My Top Ten Films of 1964

This is part of my continuing series looking back on films from the years before I began this blog. The ten films below are unranked and listed in no particular order. Enjoy.

Mary Poppins - A clever mix of special effects extravaganza, musical romp, and Julie Andrews showcase that is so charming, even Dick van Dyke's ridiculous accent can't make a dent in its enjoyability. The songs are endlessly singable, the effects work still eye-popping, and the performances of Andrews and David Tomlinson are still terribly heartwarming to this day. Nostalgia plays a large part in the film's placement on this list, but it's nostalgia that's been well earned.

The Woman in the Dunes - One of those psychological thrillers that offers such a singular, strange experience that it's difficult to make comparisons to anything else. Hiroshi Teshigahara's surrealist style emphasizes the psychological effects of lengthy confinement on the protagonist, making great use of the desert environment. Experimental film aesthetics, including a discordant score and gorgeous abstract imagery, add to the bizarre, haunting nature of the prisoner's dilemma.

My Fair Lady - I know the leading role was supposed to be played by Julie Andrews, and Audrey Hepburn had to have her singing dubbed, but I honestly can't imagine anyone else as Eliza Dolittle. Hepburn has never gotten enough credit for her comedic skills, and she's a big reason why the first half of the film is so much more fun than the second. Sure, Rex Harrison makes a magnificent ass, but it's all about Eliza and her transformation from ungainly Cockney duckling into resplendent swan.

A Hard Day's Night - I've been watching a lot of Richard Lester films recently, and what always impresses me about them is their boundless energy. He turns the first Beatles movie into a lighthearted romp full of youthful chaos, built on little more than a basic pseudo-documentary premise. There's a spontaneity to the filmmaking that makes the random encounters and little moments of humor feel so alive and fresh. None of the subsequent Beatles films ever managed to duplicate it.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb - Stanley Kubick made the blackest of black comedies about the nuclear arms race, driving home the madness of the conflict far more effectively than the straight dramas on the subject, like "Fail Safe." A lot of the heavy lifting is done by a delightfully grotesque George C. Scott and Peter Sellers, delivering not just one, but three performances, but Kubrick's stamp on the material is undeniable - and indispensable.

A Fistful of Dollars - The first installment of Sergio Leone's "Dollars" trilogy really is just "Yojimbo" in the old west, but Clint Eastwood makes the Man With No Name fully his own character, and the stark spaghetti western style is unmistakably Leone. Its simplicity is part of its success, the reduction of the story and the characters down to their absolute essentials. Eastwood's stranger doesn't need a back story, a motivation, or even a name to be a compelling antihero. Just a hat and a gun.

Marriage Italian Style - In the '60s, Vittorio DeSica had gone from making heartrending Neorealist films to broader comedies. Here, he pairs Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni in a battle of the sexes, both playing desperate characters of ill repute locked in a heated battle over love and marriage. It thumbs its nose at conventional morality, and gently mocks social norms, but is very pro-family in the end. Loren in particular is a scene-stealer, playing the heroine at three very different ages.

The Pawnbroker - One of Sidney Lumet's most challenging films is a small, intense character study of a concentration camp survivor played by Rod Steiger. It was notable at the time of release for going up against the Production Code and winning, but its continued effectiveness has everything to do with Steiger's committed performance. Though lauded for being one of the first films to dramatize the Holocaust, it's the examination of the long-term consequences that really cuts deep.

Red Desert - My favorite Michaelangelo Antonioni film puts Monica Vitti in the surreal expanse of a quickly urbanizing town and simply watches her wander and explore. In Antonioni films, the environment is the story, and the gray world of "Red Desert," occasionally punctuated by meaningful appearances of color, is an easy one to get lost in. The resulting film is a curious, impressionistic, allegorical narrative about the relationship between man and the modern world.

