Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Tuesday TV Touchbase: What We Do In the Shadows (and MURDER!)



Today's Tuesday TV Touchbase is about the 5th season premier of What We Do In the Shadows

Also...   

MURDER!  

As in TV shows about... MURDER!! 

But first...

What We Do In the Shadows is back for a new season and there is some reset to the status quo. Colin Robinson is back to his full adult form.  But instead of trolling a soul sucking cubicle farm office to do his emotion vampire shtick, Colin is now trolling a soul sucking mid range chain restaurant as a waiter and yeah, that sounds about right.   

There is a hiccup in the status quo and that concerns Guillermo de la Cruz.  At the end of season 4, Guillermo was fed up with Nandor's endless string of broken promises to turn him into a vampire decides to get the deed done on his own terms, paying a crap ton of cash to Derek, a young vampire working the night shift at a convenience store, to turn him into a vampire. 

So how does that go? It goes badly.  

Derek has never done this before and faints at the sight of his own blood.  The whole thing is messy and awkward and what does Guillermo get out of it? 

It's been 16 days and...

  • Guillermo can still eat human food.
  • His teeth are still human.
  • He can still go out in sunlight.
  • Guillermo can't shape shift. 

Well, about that last one. We see that Guillermo's ears can shift to bat shape. Just his ears. 

Meanwhile, it seems there are serious repercussions when a vampire's familiar goes gets turned by another vampire. 

If Nandor finds out, he will have to kill Guillermo and then himself.  

Which would be a shame because Nandor along with Lazlo and Nadja have just discovered the wonders of the Staten Island Mall and now have so much to live for.

Lazlo knows what Guillermo did because Guillermo thought Lazlo had figured it out which was kind of a stupid move on Guillermo's part to assume any of these vampires can figure out anything. 

Turns out Lazlo thought Guillermo had diarrhea.  

Realizing the truth of what Guillermo has done, Lazlo can only offer this prognosis: "You're fucked!"

Just how fucked, I guess we will find out as the 5th season of What We Do In the Shadows continues. 

Now on to.,,,

MURDER!! 

As if I don't have enough to watch, I've added another murder mystery show to my itinerary, My Life Is Murder.    

This series stars Lucy Lawless (Xena, Warrior Princess her own damn self) as Alexa Crowe, a police detective who came into some money and decides like most people would when they come into money and quit her job.  The problem is that Alexa was damn good at her job and her former partner on the force Kieran keeps calling on Alexa to help with whatever case he can't solve. 

Apparently at least one a week. 

Anyway, Alexa would rather stay home making bread with her German manufactured bread making machine but damned if she doesn't keep getting lured in to solve Kieran's unsolvable case of the week. 

Acting as Robin to Alexa's Batman is Madison, a young woman who has an actual job that does not involve working for Alexa but that doesn't stop Alexa from assuming Madison can drop whatever she's doing to hack someone's financials or medical records or whatever hoo-doo that hackers do.   

Also a cat has adopted Alexa as her human. 

Alexa is uncommonly focused on whatever is in front on her, whether it's that damn German bread making machine or the murder case that just won't stop poking at her. Alexa may be some form of neuro divergent but she seems to manage to fake her way through most human interactions.  

My Life Is Murder is a TV show made in Australia with Australian actors saying Australian euphemisms. This show is Australian as fuck. Well, I can follow it just fine and it's a fun, trippy mystery show. 

Speaking of Australian TV shows, I have introduced Andrea to Ms. Fisher's Modern Murder Mysteries. I talked about this show a couple of months ago (Tuesday, May 2, 2023).  The show is a sequel to  Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries which  featured Phryne Fisher, a glamorous private detective in 1920s Melbourne.  The sequel series follows Peregrine Fisher, Phryne’s neice, out having adventures and solving crimes in the 1960s while adorned in appropriately mod 1960's fashion. 

Peregrine Fisher will kick your ass in her mini dress and go go boots! 

Andrea likes stuff set in past periods like this and she likes the music of the 1960s era which features prominently in the soundtrack. 

Peregrine is still learning the mechanics of crime solving, she does have an eye for details others miss and a keen sense of empathy to suss out a motive for murder. 

Also and not to put too fine a point upon it, Peregrine Fisher will kick your ass in her mini dress and go go boots! 

I'm still watching Bones in reruns on various cable channels through the week and I think I'm pretty well caught up on all the key episodes from the shows 12 year run.  I'm introducing Andrea to some of this show but I have to be careful. Some of the excruciatingly long close ups of decaying corpses and the hellish pits they are retrieved from can be quite revolting and Andrea understandably can't stand that stuff.

But the bits where characters interact like Bones and Booth bantering, she likes that a lot. We recently watched the entirety of the 200th episode together, the one that is a pastiche of 1950s melodrama films.  

If I can keep her away from the gross stuff, Andrea may well enjoy watching Bones.  But damn, there is so much gross stuff. 

Some more Bones related stuff: 

1) Apparently members of the Bones team have been meeting up on the WGA picket line and have discussed the idea of coming back for more new adventures. Damn, they did the show for 12 years and they want to do more?

2) And Emily Deschanel (Dr. Brennan, aka "Bones") is cohosting a podcast dedicated to re-watching episodes of Bones from the beginning. 

Coming up on next week on the Tuesday TV Touchbase:

  • My thoughts on  My Adventures With Superman.
  • And my man crush Timothy Olyphant is back on TV as I look in on Justified: City Primeval. 

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.   

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