Tuesday TV Touchbase: Television for 2024

Today’s edition of the Tuesday TV Touchbase takes us back over the past year.

 

What did Dave-El watch on TV in 2024?

Well, I watched a lot of TV, that's what I watched.

OK, to be a bit more specific....

 

Interview With the Vampire

As good as the first season was, this series 2nd season just blew me away. The horrible events at Les Theatre des Vampires were brutal and indelibly carved into my brain. 

The Penguin

This series as well as Colin Farrel  and Cristin Milioti deserve every award for this series. Emotionally raw, graphically violent and relentlessly intense, this series delivered on every level.  

Agatha All Along

The Marvel series for people who are sick and tired of Marvel series. Kathryn Hahn is just astonishingly good in this show.  

Fallout and Deadloch

Both series defy easy summation. I think Deadloch is one and done and that’s probably OK; the series told a complete story over the course of it’s single season.  

Meanwhile, the 2nd season of Fallout is coming and that’s good because we’ve only just begun to scratch the surface of it’s bizarre post apocalyptic world.  

Dead Boy Detectives  and Quantum Leap

Both of these series deserved a longer life, both were good at what they did. 

Snowpiercer  and Umbrella Academy

Both of these series reached their respective ends, one ended well and the other, eh, not so much.  (The one that ended well was Snowpiercer.)  

Superman & Lois

It’s a shame the series had to end owing to economics and corporate politics.  But the show ended on a strong and emotionally powerful note. I mean, the series ends with BOTH title characters dead but it still felt like a happy ending.  

High Potential

A big success for ABC out of the gate but I’m concerned the paucity of episodes (only 13) and an extended mid-season break will kill any momentum for this show and put it’s future in doubt. Which would be a damn shame. We're just loving Kaitlin Olson as the super smart Morgan as she solves crimes and navigates being a single mom, 

Brilliant Minds

This is an earnestly intense medical drama and according to some TV insiders, is on the bubble and may not be renewed. Which would be a shame because this is a really good medical drama.  

Law & Order

I don’t watch L&O all the time but more than before and mostly for the brilliant work of Maura Tierney.   

Outlander

About damn time! Oh so many feelz!   

Batman: Caped Crusader

This is a very well done animated series created by some of the best talents who brought us Batman: the Animated Series.   

Speaking of animation.....

My Adventures With Superman

Jack Quaid as Superman? 'Nuff said!  

Invincible

Brutal, violent but in it's own way, a perfectly fun comic book adaption.

The Boys

Brutal, violent but not at all fun.   

Resident Alien

Brutal, violent but also heart warming and funny! Anything with Alan Rudyk is usually good.   

Hacks

The third season was very funny and also produced a big dramatic change in the relationship between Deborah and Ava.  “I guess I’m your head writer after all.” Damn! 

Night Court

We’re still sticking with this series and I think it’s gotten a little bit funnier.  The addition of Wendie Malick helps a lot. 

Happy’s Place

Andrea likes this show but I find it more sweet than funny. Still, there are worse ways to spend a half hour than in the company of the always reliable and funny Reba McIntire. 

St. Denis Medical

So far so good. The mockumentary set at a struggling mid level hospital has some solid laughs.

Abbott Elementary

Speaking of the mockumentary format, AE continues to be a solidly funny show with characters we care about. Kudos to the writers for not mucking about with the Janine and Gregory relationship. 

Ghosts  and George & Mandy’s First Marriage

The CBS comedy block on Thursday delivers.  Ghosts still finds new quirks for the spirits that haunt the mansion and George & Mandy is a funny and viable follow to Young Sheldon.  Speaking of which…

Young Sheldon

This series came in for a strong landing. It bothers me to no end that this show gets no love from various awards shows. Zilch from the Emmys and the Golden Globes?

Only Murders in the Building

The 4th season creaked under the weight of too many guest stars but I still enjoy this show. The highlight of the season was Steve Martin’s Charles dealing with the trauma of Zazz’s death.  I really wish there was a category for shows like Only Murders which thread a needle between drama and comedy.  

What We Do In the Shadows and Star Trek: Lower Decks

Hated to see them go but I think both had run the course of their respective premises. The next two Tuesday TV Touchbase will focus on their respective series finales. 

More Star Trek!

Star Trek Discovery and Star Trek Prodigy

Both series deserved better than they got and should've had longer runs.  

Oh and we watched a crap ton of Wheel of Fortune (Pat Sajak had a nice exit but all hail Ryan Seacrest) and Jeopardy (no host drama, just good ol' reliable Ken Jennings).  

