new and noteworthy tv: 10/5-10/18

A couple tough chick shows with Neagley and Furious, while Furious edges out Neagley the latter was a decent spinoff in the Reacher world. I also finished the first season of Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, which I liked more than the other spinoffs for its originality, though I didn’t find enough of a story in each episode to really pull me in. I have now started an Apple TV round and lots to do there.

On the movie side, Best of the Best was cute enough though I am sometimes pained by the plot contrivances, I thought the leads and dance were fun. I also appreciated By Design probably more than I enjoyed it but for a very weird movie it kept me engaged. And I thought Backrooms was disappointing, an interesting horror take but again narratively not sure what they were doing.

  • Private Eyes West Coast (CW) Series Premiere, Monday 10/5, 8pm – Jason Priestley and Cindy Sampson reprise their Private Eyes investigators, now married with a baby and relocated from Toronto to Victoria, British Columbia, I’m sure this isn’t great but I like these fluffy detective type shows.
  • Thou Shalt Not Steal (The Network) Series Premiere, Tuesday 10/6 – Robyn breaks out of juvenile detention and sets off across the Australian outback, in a series that ran on Stan back in 2024 and is only now reaching the US, with Miranda Otto.
  • NCIS: New York (CBS) Series Premiere, Tuesday 10/6, 9pm – LL Cool J’s Sam Hanna returns to his hometown and partners with a roguish agent played by Scott Caan, with Jennifer Beals as the field office director, I don’t do these but am for some reason pleased to see LL Cool J keep going.
  • Small Prophets (App+) Series Premiere, Wednesday 10/7 – A six-episode British comedy, looks very weird but is already getting good buzz from its BBC run.
  • Carrie (Am) Series Premiere, Wednesday 10/7 – Mike Flanagan reinvents Stephen King’s debut novel as a series, I could see how this could be an interesting modernization as a series but we shall see.
  • Her Baby (BET) Series Premiere, Wednesday 10/7, 10pm – A psychological thriller about a surrogate, produced for the vertical format.
  • Leonard & Hungry Paul (Wonder) Series Premiere, Thursday 10/8 – Two board-gaming friends in their thirties, a children’s encyclopaedia writer and a part-time postal worker, in a six-part Northern Irish comedy narrated by Julia Roberts.
  • Eternally Yours (CBS) Series Premiere, Thursday 10/8, 8:30pm – From the Ghosts team, two vampires married 500 years contend with the human dating their daughter, looks dumb but I like Ghosts quite a bit so there’s hope.
  • Cupertino (CBS) Series Premiere, Thursday 10/8, 10pm – Robert and Michelle King’s Silicon Valley legal drama, with Mike Colter as a lawyer cheated out of his stock options by his former startup, who opens a firm to fight back, a big fan of the Kings so worth a watch.
  • Treasure Island (MGM+) Series Premiere, Sunday 10/11, 10pm – A new adventure series built from the Robert Louis Stevenson novel, I don’t get MGM so this isn’t top of my list but David Oyelowo as lead is promising.
  • This Is Not a Murder Mystery (Acorn) Series Premiere, Monday 10/12 – In 1930s England, a houseful of Surrealist painters including a young Dali and Magritte are trapped in a mansion with a killer and Scotland Yard at the door.
  • VisionQuest (Dis+) Series Premiere, Wednesday 10/14, 9pm – Marvel’s Vision gets his own series, closing the trilogy that began with WandaVision and continued through Agatha All Along, I might need to look up the story here to dive back in.
  • Crystal Lake (Pea) Series Premiere, Thursday 10/15 – The Friday the 13th prequel series, from Peacock and A24, Linda Cardellini steps in as Jason’s grieving(?) mother.
  • Abbott Elementary (ABC) Season Premiere, Wednesday 10/7, 8:30pm – Back for a sixth season and glad for a great comfort comedy.
  • Elsbeth (CBS) Season Premiere, Thursday 10/8, 9pm – Carrie Preston’s Elsbeth Tascioni returns for a fourth season, I enjoy her quirks and the crime solving.
  • The Lowdown (Fx) Season Premiere, Wednesday 10/14, 9pm – Ethan Hawke’s truthstorian returns for a second season, the first season of this was great, here’s to avoiding a sophomore slump.
  • The Diplomat (Net) Season Premiere, Thursday 10/15 – Keri Russell’s ambassador returns for a fourth season, this show stresses me out but I can’t stop watching, so good.

