New York Calling Again

As usual, it's been a while since I've done this but a brief look into some of the shows I've been watching over the last few weeks.

And Just Like That: I often wonder why I keep watching this show because even with certain character exits and guests like Rosie O'Donnell and Patti Lupone, this show has remained a train wreck. Carrie and Aidan haven't progressed as a couple, Charlotte's story with Harry should've been taken more seriously and it's early days with Miranda and Joy. The subplots that other characters have had are a mixed bag but overall, it's been another uneven season so far.

Dexter: Resurrection: It was only a few months ago this franchise was getting back on track with prequel show Dexter: Original Sin. The first two episodes of this sequel series certainly glossed some obstacles from Dexter: New Blood while also setting up a whole new playground for both Dexter and Harrison. There was a lot fan pleasing cameos in the first episode, Angel's now in the same boat that Doakes/LaGuerta once were, Dexter's made a new friend with Blessing and his family, Harrison's developing his own code and Uma Thurman's Charley is involved with other serial killers. It's off to a strong start tbh.

Ironheart: I had such mixed feelings about this show. I didn't particularly care for the title character in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and I did think it was a MCU show that we didn't need. Saying that, it's mostly an okay show that served as a good place to have Riri Williams get her own suit, work through the grief of losing her best friend while also introducing Sacha Baron Cohen's Mephisto in the finale. The stories with both The Hood and Ezekiel Stane were a bit uneven but in general, it's not a bad show.

Poker Face: I have loved this second season and it's done a great job with its guest cast. It's also done a great job in setting up the seemingly sweet and innocent Alex into Charlie's intellectual nemesis. It's only taken the show two seasons to give Charlie her own Moriarty but they did it and perfectly with this particular character. We also got a cliffhanger ending for Alex or did we? Oh we're definitely getting that character if the show returns for a third season.

Sirens: Netflix and Greek mythology themed shows again. Less than a year after the short-lived Kaos, there's this five part series, centred on sisters Simone and Devon and the former's enigmatic boss, Mikaela. It's a show that revelled in it's opulence, was more subtle in the actual sirens part and had some solid performances from Milly Alcock, Meghann Fahy and Julianne Moore. Oh and Kevin Bacon certainly had his moments too. Not the best Netflix series this year but with five episodes, it certainly didn't outstay it's welcome.

The Bear: I watched the fourth season in two days and mostly, I did like it. Not as much as the first two seasons but more than the previous one. The fourth and seventh episodes in particular were highlights. The former focused on Sydney spending time with her cousin and the latter's daughter. The latter episode being a big wedding one with the most amount of guest stars, including Brie Larson as Francine, the much hated rival of Sugar's. Carmy got some interesting scenes with Claire, Donna, Sydney, Richie and Sugar this season but there's a repetitiveness with the restaurant being in trouble that I wish the show would move past.

• Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Richard Madden and Marcia Gay Harden will be regulars for upcoming Netflix series, Trinity.
• Murderbot has been renewed for a second season by AppleTV+
• ABC have commissioned a new series of Scrubs for the Fall schedule. 
• HBO Max have cancelled Duster after one season.
• Stranger Things fifth season will be released on Netflix November 26th, December 25th and 31st respectively.
• HBO Max have ordered to series Stuart Fails To Save The Universe, the latest spin off from The Big Bang Theory.
• Queer Eye will end with it's upcoming tenth season on Netflix.
• Virgin River has been renewed for an eighth season on Netflix.
• Filming for The Boys final season has wrapped. Amazon will release it in 2026.
• Filming for third season of Interview With The Vampire has started. It'll air on AMC in 2026.
• Devil In Disguise: John Wayne Gacy will be released on Peacock from October 16th.
• Slow Horses has been renewed for a seventh season by AppleTV+
• Season 4 of Monster will focus on Lizzie Borden. The Ed Gein season will be released on Netflix later this year.

Understanding The Other Side

Yeah, it's been over a month since I've done one of these and I've not watched that many things since then but here's a look at what I have seen.

9-1-1: The real test for this show will be next season. Will the decision to have killed off Bobby Nash been a disaster or can the show actually survive without him? These last three episodes at least put his successor to bed with Howie assuming the mantle along with the birth of his and Maddie's son. There was some closure for Athena, Hen and Karen's family being completed, more of Ravi (make him a regular already) and plenty of Buck/Eddie scenes with side order of Tommy. Not a great ending but not awful either.

