So what do you want me to recap?

by Therese Odell, posted in Uncategorized

Yay! Walkies from aww

Time for you to tell me what you want

HEY FRIENDS! So, remember a couple of weeks ago, when I explained that I’m shaking up the Hate Blog voting process up by turning it into a tournament?

Quick refresher: I am going to create a March Madness-style tournament of four different categories of shows for y’all to vote on, ultimately choosing one show for me to recap this fall. One of those categories will be entirely shows that you recommend, and I asked y’all to start thinking about what shows you’d like to include.

Welp, the comment section is wide open and I’d love to hear your suggestions.

As for what the other categories are, and the shows included in each:

Category One: New Fall TV Shows

  • Alaska
  • East New York
  • Family Law
  • Fire Country
  • Magic With the Stars
  • Monarch
  • Professionals
  • Quantum Leap
  • The Real Love Boat
  • The Rookie: Feds
  • So Help Me Todd
  • Walker: Independence

Category Two: Classic Shows I Should Have Recapped, but Didn’t

  • The Americans
  • Breaking Bad
  • Deadwood
  • Evil
  • Fargo
  • Friday Night Lights
  • Game of Thrones*
  • The Leftovers
  • Mad Men*
  • The Sopranos
  • Succession
  • The Wire

*Technically, I did recap these two shows, but I didn’t start from the beginning. I would recap the first seasons if chosen.

Category Three: Shows I Began Recapping, and Then Gave Up On, Including Hate Blogs

  • American Gods
  • American Horror Story
  • Fear The Walking Dead
  • La Brea
  • Manifest
  • The Orville
  • The Real Housewives of Dallas
  • The Real Housewives of Miami
  • The Real Housewives of New Jersey
  • The Real Housewives of New York
  • Stumptown
  • The Walking Dead

Category Four: Your Suggestions

It’s all yours. And you can go wherever you want with this. You can recommend great shows, or terrible shows, dramas, comedies, reality, shows that are on streaming, or on broadcast, new or old … it’s up to you. Oh — and feel free to make multiple suggestions. Someone has already recommended The Boys, and I think that’s a great start. I can’t wait to see what y’all come up with!

At the end of this month, I’ll do a devoted post describing each of the series along with trailers (if available) and then the tournament will begin in September. I am both nervous and excited to see how you monsters will torture me this year.

Here’s A BUNCH OF TV News

Murderous drug dealers immortalized in statue in American city.

Top Chef is headed to London for an international all-stars season.

Nearly 600 male showrunners, including Damon Lindelof, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, J.J. Abrams, Jordan Peele, Greg Berlanti, Donald Glover, Aaron Sorkin, David E. Kelley, Taika Waititi and Ryan Murphy have signed a letter demanding that studios put in specific safety protocols for pregnant employees in states where abortion has been outlawed. They, and the similar letter signed by female showrunners, demand that the studios deliver a plan by August 10. So now we wait.

Related: Film and TV productions spent $4.4 billion in Georgia this last year, a new record.

Netflix is now suing the unofficial Bridgerton musical. It was all fun and games when the musical wasn’t profitable, but that’s all done changed.

Production on Snowpiercer had to be suspended due to excessive heat after 14 people had to be hospitalized. That’s too many people being hospitalized! Maybe pause production after the second person has to be hospitalized!

A thing I did not know: the wonderful Natasha Rothwell — who played both the hilarious Kelli on Insecure and the heartbreaking Belinda in White Lotus (and became one of my favorite actresses of last year) — started as a writer on Insecure. She’s most likely not going to win the Emmy this year for her role on White Lotus, but she is certainly deserving. And I can’t wait to see what she does next.

Either George Jetson was born yesterday … or maybe not. It’s unclear.

Chris Rock continues to joke about The Slap, but still has not accepted Will Smith’s apology.

The Peaky Blinders movie is almost written. And Alison Brie says there has been “movement” on a Community movie.

This rocks. Literally:

Rutgers Medical School is going to use Stranger Things to teach a psychiatry course, and you can follow along on Twitter this October.

Casey Wilson and Adam Pally are recording a Happy Endings podcast together, and that’s great, but BOY I WISH THEY HADN’T CANCELED IT IN THE FIRST PLACE.

Having learned that they can’t fuck around without finding out after not immediately denouncing Florida’s Don’t Say Gay bill, Disney has signed on to a letter with over one hundred other companies supporting the Respect for Marriage Act. Good.