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg - Possibly the greatest French musical ever made, and Jacques Demy's most popular work. Unlike in most Hollywood musicals, there's a tragic finale to the love story that seems determined to leave the audience in tears. The music, by Demy's longtime collaborator Michel Legrande, is unforgettable, the colorful production design indelible, and the performance by Catherine Deneuve nothing less than iconic. It's a beautiful piece of cinema on every level.
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The Emmy Blues

The Emmys are upon us once again, and for another year, I'm staring at a list of nominees that I haven't watched.  Out of the entire Outstanding Comedy Series list of eight nominees, I've only seen "The Good Place."  In the Outstanding Limited Series, I've only seen "Watchmen."  Outstanding Drama Series, as usual, is the only category where I've seen a good amount of the titles - "The Crown," "Killing Eve," "The Mandalorian," and "Stranger Things," but honestly I'm pretty sure that at least two of those don't deserve to be there.  Oh, and I gave up on "The Handmaid's Tale" after last season, having had enough of their narrative stalling tactics.    

I've kept up enough with the general industry chatter to at least have heard of most of the others, though I admit that I had to look up "Unorthodox."  Netflix really does not do enough marketing.  But this is such a change for me from last year, when I'd seen episodes of five of the seven Outstanding Comedy nominees, and three of the five Outstanding Limited Series nominees.  What's worse, I keep looking over the unseen nominees this year, and finding myself having very little interest in seeking any of them out.  I don't know if it's the pandemic and the political situation dampening the usual awards buzz, or if the pool of eligible stuff is just shallower this year, but I can't work up the enthusiasm to check out any of the unfamiliar new programs, or follow any of the races.  I'm not even all that mad about the big snubs, like "Mr. Robot" somehow not getting anything for its excellent final season. 

I feel like I've been fighting a losing battle the last few years, trying to keep on top of the Emmys. Part of it is due to having to juggle access to so many new platforms and services in order to see these shows.  Part of it is being a genre fan at heart whose tastes just don't match up with the Emmy voters.  And part of it is the general fatigue of finding more and more new things to watch every time I turn around.  When did the Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini comedy "Dead to Me" blow up?   How many seasons of "Ozark" have there been?  I'm not even sure how to get Pop TV, which airs "Schitt's Creek."  I know I should be happy about having all of these unseen shows to go and explore, but after a summer in lockdown spent catching up on a bunch of other shows, getting yet another list of titles like this is just exasperating.  

I think I'm just going to have to face the fact that I'm never going to be on the same page with the Emmys.  Frankly, I never have been.  Twenty years ago, the only nominees I actually watched were the network sitcoms.  However, there was a familiarity to "ER" and "Law & Order" and "The Practice" getting nominated year after year, and seeing mostly the same crowd of faces.  However, as production schedules have gotten so much more unpredictable, and you often have shows skipping a year or two between seasons (what happened to "Atlanta"?), every new batch of nominees is a surprise.  And that should be a good thing, right?  Especially with the newly resurgent Outstanding Limited Series category that almost got killed off a few years ago, all this new content should be celebrated.  Discovering "Fleabag" and "Fosse/Verdon" and "Barry" last year was great, right?

Well, for a serial completist who likes staying on top of pop culture, it all just looks like too much work this time out.  Maybe I've stopped feeling a fear of irrelevance and FOMO.  Maybe I'm getting too damn old for this.  In any case, I'm seriously considering skipping the Emmys this year completely.  With lockdown still going on, there won't be much of a ceremony to gawk over anyway.  Sorry, Jimmy Kimmel.  

Still, I've got to give the Television Academy props for committing to having their awards as usual, instead of retreating the way the Oscars have.  But, that's another post for another day.

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Aboard the "Infinity Train"

I haven't been keeping as close an eye on Cartoon Network's output lately as I've been meaning to, but I knew that I had to make time for their anthology series "Infinity Train." The first two seasons were produced for special event miniseries format, with episodes aired nightly over the course of a week. Binged all together, the way I did, each season adds up to a nicely self-contained, feature length cartoon. The show follows in the footsteps of 2014's "Over the Garden Wall," which debuted this format with a spooky Halloween fable. "Infinity Train" aims a little broader and more formulaic, but it has a fascinating central concept.

