#GMMM does TV shows

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This show is absolutely amazing.

The mysteries are fun and all, of course, and I'm a sucker for the 'private detective' thing - but most of all, I just love the star-cast and the chemistry between the 3 leads (Lu, Frank, Sebastian). So much fun in every interaction between them.

And the puns - oh, so many puns thrown in.

There needs to be more of this show. There just does!

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I recently just watched (okay, fine, you caught me - binged) the 5 episodes and ... holy comedy gold! This was absolutely amazing, through and through, and I really wish there was more of this. (I know there's a few previous seasons of stuff, but those do not seem to be available to stream.)

Gold!

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So, I absolutely adored season 1 of this show - and, ngl, Ben Schwartz was a big reason why. However, even with him not returning, I was/am really looking forward to season 2 (and Zach Woods is not a bad addition at all, and I'm sure Ken Jeong and John Cho will also become more fun as the season/series progresses).

However, with that said - the first episode really, really pushed hard on the "how much bad stuff can we have happen, in non-stop succession, to our protagonist, and still label it as funny?" ... I mean, man. Towards the end of the episode, I was really questioning if I wanted to go through with this - luckily, it gets better with the second episode. Good thing they dropped two episodes today, because if it had only been the first one - I might not have had the energy to come back next week.

Like, I get what they're going for, but I mean, come on. At no point in the entire episode, right from go, does anything go his way. At all. It's just having him dig that hole a little deeper literally every time he's on the screen. At a point, which this show somehow manages to find that point, it ceases being funny and just becomes ... well, frustrating to watch. He doesn't need to wow the world right from the start, but for the entire episode to just be everything going wrong and essentially everyone shitting on him is just ... yeah. They found "too much" and just kept on sailing right past it.

It does get better with the second episode, when we shift to Poppy Liu's character as the focus; I'm also not sold yet on Paul Walter Hauser's character. Neither him nor Zoe Chao's character have revealed that they'll be as fun a sidekick as Ben Schwartz before. Hopefully that changes.

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Arrowverse Continues to Arrowverse

Wow, they just unexisted Barry - though I'm sure it won't be for very long.

Thankfully this set of seasons is almost over - Zoom is getting annoying, Darhk has been annoying for ages, and Vandal Savage is the worst. And I know it won't stop, but Flash being like "fuck you all, I want to get revenge so I'm going to put everyone at risk" and then getting mad at them when Wells is like "you put us at risk, this is your fault" is also ... overblown/done.

Also: Kendra - it's all your fault. Hopefully you & Carter are gone soon. I know Snart leaves soon, and I'm not excited for that. And it is, in the end, your fault entirely. ... They're going to make Caitlin evil soon, aren't they? I hope not, but that is how these shows seem to go. ... John's fucking annoying "your judgment is clouded" nonsense he keeps telling Oliver is fucking annoying when he is the same way with his brother. And that sequence where he like, 3 times in 7 minutes, pulls his weapon on Andy and then does nothing and puts it away - crying wolf one time too many, man.

The list of Arrowverse characters that they haven't gone full blown "annoying, I don't care about them anymore" is very, very small - and seems to be shrinking by the minute.

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Fucking Paramount+

I've been going on and on recently about how, between Elsbeth & So Help Me Todd (& Ghosts), Paramount+ is absolutely killing it and the best of the streaming services I pay for.

Only to go and find out today that So Help Me Todd has now been canceled.

What the fuck, Paramount+? What the fuck? You have 100% just gone from "best streaming service" to "completely cancellable". Fuck you to hell, whoever is in charge of making horrible decisions. (Also, probably, whomever decided to turn Susan from 'good' to 'part of the drama,' because you sure as hell didn't help things.)

Fuck you, Paramount+.

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I have been waiting for this since I first binged the entire series in March, 2020 (and then 3 more times since then)! So excited!!

LEVERAGE 2.0

Series / Drama / 16 X 60

The Rich and Powerful take what they want… and the Leverage team is back to take them down!  Sophie Devereaux (The Grifter), Parker (The Thief), Eliot Spencer (The Hitter), and Alec Hardison (The Hacker) have watched the world change over the last 8 years.  It’s become easier – and sometimes legal – for the rich to become richer and the powerful to squash anyone who gets in their way.  Sadly down one team member, they find new blood in Harry Sullivan, a corporate lawyer who is looking for redemption after realizing he’d been sitting on the wrong side of the table for his entire career, and Breanna , Hardison’s foster sister who has a knack for computers, robotics, and getting into trouble.

