Shows and TV

Rewatching Foundation this week. Excellent show, well worth a (re)watch.

I’ve started the new season of Halloween Baking Championship. Gf and I watch it while eating dinner, so it takes two or three nights to finish an episode.

We are partway done with the first episode. It’s a small sample size, but none of the bakers is nearly as impressive as the winner from the previous season. Said winner (Hollie) started off a little shaky but most of the season was a blowout, with Hollie winning an absurd number of bakes. She’s strong enough we think she would’ve won handily on any other season of the show.

We’re also two episodes into season 1 of Shitts Creek. Of the family members, I like the dad the most. The motel clerk (Stevie?) is my favorite one of the townies. So far it feels like Arrested Development but in rural Canada instead of coastal southern California. Feels like there is some humble pie coming for the Rose family. No spoilers, please.

Started Kolchak: The Night Stalker this week! I’d never heard of this show so it’s been a treat to watch 👻

Kolchak: The Night Stalker is an American television series that aired on ABC during the 1974–1975 season. The series followed wire service reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) who investigates mysterious crimes with unlikely causes, particularly those involving the supernatural or science fiction, including fantastic creatures. The series was preceded by the two television movies, The Night Stalker (1972) and The Night Strangler (1973). Although the series lasted only a single season, it developed cult status in syndication.

Chris Carter cited Kolchak as a "tremendous influence" in creating his franchise The X-Files.

I just finished the season finale of Bad Monkey.

It was well worth the time spent and I encourage anyone with access to an apple tv+ login to consider it. Similar to a Hot Fuzz set in the Florida Keys, with the difference that the protagonist is a local instead of a transplant. There are still a lot of colorful local characters.

It was a single season of 10 episodes, based on a book. The author of said book apparently has, among his lengthy bibliography, at least one other novel featuring this same protagonist with an unknown number of the side characters. Not a sequel or a prequel, but another story in the same universe.

At first I was unhappy with how some of the characters plot lines resolved, but in hindsight they get endings that make sense within the universe.

I would absolutely be up for a rewatch in a year or so.

Stihsl: an Israeli show about a Haredi (ultra orthodox) family living in Jerusalem. I don’t like family dramas usually, but this is really good. The social structures, traditions, and parallel religious society is interesting and surprising. Traditional religious life with its many rules gives people a framework on how to act in all situations and a dense social network. The lack of freedom and shame from rule breaking plays a role as well. The main character is a young man living with his father, who’s starting his career and is looking to get married. Streams for free on arte.tv in some European countries.

Loki: An actually good Marvel show about timelines, time travel, multiverses, destiny, freedom, bureaucracy, institutions, and causality. Loki as an anti-hero has a lot of charm. Two seasons with total 12 episodes. Story is completed.

Saboteurs/Heavy Water Wars/Kampen om tungtvannet/Saboteure im Eis – Operation Schweres Wasser: A British special forces unit on a secret mission in WW2 to sabotage heavy water production in Norway, that Germany needs for their nuclear program. Solid miniseries. Watch with a library card from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxemburg, Belgium, Liechtenstein on https://filmfriend.de/