Ted Lasso - I had temporary access to Apple TV when down south so a Ted Lasso binge was in order. Season 1 was a delight. Terrific ensemble acting, flawed characters who somehow find their way amidst loss and degradation. Funny as hell. Then Season 2 went in the toilet and turned into a weepy chick flick. This was a series that was aching to follow the Seinfeldian principle of "no hugging, no learning" and they went opposite into a "get in-touch with your feelings, especially you toxic males" format. Tremendous let down. Season 3 (of which I only saw the first 3 episodes before I had to leave) seemed to get somewhat back on track, although I reserve judgment until I see it through. My advice: watch Season 1 and feel free to bail at any point after that.
Justified: City Primeval - I was truly psyched to see Raylan Givens ride again. Timothy Olyphant's portrayal in Justified was truly one of the greatest extended performances of all time. For me, it's right next to pantheon level work by James Gandolfini, Ian McShane, and Bob Odenkirk in Sopranos, Deadwood, and Better Call Saul respectively. In short, City Primeval (through the first 4 episodes) is a big let down. Gone is the great ensemble cast -- no Tim, no Art, no Duffy, no Constable Bob -- replaced by a set of personality-less interchangeable Detroit cops. And while Boyd Holbrook does decent work as the big bad, he's no Walton Goggins, and his character, Mansell, is no Boyd Crowder. Worst of all, it's no fun. The relationship of Raylan and his daughter gets a lot of time and while occasionally poignant, it's a bummer. The repartee and sparking dialogue is gone, replaced with standard cop show blather. It's also harmed by its setting in Detroit, which is just depressing, although it does capture the dinginess of both the city and its leaders quite well. What does that say about Detroit, that it's more dire and bleak than Harlan, Kentucky.
Marvel's Secret Invasion -- It is astonishing how Marvel has gone from doing no wrong and breaking box office records at will to having pretty much destroyed every property they had. A tell-all book about the rise and fall of Marvel Studios needs to be written. I canceled my Disney+ subscription some time ago, but they provided Amazon Prime with a preview of the first three episodes of their latest TV series, Secret Invasion. The plot here is that an aging Nick Fury has to work to stop a group of shape shifting aliens from exterminating the human race. The first three episodes weren't offensively bad, which is an achievement for Marvel these days. It suffers from what a number of late Disney/Marvel products suffer from, things happen for no other reason than somebody wrote a scene that said it would, whether it is internally consistent or not is unimportant. They thankfully left the gag-laden self-parody out of it, but they also left out the fun. It was just kind of "meh". Needless to say, I felt no urgent desire to renew my Disney+ to finish it out. Neither should you.
