Well we’re wrapping up the season and other than yet another Netflix International release, Selection Day an Indian coming of age story, there’s not much new to note. I have been felled by a somewhat traditional Christmas cold so I’ve been tuning into streaming. Lot of Mindy Project with a dash of Big Love, Homecoming, Downton Abbey, and Casual.
new and noteworthy tv: 12/17-12/23
I wrapped up The Kominsky Method which was enjoyable based on our two leads, and based on end of year wrap ups floating around started Homecoming and Big Mouth. The holidays should offer some downtime for backlog and perhaps an actual movie.
- Overthinking with Kat and June (YT) Series Premiere, Wednesday
- Boru (Wolf) (Net) Series Premiere, Friday – Turkish tales of heroes in 2014.
- Derry Girls (Net) Series Premiere, Friday – 90s Northern Ireland teens, initial buzz is positive for this comedy.
- Diablero (Net) Series Premiere, Friday – Mexican horror fantasy thriller.
- Perfume (Net) Series Premiere, Friday – German murder mystery.
- Vanity Fair (Am) Series Premiere, Friday – Adaptation of the novel a woman clawing her way out of poverty to the heights of English Society, looks like mostly well done.
- Watership Down (Net) Series Premiere, Sunday – The bunnies are back, not enough buzz yet to tell.
Returning streaming: Marvel’s Runaways (Hulu, Fri).
The procrastinator lists items that may not be on your regular season pass, though notation does not imply recommendation. Times noted are typically PST.
new and noteworthy tv: 12/10-12/16
Ok I really need to figure out what to do about the glut of Netflix series that keep launching. I mostly plan to ignore them unless someone tells me what to watch, which means I don’t usually have any advance info on some of these listed below. Alas should still be pretty quiet until the new year. Time to start looking at best of lists!
- Champaign ILL (YT Prem) Series Premiere, Wednesday – A rapper and his entourage in this new comedy from the creators of Happy Endings.
- Hymn of Death (Net) Series Premiere, Friday – A Korean tragic love story in 3 parts.
- The Protector (Net) Series Premiere, Friday – It’s a lowly shopkeeper’s destiny to protect his town from mystical Immortals.
- Tidelands (Net) Series Premiere, Friday – A woman returns home to her small fishing village after jail to find there are some other hidden secrets.
Returning streaming: Wanted (Net, Thursday), Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, special ep (Net, Friday), Cuckoo (Net, Friday), Fuller House (Net, Friday), The Travelers (Net, Friday)
new and noteworthy tv: 12/3-12/9
I wrapped up Rectify this week, which I keep recommending to people with a caveat that it’s slow and can be more bitter than sweet but beautifully poignant. I also wrapped Sabrina which I wanted to like more than I did, good moments but suffered like many Netflix shows by not grabbing quite enough over the spread of episodes. I also went back and picked up the first ep of Dirty John and it was a pass for me, I couldn’t get on board with any of the characters/angles, for a better ‘relationship goes bad’ I’d go back to You which just wrapped on Life. Mrs. Maisel also returns this week and while it wasn’t my fave Palladino series there was much to like and I’m curious how the second season will go.
This week is pretty light but yet again this week there are a handful of new Netflix shows (for amusement check out SNL’s take) none of which I can easily find info on, the good thing about streaming is I can wait for critics to point me to what’s worth watching: Hero Mask (Mon), Bad Blood (Fri), Dogs of Berlin (Fri), Pine Gap (Fri), Plan Coeur (Fri).
new and noteworthy tv: 11/26-12/2
Well a long weekend and a discount code got me onboard with Hulu. And of course rather than immediately dropping into Handmaid’s Tale I did a little Mindy Project and Casual. Sometimes you just have to balance out the drama of Fortitude, Patriot, Downton Abbey, Big Love, Rectify, and even Sabrina with a little comedy. I’m about to wrap a couple of those up so should have a little room over the next holiday for a couple more good ones plus catching The Little Drummer Girl which I’ve yet to dive into. And this week a few more series with very little word which mostly seems to mean for streaming that they’re global imports that we’re not paying much attention to.
- 1983 (Net) Series Premiere, Friday – This alt history thriller centers around secret conspiracies in Poland.
- Baby (Net) Series Premiere, Friday – Two teens start living a double life in Rome.
- Memories of the Alhambra (Net) Series Premiere, Saturday – Looking for the creator of an augmented reality game.
- Nightflyers (Syfy) Series Premiere, Sunday, 10pm – An adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s novella about a spacecraft looking for alien life.
Returning streaming: F is For Family (Net, Friday)
The procrastinator lists items that may not be on your regular season pass, though notation does not imply recommendation. Times noted are typically PST.
new and noteworthy tv: 11/19-11/25
I finally wrapped up Ozark, which lost a little bit of its living on the edge charm for me. And though I’m not done with my backlog I decided that starting a half hour show with Kominsky Method could slot right in and the first two episodes show promise. Along with some serious Thanksgiving downtime will look to sample Little Drummer Girl and Dirty John below.
- The Little Drummer Girl (AMC) Series Premiere, Monday, 9pm – John le Carre novel comes to the small screen where a young actress is drawn into international espionage in six parts rolling out over these next three days, while it sounds like the plot may be imperfect the performances make it worthwhile.
