Tag Archives: tv

TV Is Turning Into a Streaming Pile Of

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I was reading the TV business news as I do and I saw an article about the new Psych movie. The movie was due to come to USA Network in 2019. Now, they have decided that the movie will only be available on the new NBC streaming service.  More and more shows are being announced by networks as streaming only. All of the networks have jumped on the streaming bandwagon. Where does that leave the consumer?

I was happy to be the TV dinosaur who still has cable. I like having my local channels, network TV, and other shows and sports that come with cable. I was happy to pay a little more to have what Netflix had to offer. My kids use it enough to make it worthwhile. I pay for HBO on top of cable and we use my son’s Prime account some. We never subscribed to Hulu. I thought we were set.

Now we have Disney + coming. There’s CBS All Access. There is the aforementioned NBC service. HBO Max is coming from Warner. I don’t know what that means for someone who already has HBO. I pay for cable, but can’t watch the Psych movie that was supposed to be on cable. They canceled AP Bio but the resurrected it but only on streaming.

What does that mean for someone like me? Is it time to call cable dead and just use the money to subscribe to all of the streaming? Will I still be able to watch the sports I want to watch with that? Is there a danger that internet providers will enter into deals with some services and throttle the rest? Will streaming eventually be the death of TV?

TV is turning into a streaming pile of something, I just don’t know if it is something good or something that stinks.

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I Am a TV Dinosaur

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One of my social media posts for work this week mentions that the fall network TV season starts on the 23rd. I’m sure there will people who will think, if not comment, that no one cares about the upcoming season because no one has cable anymore. No one cars that new, weekly shows are coming because no one watches shows like that anymore. We just wait until they are available to binge and then we watch them all at once. I think they are right for the most part.

I’m a dinosaur when it comes to TV. I have Netflix and Prime. I watch some originals and some old shows I missed the first time around. I don’t really binge, though, It’s rare that I watch more than a couple of episodes of a show before I’m ready to move on to something else. I think the only two seasons of a show I can remember bingeing the entire season at once were season one of On My Block and season two of American Vandal. Otherwise, I tend to take a while to finish a show and prefer the weekly model of the networks. I also miss how everyone had to watch the shows at the same time. If a big episode of a TV show aired and you watched it you could talk about it the next day because others would have watched it as well. You didn’t have to worry about the whole spoiler thing. TV was more of a community thing. I loved watching Survivor live when I didn’t work Wednesday nights so I could interact with others on Twitter who were watching at the same time. While I’m typing this I’m watching Friday Night Lights. Everyone else who cares about Friday Night Lights watched it years ago. It is and will continue to be, a solitary thing. Even when I watch the newer shows it feels solitary. Not everyone is watching when I watch. They are either way ahead of me, or in rare cases, behind me. It’s hard to talk to people about it.

I got my Fall TV Preview Issue of Entertainment Weekly yesterday. I look forward to it the way other people look forward to the Christmas toy catalogs. I still love this time of year I can’t wait to watch new episodes of my favorite shows. I can’t wait to try the premieres of the new shows. On the 23rd, my blog in the mornings will become a “What’s on TV Tonight” series. This year I might still write a non-TV post in the evening, but I will spend time in the morning posting the schedule for the night and saying what I will watch. I will post my thoughts on new shows as I watch them. I might be the only one who cares.

I am a TV dinosaur but I like it this way.

My Week in Books, Movies and TV 9/13/19

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It’s been an off week for me. This is my first original post since Sunday. I never could get any words out when I had time to post. It feels like I had an odd schedule this week but my hours were the same as any other week. I did finish several books, so I obviously had time this week. It just felt like I didn’t.

Movies – We watched The Sun is Also a Star. I read the book and liked the book. The movie wasn’t terrible, but, like most adaptations, I feel like I would have liked it more if I had not read the book. We started Godzilla, King of Monsters when both kids were home, but then realized we didn’t really have time to finish if the kids were going to leave when they wanted to leave so we stopped.

TV – I watched a lot of sports on TV this week. Kentucky football. Ravens football. Braves baseball. Other random football games. I think that’s why I read more. It’s easy to read during the random games and still know what is happening in the game. I watched the first two episodes of the new season of 13 Reasons Why. When my daughter judged me for this I told her that I was invested in these kids lives now and had to see how it turned out. It’s true. I like the characters and I am invested in their stories now. I just need more time to watch all of the stuff I want to watch. When is someone going to pay me to stay at home and watch TV?

Books – I finished three books this week:

Murder of Three Quarters by Sophie Hannah – a Hercule Poirot book. It was OK. I found it too slow and never really was invested in the mystery. I didn’t read a lot of Agatha Christie. Maybe Poirot fans would like the book. I don’t know.

