Worth Rewatching

Well the new TV season has begun. I was sad that the new Murphy Brown doesn't have Jim Dial as a regular, but then I heard that he'll guest star on episode three, so that will be good. I'm trying out new sitcoms but only like a couple so far. Hoping that the new Magnum stays light and breezy, though they still keep doing flashbacks to the guy who died in the pilot. At least they had an interesting lost fish case on the 2nd episode.

The drama A Million Little Things has a mystery going on about why Jon killed himself. He apparently left a whole packet explaining things to his wife, but his damn secretary took it and won't tell anybody. His last voicemail message, though, said "Love each other" which reminds me a little bit of how that line recurred in Arrested Development season 4. The insurance policy puzzles me, though, because I thought that insurance doesn't pay in the case of suicide, so how would his beneficiaries inherit? If he planned everything so carefully, surely he'd know that. Confusing, but I do like many characters and touching moments. However, there's also weird moments like a daddy/daughter dance where one of the songs is a breakup song by James Bay. What is up with choosing weird, inappropriate songs for your show?

I also saw a couple of movies, The House With the Clock in its Walls and Smallfoot. Both were entertaining. I usually don't like horror films, but the House movie was pretty mild. It was more family-friendly adventure with magic, and the trailers warned about the things that would be creepy, like the dolls/automatons that came to life, so I could handle it. I also liked the diverse casting even though it was a period movie. Strangely I found that some reviews by parents online kept claiming that it wasn't for kids, and that it was full of satanic rituals. The movie portrayed both good and bad magic, so the villains did do dark, evil stuff (or trick the boy into doing evil), but it's not any worse than Harry Potter fighting Voldemort. Anyway, I liked it, and it will probably be the only Halloween-themed movie I'll see this year, because I'm not into scary movies usually.

I was surprised by how much I liked Smallfoot. I guess the trailers made it seem more silly and slapsticky. The movie is actually kind of thoughtful, with its emphasis on integrity, and learning the truth. The backstory about how Yetis have encountered humans before, but it went badly, hinted at past colonialism and hunting species to extinction. The movie had really good messages about communication and tolerance between cultures. I also liked the song about being curious and asking questions. Good movie, and a good alternative for whichever parents think that House was somehow not family friendly.