I remember when I was a kid being sick meant a day of television. Sitting on the couch watching sitcoms dumped in the mid-morning, followed by The Midday Show or that Jack Lemon/Walter Matthau movie where Matthau is a hitman and Jack Lemon is trying to kill himself. I don't know why, but that film was always on.
But I've been sick this past 48 hours and there has been no TV for me. I've instead been podcast editing, sleeping, and spending 3+ hours on the phone to Telstra to get them to lodge a fault with the NBN (this still remains unsuccessful - I am expecting a phone call in 1-2 days...*sigh*).
But enough about me...
Ahead of the Academy Awards, some of you will likely be rushing to watch a few nominated films. And to that I ask: Why bother? Increasingly, the Academy Awards make less and less sense as the barriers between TV and film blur in not-insignificant ways. And real talk: If you want to see sophisticated adult storytelling, will you find that at your local multiplex anymore?
It is not lost on me that this weekend, while the Academy Awards conversation once again centers around movies that most people haven't heard of before, playing on Apple TV+ is the year's best screen experience: Pachinko.
It's a multi-generational tale of a family that plays out through 20th century Korea, Japan, and the United States. The series will have your heart soaring, I promise. So, Apple TV+... subscribe for the Oscars Best Picture nominee CODA (a film described by many as a pleasing heartfelt TV movie), but stay subscribed for the screen work you'll actually want to talk about with your friends. Pachinko is magnificent TV. I have a review up on the site:
Dan Barrett
This weekend there is also Halo. For a certain kind of viewer, Halo will tick a lot of boxes. I found it just a bit too formulaic and lacking in an originality of spirit.
Dan Barrett
And yes, I know the Walter Matthau / Jack Lemon film is called Buddy Buddy.
returning:
Atlanta (s03), Bridgerton (s02)
new:
Pachinko - Apple TV+
Stars: Lee Min-Ho, Youn Yuh-jung
Based on the New York Times bestseller, this sweeping saga chronicles the hopes and dreams of a Korean immigrant family across four generations as they leave their homeland in an indomitable quest to survive and thrive.
Halo - Paramount+
Stars: Pablo Schreiber, Natascha McElhone
Aliens threaten human existence in an epic 26th-century showdown. TV series based on the video game 'Halo'.
Parallels - Disney+
Stars: Jules Houplain
Four teenage friends, on the French-Swiss border, whose lives are turned upside down by an experiment of the LHC, the world's biggest particle collider.
That's it for this week. I'm back off to bed.