In this new world, our team will use their collective skills to take down a new kind of villain. From the man who created an opioid crisis from the comfort of his boardroom, to the woman who prefers to deport workers instead of paying them, to the shadowy security firm that helps hide dangerous secrets for a price… when someone needs help, we provide… Leverage.

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SHMT

So I absolutely love So Help Me Todd (it's right up there with Elsbeth, X-Men '97, Only Murders in the Building, Leverage: Redemption, and Doctor Who, and Miracle Workers - if that counts, as my favorite shows on 'TV' right now), but what they've done with this Susan/Margaret dynamic in the second season is completely painful.

Like, I get they need drama, and Beverly I guess is being made off as a super bitch, which is weird since she was like 'good' in season 1 (but then, so was Susan), but it sucks to see Susan in this role. If only Margaret had told her up front that the only reason for no promotion was the money issue, but that she'd get promoted as soon as that was fixed...

Also, not sure I'm really excited for them to bring Veronica back - which seems to be where this is heading, with the statement made at the end of this most recent episode.

I hope things between Susan and Margaret get cleared up soon, before this turns into some sort of overly dramatic, painful-to-watch, Indian TV serial-like story.

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Doctor Who...

So it took a while to get past the screaming companions, but things definitely got better as the show went on (for the most part). The multiple episodes-per-story did become a bit much - too much excessive unnecessary stuff, which made some of it hard to watch - but the stories weren't bad and the acting/actors weren't bad. I just, well, if I wanted irrelevant pointless drama I'd turn on an Indian TV serial (or anything on WB).

While his doctor got a bad rap (from what I've read), I didn't really mind Colin Baker's go at it very much. Sure, the beginning was a bit much maybe, with him trying to choke his companion to death, but I do think it got better as it went.

Sylvester McCoy's run was also pretty fun, and it's unfortunate that him and Ace didn't get another season (and beyond).

Peter Davison's run was also a lot of fun (though, how quickly he got over Adric was... painful). Tom Baker obviously seemed to be having a blast doing it, though it sounds like there was some behind the scenes issues (but then, there were probably a lot of those throughout - it happens when you're going for 30-ish years). I did like Jon Pertwee (and his companions), though it would also have been fun if he'd been able to get off of Earth a bit more.

Troughton unfortunately has mostly been erased, but his appearances in the multi-doctor stories was fun. And that recorder! Hartnell I know was the first, and I'm grateful that he was able to make the series into something - and clearly a lot of his stuff is impacted by being in the 60s (also, multiple deleted episodes), but I think he was probably the least favorite of mine (them turning Susan into a constant damsel in distress didn't help, especially with all that yelling).

I've still go to find/watch the movie, but other than that, I'm more-or-less caught up (though, towards the end of my binging of the classic stuff, I did more "read the plot" than "watch the show" - mostly, I think, because I'm just so tired of TV and drama and the fact that every series involves the doctor running into people who immediately want to kill them; I mean, it's very on-point for people, especially greedy power-hungry asshats, but god it is depressing).

I do love the show, though - immensely, and I CANNOT WAIT for the next season to begin.

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GO2

It was great fun to see Neil Gaiman's "wait and see" make it into the show - or maybe it was the other way around, and the show's "wait and see" actually made it into his tumblr. Either way, it caused a laugh.

I really love this season. I mean, I loved season 1, but like, I also loved the book so that was, in some ways, a different type of love than this one. But still, major love.

That ending, though ... ouch. Just ouch. Right in the feels. Season 3 better fix things!

Neil Gaiman is a creative genius.

The worst part, of course, is that the season is only 6 episodes long. I mean, it's enough to tell the story without becoming overly boring by focusing on pointless details, but also, like, it's only 6 episodes!

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Been crying since January 30, to be honest. (If not before - I may have been crying since the minute they announced that season 4 was going to be the last season.)

People improve when they get external love and support.

THE GOOD PLACE (2016 — 2020)

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"Of course Mr. Poirot has the answers. That's why you're here!"

An incredulous Miss Lemon (Pauline Moran) to Ronald Marsh (Tim Steed) in Agatha Christie's Poirot (epside: Lord Edgware Dies; season 7, episode 2)

There's still like 6 more "seasons" of this show for me to watch (including Death on the Nile with Emily Blunt!, and Orient Express), and I've already seen episodes with Chris Eccleston and Peter Capaldi and Caroline John and Damian Lewis, but this comment, in that specific tone of voice - lets just say that Miss Lemon just absolutely won this show. No one is going to be able to top this.

