Like It Or Lump It: A Bunch

 

 

One of my faults as a big-time blogger is that I will start a small project and then forget about it.

I intended to comment about songs I like this year, inspired by Bob Dylan's book The Philosophy of Modern Song, which did not have any philosophy and not a lot of "Modern Songs", come to think about it.  But it was a fun read, especially considering it was by Bob Dylan. It had many nifty pictures.

But as the year went on, I forgot about that project and started a new one: Like It Or Lump It, which is about shows that appear on various streaming services.

Again, time got in the way, so now I have to combine several mini Like It Or Lump Its.

The Morning Show.  (Apple)  "The Morning Show" is about two female hosts on a television network in a not-so-slight dig at The Today Show in 2017.  Reese Witherspoon plays a conservative journalist who doesn't believe anything conservative. She is brought in to flare her nostrils, which she does a lot.

Jennifer Aniston is the host of the morning show with Steve Carrell.  Carrell gets kicked off the show because of a zipper problem.  Aniston is like Katie Curic if Katie Curic has a 40 IQ.

Season One was all about the "Me Too" movement.  Season Two is about Covid. Season Three is about Don Draper coming in and trying to buy the network and become Jennifer Aniston's boyfriend.

Verdict:  "The Morning Show" should be a lot better, but it is often just a mess with a lot of F-words.   You can live without it. Lump it.

Bosch: Legacy. (Amazon Freevee)  One of the more successful streaming shows is "Bosch," which featured a tatted-up L.A. detective that solved crimes.  Think "Columbo," except with tattoos and sailor language.  

Bosch has quit the police force and works as a private investigator with Tom Cruise's first ex-wife. Bosch's daughter is now working on the L.A. police force. The actress that plays Kid Bosch has the acting ability of a tree stump.

Bosch works with a computer whiz who is cool because he listens to jazz and talks in that cool hipster way like they did in the later years of the Eisenhower administration.

Bosch worked as a show because they had a lot of different characters and it was fun to watch Bosch solve a crime.  Legacy doesn't work as well because they have Bosch interact with Tom Cruise's first ex-wife, who apparently hasn't laughed in fifteen years.

Verdict: I like it, but it is not as good as the original Bosch series. 

The Crown (Netflix).  We are in the final years of Queen Elizabeth's reign and are faced with one fact: she was a Queen for a very long time.

Of course, most of the time in this show's season deals with Diana and how unhappy she was being the wife of a jug ear royal.  Spoiler alert: this season, Diana has the car crash, and everybody but Queen Elizabeth is sad about it because, you know, stiff up lip, my boy, and all that jazz.

Queen Elizabeth doesn't do much except stand around.  The actress that plays Diana is really "purdy," as we say down here.

Verdict:  Like it but you have seen it before in real time.

Suits (Netflix).  One of the year's big surprises was "Suits" appearing on Netflix and people watching it because it was on The USA Network for eight years, and nobody ever heard of it.

Suits is about a pothead drug dealer named Mike who has a photographic memory.  That should be your first clue that this show is a fantasy.

This guy talks himself into an interview with a law firm that only hires graduates of the Harvard Law School because that way you can guarantee a diverse workforce.

Anyway (as we say down South), Mike is hired, and the lawyer that hired him (Harvey) become best friends because they can both quote movie lines.

Pretending to be a lawyer cleans up this kid's life, and he falls in love with Prince Harry's wife.  The problem is, well, pretending to be a lawyer is a crime, no matter how cute your girlfriend.

Pretty soon, just about everybody in the law firm knows Mike is a fraud, sort of like the way everybody knew Don Draper was a fraud. Mike trying to escape being found out is a large part of the action.  As is everybody cussing at each other. 

Believe it or not, the show is good.  There's a goofball lawyer character named Louis Litt who is hilarious and a red-headed admin named Donna who should have her own show.

The show is also educational because Louis does this thing called "Mudding," in which you lie in a tub of mud and relax.  I had never heard of that because in the South, "Mudding" means driving your truck through the mud. 

Verdict:  Like it.  It can be funny and the acting is TV good.  It is weird seeing Prince Harry's wife rolling around in bed, but you forget about it because she is so dog-gone cute.