Andrea and I finished our re-watches of The Orville and Gravity Falls and currently, I am introducing her to Arrested Development which she really enjoys.   

And this list is NOT everything we watched on TV here in the Fortress of Ineptitude.    

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.       

This Is Trump’s America Now

2024 was the year of fear.

People of intelligence, common sense and empathy were terribly afraid of what was going to happen.  

That the United States would move away from compassion and democracy, that we would embrace cruelty and fascism.  

Surely we would not.

I tried to assure my wife Andrea that 2024 was not 2016 and the odds of Donald Trump returning to the Presidency were NOT in his favor. 

I really did not mean to lie to her. I really though the math added up.  

Mathematics is a science of facts.

I was once more foolishly bringing facts to a fight about feelings.

And here we were again.

We're two days away from a New Year. 

A New Year usually represents a sense of a new beginning, a fresh start, a new hope for the future.

Forgive me if I'm not feeling any of that right now.

This is Trump's America now. 

If you don't believe me, consider the case of Patrick Thomas Egan, a 39 year old who was arrested Dec. 18 in Grand Junction, Colorado.

Egan followed KKCO/KJCT reporter Ja’Ronn Alex to his TV station where Egan accosted and violently attacked Alex. 

Before that Egan, who was driving a taxi, pulled up next to Alex at a stoplight and said: “Are you even a U.S. citizen? This is Trump’s America now! I’m a Marine and I took an oath to protect this country from people like you!”

Egan followed Alex to the TV station, demanded he provide identification.  Egan put Alex in a headlock and began to strangle him.  

Ja’Ronn Alex is a native of Detroit. His ethnic background is Pacific Islander making his skin tone sufficiently brown to elicit suspicion from Patrick Thomas Egan.  

What more do you need?

This is Trump's America now. 

R.I.P. Jimmy Carter

After nearly 2 years in hospice, former President Jimmy Carter passed away yesterday.

Carter was President when I was high school and I didn't really like him. I found him to be too soft spoken, too gentle a gentleman to be President of the United States.

The short version of Carter's story is "Bad President, Great Ex-President" but in retrospect, that is not a completely fair assessment. Yes, his time as President was marred by tragedy and turmoil (gas rationing, the Iran embassy hostage crisis, etc) but he was responsible for many legislative achievements and his negotiation of peace between Israel and Egypt is extremely noteworthy on it's own merits.   

Click here for this post by Kate Riga on Carter's presidency and legacy.   Over here, Fred Kaplan puts in his ten cents on the Carter presidency.  

Jimmy Carter was 100 years old and most of his life was lived in service to others.  

He deserves to be remembered as a good man dedicated to telling the truth and making hard choices when good options were not always available.  

Rest in peace, Jimmy Carter. 

Doctor Who Is NEW: Joy To the World

Welcome to another edition of Doctor Who Is NEW!

 

And the focus of today’s post is the 2024 Christmas Day special “Joy To the World”.  

 

The Doctor’s TARDIS has landed in 43rd century London at the Time Hotel. 

 

Each room is a portal to specific events in the past.  

 

A mysterious man checking into the Time Hotel with a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist catches the Doctor’s attention.  The Doctor finagles Trev, the Hotel’s concierge, to help him investigate the mysterious man and his briefcase. It’s funny how Trev goes from being distrustful and not knowing who this “Doctor” is to being all in to help him, no matter what.  

 

Sadly and tragically, Trev is doomed.

 

The briefcase transfers itself from person to person in it’s nefarious mission. The previous person to have the briefcase disintegrates. The new person becomes mind controlled to carry out the purpose of the briefcase.  

 

The briefcase is the nasty work of the weapon makers of Villengard are up to no good, using the time mechanics of the hotel in a nefarious scheme to build a star from a star seed that when it goes online will destroy the Earth.

 

And that includes an innocent woman who has checked into a hotel in London in 2024 on Christmas Eve. 

 

Joy gets a room in the vaguely depressing Sandringham Hotel from desk clerk Anita.  Turns out this old hotel connects to the Time Hotel and the latest courier of the briefcase enters her room followed by the Doctor.

 

Of course Joy becomes the next target of the briefcase.  The Doctor can’t resist looking inside the briefcase which triggers a self destruct thingy that will destroy Joy.  Thankfully the Doctor (?) enters the room through the time portal and tells himself the code to stop the self destruct and before escaping with Joy, the Doctor tells himself he will find out what happens next but he will need to go the long way around.  

 

The Doctor goes to Anita to book Joy’s room for the next year.  

