The World's Common Tater

Another week with no movies. I don’t think I even watched part of an old movie on a random channel while doing something else. That will change next week as we are taking advantage of $3 movies for National Cinema Day and going to the movies. So, I will go right to the TV portion of the week.

TV

I finished season one of Big Shot with John Stamos on Disney Plus. I’m always a sucker for inspirational sports movies/shows so this was perfect for me. Stamos was good as the coach learning there is more to life and coaching than winning. The girls playing the team were all very good. I’m looking forward to season 2.

We finished season one of Only Murders in the Building on Hulu and watched the first two episodes of season two. I thought season one was very good even though I suspected the killer way before the reveal. Who knew that Selena Gomez would be perfect to team up with Steve Martin and Martin Short? I was also pleasantly surprised to see an old high school classmate wrote some of the episodes and is a co-executive producer.

We watched the first two episodes of House of the Dragon. So far, so good. I didn’t realize the time jumps would be so extreme and that four characters will be recast mid-season due to the jumps. I’m looking forward to more.

We are still watching Bump and Resident Alien each week. Two shows my wife normally wouldn’t watch but loves.

I started Glow on Netflix. but I’m not sure I like it enough to continue.

We are still watching 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown most days when my daughter returns from work.

Books

I finished two books this week.

Rivals by Katharine McGee – This is the third book in the American Royals series. It is set in a world where George Washington became King of America and revolves around the present-day American Royal family. In this one, Beatrice is at her first major event as Queen, Samantha is dealing with her royal status complicating her relationship with a future Duke, and Jeff is still just there to drive the drama between Nina and Daphne.

This series is basically a romance series. Most of the drama revolves around the love lives of the royals and how their royalty complicates things. The first book was very good. I liked the second one. This one does not measure up to those two. It is way too long(almost 400 pages). It has some emotional growth with some characters that McGee tears down at the end for the sake of drama. Characters make major life decisions based on who they think they love as teenagers. It ends with a cliffhanger in an obvious ploy to drive anticipation for the next book. I will probably fall for it and read the next one as well.

Something Wicked by David Housewright – This is the 19th book in the Rushmore McKenzie series. It is one of my favorite detective series. McKenzie is a retired cop, turned millionaire who works as an unlicensed detective for friends when needed. In this one, a friend of his wife calls and asks him to investigate her grandmother’s death. She thinks a family member killed her because she had decided against selling the family estate/resort to developers for millions. While in town other crimes connected to the family occur and McKenzie works with the chief of police to solve them.

It took me a bit to get into this one. There was way too much Covid talk at the beginning since McKenzie’s wife owns a restaurant and the place they were going was a resort. He also mentioned several times who was or was not wearing a mask. He stopped the incessant Covid talk early enough for me to get into the story and it was a good mystery. The family was dysfunctional and any of them could have been involved in the crimes. There was also a group called Sons of Europa that had an adjacent property that might be involved. I didn’t piece it together until the end. It is a very good series. I would recommend it.

On Deck

We are going to the theater to see Bullet Train tomorrow afternoon.

Thor: Love and Thunder will be on Disney Plus, so there is a good chance we will watch it.

I might finally give up and watch Dr. Strange alone.

Cobra Kai returns next week, but my wife will be out of town so I will have to wait to watch it.

I should probably go back to Ozark before I forget what happened in season one, but I’ve been wanting shorter, lighter shows lately.

I am about to start reading Upgrade by Blake Crouch.