Part of the fun of "Infinity Train" is trying to figure out the rules of its universe. We meet a girl named Tulip (Ashley Johnson), who boards an impossible train one night while running away from home. Tulip discovers that each train car houses its own fantastic environment, from a kingdom of talking corgis to a giant kids' indoor playground. Tulip travels through the cars in search of a way home, accompanied by a morose little ball robot, One-One (Jeremy Crutchley and Owen Dennis), and one of the talking corgis, King Atticus (Ernie Hudson). Occasionally they also encounter the Cat (Kate Mulgrew), a trickster who can't be trusted, and far more dangerous robotic creatures called Stewards. Tulip also has to figure out why there's a glowing green number on the palm of her hand, that increases or decreases based on her progress. The second season keeps the setting and a few characters, but follows a different pair of kids - MT (also Johnson) and Jesse (Robbie Daymond).

"Infinity Train" does the allegorical hero's journey to maturation and improved mental health with plenty of style and imagination. The train is essentially a giant therapy facilitator, setting the kids on adventures that force them to confront their personal issues, connect with other people, and build new emotional support systems. I like how the writers tackle common childhood dilemmas and really dig into them. Tulip is handling her parents' recent divorce badly. Jesse is revealed to be a people-pleaser and too easily pressured into going along with the crowd. MT has a lot of identity issues. Sorting out everyone's baggage is not easy, and the series treats these challenges as far more difficult than defeating evil robots and puzzling through the different train cars.

The show borrows a lot of imagery from dystopian and cyberpunk media like "Snowpiercer," and occasionally wanders into (kid friendly) horror territory. However, what stands out is the moody, mysterious tone, bolstered by an excellent trance/electronica score, fun character designs, and an endless variety of weird environments to explore. And while there's some intense content, including violence and death, the show's unusual gravity comes across more clearly in its quieter, contemplative moments. The whole conception of the train is great, this gigantic, mechanical wonder barrelling through an endless wasteland, with no apparent beginning or end. Though there's no direct influence, "Infinity Train" can't help sharing a little existential DNA with the anime space opera classic "Galaxy Express 999," the story of another impossible train ferrying its passengers along on a frequently melancholy journey of discovery.

If I've made the show sound too serious and grim, rest assured that it's very much aimed at kids, and has plenty of humor and absurdity to balance out the monsters and trauma. There are puns and pop-culture references everywhere, along with the fun of mixing a whole lot of different genres and character types together. The young heroes are great - Tulip's a sarcastic, know-it-all geek girl who wants to be a game designer, and has a lot of defense mechanisms to disarm. Cynical MT and goofy Jesse make a good odd couple. The show also boasts some memorable animal sidekicks. My favorite is a bizarre, shapeshifting deer that the kids name Alan Dracula. He never says a word, and never needs to. Kate Mulgrew, however, was surely born to voice a slippery feline con-artist.

I like that the series has embraced an anthology format. Characters recur, but there are also clear endpoints to the main characters' stories, so you get satisfying emotional payoffs with every season. The premise is strong enough, and there are enough lingering mysteries that "Infinity Train" could go on indefinitely. My only real disappointment with the show is the same one I had with "Over the Garden Wall" - the TV quality animation is perfectly adequate, but the material is so strong that I can't help wishing for better than adequate. Even so, "Infinity Train" is something special, and I look forward to the third season whenever I get around to a free trial of HBO Now.
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"The ABC Murders" and "The Pale Horse"

Minor spoilers ahead

The Sarah Phelps penned BBC miniseries adaptations of Agatha Christie mysteries have been produced at the rate of about one a year since "And Then There Were None" in 2015. I like a good crime procedural, so I went and sought out the two most recent series, "The ABC Murders" and "The Pale Horse." Both follow roughly the same template of using more psychologically complex characters with expanded backstories. This includes the newest version of Christie's beloved sleuth, Hercule Poirot.

