If you managed to read my last post you will know that for a week now I have been staying away from Hive and dealing with my second run through Covid, the all-fearful illness that sends us to our beds for weeks and supposedly threatens death upon all those who catch it -- of course I'm being sarcastic here -- but during this week I have found myself lazing around and watching things, trying to pass the time. About a week ago I also wrote a little post on the few things I had been watching lately. Now sick, I figured it would be fun to run through the limited things I have been checking out as I have found myself looking for things new and old to relax to. This time I'll try to not write about how much I love The Simpsons again!
While fortunately my symptoms have been incredibly tolerable, sadly my ability to pay attention has been decimated, which has made watching longer productions a bit more difficult, I found myself wanting to watch things that are shorter and easier to pay attention to. Things that are light-hearted or comedic. For the most part this has meant a rewatch of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia! I have seen through the vast majority of this show, and I did get a bit lost with those more modern seasons which definitely were not to the same quality, but watching through the show again has made me realise how little I could actually remember. It felt really fresh, with the show's crazy and idiotic characters being able to shine all over again.
Watching through the show again, I have noticed how creative it is with its whacky ideas and scenarios it places its characters into, but that such a show is highly unlikely to come around again anytime soon. I found myself looking back at Trailer Park Boys and noticing similarities in the two: the ways in which the shows focus themselves around bad but highly addictive people to watch. Their cruel and narcissistic ways ultimately being what pulls us back in each episode to watch more. The appeal in the characters being their sheer stupidity throughout various antics, never really managing to learn their lessons no matter how much things backfire for them. Added to the whole fun of it all is Danny DeVito's character which almost seems like a final piece of the puzzle in providing totally different characteristics in the cast.
With each episode you never really know what they're going to get up to next and how things will turn out, but the show still manages to introduce some character development and context into them, allowing us to learn more about these characters which not only makes us see why they are the way they are, but almost gives us a bit more of a reason to care for them. Which is pretty important when they're all utterly insane!
To mix things up though I have been trying to watch a few other things, though most of the time I have just been addicted to It's Always Sunny! I started to check out a show called 1899, which many seem to have made similarities to Dark with, particularly due to one of the cast members being from the show. I watched a few episodes but struggled to really pay attention, though the cinematography and idea seems to be pretty good. Fully of mystery and strangeness, though I have no idea where it is going. One big problem I had with it was the music, which definitely did not seem fitting for the time period and the atmosphere. It was strange hearing music that really pulled me out of the worldbuilding the show had. I hope that improves as the show progresses. Though these episodes are quite long, and I didn't want to miss important aspects of the narrative, and have put the show aside for now until I feel my attention is back.
Having noticed my attention span was terrible, I decided to revisit Modern Family, a show I remember watching through but not finishing. This show is a bit of a guilty pleasure, I both hate it and enjoy it for its simplicity. The characters for the most part are insufferable, but have some wholesome qualities to them that makes the show so engrossing. The show's interview format makes you care less for what happens in the show, and pushes most of the interest on their segments where they offer their own perspectives, though of course still as the characters. Modern Family, to no surprise, exaggerates the idea of the modern family for comedic purposes, showing us the manchild father, the teenage brat daughter, the idiotic son, and the rich boomer grandfather. Of course there are more characters, but you get the idea of how this show takes a series of simple ideas that one could easily relate to and does something with it for 24 minutes.
I'd make the comparison to Malcolm in the Middle here in the way it shows a dysfunctional family, but one that remains strong and comes together despite how different they all are. Though Modern Family emphasises the drama a bit more, particularly through the interview segments, to convey certain undertones regarding the nature of a large and dramatic family. It can get stale quite quickly, but at the same time it's certainly something that is easy to watch and it's unlikely you'll dislike it.
Moving on from these easier to watch comedic shows, however, last night I found myself watching through the documentary series Meltdown: Three Mile Island. A story on the accident at a nuclear power plant in the United States and the following attempted cover-up that went through to hide the seriousness of the event. I was curious as to whether the documentary would have an overly negative perception of nuclear power or if it would stay neutral; I think it did a bit of both which was understandable as it displayed the affected citizens and the workers that dealt with the problem. These conflicting opinions and experiences made sense, but it was still good to see something that understood the importance of nuclear energy and how safety needs to be improved rather than the entire dismantling of nuclear energy itself.
This documentary was done over the course of multiple episodes as it told the story of the accident and the follow-up events, from varying perspectives within the community and the workers, and I think it was done well. It ensured that blame was placed upon the corporation and the lack of training and safety precautions. Part of me expected, given it is a Netflix documentary, a massively dramatic hate piece on nuclear energy. I'm pretty glad it wasn't. I definitely recommend watching this though! It's a telling of the United State's own little Chernobyl event. Pretty decent cinematography in the interviews, with some good use of historical footage from the period to tell most of the story alongside narration from those there.
Oh! And I finally gave The Rings of Power a second chance. I watched through it feeling pretty much nothing. It was far from terrible, but just totally void of soul. I struggled to care for any of the characters, and the implementation of drama just felt so flat, especially with such clean and regular medieval looking characters. In parts it felt as if all fantasy was removed entirely. Then the action sequences were just silly. Though I found myself still sometimes enjoying how the show was directed. I think it has potential still; I'm no die-hard fan, so I'm willing to give it a chance, but this first season was just incredibly lacking in almost all manners. It felt as if it was trying to do too many things at once, and ultimately did nothing.
I think this is all I have been watching during this past week with Covid! I look forward to getting back into my noir phase again once I'm no longer sick!
