Introducing "Co-Pilot."

Come revisit great, classic, and/or unappreciated pilots again, together, with me in a spoiler-filled orgy of memories, fresh discovery and reevaluation.

It’s the dog days of summer so even hinting at the looming days of fall seems kind of ridiculous, but they’ll be here soon enough and all of this luxurious warm timelessness will give way to something far more important — focusing back on television and movies. As the Gods of Art, Entertainment and Mental Health In Hard Times desire.

But I’m going to credit summer vibes and my intuition that most people are barely paying attention with seeking an idea for what would work best in that environment — something easy and socially interactive and, most of all, delicious to devour. But it is Viewing (and Life) Partner KB who gets credit for coming up with the idea in the first place.

It turns out she’d gone back on her own to watching some old pilots — a retro diversion that one of her sons mocked until he, too, later fessed up that he was doing it and found the exercise mind-blowing.

Simultaneously, I was battling rising depression and annoyance over the state of the TV industry (and film, to a lesser extent) and how all the stories of recycled IP were getting me down and how some writers in the industry were getting notes (specifically from Netflix but others have clearly referred to different streamers as well), that they need to write more scenes where the characters say, out loud, what is actually happening on screen so that multi-tasking viewers at home (particularly the coveted younger ones) would not get lost in the plot and give up.

(Imagine hordes of writers leaping from buildings to their death.)

At least part of this depressing tell-don’t-show turn of events has a long history in television, actually, in the form of something called the “re-pilot.” You are no doubt familiar with it from the older days when networks would air a pilot — something written and shot well beforehand — and then the second episode, once the series was picked up, would on some level just do what the pilot did. Rarely were new characters added — don’t confuse the viewer with a “who’s that?” pause.

Just restate the premise again, like the pilot. Same idea. Same characters. Then we’ll move forward.

Anyway, all of this was a confluence of ideas buzzing around my bored brain when KB mentioned, almost sheepishly, that while I’ve been in Portland she has not only delightfully burned through sci-fi series and movies that I wouldn’t go for, but has also guilt-free watched old pilots of favorite shows.

One of those was “Station Eleven.”

Good times.

I loved that pilot. So did a lot of you; loved it so much, in fact, that you were able to put aside your pandemic fatigue and watch a series about the fallout from a pandemic. (And follow along with me as we dissected every episode of “Station Eleven” for the Box Set — which can of course, be found in the archives here). Good and weird times.

I think because KB was lightly, motherly, eye-rolled by her son for rewatching pilots — until he did the same thing a short while later — she might have been thinking I would have the same reaction.

I did not. My reaction was, “I’m totally doing that for the Substack. Love it.”

Yes.

And I do love it, because while we’ve all talked a good game about our intentions to rewatch entire beloved multi-season series again (or, for some of you, begin a long-delayed first time watch of classics such as “The Wire”), finding the time is not so easy, as you have no doubt found.

(Note: I’m still going to rewatch all of “Mad Men.” And those of you who have pledged in previous comment sections to do your own version of that or finally get around to a legendary series missing from your completed pile, be clear on this: It’s still a great idea. I wholeheartedly endorse that and say go for it).

Yet watching just the pilot again — mostly an hour, sometimes more; 22 to 35 short minutes if I choose a comedy — is an easy, addictive, rewardingly simple and brilliant idea. Because we’re going to do it together. And we’re going to talk about it together. And my guess is that we are going to rediscover a lot of interesting things together.

(I don’t know why I or, fine, KB, didn’t think of this earlier).

I wanted to drop this idea now even though I’m not going to start it just yet. Two reasons for that — this week I’ll be working on extracting my son from Seattle for the last time, loading up all his furniture (and him) and driving back to the Bay Area. Those four-plus years went fast, although not cheaply.

And, weird stickler for thematics and routine that I am, would like this feature to appear on Mondays so that people can read it, then watch said pilot and comment on it all week long. Next Monday is a holiday — Labor Day — and I’ll very possibly be driving instead of writing. If not, well, it’s Labor Day — we should all be resting anyway.

I think Co-Pilot will be a nice opener to any given week while the Weekend Reminder/Rewinder feature works quite well on Fridays when appropriate. Neither will appear every week, but I like to mentally slot them into those days — my mind tends to drift without structure.

I have loads of ideas on what to choose for some of these initial Co-Pilot posts but, as always, believe in the collaborative process, so drop some ideas of your own in the comments. It should be something that’s currently streaming, a fact you can find out if you use the JustWatch app, available wherever you download your apps.

Yes of course.

Not all the ideas I try out here work — I think that Spoilt feature was a good idea on paper but didn’t lift off. I might revive it when needed. But this idea of all of us rewatching and finding new delights (and maybe fresh criticisms) in pilots we’ve seen? I think that’s going to be a useful winner.

In future Housekeeping News, I’ll have a few more ideas to toss about into the ether including a semi-big announcement that I hope will help keep the lights on here, and perhaps a reveal about the next Box Set candidate (would it be bad if that choice was one we’ve done in the past?). In any case, fall is around the corner and that means the return of more established shows, so a couple of good choices should present themselves. Taking suggestions as always.

In the meantime, another Observer post is ahead with good suggestions.

Love to your mothers.