Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Tuesday TV Touchbase (11/26/2019)


Time now for another Tuesday TV Touchbase

 

What the heck are my wife Andrea and I watching on TV?



The Good Place

OK, we’re back on track now. Just as we’re nearing the end.

 

I’m sorry but the new experiment just wasn’t working for me. Why? I don’t know. Maybe it’s because Trent was just to damn unredeemable a character? He doesn’t see the need to be a better person because he has no concept of himself as someone other than a perfectly good person. You know, I watch TV to get away from reality and there’s a damn Donald Trump expy in the middle of The Good Place. Really?!?!

 

But the last two episodes have brought the focus back to the original crew where it belongs.

 

And last week’s episode? Chidi’s message to himself:  There is no “answer”. But Eleanor is the answer.

 

Oh, if I wasn’t emotionally dead inside,  I might cry.  

 

Perfect Harmony

Andrea still likes this show. I am learning to tolerate it more. Last week’s Thanksgiving themed episode had some good laughs. I especially responded to “the plastic bag of plastic bags”. I don’t know if that’s a southern thing but I know a lot of homes in the south that have a plastic bag filled with plastic bags.  My mom kept a plastic bag filled with more plastic bags.

 

And Arthur comes to the realization that his day with this gang of Kentucky kooks was better than his day alone. 

 

There might be hope for this show after all. 

 

Young Sheldon

We know from Big Bang Theory that Sheldon went to college at age 11. So far in Young Sheldon, our young genius is still 10. Last week’s episode involves efforts by a local university to get Sheldon into college by bribing his father George with a high paying college coaching job. But the high school principal doesn’t want to lose Sheldon Cooper. Yes, the prepubescent Mr. Cooper can be a pain in the ass to his teachers but apparently his test scores alone are elevating school standards enough to receive a higher level of federal funding. So the teachers are ordered to be nice to Sheldon, the principal gives Sheldon the key to the faculty restroom and George keeps getting bribes in the form of a new desk chair and a golden whistle. 

 

Jim Parsons as adult Sheldon narrates that at age 10, Sheldon stayed in high school and would not go to college until age 11. So that’s still a thing that’s coming.

 

Andrea likes George. I hate to break it to her than if the show does hold to the backstory established in BBT, Sheldon’s dad will die in a few years. Which is a shame because I really like George Cooper too. 

 

The Crown

Andrea and I watched the two first two episodes of the 3rd season of The Crown.  We started this damn thing because Andrea will follow former Doctor Who star Matt Smith almost anywhere. But now Matt is gone but we’re committed to this thing. The whole main cast has been swapped with new actors coming in as our principal characters age.

 

Olivia Colman slips into the role of Queen Elizabeth very readily. The continuity from Claire Foy is virtually seamless with Colman as a more mature version of the same character. Or as the Queen so cheekily refers to her older self as “an old bat” while reviewing updated postage stamps of her updated visage.  

 

Helena Bonham Carter takes over as Princess Margaret and builds on the work of Vanessa Kirby from the first two seasons. As before, Margaret chafes at the structures of royal life while longing for more of a role in that life. An unexpected diplomatic coup takes place when Margaret charms a reluctant President Johnson in approving a financial aid package for the United Kingdom. Margaret’s defiance of the rules of royalty works this time as she’s dealing with a world leader who is not one for pomp or circumstance. The highlight of episode two is the Prime Minister’s embarrassed recounting to the queen of a drunken battle of naughty limericks between the Princess and the President.

 

Such as this one told by Princess Margaret.

 

There as a young woman in Dallas

Who used a dynamite stick as a phallas.

They found her vagina

In North Carolina

And her asshole in Buckingham Palace

 

Yes, the Queen looks upon this very awkwardly.

 

But as Princess Margaret, caught up in the full blush of her diplomatic success, opines her sister the Queen for an expanded role in royal affairs, Prince Phillips reminds his wife that Margaret got lucky once.

 

Speaking of Prince Phillip, this the one actor transition that does not work for me. Tobias Menzies is so different in tone, voice and appearance from Matt Smith, there is virtually no continuity in the character of Prince Phillip from the first two seasons to the 3rd. Unlike the other actor transitions, it’s hard for me to see Menzies as an older version of Matt Smith. 


And that's that for this post.


Whoops! Forgot about Stumptown. I'll cover that in next week's Tuesday TV Touchbase.

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