Hi there!
Have I been watching TV?
You bet I have!
What, pray tell, am I watching?
It's time to answer that with that weekly collection of nonsense I call the Tuesday TV Touchbase.
M*A*S*H
I'm watching M*A*S*H again... for the first time.
Meaning...?
I've written on this blog before about my affinity for watching M*A*S*H. I've been watching M*A*S*H for many years and if it's on, I will watch it.
Lately, it has not been on.
TV Land? No M*A*S*H.
Sundance? No M*A*S*H.
WGN? No M*A*S*H.
None of the usual cable outlets that carry M*A*S*H have been doing so.
So I sought it out on my streaming services and found M*A*S*H on Hulu. And I have discovered that after watching M*A*S*H for many years, I haven't see all of M*A*S*H.
I've only seen M*A*S*H before in syndication where as much as two minutes of any given episode have been excised. Now I'm seeing all those episodes with those minutes restored and it's amazing how much those missing minutes affect the tone and atmosphere of the show.
Justified
Slowly but surely I make my way through this fascinatingly quirky cop show. I'm up to episode 4 from season 1 which has the show already breaking some of it's conventions. Raylan Givens has to leave his exile in Kentucky to retrieve someone in Los Angeles. Given's killing of the mobster in Miami in episode one has consequences for him on the other side of the country as a couple of mob guys ID Givens and make plans to move in for the kill.
One of the mob guys is the dude who plays George Sr. on Young Sheldon.
The episode does force me to endure once more the sad and tragic demise of an Alan Ruck character. (Serenity still hurts, man.)
The Orville
I've decided to finally give this show a try. Seth McFarlane's shot at a Star Trek type of show hits all the right buttons stylistically but the tone of the scripting seems a bit unsettled as to what exactly this show is supposed to be. Is it a sit com? A soap opera? A straight up sci-fi show with hints of comedy and soap opera?
Seth plays Ed Mercer who is made the captain of the Orville, a deep space exploration vessel. The assignment is a last ditch effort at redemption after Ed spent a year on a downward spiral after his wife cheats on him with an alien. Things get awkward when Ed's now ex wife is named as his first officer on the Orville.
The rest of Ed's senior staff is a mix of hyper competent officers and under acheiving slackers.
The pilot intrigues me enough that I will follow through to watch more episodes. I've read where the series does getting better with it's 2nd season.
My favorite quote from the first episode of the Orville:
"We need no longer fear the banana."
The Mandalorian
The most recent episode sends the Mandalorian head long into Star Wars mythology in a big way. Din Djarin encounters three other Mandalorians led by Bo-Katan Kryze.
Bo-Katan was originally introduced in the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, where she was voiced by Katee Sackhoff. Sackhoff is on hand for Bo-Katan's live action debut.
Full disclosure: I have not watched Clone Wars.
Din Djarin is bugged that these Mandalorians are cool with removing their helmets which is supposed to be against the Mandalorian code. Bo-Katan explains to Din that he is part of a subset of Mandalorians whose adherence to outdated dogma makes them outliers. It's Din who's weird for not removing his helmet.
Once more, Din Djarin finds himself in a side mission before he can get on with reuniting the Child with the Jedi. Bo-Katan and her pals are staging a raid to seize weapons from an Imperial freighter. Five years after the events of Return of the Jedi, not everyone in the Empire has gotten the memo that their time is done.
After the assault on the Imperial freighter, Bo-Katan directs Din to the forest planet of Corvus where Din will find a Jedi by the name of Ahsoka Tano.
Ahsoka Tano is another Star Wars character shifting from the animated Clone Wars series to live action in next week's episode.
Reminder: I have not watched Clone Wars. I may need to remedy this.
Ahsoka Tano will be portrayed by Rosario Dawson so we can assume she will kick ass.
Fargo
Just a quick note on this past Sunday's episode which was mostly in black and white and managed to kill off some key characters with a tornado.
Yep. A friggin' tornado.
We're heading into the home stretch for this season of Fargo and I will address more on that later.
And I think that will be all this week.
Andrea and I have begun season 4 of the Crown and I will address that here next week along with the new season of Young Sheldon.
Until next time, stay safe, remember to be good to one another and keep it down, will ya, I'm tryin' to watch TV here.
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