Tuesday TV Touchbase (1/7/2020): The Crown

Hey we’re back to another installment of Tuesday TV Touchbase where I address the burning question of what exactly am I watching on TV lately here at the Fortress of Ineptitude. 

The answer is not much.

All the shows Andrea and I watch are in hiatus over the holiday break. So no Stumptown, Perfect Harmony, Young Sheldon or Good Place.

 But things will start back shortly. There’s new Good Place this Thursday for example. And the Arrowverse crossover on the CW, Crisis On Infinite Earths, is back next week.

During the lead up to Doctor Who’s season premier on New Year’s Day, BBC America staged a Doctor Who takeover of their schedule. Even with an uneven distribution of episodes across their schedule and all the endless commercial interruptions, Andrea, Randie and I would still felt compelled to watch certain episodes when they were on. Even though we own all of these episodes and we can watch them in the correct order and with no commercials. We were nonetheless lured in by BBC America’s marathon much like the Wire sucked in people into TV sets in The Idiot’s Lantern.

“The Empty Child” and “The Doctor Dances” is on! We gotta watch!

“The Girl in the Fireplace”? Oh yes! We gotta watch!

“Blink” is on? We can’t look away! Hell, we gotta watch!

“Silence in the Library”?

“Forest of the Dead”?

“Midnight”?

“Turn Left”?

Watched it!

Watched it!

Watched it!

Watched it!

“Vincent and the Doctor”? Yes, we watched it!

And I could go on and on and on.

And we did go on and on and on.

I had thought Andrea and I make might make some headway through The Crown on Netflix.  Since my last TV Touchbase on The Crown, we’ve only made it through episodes 5 and 6.  Episode 5 finds Lord Mountbatten caught up on a plot to stage a coup against the sitting Labour government. Meanwhile, Queen Elizabeth is in France and the United States, looking at horses. Elizabeth professes at one point that she would rather being working with horses than being Queen and she wouldn't had to be queen if her uncle hadn't decided he would rather run off with some woman rather handle his duties as king.  

This lingering resentment at how fate conspired to pull Elizabeth from what she really wanted out of life may explain her cold and callous behavior towards her son in episode 6.  

Episode 6 focuses mostly on Prince Charles. It is decided that if he’s going to be established as Prince of Wales, maybe he should go to school there for a term and learn to speak Welsh. Charles is not in favor of this plan but as so often in the lives of royals, he has no say so. Furthermore, Charles’ tutor in learning to speak Welsh is a nationalist who thinks the British and its monarchy should sod off and let Wales be Wales.  

Over the course of episode, Charles develops an affinity and respect for the Welsh people and his tutor begins to regard Charles as a person and not just another face of the hated monarchy.  

As part of being installed as the Prince of Wales, Charles has to give a speech in Welsh. Charles elects to deviate from the prescribed text and says some stuff that is supportive of Wales have an identity separate from Great Britain. 

The Queen is not amused. She chastises Charles for expressing an opinion about Wales, citing that the royal family does not have the luxury of taking sides. Charles thinks he should be free to speak his mind but his mother says otherwise, not just from a royal perspective but specifically, "No one is interested in what you have to say." 

Well, that was pretty damn cold, Liz. 

Let's turn to something warmer. 

This week is Vanna White's last week as host of Wheel of Fortune. She is still not as glib and relaxed as Pat Sajak but she has gotten significantly better as host, interacting with the contestants.  After two weeks of Mickey and Minnie Mouse running the letter board, the show introduced a special guest to work the letter board. 

This is a very nice touch, keeping things in the family. This was not Maggie's first appearance on the show. We saw a clip from 1996 with a 1 year old Maggie with her dad, Pat. It was adorable.  

Last week, Wheel had new episodes of Pat Sajak running the game. Before his surgery, Pat had recorded some episodes. The episodes began with an intro from Pat attempting to explain what is going on. It's a timey wimey thing. 

After this week, the world goes back to normal with Pat back from surgery and Vanna back at the letter board. Kudos to Vanna for stepping up as host. She was a bit shaky at first but she eased into the role and got better at it. 

OK, that's that for today's Tuesday TV Touchbase. 

Next week, what's new with Young Sheldon, Perfect Harmony and The Good Place. 

And we check in as Jeopardy answers the ultimate question, "Who is the greatest of all time?"