The biggest selling point of "The ABC Murders" is that it's the first of these new BBC adaptations to feature Poirot, played here by John Malkovitch. The celebrated Belgian detective is now facing old age and obsolescence, still famous but no longer in demand. When he receives a series of ominous letters, he brings them to the attention of the new head of Scotland Yard, Inspector Crome (an unrecognizable Rupert Grint), who dismisses them as a prank. Once murders do start piling up, following an ABC pattern, Poirot traces them to a troubled young salesman named Cust (Eamon Farren), who is living in the boarding house of Mrs. Marbury (Shirley Henderson) and her daughter Lily (Anya Chalotra).

I like the ways that the story has been expanded - even Poirot has an entirely invented new backstory. However, it's a sad and troubling world that Poirot finds himself in, as an immigrant in an England that has become hostile to immigrants. Bad memories follow wherever he goes, and his friend Inspector Japp (Kevin McNally) has retired in disgrace. The series intercuts Poirot's side of the investigation with Cust's travels throughout England. Cust is a socially awkward loner with a lot of inner demons, and he seems to encounter one awful set of people after another. His disturbing behavior reflects a sad life lived in seedy circumstances. Mirroring the hunter and hunted against each other also allows the series to spend more time with the various sets of victims and their loved ones, so we get to know Betty Barnard (Eve Austin) as more than just a set of convenient initials, and her sister Jenny (Lizzy McInnerny) gets her own poignant little subplot.

"The ABC Murders" works as well as it does because of the acting chops of Malkovitch and Farren. Phelps' adaptations have generally been more introspective, more focused on character over the intricacies of the mystery plotting. They've also been darker and more psychologically fraught. We get a few demonstrations of Poirot's famous eccentricities, but these are mostly used to show how out-of-date and obscure he's become. There's a strong sense of melancholy to the series, and bringing out the anti-immigrant themes and additional historical grounding further serve to demystify the character of Hercule Poirot and his universe. Malkovitch's accent is a little dodgy, but I've heard much worse over the years, and his Poirot's gradual reinvigoration by the case is a delight to see.

Now, on to "The Pale Horse," based on one of Christie's novels written later in her career. Here, we follow Mark Easterbrook (Rufus Sewell), an antiques dealer with a complicated personal life. After the death of his first wife Delphine (Georgina Campbell), he marries the unstable perfectionist Hermia (Kaya Scodelario), and is now seeing a woman named Thomasina (Poppy Gilbert) on the side. One day a shopkeeper, Jessie Davis (Madeleine Bowyer), turns up dead with a list of names in her shoe. The list includes Easterbrook, his nephew Ardingly (Henry Lloyd-Hughes), and a man named Zachariah Osborne (Bertie Carvel). As Easterbrook looks further into the death, he discovers connections to a trio of witches (Rita Tushingham, Sheila Atim and Kathy Kiera Clarke) working out of the village of Much Deeping.

The supernatural elements in the story set this Christie mystery apart, but the adaptation reflects much of her later work. The stories became darker and more cynical, and the heroes much more flawed. Departing from the source novel, the adaptation turns Easterbrook into a full-fledged antihero and his wife into a woman on edge. This is one of the shorter Christie miniseries, with only two installments. The narrative belongs solely to Easterbrook, and the cast of characters is fairly limited, making the twists and turns of the plotting much more dependent on the slipperiness of our leading man. Sewell pulls it off, but I can't help thinking that the role would have been better suited to a more unorthodox actor with a little more slime in his screen persona. Fortunately, Scodelario and Carvel do excellent supporting work.