 

The  following sequence tracks the Doctor’s year at the Sandringham as he earns his keep by doing odd jobs around the hotel and also develops a friendship with Anita. And I will attest it is the part of the Christmas special that I was most emotionally invested in. For a minor functionary character as the hotel desk clerk, who anticipated how much we would care Anita? Or how much it would break our heart when the Doctor and Anita have to say good-bye at the end of his year at the Sandringham.   

 

The Doctor is now on the outside of the time portal door to burst into the room to give himself the code and escape with Joy because she’s still attached to that damn briefcase.  

 

Since so much of what happens centers around Joy, it’s a bit frustrating that as a character, she feels underdeveloped. We have a stronger connection to Anita and Trev. 

 

Considering the criticism of the previous season that the Doctor felt sidelined in his own adventures, it was good to see the Doctor being more active and the center of the action.  

This special gives Ncuti Gatwa a solid chance to show all he can do as the Doctor, an effective reminder of all he can with the role that I feel he hasn't had a chance to do since last year's Christmas special. 

Nicola Coughlan from Bridgerton got all the pre-show publicity but her role as Joy is not the best supporting part in this special. Those accolades go to Joel Fry (Our Flag Means Death) as Trev and especially Stephanie de Whalley (very slim resume so far, a few independent films) as Anita.   

All in all, "Joy To the World" was an enjoyable romp and a good example of Doctor Who when it is at it's best, even if there was a nagging feeling this special lacked making a more substantive impression.  

Dave-El's Weekend Movie Post: The Fabulous Baker Boys

With Christmas in the rear view mirror, our attention turns towards New Year's Eve.  And for that occassion, this week's edition of Dave-El's Weekend Movie Post turns to a romantic comedy from 1989 called The Fabulous Baker Boys,  written and directed by Steve Kloves with brothers Jeff Bridges and Beau Bridges starring as the titular musicians and Michelle Pfeiffer playing lounge singer Susie Diamond.

The Fabulous Baker Boys are a piano duo consisting of brothers Jack (Jeff Bridges) and Frank Baker (Beau Bridges). For 15 years, they have been performing show tunes in bars and lounges throughout Seattle, Washington on a pair of matching grand pianos.

Frank is the the duo's manager, still devoted to keeping the act a going concern.  Frank is married with kids which can be a problem for the uncertain itinerant life of a lounge performer.  

Brother Jack is younger, more irresponsible, flitting from one night stand to another. 

Jack is tired of the Fabulous Baker Boys. But he lacks the spark, the initiative to leave his brother and the act. Occasionally Jack sits in at a local jazz club to actually play music he cares about.  

A decline in bookings leads Frank to hire a female singer to revive interest in their act. 

Susie Diamond gets the gig despite showing up late for the audition but she is an impressive singer and performer.  

The new trio gets more and better paying gigs which leads to an offer of an extended engagement at a luxury resort through New Year's Eve. 

Jack and Susie flirt with each other cautiously in-between gigs, but neither acts upon their feelings and Frank forbids Jack from pursuing Susie in fear that a relationship between the two would compromise the group's stability and newfound success. 

You can guess what happens next? 

OK, let me tell you one thing that happens next.  

Susie Diamond oozing sexiness while sliding all over Jack's grand piano for a sultry performances of "Makin' Whoopee". 

Hot!

Freaking.!!

Damn!!!

Of course everything that Frank feared would go wrong when Jack and Susie began having sex goes wrong.  

Susie gets an offer to sing in Los Angeles which pays better. (Granted the gig is singing jingles for cat food.) 

Without Susie, the Fabulous Baker Boys are no longer so fabulous and Jack finally confronts Frank that he wants to quit the act. It does not go well and they get in a physical fight that injures Frank's hands. 

The Fabulous Baker Boys are done.

Frank trades the unstable life of a lounge performer for life as a music teacher which creates a stable secure life for his wife and children.

Jack is off to pursue his dreams as a jazz pianist. 

And also Susie. 

There is a lot to unpack in The Fabulous Baker Boys.  To call this a "romantic comedy" is to dismiss the depth of this film.

 Author Joseph H. Kupfer identified "sibling love, conflict, artistry, and survival" among topics the film explores

In a review of the film, Alan Jones of Radio Times described The Fabulous Baker Boys as a "salute to family, romance, friends and disillusionment".

Moira Macdonald of The Seattle Times wrote that, although Jack and Susie are the film's romantic couple, its true love story is between Jack and Frank.

Film Threat said, with Susie, "there's no heart of gold. There's just a heart, one that keeps Jack at highway's length, merely working with him at first, but soon enough the attraction happens, though in an atypical way because these two are atypical. It's not easy and it's not love because this isn't the kind of movie for that."