The procrastinator lists mostly scripted items that may not be on your regular season pass, though notation does not imply recommendation. Times noted are typically PST, please check your local listings.

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new and noteworthy tv: 9/21-10/4

I had Paramount+ this month so finished up Matlock, Watson, and Tracker, all meh. I fell asleep watching the final episode of Colin From Accounts and think I might want to wait renew for another month until something else comes in, though hearing good things about the recent season of Lioness. I also finished Leanne on Netflix which has a very dated tv comedy feel. The Shards on Hulu was infuriating, I like an old Brett Easton Ellis but maybe not so much Ryan Murphy, mildly tempted to check out the book. And I apparently can’t stop watching Reacher even though it is ridiculous it is what it is, checking out Neagley next also on Prime.

As for movies I watched The Christophers which I liked a lot of the ingredients to but ended up not loving. Supergirl was fun in a way that didn’t need to be much more, plus I like a good origin story. And Mother Mary was definitely odder than I thought it was going to be but Hathaway and Coel make it work.

  • Line of Fire (NBC) Series Premiere, Monday 9/21, 10pm – Peter Krause and Hope Davis head a family of law enforcement agents tangled in a deadly conspiracy, with Jenna Bush Hager executive producing from her own Secret Service years, I guess this is kind of Blue Bloods-ish, which actually doesn’t make me want to like it but generally like the leads.
  • Best Medicine (Fox) Season Premiere, Tuesday 9/22, 8pm – Josh Charles’s medical dramedy is a ridiculous premise and he’s too too in the role but I like the small town charm so will check in for a second season.
  • Doc (Fox) Season Premiere, Tuesday 9/22, 9pm – Molly Parker’s memory gapped doc is back, and this one also has become totally dumb and how are we still uncovering mysteries but the cast is pretty good and there’s the general medical procedural happening.
  • Brothers (App+) Series Premiere, Wednesday 9/23 – Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson play versions of themselves whose lifelong friendship is upended by the discovery that they might actually be brothers, I mean sure.
  • A Different World (Net) Series Premiere, Thursday 9/24 – I mostly watched this original spinoff from the one who will not be named and can’t argue with a college experience so curious what tone this revival will hit as it brings in the daughter of two of the original characters to return to this historically Black college.
  • S.W.A.T. Exiles (Starz) Series Premiere, Friday 9/25, 10pm – Shemar Moore’s Hondo Harrelson is pulled back in after a high-profile mission goes sideways, in the S.W.A.T. spinoff, I did not stick with the original.
  • Animal Control (Fox) Season Premiere, Sunday 9/27, 8:30pm – Joel McHale’s Seattle animal control officers return for a fifth season, this is funny enough between cast and critters.
  • Scrubs (ABC) Season Premiere, Wednesday 9/30, 8pm – I was pleasantly surprised at how well the tone and characters picked up for this reboot/continuation so glad it’s back for another season.
  • East of Eden (Net) Series Premiere, Thursday 10/1 – Zoe Kazan’s seven-episode adaptation of the Steinbeck novel, with Florence Pugh as Cathy Ames alongside Christopher Abbott and Mike Faist.
  • Coven Academy (Free/Hulu) Series Premiere, Thursday 10/1, 8pm – Three teenage witches navigate the haunted heart of New Orleans, I have a soft spot for teen supernatural.
  • War (HBO) Series Premiere, Thursday 10/1, 9pm – A legal drama following London’s most powerful lawyers as two rival firms go to war, the first season gives us the explosive divorce of British tech entrepreneur Morgan Henderson (Dominic West) and international film star Carla Duval (Sienna Miller).
  • Kill Jackie (AMC+) Series Premiere, Friday 10/2 – Catherine Zeta-Jones plays a retired drug smuggler who learns a crew of elite hitmen has been hired to kill her, from the creators behind Killing Eve and Gangs of London, intrigued but tend to wait for AMC to roll around to Netflix.
  • Tip Toe (Starz) Series Premiere, Friday 10/2, 9pm – Russell T Davies’s five-part thriller stars Alan Cumming and David Morrissey as warring Manchester neighbors, the cast has me in but who gets Starz?
  • Bite Size Terror (Tubi) Series Premiere, Friday 10/2 – An anthology of short-form horror stories spanning the genre, sure.
  • Get Jiro (AdSw) Series Premiere, Sunday 10/4, 12am – An adult animated take on Anthony Bourdain and Joel Rose’s graphic novel about a sushi chef in a Los Angeles ruled by rival celebrity chefs.
  • Tracker (CBS) Season Premiere, Sunday 10/4, 9:30pm – Justin Hartley’s Colter Shaw returns for a fourth season, this show kind of bores me but it’s good for a mindless procedural.

