BENJAMONSTER NEWSLETTER: May 28, 2024

Welcome to my newsletter, a day late! Today I am doing a season wrap-up on Abbott Elementary, looking at the latest episodes of Hacks and looking at the Emmy race for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series!

ABBOTT ELEMENTARY SEASON FINALE/WRAP-UP

I haven't written about Abbott Elementary in quite a few weeks. I felt like the third season had some really strong weeks but also some duds. The dividing line for me was bringing Quinta Brunson's Janine back to Abbott. The show made a really bold choice by having Janine start to work for the district at the beginning of the third season. It was an inspired decision that led to some great new dynamics both for Janine and for the rest of the staff left at Abbott. The show explored new relationships and still found ways to incorporate Janine with her Abbott peers. It was really well done.

But then... they brought Janine back to Abbott even though she was given a chance to get a permanent job at the district. It worked against everything we know about Janine's character that she would just give that up and she's seemed like a pretty pathetic character ever since. If the show really wanted Janine to be back at Abbott, I almost wish they had her mess up something at the district level that forced her to go back. Her choosing to go back was just a disappointing choice. And I'm sorry but I just don't see Janine and Gregory (Tyler James Williams) as the next Jim and Pam despite the show wanting us too. Brunson's chemistry with Josh Segarra's Manny is proof of that. Janine and Gregory do not have the soulmates feel to them so the final scene didn't land the punch those moments with Jim and Pam (or Ross and Rachel) did. I think Janine and Gregory are more similar to Ted and Robin from How I Met Your Mother - the show believes in them more than we do.

BENJAMONSTER NEWSLETTER: May 20, 2024

Welcome to my Monday newsletter. This week, I am looking at Young Sheldon, the latest episodes of Hacks, the race for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series at the Emmys and some Upfronts wrap-ups!

A LOOK BACK AT "YOUNG SHELDON"

Young Sheldon came to an end this week after seven seasons and 141 episodes. I am a member of what I'm sure is a rare breed because I've never seen a full episode of The Big Bang Theory but I watched the entire run of Young Sheldon. It reminded me so much of the ABC sitcoms that were airing at the time it premiered - shows like The Goldbergs, Black-ish, Fresh Off the Boat and more. It was much more in the spirit of those single camera family shows than the mulit-cam series it spun-off from. My own relationship with Young Sheldon was also much like those shows. I liked them when they were airing and enjoyed watching them week to week but I can't pinpoint specific episodes the way I can with all-timer shows I love like The Office and Parks and Recreation. They were comfort background shows for me so I didn't always watch with focus and intensity, but it was still a family of characters I enjoyed spending time with over the last seven years.

BENJAMONSTER NEWSLETTER: May 13, 2024

Welcome to my Monday newsletter! This week, I am looking at the season finales of The Girls on the Bus and Palm Royale, the latest episodes of Hacks and the Emmy race for Supporting Actress in a Drama Series! Plus I have some brief thoughts on NBC's fall schedule and some VERY brief thoughts on Dark Matter. 

SEASON IN REVIEW: "THE GIRLS ON THE BUS" AND "PALM ROYALE"

The Girls on the Bus and Palm Royale reached the end of their first seasons this week. When they premiered less than a week apart back in March, I was sort of equally intrigued and annoyed by both of them. Over the couple months that followed though, they started to trend in different directions with The Girls on the Bus starting to win me over and Palm Royale making me increasingly annoyed.

It felt like nobody was watching or paying attention to The Girls on the Bus over the past couple months so I'd be surprised if it got a second season. While I still stand by my feeling that it was basically a pipe dream for liberal Politico junkies from the early 2010s, the performances and camaraderie among the four main women (the titular "girls on the bus") made it compelling at times. Melissa Benoist was probably the most consistently strong performer but Carla Gugino, Christina Elmore and Natasha Behnam all had their moments. The candidates in the fictional race were supporting players in this story but I still felt like they were a bit underused and a bit misused. The big story culminated in Benoist uncovering information about Scott Foley's Hayden Wells Garrett but Foley was so in and out of the story that I don't think the revelation packed as much of a punch as it could have. The show occasionally got a little self righteous but it never got as preachy as I feared it would. Most of the opinions and the monologues they gave were justifiable for characters who were super plugged-in media-types. Like I said, I don't expect to see a second season of this show but I'm glad I watched it.

BENJAMONSTER NEWSLETTER: May 6, 2024

Welcome to my Monday newsletter. This week I am looking at the third season of Hacks, the twist in Sugar and the Emmy race for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. I also have some brief thoughts on The Veil, A Man in Full and the CBS Fall Schedule.

"HACKS" SEASON 3

Hacks returned to Max this week after a two year break and it was back in fine form. This is the role of a lifetime for Jean Smart and she continues to knock it out of the park every episode. The show thankfully gave a lengthy "previously on" to help me remember what was going on two years ago and then the series itself wisely made a one year time jump where Smart's Deborah Vance has reclaimed her superstar status without the fired Ava (Hannah Einbinder). The show was obviously going to bring the two stars back together but the first episode did a great job of building up to the reunion by quickly summarizing where they are in their lives. It's always amazing how a well done show can do so much in so little time while poorly constructed shows don't know how to do something like summarizing how a year went by in a few minutes without clunky exposition. In a matter of minutes, I felt like I fully understood what had happened in the last year to both Deborah and Ava. And of course, once Smart and Einbinder got to bantering with each other, it was like no time had passed at all. 

I'm a little leery of the idea of the late night show plot that the show seems to be heading towards with the second episode of the season. While I know part of the whole show is that Deborah is from another era, this plot feels like it would have had more pizazz if it was set in the 90s or early 2000s. Late night TV isn't really the pinnacle it once was and it feels like Ava would be primed to want to go in a different direction and bring Deborah with her. Maybe that's still coming but a plot about possibly taking over a late night show felt a little too retro for me. I loved it as a standalone episode though, even if it strained a bit for believability about how it came about and how Ava factored into that (unions and contracts, anyone?). I just feel a bit nervous if this is a season-long arc.