Binge10: Yellowstone, Arcane, Landman and More
It was a huge week in premiers, some good, some really good, and some not so much.
Note: If you try to watch Citadel: Honey Bunny, I never figured out what the original language is (Google tells me it’s Hindi but that isn’t an option), and Amazon doesn’t help. Good news is that the English dubbing is unusually good.
If you haven’t been watching, Before, is the best show on television right now.
The Andrew Hernandez biopic ended this week. It was a pretty straight forward story that winds up blaming everybody for his behavior including his father, the NFL (he had extremely severe CTE), his abusive uncle, the Patriots (Bill Belichick doesn’t look very good), and his friends from back home.
I finished Don’t Go Home. It wound up being a time loop show, not bad, but no Lazarus Project.
Devil’s Hour, Nemesis, and Edge of Sleep aged off the list this week. The full Watch list looks like the following:
Only Murders in the Building (Hulu). All episodes streaming.
The Old Man (Hulu). All episodes streaming.
Tulsa King (Paramount+). Another season of Mafia wisdom, bad plans, cheap jokes, and cheaper violence finished up. Wow, was it fun.
Agatha All Along (Disney+). All episodes streaming.
Penguin (Max). All episodes streaming.
From (MGM+). The show really rebounded lately. Great revelations this week and season finale next week.
The Legend of Vox Machina (Amazon Prime Video). All episodes streaming.
Accused (Hulu). Each week is something different, so you can jump in at any time.
Teacup (Peacock). Great alien invasion show. All episodes streaming.
Shrinking (AppleTV+). This show just refuses to take itself too seriously.
Before (AppleTV+). This show exists somewhere between supernatural, reincarnation, and murder.
Neighborhood (Hulu). You can chime in any week if you are looking for something funny.
Somebody Somewhere (MAX). Sam has an official crush, and Trish has an official STD.
The Diplomat (Netflix). Funny and complex.
Citadel: Honey Bunny (Amazon Prime Video). It winds up being the origin of the Citadel and Manticore.
New Shows
Yellowstone (Paramount Network/Hulu). Watch, if you have to. After two years, the very popular Yellowstone show returns for the last half of Season 5 and series finale. The entire cast, except for Kevin Costner, returns for the final season. He, of course, dies in the first five minutes of the premier and we already know who is responsible so that won’t be a mystery. It will leave it up to spoiled, entitled, daughter Beth to pick up the pieces and she, of course, is out for blood. The overacting is rampant, the one-liner cowboy wisdom is voluminous, and there is plenty of cattle. You don’t have a choice but to finish the series if you have invested four and a half seasons, but this show jumped the shark when Costner’s character became governor.
Note: If you don’t have some sort of live TV, Yellowstone is very difficult, if not impossible, to watch on streaming services. It won’t show up on Peacock for a while and, for whatever reason, it doesn’t show on Paramount+.
Arcane (Netflix). Watch. Voiced by Kevin Alejandro (Fire Country), Hailee Steinfeld (Dickinson), and Ella Purnell (Fallout), you have to watch Season 1 (from 2021) to get Season 2 of Arcane. If you go to the episodes on the show, there is a Season 1 recap which you’ll need with the three-year hiatus. Arcane, based on the video game League of Legends (and it sometimes you feel like you are jumping level to level), is about the stress between two cities: one a beautiful sprawling metropolis/utopia and the other an underground, dark world of crime, poverty, and survival. Of course, violence is going to break out and you can decide for yourself if one city is an oppressor, or the other a terrorist, or it is just a big misunderstanding. Arcane has amazing animation, original music, great characters, fantastic action, a solid story, steam punk type of technology (industrial technology that seems beyond the society’s means, especially weapons and body augmentation), more species than Star Wars, and scientists trying to build people and weapons infused with magic (Arcane).
Bad Sisters (AppleTV+). Wait and See. Starring Sharon Horgan (Catastrophe) and Eve Hewson (The Perfect Couple), the first season of Bad Sisters was fantastic. It is hard to understand how they will keep things interesting the way the first season ended. You do need to watch Season 1 to understand Season 2. Season 2 takes place two years after Season 1, Grace is getting remarried, and the police have found the dismembered body of her dead husband’s father. Apparently, this discovery reopens her husband’s case. It doesn’t help that Grace’s new husband is missing.
Rivals (Hulu). Wait and See. Starring David Tennant (17 years of Doctor Who) and Alex Hassell (His Dark Materials), Rivals takes place in the 1980’s around the TV industry in the UK. The number of characters is huge but mostly focuses on a rich neighborhood where many of the industry’s top CEO’s, producers, ministers, financers, and talk show hosts live. There are some laughs, a little bit of drama, a great soundtrack, and lots of sex, drugs, and alcohol. It is a pretty entertaining show, let’s see if it can stay that way for eight episodes.
Cross (Amazon Prime Video). Wait and See. Starring Aldis Hodge (Leverage: Redemption), this series is the newest incarnation of the original James Patterson novels. It is not based on a specific book, though. Based in Washington D.C., Cross is investigating the murder of a social activist and trying to uncover the conspiracy behind his killing. The novels’ success was based on ultra-bad bad guys and Cross’ use of his doctorate in psychology to uncover the identify and motives of said bad guys. Initially, these traits are missing from the series (though the bad guy is getting progressively badder) and instead focuses on the toll of the death of his wife and political/social issues. Though, the banter between Cross and his partner, Sampson, lives on, I’d like to see this show capture the suspense of the books.
The Day of the Jackal (Peacock). Watch. Starring Eddie Redmayne (Fantastic Beasts), this series resurrects the legend of the Jackal. The Jackal has been portrayed in many books (including the Jason Bourne series) and movies as an elite assassin, known for incredible disguises, high risk projects, and a master of all weapons. Redmayne’s Jackal recreates that character as he kills the German prime minister, and British MI6 tries to catch him. Since we know who did the crime, the show is a suspenseful, intense, cat and mouse series where the MI6 operatives have to ignore their own ethics to catch him.
Silo (AppleTV+). Wait and See. The first season of Silo was fantastic (just like the books) and the second season kicked off last week which I suspect will also be pretty good. The season premier had Juliette discovering another silo and, for some unknown reason, starts investigating the gutted, demolished structure. The show also starts to show Juliette’s back story as a kid. Hard to know where they are headed just yet, but I think we’ll just continue to find out more about the conspiracy of the IT department hiding the truth from the silo.
Landman (Paramount+). Wait and See. The great cast, Billy Bob Thornton (Goliath), John Hamm (Fargo), and Demi Moore (St. Elmo’s Fire) makes this a much see. The show is about starting up a new oil drilling site in Texas. Thornton runs the place and John Hamm is his boss, his son works there, and his daughter is there on vacation. The first two shows are about the daily crisis of an oil drilling operation. On the surface, that isn’t very interesting, but Billy Bob Thornton is really funny and has some phenomenal lines. Let’s see if they can make this interesting.
Dune: Prophecy (MAX). Watch. Starring Emily Watson (Chernobyl), Travis Fimmel (Vikings), and Mark Strong (Deep State), this is a prequel (10,000 years before) to the movies that focuses on the origin of the Bene Gesserit and their influence on the Empire. The show is half Game of Thrones with politics and betrayal, half Foundation with hard science fiction, and throw in some action and magic. Really interesting story with a very cool vibe to it.