 Film critic Roger Ebert believes "There's probably some autobiographical truth lurking beneath the rivalry of the Bridges brothers, old wounds from the 20 years they have both been working in the movies."

At the time of it's release, The Fabulous Baker Boys did not do well at the box office but it swept up a crap ton of nominations during awards season with Michelle Pfeiffer winning most of the awards she was nominated for. 

Me, I found The Fabulous Baker Boys an emotionally engaging film as the Bridges brothers deliver a one-two punch as the complicated Baker brothers who both need each other but also need to learn to let each other go.  

And as for Michelle Pfeiffer, well....

Oh!

My!!

God!!!

Your Friday Video Link: SUPERMAN!

How have I not posted anything about this before now?

Your Friday Video Link today....

Is it a BIRD?  NO!

Is it a PLANE?? NO!!

It's.....

SUPERMAN!!!!!

(Specifically the trailer for the new movie coming July 2025!)   

 

That's Krypo!

KRYPTO the FREAKIN' SUPERDOG!!!!

Who's a good boy? 

Yes, you are, Krypto! Good dog! 

Writer/director James Gunn says do not be fooled by the trailer.  He's warning us Krypto is a bit of a mess to deal with.

I don't care!

Krypto is a good dog! 

The Not So Incredible Edible

This past weekend was a strange one here at the Fortress of Ineptitude.

 

Well, “strange” was in the mission statement for Saturday evening as Andrea and I had our first experience with edibles. 

Andrea and I were good kids and continued to be good into alleged adulthood.  

We never did  the "Mary G. Wanna".  

Also known as weed, pot, dope, grass, reefer, herb, and Mary Jane.

It was time to expand our horizons, take some risks and see where our chemically influenced minds could take us.  

Our son Dean was our guide through this experience.   

 

We were prepared.  Dean and I went out on a snack run at Target to make sure we had sufficient sweet and salty snacks to get through any munchies we might experience.

 

Cheap bastard that I am, I paid the extra bucks for Door Dash to bring our dinner from McAllister’s.  

 

So… what happened?

 

Let’s start with Andrea.  As the evening wore on, she professed that… 

• her head felt “weird”
• the room was spinning
• strange thoughts popped into her head.

 

Andrea did not enjoy her experience.

 

What about me?   As the evening wore on….

• my  head felt “weird” but my head always feels weird
• I felt my environment spinning around me but that’s just standard for me  and
• strange thoughts popped into my head as they always do.

 

The edible warped Andrea’s brain to where my head is already at all the time.  

 

I can’t say I enjoyed my experience either.  I did not have any significant change in my perspective from the one that I live with every day.

 

It also didn’t help that we chose to watch the Jack Black Christmas movie Dear Santa which was not that good.  Jack Black as the Devil should’ve sent us straight trippin’ but no.

 

The next day, Dean was ill, throwing up a lot.

 

Oh no! Did the gastrointestinal affliction that hit Andrea and I about 2 weeks ago also strike out our visiting son?

Was Dear Santa that bad of a movie?   

 

Dean thought it was food poisoning from his McAllister’s sandwich. 

 

Or maybe it was the edibles? Maybe Dean got sick and Andrea and I had bad experience cause we scored some bad weed, man!

 

Not cool, dude!

Or....

Dear Santa is really that bad of a movie that it counteracts the effect of edible weed. 

Not cool, dude!

Ahoy There! It's Hanukkah Time!

Today is not only Christmas Day but it also the first day Hanukkah.   

I was going to write up a whole post dedicated to this joyous holiday for our Jewish brethren but I already did a damn fine one already back in 2019.

It's a post with not one but TWO (count 'em, TWO!) comic books stories!  And not one and not two but THREE (Did I say "THREE"?) versions of Tom Lehrer's "I'm Spending Hanukkah In Santa Monica!"

From a post that first appeared on Saturday, December 28, 2019, It's Hanukkah Time!

___________________________________________

Hi there! Since I spent several posts focusing on Christmas, today we will celebrate Hanukkah here at I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You, a small dreidel of a blog in a glowing menorah of an internet. 

Let's start off with a song, my favorite song about Hanukkah. And no, it's NOT that irritating overplayed thing by Adam Sandler. This tune was written and composed by the great Tom Lehrer. Below is a performance by Mr. Lehrer himself.  

I'm Spending Hanukkah In Santa Monica! I really gets in your head, doesn't it?  

Next up from DC's 2009 Holiday Special is a Hanukkah themed story starring Superman himself.

The creators of Superman, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, were both Jewish.  

I think it's time for another musical celebration of Hanukkah! 

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you....

THE GAY MEN'S CHORUS OF LOS ANGELES!!!!!

