Glory Days

I was thinking yesterday, after I finished the final episode of “Penny Dreadful”, that you can separate the content that passes across our screen into “Me Shows”, “She Shows” and “We Shows”. I suspect others might be able to identify with that and thought I’d take a shot at writing it up.

These won’t be exhaustive lists – just the stuff that’s made strong impressions over the course of the last few years.

ME SHOWS

This is my bread-and-butter stuff – my TV Happy Place. I didn’t put “Penny Dreadful” here because I’ve already posted way too much about it over the course of the last week. Here’s a fuller list:

• The Witcher: After an average 1st season, I fell in love with this one and I’ll always be thankful to Henry Cavill for bringing such a superb TV interpretation of one of my top 3 video games to the screen. I only hope he does as well with the upcoming Warhammer: 40K serialization.
• The Wheel of Time: These books were a presence in about 20 of my 60+ years and, while the story was unduly extended, I still loved almost every one of the 14 titles in this series. Again, after an average 1st season, this one REALLY found its stride. The 2nd season was amazing and I’m thankful for the way the show runners are compressing a huge, complex story while remaining loyal to the source material. I’d recommend this to anyone – whether you’ve read the books or not.
• Tulsa King: I wasn’t a huge fan of Sylvester Stallone, but this one has turned me around. The whole concept of an old-fashioned, Italian Mafia boss exiled to Tulsa OK to organize the town was nuts – in a really entertaining way. I was hooked after 1 episode and have been eagerly awaiting the 2nd. The only reason I haven’t started is because I felt compelled to get through “PD”.
• Star Trek (Picard, Discovery, Strange New Worlds) – I haven’t really watched any Star Trek content since TNG, but these 3 shows sucked me back in – HARD. All 3 are superbly done and well worth the time.
• Shogun: I lived and worked in Japan for 7 years and I can’t help but think that the impression left by this book was one of the things that got me there. I’ve read it several times, thought the previous interpretation was average and had my reservations about this new version. Dopey me – this was one of the best viewing experiences I’ve had in a while. It should appeal to everyone, and I would STRONGLY recommend it.
• The Brothers Sun: Punched up the 1st episode on a lark – I’ll watch ANYTHING with Michelle Yeoh – and was instantly hooked. It’s a weird and wildly entertaining show – fun from beginning to end.
• Star Wars – Andor & The Mandalorian: I had pretty much given up on the Star Wars Franchise – one mediocre movie after another (with the possible exception of “Rogue One”). These two shows forced a 180 for me. I spent a one-week Covid quarantine burning through the first two seasons of Mandalorian and the 1st season of Andor. These two shows rescued a franchise that, for me, had become eminently ignorable.

SHE SHOWS

These are the shows that delight my wife, and they usually become mother – daughter treasures. While I don’t watch them – I enjoy the fact that they have these shared TV loves – they’re extremely well-written, totally engaging programs and I do have a confession to make. I may retreat to the away room (Star Trek reference) when my stepdaughter is in town and they pull up one of these favorites, but it doesn’t mean I’m not watching out of the corner of my eye. I actually really enjoy “Emily”, and I keep reminding my wife that a new season has dropped.

WE SHOWS

After dinner, we often wind up on the couch and enjoy and hour or two of “stories” before the books come out and we get a little reading in. These are the shows where we almost feel like the characters are family and friends and we find ourselves a little sad when a new season ends or when a story concludes. They also have a way of sneaking into our shared language and serve as a reference for emotions or a shorthand for a thought from time to time (Be a goldfish, Soccer is life). They’re that good!! If we were forced to choose 3 shows to watch for the rest of our days, it would be the three above.

• The West Wing: The GOAT – nothing about this show we didn’t love, and we find ourselves pulling specific, memorable moments off YouTube and watching them over and over again.
• Ted Lasso: Does everyone remember just how badly we needed this show during the Pandemic. Jason Sudeikis gave the entire country a precious gift with this show, and I’ll always be thankful to the whole cast and crew for bringing it to life.
• All Creatures Great & Small: Many of you have read and enjoyed these books. Many of you have probably watched prior TV versions. If you haven’t seen this one, put it on TONIGHT. We call this “Milk & Cookies” TV because we just can’t imagine anyone not feeling better about the world or their life after watching an episode. It makes you wish you were living in their world.
• Downton Abbey: Something about English period pieces that, when well done, I almost always fall in love with and there’s no better example of this than Downton Abbey. We were hesitant to try this but, once we did, there was no going back. We loved every minute of every episode.
• Lucifer: Talk about a show that surprised us – turned it on one night when we had nothing to watch, and we burned through it. These characters are way too endearing and there are just way too many funny moments.
• The House of The Dragon: This is not my wife’s normal fare, and I almost lost her once or twice during the 1st season. I fell in love with it and one of the many ways I knew I was watching a great program was the fact that my wife wound up really enjoying it as well.
• The Crown: Loved it from beginning to end – the beginning more than the end – but still – exceptional straight through.
• For All Mankind: As much as I detest Elon Musk (owned a Tesla in the early days and loved it but would NEVER be seen in one again), I do share his passion for seeing man move off this earth and finding a way to live on the Moon and Mars. This show wonderfully visualized how that journey might have / could still happen.
• Lessons In Chemistry: As poor a choice as Brie Larson was to play Captain Marvel (one of several bad decisions that condemned the MCU to irrelevance for a Phase), she was a marvelous choice to play Elizabeth Zott. They did a wonderful job bringing this book to television.
• Billions: There are no “good guys” in this show but there are plenty of amazing, memorable characters. Definitely worth a try for anyone who hasn’t seen it.
• The Lincoln Lawyer: Really hard not to fall in love with this one and it’s impossible not to cheer for Mickey Haller as he works to get his life back on track.
• The Gentlemen: We enjoyed the movie of the same title starring Matthew McConaughey. This show was a spin-off created by Guy Ritchie, and if you liked the movie, I think you’re going to LOVE the TV show. We were hooked from the 1st episode and loved every minute.
• Madam Secretary: I confess – I kind of have a “thing” for Tea Leone and I thought she was wonderful as Elizabeth McCord (the fact that we both really enjoyed this show reassures me that I wasn’t watching just because of Tea). I also really like her fictional / real life husband Tim Daly as Henry McCord – they had an awesome chemistry on screen that made the show special. You come for the high stakes’ diplomacy, but you stay for the simpler moments that revolve around the challenge of managing a relationship and raising children as a high-profile public figure. I also really respected the fact that every episode tried to educate American viewers, just a bit, about the complexity of the world we live in and the role the U.S. plays – most days – in making it as safe a place as possible.
• Odds and Bits: Here’s a bunch of others that we really enjoyed, and think are worth a watch: Shrinking, Bad Monkey, The Morning Show, Reacher, The Old Man, The Diplomat, Suits.

Cheers