Happy Endings

Mary Poppins was fun nostalgia, and Emily Blunt was perfect in the role. Jane Banks was great too. I think that the opening credits were a little long, though, stopping the momentum and likely making children restless waiting for the magic to begin. Once the story started proper, we finally picked up the pace. Michael Banks's sad "Conversation" with his late wife was touching, and I loved the bathtub underwater fantasy. The writers tried to set up a romance between Jane Banks and Jack the lamplighter, but didn't push it too hard. Incidentally, I didn't think there were that many gaslit streetlamps left in 1930s London, but I read that there are still some left today, as part of a Heritage Foundation, so I guess there were more back then.

It was so good to see some side characters back, like Admiral Boom and Binnacle. (But if the sequel is set 25 years after the original, you'd think that those guys would have aged more or died in that time. I can handwave it away, for the sake of Admiral Boom's pleasure when Big Ben finally matched his time.) I do think that the movie went overlong on some songs like "Trip a Little Light Fantastic" and also the Big Ben sequence, when Mary Poppins could have flown the whole time. Great to see cameos from Angela Lansbury and Dick Van Dyke at the end. Even the original Jane Banks actress appeared briefly as the woman who asked for directions on Cherry Tree Lane. I wasn't quite sure it was her until she said "Thanks, most sincerely" like in the kids' letter advertising for a nanny. I loved the balloons at the end.

On TV, the Timeless finale was great. I loved that Rufus came back after the first half hour. I'm glad the writers wasted no time about the love triangle with Jessica, even writing out her pregnancy. No time for those soap opera hijinks anymore when you need to wrap the show in two hours. (God I wish Mitch Hurwitz would have learned that lesson and killed the stupid Rebel Alley storyline in season 5.) Losing Flynn was hard, though, and the North Korea episode was somewhat aimless until we got back to Flynn to make the show come full circle to the pilot. Even though they hinted at a new time machine in the final scene, the writers still wrote a satisfying end, and that's all I'm asking for. No real cliffhanger to frustrate fans endlessly. Just hope, which everybody needs lately.

Timeless and Kim's Convenience

NBC agreed to do a two-part finale for Timeless. I'm so happy we'll finally get closure; hopefully the writers will resolve everything efficiently and not try to over-extend the love triangle for drama. Apparently it will be a holiday movie, so I'll be looking forward to it. Finally some good news out of the summer press tour.

In the meantime, I found this Canadian sitcom on Netflix called Kim's Convenience. It's about Korean immigrants who own a convenience store in Toronto. Mr. Kim doesn't speak to his estranged son Jung, who works at a car rental agency, and the younger daughter Janet goes to art school to become a photographer. I like the most of the show, but I dislike the part that Jung's boss Shannon is attracted to him and abuses her position more than once (she tries to turn "mentoring" into a dinner date; another time she gives him basketball tickets as a bonus for good work, but she assumes that he's taking her on a date, instead of his best friend). This is especially egregious given that Shannon had to run a weird kind of sexual harassment/cultural sensitivity meeting when Jung's friend accused him of harassment as retaliation for criticizing his poor job performance. If she read the corporate policy on harassment, then she needs to stop violating it.

Stephen Colbert apparently addressed the allegations against Moonves, pointing out that he likes his boss, but he believes in accountability. #MeToo isn't just about going after people you dislike politically; it's for everyone who behaves inappropriately, so I appreciate Colbert making that point. That's the same thing about taking down Harvey Weinstein or Al Franken; it doesn't matter that they're liberals. What matters is what they did, and no I don't excuse Franken for it being a "joke" and claiming he doesn't remember.

I don't like that some news media have been reporting that Les Moonves denied the allegations against him. On the contrary, his statement admitted that in the past he "made women uncomfortable with advances" which he regrets; the only part he denies is abusing his office to end people's careers. However, he doesn't realize that he abused his power by making the advances in the first place during professional work meetings. If he sincerely wanted to date these women, the time to approach them is in a social setting outside of work, hopefully not in the same time period where he's making a deal to hire them, buy their show, etc. "Making advances" while at work implies that the job is dependent on the women giving you sexual favors. And by the way, you should start verbally with asking someone out or flirting; your first move should not be to immediately kiss or grope someone. If that's your idea of romance, then no, you don't understand that "no means no". Ok, maybe you didn't do a Harvey Weinstein maneuver of inviting them to a hotel room and raping them, but you still abused the vast power you had at the network. If you truly regret the "mistakes" then step down and get some counseling. I don't fucking care what power struggles are going on with the Redstones. Appoint a successor or have the board do it for you. I don't care. Fucking leave.

Waiting

Meanwhile, I did hear that NBC officially cancelled Timeless, though it got swamped by other news. I think they are still hoping to get a 2-hour wrap-up movie somewhere. I don't know if it's likely at this point, but good luck.

