get better the longer it goes on and sometimes it will tail off (the recent FX/Hulu show The Old Man with Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow started with so much promise, but devolved into a slog to the finish line). Or you jump into a new show, fall in love with it, and find out the network pulled the plug before the next season. I’m happy to share that my next recommendation has none of those problems.
Slow Horses is a nice crisp six episode run about a group of former British MI-5 spies who flamed out, and have been relegated to Slough House, the MI-5 equivalent of getting sent to Siberia, performing mundane tasks. They are nicknamed Slow Horses and are suddenly pulled into a real case when the nephew of a prominent politician is kidnapped and they jump in to help solve the case. The group of Slow Horse misfits is led by Gary Oldman, who is having way too much fun as the cranky old guy among the younger group he supervises. He frequently goes toe-to-toe with a high-ranked official within MI-5, played by Kristin Scott-Thomas. Slow Horses is a fun series that will keep you guessing and the incredible opening sequence in the pilot episode will rope you in immediately. The best part about the series is that each season is based on a stand-alone novel and the second season has already been filmed. Apple recently announced a renewal for two more seasons and the showrunner has said he will keep making seasons as long as Oldman would like to. So, there you go – great show, small number of episodes, and three more seasons on deck. Slow Horses is available to stream on Apple TV+
Something A Little Lighter – Only Murders in the Building
If hard-nosed British spies chasing terrorists aren’t your thing, you could do a lot worse than this delightful comedy that premiered in 2021 and recently wrapped up its second season. Legendary comedians Steve Martin and Martin Short star as long-time friends who have passed their heyday in the entertainment industry (Martin as the star of a procedural television show and Short as a theater director). They live in a New York apartment building that is thrown into turmoil when one of the tenants is murdered. They meet up with a young woman (Selena Gomez) and decide to partner up to try to solve the murder, while simultaneously recording a podcast about their adventure, since true-crime podcasts are all the rage now.
Only Murders in the Building is a nice little sitcom that has some great comedic bits among the three leads, along with the usual twists and turns from a mystery show. There is a decent group of supporting actors, with Tina Fey probably the best of the lot, but a few (Michael Rappaport and Jane Lynch), who I am not a fan of, but they don’t detract from the quality of the show. What makes this show work so well is the chemistry among Martin, Short, and Gomez, which was on display during the Emmy telecast. For the love of God, someone please get them to host the Oscars next year. During Only Murders, they play off each other so well, moving between helping each other and busting each other’s chops with very good comedic delivery. I was particularly impressed with Gomez doing so well performing alongside acting legends, and I love the fact that she is also an Executive Producer on the show along with her co-stars. Recognizing that she is not a newcomer to the entertainment industry, she is still 40 years younger than these acting legends, so it probably took some time to get used to squaring off with them in a comedy setting. For a light alternative to some of the dramas I recommended, Only Murders in the Building is available to stream on Hulu.
An Overlooked Masterpiece – Pachinko
Back in the days when we only had three networks and a handful of cable channels, it was hard to miss the sweeping epic television shows that were based on beloved novels. You could go back to the 1970s with Roots, the 1980s with Lonesome Dove, all the way up through Band of Brothers in 2001 to remember the “can’t miss” shows. But with the avalanche of series coming to streaming services every week, it’s easy to miss even the highest quality programs. When I first read about Pachinko, I thought this would be a no-brainer success story. Nope, I was wrong.
Pachinko was directed by Koganda (who wrote and directed one of my favorite movies this year) and Justin Chon and is based on a 2017 historical-fiction novel that was a New York Times bestseller and critical darling. The story centers around a Korean family that emigrated to Japan and spans the 1910s to the 1980s over multiple generations. The series moves among different decades with the focus on Sunja, played by Kim Min-ha as a teenager and Oscar winner Youn Yuh-jung as a grandmother, in two outstanding performances. The series explores many themes including immigration, gender stereotypes during the early 20th century, the classist structure of Korea and Japan, and (most effectively) family. Pachinko is, to put it simply, beautiful.
I don’t know why Pachinko didn’t catch on, but there was very little buzz about it and it was only nominated for one Emmy. It could have been the lack of star power at the top of the series, or the barrier of subtitles, with much of the series in Korean and Japanese. I think Pachinko was simply lost in the flood of shows that premiered in the spring, ahead of the Emmy deadline, as well as the relatively low number of subscribers to Apple TV+. Now, if you love sweeping epic period piece stories about family that will feature both love and heartbreak, I highly recommend Pachinko. Apparently the novel includes much more material than was featured in the series, and there will be future seasons, which I’m looking forward to seeing. One more thing – Pachinko featured the best opening title sequence of any show I saw this year (and that was its only Emmy nomination…..sigh). Anyway, you can check out that sequence here. Pachinko is available to stream on Apple TV+.