The procrastinator lists mostly scripted items that may not be on your regular season pass, though notation does not imply recommendation. Times noted are typically PST, please check your local listings.

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fall is in the air

It’s that time of year and even though the network premieres aren’t what they used to be, it’s time to take a look. Stay tuned to New & Noteworthy posts for any updates on these and the variety of cable and streaming.

  • Line of Fire (NBC, 9/21) – Peter Krause and Hope Davis head a family of law enforcement agents tangled in a deadly conspiracy, the cast here is the draw and oddly Jenna Bush Hager is an EP loosely drawing on her own Secret Service years so maybe a fresh take on the premise.
  • Private Eyes West Coast (CW, 10/5) – Jason Priestley and Cindy Sampson reprise their Private Eyes investigators, now married with a baby and relocated from Toronto to Victoria, British Columbia, until a would-be detective pulls them back onto a case, I watched and have completely forgotten the original of this but it echoes the light Canadian capers I like and wondering if we’ll still see Priestley in Wild Cards as well.
  • NCIS: New York (CBS, 10/6) – LL Cool J’s Sam Hanna returns to his hometown and partners with a roguish agent played by Scott Caan, if you watch these then this is a no-brainer, and I don’t.
  • Eternally Yours (CBS, 10/8) – From the Ghosts team, two vampires married 500 years contend with the human dating their daughter, the initial preview on this looks silly but then again so does Ghosts and that’s a fave.
  • Cupertino (CBS, 10/8) – Robert and Michelle King’s Silicon Valley legal drama, with Mike Colter as a lawyer cheated out of his stock options by his former startup, who opens a firm to fight back, I’m a big fan of the Kings and glad to see they’re keeping their Colter streak and I’m happy to catch a bit of drama poking at the tech neighbors in my backyard.
  • Newlyweds (NBC, 10/23) – A multi-camera comedy starring real-life spouses Téa Leoni and Tim Daly, the Friday night lineup doesn’t promise magic but this sounds like a Dharma & Greg-ish marriage, and with a good cast it’s worth a watch, plus Jamie Lee Curtis, who EPs, sneaks in as the ex.

And a few returning shows I’ll keep my eye on: R.J. Decker (ABC, 9/15), Best Medicine (Fox, 9/22), Doc (Fox, 9/22), Animal Control (Fox, 9/27), Scrubs (ABC, 9/30), Tracker (CBS, 10/4), Abbott Elementary (ABC, 10/7), Elsbeth (CBS, 10/8), Happy’s Place (NBC, 10/23), St. Denis Medical (NBC, 11/2), The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins (NBC, 11/2).

And a few I watch look like they are being held for midseason: High Potential (ABC), Shifting Gears (ABC), Matlock (CBS), Murder in a Small Town (Fox), Bob’s Burgers (Fox), and Wild Cards (CW), which has finished filming but has no announced date and has turned up in January or February in past years. Ghosts (CBS) is down to a Halloween special in October and a Christmas special in December, with the remaining 18 episodes of season six held until early 2027.

New shows are waiting for midseason too… this list tends to shift a bit: The Rockford Files (NBC, January), with David Boreanaz as a newly paroled James Rockford; Baywatch (Fox, January), with Stephen Amell as Hobie Buchannon and David Chokachi back from the original; The Interrogator (Fox), created by and starring Stephen Fry as a former MI6 agent running a team of outsiders; Einstein (CBS), with Matthew Gray Gubler as Albert Einstein’s great-grandson; The Rookie: North (ABC), with Jay Ellis; and an untitled Grey’s Anatomy spinoff (ABC).

