Still Watching...Or Not.

"Time Bandits," "Furies," "The Sympathizer," "Decameron."

Oh there’s a whole lotta life going on right now, plus it’s summer and that brings on a certain malaise, and there’s always the fine-tuning of the mentals, which is an ongoing process of precarious means, so this post is late but at least it sees the light of day.

In the middle of all of this figuring out how to live stuff, some actual watching of television and films has occurred. As someone who almost knocked themselves out on the side of a house in Monterey, can’t get his keyboard to work, missed some meds, is fretting over the health of his dog and myriad other concerns, this is a small miracle. So let’s get to it.

Wait! Forgot. Anyone else finding some comically bad “updates” to their user experience in the streaming world? Amazon Prime just updated and on my partner’s platform it’s like the algorithm went back about seven or eight years to offer up recommendation based on what she was watching then.

It’s nutballs. In fact, searching for a one-off viewing experience where we would both find something new and give it a late night check out proved comically impossible on both Amazon Prime and Max.

We gave up on Amazon. And Max was about to be kicked through the living room wall when I remembered that, way back in Portland, I had started “The Sympathizer” miniseries but, based on moodiness (shocker) I gave up on it for no good reason after about 20 minutes. So we decided to try that.

But first, do you remember this post:

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If not, here’s the short takeaway — it focused on the subjectivity of comedy and how two people who essentially like the same kind of humor and laugh at mostly the same thing can find something where they very clearly don’t.

With that fresh in our minds, “Time Bandits” on AppleTV+ seemed like the perfect kind of test. I went into it thinking I wouldn’t like it and she would, but — all hail the world being put to right — we both quite liked it.

“Time Bandits.”

A painful and weird admission — I was questioning whether KB had even seen the original “Time Bandits” movie, a not-so-subtle suggestion that, you know, how can you want to watch this series if you don’t really like Monty Python and the weirdness of Terry Gilliam, when I went to freshen up the old memory about the original I had no doubt loved only to find that…I had never seen it.

Look, it takes a big person to admit that in public, but an even bigger one to admit to their partner that I was going in for the snarky cultural takedown and was instead gutted by my own snark sword.

Anyway, I decided to shut up and just watch and, well, well, well, that pilot was very funny and creative and heartfelt. Was not expecting that. Created by Jemaine Clement, Ian Morris and Taika Waititi, (who are all associated with the brilliant “What We Do In the Shadows”), “Time Bandits” is a perfect mix of ridiculous and funny, an excellent diversion we all need.

The second episode was also good but a shade under the bar set by the pilot, which is just a note, not a criticism, and I fully endorse everybody jumping on board.

What “Time Bandits” gets right so far are three things:

1. Casting. Lisa Kudrow gets a role in her comedy wheelhouse as a leader of bumbling amateur bandits and trying to share leadership when she’s incapable of it and repeatedly blundering her way through decisions wrapped up in her rambling, poorly thought out plans. She’s great. But the whole series may rest on the surprising strength of a child actor, Kal-El Tuck, as nerdy, friendless historian Kevin, he of the hilariously inept parents (James Dryden, Felicity Ward, who redefine terrible parenting in the best ways possible). Tuck gets pulled into time traveling portals with the clueless bandits and provides the heart that glues onto viewers and the smarts that help Kudrow’s bumbling crew. Roger Jean Nsengiyumva and Charlyne Yi are early standouts, and Clement as the character Wrongness, the “pure evil” devil, well, yeah, he was kind of born to shred that role.

2. The comedy. The riffing that happens between the bandits — Kudrow, Nsengiyumva, Yi, Tadhg Murphy and Rune Temte — is fast-paced, sharp, relentlessly funny, which mines a tradition of use-the-subtitles-or-you’ll-miss-it precision. But more than that, “Time Bandits” is flexible in its comedy — leaning into the silliness, nailing the snark and using Tuck’s impressive acting performance (naive and sweet and excitedly nerdy) to let others go down various comedic alleys. It’s all fun so far.

3. Tone. It would be really easy to mess this up. Silly and acidic is hard enough, but nerdy and sweet is as well. You feel compassion for Kevin, because he has no friends and his parents are clueless and avoidant (which makes him the perfect candidate to go on wild journeys). Waititi as the Supreme Being is going to lean in all kinds of goofy directions and the whole time traveling storylines themselves must hold up against this mishmash of styles. Somehow, so far, it really works and I’m eager to continue.

   

“Furies.”

One (or more?) of this Substack’s glorious readers suggested the French action series “Furies” on Netflix as a nice diversion from the end of the world (stand up and acknowledge your self/selves). It’s just the kind of action-oriented and overly-stylized gangland hootenanny I was looking for. (Yes, “Furies,” you can use that as a promotional quote.)

The best part of the whole thing, of course, is that it’s shot in Paris and I absolutely can’t get enough of that. More Paris rooftops!

I’m watching it with subtitles per usual and if I have one small nitpick (beyond, you know, the implausibility stuff), it’s that you have to read pretty fast to keep up. Then again, look, you’re not missing a ton of essential stuff if you fall a little behind.

The last fun bit that KB and I are getting out of this show is the fact that Lina El Arabi, the actress playing Lyna, the main character and heroine who is tasked with lots of punching and kicking and later shooting etc., is really bad at running. I know. This is a weird annoyance. But we both agree that she probably nailed the audition but they forgot to have her run and then when shooting started it was too late. She runs awkwardly. And slowly. You can’t unsee it. But I am adding that to the list of things I enjoy about the series because it’s so notable and never not funny.

“The Sympathizer.”

I’ve only watched the first episode after the aforementioned brief sampling and quitting and all I can say is that I’m going to devour this HBO/Max miniseries.

I included it here exactly because of the “I’m going to devour this” sentiment was my takeaway from the first episode. Sometimes it’s that simple. But I will add these thoughts:

1. Created by Park Chan-wook. Legend.

2. Co-created by Don McKellar. Lesser known legend.

3. Robert Downey Jr. in multiple roles.

4. Based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Viet Thanh Nguyen.

5. Excellent performance from Hoa Xuande, who I was unaware of previously.

6. Wild structure. Intriguing.

7. Much better than I expected it.

8. I forget what 8 was for.

9. Much better than I expected. What was I thinking?

10. Few shows make me immediately want to press play on the next episode and this was one of them (but it was super late so I didn’t, BUT by the time you read this I will have started the slow binge).

File under “Not Watching” — “Decameron.” See above.