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Minx reportedly moving to Starz after it was canceled and removed from HBO Max

Minx was a show I called out as liking but which was canceled last year. Rumor is now that it will be coming to Starz with Season 2 (which had already been shot when HBO Max canceled it.)

The Recruit - 1 out of 5

Was checking out The Recruit on Netflix and have immediately ejected a few minutes into episode 4 because it involves a B-plot regarding a CIA developed AI-driven torture robot used for interrogation which, in testing, ripped an agent's arm off.

Just, the most confoundingly dumb and absolutely enraging plot line for the show to suddenly introduce. Up to this point, the show had been largely technologically grounded. I cannot tell you the last time a show I've watched took such an absurd hard turn in it.

From "Noël" episode of The West Wing

A beautiful story, and one of my favorite moments from The West Wing. It's told by Leo McGarry (the President's chief of staff) to Josh Lyman, who works for him. Josh is suffering from PTSD and has just been officially diagnosed after a particularly difficult week. It's a story about friendship and dealing with trauma.

This guy's walking down a street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep, he can't get out. A doctor passes by, and the guy shouts up, "Hey you, can you help me out?" The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on. Then a priest comes along, and the guy shouts up "Father, I'm down in this hole, can you help me out?" The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on. Then a friend walks by. "Hey Joe, it's me, can you help me out?" And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, "Are you stupid? Now we're both down here." The friend says, "Yeah, but I've been down here before, and I know the way out."

Richard Schiff was amazing as Toby

Rewatching The West Wing for the thousandth time and I am constantly reminded how much I love Schiff in his portrayal of Toby.

I just want a dumb TV

Katie and I have had a flat screen TV which we bought shortly after moving to Seattle, a bit over ten years ago. I snagged it as a really good deal from Sam's Club and, overall, it has been fantastic except for one thing. For much of the past ten years, it has had an annoying issue where, randomly, it pop up on screen and say a new connection has been detected and ask if we want to switch to it. This should be a handy feature, right? Except, it's not. We aren't making a new connection. It is detecting ghost signals. Nothing is plugged into the port it believes have a new connection.

As it turns out - this is a known issue when I search the model online and no one has found a solution. So, we just have gotten used to it as a minor annoyance and inconvenience.

However, while we have come to be used to it, I am also embarrassed by it when we have friends over. Like if my car were to keep randomly backfiring while I was giving a friend a ride. They're my friends, they aren't judging me economically or in any way by the TV's annoying interstitial screen, but still... I hate it.

So, with some Christmas money burning a hole in my pocket, I have decided it's time we replace this TV.

But, now I am faced with a new growing frustration: finding a reliable & high quality dumb TV. That is, one which doesn't have its own Internet connection and report the hours I binge and threaten to show me even more ads. As it turns out, these are not prolific in the market.

It is the sad state of the world that TV companies have realized they can derive even more revenue by doing this. In my searches the only "dumb" TV I could find which fit my price range and size specs was from the "Sceptre" brand which is reviewed poorly online.

I could go to Craigslist or FB marketplace, but I fear scammers and buying a bad TV and having no recourse to recoup my money.

Ultimately, I have conceded defeat: finding a new dumb TV is a losing battle. I've accepted that we'll be getting some sort of smart TV, and that I'll simply not use its built in features and I'll leave it offline. This ensures that it can't be fed new ads or share usage data, etc.

Or does it? I fear about the next step for these devices, which would be the now nearly omnipresent Xfinity wifi. What if the manufacturer has worked out a deal that it can always reliably connect to Xfinity regardless of whether I initiate it or not? The discussions I've seen online don't seem to have anyone confirming this sort of thing happening, but it isn't a major leap to guess that it could arrive one day.

I guess we'll cross that bridge when it arrives. But this is an area, like right to repair, I wish we'd get some real champions in Congress and the Senate to push legislation which protects consumers and pushes back on the corporations.

SAS Rogue Heroes - 3 out of 5 cups of tea

Yesterday we binged this show, it's only six episodes long. My mother-in-law had heard about it, and as she loves World War II media and had read the book it was based on. It's a production of the BBC, and it tells a fictionalized adaptation of the birth of the SAS during World War II.

Overall I enjoyed it, the music has a lot of classic rock, making it feel much more modern at times than a period history piece. It isn't must-watch TV, but it kept us engaged through the six episodes.

