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What to Watch: TV chat with Hank Stuever

January 10, 2019 at 12:00 p.m. EST
Here we are again, another Thursday already -- I'm eager to hear what you've been watching.
I got through the first five hours of "True Detective," which did not make a strong case for its return -- and I promise I watched it with an attentive and open-as-humanly-possible mind. I compare it to coming home and discovering and discovering an uncooked meal in the slow-cooker that someone forgot to plug in. BUT if you want to read positive reviews of it, surely there must be a few. Try Metacritic.
My Golden Globes review, filed live (under some duress, I will add, as the show ran over 20 minutes because of long acceptance speeches and the presses stood ready to roll). Really my biggest criticism is the calendar creep: Jan. 6 is too dang early for awards shows. (And keep in mind, Oscars are moving up a few weeks next year, to Feb. 9. Remember not so long ago, when they were held on the last Monday night in March?)
In the She-Watches-So-You-Don't-Have-To (and I don't have to, either) category, Emily Yahr did the brave duty of watching Lindsay Lohan's new reality show. She found it sad, but not for the reasons you'd immediately think.
I'm writing a review this afternoon of Netflix's "Sex Education," which should post tomorrow. Also reviewing "The Passage," which premieres Monday on Fox. (I still have a bit to watch, so no firm opinions yet, sorry.)
So now you're all caught up on my side of things. What are you up to, TV-wise?
— Hank Stuever

Q: The Americans

I agree the Golden Globes were a bit of a snooze (I only made it halfway through) but was thrilled (and a bit surprised) to see The Americans win for best drama series. I loved how genuinely excited they all seemed to be (and the group hug!). It was a fitting send off to a show that really had it all- an interesting premise, great writing, great directing, great chemistry, great acting, and a killer soundtrack to boot. While I think it will be hard to replicate that success, I hope Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields work together again.

A: Hank Stuever

Agreed!

Q: A little over 35 million people watched the address

... or roughly 1 in 10 Americans. Is this... a good rating? Do you think Trump would like that rating?

A: Hank Stuever

Is that what the number wound up being? Spread out over numerous outlets ... I'm not sure how that compares to other Oval Office/prime time addresses, since they're so rare. There's no end to the way one can spin ratings, so I guess he can too. Of course, someone else could break it down and show just how many people watched Chuck and Nancy give their rebuttal.

Q: Mrs. Maisel

I'm almost done season 2 of Mrs. Maisel, which I'm enjoying immensely. It has its moments, though, where it kind of gets muddled and loses its sharpness. I think it mostly happens when it aims for larger, group-focused schticks (for instance, when they're moving into the house at the Catskills). I find the show is at its best when focused on the different relationships (Susie and Midge especially) and how people are changing (hi, Joel) or not.

A: Hank Stuever

Interesting observation. In some ways, I think "Mrs. Maisel" really subsists on those big set-pieces like the Catskills arrival, where it's nothing but visual and aural information. And also, if you're looking at it another way, a rather sneaky but grand statement on class. I agree with you, though, that in a show that's so hyper, the real gems are when it takes time to stop and drill down on a character or specific relationship.

Q: Jimbova

I know you didn’t warm to it, but the best show you’re not watching is Counterpart. The cast, setting, and plot/pacing are all fantastic. Just sayin’.

A: Hank Stuever

Anyone else watching "Counterpart" and have some thoughts/criticisms/points to share? Jimbova is correct -- it does very little for me and I fear I never made it through Season 1.

Q: Bodyguard on Netflix

Watched it b/c Richard Madden got the Golden Globe. What a treat! Great thriller.

A: Hank Stuever

I still think it was just BritishGood®, which is a show that's nice and tight and not bad at all, but seems even better because it's British.

Q: Sopranos

Being rerun on HBO. I forgot how good it was. I came in at some random episode, said "Oh yeah, this scene..." then before I know it it's three episodes later. FWIW, I'm in the yes-Tony-got-whacked camp.

A: Hank Stuever

Today is the 20th anniversary of "The Sopranos" premiere and we have a few comments already acknowledging this milestone. Please, do share.

As for me, I was a civilian back then (not a TV critic, that is), and it took some convincing to get me to watch, as the mafia has never really interested me as a story. (I wonder why else I resisted on watching it, besides the fact that I didn't have HBO for a long time? Is the subject matter too macho? Is it because I'm not from the East Coast? Didn't see "Godfather" I or II until I was in my 20s?) But I did eventually come around and became a fan of the show -- very late, like in 2005 or so. I did sit through many lunches with some of my Style colleagues back in the day, as they talked and talked and talked about the most recent "Sopranos" episode.

