This week's free Friday Check-In coming up just as soon as my jaw is wired shut...
Catching up
Here's what I've published since the last Friday Check-In:
- The first full episode of the TV Is Good podcast dropped, with Kathryn VanArendonk and I talking about one new Moms Do Crime show (Apple's Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed) and one classic one (Showtime's Weeds). Plus, I apparently stirred up a hornet's nest regarding whether or not Central Jersey exists. (Also, if one podcast episode this week isn't enough of us for you, we guest-starred on a new Extra Hot Great episode, previewing summer TV.)
Alan Sepinwall
- I reviewed The Mandalorian and Grogu, the first new Star Wars film in nearly seven years, which unfortunately feels like a very long, extremely mid episode of The Mandalorian:
Alan Sepinwall
- I recapped the very funny fifth episode of Widow's Bay, where Mayor Tom went on a bad drug trip:
Alan Sepinwall
- I wrote a full review of Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, which is an excellent Tatiana Maslany delivery vehicle:
Alan Sepinwall
- I reviewed The Boroughs, a new Netflix sci-fi series that's basically Stranger Things for senior citizens:
Alan Sepinwall
What's next?
As I'll get to in a minute, I'll be doing some traveling next week, so I'm still sorting through what's feasible. Here's what's definitely coming:
- TV Is Good episode 2, where Kathryn and I will talk about For All Mankind spinoff Star City, followed by Kathryn trying to school me on another Ronald D. Moore series, Outlander.
- A recap of the next two Widow's Bay episodes, which Apple is dropping on the same day.
- Thoughts on the Hacks series finale.
- The conclusion of my series about titles moving between movies and television, with a look at films that, like The Mandalorian and Grogu, are continuations of TV shows.
If I have time, I will write a review of Star City, but this may be one of those times where the podcast will have to function as my review. We'll also see if I can get to enough episodes of Spider-Noir to review the new Nicolas Cage superhero series.
Clear eyes, full hearts... Rod Serling?
For the first time in a few years, I'll be in Austin next weekend for the ATX TV Festival. It's a pleasure whenever I can go down there and be among the most passionate, articulate, and friendly of TV fans.
I'll be in the audience for lots of panels, and I'll be on stage for a couple of them. Next Friday afternoon, I'll be moderating a Homicide: Life on the Street Q&A with Tom Fontana, David Simon, and Kyle Secor, tied to a screening of one of the great TV episodes ever, "Three Men and Adena."
Alan Sepinwall
On Saturday, I'll be hosting a screening of "Walking Distance," maybe the most autobiographical Twilight Zone episode Rod Serling ever wrote. That'll be followed by me and my old pal Dan Fienberg talking about Twilight Zone, Serling, and the biography I wrote that's coming out in October.
If you're coming to ATX and see me, please say hi. I'm big and loud, but I also love meeting people who love TV.
Margo's Got Money Troubles season finale recaplet: "Lock and Load"
Alan Sepinwall
Finally, let's talk spoilers about the end of Margo's Got Money Troubles Season One. You already know how much I liked it, both for the performances by Elle Fanning, Nick Offerman, and friends, and for how thoughtfully the show (like the book it's adapting) dealt with OnlyFans and the logistics and stigmas behind contemporary sex work.
One of the few things I couldn't discuss in much depth in that review is the ending. David E. Kelley began writing for television after a career as an attorney, and for a long time was most famous for writing colorful courtroom scenes on shows like Ally McBeal and Boston Legal. But he's been going through the motions on the legal stuff in his shows for a long time now. (I was stunned when I got to the end of Season One of Goliath and saw how low-energy the trial scenes were.) So it was both a surprise and a relief to see how strange and blunt the custody hearing was here. The great Paul McCrane does a wonderful job as a judge who tosses aside any semblance of decorum in favor of interrogating Margo, Mark, and the whole extended family. Would this actually happen this way — down to an Annie the musical-style moment where the judge tests to see whose arms the baby will cry in — in real life? Almost certainly not? Was it entertaining and emotionally cathartic to watch? Absolutely.
My only real issue with the finale is that it felt like exactly what it was: a conclusion of a pretty faithful adaptation of Rufi Thorpe's book. There were some tweaks here and there, particularly when it came to writing Shyanne as much more sympathetic than she was in the book, where she was on board with Kenny's decision to call social services on Margo. And the custody hearing scene doesn't exist in any form like this. But the end result is more or less the same. Which raises a question of what exactly the show is now. There's more that can probably be explored about how someone like Margo builds and monetizes her following, and obviously there's still a lot of complications among the family, notably with Jinx's struggle to stay sober. And given how great Fanning, Offerman, Pfeiffer, Kidman, Kinnear, and Thaddea Graham were, I won't necessarily be unhappy to see them continue in these roles. But shows like The Leftovers — which somehow got better after finishing the story of the novel they're adapting — are much more rare than shows like Big Little Lies, which struggle to justify their ongoing existence. And unfortunately, the guy who ran Big Little Lies is the same guy running Margo. So we'll see.
That's it for today! What does everybody else think?
