oh man, that TV stuff in 2016!!!

1. The People vs OJ Simpson (FX)

left a PERManent 90s stain on my psyche 

(please note – I didn’t get a chance to watch the ESPN doc series on OJ yet):

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2. The Americans (FX)

poor poor Martha Hanson

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3. Baskets (FX)

Louie Anderson – BIGGEST comeback of the 21st Century!!!

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4. Murder Made Me Famous (REELZ)

a who’s who of horrible human beings – Jodi Arias, Scott Peterson, The Menendez Brothers, Drew Peterson, Ted Bundy, Joran van der Sloot, Pamela Smart, Jean Harris, Billionaire Boys Club, The Preppy Killer, Steven Avery, Charles Manson.  sure, the news is old, but the reenactments are fresh – and I friggin love reenactments!!!  also, the Steve Avery one had me throw out any sympathy that I had formed from watching Making of a Murderer!!!  also, I could listen to Steve Helling talk ALL DAY

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5 & 6. Gotham (Fox) & Supergirl (CBS/CW)

(still) amazing how DC heroes are done OH so right on the small screen, and OH so wrong on the big screen

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7. Younger (TV Land)

this is basically TV’s best kept secret.  Sutton Foster and her teefy smile are infectious!

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8. Shameless (Showtime)

a show I truly hate to watch, cause I always feel the need to take 82929 showers after watching it, but I cannot quit on the Gallaghers, especially now that the little kids are coming into their own, and so is Kevin (above) and his shorter hair!

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9. Bates Motel (A&E)

the show inches closer and closer to the Norman Bates we all know and love, while creating the Norman Bates we never knew anything about.  sad that the upcoming season will be its final one 

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10. Halt and Catch Fire (AMC)

even more ones and zeroes, and four of my favorite TV HEROES!!!!

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11. Drunk History (Comedy Central)

more Rich Fulcher please!

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12. Fresh Off The Boat (ABC)

 

making broadcast TV comedies fun again, and again!  probably my favorite modern TV family

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other solid forms of entertainments: 

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver – it was all a lot of fun AND games, until his efforts to stop Trump were in vain, and I couldn’t watch the show anymore

The Circus – fantastic and immediate election season show was a must watch, although I still haven’t brought myself to watch the final episode.  gasp

The Affair - so so so soo soo excellent that it made me eat Lunch

Maron - nice ending to a show that didn’t seem to have a beginning

Silicon Valley – still my favorite cast on TV

The Last Man Earth – still my 2nd favorite cast on TV

Married At First Sight 4 - finally, some of the people found love

Veep – incredible how the insane politics of this show were outdone by the real insane politics of 2016!

Married by Mom and Dad – what a great bad idea.  its heart is in the right place, even if the hearts don’t end up in the right place

Tyrant - the show ran out of steam, and I was basically done with it once Ashraf Barhom was done

Fargo  - I hope they keep farGOING and GOING!!!

Modern Family – it’s like they’re trying too hard to be funny, and it shouldn’t have to be that way

House of Cards - OMG – the Russian guy is really Mads Mikkelsen’s brother!!!

Game of Thrones - still not as good as HBO’s Rome

Million Dollar Listing New York – I’m sold on Fredrik, Ryan and Luis

Mistresses - so long, goodbye, don’t let your awfulness hit you on the way out

Restaurant Startup – Joe is still an a$$hole, and Tim Love still has giant eyes, and I still cannot miss an episode

11/22/63 – they need to travel back in time and remake the series without James Franco!

Girls - this show needs an abortion from itself

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+ bone-yessss!! moments

long live Mrs Garrett

the BUZZR channel. it’s what the Game Show Network used to be!

Richard Dreyfuss as Madoff!

MTV Classic – what MTV was, and needs to be

https://www.instagram.com/p/BOILxlnjbj3/

guessing the Twin Peaks 2017 characters!!

when New York City’s in trouble – who you gonna call? Pat Kiernan!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Growing Pains goes to Europe! and Family Matters goes to Disney World!

They Fcuked With The Babysitter

SUPER DICKMANN’S!!!

the 30 for 30 on the first pitch after 9/11

The Double Dare Reunion!  LONG LIVE HARVEY!!!

The Unknown Flag Raiser of Iwo Jima – rights history’s wrong, AND employed the retired Gene Hackman to tell us!

when Adrien Brody channeled Andrew Dice Clay – which may have been my favorite TV moment of 2016

Debbie Gibson goes Hallmark and gives us an awesome acoustic ‘Only In My Dreams’

and this!!!

https://vimeo.com/166687480

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it growing pains me to say goodbye to all these amazing people :(

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+ hail & farewell to…

Charles Osgood on our televisions on Sunday mornings

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Vin Scully calling Dodgers games

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perv-iously ’15 ’14 ’13 ’12 ’11 ’10 ’09 ’07

Manchester By The Sea
All Pain, No Gain
Official Site| Trailer & Mo
R | 137 min

Manchester By The Sea???