"Everything You've Ever Wanted To Know About 'Ghostwriter'"

Ghostwriter occupied a fascinating middle space for me as a kid. In some ways I was the perfect target for it, but also, in truth, I was on the upper range of their target age, and also at that time I had access to a computer at home and was already well versed in it, so the main hooks of the show were just slightly off target for me.

That said, I found this background absolutely fascinating. To hear that it was originally supposed to be about being a show which followed Sesame Street in reaching children, and how it was a show designed to show text - from that central concept the rest of the show was developed.

And, above all, the realization that Ghostwriter's lore is that they were a ghost of an escaped slave, is mind blowing and makes me want to delve back into the show.

My 2022 TV Shows

So I sat down to try and compile a list of the TV shows I've watched this year. Doing this really put into perspective how much TV I consumed this year and I'm not sure I'm okay with it. But that's for me to figure out.

Where relevant, I split them into "New" shows and "Returning" shows. I use 'returning' that this year wasn't the show's first season.

Eager For Next Season, Will Absolutely Watch

These are shows I loved. I regard them as must watch and will likely watch them episode by episode as released.

New

• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Paramount+) - I loved this series and cannot wait for the next series. My new favorite Star Trek series ever.
• The Bear (FX / Hulu) - Loved this show. I expected to, as I loved Jeremy Allen White in Shameless.
• Rings of Power (Amazon) - I love Middle Earth and can't wait to see next season.
• Welcome to Wrexham (Hulu) - Soccer reality show? I'm in.
• Andor (Disney+) - Probably my favorite overall show of the year, it revitalized my love for Star Wars a lot.

Returning

• Ted Lasso (Apple TV) - He's so gosh darned charming, how can I not?
• Survivor (CBS / Paramount+) - I've watched so many seasons of this show and they keep me coming back.
• What We Do In The Shadows (Hulu) - God I love this show, my favorite comedy on TV.
• Reservation Dogs (Hulu) - I'm actually behind on this show, and once I finish my current catch up on Industry, I'll be turning my focus to this.
• Ghosts (CBS / Paramount+) - Surprised at how well this comedy has carried on but definitely will continue watching it.

Will Watch Next Season Eventually

One thing that is notable here is that the streaming reality where binging the show is feasible, and in many ways a lower level of commitment. This means a number of these shows are ones I'd probably bounce off of, but they survive to get more viewership because of the model.

New

• Severance (Apple+) - It's good TV, but it also isn't must-watch for me.
• The Sandman (Netflix) - It was entertaining, but it also fills a niche that is already well covered for me, so I'm not starved for it.
• She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (Disney+) - Entertained but also, not something I must watch
• House of the Dragon (HBO Max) - I have a love/hate relationship with Game of Thrones. I will watch it, but I don't regard it as must-see.
• Wheel of Time (Amazon) - I haven't read the series, so I went into it with a fresh perspective. I enjoyed it overall but the pacing definitely felt uneven.
• Reacher (Amazon) - Not much to say here, I don't think the show is amazing, but it scratched an itch for me in the procedural mystery sort of genre.
• Winning Time (HBO Max) - I didn't expect to love this show as much as I did! But John C. Reilly and the whole cast just did fantastic.

Returning

• Industry (HBO Max) - As mentioned above, I'm in the midst of binging season 2 of this show now.
• Yellowstone (It's... complicated) - Katie turned me onto the show and now I'm hooked.
• Star Trek: The Lower Decks (Paramount+) - Animated comedy Star Trek, it isn't perfect but overall I enjoy it.
• For All Mankind (Apple TV) - I loved the first season but faded for the following seasons. I'm still not done with the series. I will eventually, just not yet.

Probably Off This Show

Not planning to watch anymore. I might, but I don't expect it.

New

• Our Flag Means Death (HBO Max) - It's a good show, but the humor just isn't for me. No hate from me.
• The Peripheral (Amazon) - Anything based on work by Gibson gets a shot from me. I watched the entire first season and found it very formulaic and underwhelming.

Returning

• Cobra Kai (Netflix) - The first season or two were great and since then it's been going downhill for me. I tried the most recent season and dropped off.
• The Flight Attendant (HBO Max) - Finally delved into this show this year and binged the two seasons. It was popcorn quality content but I don't have a strong drive to dive into it again.