Netflix is showing that new episodes of Arrested Development are coming soon. Maybe they'll appear on July 2nd, where the 1st half left off. It better fix the damn cliffhanger and solve the Lucille Austero disappearance, because this mystery doesn't need to be dragged out any further. Also, they never answered who sabotaged Gob's wedding illusion with the mud hut. I hope they don't answer it with a stupid last-minute retcon. So much stuff about season 5 was terrible and haphazard, like they just threw random stuff at the wall. Are you FUCKING making up the story as you go? You had no thought out plan ahead of time after all these damn years? Bastards.

I saw the Incredibles sequel this weekend, and it was okay. Funny at times but also slow at others. I mostly just wanted to see the short Bao that people had been talking about. That was fine, but I guess I'm not moved that much by Pixar anymore. I wasn't excited for the Lego Movie 2 trailer either. The only recent movie that I haven't felt meh about was that Netflix Set it Up romcom.

I really want to see Crazy Rich Asians, and everything else looks boring lately. I'm also waiting impatiently for the Miss Fisher movie to finish and get a release date for America.

Fucking Hollywood

Anyway, still no word about Timeless being cancelled. Are they still negotiating with NBC or shopping it around? Also, after Roseanne got cancelled, there were all these rumors and suggestions that some other show would get picked up and get that slot. But now the current gossip is that they're trying to do a spinoff about Darlene instead. Why won't they let that show go? Pick up some other pilot or whatever. Stop giving money to Roseanne Barr, who as far as I know still owns the characters she created.

There was uproar about Sam Bee's comment about Ivanka Trump, and the right wants her gone in revenge for Roseanne's cancellation. I guess I should be glad they didn't get Michelle Wolf's Netflix show cancelled, though I haven't seen it yet. What I wish, though, is that the media firestorm wouldn't keep blotting out all other news.

And I can't believe that Trump is on a pardoning-spree lately. I thought he'd just do the Jack Johnson thing because Stallone asked him, but no, that's not enough for him. Just makes no sense, and he's still got to do the Korea summit soon! Unless he cancels it again before then. Sigh.

Almost Memorial Day

I had a nightmare last night and couldn't get back to sleep. I'm still bracing for a possible Friday news dump about Timeless being canceled. I mean, I do want to see them save Rufus, but I'm not sure if NBC will really pay for another season.

This week's Supergirl finally found a good storyline for James Olson as Guardian, discussing the importance of representation and also racial discrimination by the police. The only thing weird was why Lena kept standing up listening to him, rather than sitting down with him. I don't like her recent friction with Supergirl too, and the hints that she'll hate Kara if she finds out her identity. Just recently she talked about the need for secrets in her own life; why would she resent that about Kara? It's just disappointing to see a female friendship at risk. I do hope the show hurries up with defeating/saving Reign, because it's been dragging forever. But instead, apparently Supergirl is going to discover her mother alive, which I feel is a total copout, especially the part where she hasn't aged at all since Krypton.

I'll be working on Monday but will at least have the rest of the weekend off. I'll probably see Solo to get my mind off everything. At least Harvey Weinstein has finally been arrested, and will go to trial. Some justice at least, and there are probably more harassers to be outed soon, like Morgan Freeman.

Mrs Sherlock Holmes

Timeless has been sort of weird lately with Wyatt bringing Jessica to the bunker. So, then, she just quits her job to live there with him permanently? Or is she allowed to come and go? Agent Christopher is just letting this security breach happen? Plus, Lucy now is getting close to Flynn. It's a mess.

At least the time travel stuff is still good, now they've figured out how to have four passengers without the weird side effects that Jiya experienced. Pretty deep interaction between Rufus and his mentor Connor during the Delta Blues episode. The next episode coming up features suffragist Alice Paul and Grace Humiston. By sheer coincidence, I have been reading a book about "Mrs. Sherlock Holmes" lately, but I haven't finished it yet.

While the book is interesting, I wouldn't recommend it, because it's told in such a haphazard, illogical way. Brad Ricca's book with the very long title isn't just a straightforward biography or a telling of her famous case about Ruth Cruger. It begins with a puzzling "Caveat Emptor" that purports to warn you about the content of the book, but it's so damn vague and pompously worded that you don't understand what he means; is he talking about the horrors of crime, white slavery hysteria, peonage, poverty, etc? I don't know, because he's so self-indulgent.

Then comes a prologue, an anecdote about Arthur Conan Doyle coming to America in 1914 and meeting a detective--no, not Grace Humiston. It's some other guy, and Doyle unwisely makes anti-suffragist remarks to a reporter; he seems to suggest that the suffragists deserve to be lynched. He walks it back later, trying to say that he supports independent, intelligent women, just not them having the right to vote. But then the anecdote just wanders off, to nowhere in particular, not even mentioning how angry suffragists put a bomb in ACD's mail box in 1911. This prologue has no relation to the subsequent chapters, and I don't understand Ricca's logic in including it, if he wasn't going to make a sharper point about ACD in relation to Grace Humiston.

