So the third season of The Orville finally came into existence this year, but on streaming.  I had watched the first two seasons ages ago when it was on FOX.  I remember enjoying it, but was somewhat disappointed by it.  I directed my mixed emotions into a sketch parody of it back in 2017, "Orville That Endsville."  It was a good-natured poke at the show which did illustrate some of my nitpicking.

The pilot episode was about a lackluster captain getting to helm a new space ship in the 25th century.  We meet the crew plus have a plot about villains (the Krill) trying to steal a time machine the good guys (the Union) developed.  And they defeated them with a sequoia. It was a witty, off-beat take on the Star Trek universe.  A lot of TV critics were expecting "Galaxy Quest" while I had my hopes up that it would be "Quark."  The difference was "Galaxy Quest" was about imposters manning a space ship.  Orville was going to look more like if the USS Enterprise was crewed by the employees from Dunder Mifflin. After the pilot, the comedy/drama ratio started to shift, leaving me…somewhat disappointed.

The third season finally popped up on HULU, then I learned that all the episodes of The Orville hit Disney Plus and I could see it now.  I decided I would re-watch the first 2 seasona since they were so long ago and I hadn’t watched them since they first aired (I missed the era of summer reruns).

​After years of hearing the fuss over "Schitt's Creek," I finally started watching it on Netflix.  And my first reaction?  It's good, but what is the fuss all about?  Then I started to think; it's an old-style situation comedy and I had to readjust my viewing style for it.  Or it got better in season two.
 
The premise is a rich family loses its fortune due to a shady financial advisor, but is left with one asset.  We've seen this set-up before, "Moonlighting," or "Arrested Development:" it's a reverse "Beverly Hillbillies."   In this case the asset is a small, goofy town.  This privileged family is forced to live in a seedy motel and figure things out.  Here's the thing; everyone is wacky.  There are no straight-men.  The rich family are comedically inept while dealing with real life.  They are the fish out of water but the water here is tainted by quirky.  The mayor is Chris Elliot, for instance.  Characters have to take turns being bedeviled by another character's idiosyncrasies.  As I stated, it's a traditional sit-com.  There's little serialization.  Each character gets a A, B or C-plot line.  It wasn't until season two we could start feeling empathy for anyone as some of them started to have actual feelings or found an inner nobility.

One episode, Levy is the sensible, playing straight for Bob, the odd owner of Bob's garage.  Other episodes he does something wrong and is reluctant to admit his mistake, feigning innocence, becoming the jerky idiot.  A lot of the comedy is "cringe comedy," the kind which really reached its zenith with the character of Michael Scott in "The Office."  It's not my favorite style of comedy, because watching someone get embarrassed and then embarrassed some more can be hard to watch.
 
As I reached the later seasons I was still enjoying it, but, again, I'm not sure why social media was going so ga-ga for it, as great as it is to see Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hare go through their paces.  It is interesting to see Dan Levy before he became a TV commercial icon.  The stakes start to rise a bit as the family gets slightly more competent.  The town characters now roast Eugene Levy every chance they get (they even had a episode where the town held a roast for Bob and it became the town roasting Eugene about how bad he is at roasting people).    Dan Levy's character, David, got a boyfriend, who becomes a true stoic straight man, much like Bob Newhart (although he looks like a young Dave Foley).  He gets to  watch "David" be incredibly self-absorbed and then gets to pop David's balloon; This takes some of the heavy lifting from the character Stevie Budd, the clerk at the motel who was the first to befriend David.

Weirdly, it's Stevie's character that has a true arc in the show as she goes from near-goth  Gen-X mocker of the Rose family, to accepting them to loving them and partners up with them.  The Rose daughter, Alexia, gets to mature, make a sacrifice for love while mapping out a career and David...he gets a boyfriend.

O'Hare has the wildest swings.  She's an actress who was recently let go from her soap opera.  She's bummed at being stuck in town, yet runs for city council. She gets a movie gig for a terrible movie and somehow saves it.  She gets her old TV job back, yet still can't get out of town fast enough yet stops long enough to hug her choir group.

As it goes on, each character gets a chance to to the right thing for someone else, but being Schitt's Creek, it usually gets undercut by someone's idiocy.  

All in all , I enjoyed it and pulled for these guys while also wishing they would sit down and shut up.

Okay, been in the middle of a couple of binges.
 
During the pandemic, my wife discovered "Downton Abbey."  A friend told her about it.  It turned out to be one of those shows where she said "How did I not know about this show?"  I was aware of it, thanks to Saturday Night Live parodies, but I hadn't actually seen it.  So, now we were off to find it.  I had to sign up for PBS streaming.  Then it dropped off there and popped up on Netflix.  Oh, and then there was a movie, so I had to sign up for HBO to see that.  And when she wanted to see it again later on during the pandemic?  Peacock.  Then the new movie came out and that's on Amazon Prime.  Oy.

