Like It Or Lump It: "Masters Of The Air", "The Program", and "Homicide: New York"

 

 

Well, boys and girls, we have a special "Like It Or Lump It."

I will review not one or two but three shows off the streaming services. What a deal!

The first one is "Masters Of The Air," about flyboys during World War II—the Big One, as the dads around East Marietta would say.

It is produced by the Tom Hanks-Stephen Spielberg pairing that made "Band Of Brothers" and "The Pacific." 

Let me say from the outset that "Masters Of The Air" is almost as good as "Band Of Brothers."  Not quite.  Sometimes, you can't hear what the characters are saying because, you know, somebody is shooting at them, and three of their four engines are on fire.  

The show is fast-paced without seeming fast-paced if that makes any sense. Often when an episode ended, my wife and I would look at each other and say, "Is that it?"

This show feels like a movie, you know, the ones you would go to a theatre to see.  I can't say enough good things about it.

You can find "Masters of The Air" on Apple +, and it is worth the subscription cost and the hassle of getting Apple + on your TV set.  Verdict:  Like it!

The following two shows are "documentaries" on Netflix, which has carved out a little niche in documentaries.

You could call "The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping" a documentary.  A more accurate description would be Millennial Revenge Porn.

The filmmaker is Katherine Kubler whose mother died when she was three. Then, OMG, her dad marries the evil stepmother.  They didn't get along, and I'm sure there were a lot of eyerolls in the family.

As she grew, Kubler became more hostile to her dad and new mom and began acting out in typical teenage fashion: drugs, drinking, staying out all night with boys, talking like a Soprano, you know the drill

When Kubler was in high school, she was kicked out of a private Christian school because she was drinking a Mike's Hard Lemonade on campus.

Dad was a man of some means, so he had her "kidnapped" and taken to a private boarding school that was supposed to straighten out little entitled brats like Kubler

Unfortunately, the school was staffed by people who didn't know what they were doing, and in business simply to make money. It is obvious the cure was worse than the disease.

The school abused its students and conned parents out of a truckload of money.

The problem with "The Program" is that it is a way too personal documentary.  There are some serious talking heads here and there, but mainly, it is Kubler and her little buddies are sitting around talking about how everything sucked at the school.

She has valid complaints. However, she spends a lot of time trying to shame and confront former school employees. The series ends with her singing "One Way Or Another"* to one of the school owners (undercover, of course) at a karaoke bar.

Verdict: Lump it (Yes, I know Rotten Tomatoes gives it a pretty high rating, your mileage may vary)

Last but not least is "Homicide: New York" by Dick Wolfe, who has produced all of the various "Law And Order" that have been on TV since the Eisenhower administration.

"Homicide: New York" is very well done. You would be amazed about all of the killings in New York.  It presents five cases, each one very brutal.

The police solve all the cases, of course, but some take longer because of this little thing our justice system calls "proof." 

It is funny because I have never seen an episode of Law And Order, but this documentary makes me want to watch a couple of episodes.

Verdict: Like it! 

*The old Blondie song:  "One way, or another, I'm gonna find ya
I'm gonna get ya, get ya, get ya, get ya
One way, or another, I'm gonna win ya
I'm gonna get ya, get ya, get ya, get ya"

Biden Vs Trump 2: Electric Boogaloo.

 

How did we get so lucky?

Out of the 200 million or so people in the United States, we can choose between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, AGAIN, to be President because the first time was so much fun.

This is the first rematch election since Eisenhower and Stevenson in 1956.

Dwight "Ike" Eisenhower defeated Adali "Yes that's my name" Stevenson by a landslide in 1952. 

The Democrats didn't want to nominate Stevenson, and  Stevenson didn't want to be the nominee.  However, Harry Truman talked both into it, and   Eisenhower won in a landslide, even though his running mate was Richard Nixon, whom we would all get to know better.

When 1956 came around, Stevenson decided he really wanted to be President and ran against Eisenhower again. 

Stevenson's running mate was Estes Kefauver (pronounced: "Key-Faw-Fer"), so you can imagine what a charismatic duo those two were (see below). The only person I know (besides Old Man Manis who was a Yellow Dog Democrat) that voted for Stevenson-Kefauver was Ritchie Cunningham*. But he did it to impress Pinky Tuscadero.

 

 

Trump has the opportunity to be the first president elected to non-consecutive terms since "Big Sexy" Grover Cleveland in 1892.

