Whatcha Bleedin' Watchin'?

[Dr. Insomniac]

I saw the first episode of Poker Face, which was fine. It's exactly what you imagine when you think "What if they remade Columbo starring Natasha Lyonne"? How much you'll like it depends on how much you like Lyonne dong a Peter Falk impression for a whole hour.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I haven't been keeping up with Last of Us much. Just watching it on and off and seeing people's reactions, but all the people on Twitter who think Kathleen is one of those "villain who is absolutely right and more morally just than the heroes" characters like Kuvira or Zaheer from Legend of Korra are just telling on themselves. She has zero sympathetic agenda at all.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Personally, out of all of the hit games from 2013 that could be adapted into a show, I think this would have been the clear best pick: https://youtu.be/LmWQd8zhEg4

[Dr. Insomniac]

Or a Bioshock Infinite show, just to see a new generation of audiences fighting over whether Daisy Fitzroy was right or not.

[Dr. Insomniac]

So I watched the first season of Yellowjackets and... fine? Fine. The 1996 plot seems to be the part everyone likes if the ads for season 2 are any indication, but I preferred the present-day arc more and there's almost a reading-level gap between the two of them. Felt like I was watching a CW series, or that kids' show Discovery used to air Flight 29 Down.

[Avaitor]

So Succession didn't wait long to do it.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Woe is on me for not finishing season 3 yet and looking at the Twitter timeline.

[Avaitor]

I'll talk more about the Succession finale tomorrow, still watching it now, but I just wanted to say that I had to rewind when Greg hit Tom back. Needed to see that again right away.

[Avaitor]

Succession isn't a show like How I Met Your Mother where the finale could make or break the show at large for me- frankly, I don't know what I would want from it in the first place other than to be entertained and catch a nice feeling of schadenfreude. And it's also not like Game of Thrones, which had problems at the show's core for about half of its run, and only the lazy really started to notice during the last season.

So I was ultimately pretty happy with how the show ended. The pieces were largely there during the show's run- that fan theory about Tom's name notably added up in particular- and the show remained as entertaining as ever up til the very end. I was sad to hear that this was the end, but I'm glad that it got to end at its prime. Is Succession going to stack up next to The Sopranos, The Wire, Breaking Bad etc? Maybe, maybe not, but I would definitely recommend it.

[Dr. Insomniac]

The last season didn't feel like a season, personally. Seemed like Zaslav or somebody else got pissed at the show's portrayal of the rich, and they had to hastily shove in their ideas for season 5 into this year. Like all the shit with Mencken could've been explored more, and the pacing became such that it almost felt like I was skipping episodes in the latter half of the season. But yeah, good show. Questioning what HBO will fill in its void. Probably not that Euphoria spin-off starring Lily-Rose Depp.

[Avaitor]

I'm seeing people suggest The Last of Us, but I don't see how it can run for longer than three seasons. Apparently Righteous Gemstones is good, but is far more niche in comparison and seems more like a substitute for Barry.

Maybe David Simon will have something come out soon. It's been a while since he wrapped up The Deuce.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I don't know about Simon. The Wire aside, and even that found more attention after it ended, most of his HBO work's been niche compared to the Deadwoods, True Bloods, and even Big Loves. Much to his annoyance, because I remember seeing him in-person once at an interview, and he said he made The Deuce about the porn industry and had it star James Franco because he was hoping for the sex and famous actors to make it a mainstream hit. Mostly because having a mainstream hit under his belt would give him more leeway to do more obscure projects.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Speaking of finales, Barry also just aired it's finale this past weekend and while I have some mixed opinions on the final season overall (my main complaint being how disjointed it felt to the point of being somewhat rushed), the final episode was perfect. I don't know that I've seen another show that so perfectly balances dark comedy with top-notch dramatic acting. This is definitely going down as one of my favorite shows of all time.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Yeah, Bill Hader's led an interesting career. SNL star. South Park writer. Adult Finn Wolfhard actor. And then Barry.

And cool on giving Henry Winkler a second wind.

[Avaitor]

I'll probably give Barry another chance some day, but regardless, I'm happy to see Bill Hader get the break he always wanted. I've read that it was always his goal to break out into directing, but he got sidetracked with SNL. His tenure didn't really interest me, but I recall liking when he hosted TCM's Essentials Jr. The guy knows his movies.