The BBC has announced they will no longer show any part of the Princess Diana interview that has caused so much mess, and asked other broadcasters to refrain from using footage, too. However, Sky is like, “Nah.” And plans to air parts of it in a documentary this month. The Royal family should really try to keep people’s focus on this non-story, lest people pay attention to what other things are going on with them, that’s my advice.

A not-so-quick reminder that the Republicans are the worst:

So, there was a bill the Republicans had been holding hostage that would allocate billions of dollars to boost microchip production here in the United States. This is an obvious solution to a huge problem we realized during the pandemic: when microchip production came to a standstill in Asia, it delayed production on everything downline, from TVs to cars to important military equipment. As a result, prices on those items skyrocketed, contributing to the inflation we are seeing today. The Republicans held up the bill, however, in part because they couldn’t stomach giving the Democrats an easy economic win. But after trimming the bill down a bit, last week the GOP caved and passed the bill in the Senate. Yay! Everyone benefits! Except China! Which is another win for us!

EXCEPT, as soon as the microchip bill was passed, Joe Manchin announced that he and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had come to a tentative agreement on part of Biden’s Build Back Better bill and that they might be able to get a large economic package passed through reconciliation. It’s a huge win for Biden if it happens — KRYSTEN SINEMA — and reportedly, it blindsided Mitch McConnell who had no idea Manchin had been actually negotiating with his OWN PARTY.

And so, in a fit of pure spite, the Senate Republicans blocked a bill to help veterans who have been exposed to burn pits. A number of GOP senators who had previously voted to pass this bill, changed their vote last week, explicitly to punish the Democrats for daring to try to pass an economic package while they have control of the government. The Republicans, knowing that being spiteful little bitches who are willing to harm veterans to get back at the Democrats isn’t a great look for them, claim they changed their votes because the bill itself changed. It did not.

Jon Stewart who has been one of the biggest supporters of the bill, had some thoughts on this erroneous claim from Texas’ worst senator, Ted Cruz. It is worth your three and a half minutes:

And here’s Texas’ other worst senator, John Cornyn, giving away the game:

And in conclusion, please vote Democrat in November, because these guys are such assholes.

Renewals

Cancellations

  • The Gordita Chronicles has been canceled after one season on HBO Max, as Warner Bros. Discovery plans to pull back on live-action kids and family programming on the streaming service. The series will be shopped to other networks.

In Development

Casting News

Mark Your Calendar

  • Andor will premiere on Disney+ on September 21.
  • Ghosts returns on CBS on September 29.
  • Good Grief will return on Sundance Now and IFC on August 17.
  • Sex Ring Secrets: Exposing Jeffrey Epstein will air on HLN on August 15.
  • Race for the Championship will premiere on USA on September 1.
  • Dead Zone is now streaming on Tubi.

R.I.P.

Nichelle Nichols, Lt. Nyota Uhura on Star Trek, and boundary breaker

This is beautiful, press play:

Bill Russell, NBA great — possibly greatest — player, and civil rights activist

Pat Carroll, Emmy and Grammy-award-winning actress and comedian who served as the voice of Ursula in The Little Mermaid and who appeared in Jimmy Durante Show, The Danny Thomas Show, Laverne & Shirley, and ER among others

Burt Metcalfe, Producer, writer and director of M*A*S*H

Heather Gray, Emmy-winning executive producer of The Talk

Paul Coker, Designer of the Raskin/Bass stop-motion and animated holiday specials

Ron Zimmerman, Film and television producer, stand-up comic and longtime writer for Marvel comics

Michael Clancy, Costume designer for Ray Donovan and My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Jimy Sohns, Lead singer of The Shadows of Knight

WATCH THIS

Better Call Saul: The episode is called “Breaking Bad.” That’s pretty much all you need to know, right? 8 p.m., AMC

The Bachelorette: They pack all the dummies onto a cruise ship, because the cruise industry hasn’t had enough bad press lately.  7 p.m., ABC

Industry: Season two premiere. 8 p.m., HBO

Late Night:

  • Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Chance the Rapper, the cast of “Reservation Dogs”, Chance the Rapper featuring Joey Bada$$
  • The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Patton Oswalt, Jennifer Granholm, James Taylor
  • The Daily Show: Pete Buttigieg
  • Watch What Happens Live: Mzi “Zee” Dempers, Tumi Mhlongo

MON. 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC The Bachelorette
(new)		 Claim to Fame
(new)
CBS The Neighborhood
(repeat)		 Bob ♥ Abishola
(repeat)		 NCIS
(repeat)		 NCIS: Hawai’i
(repeat)
CW Roswell, New Mexico
(new)		 In the Dark
(new)		 Local
FOX Don’t Forget the Lyrics!
(new)		 Beat Shazam
(new)		 News/Local
NBC American Ninja Warrior
(new)		 Weakest Link
(new)

26 thoughts on “So what do you want me to recap?”