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The Flash - S2, E19

No, Barry, you're wrong. Wells is right.

This is entirely on you and your stupid "I can do anything" bullshit - you coerced everyone into re-opening the breach, which led to Wally being taken, which led to you giving up your speed, which led to Caitlin being taken. It is 100% on you. Not that you've learned from this, of course.

Wells kept saying to leave the breach closed, but you were so convinced you could "fix" things that you just managed to make it worse. And get Caitlin caught in the crossfire, no less. The Wests will stick up for you because they're, like you, completely immune to ever putting you at blame for your stupid decisions, but this was entirely your stupid decision-making and inflated self-worth.

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Approaching the End of This Season of Arrowverse (My Viewings, Not the Live Season)

Supergirl's alien badguy has mind control over all humans. So Supergirl's very human sister comes up with a brilliant plan: "I'm going to help her, no matter what."

Of course, not only does she get J'onn J'onnz killed (or near-killed?), but she almost immediately falls under this mind control and is thrown into combating Supergirl. ... Man, if literally anyone had been able to see this coming...

What a stupid, stupid decision. Of course, I guess these shows absolutely live on people - especially those closest to the heroes - making the stupidest decisions ever. Honestly, all these superheroes just need to find better people to surround themselves with.

...

After seasons of people telling him (or me yelling at him) about needing to take a step back when it comes to matters involving family, Green Arrow finally decides to tell this to John Diggle when Diggle is in a similar boat (not that I expect Oliver to actually understand this - next time family/friend is in trouble, he's clearly going to do exactly this). Unsurprisingly, Diggle doesn't listen. Unsurprisingly, Arrow wasn't wrong. And now, because of this unwillingness to take a step back when family is involved and their judgment is clearly clouded, Laurel Lance is dead. Good in terms of decreasing the annoying number of "acting stupidly when family is involved" and in decreasing the number of full-on annoying characters, bad in terms of keeping the Arrow's team together.

...

But honestly, this inability to take a backseat when they're too close to something is like a staple for television/movie/book characters - and it is annoying as fuck. Like, I get it happening every now and then, but like, especially in these CW-ish shows, it just happening. ALL. THE. FUCKING. TIME. and god is it annoying. (It's also why I had to give up on, for example, Castle.) Like we've got 400 different superheroes, and yet, every single time, the one closest to the problem is guaranteed to not only not take a back seat, but also making a fucking stupid decision that was not only entirely preventable with an ounce of common sense (or a single sensible thought), but also 100% predictable to everyone. (See, for example: everything with The Flash and his actions whenever his mom, or dad, or Iris, is involved.)

...

There needs to be some superhero oversight committee that is just like "you're too close, take a seat." And when the superhero doesn't listen, because of course they won't (I think the number 1 criterion to become a superhero is to have the critical thinking skills of a dead plant), this committee just seals them up in some sort of inescapable cell (sort of like the ones underneath S.T.A.R. Labs) until the issue has been sensibly dealt with. Just imagine the number of insanely bad decisions that would be prevented, and the number of lives saved as a result.

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I can’t ever not just start laughing whenever I read this. Perfect gold.

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Shit

Guess they decided that right around now (season 2, episode 15) was a good time to take Caitlin Snow and make her start turning into the CW-special: good-guy woman who they do everything they can to make you hate.

This sucks, because she's been awesome thus far.

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Arrow-verse; Getting Slightly Better

First, poor Adam Foster.

Second - no more Amanda Waller, finally. Between Arrow and Suicide Squad and The Suicide Squad and BvS and Black Adam, it's been way too much of her. She's a bitch of a person. Good riddance. Next up: Laurel Lance?

Calista Flockhart is like, really awesome.

Gonna miss Patty Spivot. She's pretty cool.

Legends of Tomorrow - it's early, but it's fun. Like Snart; not a huge fan of Hawkman/Hawkgirl and that whole dynamic. It's very "Bollywood reincarnation movie-like," this whole nonsense of "we were together before, so we must be together this time too." Like, let her make her own decisions in this life.

Oh, I forgot - Iris. She's right up there with Laurel, but it seems like she's in for a longer time.

Poor Winn.