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new and noteworthy tv: 9/7-9/20

I picked up a Paramount+ subscription for the month and finished off already-started Elsbeth, DMV, and Ghosts. DMV had potential and the other two are faves. I also cranked through Adults (Hulu) which last season I thought was ok but this season I actually laughed out loud at a couple of points.

On the movie side I caught Don’t Say Good Luck, touching but too sappy for me, and Is God Is, which while I appreciated elements didn’t quite hang together enough for me. I also enjoyed Normal, a totally bonkers movie, which sometimes hits the spot.

  • DANG! (Net) Series Premiere, Tuesday 9/8 – Siblings Andrew and Eunice are living out their messy New York dreams until their high-achieving older sister Ruthie turns up wanting to hang out, in an adult animated comedy from creator Andrew Law with Mike Schur executive producing.
  • Last Seen (App+) Series Premiere, Wednesday 9/9 – Patrick Brammall stars in a six-episode Australian thriller adapted from Ryan David Jahn’s novel The Dispatcher.
  • The Paper (Pea) Season Premiere, Wednesday 9/9 – I liked enough of the first season to come back for this one, in which the documentary crew from Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton branch keeps covering the struggling Midwestern newspaper and the publisher trying to revive it.
  • Cooper and Fry (Brit) Series Premiere, Thursday 9/10 – Set in the Peak District, an affable local detective is thrown together with a prickly new partner, played by Robert James-Collier and Mandip Gill.
  • Crew Girl (Net) Series Premiere, Thursday 9/10 – After a family scandal upends her rowing career, sixteen-year-old Teagan Tao starts over at a prestigious prep school as coxswain of its dysfunctional boys’ varsity crew.
  • Colin from Accounts (Para+) Season Premiere, Thursday 9/10 – A final season on this fun rom com which is titling aside not a workplace comedy, now Gordon and Ashley face the fallout of an ill-fated proposal in the third and final season (a different side of Patrick Brammall than Last Seen).
  • High Value Target: The Hunt for Saddam (TNT) Series Premiere, Sunday 9/13, 9pm – Joel Kinnaman stars in an eight-episode political thriller inspired by CIA analyst John Nixon’s memoir Debriefing the President.
  • Ghosts Australia (Para+) Series Premiere, Monday 9/14 – As noted just finished the latest on the US version and haven’t caught the original British version, now a new couple inherits a crumbling country mansion crowded with ghosts only one of them can see, in the Australian version of the BBC format.
  • Agatha Christie’s Tommy & Tuppence (Brit) Series Premiere, Tuesday 9/15 – A six-part adaptation of Christie’s Tommy and Tuppence stories starring Antonia Thomas, Josh Dylan and Imelda Staunton.
  • R.J. Decker (ABC) Season Premiere, Tuesday 9/15, 10pm – The investigation into the murder of Emi’s corrupt father strains her partnership with Decker in the second season of the Carl Hiaasen adaptation starring Scott Speedman, I have a soft spot for a kookie Hiaasen and while I might give Bad Monkey the edge this is also fun.
  • Neagley (Am) Series Premiere, Wednesday 9/16 – Maria Sten’s Reacher character gets a case of her own in this spinoff of the Lee Child adaptation, I’m not sure the character wowed me in Reacher but happy to see what her part of the world has going on.
  • Route 187 (Para+) Series Premiere, Wednesday 9/16 – Along a bus route nicknamed for the police code for homicide, a dogged print journalist sets out to uncover the truth after a routine ride erupts in tragedy.
  • Slow Horses (App+) Season Premiere, Wednesday 9/16 – I binged all the previous seasons this last year and can’t wait for the MI5 rejects of Slough House and their appalling boss Jackson Lamb to return for a sixth season.
  • Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story (Net) Series Premiere, Thursday 9/17 – The anthology’s next installment centers on Lizzie Borden and the ax murders that shocked Victorian New England, I’m kind of not into the Ryan Murphy stuff.
  • American Hostage (MGM+) Series Premiere, Sunday 9/20, 9pm – Jon Hamm stars in and executive produces an eight-episode anthology from Shawn Ryan and Eileen Myers, beginning with a two-episode premiere.
  • Trespasses (PBS) Series Premiere, Sunday 9/20, 10pm – In 1975 Northern Ireland, a young Catholic schoolteacher falls for an older, married Protestant man against the backdrop of the Troubles.
  • Youth (HBO) Series Premiere, Sunday 9/20, 10pm – A fifty-year-old divorcee looks for sex and love while caring for her ailing parents and parenting her grown son, Sharon Horgan doing anything is a yes.