It really is in your head now, isn't it? 

It's time for another comic book story, this one featuring a little know DC character called Ragman.  

And that's my Hanukkah post. Sometimes Hanukkah is simply looked upon as Jewish Christmas and it is so much more than that. But like Christmas, Hanukkah also represents the ideal of light triumphing over darkness as well as the peace, love and joy of families and friends coming together.  Which is an ideal we can all get behind. 

So Happy Hanukkah! 

And a special shout out to those who celebrate....

"Hanukkah! In Santa Monica! Wearing sandals lighting candles by the sea!"  

It really gets in your head! 

Is It Christmas?

Say, what day is this?

Why it's Christmas Day! 

If Dean has awakened us at an ungodly hour, then presents have been unwrapped and bleary eyed, I've stumbled back to bed.  

Until I get back up to get Christmas dinner on.

Remember to be good to one another and I hope you have a blessed and joyous day. 

Countdown To Christmas 2024: Just A Day Away!

Well all the kvetching and complaining has brought me to here which is where I was going to end up anyway: 1 day away from Christmas. 

By now....

1) If I needed it, I bought it.

2) If I didn't buy it, I didn't need it.

3) If I did need it and did not buy, well, just fuck off.

Christmas is inevitable.

Let me see if I can get in a better mood about it.

This is a super cut of Darlene Love's holiday visits to the Late Show With David Letterman where she would just wow everyone with her annual epic performances of  "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)".

One of my favorite choral performances of the Yuletide season is this one of "Lo, How a Rose e'er Blooming"  with -John Rutter directing the Cambridge Singers.  

OK, I might be feeling an itsy bitsy more positive about Christmas. Let's wrap up this post with the perennial classic from Mariah Carey.

Tomorrow is Christmas.

Am I ready?

Fuck it! Just bring it on already...

Tuesday TV Touchbase: Christmas Specials

Hi there and welcome to the Tuesday TV Touchbase where I post about stuff I've seen on television.

Since tomorrow is Christmas, the topic of today's post are holiday theme TV shows I've seen this month.  

Let's kick off the post with A Nonsense Christmas with Sabrina Carpenter.   

Sabrina opens the special with a word of thanks to her viewers who could be doing something else such as spending time with family or volunteering with the less fortunate. “Instead, you’re here, half-watching a big screen while scrolling social media on a smaller screen,” Sabrina says with a smile.  

Interspersed with an assortment of holiday themed musical numbers by Sabrina and guests are comedy sketches.   Abbott Elementary’s Quinta Brunson and Cara Delevingne appear with Sabrina in a Christmas Carol sketch about women who have been ghosted by “Ebby” Scrooge.  And my favorite sketch features SNL’s Kyle Mooney as a super generic relative, leading to a song called What Do I Get My Brother-in-Law.

Chappell Roan turns up dressed as a gift to sing Last Christmas, by the light of TV karaoke, in the aftermath of a raucous house party. (In the post credit outtakes and bloopers, Chappell comments that here outfit makes her feel "straight".)  

Andrea and I also caught the Nate Bargatze Nashville Christmas special. There's some strong musical performances and comedy bits including a sketch that riffs on Nate's  Saturday Night Live skits where he plays George Washington trying to explain oddities of America's future.  Here Bargatze is Gabriel the angel explaining modern-day Christmas traditions to Joseph and Mary, played by "SNL" cast members Ashley Padilla and Mikey Day.

Joseph:  "I do not understand, angel: a pine tree IN the house?"

Gabriel: "Yes, it will be so?"

Mary: "But why?"

Gabriel: "Nobody knows."

Andrea and I caught Christmas theme episodes of Ghosts (Jay got to see and interact with the ghosts for an episode. It was funny and very cool.), Happy's Place, St. Denis Medical and Night Court.  

And the holiday themed edition of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune (with Pat Sajak back as host).  

Regular Wheel of Fortune (with Ryan Seacrest as host) spent 2 weeks with a Disney sponsored Secret Santa series.  

We also watched an old special from the 1980's,  Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special.  It was a very surreal experience.   

We also watched an episode of The Play Goes Wrong called The Spirit of Christmas about a poor sad kid who only wants for Christmas is for her parents to stop fighting and blah blah blah, who cares? Anything and everything that can goes wrong goes wrong. 

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That is that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase. 

Next week's post, I look back at some of the TV I watched in 2024. 

The week after that as we begin a new year, the Touchbase will touch base on...

• What We Do In the Shadows
• Star Trek Lower Decks
• Creature Commandos

and more! 

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.    

_______________________

Later today, one last Countdown to Christmas 2024 Post.