Q: Today's the 20th anniversary of the Sopranos premiere. What's your favorite episode?

Mine is the one where Tony was in the hospital, in a coma, after being shot by Uncle Junior. (Google tells me the episode was called "Join the Club.") The whole episode is basically Tony dreaming he had a completely different life, as a salesman, while his family kept a vigil in his hospital room. I remember the episode being haunting and strange and completely unexpected and kind of beautiful. I especially liked how it ended up with Moby's "When it's cold I'd like to die," which seemed perfect.

A: Hank Stuever

The woman who has been brought in for questioning and barfs all over the table. That's what I would do and I've always wondered in those sort of scenes why it doesn't happen more.

Q: Favorite streaming service

If you could pick just one streaming service, which one would you pick? I go back and forth between Hulu and Netflix, but I think I've finally settled on Hulu thanks to Killing Eve and the strength of its re-run catalogue (everything from MASH to Taxi to 30 Rock). Netflix has a deeper roster of original shows, but quantity dominates quality. I wouldn't subscribe separately to Amazon, but it comes free w/ my Prime subscription so I'll take it.

A: Hank Stuever

My fantasies involve having none of them, so I don't think I can really play your game.

Q: Schooled

I always sample the new comedies and give them one chance to win my viewership. I won't tune in to this one again. The characters and situations are not interesting or funny.

A: Hank Stuever

I lasted about three minutes.

Counterparts

I completely agree with Jimbova. I binged the first season just as the second season began. Now they're not coming fast enough for me. A great combination of sci-fi and cold war feel to it.

Q: True D Part Three

So your review of True Detective S3 was interesting. I enjoyed S1 very much, and was lukewarm (at best) on S2. In your analogy, you said that this season felt like food on the slow cooker that you forgot to turn on. As a follow up, is it compelling enough that you'd still want to turn on the cooker and see where it leads?

A: Hank Stuever

Well, if you're starving and there's nothing else in the house to eat, yes? I can't say, because I haven't seen the final three episodes (6, 7 and 8), which might have made a difference in the review. Or maybe not. If it gets suddenly better in episode 6, I predict a lot of people won't be around to notice, because they will have already given up on it.

Q: Friends from College

I was surprised to see this is coming back this week, as season 1 was uneven to say the least. However, Keegan is great, and so is Cobie Smolders, so I'm willing to give it another shot. For anyone on the fence, just watch the "Party Bus" episode--it is laugh out loud funny and establishes the relationships well.

A: Hank Stuever

I panned it in my Season 1 review, because there's only so much we should have to be asked to take from elite content-makers making shows about elite people. There's no stretch here for anyone involved, just self-regard.

Q: Happy Together

CBS didn't order a full season (only 13 episodes) but insists it hasn't been cancelled. Not exactly a vote of confidence. Why don't they put the cast out of their misery; that way they can move on to other projects.

A: Hank Stuever

Are you the agent or manager of one of these people? Do you know they're miserable? Of all the people in this cruel world to feel sorry for ...

Q: 20th anniversary of "The Sopranos" premiere

Of the many things the show did well, one was dream sequences (Christopher in the butcher shop, Tony talking to a fish). They are difficult to do well and the show never fell into the "It was all a dream" trap.

A: Hank Stuever

Agreed.

While we're on the subject of "The Sopranos," if you don't know about it already, the just-released book "The Sopranos Sessions," by bigtime TV critics Alan Sepinwall (Rolling Stone) and Matt Zoller Seitz (New York mag), definitely belongs on your nightstand if you're any sort of serious fan of the show. Here's the book review that ran in The Post the other day.

best Sopranos episode

The Sopranos one of my all time favorites, seen every episode many times and been enjoying the HBO marathon. Easily my favorite episode is "Whitecaps" when "the Russian" calls Carmela (how great is Edie Falco!) and she finally faces his infidelities and later tells him about being in love with Furio. I agree with the other poster- Tony got whacked. He had Phil killed and Phil was all about retaliation, so his guys whacked Tony.

Q: Adriana barfing

That's my second favorite. I would have done the same and then lost control at the other end.

A: Hank Stuever

Same.

