This is going to be another holiday fluff piece. I’ve pretty much spent the last week and a half on vacation, surrounded by relatives — three of them being 8-year-old triplets. I did my basic routine: work out, walk the dog, throw Frisbees to the dog, and write stuff. But, since it was break time, I did have a lot of down time.
Down time is good because it allows us to reset our minds and our bodies. The way I reset mine was to watch a lot of shows on TV. So now I will share my opinions of those shows in case you may want to check them out.
Olga and I watched two episodes of “Fargo” on FX. (Well we DVR’d them and then watched them. I mean, come on, we don’t want to watch commercials!) This fifth season of “Fargo” is excellent. Jon Hamm goes against type, playing Roy Tillman, a very nasty sheriff looking to get back his ex-wife Nadine who he abused. Nadine is played by the excellent Juno Temple, who has remarried and is living under a new name. Roy finds out about Nadine and goes to great lengths to get her back, sending a series of his “goons” to retrieve her. They learn this little lady is more tiger than lady. It’s a very fun watch.
Olga and I also watched the “Dr. Who Christmas” special that introduced Ncuti Gatwa as the 15th doctor. He is the first Dr. Who of color. He is young and full of energy. The new assistant, Ruby Sunday (played by Millie Gibson), also was introduced. They appear to make a young lively dynamic duo. I’m hoping for great things out of this season’s “Dr. Who.” The last few seasons have been downers.
I also watched the new season of Marvel’s “What If” on Disney Plus. Last year’s season was pretty much summed up this way: Everybody dies a terrible death. This season was more upbeat and interesting (at least to me). Captain Carter seemed to be the central character who tied together most of the episodes across many alternative universes. I’ve always enjoyed Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter. In fact I was kind of hoping Atwell would get the “Dr. Who” gig a few years ago. Alas, she did not. But her new role as the super-powered Captain Carter is interesting. I’m hopeful we will be seeing her in the live action Marvel’s “Secret Wars.”
Olga and I also watched Amazon’s $300 million spy thriller “Citadel,” staring Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra as spies who may or may not remember that they used to be spies due to a weird, mind-erasing procedure. Stanley Tucci also played a brilliant scientist who invented the erasing procedure. Quite frankly, in my humble opinion the six-episode series is a bit of a mess. There were double- and triple-crosses that really didn’t make a lot of sense. In fact, it was hard to tell the difference between the “good” guys’ motives and the “bad” guys’ motives. It also did not look like the production cost $300 million. On the bright side, it was an easy watch and the cast is good looking.
Finally, I watched Netflix wannabe sci-fi classic “Rebel Moon.” It could be perhaps the most derivative show I’ve watched in a long time. They borrowed ideas and characters from other better movies. It was easy to tell who would betray the team of warriors, who would kill the big bad sort of, who would come through in the end. It was all very telegraphed, especially since we know part II is coming this year. I didn’t hate it, but I can name dozens of other movies that did the same thing better. Still it was mindless entertainment … and there is something to be said for that, I guess.
John Zakour lives in Geneva. He is a freelance humor writer with a bachelor’s in computer science from SUNY Potsdam and a master’s in human behavior. He is a chief happiness practitioner. He has sold thousands of gags to strips and magazines and had over 50 books published. He writes his own syndicated comic, “Working Daze,” which has anywhere from 30K-100K daily readers. His “Positive Vibes” column runs every Thursday. Contact him at johnzakour@gmail.com. Or, check out his blog at workingdaze.blogspot.com.