Watched in 2022: TV Shows

Season 1

Still going on this one...
I love a good mystery and this dystopian workplace dramedy has me wanting to binge... but I will not. I love the aesthetic and the writing and acting is top-notch. Can't say much more as I'm about halfway through.

One Favorite Character from Favorite TV Shows: Burt

Main Locations: Kier (Fictional), NY, USA

Season 4 (Final Season)

Still going through this one, but I can say so far it's still a show worth watching even if the dialogue continues to annoy me the production is a visual feast and the story has me intrigued...

Main Locations: Manhattan, NY, USA

Season 1

Burd nails this role... as himself! It's so funny throughout. His rapping, of course, but his take on himself is so humorous but also thoughtful and effectively reflective. The supporting cast is also really funny and there are a lot of fun cameos from real hip-hop artists sprinkled throughout.

Main Locations: Los Angeles, CA, USA; Philadelphia, PA, USA

Limited Series

I finally bended and checked this one out, a show about two characters I never cared about from the movies. It's pretty good, clever, creative, etc. But then it gets to be too much Marvel. I know that's what people really wanted, but I liked the mystery blossoming in the first half of the series more. Still, the writing and story is smart in its depth. This one show deepens the whole MCU, in my opinion.

Main Locations: Westview (Fictional), NJ, USA

Season 1

I had very high hopes for this one and they were mostly met. It is constantly funny and thoughtful throughout each episode even if the laugh-out-loud moments were less common. But that's okay once it's understood what kind of show this wants to be.
I think it has a lot of potential so I'm anxious for the next season...

Main Locations: Oklahoma, USA

Limited Series

Two very likable actors playing fairly unlikable people... and it works! Perhaps Rudd's best performance because I seriously couldn't stand him and that's saying a lot! There are horrible people out there, who kill, rape, etc. yet this show made you put his character into this category by him just being so damn manipulative to such an innocent schmuck.
The supporting cast is great, too, and the production quality is noteworthy, along with the editing being the highlight of this show. The editors need awards for this one.

Main Locations: Manhattan, NYC, NY, USA; Long Island, NY, USA

Limited Series

This show is total crap. I couldn't watch it, thankfully my wife agreed. We stopped halfway into the second episode.

Main Locations: Florence, Italy

Limited Series

I ate this thing up. I love history, Hollywood history, the making of movies, the mafia, all the elements here. And the great thing is they did it all justice, and didn't spread itself too thing. It's packed with entertainment. My only real gripe is that it was a huge Paramount commercial, especially in the final episode.

Main Locations: Beverly Hills, CA, USA; Manhattan, NYC, NY, USA

Limited Series

Whitehead's novel got a lot of positive attention and the preview for this show intrigued me quite a bit. While the overall production and acting is great the story feels stale and the fantasy elements/alternate history just didn't work for me. It's also depressing and more depressing. I've seen so many movies about slavery that are all depressing, but with those they end after two hours, this show just kept getting worse and worse.

Main Locations: GA, SC, NC, TN, & IN, USA

Season 1

This update on a classic was certainly entertaining and I loved the nostalgia factor mixed in with modern issues/topics of today. They mixed it up in the format successfully and the show made sure to never take itself seriously. It has remained a silly sure about two morons without being political, poignant, or revolutionary. It's simple yet it still works.

Main Locations: West Texas, USA

Limited Series

This limited series surprised me. I had already seen the Alex Gibney documentary on Elizabeth Holmes, so I didn't feel the need to see this and the trailer was kind of crap. Still, my wife wanted to watch so we did, and I am happy for it. Amanda Seyfried is incredible in her performance, it's so dynamic and so well-played. Her best parts are the most awkward moments in the show. The supporting cast is excellent as well.

The story is a very unfortunate one for women in tech and business, and also for people all around. This could have been great, but they fucked it all up!

Main Locations: Palo Alto, CA, USA

Season 48

As it usually happens with large cast turnovers, the new season blows. Several cast members left on their own accord, but getting rid of Alex Moffat was a big mistake.
Some of their host decisions are head-scratchers. There are so many funny performers out there who could host yet they get people who don't really know what they're doing.
UPDATE: Cecily Strong has now left the show, making it even weaker.

Season 2

The characters have developed nicely and remained human, rather than caricatures, as that was something that could have easily happened in this. There is some really strong in a few of the episodes and the team has gotten creative with different set-ups to each. The ending has me looking forward to season 3 for sure.

One Favorite Character from Favorite TV Shows: Poppy

Main Locations: Pasadena, CA, USA

Season 3

This is still hilarious and poignant while still being silly. The characters have developed nicely, but I'd like to see them actually age, which would be different from basically any animated show...