Overcompensating: What can I say about this Amazon college coming of age comedy series? The following actually - a) it's the type of show that would've felt fresh and original had it been released twenty years ago, b) Benito Skinner really shouldn't have cast himself or Adam DiMarco because they both looked too old for their respective roles c) the Charlie XCX references were a bit much as was Megan Fox and d) the potential romance between Benny and Miles was just disappointing. I appreciate some of the hot guys and I liked the budding friendship with Benny/Carmen and certain guest actors but overall, this show was mostly lacking.

Poker Face: It's been two years since the first season ended with Natasha Lyonne's Charlie Cale incurred the wrath of various mob families. The first five episodes saw the show on great form with some brilliant guest characters. Cynthia Erivo as five different siblings, Giancarlo Esposito as a creepy undertaker, Rhea Pearlman and Richard Kind as a mob couple, Kumail Nanjiani as a throwback to Tiger King (but with an alligator) as wdll as Simon Rex and Carol Kane in a baseball themed episode. Overall, a very enjoyable bunch of episodes so far this season.

The Last Of Us: There's no denying that the decision to kill off Joel so early in the second season has had such a ripple effect. I think for a chunk of the audience, losing the character and Pedro Pascal was enough for them to sign out. I'll admit, I did struggle with the rest of the season, so the brief reappearance of Joel was nice but do general audiences care enough about Ellie vs. Abby or the Ellie/Dina romance to help Season 3? We'll see.

• The second season of Netflix's The Gentlemen has gone into production. 
• Showtime have renewed Yellowjackets for a fourth season.
• AppleTV+ have renewed The Studio for a second season.
• A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms will now air on HBO in 2026.
• Welcome To Derry will premiere on HBO Max during the Fall.
• T'Nia Miller has been cast as Jocasta for upcoming Disney+ MCU series, Vision.
• David Tennant will remain as a regular for the second season of Rivals for Disney+. It's currently filming and will be twelve episodes.
• Dexter: Resurrection will premiere from July 11th on Paramount+ on Showtime from July 11th.
• Kaia Gerber has signed on as the lead for upcoming FX adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis's The Shards. The show will be executive produced by Ryan Murphy.
• Krysten Ritter will reprise her role as Jessica Jones for the second season of Daredevil: Born Again for Disney+.
• The Wheel Of Time has been cancelled by Amazon after three seasons.
• The upcoming Harry Potter series for HBO has officially cast Dominic McLaughlin, Alastair Stout and Arabella Stanton as Harry, Ron and Hermione respectively.
• Bridgerton has officially been renewed for both a fifth and sixth season by Netflix. Season 4 will premiere in 2026.

They've Been Here All Along

Yeah, it's been a while since I've done one of these. Same as usual, a look into things I've been catching up on.

And Just Like That: After an extremely divisive first season, this Sex And The City sequel series came back for a slightly less divisive second season. For the most part, second helpings does feel like an improvement. In the first seven episodes we've had a deconstruction and break up with Miranda and Che, Carrie recording an audio book for her novel, a temporary romance, losing her podcasting gig and reuniting with Aidan. As for Charlotte, she became a Momager, suffered the effects of a pot brownie and bagged an Italian poet for Anthony. Seema has had some fun one liners and more effort has been made to connect Lisa and Nya with the main group. There's more to be done but it's starting to find it's groove after such a rocky start.

Poker Face: The last four episodes of this first season certainly had their moments. We had race car drama, special effects murders, a creepy cabin adventure with Joseph Gordon Levitt on house arrest and then that finale. The one where Charlie managed to get herself out of one villain's grasp (hello, Ron Perlman) only to land in another's (also hello. Rhea Perlman) while getting a little family time with Charlie's sister and niece. Will I be tuning in for more of these haphazard hijinks? Absolutely.

Secret Invasion: It's disappointing to see the MCU's foray into Disney+ shows go from "must see TV" to "I've seen enough" in less than three years but between too many shows in too little time and some of the creatives choices being made for these shows, it's not surprising. I wanted to like this show but it was largely a mess, fumbled an event that should've been an Avengers movie and despite Samuel L Jackson's best efforts, this ultimately felt like a waste of time with the handling of the Skrulls plot. Not even the talents of Emilia Clarke and Olivia Colman could salvage this.

The Bear: With this show's second season recently released and all the Emmy buzz surrounding it, I finally got around to watching the first season. I can't believe I left it so long. This show is amazing. Jeremy Allen White is a revelation as Carmy and he's back by a fantastic cast playing some genuinely compelling characters. The dynamics between Carmy, Richie. Sydney, Tina, Sugar and Marcus to name a few is brilliant as the show's focus on a struggling restaurant makes for great television. The Review episode alone was some of the tensest twenty minutes I've seen commited to film and the finale was a beautiful way to end the season. I'll be catching up with the second season very quickly.