The procrastinator lists mostly scripted items that may not be on your regular season pass, though notation does not imply recommendation. Times noted are typically PST, please check your local listings.

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new and noteworthy tv: 8/24-9/6

A little Netflix catch up with the latest season of Dark Winds, which in general I quite like, though I might not have been as pulled into this season, and Man on Fire based on the Denzel movie was fun and compelling (though not light). Sunny Nights on Hulu is giving the typical regular people get pulled into criminal stuff with a fun Australian bent. And I just finished rewatching BoJack Horseman on Netflix which is fantastic and absolutely holds up.

Movie-wise I did Redux Redux, a good twist on parallel universes and a little revenge. And not-so-entertaining Pizza Movie, I wouldn’t have normally bothered but it was on someone’s best movies so far list.

  • Blue Murder Motel (Acorn) Series Premiere, Monday 8/24 – A married pair of retired detectives leave the force to run a motel in a sunny beachside New Zealand town, and a week after opening there is a body in Unit 3.
  • The Airport Chaplain (Net) Series Premiere, Wednesday 8/26 – An airport chaplain who can fix any problem inside the terminal runs up against a new boss who thinks he is meddling, with Hugo Weaving.
  • Dalliance (Para+) Series Premiere, Thursday 8/27 – A longtime circle of friends in their sixties dealing with imploding marriages, new relationships, and old wounds resurfacing.
  • Leanne (Net) Season Premiere, Thursday 8/27 – Leanne Morgan’s character is still starting over after her husband left, with the loving and unfiltered family weighing in, this is totally mid but a good background binge.
  • Adults (Hulu) Season Premiere, Thursday 8/27, 9pm – Twenty-somethings in New York trying to be good people despite being neither good nor people yet, I was underwhelmed by the first season of this, might be oversaturation of this gen but I did find it pretty consumable.
  • The Varnell Hill Show (Para+) Series Premiere, Tuesday 9/1 – Tommy Davidson brings back the talk show host he first played on Martin, an eight-episode workplace comedy from Martin Lawrence and Bentley Kyle Evans, I don’t think I ever watched Martin.
  • The Gentlemen (Net) Season Premiere, Thursday 9/3 – Eddie wants to expand the weed empire with or without Bobby’s blessing while Susie goes looking for a way to diversify, I’m mixed on Guy Ritchie but this one hit well, and are we to believe rumors Meghan Markle is in talks to join next season?
  • Marble Hall Murders (PBS) Series Premiere, Sunday 9/6, 9pm – Masterpiece closes out the Susan Ryeland trilogy from Anthony Horowitz, six episodes with Lesley Manville and Tim McMullan.
  • A Tale of Two Cities (MGM+) Series Premiere, Sunday 9/6, 9pm – A four part take on the Dickens novel with Kit Harington, François Civil, and Mirren Mack.

The procrastinator lists mostly scripted items that may not be on your regular season pass, though notation does not imply recommendation. Times noted are typically PST, please check your local listings.

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new and noteworthy tv: 8/10-8/23

It’s a slow season for new shows, though a couple good ones ahead. I’m still doing some catchup before I dabble with adding Paramount+ or Apple for a month or so. I did crank through Ride or Die (Am) which I thought was a lot of fun. I caught the second season of the updated King of the Hill (Hulu), which is fine. And Vladimir (Net) which I kind of hated but at least the episodes were short, I generally like Rachel Weisz but found her character insufferable.

On the movie side I caught Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie which got pretty good reviews but while it did some fun things, I found the two characters ridiculous. I also did Ready or Not 1 & 2 because I’m a Sarah Michelle Gellar fan and she was promoting the latest, and in general they are what you’d expect from blood-soaked horror-comedy. My dad recently rewatched Big Country so I gave it a go and it was definitely a sweeping epic western and while personally I think a run time over two hours is rarely warranted, I get it.