Like "The ABC Murders," "The Pale Horse" is very interior and moody, but features more shocks and excitement. The climax, however, relies on some turns and revelations that are deployed very quickly, and there's not really a denouement, when there probably should have been. Aside from that, I found the series very satisfying, with some good twists, and a fun premise. It's not as thematically well developed as the other Christie adaptations Phelps has done, but provides more than enough murderous entertainment for me to appreciate the effort.

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"DuckTales" Reboot, Year One

I was a Disney Afternoon kid growing up, as opposed to a Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network kid. I was exactly the right age to watch and fall in love with all the Disney-produced cartoons for television that came out in the late '80s and early '90s. The most important of these was "DuckTales" following the adventures of Scrooge McDuck and the triplets, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, based on the beloved Carl Barks and Don Rosa comics. The 2017 reboot, to my great surprise, is probably aimed more at me than the new generation of kids being introduced to these characters.

For one thing, the new series is much more sophisticated than the original series. The humor and dialogue are aimed at kids a few years older, and there are serialized elements including two big mysteries that get solved little by little over the course of the season. Scrooge McDuck (David Tennant) and his man-child pilot Launchpad McQuack (Beck Bennett) are more or less as we remember them, but Huey (Danny Pudi), Dewey (Ben Schwartz), and Louie (Bobby Moynihan) are now tech-savvy Gen Zers, each with a much more distinct personality. Webbigail (Kate Micucci) has been completely overhauled. Now she has scads of impressive adventuring skills and an obsession with McDuck family research, but having grown up in the McDuck mansion with only her housekeeper grandma, Mrs. Beakley (Toks Olagundoye), she's lonely and undersocialized. Also, I'm happy to see Donald Duck (Tony Anselmo) is finally allowed to be a main character, after only appearing in cameos in the old show. He's an amalgam of bits and pieces of all the versions of the character we've seen since 1934.

The new "DuckTales" was clearly made by fans of the original show and the comics it was based on. From the very first episode, there are geeky references everywhere, not just to beloved "Duck" canon, but to other Disney Afternoon shows, creating something of an interconnected universe. The Sky Pirates from "TaleSpin" show up in one episode. Another hinges on "Gummi Bears" lore. I'm not going to spoil how they get "Darkwing Duck" involved, because it's too funny to give away. However, the show is at its most impressive in the way that it juggles all the ins and outs of the sprawling "Duck" universe. It brings back many old favorites like Flintheart Glomgold (Keith Ferguson), Gladstone Gander (Paul F. Tompkins), and Glittering Goldie (Alison Janney) largely unchanged. Others, however, have been tweaked considerably. Fenton Crackshell, the alter ego of the superhero Gizmoduck, is now Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera and beige-colored to match his new voice actor, Lin-Manuel Miranda. The one revamp I'm still iffy about is inventor Gyro Gearloose (Jim Rash), who went from kindly eccentric to prickly jerk, so he could be used as an antagonist in various episodes. Doofus (John Gemberling) being repurposed as a nightmarishly spoiled child billionaire is brilliant though.

There are a handful of new characters that should be pointed out. Prominent among Scrooge's Rogue's Gallery is Mark Beaks (Josh Brener), a caricature of an unethical Silicon Valley tech guru. Then there's Lena (Kimiko Glenn), a standoffish teenage delinquent who becomes Webby's first gal-pal. They both reflect the new direction the 2017 series is taking - more mature, more talky, and often much more emotional. The big theme of the show's first season is the importance of family, and I was very happy to see how seriously the creators take this. In the first episode, we learn that Donald and Scrooge haven't talked in ten years, and this is related to the disappearance of the triplets' mother, Della Duck. The emotional stakes are unapologetically big, and I was not expecting this from one of my oldest, and most foundational cartoon franchises. And I absolutely adore it.