With Halloween coming up and all the cable stations offering their versions of Fright-Fest Horror Movie-thons, I took the opportunity to record and watch some movies that I’ve been aware of but never actually watched.  For example, the Scream films- the boomers version of what they thought 90s kids were like growing up on 80s horror films.

Scream was a horror film nerd heaven, with pop culture references flying faster than sharp knives.  The twist? Having the two craziest characters, BOTH be the killer.  That was nice but they did as much scenery chewing as body stabbing even before the big reveal. Ultimately, the real villain was the press, pushy reporter Gail Weathers, who annoyed everyone trying to get her "big story," but winds up saving the day in the end and then cashes in on her fame in Scream 2.
​
All the classic horror movies are represented; Psycho, Halloween, Friday the 13th, to the point the final confrontation in Scream is scored by the music from Halloween because that’s the movie playing in the background when all the plasma hits the fan.  But it does poke at the trope that the killer seems to be in two places at once, because here he’s two people.
​
I noticed one unusual thing about their take on the killer; while the Jasons and Michael Meyers of the movies were unstoppable supernatural lugs who just bulldoze their way through the mayhem, Ghostface is a klutz. He’s easily flipped, thrown and knocked out.  A beer bottle to the groin stops him cold.  He slips, crashes and stumbles.  So at least the victims seemingly have a chance which adds to the suspense.

What with all the Who-mania over the 50th anniversary of the British TV series and the launch of the new doctor next year, I thought I'd take some time out to check out the show and see what all the fuss is about.  I came away with a couple of thoughts:
Doctor:

"Doctor Who" is essentially “Star Trek” if it was written  by Monty
Python.

The Doctor has a lot of trouble driving the time machine called the TARDIS.   Many episodes are like the Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck cartoons where they pop out  of the ground looking at a map and saying, “I should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque.”

Apparently, the show is not a spin-off of “Horton Hears  a Who.”

It’s always aliens.  No matter what genre the story is,  Westerns, ghosts, mysteries, vampires, it the end, the reason for the problem is aliens.

Based on the sounds it makes, the TARDIS has asthma. 

Abbott & Costello never met Doctor Who, but should have.

Paul McGann (8th Doctor) is like the George Lazenby of Doctor Whos.

Everyone in the universe speaks with a British accent.

The villians, the mechanical Daleks are like snotty R2D2s.

There are a lot of rules about time travel.  And they always have to be broken to make the plots work or come up with new  stories.

Because of events in the 50th anniversary movie "Day of the Doctor," the  9th, 10th and 11th Doctors will all be listed  with an asterisk next to their number from now on.

If I were the evil cyborgs, the Cybermen, I’d totally being suing The Borg.

If something bad happens to the Doctor, he will regenerate into another British guy.


  

Pilot season is upon us, so look for these TV show coming soon to a TV near you.  Or not.

“Downton Abby” joins a gym: “Downton Abs.” 

“The Chew” with a panel of  doctors discussing disease: “Ah Choo.” 

Musical about the Korean War: “S*M*A*S*H.”

Aliens take over a TV Network: “30 Rock From the Sun.”

Judges attempt to pick the person with the worst habit: "The Vice."

“Downton Abby” in Silicone Valley:  “Downton Apps.”

Show  about making of the Hulk Broadway musical: “Hulk Smash.”

Dad explains to his kids how they all died: “How I Met Your Maker.”

Sherlock Holmes  becomes a throat doctor: “Alimentary.” 

“Downton Abby” buy a sandwich  shop: “Downton Deli” 
 

The US Supreme Court ruled against fines and sanctions against broadcasters who violated the FCC policy regulating curse words and nudity on broadcast television.  Which can only mean one thing…     

A hot and sassy new TV season! 

That’s right, CBS is throwing off its stodgy old programming to get its freak on air!  So look for these sizzling new shows!

How I Did You Mother!

Two and a Half Way!

Person of Incest!

A Big Bang!

CSI: Sweden!

Really Big Brother!

Mike & Molly & Ted & Alice!

The XXX Factor!

Hawaii 69!

And get to see how those 2 Broke Girls start earning money this year!  And yes, it still involves cupcakes!  And stay tuned for “60 Minutes.”  60 minutes of what you ask?  You’ll just have to tune in.  So, watch the hot new shows on CBS and thanks,  Supreme Court,  for lettin’ CBS get their groove on.