What is Your TV Tuned To in May? 2022

Remember when you had to get up to change the channel and then you only had 3 to choose from? Tell us what's on your TV.

watching Gaslit series on Starz!

The Lincoln Lawyer (Netflix TV Series). As indicated, not the Matthew McConaughey movie, both based on the Michael Connelly series about Los Angeles lawyer Mickey Haller, who works out of the back of a Cadillac when he isn't ambulance chasing (unlike the film or book, as I recall, in the series Haller owns a fleet of them, though in the series he still does a lot of paperwork in the backseat of one of his gas-guzzling monsters, probably accounting for most of the depressingly smoggish landscape vista shots in the episodes).

The signature role belongs to McConaughey (I sometimes re-watch parts of this enjoyable movie when stumbling across it while channel flipping), but I liked the lead in the Netflix series as well. I’ve read a handful of the Haller series books some time ago, so obviously I like the concept, an unidealistic look at how law works in practice, though the resolution of most of the threads only happens on TV.

The 10 episode Season 1 is surprisingly fun, with politics, rich people, soccer dad & ex-wife mom (has a job, thus explaining how he can afford a fleet of cadillacs?), trafficking illegal immigrants, office romance. The co-creator is David E. Kelley & this series (originally developed for CBS) is somewhat like Kelley’s The Practice -- Mexican actor Manuel Garcia-Rolfo (as Mickey Haller, with a slight Spanish accent) visually resembles the earlier series’ lead lawyer Dylan McDermott, though a bit more laid back – McDermott likes to raise his voice when he’s acting. Kelley's Netflix version has a bit more swearing than would have been the case with CBS, but otherwise it does have a network channel feel to it.

Also a Kelley signature is the strong supporting cast: Neve Campbell as the ex-wife & ass’t DA Maggie (the only big name), Becki Newton as Haller’s office manager (b. 1978 in New Haven, year after I got my first job there in ‘77) who comes across as smart & likable, his chauffeur/former drug addict Izzy (Jazz Raycole) who becomes ex-addict Haller’s support system, a real scene-stealer, Christopher Gorham as Haller’s superrich client, Angus Sampson as Cisco, Haller’s P.I., formerly a member of a meth dealing motor club, Michael Graziadei as Haller’s prosecutor opponent. Even the bit parts are well done: Haller’s daughter, the rich murder victim’s friend, the prostitute friend of a murdered prostitute, the Filipino employer who feeds his immigrants table scraps, the employer’s pregnant girlfriend, the ex-marine who goes on a shooting spree. Background: Haller inherits the law practice of a defense lawyer murdered in the opening scene, so part of what drives the plot is Haller trying to juggle the defense of the dead lawyer’s small time clients & the one big whale, a video game developer.

A bit part I forgot to include was the dead lawyer’s office manager, quite the opposite of Haller’s office manager. She carts off one of the series' red herrings: a joke mounted fish with a gaping mouth which she takes along with her personal stuff when Haller takes over. Camera keeps going back to it; I was sure the smoking gun was hidden inside the fish, but (sorry) we do not return to it. However, it is only one of quite a few red herrings to lead you astray. Anyways, recommended.

>3 featherbear: I loved the books and I have watched the DVD's.

This Is Us Season Six
My work scheduled had changed during Covid and I forgot about this season so now I have been binge watching this show for a couple of days. I believe this is the final season and there is one more episode left. I am going to miss this show but I don't think it could go another season- I mean how much grief can this family go through but I did like the stories and the family was just so wonderful.

have yall watched that 70s show?

>6 Gracie_Freeman: I used to watch that show and I enjoyed it.

