December TV shows
Dec. 31st, 2022 10:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolorosa_12I finished four TV shows this month, which is a bit less than my normal average, but the second half of the month was kind of a black hole on terms of media consumption. Each show ended up being wildly divergent in terms of tone and genre, so that was nice!
The absolute standout show of the month was the second season of The White Lotus. I'd been dubious when I heard it was making a return — the first season was perfect, and self-contained, and this felt like cynically cashing in, but I shouldn't have worried. Season 2 moves the action from Hawaii to Sicily, and again has a death at its heart which we discover in the first episode, but do not know who has died and how until the final moments of the show. If I had to sum up this series, it's a black comedy about all the different ways wealthy American tourists can be awful, in idyllic locations where there is vast income inequality between tourists and locals (whose economy is largely based on tourism). The world is full of such places, and in fact Matthias correctly predicted that a third season should take place in Thailand (rumoured to be in the works) — my suggested location was somewhere in the Caribbean where cruise ships dock. If you don't mind a lot of secondhand embarrassment and humour based on cringeworthily awkward scenarios, and a show where — barring a handful of local Italian characters — everyone is awful, it's a whole lot of fun.
The Handmaid's Tale, on the other hand, needs to really wrap things up. The first season, which was basically an adaptation of the book, was great, and several following seasons which created new material after Atwood's had run out were also pretty good, but it's getting to the point where it's hard to believe that any of the main characters are still alive, and they seem to take turns at having total personality tranplants. There were some interesting moments (elements of Serena's arc this season were very cleverly done), but a lot of the writing seemed merely designed to manoeuvre different characters about so that they ended up in specific physical locations at specific times. They've got a great cast that does a good job with very uneven material.
Entrapped is a follow-up of sorts to the Icelandic crime drama Trapped (the reason for the name change being that the previous two seasons worked with a contrivance of characters having to solve a mystery while trapped by the harshness of the Icelandic landscape and unable to receive any kind of outside help; this season featured no such constraints and characters came and went at will from the northern town in which the murder took place). As in the previous seasons, the show has an almost saga-like quality, with everything hinging on family tensions, ownership of land, and cycles of revenge and violence.
Warrior Nun is a very silly Netflix teen drama about a secret order of — you guessed it — demon-fighting warrior nuns locked in an endless cosmic battle against the forces of evil. The second season was as ridiculous as the first, with handwavy science, cosmology, and Catholicism. None of this matters — the silliness is the point.
The absolute standout show of the month was the second season of The White Lotus. I'd been dubious when I heard it was making a return — the first season was perfect, and self-contained, and this felt like cynically cashing in, but I shouldn't have worried. Season 2 moves the action from Hawaii to Sicily, and again has a death at its heart which we discover in the first episode, but do not know who has died and how until the final moments of the show. If I had to sum up this series, it's a black comedy about all the different ways wealthy American tourists can be awful, in idyllic locations where there is vast income inequality between tourists and locals (whose economy is largely based on tourism). The world is full of such places, and in fact Matthias correctly predicted that a third season should take place in Thailand (rumoured to be in the works) — my suggested location was somewhere in the Caribbean where cruise ships dock. If you don't mind a lot of secondhand embarrassment and humour based on cringeworthily awkward scenarios, and a show where — barring a handful of local Italian characters — everyone is awful, it's a whole lot of fun.
The Handmaid's Tale, on the other hand, needs to really wrap things up. The first season, which was basically an adaptation of the book, was great, and several following seasons which created new material after Atwood's had run out were also pretty good, but it's getting to the point where it's hard to believe that any of the main characters are still alive, and they seem to take turns at having total personality tranplants. There were some interesting moments (elements of Serena's arc this season were very cleverly done), but a lot of the writing seemed merely designed to manoeuvre different characters about so that they ended up in specific physical locations at specific times. They've got a great cast that does a good job with very uneven material.
Entrapped is a follow-up of sorts to the Icelandic crime drama Trapped (the reason for the name change being that the previous two seasons worked with a contrivance of characters having to solve a mystery while trapped by the harshness of the Icelandic landscape and unable to receive any kind of outside help; this season featured no such constraints and characters came and went at will from the northern town in which the murder took place). As in the previous seasons, the show has an almost saga-like quality, with everything hinging on family tensions, ownership of land, and cycles of revenge and violence.
Warrior Nun is a very silly Netflix teen drama about a secret order of — you guessed it — demon-fighting warrior nuns locked in an endless cosmic battle against the forces of evil. The second season was as ridiculous as the first, with handwavy science, cosmology, and Catholicism. None of this matters — the silliness is the point.
no subject
Date: 2022-12-31 02:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-31 03:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-31 04:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-01-01 12:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-01-01 04:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-01-06 03:54 pm (UTC)I'm glad you included this line because while I do not mind the latter (awful people are fun to explore fictionally!) I do very much mind the former, so I think I will have to skip this one. Which is a shame because universal acclaim!
no subject
Date: 2023-01-07 02:22 pm (UTC)