"The Last Thing He Told Me," "The Night Agent," getting confused about shows, getting confused about Notes, 6 books I'm reading very slowly.

That's a lot. Plus the Department of Planning would like you to know there's going to be an AMA coming on Thursday.

I had one of those great “only in Los Angeles” talks recently, except that it happened in Oakland.

I was at an event (if I said what it was, it would out this friend) and we were discussing TV shows. This person works at Netflix. I am, formerly full-time but gloriously part-time, a high-end professional TV critic. I say all of this because the two of us should know our shit. Instead, we kinda just laughed about this, a conversation very similar to how I’m writing it, but not verbatim:

This Person: “Are you watching ‘The Last Thing He Told Me’ (which is on Apple TV+)?

Me: “Nah. I’m not into all that saccharine relationship shit right now.”

This person: “I’m watching it because, you know, Jennifer Garner does a lot of running and I was into the whole ‘Alias’ thing.”

Me: “Me too. I loved ‘Alias!’ Wait, isn’t ‘The Last Thing He Told Me’ like, uh, really sappy? From a book? Why is Jennifer Garner running?”

This person: “Because it’s a thriller! She’s running everywhere.”

Me: “She is? It’s a thriller? I think I might have the wrong show.”

This person: “Yeah, she’s badass and her husband vanishes and she’s got his super annoying teenage daughter, like an excellent version of an awful teenage step-daughter, that she has to protect on the run. Plus it looks like it’s got a huge drone budget. I thought of you because there’s great shots of Sausalito and San Francisco.”

Me: “Shit, I would watch that. It’s set in Sausalito?! Clearly not the show I thought it was. Have you seen “Beef”?

This person: “No, not yet.”

Me: “It’s on Netflix!”

This person: “I know! I’m watching a lot of shows…I feel kind of bad.”

Me: “I really like it so far.”

This person: “Have you seen ‘The Night Agent’ (which is also on Netflix)?

Me: “I literally watched the trailer last night and thought about checking it out. But didn’t. I didn’t know if it was going to be smart enough.”

This person: “It’s from Shawn Ryan so, you know, even though it’s a familiar kind of action it’s better, because it’s Shawn Ryan.”

Me: “Shit, OK. I guess I’ll add that. Are you watching ‘Drops Of God?’ (which is on Apple TV+)?

This person: “No, never heard of it, what is that?”

Anyway, I bring you this discussion to tell you, lovely lost readers and watchers, that you are not alone. We are all drowning, as I say, and it’s everywhere. Even in the business (actually, especially there).

But from that conversation, sprung a fine idea: Why not turn off the Warriors — formerly the best show on television — and watch something else before I smash my TV, have a mental breakdown and cry? So, I watched “The Last Thing He Said” — two episodes and I would have done a third — and then “The Night Agent.”

Since I’m not a Lakers fan, I can tell you that I made the right decision. Here’s why:

The show is actually better than this art. In fact, it’s better than any image I could find about the show.