THERE'S TOO MUCH TV - Roundup June 2022

“What are you watching?” is pretty much the automatic question I get when I tell people what I do for a living.

I don’t have time to do full conversations on everything I’m watching but here are some stray thoughts on everything I’ve watched in the last month. I’ve also been requested to include content warnings for shows that need them, so you can see those beneath each title!

Some mild spoilers for shows that are not in season 1.

Barry (Season 3)
CW: Violence

Last month I mentioned that the finale of Barry would be the ultimate judge of whether its big swings this season were successful, and yet, having finished the season, it still feels unfinished. Some of that might have to do with the fact that seasons 3 and 4 were written in tandem during the pandemic, so maybe we should view them as one mega-season rather than viewing season 3 as its own thing. Where Barry himself ended up has me very interested and excited for the next season, but has me looking back at the rest of this season with a bit of consternation. I had a hard time understanding the direction they were going in once they committed fully to “Barry is a villain and supporting character.” I think that idea is really interesting, and generally the more ensemble a show is, the more sustainable it is, but personally, I was left a little empty at the end of the season.

Hacks (Season 2)

As is the case with nearly every single show that garners some critical acclaim, Hacks has reached its backlash era. While I think that Hacks is certainly a good TV show, I can’t deny that the second season was weaker than the first. The tension between Ava and Deborah went from legitimately tense to mostly a throwaway joke (lol Deborah is suing you for all you’re worth, isn’t that a hoot), and I think that with that it lost a lot of the scathing comedy that I loved from the first season. The show seemed more interested in its joke-writing this season (which is fine!) but ultimately I thought that the jokes weren’t good enough to carry the show the way it’s emotional depth had before.

Obi-Wan Kenobi (Season 1)

I like Star Wars, but I am by no means a Star Wars fan™. That’s mostly because Star Wars fans™ are insufferable people. While there’s something depressingly relatable about the fact that they hate everything they claim to love about their identity, it’s really annoying, because it’s fucking Star Wars. There are seemingly different and inscrutable standards that nothing since 1980 has met (long before almost any Star Wars fan™ was sentient or conscious). The Last Jedi is a movie I very much enjoy because of how it addresses these things, but I’ve had fans tell me, “sure it’s a good movie, but it’s not a good STAR WARS movie” whatever that means. All that said, I really liked Obi-Wan Kenobi. It was fun to hang out with Ewan McGregor, he’s an absolute delight who clearly cares very much about that character. Did the show make sense in the “canon” of Star Wars? I have no fucking idea, and I couldn’t care less. It might not have been super deep, but I liked how the show addressed Obi-Wan’s grief and it generally looked pretty cool to me.

Our Flag Means Death (Season 1)

What has colloquially become known as “the gay pirate show” reminded me most of Schitt’s Creek, which has nothing to do with pirates. Both shows are huge steps forward for LGBTQ+ representation on screen, and both do so without ever acknowledging that gravity. In the landscape of television, to have so many queer characters is radical, but Our Flag Means Death just lets the sexuality and gender of its characters exist. Nobody makes a big deal out of anyone else’s identity, and while there are complicated relationships, they’re not complicated by the fact that they’re queer, they’re complicated in the way that any relationship is complicated. Plus Blackbeard is a total babe.

Stranger Things (Season 4)
CW: Potent nostalgia for a time never experienced

As I write this, Season 4 Part 2 has dropped and crashed Netflix, but I haven’t seen it yet. So, I’ll be sticking to the first chunk. A lot of noise has been made about how this is “the best season since the first” and I think that’s probably true, although misleading. I would rank this season #2 after the one that started it all, but it is still a show that requires 60% of your attention and is mostly there for vibes, rather than plot or character development. I liked hanging out with the gang in Hawkins, but most everything in California and the USSR very much did not work for me. Hopper’s storyline in particular was a big miss for me, and every David Harbour monologue felt like he was auditioning for something. Also Vecna very much reminds me of Jim Carey’s Grinch every time he yells “Max.”

The Boys (Season 3)
CW: Graphic Violence and Sexual Content

Oooh boy. I don’t have the time to go into all of the reddit drama about this season, because I’m hungry and want to eat dinner, but as it just so happens, many conservative fans of the show didn’t realize that it was satirizing them. The Boys remains one of the most engaging shows on TV, blending satire, action, humor, and some genuine character development (Frenchie and Kimiko’s relationship especially has been a standout for me this season). Jensen Ackles is a welcome addition to the cast, doing his best impression of himself and the show keeps finding ways to top itself when it comes to debauchery. It is certainly a show that knows what it is #Herogasm.

The Umbrella Academy (Season 3)

I’m going to leave The Umbrella Academy for next month once I’ve finished the season and gotten to the juicy bits. I’m excited though!