The 1987 "DuckTales" famously set a new benchmark for the quality of its production, back when children's television cartoons were all done fast and cheap. The 2017 "DuckTales" also looks fabulous from top to bottom. Everything's been designed to reflect the show's comic-book origins, but the characters are more dynamic and the animation is nicely fluid. The big season finale is a retelling of "Magica's Shadow War" featuring a theatrical new Magica DeSpell (Catherine Tate), and it's a treat. The cast list is absolutely stuffed with celebrity voice actors, but it's nice that there were a few voices that absolutely could not be replaced - Tony Anselmo's Donald and Jim Cummings as Darkwing Duck.

I'm well and properly hooked, and currently debating whether I should be rationing the rest of the episodes to make 'em last.

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"Bill & Ted" Finish a Trilogy

Roughly three decades after their last adventure, the now middle-aged Bill S. Preston Esq. (Alex Winter) and "Ted" Theodore Logan (Keanu Reeves) have returned.  They still haven't written the song that was supposed to bring world peace, and have seen their fortunes plummet.  While they're still married to their beloved princesses, Elizabeth (Erinn Hayes) and Joanna (Jayma Mays), and adored by their grown daughters, Billie (Brigette Lundy-Paine) and Thea (Samara Weaving), their lives are on the rocks.  And it turns out that their failure has even more serious consequences.  The fabric of reality is starting to unravel, prompting Rufus's daughter Kelly (Kristen Schaal) to pay them a visit from the future.

At long, long last, the third "Bill & Ted" movie has arrived.  It is utterly predictable every step of the way, and filled with callbacks and recycled bits from the first two movies, but makes a good case for its necessity.  Most of the movie is split between Bill & Ted visiting future versions of themselves, trying to get a copy of the song that they've spent the last thirty years trying to write, and their music-loving daughters, who borrow a time machine from Kelly to go put together a band from the greatest musicians who ever existed.  Along the way they reunite with Death (William Sadler), meet a robot named Dennis (Anthony Carrigan), and encounter many, many historical figures.  And this is all fun, but the big rock concert ending to save the universe is what makes it really worth the journey.  

"Face the Music" figures out just the right balance between being a loving, nostalgic homage to its predecessors, and actually functioning as a third chapter of the "Bill & Ted" story.  Writers Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon, and director Dean Parisot don't attempt to modernize the characters or update the universe, except to accommodate a clearly limited budget.  Instead, the humor and the attitude are remarkably unchanged.  This is a goofy, silly, off-the-wall comic romp that wants to make its audience happy.  It's still PG rated, doesn't make a lick of sense, and its outlook is as hokey as anything.  A big part of why the film works is because Winter and Reeves still clearly love playing these characters, and do so with gusto.  They're older and slower, but still able to do the surfer dude accents, and deliver plenty of simultaneous dialogue with enthusiasm.  And their willingness to dress up in ridiculous outfits and prosthetics counts for a lot.    

Among the supporting cast, there are many standouts.  Weaving and Lundy-Paine as the daughters are exactly what they should be - good natured clones of their dads who get to go off and have their own "Excellent Adventure."  It's great to see the return of Ted's dad, Chief Logan (Hal Landon Jr.) and Missy (Amy Stoch) to pay off some long running jokes.  Anthony Carrigan is a scene-stealer as the robot assassin, and Jillian Bell as a frazzled marriage counselor had some great moments.  And despite a few more lines on his face, I swear William Sadler hasn't aged a day since "Bogus Journey."  I desperately wanted more of his Death in the movie, as he's a major highlight and doesn't show up in "Face the Music" until pretty late.  

I have a few minor nitpicks.  Even for a "Bill & Ted" movie, "Face is Music" is very short, running about eighty minutes before the credits.  The soundtrack, while most triumphant, doesn't quite have the oomph of the prior ones.  Then there's the production design, which uses a combination of CGI and practical effects that never look quite consistent.  You can tell exactly where all the money went, and where the production had to cut corners.  Still, I appreciate the effort to try and replicate some of the '80s style effects, especially where the famous phone booth is concerned.

