mrcellophane

I've finished up several animated series this month:

Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts: Fantastic animation. Fantastic character design. Fantastic soundtrack. Just fantastic.

Marvel's What If...?: It took me a bit to warm to the animation, and I thought the first couple of episodes were slight. However, as the series progresses, it does a lot more to explore the characters we know in very different situations and was a great addition to the MCU.

DuckTales: The reboot's third season is sensational. I absolutely love these conceptions of the characters. Donald Duck is one of my all-time favorite characters, and this series does the angry duck justice.

I also decided to start a rewatch/finish of Downton Abbey last weekend. I never watched beyond the third season so I'm excited to see where the series goes.

BobO'Link

I need to rewatch Downton Abbey myself. I really enjoyed it on my first viewing. The reunion movie (or whatever they call it) is "just OK" but still quite watchable.

Travis McClain

I'm sorry about your dog, shadokitty. That's rough.

mrcellophane

I went to see The Souvenir: Part II in the theater this evening, and the trailer for the second Downton Abbey movie played before it. It appears to be a vacation movie with all the characters going to Italy like they're in a 90s sitcom!

I also finished watching the third season of Diagnosis Murder, a 90s mystery series starring Dick van Dyke. My family watched it when it first aired and really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, it doesn't hold up very well, unlike Murder, She Wrote and Columbo. It's still quite a fun watch, but it's got really lazy writing and veers heavily into "light CBS thriller" territory.

BobO'Link

Hmmm... that description really makes me want to avoid that one... It sounds too much like many of the movie length "reunion" things based on BBC series.

I kind of felt that way about Diagnosis Murder when my wife and I watched it during its original airings. It was mostly fun but pretty light weight stuff overall. I have a season of it and just haven't made time for it. Since the "complete series" set keeps staring at me, calling my name (it's in my Amazon "saved for later" cart), I really need to watch that season first.

Cardsfan111

I haven't chimed in much, if it all. I've watched a ton of content this month representing 20 different shows probably.

As I looked at the last few posts, I'm reminded I caught a season of Downton Abbey earlier in January. I intend to get to the first season of Diagnosis Murder soon. All of my family are big time fans of Van Dyke and yet I've never seen the show.

BobO'Link

Fans of Dick Van Dyke absolutely should watch at least a season of the series. His 2nd son, Barry, co-stars so there are some interesting moments between them. I wasn't too keen on Scott Baio in the early seasons but I've never been much of a fan (IMHO the guy really can't act).

Travis McClain

A lengthy conversation about crossovers with LJG765 last night led me to thinking about that Magnum, P.I./Murder, She Wrote crossover. I got to looking and found both parts streaming free. Roku Channel has Magnum; Peacock has MSW. Disappointingly, the Magnum episode is presented in its rerun cut, with a hasty, tidy conclusion instead of the cliffhanger that set up the MSW second half. I get it, but it's disappointing all the same. Overall, I found it almost as entertaining as it was convoluted. After awhile, I quit caring who the culprit was, or what they were after. It was fun just the same.

davidh777

I finally started DS9, and the fourth episode is about an airborne virus infecting everyone on the station. A little too close to home right now.

I have the BD set and need to watch it one of these challenges.

BobO'Link

After watching the 5 telemovies that began Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (which I greatly enjoyed) I went back to Will & Grace with season 5 and am now in the first part of season 6. I don't recall any of these episodes at all and truly don't know if I was even still watching this one in its original airings. I *did* watch the first 3-4 seasons and remember some of those episodes but these *all* feel "new to me." And... they're just not that good. It's the same ole same old with plots and lame gay jokes. Harry Connick Jr. joined the cast in S5 as Grace's boyfriend and is now married to her in season 6. He really doesn't add much to the cast, though does a decent enough job acting, and seems to be there mostly as a way to get Grace out of the way for a while (Messing was pregnant and this was how they hid that until she delivered).

In season 6 we've already seen James Earl Jones (playing himself) and John Cleese guest star (in the first 6 episodes) and, IMHO, both were pretty much wasted. Jones more than Cleese but neither had much of an impact with both pretty much feeling like "stunt casting" appearances (much like the majority of celebrity appearances in this series). From what I've read, Cleese will appear in several more episodes so maybe that'll change. Gene Wilder as "Mr. Stein" in season 5 was much better cast and used.

And the laugh track is absolutely intrusive and insulting with how frequently it's used. I think I've chuckled a couple of times in seasons 5 and 6 and that laugh track is constantly going off like it's the funniest thing ever.

I'll eventually finish watching the series but so far these last couple of seasons don't give me much hope if them being something I'll really enjoy.

Travis McClain

Well, we're nearing the end. About a week into the challenge, I gave up on my childhood cartoon craze project when I realized I had too many time-sensitive other things vying for my attention. Aside from that, though, I have completed all of my other original objectives: Ken Burns's Country Music doc; finish Doc Martin; and keep up with all current episodes of Bob's Burgers, The Book of Boba Fett, and Star Trek: Prodigy. I was kind of surprised that we only got one new episode of Bob's Burgers this month. Kinda figured there'd be another this past Sunday. I've found Boba a sloppy mess overall, but really dug Prodigy. It turns out that trite clichés about working together still get to me, especially if they're delivered by Kate Mulgrew and punctuated with Alexander Courage's classic Star Trek fanfare. I don't mind my sentimentality being pandered to, or even outright exploited, so long as it makes me feel that way.