MORE LIKE MANCHESTER BY THE ZzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZzZZzzzz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

amirite?  I am!

Verdictgo: Sum Merit But No Stinkin Badges

Mansnoozter currently zzzzzzzzzzzzz

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…

Toni Erdmann
Daddy Knows Jest
Official Site| Trailer & Mo
R | 162(!!!) min

As marriage, and life in general, has shortened my free time, I have to be more choosy with the movies that I commit my time to.  I’ve read and heard nothing but good stuff about the German-Austrian flick Toni Erdmann, but I’ve scoffed and scoffed and scoffed at its 2 hour and 42 minute runtime(!!!!!!!!!!!).  I mean, if it’s that long, the movie’s gotta be EPIC!  Or at least nothing short of amazing, right?  Toni appears to be the odds on favorite to win the Best Foreign Film Oscar (which you can always tell by whatever foreign flick Film Forum plays at the end of the year), and so, for the sake of not wanting to miss anything, I gave in and saw Maren Ade‘s movie

And?

Maren Ade needs a new editor.  Apparently editor Heike Parplies wasn’t up to the task to trim this movie down to the 1 hour, 45 minute length it really really really needed to be

Was I bored? No

Did I survive it?  Yes

Was it worth the time?  Not really

Did you like the movie?  I did, but…

BUT

BUTTS STINK!!

I don’t know what they could have cut down, as that’s not my job, but there’s a great movie existing in this good, but way too long movie

Peter Simonischek plays the title character, but that isn’t even his character’s real name, cause he loves being silly and pretending to be other personas!  He loves jokes and pranks and droll humor, but most people don’t happen to share that sediment, or at least the gags he’s doling out (but I love Love LOVE his novelty teeth – maybe the best novelty teef since Fletch!)

One person in particular not really fond OR in on his jokes is his overly wound-up, work-enveloped daughter, played by Sandra Hüller.  She’s out on her own in Bucharest, Romania, going about her bidness, and being all serious.  Dad comes to her rescue, without asking, and throws her world and life into chaos

SLOWLY (and by slowly, I mean the movie isn’t slow, I juss mean it takes forever to get there), she bends, and eventually breaks, and then eventually this happens…

I won’t tell you what’s going on there, or how they even got there.  It’s really up to you if you want to give in, and give up 162 minutes of your time

Or, you could watch a German flick that should have been the Best Foreign Film Oscar winner of 2000 - Run Lola Run TWICE!!!  It’s only 84 minutes!!!!

Verdictgo: low end Jeepers Worth A Peepers

Bisous Bisu: Ingrid Bisu has Bucharested my heart!!

Toni is in it for the LONG haul, in NY & LA on Xmas day, and elsewhere elsewhen

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…

20th Century Women
It Takes A Boarding House To Raise A Child
Official Site| Trailer & Mo
R | 118 min

I love the Talking Heads, but I think I forgot how much I truly loved them until I heard their music in Mike Mills‘ 20th Century Women, and then, like what happened to the characters in the movie itself, it felt as if it were the first time I had ever heard the Talking Heads!!  And I was like WOAH!!!  This STUFF ROCKS!!  And my head and body couldn’t help itself, and grooved to the music!!!

And that experience of hearing the Talking Heads for the first time was kinda like seeing this movie for the first time – I was like – WOAH, there’s something to this movie! It warms my heart and touches my soul!  And my head and body are grooving to it – big time!!!

But this movie isn’t about discovering the music of the Talking Heads – it’s about an adolescent boy (Lucas Jade Zumann), without a father figure, who shares a bohemian lifestyle in a Santa Barbara residence with a strong, loving mother (Annette Bening), his schoolgirl crush (Elle Fanning), a super cool photographer gal (Greta Gerwig), and a handlebar-mustached handyman (Billy Crudup)

This boy is on the path to becoming a mini-man, and in turn, he’s starting to drift away from his mother’s grasp.  She feels the distance beginning to widen, and so she enlists the help of the two ladies and handyman to mold him into a modern man.  Guess what happens?  It’s not juss the boy who learns and grows – but EVERYONE involved too!!

It’s actually not as cheesy as it sounds, and in a movie that could have easily gone too cutesy and way too quirky, it stayed the course of being juss a lovely lovely lovely little film  

For some reason, in my brain, it was like watching a 70s version of Six Feet Under, complete with a complete ending juss like Six Feet‘s fantastic/2nd to none complete complete ending!

The movie even made me grow!  I grew a 2nd pair of ears and haven’t stopped streaming the Talking Heads on Amazon since I saw the movie.  How 21st Century Man of me!

Verdictgo: Breast In Show

20th Century is foxy for in limited release 

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…

Return of The Jedi‘s Mon Mothma

was a real lady, and was a super fine looking lady before she cut her hair and dabbled with Bothan spies!

Caroline Blakiston