BENJAMONSTER NEWSLETTER: February 26, 2024

Welcome to a pretty short newsletter. This week, I am looking at the new season of Will Trent, the latest episode of Abbott Elementary and the end of Mr. & Mrs. Smith along with thoughts on Expats, some recent renewals and the SAG Awards!

WILL TRENT SEASON 2

I didn't stick with Will Trent in its first season even though I liked the couple episodes I watched. But I felt like it continued to get decent buzz by broadcast TV standards so I gave it another shot as Season Two kicked off. I'm not sure if there's a better chance of me sticking around long-term but I do think it's a pretty good example of the show it's trying to be. I think by broadcast procedural standards, it's quite solid. It has some quirky characters and styles and does just enough things well and different to be a cut above some of the more bland network entries.

BENJAMONSTER NEWSLETTER: February 19, 2024

Welcome to my Monday newsletter! This week, I am looking at Apple TV+'s new drama The New Look, the season finale of True Detective: Night Country, the latest episode of Abbott Elementary and more!

THE NEW LOOK

For the first ten years on this blog, I mostly focused on broadcast shows. I watched a few cable and streaming shows but I watched broadcast with regularity. Over time, I started to have less patience for the shows that were doing something I'd see hundreds of times. Things like generic procedural dramas became less and less interesting unless they really offered something different. And I sometimes looked back at the shows I liked in the beginning of my blog days and thought "I can't believe how much I liked [any number of early 2010s procedural]" as my tastes evolved and sharpened.

BENJAMONSTER NEWSLETTER: February 12, 2024

Welcome to my Monday newsletter. Today, I am looking at the third season premiere of Abbott Elementary, the latest episodes of True Detective: Night Country and Feud: Capote vs. the Swans and more!

ABBOTT ELEMENTARY "Career Day" (Season Premiere)

Abbott Elementary returned for its third season in fine form with a double episode focused on "Career Day" and picking up midway through the school year. While the real reason was the writer's strike of course, the show chose to not do the beginning of the school year and keep it in the real time of the school calendar. That allowed the show to make some narrative choices that I think have set up the third season well. Janine is now working for the district and the show used flashbacks to give us a brief look at how things have evolved between Gregory and Janine since the second season finale. There was also a very clever explanation of why the camera crew has been absent with a cold open that featured the most direct references to the crew.

BENJAMONSTER NEWSLETTER: February 5, 2024

Welcome to my Monday newsletter. This week, I am looking at Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Feud: Capote vs. the Swans, the latest episode of True Detective: Night Country and more!

MR. & MRS. SMITH

For the last couple years, my most highly anticipated new show of the year turned out to be a disappointment (The First Lady in 2022, Dear Edward in 2023). So between that track record and the fact that Prime Video had a late embargo and a binge model, I was very worried that my #1 for 2024, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, would follow in those footsteps. Well, I'm happy to report that not only did Mr. & Mrs. Smith not disappoint, I would say it actually exceeded expectations.

I've watched three episodes of the eight so far and the closest comparison I can make is Poker Face in the sense that it's a throwback case of the week feel but with the gloss and money of a prestige TV show. I really don't mind self-contained shows. TV has been thriving on that model for decades. The problem with so many broadcast shows nowadays is that they are so unambitious with low production values that it really doesn't feel worth my time. What both Poker Face and Mr. and Mrs. Smith did is put some gloss (high production values, great guest stars) on a tried and true TV formula and the results are episodes that are endlessly enjoyable because they're familiar in the best sense of the word. These are shows that could run for years or a decade even though they probably won't.