Catastrophe S1 — 3.5/5
I have such a raging hard-on for likeable people being likeable together. It's high stakes treated like low stakes, and a tone that I can only describe as affability. I like these people, and like having them in my life. And the final minutes of the final episode are a wonderful rug pull. It was the thing we choose not to see in others because they just seem so good together.
Shoresy S4 — 3.5/5
With the loss of Jacob Tierney behind the camera, the first few episodes started to feel like a lesser version of itself. The cinematic language was part of the success of the show, and in the course of finding its footing, it stumbles. It threatens for a bit to be the worst of Letterkenny, just catchphrase-spouting hooligans, riding on what worked before, but as with every season thus far, it surprises you with how deep it's willing to go. By the end of the season, my criticism of those earlier episodes fell away, and Shoresy, as it always does, finds purpose in something larger than itself / himself.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 — 2/5
The previous two movies have floated atop 'this is better than it should be'; low expectations being its main driver of success, along with a surprisingly game Jim Carrey doing evil Ace Ventura. Those low expectations have unfortunately now just become expectations, and the movie doesn't meet them. (That's the mathematical formula, sorry.) Everyone's just here, saying stuff, hoping funny voices make for a funny movie. It wants to float on personality but doesn't have much character to back it up.
White Lotus S3 — 3/5
As with before, the show's little cheat is that not every story needs to be worthwhile in order for it to be overall worth watching. It just needs to release a bunch of balloons into the air and hopefully one or two pop. But this time, it became harder to disconnect the stories from each other—for both good and ill. Characters walked in and out and among the other contestants, as though they might actually influence each others lives. But the closer together they were tied made it seem like they would all thematically align into a tidy little bouquet. Is it about money? Spirituality? Are you your form? Maybe? Sure? Sometimes? But no, it's just a few different stories that take place at the same place and same time. I think, unfortunately, the only thing that connected them was the game of "who's going to die?," death casting its long shadow over the show. It made the show fun! But it made the show worse, I think. So, to bring it back down to the individual stories, this season doesn't hit the highs of season 2. A nice beginning here, a nice ending there, but also a lot of interesting actors doing interesting things to kill the time. I will crown the winner as The Ratliff family, who were a hell of a lot of fun to watch.
Severance S2 — 4.5/5
This continues to be compelling television!! I often long for the feeling of watching 'Lost' in its weekly airings—not only must you be there for the water-cooler conversations, but there's a compelling need to be there when it happens. A great thing only happens once: as it's happening. This entire show is Tom Waits' "What's he BUILDING in there?" played on loop. But, despite it only being two weeks since the finale, I've lost the individual threads of what I've enjoyed, which is just a function of my memory. So I can't really add anything useful to any sort of discussion of what I enjoyed. So then I'll probably revisit this when I rewatch it in preparation for season 3. Which is itself perhaps the highest compliment.
