Thoughts on 5 New TV Shows

1. The Afterparty - I wanted to like this show more than I did. I certainly saw a ton of rave reviews of it on Twitter, plus it's from Christopher Miller and stars, my love, Dave Franco. Overall, though, I found it really mediocre and often times very annoying. The cast, aside from Franco, are just full of people who are not my cup of tea. Sam Richardson is fine, and Ben Schwartz has been funny in some projects (although I can only think of Parks & Rec). But Tiffany Haddish is awful - and I've seen enough of her projects now to make a clear declaration that she is not funny. Ditto for Llana Glazer (I don't think I'll ever forgive her after False Positive - one of the worst movies I've ever seen in my life). Double ditto for Ike Barinholtz (who is also about a decade older than everyone else so it makes no sense why he is at the same reunion as the rest of the cast. I don't actually know if that's true because I'm too lazy to look it up, but he sure looks a decade older than everyone there). I will say that there are two episodes that stand-out - the musical episode and the animated one. The musical one veers way too dangerously into Hamilton style rapping for my taste, but I do appreciate the genre mixing. It's a really interesting way to show different perspectives of the same event. And I definitely didn't guess who the killer is - I had a theory, but I also thought my theory was way too obvious. They did a good job of keeping it a mystery, but also explaining it all in the final episode where it completely makes sense (as in, if I watched it again - it's probably all really obvious). I also like the little Fred Savage cameo! 

2. Dopesick - I'm 3 episodes in and it's good. I'm not fully invested in it because I already know the story and it's moving very slowly (I've seen a lot of shock as if the show is uncovering information that wasn't already readily available). I also think (so far) it's trying to take the blame of the opioid crisis off of doctors, and I just don't buy it. As someone who experiences chronic pain (I was hit by a car as a child and fell off of a ladder when I was 20) - I've seen DOZENS of doctors over the last 20 years who have consistently tried to prescribe me Oxy and when I ask for other options, I am met with complete abandonment, as in "you must not be in that much pain then" and/or "well, I tried to help but clearly you don't want to be helped". And that, my friends, is why I don't trust doctors nor do I trust Big Pharma. And I'm going to say something really controversial, but I *completely* understand why people don't trust the Covid vaccine. It's all the same people in charge - that not only caused the opioid crisis, but were also in charge during the AIDS crisis (while Fauci did some good during the AIDS epidemic, he certainly did not do enough, CLEARLY. It's crazy to me that he's seen as some sort of hero now. Does google not exist anymore or are people too lazy to use it?). Also, to be clear, I got the stupid vaccine because it was the right thing to do; I'm just saying that I understand why others are skeptical (not the ones who think it's 5G related or that it's like a mark of the devil or whatever the conspiracy nuts are spouting out nowadays). But when it takes almost a full year for them to admit that the vaccine causes changes in menstrual cycles - that's a problem. Anyway, I'm clearly on a tangent, and not one I talk about often - I try to stay out of it all because I've found that not many people know how to manage life in the grey. Either something is "bad" or "good", "wrong" or "right" with no nuance in-between. And I also would hate for someone to base their own decisions on something I've said that they may have misinterpreted (as an example, I hate Hillary Clinton - that's a whole other topic, but I was pretty outspoken about it during the primaries before the 2016 elections - so much so that both my bf and mother voted for a 3rd party candidate in THE 2016 election. When I found out after the fact, I was like "WHAT? How could you not vote for Hillary, when there's SO MUCH at stake?", "you said all those awful things about her!", "BUT I STILL FUCKING VOTED FOR HER! ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE?" It just absolutely blew my mind, but I've learned to keep my mouth shut now. Hillary is great. I love her. Never done anything bad in her life, ever). OH MY GOD, I'm on another tangent. My apologies. The series is strong even if it's a little slow - great performances from Michael Keaton, Will Poulter and Kaitlyn Dever. It really reinforces how small-towns (specifically mining towns) were specifically targeted, and how addiction effects everyone (more crimes etc). I'm interested to see how dark the story is going to get. 