Texts from Jane Eyre by Mallory Ortberg – A collection of fictional(obviously) texts and calls from famous literary characters. It was OK. Some were really good. Some so-so. I listened and the audio was well done, but sometimes my yelling at other cars distracted me from listening.

Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties by Tom O’Neill – O’Neill was hired to write an article for Premiere magazine and became obsessed with the case. The article never happened. Many years later the book did. The Manson stuff was interesting and brought up a lot of unanswered questions. The CIA stuff was not so interesting and it was a stretch trying to tie it to Manson. In the end, he had no new answers at all. Only read it if you are as interested in Manson as I am.

On Deck – We will try again with Godzilla. I have Rocketman on DVD so we might watch that. We are now working our way through the latest season of Agents of SHEILD. I need to start reading the teen books for Books for the Beast next month. I guess the facilitator of the discussion should actually read the books. I’m starting with And the Ocean Was Our Sky by Patrick Ness.

My Week in Books, Movies, and TV 9/6/19

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After a full day of cleaning on Saturday, I was able to just relax for the rest of my three day weekend. You would think that would equal more finished books. You would be wrong. There is an explanation for that, though, that will come in the book section.

Movies – I did not watch a new movie this week. I had one new movie from the library that will go back unwatched today. Instead, the movies we watched were old movies we had seen before that were on TV over the holiday weekend. We watched White House Down – the superior people taking over the White House movie. I don’t get why Olympus Has Fallen got two sequels instead of this one. I still really like it. My wife watched the new version of Total Recall while I read and half paid attention. We watched Doc Hollywood. It was a nice pleasant way to spend an afternoon. I like new movies, but sometimes it’s fun to relax with an older movie you enjoy.

TV – We finished season one of Jack Ryan on Amazon. It was very good and I can’t wait for season two in November. I’m staying current on the shows I’m recording from TV in an effort to keep my DVR in shape to record all of the new shows that are less than a month away. Yes, I still have cable. I will always have cable. I love TV too much to not have the new network shows in real-time. I also have Netflix and Amazon and will probably try to convince my wife that we also need Disney Plus. If we get the package I’ve read about that might also add Hulu as well. I may never read a book again.

Books – I did finish one book this week. It was one of the Tor novellas, but it counts. It was The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor Lavalle. It is a revisiting of Lovecraft’s The Horror at Red Hook from the viewpoint of a black man. It won the  2016 Shirley Jackson Award for best novella and was a finalist for various other awards. Needless to say, it was very good and I would recommend it. It is also less than 200 pages which is refreshing in the days of the 400 and over page books. I actually read quite a bit over the week but didn’t finish another book. I started reading Chaos, a book about the Manson murders where the author tries to prove Bugliosi’s “race war” motive in Helter Skelter is wrong. I got halfway through that and then focused on reading the book for the mystery book club at work. That book is The Mystery of Three Quarters by Sophie Hannah. It is a new Hercule Poirot mystery. Do we really need someone else writing these? It is not my favorite. So, the switching books has slowed me down in finishing even though I spent a lot of time reading this week. Now I have another book I need to finish for my personal book club next Saturday. Too many assigned readings!

On Deck – We will watch The Sun is Also a Star and Godzilla King of Monsters with the kids this weekend. I also have The Last Black Man in San Francisco I will try to watch at some point. We will likely finish the last season of Flash while my daughter is at home. I need to watch more Mr Mercedes before it is due back to the library. I will continue reading the two books mentioned above.

Actors I Will Always Watch

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I’m watching The Righteous Gemstones. This is the first episode with Walton Goggins. It made me think about what actors will always get me to watch a show or a movie. So, here’s a list.

  1. Walton Goggins – This is a relatively new one for me, but I’ve loved him n everything he’s done. I will watch The Unicorn this fall only because he is the start. The premise of the show with any other actor would probably make it a skip for me.
  2. Timothy Olyphant – I loved Justified. Olyphant and Goggins were really good in it. Like Goggins, Olyphant is also very good at comedy. I’m looking forward to his next project.
  3. Gary Cole – I watched Fam last year because of Gary Cole. The rest of the show was pretty terrible, but I watched because his scenes were so funny. I never watched Black-ish. I did watch some of Grown-ish. I will likely watch Mixed-ish this fall in part because of Cole’s involvement.
  4. Mark Paul Gosselaar – This one isn’t so much about the actor as much as it is his talent in picking good projects. It’s at the point now where if I see he is in a show I assume it will be pretty good. The was a recast and he is now the dad in Mixed-ish. With him and Gary Cole involved, it is a must-watch for me.
  5. Emma Stone – I know some people find her annoying, but I really like her and will watch what looks like a bad movie if she is in it. My favorite is still Easy A.
  6. Amber Stevens West – I watched another bad comedy last year hoping it would get better because I liked the stars. She was one of them. I will watch her next show no matter what it is. Hopefully, it will be better.
  7. Damon Wayans, Jr – He was the other star of the above show. I watched because I love the two of them. I enjoyed them on the show, but the writing was terrible. I wanted it to get better, but it didn’t. What a waste of talent.

