Benjamonster's TV

Welcome to a fairly short newsletter as it's been a busy week. Here are some thoughts on the new season of The Righteous Gemstones plus the latest episodes of The White Lotus, Paradise, The Pitt and Severance ! "THE RIGHTEOUS GEMSTONES" SEASON 4 The Righteous Gemstones made a very unusual decision for its fourth and final season premiere. The series did an origin story of the Gemstones set in 1862 and featuring none of the regular cast members. It instead starred Bradley Cooper as the first Gemstone preacher, a Civil War-era criminal who pretended to be a minister (yes, the Gemstones were scammers way back then). This was certainly a big swing for the series. The series has done "prequel" episodes before but it's always been directly related to the main characters. Some of those break-from-form episodes have been the best of the series. This was probably the biggest swing and it didn't totally work for me. I think it's rough to do for a season premie...

Welcome to my Monday newsletter! This week, I am giving a brief Oscars recap plus thoughts on Running Point, The White Lotus, Toxic Town, Paradise, Grosse Pointe Garden Society and Severance ! OSCARS RECAP The Oscars were on Sunday night and it was a huge night for Anora , which won five awards including Best Picture and an upset win for Best Actress for Mikey Madison (shout out Better Things !). I thought Anora was a deserving Best Picture winner of the five nominees I saw, and, as much as it would have been a great moment for Demi Moore to win Best Actress, that award was well-deserved by Madison. I'm also over the Adrian Brody acceptance speeches but sad there won't be anymore from Kieran Culkin for a bit. And I'm happy that Emilia Perez   is out of our lives (it went from what seemed like a lock for International Film to losing to I'm Still Here even though it still won two awards).  As for the telecast itself, I thought Conan O'Brien was a game host but there w...

Welcome to my weekly newsletter. This week, I am looking at Zero Day, Good Cop/Bad Cop, the latest episode of The White Lotus and giving some Oscars predictions. Plus, thoughts on the SAG Awards and the latest episodes of  The Pitt and Severance ! "ZERO DAY" I'm sure some of you have already finished the entire series but I am three episodes into Netflix's new political thriller limited series Zero Day . The show had a fair amount of anticipation due to its great cast but the reviews weren't promising. Still, I went in hoping I would feel differently from the critics and I'm sorry to say that I don't. I will probably finish it since there's only three more episodes. But if this was a 10 episode season, I probably would have bailed by now. The series is a classic offender of the "tell, don't show" problem. Characters spend so much time filling in backstory or details by just giving clunky expositional thoughts that aren't natural at al...

Welcome to this week's newsletter! This week, I am taking a look at the third season of The White Lotus and SNL 's 50th Anniversary Celebration. Plus thoughts on Severance, Paradise, The Pitt and Abbott Elementary ! "THE WHITE LOTUS" SEASON 3 The White Lotus returned on Sunday night for its third season. The first season, set in Hawaii and the second Italy-set season are two of my favorite seasons of any TV show in recent years so I have been eagerly anticipating the return of the show, now in Thailand. I tried not to really read reviews of the third season but did see a few critics note that the season starts a little slow but picks up speed. I think that's definitely true, but that's always a little bit true of The White Lotus . We have to get to know the characters and creator Mike White's way of writing is a slow build with themes developing and emerging. The first couple episodes always feel like we're feeling the characters out. That's especi...

Welcome to my Monday newsletter! This week, I am looking at The Z-Suite and the latest episode of Severance plus thoughts on Clean Slate and Abbott Elementary ! "THE Z-SUITE" First of all, I find the Tubi intro when you launch the app so funny. Maybe it would get tiresome if I watched Tubi a lot but I just find it funny right now. Anyway, Tubi is the home to the new sitcom The Z-Suite , starring Lauren Graham and Nico Santos as prolific advertisement executives who lose their jobs to a trio of Gen Z roustabouts. And if you think roustabout is an outdated word, wait until you see how this show tries to write for both the Gen Z characters and the older characters who don't understand them. This is one of two generation gap comedies to come out this week, along with Clean Slate . And neither one is particularly good but I might stick with this one a little bit longer only because it's funnier. But that's not the same as saying I think it's a quality sitcom. Laure...

Welcome to my Monday newsletter. This week, I am looking at Paradise and the latest episode of Severance plus I have thoughts on Watson, Abbott Elementary and The Pitt ! "PARADISE" When Landman ended its first season earlier this month, I felt a bit sad because I didn't have an absolutely bonkers, ridiculous show to watch on a weekly basis. Well, that may have been short-lived because Hulu's Paradise is here. I thought this was going to be a prestige play and it's definitely trying to be. It came from Dan Fogelman and starred Sterling K. Brown. The two men are, of course, vets of This is Us , a show that was solid to spectacular for most of its run (save for the rough COVID-tinged fifth season). Paradise is silly with a capital S but, unlike Landman , it's taking itself far too serious to be as enjoyable as a show that knew how stupid it was. The first episode ends with a big twist. I won't spoil it here for those who still plan on watching, but knowing th...