I Resolve To Watch More Television.

You know the joke around the start of the year with New Year's resolutions. I resolve to eat more doughnuts. I resolve sit on my ass more. I resolve to give less of a shit about other people. 

Or my favorite... I resolve to watch more television.   

This year, I appear to be taking this one seriously.  With but a few days in January to go, here's what I've watched so far for 2018.  

Season 1 of The Good Place. 
Wow, this is a fun and whacked out show. Kristen Bell is Eleanor, a young woman recently deceased and now in an afterlife that she may not be qualified for. Selfish and hedonistic to a fault while she was alive, she finds herself by mistake in an after life idyll for people better than she was. Not wanting the error to get discovered and be condemned to The Bad Place, Eleanor struggles with concepts of ethics and morality that she did not consider in life. 

But the show is more that just Eleanor's whacky attempts to show she is worthy of heaven after the fact.  There's a complex narrative at work here, almost like Lost... but better. And funny... on purpose.  

Kristen Bell is perfect as Eleanor, developing from selfish narcissism and a growing emotional empathy.  And Ted Danson as the afterlife architect Michael is a bizarre collection of tics and quirks with a dark undercurrent.   

Season 2 is underway over on NBC. I need to catch up. 

Season 1 of Episodes
I actually caught most of season 2 on Showtime last summer and part of season 5 in the fall. I saw Episodes was now on Netflix and decided this was a goo chance to catch up from the beginning. 


Context is everything. When I first saw British TV writers Sean and Beverly Lincoln last summer, they were miserable, frustrated people. Seeing the series from the beginning, I now understand how they got that way. Sean and Beverly have just won yet another BAFTA for their hit British sitcom Liman's Boys, about an eccentric aged headmaster of  prestigious boys school. Sean and Beverly are approached by Merk, an American TV network executive who just loves Sean and Beverly and wants to bring them and their TV show to American television. 


For all his gushing enthusiasm, we later learn Merk has never even seen Liman's Boys; all he knows is Sean & Beverly have won a shit ton of BAFTAs for it. 


Immediately, Sean and Beverly Lincoln's American dreams are turned to shit.  The eccentric aged headmaster of  a prestigious boys school becomes a high school hockey coach played by Matt Leblanc. And the show is now called PUCKS!  


Beverly is most unhappy with this predicament but Sean seems to have settled in a bit, even becoming best buds with Matt LeBlanc who Beverly absolutely abhors. 


I've started into season 2 which I had seen before but its fun to watch it again with the full context of what happened in season 1.


The highlight of Episodes is Matt LeBlanc who stars as Matt LeBlanc, a fast living womanizing buffoon who really doesn't want to hurt anybody but manages to blunder into hurting them anyway.


Season 1 of Arrested Development
This is a re-watch. I've seen seasons 1 through 3 before but now the season 4 episodes made for Netflix. I'm amazed by how little I remember; maybe THAT's what my stroke last year took away from me,  my memories of Arrested Development?




Doctor: Mr. Long, you've had a stroke.
ME: Nooooooooooo!!!!
Doctor: Settle down. You're fine, your motor and cognitive functions are in good shape.
ME: OK, that's good.
Doctor: The only side effect I can see is you have lost your memory of certain plot details from Arrested Development. 
ME: Nooooooooooo!!!!
Doctor: I prescribe Netflix and suggest you just watch he damn thing again. 
ME: OK, whatever. 
Ron Howard as Narrator: This never happened.

Randie: Dad, can you help me with this math problem?
ME: Sorry, honey. Busy watching Arrested Development.
Randie: Again?!
ME: Doctor's orders! I have to in order to live!
Ron Howard as Narrator: David, of course, was lying.

On this re-watch, I've found Buster to be less annoying for some reason while I have absolutely no patience for Gobs' shenanigans on screen. The funniest thing about the show is the narration by Ron Howard.



Ron Howard as Narrator: David was sucking up to the narrator again.  It wouldn't do him any good.  


In addition, I finished off Season 2 of The Crown. I've been introducing my daughter to the charms of Star Trek the Original Series. If I stumble on batch of Big Bang Theory episodes on TBS, there goes about 2 hours of my day. I also enjoy VChuck Lorre's other CBS show, Mom; Allison Janney is a goddess. Hell, I even been watching Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy more often; boy, I'm getting old! 


So pull out the list of 2018 New Year's Resolutions:


* I resolve to watch more television.


And check that one off!


I am a SUCCESS!!