I’m sure there are more, but that’s who I can think of right now. I left off a lot of major stars like The Rock, Keaunu and the like because it’s not exactly a revelation that someone would watch stuff because of them. Do you have people you watch no matter what?

My Week in Books, Movies, and TV 8/30/19

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I’m back on track a little with my reading. An audiobook on my 2-hour drive on Thursday helped with that some. My TV viewing has been adversely affected by my new sleep pattern of going to bed early because my dog won’t sleep past 5am.

Movies – We watched The Predator. It is a new sequel to Schwarzenegger’s movie from the 80’s. We enjoyed it. It’s not going to win any awards, but it was a fun way to spend a couple of hours. I think sometimes the critics forget that it’s OK for a movie to just be a fun distraction. I don’t need an award-winning movie al the time.  My wife never wants to watch award winners. She finds them boring. The loves dumb action movies, so The Predator was perfect for her.

TV – We started watching the Jack Ryan series on Amazon this week. I was a big fan of the first few books in the series so I’m always interested to see how the new adaptations work.  I’m enjoying it so far. I think Krasinski is good as Jack Ryan and I like Wendell Pierce in everything he does. We will keep watching. I watched the first episode of the newest seasons of Mr. Mercedes and Dear White People yesterday. I’m looking forward to watching more. Only a few weeks until the new TV season. I also need to clear some space on my DVR soon.

Books – I finished two books this week.

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins – It is weird and could be hard to follow when I was listening instead of reading, but I really liked it. It’s hard to give a basic premise, but I will try. There was a man who might be a god who adopted some kids and taught each of them a specific skill(healing, language, fighting, etc) with a rule that no one was to study outside of their catalog. We start with the “dad” missing and possibly dead. Add a plumber/thief who might have a connection to the “family” and a legendary soldier/now Homeland Security agent and you get a weird, but an enjoyable mystery.

Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe – I agree with a friend who rated it on Goodreads with 5 stars for the message, three stars for their enjoyment of it. I’m glad the book exists. I’m glad I read it. I didn’t think the writing was that good.

On Deck – I have Little waiting for me at the library and now that I know my daughter will come home next weekend I will also get my copy of The Sun is Also a Star to watch with her. I’m sure we will watch more episodes of Jack Ryan and I will watch more Mr. Mercedes and Dear White People. I’m in the middle of The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor Lavelle and then I will read Chaos, a book about the Manson murders.

My Week in Books, Movies and TV 8/23/19

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It’s time again for my recap of what I’ve read and watched this week. I’m sure everyone is extremely excited.

Movies – I have three movies for the week. The first was a rewatch of Endgame since my wife and son had not seen it yet. It was still good. I’m sad that Spiderman will no longer be a part of the MCU. We also watched The Mule. I’m impressed that Eastwood is still acting and directing. I liked the movie. I think I could be a drug mule. I’m an old white man with a spotless driving record. Where do I apply? I watched Long Shot alone because my family tends to not care about the comedies. I’m a Seth Rogen fan, so I was predisposed to like it. I think a lot of people will be surprised at how good it is. Rogen plays a journalist who knew the Secretary of State when they were kids. She hires him as a speechwriter They fall in love. Charlize Theron and Rogen have great chemistry and the relationship is believable. It was a fun movie.

TV – I watched the first episode of The Righteous Gemstones. It stars John Goodman, Danny McBride, and Adam Devine as father and sons televangelists. John Goodman is good as always. Danny McBride plays Danny McBride. Adam Devine is great as the younger brother. Edi Patterson is funny as the sister who feels left out. I think it would have been better as just a comedy about the family, but they threw in a blackmail storyline that seems like it will be the main story for the season. That’s a little disappointing. I do like the cast enough to keep watching and Walton Goggins shows up soon.

Books – I didn’t finish a book this week. I was listening to a book on part of my 4 hours of driving yesterday but did not realize it had not completely downloaded until t stopped playing. I was driving so I couldn’t fix that. I also forgot to take a bok with me to read during the time I had to kill before it was time to go to the funeral home. So, it was an all-around fail day for me and reading. I’m way behind in my reading this year.

