Dinos disappoint while we drown in streaming series in our first Friday round-up

Plus we finally do another media diary

It’s Friday, July 15th, and here’s where we are…

I’m feeling overwhelmed by streaming series these days, even more than before, and I don’t see it getting better any time soon.

I feel like movies have been coming out steadily this year, but it doesn’t feel like an avalanche. If anything, it’s still a lighter release schedule than what we were used to pre-pandemic. It feels like we’ll get a few films in release at a time and then there’s a little bit of time to digest them and then a few more drop. It’s manageable.

That is not the case with TV shows. There are so many shows I’d like to see that I don’t think I'll ever even watch an episode of and it’s simply a matter of time. Right now, I’m juggling probably 20 or 25 different shows that I’m watching, either by myself or with someone else. My entire family is watching Game of Thrones again whenever the boys are here, and it’s a really satisfying experience to do the slow drip only when we’re all together. Part of the problem these days is the way everything gets dropped in giant blocks, so there are all these 10-hour obligations you’re expected to ingest somehow. Even when I really love something, I would rather just get one new episode a week, like with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (loved it) and the new season of Evil (really digging it). There’s something a little depressing about getting this massive homework assignment every time a new show drops a season that makes it hard for me to dig in even if I’m excited about the show. For example, Solar Opposites just dropped a full season. I really enjoy that show, but looking at 11 episodes all waiting at once just fills me with dread.

image courtesy of Apple TV+

Even the once-per-week shows can be too much simply because of the sheer number of them. I haven’t tried The Old Man yet or Moonhaven, but I’ve managed to keep up with For All Mankind, which is amazing this year. I’m about to finish The Offer, which I can’t say I love, but I’m still watching every week because I can’t get enough of Matthew Goode as Robert Evans, and then I’ll get back to The Man Who Fell To Earth, which is way better than I expected it even could be. I thought The Umbrella Academy started strong this season, but I’m only three episodes deep. I haven’t even tried Irma Vep, which I hope I’ll love, or Tokyo Vice, and I’m four full weeks behind now on Ms. Marvel because I’m trying to carve out time to watch it with my girlfriend between the other eight thousand things we’re watching.

Honestly, I watch most of the shows I watch with my girlfriend and we just don’t binge things. Even when they drop ten episodes all at once, we’ll ration it out and take our time. Occasionally we’ll try to move a little quicker, but I don’t want to watch my shows all in one big gulp. That’s not the way TV works best for me. As a result, we’re just now wrapping up the second season of Bridgerton on Netflix as well as the last season of Ozark. I thought Bridgerton’s second season was a vast improvement over the first season, due in part to the off-the-charts chemistry between Jonathan Bailey and Simone Ashley. The show is spirited fluff, but it feels like I’m giving my 4K TV a real test drive every time we watch it, and I think the overall premise for the show is clever. Each of the Bridgerton siblings will get their season to step forward, and the entire ensemble cast was so well chosen that I look forward to the way they’re going to twist and bend the formula every year. I’m happy to hear Penelope (the effervescent Nicola Coughlan) will be taking center stage next year, too. It feels like a show that can easily reinvent itself each year.

On the other hand, Ozark feels like they had reached the end of the variations they could run a while ago, and the last two seasons were basically one long attempt to clear the table. I love the performances on the show, but I don’t know how I feel about the actual resolution. Shit finds its level, I suppose, and with the one character who attempted to find any kind of redemption or grace (Julia Garner’s Ruthie, the heart and soul of the show) wiped out and the Byrd family evidently rewarded for everything they’ve done, it felt like a real kick in the gut and a bit of a thumb in the eye for having spent this much time with them.

image courtesy of Netflix

I mean, you could have fucked Wendy up at least a little, right? Just a little? Sigh.

Russian Doll is great in season two, and we’re loving Everything I Know About Love so far as well. I’m not sure what I think of Loot yet, but we love Maya Rudolph so much that we’ll keep chipping away at it. Girls5Eva is consistently hilarious, and I Love That For You has been sort of low-key charming us as well. I’d love to finish The Boys and Rutherford Falls and Made For Love and Maid if for no other reason than we could finally start The Dropout or The Staircase or Under the Banner of Heaven or Shining Girls or Pachinko or Angelyne or Candy or any of about a dozen other shows we’ve got earmarked to catch up on. That’s provided, of course, they stop making any other TV shows right now and give us six or seven months to catch up… which they won’t… so we’ll get another fifteen new shows next week and the week after and the week after that, and oh shit, did they just drop a full season of Resident Evil? They did? And what’s this Farzar thing that just went live? That looks ridiculous. I’ll pencil that in for early 2025.