Last week when I wrote about the TV shows I watched in 2023, I forgot to mention I watched season 2 of Loki. Let me remedy that.
In 2023, I watched season 2 of Loki.
There! I hope we can all move on.
Last week I mentioned I DID watch season 1 of Lucky Hank but wasn't sure I would watch season 2. AMC has made that decision for me by not renewing Lucky Hank for season 2. Well, that's helpful.
Look I'm all for Bob Odenkirk being on TV but a little Hank Devereaux and his whiny self absorption goes a long way. By the end of season 1, Hank finally realizes much of the fuckery in his life is self-inflicted. Instead of trying to make a TV series out of it, the story of Hank Devereaux perhaps would've made a better single movie, the sort of thing Wes Anderson would direct.
While he was home for the holidays, our son Dean introduced us to Gravity Falls, an animated Disney series that ran a over a decade ago. For a Disney series, it is surprisingly subversive. Yeah there's fun goofy stuff for the kids but there are a lot of jokes and themes flying over their heads. Or maybe not. Kids can be unexpectedly insightful.
Created by Alex Hirsch, Gravity Falls follows twin siblings Dipper (Jason Ritter) and Mabel Pines (Kristen Schaal) to Gravity Falls, Oregon to spend the summer with their great-uncle (or "Grunkle") Stan (voiced by Hirsch) where they help him run the "Mystery Shack", a tourist trap Stan owns.
Dipper and Mabel also deal with the weird shit happening in Gravity Falls. All manner of paranormal stuff is going on in and around this town. Monsters, robot monsters, zombies, gnomes, time travellers and sinister conspiracies. All the strange stuff from Supernatural, X-Files and Doctor Who are all happening in this tiny town. It seems only Dipper and Mabel seem to be aware of it or the residents of Gravity Falls are just used to this sort of weirdness and are oblivious to it.
As I said, Gravity Falls is surprisingly subversive for a Disney series and Alex Hirsch didn't get to make his animated project his way without a fight. Below is a video clip recounting Alex's battles with the Disney Standards and Practices department.
Over the holiday season, Andrea and I caught the CBS TV special Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic. It's a opportunity for Dick Van Dyke to hear his eulogy while he's still alive and done up as a quasi Broadway production as various stars (some of whom neither I and quite possibly Dick Van Dyke have heard of) performed live song and dance routines from his movies such as Mary Poppins, Bye Bye Birdie and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
One performer I had heard of was Jason Alexander and I saw one reviewer online who didn't know why Jason was there. Beyond his role as George Costanza on Seinfield, Jason has a resume of song and dance roles on Broadway. He's who you get when you can't get Nathan Lane. ("Quick! Get me Nathan Lane or his lower cost hetero-normative equivalent!" And that's when Jason Alexander answers the call.)
The man himself was enjoying the show, smiling broadly and singing along with the performers. Dick Van Dyke does look his 98 years but he still seems spry and alert. If God forbid I have to live to be 98, I wanna be like Dick and not moaning for the sweet release of death (like I do now at merely 60).
There was a shout out to Dick's murder mystery TV series Diagnosis Murder which apparently ran for 178 episodes. With one murder per episode, that's....OH MY GOD! That's a LOT of dead people!
There were video tributes from celebrities who could not be there (or CBS wasn't willing to pay their fees for a live appearance) and my favorite was from Julie Andrews who said the following: "I don't get to see Dick as much as I like."
I giggled when she said that and Andrea very wearily asked me, "What are you? 12?"
Oh, c'mon! That was funny!
OK, next week on the Tuesday TV Touchbase, I will turn the spotlight on Doom Patrol.
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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