Season 21

The show is finally starting to show its age. It still has smart writing and Kimmel is still a good interview; but the guests and side bits have only hit half the time.

Season 1

Besides it feeling like only half of a season I really enjoyed this show. It has impressive, efficient character development, lots of creative editing and storytelling, and strong acting from the lead and supporting cast. Every episode made me crave for an Italian Beef.


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Main Locations: River North in Chicago, IL, USA

Season 5 (Final Season)

Sadly the final season. Halfway through and really enjoying it. It has always been profound in its unique way, but they're taking that up a notch so far...

Season 4 (Final Season)

This show started off so hot, but with each season it got a little less interesting, clever, and fresh. The final season had several running issues with it that it almost seemed like it was made by different people.
The season wasn't all bad, but the finale made it clear they must have had some real struggles in the writing room. Too bad it's too late to make up for it.


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Main Locations: London, UK; Paris, France; Mallorca, Spain

Season 4

This was a very good season, rivaling the first; and, in time, may be the best of the series. It had great action, drama, suspense, comedy, nostalgia, and fun adventure. All these things worked even with the writers complicating it by having the large cast in three locations far from each other and with their own huge plans that all effectively worked together. It still had several weak moments, eye-rolling monologues, and spent too much time on some things that didn't interest me - But I am just one person.

One Favorite Character from Favorite TV Shows: Eddie

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Main Locations: Hawkins, IN, USA; Lenora Hills, CA, USA (Both fictional)

Season 6 (Final Season)

The final season is the weakest, but the finale is very strong, making me not too sour about the whole thing. It has an even more negative tone overall, and I guess we are meant to not like Tommy, our protagonist?
There is an episode where it seems like they're finally going to make Ada the character she should be, but then they seem to forget about her.
There are some nice send backs and the overall production is still high quality.

One Favorite Character from Favorite TV Shows: Ada

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Main Location: Birmingham, England, UK; Miquelon Island, Newfoundland, Canada

Season 15

Sure it's too short, with only 8 episodes, but it's still full of laughs and a great multi-episode story where the gang goes to Ireland. This show is truly still hilarious, poignant, and somehow fresh after 15 seasons.

This show remains my favorite TV comedy of all time.

One Favorite Character from Favorite TV Shows: Charlie

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Main Location: Philadelphia, PA, USA; Dublin, Ireland

Limited Series

Mike Myers playing a half dozen characters, mugging less-assured to the camera since his "Love Guru" days but the schtick is still all there. He has plenty of funny moments, but he couldn't quite bring back the magic of his earlier projects. I love the effort and the creativity, but the overall tone and approach is just off and it never quite takes off.


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Main Location: Toronto, ON, Canada, Manhattan, NYC, NY, USA; Dubrovnik, Croatia

Season 1

I love Steve Martin Short and was excited to finally get to this show I've been hearing a lot about. I can't say I loved it, but I was certainly enjoying it enough with the fine-enough comedy and mild intrigue. It's a decent in-the-moment kind of show, even if it involves fictional murders. I hope they amp up the comedy in the second season, it has potential.


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Main Location: Upper West Side in Manhattan, NYC, NY, USA

Season 7

I've become less interested in this show as it's become very repetitive in the jokes. I only watch it on YouTube for interviews of people I'm interested in and I'll watch a monologue usually once a week.


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Season 2

This show impressed the hell out of me in the first season and then took it up a notch in the in-between episodes, and incredibly even more in this season. It's still the best show on television. It's constantly creative, clever, and effectively emotion-filled. It's dark, depressing, inspiring, funny, intense, and beautiful.
The performances make up the heart of it but the editing and direction is what impresses me the most.

One Favorite Character from Favorite TV Shows: Fez

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Main Locations: Fictional Southern California, USA town.

Season 2

The zaniness and cleverness get ramped a little in the second season and the adventures continue to entertain.


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Season 2

This season featured three movies are among my 25 All-Time favorite movies (Gump, Back, and Park), so this was quite enjoyable!

Movies Featured:
Back to the Future
Pretty Woman
Jurassic Park
Forrest Gump



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Season 9

Though the Closer Look segments aren't as strong, his Corrections segments and ability to poke fun of himself keeps the show grounded and unpredictable. He has also continued to get better with interviewing, adding a little more depth in the past two seasons.


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Limited Series

Boring and needlessly dull. The characters could be really interesting... but alas they are not.