  • Reacher (Am) Season Premiere, Wednesday 8/12 – Reacher does what Reacher does, digs into a vast criminal enterprise while trying to rescue an undercover DEA informant, and ends up confronting some unfinished business of his own, these have lost a bit of their luster for me but they still scratch an itch.
  • My Brilliant Career (Net) Series Premiere, Thursday 8/13 – A rebellious young writer must choose between a safe marriage and the literary career she actually wants in this Australian romantic drama.
  • Lanterns (HBO) Series Premiere, Sunday 8/16, 9pm – Rookie Green Lantern John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) and veteran Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) investigate a murder with cosmic implications in small-town America, color me intrigued.
  • It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (Fx) Season 18 Premiere, Monday 8/17, 9pm – The gang returns to Paddy’s for an eighteenth season of scheming, they are somehow able to endlessly keep these characters going and not growing.

The procrastinator lists mostly scripted items that may not be on your regular season pass, though notation does not imply recommendation. Times noted are typically PST, please check your local listings.

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peacock rotation: the recap

If you read why I rotate my streaming services, you already know how this works: subscribe for a month, binge the backlog, cancel, repeat. This time around it wasn’t even Peacock that got things started it was The ‘Burbs. I put it on during a flight, landed, and immediately went and grabbed a month of Peacock so I could finish.

Here’s what filled the month:

  • All Her Fault – I threw this one in after it got an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series and all I can say is “what?” the show at points started making me mad, it does take a miracle for me to stop watching.
  • Brilliant Minds – I had started this series on my last Peacock subscription, I described it as like an AI wrote a tortured Dr show, not great and now cancelled.
  • The ‘Burbs – The series version of the original flick, this was cute enough based on the characters but not the greatest twisty plot.
  • The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins – This is very Tracy Morgan, take that how you take that, again a fun ensemble cast but I wanted to like it more than I did.
  • The Five Star Weekend – The show that ended up closing out my whole subscription, silly and not really my thing but the cast made it work (and I love me some Olyphant but stalker much).
  • The Hunting Party – This show was really not good and if I didn’t know it had already been cancelled I wouldn’t have stuck around for the weekly hunt-down-of-the-worst-of-the-worst and the overall mysteries.
  • Obsession – This is a flick that everyone seemed to be talking about, not totally my thing but well done for what it is.
  • The Resort – I had heard good things about this and dig the leads but it was so tonally weird, sometimes in a good way sometimes not, but glad I finally got around to it.
  • St. Denis Medical – A decent medical workplace comedy that’s solidly grown on me, glad I finally got caught up.

In case you’re diving in there’s tons of good stuff in the backlog including both Peacock originals and NBC classics:

  • Brooklyn Nine-Nine (NBC) – A cop comedy that’s somehow both goofy and got a real heart to it, I might be due for a rewatch on this.
  • Community (NBC) – I did recently rewatch this weird little show about a community college study group that somehow became one of the most inventive comedies on TV, they keep threatening to do a movie but the cast is in high demand.
  • The Day of the Jackal (Pea) – Eddie Redmayne as an assassin being chased across Europe, high-stakes cat and mouse, kept me intrigued.
  • Friday Night Lights (NBC) – One of the greats, clear eyes, full hearts, and still one of the most quietly devastating dramas NBC has ever made, and no it’s not just about football.
  • Girls5eva (Pea) – Tina Fey’s one-hit-wonder girl group reuniting for one more shot at fame great cast with sharp, silly comedy.
  • The Good Place (NBC) – Philosophy disguised as a sitcom, and the kind of show that rewards a rewatch once you know where it’s headed, and a recent rewatch I did.
  • Law & Order (NBC) – I don’t really watch this anymore but I did for years including in reruns it’s one of the original procedurals, and no I haven’t kept up with the world.
  • Mrs. Davis (Pea) – A nun on a mission to take down an all-powerful AI, surreal doesn’t begin to cover it, but that’s the appeal.
  • Parks and Recreation (NBC) – This first season took a minute but it grew into one of the best workplace comedies ever made, and Ron Swanson alone is worth the price of admission.
  • Poker Face (Pea) – Natasha Lyonne as a drifter with a lie-detector superpower, solving a new mystery every episode, the first season was the best but her crime an episode with great guests and styles was fun.
  • Scrubs (NBC) – The reboot of this, ignoring the original final season, really captured the spirit of the original with equal parts absurd and genuinely moving, and still one of the better medical shows out there (note it moved to ABC for later seasons where you can find the reboot).
  • 30 Rock (NBC) – Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin at their sharpest, with a joke density that holds up on every rewatch, I still quote Fey from this one, also due a rewatch.
  • We Are Lady Parts (Pea) – A British sitcom about an all-female Muslim punk band trying to make it, consistently one of the most recommended comedies on the whole platform.