The Making of a Classic – The Offer
There are some properties in Hollywood history that should never be touched. No one is going to be looking to remake E.T. or Jaws (two movies that I had the pleasure of seeing on an IMAX screen this summer with my sister. Boy was that a blast, but I tell you, that scene in Jaws when Hooper finds Ben Gardner’s head in his boat scares the sh*t out of me every…..single…..time.) But, I digress. Another example of a property that should never be touched is The Godfather. The 1972 film and its sequel (both of which I was fortunate to catch on the big screen this year) are considered among the best movies in history. The third one, well, we don’t need to dwell on that one. Now, don’t get mistaken here – no one has remade The Godfather, but Paramount Pictures decided to leverage its ownership of the Godfather “property” by making a limited series about how the film was made. The Offer premiered earlier this year and overall I found it to be very good, with a few minor quibbles.
As a movie junkie who loves the business side of the industry and the gossip surrounding the making of movies, this was like catnip for me. The story of the making of The Godfather is one of the legendary “behind the scenes” stories in Hollywood history, especially considering how well the movie did, both commercially and critically. It was based on a hot novel, written by Mario Puzo, quickly optioned for a motion picture, with producer Al Ruddy (played by Miles Teller, recently seen in Top Gun: Maverick) championing the cause. Of all of the people who were involved in The Godfather, Ruddy is probably the least known, but he was actually the winner of the Best Picture Oscar, since he was the producer. He would also win an Oscar for producing Million Dollar Baby in 2004. Francis Ford Coppola didn’t win Best Director that year (he lost to Bob Fosse for Cabaret), but Coppola and Puzo did pick up Oscars for Best Screenplay.
The source material listed in the credits for The Offer is “based on Al Ruddy’s experience making The Godfather,” which is kind of strange. Not a book, or even a podcast. Just Al Ruddy (who is 92, by the way), waxing poetic about getting the movie made, I guess. We get all of the drama that occurred to get the movie made, particularly Ruddy’s battle with Robert Evans (the head of Paramount Pictures, played by Matthew Goode in an outstanding performance) and the suits at Paramount’s corporate parent company weighing in on everything from the budget to casting decisions. I think Teller did a nice job playing Ruddy, whose assistant is played by Juno Temple (from Ted Lasso), in a very good performance. Most of the cast is pretty good, with the characters we know so well (Coppola, Brando, and Pacino) bordering somewhere between serviceable and parody, but not too bad.
The smart decision made by the producers was what they did while famous scenes were being shot, like Michael’s wife dying in Sicily, the restaurant ambush of Sollozzo and McCluskey by Michael, and Sonny beating up Carlo in the street. They didn’t show us the actors recreating the scenes – instead, they showed us the crew reacting to the scene playing out. Very smart move because we didn’t have to worry about comparing the actual scene to the original movie. A bad move (and my one quibble)? Including a ridiculous (albeit true) subplot about the pressure Ruddy got from the mafia and Frank Sinatra to kill the movie. Yes, it happened, but it played way too big of a part in the series, especially an ill-conceived performance by Giovanni Ribisi as the crime boss who became friends with Ruddy. Maybe the series creators felt they needed to include some organized crime content for fans of the original movie. Overall, there was a lot to like about The Offer, especially if you are a fan of The Godfather and like “behind the scenes” stories. If you are a real junkie for this topic, I highly recommend reading Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli by Mark Seal. The Offer is available to stream on Paramount+.
The Best (Dark) Comedy on Television – Barry
Just like the next series I will cover, Barry was a show that I’ve always had on my long list of shows that I should someday check out. It has received strong critical reviews, has been picking up Emmys the last few years and featured a highly talented writer and actor (Bill Hader) at the top of the show. When I started hearing about the third season premiering in April, I decided to dive in and catch up on the first two seasons. Just like the shows I started this week’s post with, Barry is another HBO Max show with only eight episodes in each season, and the episode length is about 30 minutes. And once you dive into the first episode, I’d be surprised if you aren’t immediately drawn in to continue. Well, I guess it depends on your sense of humor.
Hader stars as the title character, a contract assassin suffering from PTSD after serving in Afghanistan. Even though he is very good at this job, he is starting to burn out, wondering if he should get out of the game. Can’t we all relate to burning out at a job? Well, maybe not THIS kind of job. Anyway, while in Los Angeles to kill someone on behalf of a Chechen mob boss, he finds his target at an acting class. And there is where Barry finds his calling – he wants to pursue acting and the classes are taught by Gene Cousineau, a former actor who has seemingly pissed off everyone in Hollywood during his career, played by Henry Winkler. That’s right – the man who made the Fonz a household name in the 1970s is teaching a contract killer how to act, and he is absolutely brilliant in the series.
Hader is the co-creator of Barry and has also written and directed a number of the episodes. That’s in addition to being the lead and featured in every episode. I had some admiration for Hader’s talents over the years, particularly Saturday Night Live and movies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but having devoured Barry over the last several months, I am convinced he is an absolute genius. The vision for the show that Hader has developed is very creative. He’s willing to take bold chances with the storylines, painting himself into corners with the characters, and then figuring out how to get out of them. It reminds me of Breaking Bad in that sense.