I was hoping we'd get to Grace Humiston soon, but no, Ricca instead opens the main book with the day that Ruth Cruger went missing. I'd be fine with that, but then he abandons the story to tell us an unrelated case. Then later he picks up the Ruth Cruger storyline, then he goes into other cases, then back to Ruth, etc. The book should have been called "A Series of Unrelated True Crime Stories, told out of order". Why couldn't Ricca at least have gone chronologically? What would have been wrong with telling the story of Grace Humiston like a straightforward biography, telling where she was born, was educated, who her first husband was, and her career? Why the back and forth from year to year, case to case, until I'm thoroughly confused? I don't mind time travel in a TV show of course, but Ricca's popping in and out of time is so disordered and random. My God, he doesn't even stop to note when Grace Quackenbos gets remarried and her name becomes Grace Humiston!! ETA: (Not until page 233, in chapter 16!) Fuck this writer. I guess I'll still try to finish the book, because some of the anecdotes are interesting, but I do hope that Timeless handles this woman better.

Ugh, Love Triangles

No! Timeless brought Jessica back to life. Stupid manufactured obstacles. At least Hedy Lamarr was cool. I was surprised at how they got Flynn out of prison, but I wish we'd had more development about Jiya's seizures and visions.

Lucifer's love triangle is still shitty, ruining Maze. I still hate stupid-ass Pierce/Cain and I keep looking for spoilers so I'll know when he'll fucking go away. No such luck, though. Maybe he'll stay until the end of the season. I'm considering dropping the show, it's so bad lately.

Meanwhile, Deception is okay. I don't like the voiceovers at the start of each episode, and the twin in prison is still dull. However, at least the crimes-of-the week vary, making the procedural more fun and interesting. The explanations of the illusions are decent, and we even got a little development of the secondary characters Dina and Mike. Cameron hinted at his childhood not wanting to disappoint his father while living one life with his twin. I guess I can stick with it, at least until the mysterious woman magician becomes too obtrusive with her Moriarty shtick.

On Black Lightning, Jen's powers are starting to emerge, and Gambi confessed about his past, helping "scout" teens with enhanced abilities. I don't know why Lala (Latavius) came back to life, nor why he's being haunted by LaWanda's ghost (who kisses him? Why?) It's very confusing. I wonder if the "Shadow Board" Tobias mentioned might be the ASA that Gambi worked for. I wonder if all those kids in suspended animation will come back to life too. Have to wait and see, I guess.

Midseason launches

Timeless hit the ground running with their season 2 premiere. An explosion, then WW1 (aka the Great War) and Marie Curie. I almost forgot that Emma was Rittenhouse, but they used her nicely as an enforcer, and at the end Garcia Flynn gets recruited to join the Time Team in hunting down the sleeper agents. I guess this is a reasonable explanation about how Lucy began working with him and wrote that future diary that he had in season 1.

Deception premiered at the same time, and it was okay, though I didn't like the reveal that he had a secret twin brother all this time, and it started with their magician father making them share one identity from childhood. What a way to screw up some brothers for your career! Where was the mother in all this? A manipulative creep too, or a passive enabler like the mother in The Family Fang? Who knows. I have just recently finished my DVDs of The Magician with Bill Bixby, a previous take on a magician mystery show. In comparison, Deception is a flashier, bigger-budget thing, with a whole team of magic assistants/illusion designers helping the lead. I find him kind of smarmy, though, rather than charming, and I don't like the female villain with two eye colors, 'cause she's giving off female Moriarty/Irene Adler vibes from Elementary. I'll give it a couple of more episodes to improve, but if it doesn't, I've already got a fluffy, Castle-like show in Private Eyes.

In theaters I recently saw Game Night after the great reviews. Jason Bateman doesn't play a jerk, but his character is super-competitive with his brother. There was some cringey humor in the beginning about sexual inadequacies, but once the game night got into full swing, things were more fun and lively. The twists were interesting, though I was kind of hoping I'd see a staircar during the airport scene. Too bad. Apparently I missed some after-credits scene with the Denzel Washington look alike, so I'll probably go see it again.

NBC Reverses Again

It seems that NBC has been rather indecisive lately, what with uncancelling Timeless, then moving This Is Us back to Tuesday. I'm not sure why they backtracked, but I'm glad for it, because now my Tuesday DVR schedule won't be so crowded in the fall. (I don't watch This Is Us.) There were just too many sitcoms on at once, but now they're not all competing at the same timeslot. Now I can record what I want and not need to upgrade my Tivo that urgently. I have more time to save up money for the new equipment.

