January TV shows

[dolorosa_12]

In spite of having a fair amount of free time, I've only finished watching three TV shows this month. They were:

Interior Chinatown, a humorous, meta miniseries about formulaic, tropey storytelling (in this case, American police procedurals, and East Asian martial arts movies), the rigid boxes into which this places its characters, and real-world individuals, and what might happen when characters try to break free from these constraints. It's written with thoughtfulness and affection, the dialogue and characters are great, but I felt that ten episodes were slightly too many, and I'm not quite sure it stuck the landing.

Season 2 of Dark Winds, an atmospheric, noirish mystery series set on a Navajo reservation (and the wider region) in the 1970s. The writing and acting in this is superb — every character is haunted and traumatised in some way, and this is allowed to suffuse with slow subtlety, as viewers are gradually let in on the various secrets. This is a series that is exactly as long as it needs to be — unlike a lot of TV shows, which I find (see above, for example) feel overstretched, Dark Winds needs room to breathe, and uses this slow pace to perfect effect. The dramatic landscape — and the hostility and violence to which it treats its white antagonists, in contrast with its Native characters, for whom its every contour is known and familiar — is almost like another character in the show. This is absolutely exquisite TV, and the only sour note this time around is its cartoonishly grotesque villain (psychosexual issues with his mother, gleefully carnivalesque violence, etc).

The final season of What We Do in the Shadows, a comedy mockumentary spinoff of Taika Waititi's comedy mockumentary film about housesharing vampires in New Zealand, about housesharing vampires in Staten Island. There were still some absolutely hilarious moments, and great lines in the script, but I couldn't help but feel that this was dragged on for too long, until it got a bit tired.

Comments

[yarnofariadne]

I still haven't watched I think the last two seasons of WWDITS, but even so I agree - I haven't even seen the whole thing and I still felt it was dragged on far longer than it should've been, unfortunately.

[dolorosa_12]

I generally think TV shows drag things out (the number of episodes in a season/miniseries), or carry on for too long (too many seasons), but sometimes it just gets ridiculous.

[lebateleur]

I liked Interior Chinatown the novel well enough, but Yu's first book, How To Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, is outstanding and I rec it to everyone whenever he or his works comes up. (And thus, I am reccing it here.)

[dolorosa_12]

Oooh cool! Thanks for the rec.

[chestnut_pod]

Oh, they made a TV show about Interior Chinatown? Fascinating! I mean, it is about TV, but there's so much going on in the language in there that I am curious how they, for example, translated the people's names-titles to screen.

[dolorosa_12]

I haven't read the book, so I can't comment on any intricacies in the original, and how they were carried over (or not) into the TV adaptation, but they certainly made the most of being a TV show with a meta commentary about TV shows.

[windancer]

What is Dark Winds on? It sounds like something I want to get into! Agree about WWDITS. I thought the previous season was better than the final season and wish it had ended then.

[dolorosa_12]

According to Wikipedia, it's on AMC and AMC+ in the US (the streaming service we watch it on in the UK is different). I think you would like it, if you're able to watch it.

With WWDITS, I think they just ran out of steam and ideas, and then had to finish it up somehow. Definitely not their strongest work.

Seasons 1 and 2 are streaming

[jesse_the_k]

....on Netflix in the US.

I found the acting excellent, the scenery stunning. The gore and violence is vivid and extensive, however--someone's eye is removed on-screen. The background includes sexual assault, domestic violence and residential school abuse.

[kore]

That reminds me, we need to see S2 of Dark Winds. S1 was great.


THAT'S WHAT I GET FOR HAVING TWO TABS OPEN AND A LONG COVID BRAIN

[dolorosa_12]

S2 is really good as well — and there's a third season supposedly coming out later this year (I assume you'll get it way before us).

I did wonder why you'd suddenly started writing about Farscape!