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BENJAMONSTER NEWSLETTER: November 25, 2024

Welcome to a pretty quick newsletter - it was a very busy week! This week, I am looking at A Man on the Inside and a few brief thoughts on What We Do in the Shadows and Silo.

The blog will be off next week but will return December 9 with the start of my end of year Top 10 lists!

"A MAN ON THE INSIDE"
It's always weird to write about Netflix shows on the blog because I'm sure many reading this have already binged the entire season of A Man on the Inside and I've only seen three episodes so far due to the aforementioned busy week. So I'll keep this review relatively short except to say that Mike Schur and Ted Danson have done it again. Schur's brand of comedy is one of my favorites and he rarely misses especially as a showrunner (some of his producing credits are less great). And Danson is just a TV icon at this point.

The premise of A Man on the Inside: putting Danson undercover in a retirement home is about as perfect a setup for those two as there can be. Schur excels at ensemble comedies that blend humor with heart and the ensemble of this nursing home really delivers the ensemble comedy while the sentimentality of aging brings the heart. And Danson has such a congenial presence that he just exudes charisma and charm. 

I am trying not to be spoiled about the "who done it" element to the season but truthfully I don't even care all that much. This show is definitely one of those that is more about the journey than the destination. I look forward to watching the rest of the season and already hope it gets a second season.

SCRIPTED PREMIERES THIS WEEK
It's Thanksgiving week but there's still a handful of premieres. Monday has the premiere of Get Millie Black on HBO, a show that seems completely like an HBO Monday show. On Thanksgiving Day, Netflix premieres the thriller The Madness starring Colman Domingo. It doesn't have a lot of buzz but every once in awhile, shows like that break out on Netflix. Also premiering Thursday is the fourth season of All the Queen's Men on BET+. On Friday, Paramount+ with Showtime premieres The Agency (followed by a linear debut on Sunday). The series is based on a popular French series and stars Michael Fassbender, Jeffrey Wright and Richard Gere. Rounding out the week on Sunday, MGM+ has the premiere of Earth Abides, based on the novel of the same name

ODDS & ENDS
- I didn't get to a lot of shows this week (did I mention it was a busy one?). That includes the latest episodes of Landman, Somebody Somewhere and Shrinking. It also includes the third season premiere of Max's The Sex Lives of College Girls. That show is underrated and I'm looking forward to diving into the new season.

- This week's episode of What We Do in the Shadows was the first that didn't really work for me. It fell into a trap that occasionally hits sitcoms: a really funny premise for a cold open just isn't sustainable for the episode. The March Madness bit was hilarious before the credits rolled but then the story just kept going. And the workplace story with Guillermo and Colin was slightly funnier but still not great. A rare hiccup in a very funny final season so far.

- After watching the second episode of Silo, I still feel like Apple should have premiered the two of them together. The first episode nearly exclusively dealt with Rebecca Ferguson's Juliet. The second episode didn't have her in the episode at all. They definitely felt like a pair and I don't really understand why Apple, who has done multiple episode drops with shows before, didn't do that.
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