My very bad, cranky, TV watching mood

I’m in a bad mood as far as my TV viewing goes this week. I’m not angry - just disappointed.

For years I was very receptive to Prime Video’s Bosch, but I fell off a few years back. I’ve talked about this before in the newsletter, but the older Bosch’s daughter Maddie got in the show and the more integrated into the series she became, the greater my disinterest. It’s a combination of performer and actor that felt like a walking black hole on the show. So, with her taking co-lead status in spin-off Bosch: Legacy… well, I wasn’t surprised that it was cancelled after this third season. I *probably* won’t be watching.

Then there’s the buzzy and surprisingly critically well-received The Studio. It’s the biggest show of an otherwise fairly quiet week. I talked about this in the newsletter earlier this week:

The show is easy enough to watch, but you get a few episodes in and you’ll struggle to remember if you actually found any of the jokes funny. It needs to be more laugh out-loud funny and the satire needs to be more savage. The show feels like Hollywood is being poked with a soggy paper straw.

It’s all amusing enough, but you’ll ever quite escape the sense that this has been done better in films like The Player and The Big Picture, or shows like Entourage and Arli$$ (which was about sports entertainment, but it still seems familiar).

It’s not that the show is terrible. But it doesn’t live up to the potential of it. I don’t see what other critics have seen in it and it was nice to get a few emails from people during the week who are equally baffled.

But, it’s fine. I know I’ll end up watching the full season. Again, I’m not angry. Just disappointed.

I only managed the first half of the pilot of the very traditional sitcom Mid Century Modern. It’s directed by James Burrows and he brings his sitcom style to it all. As much as we might associate Burrows golden touch with shows like Cheers, Friends, Will & Grace, and Frasier, it is important to keep in mind that Burrows also directed shows like Man With a Plan, $#*! My Dad Says, Mike & Molly, and Caroline in The City. Not everything he touches is gold and new show Mid Century Modern is in that latter bucket of shows.

It is a more overtly gay modern take on The Golden Girls, but obviously that sets a pretty high benchmark. Mid Century Modern left me pretty cold, but with ten episodes released to Hulu (in the US) and Disney+ internationally, I think I might just jump in around episode six or seven and see what the sitcom is like once it has found more of a voice for the characters. There is potential in the show even if I really wasn’t feeling it with that first ep.

It’s currently raining outside and is expected to continue on for the next few days, so there will be considerable couch time in my house (especially as everyone else in the house is feeling unwell to varying degrees of sniffles). If like me, you are also finding this weekend lacking for viewing options, I do have a suggestion…