The Idol: Well, that ended on a weird as hell note. You really telling me that after all this time and everything we'd seen that it was Jocelyn manipulating Tedros? I'm all for a secret twist but that was so poorly done, it reeked of bullshit. I really don't see how this show can justify a second season and I'm hoping that HBO have the sense not to do so but who can tell what they'll do.

• The series finale of Riverdale will air on the CW from August 23rd.
• The third season of Only Murders In The Building premieres on Hulu/Disney+ from August 8th.
• Heartstopper Season 2 is now released on Netflix.
• House Of The Dragon's second season has been able to remain filming in spite of the current strikes. Expect some big book changes.
• American Horror Story: Delicate will likely be moved to 2024, given recent events.
• HBO have renewed The Righteous Gemstones for a fourth season.
• NBC have cancelled Magnum PI. The remaining ten episodes will air later in the year.
• CBS will air the UK version of Ghosts in double bills as part of their autumn line up.
• FX limited series A Murder At The End Of The World will now air from November instead of this month as originally planned.
• AppleTV have cancelled Suspicion after one season.

Detecting BS, Royalty Early Days And Pop Starlets

Yes, it's been that kind of a month with the shows I've been playing catch up with.

Poker Face: The last decade has been great with streaming reminding us all how talented Natasha Lyonne really is as an actor. She was excellent in both Orange Is The New Black and Russian Doll but with this show, Knives Out creator Rian Johnson has brought out some of her best performances yet as cocktail waitress/human lie detector Charlie Cale with each episode putting her in a different location with a different cast while solving whatever the murde of the week happens to be. That being said, Charlie does have a tendency to attract chaos in her wake too.

Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story: With the main show due for release on Netflix later this year, the arrival of this prequel series had a lot to live up. The love story of Queen Charlotte and King George was the anchor for this show and both India Amarteifio and Corey Mylchreest absolutely delivered in their respective roles along with Arsema Thomas as the younger Lady Danbury. Add a secondary love between younger versions of Brimsely and Reynolds and moments where the show updated viewers on the current versions of Charlotte, Agatha and Violet and this was a winner. 

The Flash: After seeing the movie, there was also the remaining episodes of the show and the Cobalt Blue arc was not only a nice way to bring back Eddie Thawne, several other villainous Speedsters but it provided a solid ending to the series nonetheless. Barry and Iris finally became parents, Khione restored Caitlin and new Speedsters were created. The show hasn't been perfect and nine seasons might have been too long but overall, this was a good ending for the show.

Yellowjackets: I had watched the first season almost in a vacuum that I tried to give myself some breathing room before I started the second season. At least two weeks. Then I watched the second season and that too was like a vacuum. Now I agree it's not as strong as the first season and it seemed like certain plots were halted in favour getting Shauna, Misty, Natalie and Taissa to that centre to face off with Lottie and also reunite with Van too. Saying that, I liked new characters such as Lisa and Walter (Matt, not so much) while Callie and Jeff stepped up as characters and that finale death provided an interesting conundrum for next season. Not to mention learning more of Ben's relationship with Paul in flashbacks, the gory way Jackie's corpse was dealt with and the harrowing episode where Shauna gave birth. Actually I liked this season a lot.

The Idol: If there a show this year that can be summed by the following words "great premise, questionable execution" then the latest vanity project from Euphoria creator Sam Levinson and The Weeknd (who cannot act to save his life) would be it. On the surface this show wants to say interesting things about mental health and sexual exploitation and tries to do that with struggling pop starlet Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp). Two episodes in and some of the trashiest sex scenes committed to cable television, it's failing on every level. You'll feel for Jocelyn as a character but you'll also feel exhausted watching this series as well.

• The CW have gone on a spate of cancellations where even the likes of The Winchesters and Walker Independence were not spared.
• Jenna Ortega will have a producer role for the second season of Wednesday.
• Loki Season 2 will premiere from October 6th on Disney+ while the entire season of Echo will be released from November 29th.
• Filming for Agatha: Coven Of Chaos has wrapped while filming for Daredevil: Born Again has been halted until the writers strike concludes.
• The second season of House Of The Dragon has added Freddie Fox, Simon Russell Beale, Gayle Rankin and Abubakar Salim to the cast.
• Amazon have renewed Citadel for a second season.
• Kim Cattral has filmed a cameo scene for the second season of And Just Like That. 
• Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story will be the follow to Dahmer and will premiere on Netflix in 2024.
• The second season of The Last Of Us will air on HBO in 2025.
• 911 has been renewed for a seventh season but will air on ABC while 911: Lone Star will remain on FOX for its fifth season.