They don't get everything right, but the filmmakers nail more than enough to have made the venture worth it.  I can't go as far as saying that this is the "Bill & Ted" film that I've been waiting nearly thirty years for, but it is without a doubt a proper "Bill & Ted" film.    

So thanks for being excellent to each other, and party on, dudes!

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The 2019-2020 Television I Didn't Watch

Below, find eight shows from the 2019-2020 television year that I regret not seeing, but ultimately don't have the time or the inclination to, with some rambling thoughts about my reasoning.

"Run" - I was looking forward to this one, a comedy/thriller about a couple who run away from their lives together. I like all the people involved, including Merrit Wever, Domnhall Gleeson, and especially Phoebe Waller Bridge. However, I held off in order to binge the whole thing at once, and it turns out that nobody came away satisfied with the show past the first few episodes. The finale actually ticked off enough people that Vulture actually took it off a mid-year "Best of" list. I guess they can't all be winners.

"Euphoria" - No matter how much critical praise they've gotten, I can't bring myself to watch any of the recent teen shows like "American Vandal," "Sex Education" and "Pen15." "Euphoria" is the latest slice of adolescent miserablism, reportedly a more responsible take on the themes explored by shows like "13 Reasons Why." I've liked Zendaya in her movies, but her involvement here does nothing to convince me that I need to see "Euphoria." I already get my fill of angsty teens from indie movies, thank you very much.

"Unbelievable" - Another critical darling, this one a true crime miniseries about a serial rapist who is allowed to run rampant for years because his first victim wasn't believed. The cast is excellent, the material is timely and powerful, and there's every indication that sensationalism was avoided. This is the show I feel the most guilty about skipping, but while I can handle a film about difficult topics, often an eight hour miniseries is too much. I've read the article series that the show was based on, and that's enough for me.

"Primal" - I will happily sing the praises of Genndy Tartakovsky, but I really don't need to see "Primal," his adult-oriented animated series about a caveman and a dinosaur who team up in the wake of tragedy. It's a dialogue free, and reportedly pretty violent story about an unlikely friendship. I may change my mind on this one eventually, but the caveman genre and I have never gotten along. However, many animation enthusiasts will be happy to see a new, rare, artistically uncompromised series from an animation great.

"The Morning Show" - I'm not subscribing to Apple TV, first of all. I'm already ping-ponging between way too many different streaming services, and there's no way I'm doing Apple TV just for one show. I hear Billy Crudup is great, and the ensemble that they put together is nuts (Mark Duplass is in this? Bel Powley is in this too?), but this show just strikes me as too much work to get into on every level. I don't want to commit to another splashy prestige project right now, especially about more terrible people being terrible to each other.

"Little Fires Everywhere" - I'm sorry Reese Witherspoon, and I'm sorry Kerry Underwood, but this just isn't a good season for downers. It's terrible timing. I gave up on "Handmaid's Tale" last season, and I'm in no hurry to replace it with more melodramatic mom angst. I feel a little bad because this is one of the last major projects from recently departed director Lynn Shelton and the reviews have been pretty solid. And this kind of female lead prestige project needs all the encouragement it can get - but I have to draw the line somewhere.

"Avenue 5" - It's a new Armando Iannucci show! With Hugh Laurie as the lead! And it's set in spaaaace! Unfortunately, I recently watched "Aniara," which more or less has the exact same plot points so far, except it's the dead serious, super-depressing, nihilistic version, and it put me into a terrible existential funk for weeks. There was no way I was going to risk another round of that. So I've been sneaking the occasional peek at airlock antics via clips and reading spoilers, but keeping my distance from the show itself.

Anything on Quibi - I have no idea what they were thinking. An entire platform designed to feature Youtube video length content? How does this make any sense, Jeffrey Katzenberg? Aside from the revival of "Reno 911" and a couple of features that I have no desire to see in ten-minute chunks, there's nothing here with much appeal anyway.
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