Benjamonster's TV

Welcome to my Monday newsletter! This week, I am looking at The Lowdown and the latest episodes of The Morning Show and Task , plus I am continuing my Top 25 Shows Since 2000 with #10 and doing a re-review of Running Wilde ! WHAT'S NEW THE LOWDOWN The Lowdown premiered this past week on FX and is the new critical darling of the fall. It is the follow-up to Reservation Dogs from Sterlin Harjo and is a Tulsa-set noir mystery dramedy starring Ethan Hawke. While I often tend to like the critical favorites, I couldn't get into Reservation Dogs for some reason (and I watched the whole first season). I definitely enjoyed The Lowdown more than Dogs , but I still am a little more lukewarm on it than a lot of TV critics I have been reading. What I am not lukewarm on is Ethan Hawke. I am not that familiar with Hawke's film work but loved him on the underrated Showtime limited series The Good Lord Bird a few years ago. He is absolutely the best part of this show with a delivery that ke...

Welcome to my Monday newsletter! This week, I am looking at the newest season of The Morning Show plus the finale of The Summer I Turned Pretty and the latest episodes of Task and Only Murders in the Building . Also, I am continuing my Top 25 Shows Since 2000 and doing a pilot re-review of $#*! My Dad Says . WHAT'S NEW THE MORNING SHOW SEASON 4 The Morning Show returned for its fourth season last week and it's a show that takes me back in time. I really transitioned from mostly watching network shows to getting into more cable and streaming prestige fare during the COVID lockdown in 2020 (though I still watch my fair share of network shows). Most of the prestige shows I got into at that time - Succession, Ozark, The Handmaid's Tale, Pose , etc. have ended but The Morning Show is still kicking. I loved the first season (it won my 2020 Benjamonster Award for Outstanding Drama Series). But I was much less enthralled with the second season (which was nauseating with its COVID s...

Welcome to my Monday newsletter! This week I am looking at The Girlfriend and the newest season of Only Murders in the Building . Plus some thoughts on the Emmys and the latest episodes of Task and The Summer I Turned Pretty . I am also continuing my Top 25 Shows Since 2000 with #12 and doing a pilot re-review of Detroit 1-8-7 ! WHAT'S NEW THE GIRLFRIEND Before I get into The Girlfriend , I just want all shows forever to stop with the flash forwards to start a series. It's such a tired trope and I instantly get annoyed when I see it. We don't need to see something intense that the show is working towards. JUST STOP IT.  Anyway, now that I have gotten that out of my system, I am mixed so far on The Girlfriend (I am three episodes into the six episode season, which dropped as a binge on Wednesday). I like the dueling narrators approach where it's really not clear where the truth lies because the two interpretations between Robin Wright's Laura and Olivia Cooke's C...

Welcome to my Monday newsletter! It's a very busy return of the newsletter for the fall with a look at Task and The Paper , a summer TV recap, my final Emmy predictions, the continuation of my Top 25 Shows Since 2000 and a new feature - a re-review of a pilot I watched during the first year of the blog! WHAT'S NEW TASK I watched the premiere of Task last night after the thrilling Bills comeback over the Ravens so I was in a good mood which maybe offset some of the dreariness of this new Philadelphia area-set HBO Sunday night drama. But dreary doesn't necessarily mean bad. Yes, the show is brooding but I still found the first episode quite compelling. The series is setting FBI agent Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo) on a collision course with a seemingly simple man, Robbie (Tom Pelphrey), who is involved in a string of violent robberies.  The series comes from the creator of Mare of Easttown , Brad Inglesby, and I do still have the concerns I shared in my Most Anticipated Shows lis...

The days of 30+ new shows debuting on Broadcast over a couple weeks is long gone sadly (yes, I loved those days). But there are still plenty of shows coming to Broadcast, Cable and Streaming over the next couple months, especially after a pretty quiet summer. This fall, there seems to be a lot of dark thrillers and less comedies and lighthearted procedurals. Maybe that reflects the current state of the world? But there's still a nice mix of shows and there could always be some that are not on this list that I end up being a fan of. But going into the fall, these are my Top 15 Most Anticipated Fall Shows! 15. All's Fair (Hulu, TBD) Last fall was a Ryan Murphy explosion with a bunch of his shows premiering within weeks of each other. This fall, there appears to just be two - another Monster installment (yawn) and this legal drama on Hulu, with a premiere date yet to be announced. The series centers on a team of female divorce attorneys and stars Glenn Close, Naomi Watts, Sarah Pa...

I hope you enjoyed my month of awards! Here's a recap of all the awards, check below this post for each individual award post. This blog will take the month of August off and will resume with weekly newsletters on September 8. See you then!! Past Recaps:  2024     2023     2022     2021     2020 Outstanding Comedy Series: Shrinking (Apple TV+) Outstanding Drama Series:  The Pitt (Max) Outstanding Limited/Anthology Series: The White Lotus (HBO) Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series: Hannah Einbinder, Hacks (Max) Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series: Kathy Bates, Matlock (CBS) Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited/Anthology Series: Imogen Faith Reid, Good American Family (Hulu) Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series: Ted Danson, A Man on the Inside (Netflix) Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series: Noah Wyle, The Pitt (Max) Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited/Anthology Series: Josh Andres Rivera, American Sports Story:...

It's time for the final award - Outstanding Comedy Series! Past Awards in This Category:  2024     2023     2022     2021     2020 This year's nominees are... ABBOTT ELEMENTARY (ABC) THE FOUR SEASONS (Netflix) HACKS (Max) A MAN ON THE INSIDE (Netflix) SHRINKING (Apple TV+) THE STUDIO (Apple TV+) WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS (FX) And the Winner Is... SHRINKING Apple TV+ I was mixed on the first season of Shrinking but I absolutely fell in love with the show in its second season. The show is the best current example of a "hangout" comedy following in the footsteps of shows like Friends and New Girl . But it goes a lot deeper than those shows. The show tackles big life decisions and moments with just the right touch. Something I love about Shrinking is that it felt like in every episode, there were a couple characters going through some serious stuff but the rest of the characters were just there to mess around and have fun. The show always fo...