The Mandalorian

Mandalorian at IMDB

I've been watching this, but it's continually disappointed me. There are four episodes out now of this Star Wars universe "cowboy" story and while it looks pretty, the writting is lazy. There's repeated use of mantra-like sayings such as "I have spoken" and "This is the way" that seem cultured to be as cute as the baby Yoda which Disney doubtlessly hopes to make mint off of in the toy market. But contrast against that there's you have to learn to ride this creature to get there but apparently you can just walk back afterwards. (And how do you learn to ride the creature? Try a bunch of times, give up, get a one sentence shaming speech and then next time it just works.) And that's just episode one. In episode two, there's the thing that can't be killed until one simple distraction and then a small knife'll do. In episode three there's a full deus ex machina escape. In episode four you'll find a warmed over plotline I can recall seeing more interestingly done in three movies (one of which is a G-rated animation) and I'm only saying "three" because I'm being kind and not comparing it to the other films with this exact plot which I have not actually watched.

So, yeah. Full marks for for looks cool, one messy egg yolk for story.

Why didn't baby yoda eat that second frog? probably for calculated cuteness?

P.S.: On the other hand, this trailer for the Mandalorian with new sound is something to behold: elvishpresley trailer edit on twitter.

Some 90 seconds, and the new audio is the point so sound matters.

Happy!

Happy! (two seasons)

This show had season that ran in 2017 with a Christmas theme and a season that just finished airing with a Easter theme; the Easter one takes place the first Easter after the Christmas. I've watched up to the middle of season two, all in the last week.

The story starts about a girl with an imaginary friend named "Happy". The girl, about ten, gets kidnapped and sends Happy off to find her dad, about whom she knows very little except he was a NYPD detective. The dad, Nick Sax (played by Christopher Meloni) is not quite Sterling Archer, but in no way respectable. Happy finds Nick after he's finished a contract killing of three (young adult) kids from a mob family, and killed a fourth kid who was not part of the contract but happened to be there. In all the excitement Nick managed to get a minor gunshot wound and suffer a heart attack.

Then Happy, a blue flying unicorn (voiced by Patton Oswalt) about the size of a banana finds Nick as he's being transported to a hospital, prime suspect of the killings in the minds of NYPD and with a nasty bunch of mobsters out for him because of kid number 4. Nick can't believe he's not halluncinating the unicorn for a while, no one else in the first episode can see it, but Happy provides some intel on a group of mobsters just before they enter a room and that changes Nicks mind.

Nick spends the rest of the season soaking up as much abuse as Archer does in his show, while also dealing nearly as much damage as Archer would to anyone who tries to get him (and Nick also abuses his liver almost as much as Archer would).

Happy! doesn't have as much fun as early seasons of Archer, but it's a cut above the more recent ones. It suffers from some villians who are nearly one dimensional, except for a weird costume thing. "Blue" Scaramucci (played by Ritchie Coster), who is most upset about kid number 4's death (the kids were his nephews, but it's not because it was family that Blue is upset) is better than the true evil leader and much better than the Evil Santa minion. At times, you can even feel sorry for Blue.

Three out of four mob wives starring in a reality TV show.

Archer at IMDB

Final thought: Smoothie isn't Krieger, but has something like that role.

Russian Doll

It's very Groundhog Day without being Groundhog Day and there are ways you can tell the rules apart by paying attention to details (and it will be called out later, if you missed it). A woman dies at her own 36th birthday party, only to find herself back in the bathroom at that party. It won't be her first death and return to that room.

I made the mistake of watching Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and then starting Russian Doll right afterwards. I don't recommend that pairing. Bandersnatch has a completely different set of rules for why the character goes back and restarts time with a knowledge of it restarting. The suspension of disbelief transition ended up being very awkward.

Five cocaine-laced joints out of five, but it's one joint across multiple lives.

FWIW: Bandersnatch was okay, but not the best of Black Mirror.