Q: favorite episode of Sopranos

I was so late to the Sopranos party because I never had HBO. About 10 years ago I spent a summer watching season after season on Netflix discs. When you binge watch, you don't even know what an episode is, you just hit "play all" and let it run for an afternoon. And I never had a problem with season cliffhangers, I just moved on to the next disc to find out the resolution. As a result, I have no idea what my favorite episode is, since I never really watched only one episode, and I sure didn't have any idea what anyone was talking about 20 years ago when it just came out. So, I here there is an interesting HBO show out now called Game of Thrones. Is it any good?

A: Hank Stuever

You'll love it.

And, even if you don't binge-watch, it's sometimes hard to think of shows episode-by-episode. I think people either have the brain for that or they don't. I know people who find all sorts of significance in episode titles and are able to remember, season by season, what happened in one episode vs. what had not yet happened. I, on the other hand, always have to go back and look it up. I tend to think of the whole story, not the chapters.

Q: Brooklyn Nine Nne

Didn't watch it on Fox, but am intrigued by its resurrection on NBC tonight. Is it worth my time?

A: Hank Stuever

It's a very harmless, moderately funny and much beloved show. It's snarky but also warm.

Q: Put the cast out of their misery

Are actors happy to be working, even if it's on a show that's tanking/or they hate?

A: Hank Stuever

Don't you think the answers to that could be infinite? And just like anybody who has a job? Some days the answer would be yes and some days no and a million moods/responses in between, depending on the day.

Q: BritishGood®

Is there an AmericaGood® ? I only have limited knowledge of Brit TV and couldn't think of any. The Bachelor is an American show which has a Brit version but I don't think it meets the definition of: nice and tight and not bad at all, but seems even better because it's American.

A: Hank Stuever

We make all kinds of AmericanGood® shows here, and, like BritishGood shows, they're mostly crime dramas. Summer TV on cable is a fertile place to search for them.

Favorite Sopranos episode

The Pine Barrens. Paulie and Christopher so far out of their element.

Q: Murphy Brown coming back?

Hi Hank - any scoop on whether or not the Murphy Brown reboot will return for another season? The news out there is fuzzy - some say it's been cancelled, others say no. In this case, Google is making my head hurt.

A: Hank Stuever

No official word on it, no scoops either. But eventually a Google search will provide a firm answer.

Q: True Detective

Was wondering if the new version is similar to Sharp Objects, (or was it Sharper?). The first episode or two, if I recall correctly, was interesting enough, but then it started to wander all over the place. ( I always thought tighter editing might have solved the problem.) But, the final episode was really good, and answered the big question.

A: Hank Stuever

"Sharp Objects" was directed by Jean Marc Vallee, who has a very distinct style of collage/memory in his structure. I would say that "True Detective" is a lot more linear than that -- and more linear than it used to be in Seasons 1 and 2.

Q: Man Without A Plan

Is it ever coming back? It's mildly diverting family-friendly fare. Could be used to launch a new TGIF line up with a rebooted Step By Step.

A: Hank Stuever

It returns Monday, Feb. 4.

Q: Season 3 of Mrs Maisel

Child Protective Services takes away her neglected children, and she kibbitzes about it later that night

A: Hank Stuever

I think they were trolling us a little bit in Season 2 -- leaving them in the car, etc. Sometimes I wonder if showrunners/creators regret giving children to their main characters.

Q: Marty Funkhouser

I'm a bit late to this, but RIP Bob Einstein. Funkhouser is one of my Top 10 funniest sitcom characters. Most of my favorite episode of Curb involve the Funkman.

A: Hank Stuever

RIP, SuperDave.

Q: You

Really enjoying "You" thanks to your recommendation. I still have a few episodes to go, but I'm already looking forward to the next season.

A: Hank Stuever

Glad I could help!

Q: Forever (without spilling the beans on the big reveal)

I made it through Forever quickly and my reaction to it is full of contradictions. I find Fred Armisen grating but he delivered the only laugh-out-loud lines for me. It felt slow but I kept watching. The stand-alone sixth episode is seared in my memory and I can't stop thinking about the whole series, but if I ever find someone to recommend it to I would have to include several caveats. I tend to only choose shows that I know will grab me and quickly drop the ones that don't, and I keep trying to figure out what was different about Forever. No question really, just marveling at this phenomenon and wondering if it is familiar to anyone else.

A: Hank Stuever

When shows are deliberately slow, it can be frustrating to viewers who prefer fast and grabby. Speaking as a critic who has to take a look at everything before deciding what to review in full, it takes every ounce of patience I have to consider whether this particular kind of slow is working or not. (See my "True Detective" review for a slow that doesn't.) It can be difficult to slow ourselves down enough to determine whether a slow pace is artful or frustrating. My recommendation is more practice. You do have the luxury of being able to drop a show you find too slow, and that's perfectly fine, but sometimes you might find great reward in taking it slow and letting it build. Put another way: Some 700-page novels are wonderful and stick with you longer for having taken the time to read them. Not everything need be a quick 288 pages.