Doc Martin is a show I'd seen promoted online but never took any interest in, but was introduced to it last year by someone else. We got as far as Hulu and Tubi could take us, so I took advantage of a trial month of Acorn TV to finish it. It's an okay show. I dig the ensemble, but the stories became so formulaic I had a hard time distinguishing whether I'd already seen something or if it was just a recycled idea. Kind of disappointing for a show with a mere eight episodes per series/season.

After I finished the series, I went back and watched the two TV movies, which were made before and are discontinuous from the TV series (it's an entirely different Doc Martin altogether). I got a kick out of the first movie, which called to mind some of the stuff they did with Frasier Crane back on Cheers, when he was a fish out of water occasionally trying to convince himself he benefited from being out of his element. Martin Clunes even sounded a bit like Kelsey Grammer at times, which I hadn't heard at all within the confines of his terse TV character voice. The second movie, though, I felt took its gags as far as it was interested in taking them, and then lost interest in doing anything with them. It disappointed me.

Also, last weekend I spent an entire evening watching matches from the Australian Open on ESPN+. I don't know much about tennis so the significance of any given thing went over my head, but I was content just to watch the players move about and react to things. I also took solace in seeing how many players had difficulty with their serve. Made me feel better that it's even hard for people who literally do that for a living and are among the best in the world at doing it.

Qrusher14242

I had goals for this, but only will end up finishing one (Night Court S1). I've been hooked on My 600lb Life (and it's spinoff My 600lb Life: Where are they Now?). It's easy to watch and i'm a sucker for a lot of these reality shows on Discovery+ lol. I watched some Golden Girls after hearing of Betty White's passing. I had forgotten how well written and just plain funny it was and still is.

I watched a bunch of Gunsmoke starting from the very beginning. I had watched up to Season 16, but it's been years since i've seen it and i always liked the early episodes the best. I'm a big fan of OTR (Old Time Radio) and have been going through a lot of Gunsmoke and it's fun to see episodes that are based off of the radio ones. I have working my way through a Twin Peaks rewatch and have almost finished S1. I have watched it a few times over the years but never all the way through. I loved The Return (S3) of Twin Peaks and will be fun to see that again.

I'm up to 30(!) shows this month lol, but a lot of them were just 1 or 2 episodes like Hart to Hart, Love Boat, Hunter, and Cheers. For the last few days, i've decided to start Knots Landing from the beginning. I'm a sucker for these primetime soaps like Dallas, Dynasty and Falcon Crest. They are easy shows to binge.

lisadoris

So I've had this film, Go Tell It On The Mountain, sitting on my DVR for months. I decided to watch it last night not knowing that it was eligible for this challenge. The credits started rolling and it said teleplay by... Good deal. It's based on the James Baldwin book and stars Paul Winfield, Ruby Dee, CCH Pounder, Giancarlo Esposito, Afre Woodard, and is Ving Rhames debut. Solid viewing.

BobO'Link

I finished Will & Grace - what a waste of time that was. The first 4 seasons weren't too bad and had several humorous moments (though not as many as the laugh track would have you believe). After ~S4 it became more and more cliche' with trite plot lines and gags from dozens of other, much better, series tossed into the mix. Turns out that John Cleese's entire run of appearances were complete wastes of the man's talent as were the appearances of the majority of the guest stars whether they were one-off's or had several appearances. Jeff Goldblum's appearances/story line were embarrassingly bad. Seth Green, as almost always, was obnoxious and very one note. I *did* quite enjoy the appearances by Sandra Bernhard who pretty much called Will & Grace down for what they were after initially being taken in by their machinations. Elton John as a "Gay Mafioso" was mostly entertaining. I really thought they'd do more with Cher considering Jack's obsession with her - again, mostly wasted efforts. The majority of the other one-shot appearances were pretty forgettable.

The last season opened with a "live" episode which looked and sounded like a staged play (why is it they can do the *exact* same script on the same sets with the same equipment but when taped/filmed and edited it just looks/sounds so much better?). They had another "live" episode a few later that was just about as bad and mostly centered on a "birthday party" Karen throws for herself every year but for which Grace, Will, and Jack are *never* invited until *this* year when Rosario accidentally sent them invitations. It was basically one long gag in one of Karen's bathrooms centering around "pie in the face" type antics and them discovering a stash of hundreds of medicine bottles in a kind of automatic dispenser.

Karen's whole drunk/druggie persona just got overworked the last few seasons - to the point of being quite ludicrous and stale. Jack's continued cluelessness also became very, very, old, though both he and Karen were typically the best parts of any script/episode. Will & Grace never grew to be anyone I'd ever want to hang around for more than a few minutes. They were, essentially, the kind of people *they* didn't want to be around but never saw those same flaws in their own personalities (with both dumping partner after partner for doing things they'd done themselves). And the plots became more and more predictable. They mostly ended it in a manner that closed everything somewhat neatly which makes me wonder how and why they bothered with a relaunch a few years back.

lisadoris

Thank you Travis for hosting this shindig. I did my B5 re-watch and added Crusade because I had time.

Qrusher14242

I'll echo the thank for Travis for hosting this again. I look forward to it every year. I finished it off with a season and a half of Knots Landing and ending it with My 600-lb Life: Where are they Now?. Had a lot of fun!

Surfinhank

Yes, thank you Travis! This has become the most beneficial challenge for me (due to my mountain of unwatched TV DVDs). I think the best one this year was Bodyguard (a UK mini-series). Great action and some very bold choices.