Friday Check-In: What is a legacy?

Today's Friday Check-In newsletter coming up just as soon as it's a Keyser Soze situation...

Catching up

Here's what I've published since last Friday's newsletter:

I recapped the second episode of Lanterns, which was both a more straightforward episode and one laced with more weirdness and nerdy references:

In the latest episode of the TV Is Good podcast, Kathryn and I revisited Sterling Point (which I already praised here), and followed that with a discussion of the first YA drama that Sterling Point producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage made together: The O.C., a show with which I have some history. (Oral history, among other kinds.)

Free for everyone to read, I did my fall TV preview, running through shows I'm interested in seeing, and also talking about which series — both current ones and ones celebrating anniversaries this fall — that I intend to write about:

I recapped an episode of Ted Lasso that made the inexplicable decision to revive one of the dumbest plots in sitcom history: the dating plan from Sports Night Season Two:

I reviewed the second season of Adults, and talked about how the FX/Hulu Gen Z hangout comedy has really leveled up in its second season:

I recapped this week's Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, easily the season's best episode so far, as a disaster forced the Enterprise crew to push themselves to the limit, often in unusual roles:

What's next?

We are in the doggiest possible of dog days, especially with Labor Day coming so late for once. As a result, next week will be mostly recaps and the podcast, plus one bonus:

I'll be recapping the next episodes of Lanterns, Ted Lasso, and Strange New Worlds.
On the next episode of TV Is Good, it's an Adults double bill. First, Kathryn and I talk about why we really like the show. Then, we're joined by its creators, Rebecca Shaw and Ben Kronengold, to talk a bit more about the series, before pivoting to them talking about things on TV that they think are good.
For What Else Is Alan Watching? bonus tier subscribers, I'm expanding on a point from the Adults review and doing a look back on famous shows (like Star Trek, Game of Thrones, and The Big Bang Theory) that made multiple pilot episodes.

For a variety of reasons, I'm pushing the next Ask Alan mailbag to sometime after Labor Day. Please keep sending questions to alan@whatsalanwatching.com, whether they're for a regular mailbag or for my planned all-Rod Serling mailbag, the latter of which will be free for anyone to read.

Angry action

Is it confusing that there's currently a streaming crime drama called Furious, and a new-to-VOD action film called The Furious? A little, yes. But when the show is really good (and just got renewed for a second season), and the movie features some of the most astonishing fight scenes I've ever watched on any screen, I can handle some confusion.

Directed by Kenji Tanigaki, The Furious stars Joe Taslim as a reporter and Xie Miao as a mute handyman who team up to find a human trafficking ring in an unnamed Southeast Asian city — the reporter trying to find his wife who went missing investigating the same ring, the handyman trying to rescue his daughter after she's abducted by the bad guys. The story is often gibberish, especially in its second half, and it's the kind of film where various characters are able to not only survive obviously fatal injuries, but resume fighting as if nothing happened. Doesn't matter. The action — and particularly the climactic five-way fight scene — is so brilliantly choreographed and executed, the plot is entirely besides the point.

I bring this up not only as a recommendation for anyone looking for a jolt of cinematic adrenaline, but to remind everyone that Joe Taslim was one of the stars of Warrior, a period crime drama about feuding Chinese tongs in 19th century San Francisco, that provided incredible fight scenes in every episode. Here's just one example, with Taslim's Li Jong in a tournament against the show's hero Ah Sahm, played by Andrew Koji:

There were three seasons of this show — two on Cinemax, one made for whatever HBO Max was called at the time, all of them now streaming together on HBO Max — and they are a delight. If you like The Furious, and/or if you just like your traditional mob drama interspersed with hatchet fights, enjoy.

Dolly the expectation slayer

It's hard to know where to begin with the life of Dolly Parton. An incredible singer. An even better songwriter. And one of the best human beings we've ever been lucky enough to have on this Earth. She was generous with her money, with her time, and with her spirit. Her literacy program Dolly's Imagination Library reached untold numbers of children. She spoke out about causes and endangered groups of people — she's among the most LGBTQ+ performers of all time, and certainly at her level of fame — when many artists performing to a conservative-leaning audience would have been afraid to speak up. Absolute legend.

She was also a darned good actress when she decided to give that a try, starting with 1980's sexism in the workplace comedy 9 to 5, which I rewatched a staggering number of times as a kid in the early Eighties. Here she is, for instance, standing up to sexual harasser Dabney Coleman:

Among her lesser-known pop culture achievements: her production company, Sandollar, produced the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie. Years after it was a failure with audiences, Sandollar exec Gail Berman (who would later become a major TV and then movie executive, and is a prominent figure in Welcome to The O.C.) had the idea to try it again for television. That worked out much better. Sarah Michelle Gellar has said that she and her costars never met Dolly, but that she would send them Christmas presents in the early days, and occasionally praised the show in interviews. Having Dolly Parton as your boss, even if she's not around, isn't too bad at all.

They float. They all float.

Not a great week in general for the great ones. We also lost Tim Curry, who, like Dolly, had health issues.

Most of Curry's most iconic roles were in the movies: Rocky Horror Picture Show (a role that made him, like Dolly, an icon in the queer community), Muppet Treasure Island, and Clue, among others. His TV work for the most part was less memorable, including lead roles in a pair of short-lived series: Over the Top, a 1997 CBS romcom with Annie Potts, where he played a smug Broadway actor; and a Family Affair remake where he played trusty butler Mr. French.

But I have to put his work as evil clown Pennywise in ABC's 1990 miniseries adaptation of Stephen King's It way up there on his resume. I suspect a lot of that version doesn't hold up today, but Curry was utterly terrifying as Pennywise:

I would like it if great performers would stop dying for a while. Please and thank you.

Legacy chosen

In the most recent Ask Alan mailbag, I was asked what shows I thought should be considered as the first recipient of the new Legacy Emmy. My response was that the TV Academy could go one of two ways: They could use the award to canonize historically important shows that were already celebrated by the Emmys in their time, or they could use it to right historical wrongs, by giving it to Emmy-less shows like The Wire or Parks and Rec or Better Call Saul.

I guessed it would be the former, because that approach makes the Academy look good, whereas the latter is all about saying, "We were wrong before." So it's not a shock that the group has taken the first approach. The initial Legacy Emmy will go to I Love Lucy, which is the single most influential scripted TV show ever made.

Assuming this will be the philosophy for the award moving forward, I'll be curious to see if it's a roughly chronological approach, with Twilight Zone or something like The Dick Van Dyke Show getting it next year, then moving on through the likes of All in the Family, Hill Street Blues, etc., or if the Academy starts jumping around in time, and we get a West Wing or Sopranos next.

That's it for today! What does everybody else think?