Q: Sisters

Did you see/review this Australian show (Netflix). My Google search came up empty. Only seven episodes, but really great!

A: Hank Stuever

Unfortunately, I don't have time to dive too deeply into Netflix's foreign-made content, with some exceptions. Chatters have heard me whine too much, but there's more American-made TV (scripted and non-scripted, plus awards shows, Penny Marshall has died, etc.) than one critic can manage.

Q: Glenn Close

Hi Hank -- I was very happy to see her win because it's a great performance and was a little annoyed by the inference that she somehow "robbed" Lady Gaga of the prize (I like LG and all that, but it wasn't a "Glenn's been around so long, she's due" by any means). And the speech was magnificent.

A: Hank Stuever

Q: Sopranos

I remember thinking the premise seemed too much like a bad sitcom. This was back in the days of Arliss, so I guess I expected it to be campy. I got hooked by watching a marathon on HBO during a business trip.

A: Hank Stuever

Having HBO for a few nights in a hotel room can be a very persuasive form of marketing. I remember as a teenager when we would check into motels on vacation and there would be that little HBO booklet of all the month's programming sitting there next to the remote -- mostly just movies then, but TANTALIZING.

Q: Sopranos

My favorite thing about the Sopranos was people getting mad about "spoilers" years after the final episode aired.

A: Hank Stuever

They still do, occasionally.

Q: Timeless Finale

I'm sorry to say I was very disappointed in the Timeless finale. I blame myself, I was really excited for two hours of time travel and taking down Rittenhouse. But in the end they spent so much time on their personal lives there were only two trips in the lifeboat, which was a bummer. I guess I should have known that's what the focus was going to be, but I still hoped for more. Also it seemed so easy, how they defeated Rittenhouse. One positive was the very ending, with Flynn and the journal. Glad they addressed that.

A: Hank Stuever

I only caught about 20 minutes of it and couldn't make any sense of it -- too much time had gone by or I'd lost whatever I'd felt for it. But I did feel remorse, once more, that it had been canceled, because it's the kind of show that fills a niche that is often neglected. Glad you got at least some of the conclusion you were hoping for.

Q: Golden Globes and The Americans

I watched and enjoyed The Bodyguard, but giving Madden the GG over Matthew Rhys was the work of criminals. Madden was good, but Rhys was great -- and over six seasons, not just six (or so) episodes.

A: Hank Stuever

Well, honestly, I thought Season 6 really belonged to Keri Russell.

Sopranos

One of my favorite scenes is in the episode when Tony and Meadow are driving to look at colleges, and she just point-blank asks him "Are you in the mafia?" without euphemism or coded language. Tony is clearly caught off guard and gets so upset he almost wrecks the car, goes on about Italian stereotypes, etc. Hilarious.

kids in mrs. maizel

It wouldn't be ANY big deal to leave the kiddo in the car -- at all. They were in the middle of nowhere, etc. And it was a different time and place, this is very apparent to us nowadays now that most parents cannot let their kids out of their sight for a minute. It really was fine, honestly. But you're right -- they were probably trolling us too!

Q: Tuesday's Network Prime Time & Trump Etc.

The networks had ample time to work out how they wanted to deal with the interruption of their prime time by Trump etc. Why couldn't ABC and CBS put scrawls up indicating when the regular programming would begin? ABC apparently resumed its regular schedule which was delayed about 20+ minutes but provided no info that I saw about when or if The Rookies would start. CBS filled the time after the speeches to make a half hour and then filled in with some comedy--never saw a title of the show--and then returned to regular show at 10pm. I don't know what NBC did. These situations were not fair to viewers.

A: Hank Stuever

I guess, but also, as TV critic, I will say to you that it's only television. In these times, when anyone can go back and retrieve any episode from a number of streaming options, it seems sort of ridiculous to let your day get ruined by a pre-empt.

Q: The only way I can participate in Sopranos nostalgia...

is to say that I have never seen the show. And there is a part of me that wonders whether I should bother catching up. I know it was groundbreaking but there are so many other shows that have plowed similar ground. Will I find myself saying, "Huh, they did that so much better on Mad Men or Breaking Bad"?

A: Hank Stuever

No, I think you've pretty much got the point -- the groundbreaking TV of the early 21st century was all about difficult men with difficult problems.

