Before we kick off this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase, a brief note on the cancellation of Young Sheldon. The forthcoming 7th season will be the last and will have cover 14 episodes.
While the news of the show ending is sad (Raegan Revord who plays Missy is particularly devastated), it does seem the show has played out long enough what with "young" Sheldon himself, Iain Armitage pushing 37 years old (I'm kidding).
Andrea and I finished up season 2 of Abbott Elementary last week. Just in time for the end of actor's strike so we will be ready for season 3 when it comes around in February.
The season ends with Janine Teagues and Gregory Eddie finally being on the same page with each other that they like-like each other but in the tradition of the "will they or won't they" sit-com plot gods, they decide to not act on that right now.
OK, it's just the 2nd season, I can deal with this. Just don't "Ross and Rachel" this thing, all right?
Speaking of Gregory, Tyler James Williams still gives the best side eye glances to the documentary crew since John Karinksi on The Office. I am a little disappointed in Gregory's quasi-Vulcan lack of social skills. It's been established he wants to be the principal. Did he really think he could accomplish that goal without social human interaction?
Speaking of principals, Ava Coleman continues to frustrate. Her unrelenting narcissism is a source of chaos and humor but her apathy towards actually being any good at her job tends to vary according to the needs of the plot. Behind her blinding ego, there are moments. Like when we find out she has spare free school uniforms whenever a poor kid has a growth spurt. Or the field trip to the science museum where Ava displays some actual knowledge of outer space. Granted she mixes that knowledge with some alien conspiracy theory nonsense to scare the children. I don't mind Ava's ego driven stupidity but she risks become this show's Frank Burns when compared to the competence of her teachers.
The teachers are good at their jobs, displaying skills to teach and engage with their students. Sometimes they mess up when they let their own personal hang ups get in the way. But there is no doubt they care about there kids.
Speaking of the kids, kudos to the producers to not making any of the kids any kind of recurring regulars. We don't need some kid character hanging around long after he should have left elementary school because they have a cool catch phrase or something. Occasionally one of the kids will draw focus for an episode but this show is not about them. Abbott Elementary is about good teachers trying to hold it together in an under served, overlooked school.
So far Andrea and I have enjoyed Abbott Elementary and we look forward to what's next for season 3 in February.
Andrea and I are just getting started on season 2 of Ghosts and we may have it time out to be done before CBS returns the show for season 3 in February.
We would see the teasers for Ghosts while watching Young Sheldon and it seemed like something we might be interested in but we gave it a miss for... reasons?
With the various writer and actor strikes delaying new episodes of stuff, I convinced Andrea it might be time to give Ghosts a try.
Andrea and I both enjoy this show a lot. Here's the helpful Wikipedia entry on the show's premise:
Married New Yorkers Samantha and Jay Arondekar believe that their dreams have come true when they inherit a beautiful country house from Sophie Woodstone, Sam's great aunt, only to find that it is falling apart and inhabited by ghosts who died on the mansion's grounds and are now bound to the area, appearing as they did at the times of their deaths, until they can reach the afterlife. Jay cannot see or hear the ghosts, but Sam can after a near-death experience.
Despite now being able to see or hear ghosts, Jay somehow becomes good friends with Pete, the travel agent and scoutmaster who was killed when he shot through the neck with an arrow (which is still embedded in his ghost form). Jay and Pete both love D&D and basketball.
I think my favorite ghost is Sasappis/"Sass", a Lenape indigenous man, enjoys storytelling, stirring up drama, watching TV, and smelling all sorts of food, especially pizza. While the other ghosts are sort of stuck speaking in the manner of the eras when they died, Sass sounds positively modern with his snarky observations.
When ghosts have made peace with something unresolved, they get pulled into the afterlife in a beam of light, a process the ghosts call "getting sucked off". Sam has tried to broach the subject of that nomenclature but the ghosts are rather insistent that's what it's called.
I am a bit puzzled by how ghosts work in this world. It seems as Sam and Jay plan to turn Woodstone Manor into a B&B with paying guests, the ghosts are concerned with where the ghosts will sleep. Why do beings without corporeal forms require sleep? How do ghosts who can walk through walls rest on beds? Or sit in chairs even? (Jay asks these questions. Sam has no answers.)
It's only a TV a show, I really should just relax and enjoy Ghosts.
Meanwhile, to fill time in their primetime schedule, CBS is showing episodes of the original BBC series as Ghosts UK.
While the British show came first, since Andrea and I watched the American show first, it's Ghosts UK that feels a bit off.
British Allison seems to have a more adversarial relationship with her Ghosts than American Sam.
British husband Mike seems incredibly dim-witted compared to Jay in America. I like Jay better.
Other than British arrow through the neck Paul and American arrow through the neck Peter, there's not a lot of one to one comparisons with the ghosts.
Yes, both shows have a dude with a suit jacket and tie and NO pants who died in the 1990's but the British version was an older politician and the American guy was a younger go-getter stockbroker.
Andrea and I will continue to sample Ghosts UK for the time being but our early assessment is we like the American version better.
Next week, November Nineties invades the Tuesday TV Touchbase as I post about some of my favorite TV shows from the 1990's.
The week after that, it's the return of the Max series Julia and also the 6th and final series of That Damned Thing AKA The Crown.
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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