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Main Locations: Dublin, Ireland

Season 1

I've always found Schumer funny, since "Last Comic Standing" so it's nice to see her get her own show that is semi-autobiographical. There are plenty of funny moments, but also plenty of awkward/poor decision making with the writing and directing. There are several scenes that just don't make sense. There are even some episodes that are clearly by a different director who doesn't really know what they're doing, as if they weren't familiar with the show up to that point. Maybe they'll flesh some of that out for Season 2, as the renewal was recently announced.

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Season 4

The series bounced back a bit after Season 3 became the show's weakest effort. This one was full of energy and grand performances and ideas. The season finale was awesome, yet the season needed to be two episodes longer, which would have made it stronger.

The season was full of funny moments but strangely boasted the least amount of great stand-up comedy from Midge.

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Season 9

Another season of comedically diving deep into why the downfall of our society continues...


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Season 1

I love the concept of this show - going through a directors background and career that lead up to a famous or defining shot in their career. The technology they use when going over that scene is really cool and something you won't see on any other show about movies. Yet, this show has the same issue as "Murderville" where half the directors they selected aren't very well known or even had long or impressive careers; so the results are less interesting.

Directors that worked best for this concept:
Michael Mann
Patty Jenkins
And sort of Aaron Sorkin (He has had a far more impressive writing career)



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Season 3

This show moves so nicely. It's a nice mix of cerebral and dumb comedy. Galifinakis continues to play Chip and Dale with such complexity and Anderson continues to be a powerhouse with his truly authentic performance.


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Main Locations: Bakersfield, CA, USA

Season 1

This is really interesting show that highlights a culture that doesn't get enough high-production-value attention on television. I am mostly only interested in the two main characters (the sisters) so hopefully the other characters will get better or grow on me.


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Main Locations: Boyle Heights (LA), CA, USA

Season 1

This was a delightful and silly improv show that I really hope gets a second season greenlit because it has a lot of potential. Will Arnett is hilarious in it and really quite impressive with his timing and improv skills. It is especially impressive during the moments where the guest stars are not so good. This leads me to the main weak part of it, half of the guest stars were not very good with the improv. When there are so many great improv artists out there why did they select some of these people?

Three guest stars that worked well with the concept:
Conan O'Brien
Kumail Nanjiani
Marshawn Lynch

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Main Locations: Murderville, USA (Fictional)

Season 2

The first season was very good, poignant and refreshing with sharp dialogue, smart story arcs and characters, and didn't rely on dramatic cliches... all while enduring Reese Witherspoon's subpar acting.

The second season isn't bad but misses the high-set mark, the magic is lost... all while Witherspoon's subpar acting is still there.

One Favorite Character from Favorite TV Shows: Cory Ellison

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Main Locations: NYC (Brooklyn, Manhattan), NY, USA; Lake Como, Italy

Season 1

You can tell Tim Robinson wrote for SNL because he has a lot of funny skit ideas but has a tough time with ending them. At least his skits are shorter and feel like less of a letdown.

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Season 4 (Final Season)

The first half of the final season is SOLID. Bravo to them making us wait several more weeks. I'm confident the wait will be worth it.

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The second half of the final season is ok; but NOT what I was hoping for as far as clever story endings, and I especially did not care for the final episode. Hell.

One Favorite Character from Favorite TV Shows: Helen Pierce

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Main Locations: The Ozarks, MO, USA; Chicago, IL, USA

Season 10

Notable Guests:

Zach Galifianakis
Dave Chappelle
Tracy Morgan
Dana Carvey
John Mulaney
Kate McKinnon
Alec Baldwin

Season 1

Gervais does it again. He has created another very funny and touching show that is perhaps his best-crafted yet.

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Main Location: Subarban England, UK

Season 2 (Final Season)

Season two was basically like season one, and both were short. Seems strange they even had two seasons. Anyway, it was the same, so just as funny and watchable. I really wish the show would have continued as I got really into the characters and wanted more.

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Main Location: Essex, England, UK

Season 2

I finally got around to watching season two, three years after season one and it is a definite improvement. More clever, surreal, challanging, and thought provoking. Now I am actually impressed with the show and looking forward to season three, which comes out next month.

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Main Location: Atlanta, GA, USA

Limited Series

This season (or limited series?) is okay, but it feels more like a latter "Dexter" season. Not so witty, surprising, or entertaining. The quality of the production is up there and the overall story is worthy... but there was no good reason to keep Deb in the picture, too much of her. Dexter's son is annoying and seems like a weak idea to make him such a prominent figure... and then there is the final episode. Spoiler: It will likely upset most viewers, no matter how invested.
Oh, also, too many coincidences that took us out of it!

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Main Location: Iron Lake, NY (Fictional)