Recently I watched the cable show Tut about the Egyptian pharaoh. Ben Kingsley played the Vizier, Alexander Siddig played the high priest, and Kylie Bunbury played Suhad, a love interest of Tut, competing with his sister/wife to give him an heir. Lots of drama and intrigue. It was very enjoyable though probably mostly fictional.

I also watched the Houdini miniseries on Netflix. It starred Adrian Brody, but he doesn't really look like Houdini. They revealed the secrets of some magic tricks, and claim that Houdini did espionage work for MI5. Unfortunately, they overdid it with the repeated motif of Houdini being punched in the gut literally and metaphorically. I know how he died, and the gratuitous imagery just made me cringe every time. Besides, it would have been more subtle to let Houdini's face convey his pain instead of spelling things out so clumsily. Nicolas Meyer wrote the miniseries, so of course he had to include Houdini arguing with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle about spiritualism. Houdini desperately wants to communicate with his dead mother, but is so outraged by the phonies that he crusades against them. The last person to punch Houdini is portrayed as a spiritualist furious at Houdini for insulting Lady Jean Doyle. This show also has Houdini constantly seeing his mother's face on lots of people after she dies, and the face is quite young sometimes, so I guess this is where the Houdini & Doyle people got the idea for Houdini being haunted by his mother's ghost.

Uncancelled

I was stunned and pleased by NBC changing their minds and saving Timeless. It's a nice hopeful moment in these dark times. I always appreciated how the show made Rufus a true lead and not merely a sidekick to the other two members of the team. With Jiya's new importance, it will be interesting to see what happens next.

I also heard that Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries has a movie script done, and they're trying to get funding to return. Good luck, because I miss that show terribly.

Meanwhile Supergirl had a truly awesome episode last night, packed full of guest stars. Some of the political dialogue on resistance was too clunky and unsubtle, like how Wonder Woman used to be too earnest about feminism. Still, it was great to see Madame President reveal herself as an alien with apparently no sinister motives. With the mention of Superman in the beginning I kept wondering where he was, trying to remember if he was to guest star in this episode or not. His reveal at the end was a big surprise. I hope next week will be great.

Meanwhile, some of the networks have released their fall schedules, and Tuesdays is going to overwhelm my DVR. I might have to upgrade to more tuners to get everything. Or break out my old VCR for a low tech solution, but then I'd have to keep getting new VHS tapes.

November Sweeps already

Apparently there's some kind of four-show crossover on the CW, starting with Supergirl on Monday the 28th. I kinda don't care, 'cause I don't watch any of the other comicbook shows. (I tried Arrow once, but gave up on it.) I guess I'll have to record them and fast forward through any boring parts. Supergirl is fine this season, but I'm impatient that they still haven't gone to Cadmus to look for Papa Danvers, after Alex was so gungho about going there last season. But even with Cadmus people threatening aliens pretty regularly, nobody thinks it's urgent to go find them yet?

Meanwhile I'm happy with Timeless, which really allows Rufus to be an equal lead with the others. He even got to make Lucy stand outside, like he had to wait outside in the pilot episode. They finally began explaining a little about Rittenhouse, and I like the interesting time periods they choose to visit. I'll enjoy the show as long as it lasts, and hope that there will be a satisfying end.

Fall TV

Finally, Supergirl is back! The move to the CW seems okay so far, but I'm upset that they suddenly dropped the Kara/James relationship after building to it the whole first season. I guess if the show stops doing love triangles and other romantic nonsense, that will be fine, but it does seem abrupt to end that plot instead of just shoving the relationship into the background. They could have followed the example of Jake/Amy on Brooklyn Nine-Nine last year, keeping them low-key and stable while the plots focus on the core team working together. Oh well. I hope Superman doesn't get annoying, and I can't wait for Lynda Carter to guest star as President.

As for new shows, I'm enjoying The Good Place, Speechless, Pitch, and now Timeless. I'm also watching Designated Survivor mostly waiting for Maggie Q and Malik Yoba to get something important to do. I was frustrated that the President chose that scumbag liar for his Chief of Staff; he could have kept the guy around to be his devil's advocate without elevating him above his true ally. So annoying; but I guess the writers want irony and drama about the Chief of Staff conspiring against the President. Whatever. I enjoy Timeless a lot more, especially last night's episode about Lincoln's assassination. Rufus got to talk with black soldiers after the war, and write their notices to find their families. It was really touching, in the midst of the main plot, and I am curious about the Rittenhouse conspiracy involving the tech mogul played by that British guy from You, Me, and the Apocalypse. I hope the ratings will stay good.

As for movies, I saw Queen of Katwe and Birth of a Nation recently. I liked Katwe more and wish it had been more successful. You don't have to know chess, and there was plenty of family drama to be interesting. I look forward to seeing Loving soon.