That’s the wrap on my Peacock month. Now it goes back on the shelf until there’s another backlog worth diving into. If there’s a hidden gem I missed, Peacock original or deep NBC cut, let me know in the comments.

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new and noteworthy tv: 7/27-8/9

My Peacock subscription finished up with The Five Star Resort which had a good enough cast to make this somewhat silly show work. 7 Dials (Net) was one of my plane shows and I enjoyed the mystery mostly due to the protagonist. For a couple of shows with middling reviews that were somehow called out that both annoyed me All Her Fault (Pea – Emmy nomination?) and His & Hers (Net – best list?), pass and pass.

Plane movies include The Devil Wears Prada 2 which I thought was a pretty good revisit to our characters in today’s world. And The Drama which I thought did a good job of making our judgement about character and actions very questionable. Obsession (Pea) was one everyone seemed to be talking about and while not totally my thing I thought it did a good job for what it was. And Heartstopper (Net) which was more an abbreviated cap off to the series than an actual standalone movie so only if you’ve been on the journey.

  • Furious (Hulu) Series Premiere, Monday 7/27 – An FBI agent, Emmy Rossum, hunts a calculating serial killer, their paths intertwining until the line between right and wrong blurs, giving Killing Eve vibes?
  • The Ridge (Acorn) Series Premiere, Monday 7/27 – Scottish doc flees the shambles of her life to visit her estranged sis in New Zealand and finds death and secrets.
  • The Ark (Syfy) Season Premiere, Wednesday 7/29 – I thought this show wasn’t coming back, will need to remember what this crew searching for a new home was up to.
  • The Bombing of Pan Am 103 (Net) Series Premiere, Thursday 7/30 – A dramatization of the Lockerbie bombing investigation.
  • Paris Is Always a Good Idea (Hallmark+) Series Premiere, Thursday 7/30 – Rom-com comfort food, presumably someone finding love in Paris, Hallmark romcoms a little too light for me.
  • The Librarians: The Next Chapter (TNT) Season Premiere, Sunday 8/2 – Back for round two of librarian adventures, I watched the original of this and found it perfectly decent show to watch while doing other things, I think I stopped getting this after I cut the cord.
  • Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi (Dis+/Hulu) Series Premiere, Wednesday 8/5 – Expanding the animated short into a full series.
  • Sterling Point (Am) Series Premiere, Wednesday 8/5 – A teenager inherits her mysterious grandfather’s island in Canada and uncovers new friendships, romance, and family secrets.
  • The Shards (FX/Hulu) Series Premiere, Wednesday 8/5, 9pm – Adapted from the Bret Easton Ellis novel, I might be behind on his books but generally enjoy his ’80s privileged teens.
  • Ted Lasso (App+) Season Premiere, Wednesday 8/5 – Coach Lasso’s back, we knew it was coming and here we go… I’ll need to time my apple subscription accordingly since I have some catch up to do, hmm doesn’t finish until 10/7.
  • D.O.P.E. Unit (AllBlk) Series Premiere, Thursday 8/6 – A Philadelphia-set crime drama following an off-the-books task force waging a covert war on powerful crime families.
  • Anna Pigeon (USA) Series Premiere, Friday 8/7 – Based on Nevada Barr’s novels, a former city dweller turned park ranger investigates crimes across the national parks.

The procrastinator lists mostly scripted items that may not be on your regular season pass, though notation does not imply recommendation. Times noted are typically PST, please check your local listings.