The writing on Barry is phenomenal, featuring some dry comedy and some of it pretty dark, so it might not be for everyone. What else can you expect when your main character is a hired assassin trying to convince the terrorists he works for that he wants to get out of the business? Other highlights in the show are Stephen Root (who you have seen in a ton of shows and movies) as Barry’s handler, Sarah Goldberg, a revelation as Barry’s fellow aspiring actor and love interest, and Anthony Carrigan as NoHo Hank, a mafia member unlike any we’ve ever seen on screen. If you enjoy Barry and want to learn more about it, check out The Prestige TV podcast on Spotify, where Hader was interviewed by Sean Fennessey of The Ringer about each episode of the third season. His insights about the writing and directing process were very interesting. Barry is available to stream on HBO Max.
Goddamn It, They Did It Again – Better Call Saul
It would be insulting to use the phrase “lightning strikes twice” in describing the absolute genius work that Vince Gilligan and his team of writers created over the last fifteen years, because that would imply it was blind luck. No, this was the best talent delivering compelling stories set in the “Heisenberg-Universe” that began with Breaking Bad in 2008 and concluded with Better Call Saul, which aired its series finale a few weeks ago. Like most people who were fans of Breaking Bad, I was hooked from the beginning, eagerly anticipating each new episode, wondering where Gilligan would take the storyline next. Each season seemed to ratchet up the tension, and it felt like the writing team thrived with painting themselves into a corner, only to creatively find their way out the following season. The fifth and final season of Breaking Bad was phenomenal television, as it demonstrated a rarity in serialized television – getting better with each season. Most shows sputter at the end, which is what I felt happened with the recent last season of Ozark, which (let’s face it), was kind of a Breaking Bad rip-off. Don’t get me wrong – the actors were fantastic (especially Jason Bateman and Julia Garner), but I think the story just got too stale at the end. Not the case with Breaking Bad, or with Better Call Saul.
Now, I am not usually a binge-watcher. I like to savor a show over many weeks, which is why I prefer the HBO model of releasing an episode each week, to the Netflix model of dropping all the episodes at once. Despite my love of Breaking Bad, I didn’t watch Better Call Saul from the beginning, probably because I was up to my eyeballs in work when it premiered in 2015. And once I missed the boat the first few years, I never went back to catch up. That changed this past spring, when I kept reading about the high anticipation for the final season and boy I am glad I changed my mind. I devoured the first five seasons over a few months in time to catch up for this sixth and final season.
Now, if you don’t know the background, the series is a prequel to Breaking Bad, focused on Saul Goodman (played by Bob Odenkirk), who was Walter White’s attorney in the last few seasons of Breaking Bad. We go back in time to see how Saul got started as a lawyer (and learn his real name – Jimmy McGill) and follow the events of his tumultuous life and career up to the events at the beginning of Breaking Bad. Now, you might think that knowing what happens to the main characters in Breaking Bad would make a prequel series a little underwhelming. For instance, there might not be drama with a character’s life in jeopardy if you know he appears in the latter series. That didn’t seem to matter to me, because the construction of the episodes allowed us to see HOW everything came together in Jimmy’s world, not just who lived or died. Gilligan and his team of writers also made the smart decision to include a story timeline set after the events of Breaking Bad, so we get to experience some closure with Jimmy’s full story.
It’s not surprising that in addition to Odenkirk, two of the most impressive actors in the series were also reprising their roles from Breaking Bad – Giancarlo Esposito (as drug kingpin / chicken restaurant entrepreneur Gus Fring) and Jonathan Banks (as security expert Mike Ehrmantraut), but the true revelation in the series was Rhea Seehorn as Kim Wexler, an attorney in her own right and Jimmy’s love interest. Seehorn was outstanding portraying her character arc over the six seasons as someone who is clearly troubled by the conflicting emotions of love she feels for Jimmy with the realization that he continues to make bad decisions that puts their lives and careers in jeopardy and she just doesn’t know how to quit him. If you’ve never experienced the world created by Vince Gilligan (who has said he is done with this universe and wants to do something different – a wise decision in my opinion), I highly recommend starting with Breaking Bad, then going back to watch Better Call Saul. It’s fun to see little kernels and hints at the future that the writers plant throughout the episodes as a nod to what’s to come in Breaking Bad. And take your time working through the series – savor it like a fine meal and enjoy one of the best one-two punch series we will likely see in our lifetimes. Better Call Saul is streaming on Netflix, except for the most recent season, which is available to rent on demand.
That’s all for this week. I hope you enjoyed my two part look at the best of television over the past year. If you made it through this (barely under 5,000 word) post, thanks for hanging in there. I’ll be back next week to share a preview of movies headed our way this fall. Despite a strong year so far, the next few months are when the studios showcase some of their most anticipated films ahead of the award race sprint at the end of the year. Thanks for reading and if you’d like to be notified of future posts, you can subscribe here.