Old (2021) On HBOMax. Director, screenwriter M. Night Shyamalan. Based on the graphic novel Sandcastles by Pierre Oscar Levy & Frederik Peeters. This is the one where a group of vacationers find themselves trapped on a beach where aging is accelerated. Reminiscent of the same director’s The Village, where the twist is the escapee’s revelation of what was really going on. Probably didn’t register with younger viewers, but at my age, time does seem to be accelerated more & more, so a concept that resonated (also a latent fear of some of us old folk is the aggravated dementia of one of the marooned tourists). On 2nd thought, for younger viewers who are parents (those in their 30s or 40s), the accelerated growth process of their children may indeed strike a chord. The couples in the movie must have been good parents, because their children seem grounded during their aging spurt (this might be the real fantasy or wish fulfillment element). European flavor, the only name actors widely known in the U.S. would be Gail Garcia Bernal & Rufus Sewell, & they were rather hard to recognize in any case. Accelerated aging process was not played for horror for the most part; also had a sort of What Am I Doing Here? flavor of a Twilight Zone episode.

P.S. HBOMax has the Turner Classic Movies Hub, which seems to be loading up on Ozu films, including Floating Weeds (1959 color version) which I wrote about in an earlier thread, as well as the original one I haven't seen The Story of Floating Weeds. The good news. The bad news: since Warner Media (formerly Time Warner) purchased TCM & its MGM archives, I'm starting to see Hollywood big tent stuff I wouldn't think would qualify for the TCM catalog, e.g. Terminator 2 appearing on the TCM listings. Followed by the Worst Case Scenario: Discovery+ acquired Warner Media, though I'm not expecting Baby June or Pimple Popper episodes appearing on the TCM hub.

42 Days of Darkness aka 42 dias en la oscuridad (2022 Netflix series) 6 episodes, limited series, apparently first Chilean series to appear on Netflix. Watched original Spanish language version w/English subtitles, but I guess you can select dubbing in a Netflix option. This one is easy to overlook, since Netflix hasn’t been promoting it much.

I found it fascinating. It’s open-ended, reminiscent of David Fincher’s Zodiac. If you liked that movie you might very well like this series. Like the Fincher movie, the Netflix series is apparently based on a real life case. A couple (Veronica/Vero & Mario Medina) in a “posh” neighborhood; 2 children (girls), 1 early teens, Kari (Julia Lubbert), 1 a toddler, Emi (Monserrat Lira). The mother disappears; husband reports her as being kidnapped based on a phone call witnessed by a bank manager he is seeing on business, though there never is a follow-up call.

A down and out lawyer, Victor Pizarro (Pablo Macaya), gets involved with the case. Good performance – hard to tell if he’s a sleazy ambulance chaser representing (or manipulating) the woman’s sister & mother, or an idealistic seeker of justice or anyway who thinks he's seeking justice. The husband Mario Medina (Daniel Alcaino) comes across as sketchy (he has one tick where he insists on keeping the house temperature very low, which is suggestive).

The sister Cecilia (Claudia Girolamo) has suspicions about the husband, supported by Pizzaro the lawyer as well as his part time investigative team, though Mario’s relations with his wife seem ambiguous at best, with the people who knew her or them find it hard to define the nature of the relationship. No sign of abuse or verbal conflict. The police continue for some time looking for the kidnapper, but pressure from Pizzaro & the woman’s sister & mother persuade the police to interview Mario. It seems to be going somewhere but the husband's lawyer shows up, & the investigation of Mario appears to be suspended.

But on the 42nd day, there is a bombshell event that leads to … what? What seems to be a revelation takes 7 years to unravel without being entirely resolved (the darkness is quite a bit more than 42 days!). Good visual introduction to an area in Chile that reminds me of Seattle in the winter (rainy, cloudy, foggy). The actors playing the Medina children are very good, two different reactions to whether or not to believe their father had anything to do with their mother’s disappearance. A video of the youngest losing a fencing contest seems to be a metaphor for the case’s “resolution.”

Muhammed Ali
This was a PBS special (3 Discs) on the life and career of Muhammed Ali. He was such a big presence when he was alive. I thought this was well done!