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new and noteworthy tv: 7/13-7/26

I had heard good things about Something Bad is Going to Happen and while it’s not totally my bag agreed they did some good stuff, I also plowed through the dark but engaging Detective Hole (Net). The fluffy but not actually good Elle (Am) just doesn’t emotionally make sense as a prequel and wasn’t good enough on its own. I also have had Peacock for a bit so caught up on not good Brilliant Minds and even less tolerable The Hunting Party both cancelled, as well as The Resort which was just so tonally weird. And of course the series finisher of The Bear (Hulu) which was a great final season but not my favorite season.

Movies I caught were The Sheep Detectives (Am) which was more cute than good but was cute, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die (Hulu) which was just a smidge too dragged on to be great but had a lot of great elements. Project Hail Mary (Am) which was in fact pretty great, Enola Holmes (Net) which is charming in its way. Catching the final two Emmy nominated movies I hadn’t seen Heads of State (Am), ridiculous but did the action buddy flick fine enough, and People We Meet on Vacation (Net) which didn’t check my good rom com criteria.

  • Lucky (App+) Series Premiere, Wednesday 7/15 – Anya Taylor-Joy as a con artist on the run sounds good.
  • Ride or Die (Am) Series Premiere, Wednesday 7/15 – Also on the run Octavia Spencer and Hannah Waddingham, playing an assassin, take this one in a comedic direction.
  • The Hawk (Net) Series Premiere, Thursday 7/16 – Will Ferrell plays a golf pro on an attempted return in what we can only assume a very Will Ferrell way.
  • Heartstopper Forever (Net) Movie, Friday 7/17 – This series is getting a movie sendoff.
  • A Shop for Killers (Hulu/Dis+) Season Premiere, Wednesday 7/22 – This guns a blasting series returns for more action one can only assume.
  • Gone (Brit) Series Premiere, Thursday 7/23 – Where is this vanished wife?
  • Stuart Fails to Save the Universe (HBO) Series Premiere, Thursday 7/23 – I so far haven’t been much of a fan of TBBT spinoffs, though I enjoyed the original, but this one promises a bit more originality.

The procrastinator lists mostly scripted items that may not be on your regular season pass, though notation does not imply recommendation. Times noted are typically PST, please check your local listings.

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new and noteworthy tv: 6/15-6/28

On Netflix I worked my way through The Burroughs (Stranger Things light with old people) good cast and good enough but just ok, and Lord of the Flies which looked pretty but I wasn’t that into watching the expected boyhood gone bad, the second season of The Four Seasons which did a better job mixing in more laughs with everyone not getting along, and How to Get to Heaven from Belfast which has notes of Bad Sisters but is a little ridiculous. Over on Amazon Prime I made it through Bait a fun concept about Riz Ahmed’s character’s quest to become the next Bond but for me it was also a little too ridiculous, also ridiculous but I couldn’t miss was Nick Cage as a noir detective and Spider-Man in Spider-Noir which gave him moments of going full Cage, not great but entertaining, and Jack Ryan catching up on both the series, which was very entertaining, and the final movie which probably could have used a full season. And of course over on HBO finished out Hacks which went out on a high note and Euphoria which felt a little too strained for me in its third and final season but had some good moments and performances.

For movies I went to HBO for Lurker, a psychological thriller that had its moments but I thought could have been tighter, and Miss You, Love You which was carried by good performances but otherwise not amazing.

  • The Season (Hulu) Series Premiere, Wednesday 6/17 – From the producers of Crazy Rich Asians, a group of friends in Hong Kong’s elite find betrayal etc. at a summer getaway.
  • Harlan Coben’s I Will Find You (Net) Series Premiere, Thursday 6/18 – A father sets out to find out what happened after being wrongly convicted of his son’s murder.
  • Sugar (App+) Season Premiere, Friday 6/19 – I mostly enjoyed the first season of this noir vibed detective mystery with some added spice.
  • Wild Cherry (Para+) Series Premiere, Wednesday 6/24 – Perfect life of wealthy mothers who are besties when their daughters are implicated in a scandal from the BBC.
  • The Bear (Hulu) Season Premiere, Thursday 6/25 – We’ll see where our frenetic characters take us in the final season.
  • Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness (HBO) Series Premiere, Friday 6/26 – I’m not really a fan of sketch comedy, or Larry David but curious about his pairing with the Obamas to bring a look at America’s history.

The procrastinator lists mostly scripted items that may not be on your regular season pass, though notation does not imply recommendation. Times noted are typically PST, please check your local listings.

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