Liked but Ended

Liked the shows but they've ended their run.

• Better Call Saul (AMC) - Truly fantastic television, I'm sorry the series is over.
• The Offer (Paramount+) - Really enjoyed this dramatization behind the Godfather. Same with the League of Their Own below, where it wasn't canceled so much as it was made to be a single season project.
• A League of Their Own (Amazon Prime) - A remake of the concept based on the movie, it adapted and revealed a more queer and POC based story. Also, unfair to say it was canceled, more that it was a single-season project.

Liked but Canceled

RIP. I wanted to split these out since their future has been decided.

• Minx (HBO Max) - I quite enjoyed this show, but sadly they killed it while they were filming season 2.

Canceled and Okay With It

No tears were shed.

• The Man Who Fell to Earth (Showtime) - I expected to love the series but it fell flat for me.

Edit: I've added 'Ted Lasso' and 'Winning Time' to the rankings.

Edit 2: Added 'The Flight Attendant' and 'Better Call Saul,' also forced me to split "Liked but Canceled" from "Liked but Ended."

Krampus on SNL was good

Weekend Update remains my favorite part of SNL every episode, and this week's with Krampus was excellent. Bowen Yang remains one of the current cast's most strong performers.

Q.I.

The BBC comedy / information show is only available for streaming in the US on Tubi. And, more infuriatingly, it apparently only works in browser. I got errors when I tried it in the Android app and on Roku. I've contacted customer support, but who knows.

I would love to see this show made in the US, though I suspect the reason it hasn't been is that the US doesn't have the panel show appreciation. Maybe, one day.

"Can’t Hear What Actors Are Saying on TV? It’s Not You, Probably"

Muddled audio is the top reason why more people are watching video with on-screen text, according to a May survey commissioned by language-teaching app Preply. As more video-production studios embrace advanced audio formats for at-home content, not every device can keep up. Plenty of viewers can't keep up, either. 

"If you have people talking or shouting during the adventure scenes, the explode-y sounds are way higher than the dialogue," said Melanie Brooks, a 43-year-old professional musician in Boston. Catching some of the lines in her favorite fantasy and adventure TV series is hard without captions, she added. 

Ted Lasso writing to Jordan Morris is NOT something I knew I needed today

Jordan Morris is a Seattle native, who plays for the Seattle Sounders, and who has overcome two ACL tears such that he is about to play in his first-ever World Cup for the US team.

'#GimmeSomeMorris' is a new hashtag I will be using regularly.

In recognition of it being the end of Friday

Andor, Season 1, Episodes 1-3

I love it. All of it.

"British TV's spin-the-wheel contest for energy bills axed, mocked by Russia"

Because it is...

What I'm Watching - Aug. 27

For All Mankind (2019)

AppleTV+ - I started this last week and burned through season 1. I'm in Season 2 but my viewing has slowed down. I'm enjoying the show, but I just haven't had the opportunity to continue bingeing it.

What We Do in the Shadows (2019)

FX - Currently my favorite sitcom. It's an amazing and amazingly smart for how stupid it is. Which is basically my perfect description for a comedy.

House of the Dragon (2022)

HBO - The new Game of Thrones show was always on my list to watch. I had a very turbulent relationship with the original show, but I'm watching this to see what different show runners do with it, and with the new story.

Welcome to Wrexham (2022)

Hulu - Just started it today and watched the first two episodes. It's an interesting look but so far I'm not hooked.

And, of course, the biggest show I'm looking forward to but which hasn't arrived yet: Rings of Power, which looks to be coming out Sept. 1 (Thursday.) Dear lord, please be good.

For All Mankind (2019) - 5 of 5 Lunas

Just finished Season 1 of the show. When I tweeted that I was watching it, a friend of mine replied as follows:

Overall, I loved the first season. It wasn't perfect and I have my gripes, but I heartily recommend it to others to check it out.

Streaming killed the TV star, as viewership share surpasses television for first time ever

From The Sandman on Netflix

"Even a nightmare can dream" - Gault

Spoilers - Better Call Saul Finale

Going to be honest. I didn't love the finale of Better Call Saul. I didn't hate it. But it left me feeling earnestly meh. He got to redeem himself, I'm happy for him but honestly he didn't deserve it.

The "Texas Switch"

This tweet points out something I completely missed while watching the episode, and I am delighted.