Benjamonster's TV

Welcome to my Monday newsletter! This week, I am looking at DTF St. Louis, American Classic and Paradise  Season Two. Plus, the latest episodes of Love Story, Shrinking and The Pitt . I am also ranking my Top 10 TV Shows that start with E and taking a look back at FOX's 2011 sitcom Traffic Light .   WHAT'S NEW DTF ST. LOUIS In my time doing this blog, I have seen many crime dramas - ones that start with a body in the opening scene and then flash back. To be honest, I'm pretty sick of that trope. I can forgive it for something I love like The White Lotus  but I roll my eyes more often than not at this point. DTF St. Louis , which premiered last night on HBO, feels like a fresh breath on the genre and not just because the dead body wasn't revealed until about 20 minutes in. The whole tone of the show was very unique and unsettling. From the stark rot of suburbia displayed in the art direction (they really made suburban St. Louis look like it had nothing going on) to the c...

Welcome to my Monday newsletter! I have a few reasons why there was nothing new I reviewed this week but I do have thoughts on the latest episodes of Shrinking and The Pitt . Plus my Top 10 Shows Starting with D and a look back at Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior   WHAT'S NEW Nothing New This Week Nothing new to review this week for me. I did start the new season of The Last Thing He Told Me but then decided after a few minutes that I didn't care. I had NO memory of this show even though I watched the whole first season. I don't think I liked it all that much given I didn't nominate it for anything in my awards that year but watching the recap, I was like "wow, I really remember nothing about this" and then the show started up and it was clearly continuing a story I didn't care about so I was out. Shows coming out three years apart and being that serialized is frustrating even in the best cases and this was not the best case. Elsewhere, I liked the first s...

Welcome to my Monday newsletter! This week, I am looking at Love Story and the latest episodes of The Pitt and Shrinking ! Plus, my Top 10 Shows starting with C and a pilot re-review of Mad Love !   WHAT'S NEW LOVE STORY: JOHN F. KENNEDY JR. & CAROLYN BESSETTE Love Story is the newest anthology series from the Ryan Murphy empire and created by Connor Hines. Once called American Love Story (like American Crime Story and American Sports Story ), the inaugural season focuses on the 1990s romance and untimely deaths of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. Ryan Murphy productions have hit in miss since the very beginning but they've been trending more towards miss lately for me (and many others, it seems). I don't think this series is incredible but through three episodes, I am enjoying it more than most Murphy shows of the last half decade. The first three episodes have some of that 90s-era aesthetic that aided his all-time best series, The People vs. OJ Simpson . Of c...

Welcome to my Monday newsletter!  WHAT'S NEW THE 'BURBS Amidst the Super Bowl and Olympics, Peacock launched The 'Burbs on Sunday, based on the 1989 film. I watched the first episode, it was all I had time for. I'm not sure if I'll keep watching the show. On the one hand, I like a lot of the cast: Julia Duffy, Paula Pell and Mark Proksch have all been reliable scene stealers in other shows while Keke Palmer is a charming lead. I'm also always intrigued by a "suburbia is not what it seems" plot in shows. However, this all felt a little undercooked to me. There was a completely wooden performance by Jack Whitehall but I could have gotten over that if the how had a little more to offer. Nothing was funny enough (with the exception of Proksch stroking Palmer's hand when they were introduced or spooky enough to make me sure I want to commit to eight episodes. I either needed it to be genuinely creepy with a mystery that felt worth exploring or a really ...

Welcome to my Monday newsletter! This week, I am looking at the third season of Shrinking and Disney+'s Wonder Man . Plus the latest episodes of Memory of a Killer, Abbott Elementary and Hijack . I am also counting down my Top 10 TV Shows that start with the letter A and taking a look back at Mr. Sunshine ! WHAT'S NEW SHRINKING SEASON 3 It is great to have Shrinking back for a third season. I liked, but didn't love, the first season but then became completely hooked on the show during its second season. My eyes bugged out a bit when I saw the premiere of the third season was over an hour long and it took a bit for the new season to wind up. There are so many characters and I don't know if the show needed to catch up on each one of them in the first few minutes (nor do I think they need to hit their huge rolodex all the time - did we really need Brett Goldstein in this first episode? Or in this season at all?) But once it got past the awkward exposition that dominated th...