The World's Common Tater

This is the last week before the new network TV season begins. We spent all of our TV time trying to catch up on shows and clear the DVR. I did watch a new show when I was alone as I am already caught up on everything I watch without my wife. My reading has slowed because the book I am currently reading, while good, is not one you can read quickly. Here are the details.

Movies

I noticed last weekend that Taps was on one of the movie channels. I checked for upcoming airings and saw it was on early Sunday morning. I noted this in case I was awake that early. I was, so I watched it. I loved Taps when I watched it years ago. I still liked it this time, but it did seem kind of slow in the middle. It was fun to watch Timothy Hutton, Sean Penn, Tom Cruise, Evan Handler, and Giancarlo Esposito in a movie together when they were all late teens or ealry twenties.

TV

As I mentioned above, we watched a lot of TV this week. I watched the latest episodes of The Walking Dead, Heels, Impeachment, and Miracle Workers. We finished the previous seasons of FBI and The Resident. I wanted to finish The Resident because I am very curious how they will write Emily VanCamp’s character out of the show in the new season. I wanted to be able to watch the new shows close to when they air.

I watched all six episodes of The White Lotus. I liked that it was only six epiodes. I kept the story flowing without a lot of filler. The cast was great. Jennifer Coolidge usually annoys me, but less so here. Murray Bartlett was great as Armand, the manager of the resort. I would watch Alexandra Daddario in anything. I was just at a resort similar to the one on the show, so it was interesting to watch given that. As far as I know, no one was killed at our resort. If you have HBO Max you should watch it.

Books

I finished one book this week.

Golden Arm by Carl Deuker – Laz Weathers is a senior in high school. He lives in a tralier park and goes to high school in the “bad” part of town. He is also a baseball player with the talent to go pro. The new principal at his school drops the baseball program at the same time his trailer park is bought by a developer and they have to move. Laz’s talent is noticed by a booster at a school in the wealthy part of town and he is offered the chance to move in with the fmaily and pitch for one of the best teams in the state.

I’ve always been a sucker for an inspirational sports story and Deuker is one of the best at writing YA sports stories. This was a nice, quick read. Laz was a great character. The baseball parts are well written. None of the characters read like he sterotypical villain you sometimes find in these stories. I didn’t even mind the typical hollywood happy ending.

Good for middle school and up. Great book for reluctant reader boys who like sports.

On Deck

I have The Quiet Place 2 on DVD. My wife won’t watch horror movies, so this will likely be an early morning movie for me. The new TV season starts Monday so I will be trying to sample as many new shows as possible. Chicago Fire and A Million Little Things had cliffhanger endings last season so I will try to watch them as soon as possible. I mentioned already that I want to watch The Resident as soon as I can to see how they write out a main character. I am hoping to finish reading The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitch today so I can move on to Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead.