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 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 especially true in the second and now third season when there are such fond memories of the casts that came before.
Maybe it's the tropical setting or the return of Belinda (Natasha Rothwell), but this season is giving me vibes of the first season more than the second season. I think that's also because of the rich family (this time with parents Jason Isaacs and Parker Posey) reminding me of the Connie Britton/Steve Zahn family. There's also a key returning cast member besides Rothwell who was a surprise (and I won't spoil it here). I think right now it all feels a little bit familiar because we haven't really gotten into the themes Mike White wants to explore so right now we're still on a superficial level with all these characters.
I'm on record as saying I don't need each season to start with a murder/body and then a flashback. I don't think this show has ever been about the "who done it." But that seems to be the framing device White wants for this show so it happens again though it seems like it might be a more severe situation than one dead body. What I wish came back, and didn't, is a variation on the theme song. It was a much more different theme song and that made me sad.
The cast is uniformly excellent, which is no surprise. Right now, I'm most intrigued by Carrie Coon and Patrick Schwarzenegger, though there are plenty of intriguing performances. Walton Goggins and Parker Posey seem tailor-made for a Mike White show so maybe my expectations were too high for them going in, but they didn't make as much of an impression on me yet. I thought Rothwell was a little underused in the first episode. I have no concerns about where this season is going because this show has not let me down and I don't think this season will. Also, Thailand is gorgeous and White and his team have such a way of immersing us in the location. I'm so glad this show is back. Look for weekly thoughts on this one.
Sunday night was a big night for TV with the return of The White Lotus and the big SNL 50th Anniversary Special. I chose to watch SNL live because it was more of an event and, I mean, it seemed like SNL deserved to be watched live. The 50th Anniversary Special was more star-studded than any awards show I've ever seen. It felt like not just everyone still alive from SNL's history was there but also nearly every celebrity on the planet.
Like all things in SNL's 50 years of being on the air, the special was uneven. Some brilliance and some things that didn't work. That's just always been the way of SNL. I thought the special got off to a bit of a rough star. The Paul Simon/Sabrina Carpenter was sweet but not really a thrilling way to kick off a high energy show. The early sketches seemed to struggle to find their footing, perhaps with some celebrities who were not there for rehearsals. It was interesting that there was almost no references to any political humor, which has been a key part of SNL's history. My guess is Lorne Michaels wanted this to be a celebration and shied away from any political statements in the current climate.
But it settled into a groove and there were some real standout moments. I thought the entire Weekend Update segment was great (yay for the return of great characters from Cecily Strong, Bobby Moynihan, Fred Armisen and Vanessa Bayer). I also adored Adam Sandler's song. I'm not always a big Sandler fan but I thought that was so touching and a great moment (and, truthfully, should have closed the show). The new John Mulaney musical sketch was a really great way to honor (and poke fun at) NYC, which is so intertwined with SNL and needed to have a big moment on the special. The In Memoriam bit was inspired and hit a common criticism of SNL head-on.
The show generally seemed to have good ideas about how to merge some iconic sketches (Robert Goulet with The Lawrence Welk Show, Bronx Beat and Coffee Talk, etc) and I'm really glad the special focused on new sketches (albeit with mostly callbacks) instead of too many clip packages. But I still felt the show was too long. There's a reason the weekly show is only 90 minutes. I think I would have cut the musical performances (except Sandler) because they did the huge concert on Friday night. I would have moved the clips to a clip show before or after the special and then made the actual special with sketches a tight two hours. SNL deserves as much primetime real estate as it wants but it's hard to sit through 3+ hours of sketch comedy in any form.
One final note, I'm glad some of the most important people in SNL history got to be up front at the end: members of the original cast (with Jane Curtin & Laraine Newman holding up a picture of Gilda Radner), Kenan Thompson, Eddie Murphy and, of course, Lorne Michaels. No matter how you feel about it at any particular point in time, Saturday Night Live is an institution like no other. And it deserved the huge celebration that it got.
SCRIPTED PREMIERES THIS WEEK
After a busy Sunday night, the week starts quietly before picking up again as the week goes on. On Wednesday, the CW premieres Good Cop/Bad Cop, a police procedural that brings Leighton Meester back to The CW. But unlike when she was on Gossip Girl, no one is really paying attention to CW originals these days. On Thursday, Netflix drops the limited series Zero Day. The series has gotten a lot of attention thanks to its all-star cast led by Robert DeNiro and Angela Bassett. Also premiering on Thursday is the third season of Reacher on Prime Video, which has already been renewed for a fourth season. On Friday, Apple TV+ has the second season premiere of Surface. The first season didn't get much attention when it premiered way back in Summer 2022. It seems like it will be a two and done show for the streamer. Finally, Sunday is a busy day. Paramount+ has the second season premiere of 1923. The Harrison Ford-Helen Mirren series should benefit from the ever growing influence of Taylor Sheridan. Premiering later on Sunday is a pair of new dramas for NBC. Suits: LA will try to take advantage of the many who discovered Suits on Netflix in recent years. It is followed by Grosse Pointe Garden Society, which is definitely giving off a Desperate Housewives vibe but seems like a tough sell on NBC (or any broadcast network really) in 2025.
ODDS & ENDS
- After last week's big episode of Severance, I didn't find this week's as compelling. It felt like more of a setup for things to come but we're already in episode four. The show is started to feel like it's operating in fits and starts. So while there are some absolutely incredible ideas, moments and performances, I'm not quite getting the arc of the season yet and it's almost half over.
- Paradise is continuing to fill the Landman void as the entirely bonkers show I watch each week but Paradise continues to not know it's bonkers whereas Landman seemed to know and embrace it. The stifled laughter in Paradise comes during what I think is a genuine attempt at drama. But I'm sorry. Everyone under this whole dome or whatever you want to call it is a suspect. The daughter being involved? Completely unsurprising. But also it's episode five so you know it's not going to be actually her. When they all melodramatically started looking at the sky at the end of the episode as yet another slow jam version of a song played ("Eye of the Tiger" in this case), I truly believed it could be anything they were all looking at. Aliens? An asteroid? A dead body? A cryptic message? A plane full of people from "above"? A flock of giant birds? Like truly anything. Any of those would fit the plot enough to be plausible. That's how bonkers this show is (spoiler alert: it is one of the things listed above). Why did Sterling K. Brown agree to this mess? It seems like he should feel embarrassed. Maybe he does. And yet, will I watch next week? You betcha.
- The Pitt is a show I look forward to every week but this week was my least favorite episode of the season so far. My problem was two-fold: the scene with Santos (Isa Briones) basically threatening her patient who was accused of molesting his daughter was far too theatrical for a show like this. That sort of monologue she delivered in the room felt like it belonged on a Shonda show. It was definitely a step removed from how realistic the show has been. Along those lines, my other problem this week was the story with Mel (Taylor Dearden) and Dr. Langdon (Patrick Ball). I get that the show is trying to show the way characters can learn from each other but this definitely had a "character learns their lesson by the end of the episode" vibe and, again, The Pitt has managed to not do things like that. This week was probably just a victim of the show setting too high a standard for itself. Not every episode will be a homerun, especially in a procedural drama. But I'm thrilled the show got renewed. I'm curious to see if the second season takes place at a shift in the near future or if it will do something like a one year time jump.
- One major advantage network shows have over streaming shows: the ability to do holiday episodes at the right time of year. Abbott Elementary being able to do a Valentine's-themed episode this week is both a product of doing lots of episodes a year and airing on a nearly year-long calendar schedule. And it's always festive when they roll around at the right time.
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