3. Inventing Anna - I read and heard about the accent that Julia Garner does in this, and yet, I still was not prepared. It's so bad that I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to watch the whole thing (I did, though). Admittedly, I have never heard of Anna Delvey before this (I don't really follow socialite news? Who does? Why does everyone seem to know about this woman?), but out of curiosity, I listened to a few snippets of her interviews to hear her actual accent, and Garner does, indeed, fail spectacularly. I get that Garner is trying to show how her accent was as fake as her persona, but the "real" Delvey still sounds believable. If Garner spoke to me in real life in that accent, I would not believe it was real (does that make sense?). She basically sounds like a Russian valley girl. Aside from Garner's accent, her acting isn't terrible - she's far more tolerable here than she is on Ozark (sorry, but I have no idea why so many people love Ruth? I've been rooting for her death since day one). But the best part of the cast is recognizing all of the Scandal and Grey's Anatomy alums. Plus the addition of Anna Chlumsky and Laverne Cox! Just a terrific cast, overall. The story to this is absolutely insane, but also it's kind of believable because a lot of society people are so fucking delusional and lack the "street smarts" needed to decipher when someone is cheating them. I don't really feel bad for any of the people that she screws over (especially the woman who didn't notice 400k in credit card charges). I'm not sure why there is such an interest in terrible white women being terrible, when there are so many other actually interesting people to make stories about, but then again, I'm watching it? So I guess they win. I did find some of it really interesting, though - just how easy it was for her to scam everyone. And it's hilarious that she knew the Fyre festival organizer. Also, I LOLed at the Culkin reference (Clumsky's face was priceless. My Girl, forever). 

4. Bel-Air - I had to watch this out of pure curiosity. Of course, I was a huge fan of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (and of Will Smith, in general). I know it shocked a lot of people when it was first announced that they were switching genres with the reboot, but honestly, it makes sense. I think we are at a point of exhaustion with sequels, reboots, etc., but this is the way to keep it fresh - either modernize it or change the genre. Do something different, basically. The only problem with this, though, is that making it a soapy drama - it basically turns into The O.C. (complete with a punch to the face at the end of the pilot episode. Totally expecting someone to say "welcome to Bel-Air, bitch"), which is kind of hilarious. I never connected how similar the plots were until now. I've watched the first two episodes, so far, and as of right now, I'm not really feeling it. It's been mostly exposition and character introductions - like, LITERAL introductions (this is Uncle Phil! And this is Carlton! Hello Ashley!). Hilary was always my favorite character, but the whole influencer thing is grating (but makes sense for an updated version of the character). The dialogue is also a little forced and the use of the word "jawn" is excruciatingly overused (I also didn't realize that is a localized Philly word, but it makes sense because the only person I see use the slang that much is Questlove). Anyway, it has potential and I like all of the actors so far, so I guess we'll see!

5. In From the Cold - Kudos to Netflix for sending an email recommending this show to me because otherwise I would have never heard of it. I feel like streaming services, in general, are doing a terrible job at promoting their shows. It's like they focus on one or two things even though they just released 10. Usually things reach me because of word of mouth (my co-workers) or Twitter (although both recommended Bridgerton to me and I'm still bitter. One of the worst series I've ever seen in my life - and not even in the "so bad it's good" category like You). But, oddly, I think Netflix probably knows my taster better than anyone (I've had the service for about 20 years). This show is pretty much a combination of Alias, Fringe, and The Americans (three of my all-time favorite shows!) and it is exactly "my shit". Also, it stars Margarita Levieva, who is someone I assumed I didn't know, but she's Amanda Clarke from Revenge (the "real" Amanda Clarke) and I also remember really liking her performance in Inherit the Viper. I'm really excited about her starring role in this because she is wonderful. I kind of wish they didn't give the premise away in the series description, though, because the pilot episode is excellent, but would have been a shocking surprise had I not known what to expect. It's still a successful pilot episode, because I immediately wanted to watch the next episode (the Limp Bizkit cover of "Break Stuff" really won me over). I also really like the woman who plays the younger Anya - she reminds me of Jodie Comer, but I'm not sure if that's just because of the character or the actress. I'm not the biggest fan of her daughter (the acting, the character are both annoying); it's never a good thing when you're rooting for an innocent teenager to die, but I definitely think it would have benefitted the show a bit. There are also some really strong action & fight sequences that felt believable (the subway kill is probably my favorite - and then they watch it on the surveillance camera! So gruesome, and kind of hilarious). Anyway, it's definitely for a specific audience, but I really liked it and am hoping Netflix renews it for another season ASAP.