Rutherford Falls

I checked out this new Peacock show due to good reviews and its diversity on camera and behind the scenes. I had hoped that all the episodes would be free (like the Punky Brewster reboot is all free), but only the first 3 episodes are free. You have to sign up for Peacock Premium if you want to watch the whole season. So I have to try to decide if it's worth it to upgrade my account.

I actually did not find Rutherford Falls to be very funny; there is some humor there, but a lot of it is from awkward, cringey situations. I thought that the plot about moving the Big Larry statue would be resolved quickly, after Reagan gave a perfect solution, but no, Nathan reneged, so that the writers can apparently drag it out all season. So annoying. The pilot also suggested that Nathan Rutherford's brother discovered some really shocking document in the ancestral family house, but then the brother never explains what he found when Nathan comes to visit him. The show mentions that the house will be sold, but the brother still says "this wasn't what I wanted to talk to you about." So what did you want to talk about, buddy? When do we learn what the shocking documents were? I hate dropped threads like that. So yeah, I remain ambivalent and undecided about that show.

In contrast, I mostly like ABC's Home Economics sitcom about three adult siblings with different money and family issues. The only annoying part is how Tom's novel is supposed to be secret from the other siblings.

I also recently watched the Scoob! movie that came out last year. Although I love Scooby Doo, I avoided the movie because the promos made it look terrible. Whichever trailer showed Shaggy and Scooby being beamed aboard a ship made me think they were being kidnapped by aliens. Turns out, that's not true at all, but the misleading marketing sure turned me off. Anyway, the origin story starts out fine, with young Shaggy adopting Scooby, then meeting the rest of the gang on Halloween night. They solve a mystery, then we get a remake of the Scooby Doo, Where Are You? theme song, but after the time jump to the teens, it's no longer classic Scooby. Apparently it's not aliens who kidnap Shag and Scoob; it's the superhero Blue Falcon. Warner Brothers basically used this Scoob! movie to shoehorn in their old Hanna-Barbera franchises such as the Blue Falcon, Dynomutt, Dick Dastardly, and something called Captain Caveman. How self-serving can they be? The superhero adventure's okay, but I really would have preferred that the Scooby gang solve a traditional mystery by themselves. Guess I'll just have to keep watching the old toons on HBO Max.