Escapist Routes #29

My household’s routine has changed a little, which means we’re watching less TV in the evenings. This is very upsetting to me, a person who needs a lot of notice ahead of a change to The Routine, but I am flexible, I am adapting, I am thriving. Really.

Here’s what we’ve been watching.

Justified, season 1

We actually have two episodes left to go, but I don’t expect my take to change. Justified is a drama from 2010 about a hot US Marshall (Timothy Olyphant) who has this problem where he can’t stop shooting people. It was hugely acclaimed in its day, and built on Olyphant’s Deadwood momentum to make him a star, and I cannot tell you how much I wish we had watched at the time, because let me tell you, “This law enforcement officer keeps shooting people” is a premise that has NOT aged well.

But it’s worth persevering with for a few reasons:

• Olyphant’s charisma

• He keeps meeting sexy widows, 100% of whom killed their husbands, and I just think it’s funny

• Season 1 is fairly procedural, but you get a lot of great American character actors doing their thing — Alan Ruck as a mob accountant turned dentist, Katherine La Nasa as one of the sexy widows, etc

• Walton Goggins

Goggins is the big draw. His character was meant to die in the first episode (Olyphant shoots him, of course), but the test audiences responded so strongly to him that he was allowed to live, and to become a nemesis/foil to Olyphant. They have loads of chemistry, and I assume there’s a lot of fan fiction out there.

Law and Order: SVU, season 7

Speaking of cop shows that have aged badly! The crimes are especially heinous, and so is the politics, but I couldn’t stop watching because — and I cannot believe I have to say this about a show in its seventh season — it felt like it really levelled up.

This is in part because obviously the writers figured out they had something special in Chris Meloni, and he was no longer doing double duty on Oz so they had time to give him extra material — and Mariska Hargitay was pregnant and then on maternity leave. This was a big season for Elliott, and for the Benson/Stabler relationship.

I mean, the downside is that I had to watch a lot of Elliott Stabler Man Pain, and I’m sorry, Chris Meloni is really good, but what if there was a more even distribution of Man Pain? I’m a real Man Pain Socialist.

I finished the season on Friday, skipping the episode about childhood obesity because that’s self-care, and I’m not sure what I’ll be watching on my evenings alone going forward, but I’m sure it will be some sort of cop show with bad politics.

On to the weekly shows!

Task, season 1, episode 3

This is a quieter episode, but it takes some time to give context to our characters and share more details of their histories with the viewer.

For example, we learn that Robbie is stealing from the Dark Hearts motorcycle gang because they murdered his brother, Maeve’s dad. I would suggest that grief therapy might have been more effective and involved less kidnapping, but that’s just me.

We also finally meet Tom’s son, who is stable but not thriving in prison, and very much aware that his dad isn’t interested in visiting him. And, in a heartbreaking flashback, we see the day Tom and his wife (Mirielle Enos, whom I loved in the TV adaptation of Hanna) welcomed Emily and Ethan into their lives.

“That’s the thing about getting older. You get to choose what you take from your parents and what you leave behind.”

So says Maeve, and I think it’s clear by now that one of the themes of the series is figuring out what trauma is worth carrying, and what is best left in the past. Aleah bonds with a witness by sharing a harrowing story of domestic abuse, including a chilling detail about writing her social security number on all her shoes to make it easier to identify her body. The Black leader of a rival gang wants revenge for the racism he has suffered before he’ll help the Dark Hearts. Tom confesses that he can’t forgive his son.

Revenge versus forgiveness, and the wounds that fester and carry through generations. It’s bleak stuff, but I think Task is mostly telling its story well.

We end the episode with the revelation that Tom’s taskforce has a mole. I assume that Lizzie, the manic pixie dream cop, is a red herring; my actual money is on Grasso — purely because I hate Fabian Frankel’s character in House of the Dragon, but also he’s the highest profile actor out of the three candidates. But let’s not discount Aleah, simply because she’s the member of the taskforce I like most, and television does like to disappoint me now and then.

Alien: Earth, season 1, episode 8

I learned this week that Alien: Earth hasn’t been renewed for a second season yet, and I have to say it is a BOLD CHOICE under those circumstances to end the season on such an ambiguous note: the main surviving humans (and androids, and cyborgs) are the prisoners of the hybrid kids, who also have a couple of pet xenomorphs.

I thought I’d get to the finale and be able to put a cap on my opinion of this show — “It’s good!” “It’s disappointing!” Instead, my jury is still out. The kids are coming into their own with Wendy as their leader and their internal disputes resolved, but there’s still a question mark over whether or not this is a good thing.

I have enjoyed this series a lot, but as we wrap up the season, I have to ask: did it need to be an Alien series? I actually think it might have been better as a work of original science fiction. It uses the tropes and visual language of the Alien universe very effectively, but ends up going somewhere completely different in terms of themes and motifs. And as much as I appreciate that Wendy is a Disney princess with a xenomorph in her hand like a bluebird, it turns out we didn’t need the xenomorph at all.

The Morning Show, season 4, episode 2

EVERYONE ON THIS SHOW IS AN IDIOT.

For example. The season premiere opens with Stella demonstrating AI technology which can simulate Alex (Jennifer Aniston) delivering the news in 40 different languages. This is being rolled out for the Olympics, because apparently UBN managed to get worldwide coverage rights, and I’m sorry, I cannot imagine anything worse than forcing people around the world to watch the American coverage — anyway, the point is that this week, Stella is taken totally aback by the suggestion that incriminating CCTV footage of Alex might be faked.

I genuinely think the role of CEO at this company is cursed, in that everyone who steps into it immediately loses 2/3 of their brain cells.

Meanwhile, Bradley (Reese Witherspoon) is back in New York and investigating the mysterious messages she received, warning her of a cover up at the network. I mean, she belatedly realises she can look up the logos in the backgrounds of the videos. Anyway, she and Chip figure out that their source is the Bel Powley character from season 1 and 2 — and I’m like, dammit, I used to love Bel Powley so much, but now she’s been cast in HBO’s Harry Potter series, so I’m mad at her.

Cory is also back in New York, helping Alex navigate her deepfake situation and blackmailing Stella into giving him a production deal so his movies can get made. His whole “I’m a creative now” schtick feels like something from a completely different show, but it’s a show I’d watch.

Allow me to continue the rest of this reaction in a Q&A format:

Hey Liz, was there anything in this episode you actually liked? Because you keep complaining.

First of all, rude. Second, yes, I laughed a lot in this episode and sometimes it was at stuff that was intended to be funny. I especially enjoyed Alex’s interplay with UBN’s new manosphere podcaster (his name is Bro), who seems like a complete asshole, but they have a lot of chemistry.

How is the transformation of UBN into a corporate feminist paradise going?

Well, Mia scolded Chris for prioritising her parental duties, so, not well? I love Chris and I hope they give Nicole Beharie more to do this season, along with William Jackson Harper, who is playing the … sports editor?

Is this one of those shows that’s ostensibly about white women but totally carried by the actors of colour?

Absolutely.

Did the show acknowledge Gaza, after going all-in on Ukraine in season 3?

No, but there was a passing mention of Israel and Iran not being friends. Which is hardly newsworthy.

So who created the fake CCTV footage?

Probably the Iranian government. Which isn’t going to go badly for anyone at all.