Q: Timeless finale

I got the feeling that the writers didn't know if the show was going to be cancelled or not, so they didn't wrap up anything in a nice bow. It was very unsatisfying.

A: Hank Stuever

But wasn't that the point of doing a two-hour wrap-up movie? It's not like there was any question at that point.

Favorite Sopranos Scene

Or maybe just the most memorable. When Tony suffocated Christopher. I was floored. I was late to the party due to not having HBO, so my friend and I "binged" watched all the previous seasons during the final season run. We would get 3-4 discs at a time from Blockbuster (oh the good ole days). We then watched the finale live at a friend's house and when all went black, thought the cable had been cut and panicked. When I'm home on maternity leave soon, I plan to re-watch it all via Hulu.

Q: Emily

Do you and her have any coordination over who reviews what? Or is that up to the bosses?

A: Hank Stuever

This is going to sound super technical, but Emily's piece on the Lohan show is labeled "analysis" and not review. I'm the critic who writes the reviews. Once in a while we'll draft someone else to review something. Emily is a reporter/writer on the pop-culture team and picks up a lot of next-day breakdowns of reality programming, both because she is a saint and because she is the house expert. She also pretty much chooses her own path through the jungle and rarely do we find ourselves machete-ing away at different sides of the same tree. The rest of the pop-culture team is also very good at picking shows that are in play and being discussed by viewers and writing something about them -- some new angle besides criticism.

I pick what to review and quickly pitch it to my boss, who rarely says nay. But we do have talks when I've got to make a difficult decision due to time/space: Two or three or more shows premiering on the same day vs. one of me -- should I do this one or that one? He's very good at helping me choose in those situations.

Q: HBO

I wrote in over a year ago about what I considered to be the dearth of new drama programming on HBO after a run of great shows beginning with The Sopranos. Since then, I did enjoy Sharp Objects and Barry, (drama?), and was in the middle of the second season of Westworld when HBO went dark for me because I am a Dish subscriber. I was looking forward to True Detective, assuming Dish ends their shut down, but your review today poured some cold water on that. So, other than the last season of Game of Thrones, which I consider to be the greatest TV drama of my lifetime, is HBO really worth a subscription any longer? By the way, regarding Escape From Dannemora, I thought the drawn out face shot of "Tilly" set to Soundgarden's "Wave" at the end of Episode 6 was absolutely stunning.

A: Hank Stuever

I'm sorry to hear your provider is having those problems, which can be extremely frustrating to customers who, contrary to popular belief, can't just hop out of their subscription contracts. I do wonder, if, as an HBO subscriber there, you can still get online access, like HBO GO, and watch it on a laptop or tablet or phone?

As for whether you should keep HBO or not, if you asked this before, I probably tried to come up with a list of other programming that I consider great, from shows to documentaries. But if it's really all about GoT for you, then yes, I guess the end is near. Until you re-up for the GoT prequel series?

Sopranos

Favorite episode, "Cold Cuts", when Janice goes to anger management and gets all nice, but Tony manages to antagonize her about her son, Harpo, until she explodes. The Kinks song at the end is perfect.

Q: Re: Timeless movie

The movie DID wrap up everything. It was clearly made to finish every storyline and give fans happy endings for their favorite characters.

A: Hank Stuever

I mean, that's what I thought, too. (The 20 minutes I saw were the last 20 minutes.) But OP felt underserved. What can you do?

Q: Killing Eve

Just want to thank you and all the chatters who raved about Killing Eve. I couldn't really imagine liking a show like that, but when they ran a marathon a few weeks ago, we decided to give it a try. We ended up bingeing the whole season and are looking forward to the next one. There are other shows I wouldn't have watched if it weren't for this chat (Fargo is one - LOVED, LOVED season 2 of that!). So thanks:)

A: Hank Stuever

Glad to hear it!

 

Q: a two-hour wrap-up movie?

I've read that "Downton Abbey" will have a movie-theater release of a wrap-up film, with all the cast returning (except Lily James, who played Cousin Rose). I enjoyed the TV series, so hope the big-screen sequel won't disappoint (cf. SATC). Any special intel you've gotten that we peasants in the reading/viewing audience haven't heard yet?

A: Hank Stuever

Besides that cryptic trailer, I know nothing.

It's a movie now, which means I no longer have to worry about it. Let Hornaday have at it!

We've run out of time -- if I didn't get to you, please know that I do see and read you. Thanks to all chatters and lurkers -- see you here next Thursday.
— Hank Stuever