- A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (ABC) Wednesday, 8pm – Charlie is the hapless host.
- Thanksgiving Day Parade/National Dog Show (NBC) Thursday, 9am/12pm – ‘Tis the season.
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas (NBC), Frosty the Snowman/Frosty Returns (CBS), Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town (ABC), Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer (CW) – Friday we’ve officially switched to our next holiday.
- Dirty John (Bravo) Series Premiere, Sunday, 10pm – Romance gone awry, I’ll try it with Connie Britton, Eric Bana, and Jean Smart?
Streaming: The Last Kingdom (Netflix, Monday), The Bureau (SunN, Wed), No Activity (CBSAA, Thursday), Frontier (Net, Fri).
The procrastinator lists items that may not be on your regular season pass, though notation does not imply recommendation. Times noted are typically PST.
new and noteworthy tv: 11/12-11/18
Before starting in on Patriot I felt like I needed to knock off a few other streaming options. I wrapped up Goliath and while I like the characters the second season just got ridiculous and still relatively difficult to follow as a seasonal case and while I should call it a day I just need to wrap up Fortitude. And I think I need to give some fresh eyes to the remaining Ozark oh wait and I still have some Sabrina, that hit a bit of a lag midway but still some good stuff in there.
- Origin (YT Prem) Series Premiere, Wednesday – An intergalactic space thriller, I’m really still not yet onboard with these alt networks.
- The Bisexual (Hulu) Series Premiere, Friday – A dramedy following a woman exiting a relationship with a woman looking to navigate dating both men and women.
- The Kominsky Method (Net) Series Premiere, Friday – Actor turned acting coach Michael Douglas and his agent/friend Alan Arkin in an 8 episode dark comedy, critics are giving it some good buzz.
- Marzapur (Net) Series Premiere, Friday – Indian gangsters.
- The Prince of Peoria (Net) Series Premiere, Friday – A prince wants to experience regular life.
- My Brilliant Friend (HBO) Series Premiere, Sunday, 9pm – An adaptation of the Ferrante novel of a coming-of-age story about childhood friends.
- Queen America (Face Watch) Series Premiere, Sunday, 9pm – Catherine Zeta Jones takes on a new Miss America contender.
- Escape at Dannemora (Show) Series Premiere, Sunday, 10pm – Benecio Del Toro and Paul Dano are prison inmates who escape.
Streaming returns: Narcos (Net, Friday).
The procrastinator lists items that may not be on your regular season pass, though notation does not imply recommendation. Times noted are typically PST.
new and noteworthy tv: 11/5-11/11
No early buzz to point to a yes or no on the new findings but I am cautiously optimistic for a new season of odd Patriot.
- Elections (Various) – Tune in to see if the big blue wave makes its way to shore.
- Clique (Pop) Series Premiere, Wednesday, 10pm – Besties head off to uni but does this clique of alpha girls have a dark underbelly?
- The Cry (SundN) Series Premiere, Thursday – English psychological thriller follows young parents struggling with custody battles and unthinkable tragedy.
- Sally4ever (HBO) Series Premiere, Sunday, 10:30pm – Sally is about to marry David but then Emma comes along…
Returning streaming: The Great British Baking Show (Net, Friday), Patriot (Am, Friday).
The procrastinator lists items that may not be on your regular season pass, though notation does not imply recommendation. Times noted are typically PST.
new and noteworthy tv: 10/29-11/4
Well the gas is easing off of new scripted series. Which is good because I’ve just about caught up to eliminating almost everything new. I’ve been ignoring my streaming shows (Ozark, Rectify, Fortitude, Goliath, Big Love, Downton Abbey) but did manage to take a first stab at Sabrina which isn’t amazing but is definitely a fun dark spin on comic.
- Tell Me A Story (CBSAA) Series Premiere, Thursday – Fairy tales reimagined as psychological thrillers.
- Homecoming (Am) Series Premiere, Friday – Julia Roberts does a round in series in a psychological thriller by Sam Esmail (Mr Robot).
Returning streaming: Startup (Crack, Thursday)
The procrastinator lists items that may not be on your regular season pass, though notation does not imply recommendation. Times noted as appropriate are typically PST.
new and noteworthy tv: 10/22-10/28
I think after this week we’re basically done with new fall shows. Which is good because I’ve gotten a little behind trying to sample all things new.
- Bodyguard (Net) Series Premiere, Wednesday – This psychological thriller is getting some good early buzz.
- Legacies (CW) Series Premiere, Thursday, 9pm – The next generation of supernatural beings, not sure how closely tied this is to The Vampire Diaries or The Originals.
- Heathers (Para) Series Premiere, Thursday, 10pm – Loved the movie but this series is basically just a burn off since it was cancelled for being what sounds like bad and tone deaf.
- The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Net) Series Premiere, Friday – I have fond memories of the more campy Sabrina the Teenage Witch but it sounds like this more dramatic take with Kiernan Shipka could be a keeper.
The procrastinator lists items that may not be on your regular season pass, though notation does not imply recommendation. Times noted as appropriate are typically PST.