Friday, December 26, 2014

A Fond Farewell

Colbert Report - a sad sign-off, but went out with a star-studded bang! While I will miss it, I look forward to the new spin off starting, the Nightly Show, and Colbert's return next year.
Top Chef - The new season in Boston's pretty good so far. They even said something positive about a vegetarian dish!
Bob's Burgers - You can't go wrong with a dark take on girl sprouts and their crazy cookie sales.
Broad City - Hilarious! This is the funniest show I've seen since Silicon Valley.
Fargo - Extremely well done - despite what you might think about a show based on a great movie, this does it justice. Billy Bob Thornton is amazing!
Californication - Put this on in the background for a bit, but it just feels very dated - I guess the early 2000's were a while ago now. Not sure why it was on for so long other than people missing the X Files.
Fleming: The Man Who Would be Bond - A great BBC short series that's quite a feast for the eyes.
Getting On (Season 2) - I was hoping for more from the second season, but this felt a bit re-played. Still funny, though.
Olive Kitteridge - Based on a book by Elizabeth Strout (I read The Burgess Boys a little while back), this was a pretty severe portrait highlighting Frances McDormand as the main character. Still, a bit tough to get through.
Hawking - Having seen the Hollywood version, I wanted to watch the real version that got a bit more into the science and knew I could count on PBS to do that.
Fronline - North Korea - Similarly, after seeing the fiction fantasy on VOD after all the controversy, I watched the PBS real deal, which was quite good. I am not always good about watching the Frontline about international stories, so I'm glad my interest was peaked.
As for reading, I got through The Bone Clocks but enjoyed the earlier parts of the book much more than the latter parts. I took a second crack at Inherent Vice and made it through this time, making me excited about the movie. It's a wacky ride, and I'm pleased I finally made it through a Pynchon. Finally, I don't usually mention podcasts, but who can resist commenting on Serial? A fascinating and detailed program about the young man who was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend years ago in the Baltimore area. I can never resist anything that shines a light on the problems of our criminal justice system.