On Deck – I have Tolkien on DVD, but I don’t think anyone else wants to watch it. I will probably start the new season of 13 Reasons Why this week. I still need to watch the latest seasons of Luther and Dear White People. I will have a lot of time alone now that my daughter is going back to college. I should use that to catch up on my reading as I’m way behind this year, but I’m sure I will use that time to watch TV instead.

Unreality TV

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I’m watching a TV show right now and there have been several scenes of people at home and they are wearing suits and nice dresses. One guy who is no longer a lawyer and  I think not working at all, shows up on the street to talk to someone and he’s wearing a coat and tie. I’m pretty sure there has never been a scene on this show where a character is dressed like a normal person would dress when not at work.  All of the characters on the show are lawyers at a big New York law firm, but I don’t think it is realistic that no one at the firm ever wears jeans when not at work.

I commented on this type of thing when watching another show and they had a scene with someone relaxing at home alone after work. They were wearing jeans at least but still were dressed like they were about to go out, not sit on the couch with a drink to watch TV.  As I think about it, there aren’t many shows outside of family-based sitcoms where they ever show the characters dressed down. I don’t recall a lot of images of people in jeans and a TV shirt. There are definitely not many scenes of people wearing shorts. The only thing I can think of people on TV doing to dress relaxed on TV is not wearing shoes.

Maybe I’m wrong, but I think most people, even wealthy lawyer types, dress down a lot more than what they show on TV. I’m not a wealthy lawyer type, so I can’t say for sure. I know when I get home from work I immediately change into the most comfortable clothes I have. Shorts and a T-shirt in summer, Sweats and a hoodie when it is cooler. I only wear jeans when I leave the house. I never wear anything nicer than jeans outside of work or other “fancier” situations. I never wear shoes at home. It’s all about comfort. Why don’t we see more of that on  TV?

My Week in Books, Movies, and TV 8/16/19

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It’s been a long week. I had to go back to last week’s post to see what I said was on deck so I could maybe remember what I did this week.

Movies – I went to see Once Upon a Time in Hollywood last Friday. I’ve always been a Tarantino fan so I expected to like this movie and I did. DiCaprio and Pitt are great as the leads. I especially enjoyed Pitt in the movie. The ending was unexpected, but I really liked what he did with it. I would highly recommend you see it as soon as possible. We watched Detective Pikachu Sunday night. I did not expect to like it as much as I did. It was actually pretty funny. You don’t need to know anything about Pokemon to enjoy it.

TV – I’ve watched 1.5 episodes of BH90210(I’m watching episode 2 as I type this) and I am enjoying it. It’s not a reboot. It is the 90210 actors playing versions of themselves considering a revival of the show after reuniting at a convention. It’s fun to see all of the actors together again. The story sounds dumb, but it works for me. You have to be a fan of the original, I think, to enjoy it. My daughter has started watching Downton Abbey and I’ve seen pieces of it here and there. I never considered watching it because it didn’t seem like something I would like but I almost feel like I want to go back and watch what I’ve missed.

Books – I finished one book this week – Raised in Captivity by Chuck Klosterman. It is a collection of very short fiction. Each story is 10 pages or less. I didn’t know how I would feel about stories that short, but it worked. It was easier to read short stories knowing each one would only take a few minutes to read. You didn’t get so absorbed in one that it was hard to move to the next and a bad one didn’t ruin the experience. The stories are all very weird.

On Deck – I have two movies on DVD – Cell and Long Shot. Cell is the one based on the Stephen King book. I never got around to watching it and feel like I would like it. Not sure I can convince anyone to watch it with me. I’m also not sure I can convince anyone to watch Long Shot. I’m the only Seth Rogen fan in the house right now. TV this week will be trying to finish a couple of shows on the DVR before my daughter goes back to school. I have two books I need to read for book clubs by August 28 and 31. That is going to be a challenge. I tried reading them at the same time but decided that wasn’t working. Too bad I can’t find audio for either one of them.

They are All in a Snow Globe

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This one came up in my memories today. There is news now that they want to crossover the new FBI franchise with SVU even though they are on different networks. That will add another TV universe to the snow globe.

The World's Common Tater

I saw an article yesterday that a character from the canceled Chicago Justice television show will move to Law and Order SVU. I knew that the Chicago Fire universe had already crossed over in to the Law and Order universe. This was just a reminder and made me think about how many shows are now connected.

Chicago Fire, PD and Med are all obviously connected, so that means they are all in the same universe as the Law and Order shows. Law and Order is connected to Homicide Life on the Streets via the character of John Munch.  When Homicide ended, the character moved over to the Law and Order universe. So, now we have connected the Chicago shows to Law and Order and Homicide. Munch ties them in to a lot of other shows. He was everywhere. He appeared in one episode of the X-Files, an episode of The…

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