  1. I’ve been looking forward to this post. I’ve been reading your posts daily way back to when I found your stuff on Houston Chronicle and ended up following you here. Your hate blog recaps have been great – not sure if any of the below have already been blogged, or if they’re already included in your categories above. I may have more for you later, but here’s the current list. I may or may not have started a spreadsheet.

    BAD GIRLS CLUB – TRASH REALITY TV
    TIL DEATH – WHY GOD, WHY?
    AMERICAN HORROR STORIES – DUMB BUT ENTERTAINING
    WESTWORLD – CONFUSING, NEED YO HELP
    WEEDS – GREAT UNTIL IT WASN’T
    KILLING EVE – HELL. YES.
    ARCHER – GOOD, THEN BAD, NOW GOOD AGAIN.
    DEXTER (+ NEW BLOOD) – BEST 4TH SEASON EVER, WORST FINALE EVER.
    RESIDENT ALIEN – IT’S SO GOOD! WHY ARE YOU NOT RECAPPING IT YET?
    7TH HEAVEN – SOMETHING THAT HASN’T AGED WELL AT ALL. PERFECT.
    BIG MOUTH – ADULT ANIMATION, BUT WITH THEMES TO DISSECT
    EVIL – THIS ONE YOU SHOULD ALREADY BE RECAPPING AND JUST WAITING TO RELEASE, OTHERWISE WHAT IS YOUR LIFE?

    Reply

    1. First of all, thanks for following me for so long! Second, WOW, what a list! Thanks for all the suggestions, these are great!

      -T

      Reply

  2. I like the lists and suggestions so far!
    I’ll add Rectify and Wayward Pines to the list of candidates.
    I thought Rectify was poetry in motion and not many people have seen it.

    Reply

    1. I’ve only heard wonderful things about Rectify. It’s one of those that slipped through the cracks. And WAYWARD PINES? That right there is a blast from the past. Added!

      -T

      Reply

  3. You’re welcome! I’ve been lazy about the WordPress setup until now, but this was important enough to recover my password and start using it again haha. So I’ll probably be commenting on the regular now. Looking forward to the March Madness, uh…madness.

    Reply

  6. You could go back to your roots (The Bachelor) and do Love Island. Other suggestions:
    Umbrella Academy
    Peaky Blinders
    Our Flag Means Death
    Lupin
    The Expanse

    Reply

      1. I’d leave that up to you. My wife watches the UK, Australia and USA. Which means I watch them with a large whiskey and mock them. Oddly the UK and USA versions have the same narrator now.

    1. Yeah — It was a casualty of the upcoming sale of The CW to Nexstar. I mean, I could still add it to the list and recap the first season, which will probably stream on HBO Max soon.

      -T

      Reply

    1. I hear y’all, and if Westworld is ultimately chosen, I will recap it. But it’s very sweet that y’all think I have any idea what is going on on that show.

      -T

      Reply

  9. No particular order:
    The Boys
    Resident Alien
    ST:SNW
    Westworld (once you get rid of linear thinking it helps)
    The Time Traveller’s Wife (very nonlinear)
    Upload

    Reply

  10. I’m all in on Group 2. I’ve already stumped for The Leftovers, so let me reiterate that here. The Americans, Fargo, and early GoT would also be fine, and if you choose to recap Evil I might start watching it. I love Succession and I loved The Sopranos, but I feel like there’s no shortage of writing (and podcasts!) about those two. I’d still be happy if you did one of them.

    Two other possibilities, both shows that are still in progress and will hopefully be back soon: His Dark Materials (final season 3 coming), and The Nevers (season 2 in the pipeline, though I have no idea when it may come).

    Looking forward to your choice!

    Reply

  11. I think you’d really like Fleabag, from Amazon, or you could make me snark like Better Things.Thanks for asking, I LOVE your recaps.

    Reply

    1. I LOVE Fleabag. Love love love. I’m adding it to the list, though I don’t know that I can add anything to it, it’s so perfect.
      Thanks, Debra!

      -T

      Reply

  12. Your short list and these suggestions are all excellent. Adding …

    – Buffy!
    – The Witcher (Grunting through the forest. Grunting through the forest. Grunting through the forest.)
    – Justified
    – One Tree Hill (so bad. so camp. I mean, the heart transplant episode ALONE)
    – Wonderfalls
    – Pushing Daisies
    – Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles

    Reply

Leave a Reply