Cleveland won in 1884, lost to Benjamin "Ben-Ben" Harrison in 1888, and then defeated Harrison in 1892.

Trump and Cleveland are similar in several ways.

One, both are from New York.  Two, both are workaholics.  Three, both are rather husky.

That's about it.  You can't go back to history and say that it is repeating itself because Cleveland was popular for his time. One of my grandfathers was named for him—good old Grandfather Big Sexy.

Trump thinks he is popular, but you don't see anybody naming their newborn sons after him.  

As I have noted before, Biden's biggest problem is his age.  He is 81 years old. He looks, walks, talks, and acts like an 81-year-old man.

His recent State Of The Union address was pronounced a success because he walked to the podium and seemed to know where he was at.

To the relief of his smarty-pants crew at The White House, he didn't veer off the prepared remarks to tell the country that nickels used to have bumble bees on them, and when you needed change for a quarter, you told the man at the cash register that you wanted five bees.

The thesis of his State of The Union address was, "if you think it is bad now, just wait till fat boy gets back in."  He offered no solutions or ideas except not to listen to Republicans. 

Trump responded to Biden in real time using filters on Instagram showing the President and Vice President with googly eyes which of course, raised the level of political debate in this country.

What can you do if you don't like either candidate?  Well, there's always a third party.

 Robert F. Kennedy, Jr is running on the platform that his last name is neither Trump nor Biden.

Kennedy is not as charismatic as his father or uncle.  He is not into vaccines, and he thinks Big Pharma is running the country.  But his wife is cute.

My suggestion is to pray. A lot.

 

*Before you say it, I know Ritchie Cunningham was not old enough or real enough to vote in 1956.

Old Man

 

In terms of "spiritual gifts," I think I have discovered mine.

I can hold open a door.

My wife and I are volunteers in the "How Yew Doing" team at church.

Over the past twenty years, there have been security issues at the various churches in the country.

One way to help secure a church is to control who can (or cannot) enter the building. 

My job is to hold the door open, let people in, and say, "How Yew Doing" in my best Southern accent. One of these days when I'm feeling braver, I might say, "How's your momma and them."

I'm pretty good at it.  I've only locked myself out once.

I open a lot of doors for the older adults coming to church. It is sweet to see these folks coming to church. Some of the men even wear suits and ties while their wives wear dresses. I guess they haven't gotten the memo. But it is swell to see people try to dress up in their Sunday best when I am in my blue jeans with the expando waist.

Then I remember these people aren't that much older than me.

I am sixty-four years old and approaching the door to retirement. I'm sure you'll read more about that later in the year.

But I see myself as an active middle-aged man.

Okay, I'm an active middle-aged man who doesn't like to be out past 10:00 at night.

But I am leaning into my aging, unlike a couple of politicians I can think of off the top of my head.

I still like the music of my youth, even though most of the stars from back then are either A) Dead or B) still touring but sitting down on the stage in a folding chair.

I still watch TV, but I get irritated at shows (mainly on streaming services) that have every character scream the F-word at the top of their lungs every 14 seconds. 

I remember the first time the Original Old Man Manis, my dad, dropped the F-bomb in front of me.  I remember wondering how he knew that word.

My dad was in the Navy during World War II.  I was not a bright child.

I'm not resistant to change. I'm just passive-aggressive about it. 

If the change is good, I'll embrace it. But a lot of change is about just doing something different for the sake of doing something different.

One thing I do not like is that it takes an act of Congress to get an American on the phone at an American company.

I know companies are in business to make money, and one way to make money is to control costs. The way to control costs is to send "offshore" the customer service department. The customer service department will always tell you that they "doubled checked" something because some hooty-doody big wig read in a magazine that Americans will not argue if something has been doubled checked. 

I salute those reps who can speak English; some of them can't.

The interview for these positions.

Boss:  "Can you speak English?"

Applicant: "Uh, double-check."

Boss:  "Close enough."

I was on the phone with a large multinational corporation the other day for some personal stuff, and I could not understand what the customer service agent was saying for the life of me.

Since I am a Southern Baptist male, I'm sure it was my fault.  I hung up and called back.  The next rep was almost as bad, but he transferred me to the beautiful sound you can hear when you contact a customer service department: an American. 

I'm telling you this to let you know I will become more grouchier in the next few years. Plus, I will inform you the "old days" were better. I may be shaking my fist at a cloud or two.

And I will tell you to get my lawn if you are on it before 10:00 PM.