Idiot Boxing: The Good Place, seasons 1 and 2 (2017-2018); Castlevania, seasons 1 and 2 (2017, 2018)

The Good Place, seasons 1 and 2 (2017-2018)

A really fun, often smart show that exhibits plenty of sly and absurd humor. My wife and I jumped on this train just a little late and barely missed the third season, but we were glad to have discovered it while it's still in the middle of its run.

The show follows Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) as she awakens in a strange place, sitting face-to-face with Michael (Ted Danson). Michael informs Eleanor that she has died and is now in "the good place," (a rather non-specific term for the general idea of an idyllic after-life existence, or "heaven" to some of us). This is all fine and good to Eleanor, except that she is sure that there has been some mistake, seeing as how she had been far from a "good" person during her life on Earth. As she meets more and more other amazing people, including her "soul mate" Chidi (William Jackson Harper), she grows ever-more terrified of being discovered and sent to "the bad place."

It is tempting to say more about the plot, but one of the great strengths of the show is its unexpected plot turns and how it reveals everything to the viewers. As such, I'll leave any further description alone.

The dynamics between Eleanor and Michael shift several
times through the first season, allowing Ted Danson and
Kristen Bell to show off the varieties of their comedy chops.

The show does a brilliant job of having an absolute blast with concepts about life after death and what constitutes people's "heaven" and "hell." And the creativity behind the mythology is as impressive as it is fascinating. The writers clearly have plenty of fun working with the hierarchy of everything, revealing the greater workings of the fantasy world which they've created. There are plenty of fun sight gags to go along with the characters and dialog, and the cast all seem to revel in embracing the often strange tones and shifts which they must portray. As the circumstances change wildly around them, the six primary characters are buffeted about, creating for some surprising and hilarious reactions.

The cast is phenomenal. Bell and Danson are well-established actors. For me, though, the two great revelations are William Jackson Harper as Chidi and D'Arcy Carden as Janet, the artificial intelligence informational system in The Good Place. And there are even some recurring characters who just nail their often-specific roles with hilarious precision. Jama Williamson as Val and Jason Mantzoukas as Derek come to mind, but they're hardly alone. All of these comedy acting pros bring an already-great script to its best comedy life.

I've only just read that the show runners have stated that the fourth season will be the last, as they would rather tell their original story and conclude it there, instead of dragging it out for other motivations. This will likely be for the best, though it will be a shame to say goodbye to such a clever, funny show as this.

Count Vlad Tepes "Dracula." The show does a decent job of
making the classic horror character a bit sympathetic, but
spends way too much time in the second season on his
underlings and their selfish plots.

Castlevania, seasons 1 and 2 (2017, 2018)

A made-for-Netflix adaptation based on the immensely popular, three-decades-old video game series. I found it to be modestly entertaining, but no more.

I've been a fairly avid video-gamer for most of my life. Despite this, I never feel the need to watch TV or film adaptations of games, as they have a horrible track record. The only reason I watched Castlevania was that it is written by highly creative and talented comic book writer Warren Ellis, whose work from the 1990s I read and enjoyed quite a lot. And given that the first season was composed of a very manageable four 25-minute episodes, it seemed like a small initial commitment.

The first season was fairly compelling. Taking narrative elements from the video game mythology, which itself borrows heavily from classic horror literature such as Bram Stoker's Dracula and other noted vampire tales, Castlevania begins its focus on Dracula (Graham McTavish) himself. In roughly the 15th century, the immensely powerful and mostly reclusive Vlad "The Impaler" Tepes - a.k.a. "Dracula" - is approached by a young woman, Lisa, hoping to learn arcane medical arts from the intimidating alpha vampire. Though it may seem so, this is not an unusual request, as Dracula is actually a highly learned creature who has amassed vast troves of literature and knowledge on human health and medicine. Lisa and the count soon fall in love, and even marry. Tragedy strikes, however, when Lisa is one day taken and burned for a witch by the regional religious zealots. When Dracula returns and learns of his, he vows to destroy all of mankind as a blight on the earth.

The first season briskly tells the tale of how a handful of talented fighters come together in a desperate attempt to thwart Dracula and his hordes of dark, supernatural monsters from obliterating humankind. Primarily, the sorceress Sypha (Alejandra Raynoso) tracks down the legendary monster hunter Trevor Belmont (Richard Armitage), whom she finds in a drunken, cynical stupor in a remote tavern. Once convinced to lend his skills to the fight, Trevor and Sypha help humans take a small stand against the forces of darkness, and they literally unearth a mysterious and powerful ally in the fight - a vampire named Alucard (James Callis) who has his own reasons for seeking Dracula's demise.

That first season served as an entertaining teaser for the larger story, and it embraced its "mature content" label by not holding back with the animated violence, rough language, and occasionally deeper themes around religion and the darkness inherent in human beings.

Sypha, Trevor, and Alucard. The first season suggested some
really intriguing possibilities for this trio of monster hunters,
but only a few of them were realized through the 2nd season.

The second season changed focus a bit, spending a great deal of time on the machinations in and between Dracula's monstrous forces. We meet and follow the schemes between his most powerful lieutenants and the "architects" who animate the horrific creatures that make up his armies. Frankly, I found these storylines mostly dull, often wishing the tale to turn back to Sypha, Trevor, and Alucard. However, even when the show did focus on that heroic trio, the pace was often rather slow and meandering, seeming to want to build relationships and rapport between them, but never coming together or feeling as organic as it could have.

There were a few interesting action sequences, and some funny moments, courtesy of Warren Ellis's sly, dark wit. But by the end of the second season, I really had no desire to see any more from this series. A third season has been confirmed, but I won't be bothering with it. I found the show to be decent, but there are just too many excellent television shows out there for me to spend any time with something that I only find "decent." 

New Release! The Art of Self-Defense (2019)

No Spoilers. Read Away!

Director: Riley Stearns

A highly effective dark comedy in the vein of Repo Man, Sorry to Bother You, and other great social satires that create their own worlds around a single young man being suffocated by the warped worlds that surround them.

Jesse Eisenberg plays Casey, a rather quiet, skittish accountant who lives alone with his dachshund and does his best to stay out of other people's way. After being brutally mugged and nearly killed one night by a roving band of motorcycle thugs, Casey decides to take up karate at a local dojo. The dojo is run by an extremely intense trainer, known to us only as "Sensei" (Alessandro Nivola), who feels that karate contains everything that one requires to live a fulfilling life. The rather impressionable Casey quickly devotes himself to the dojo, growing ever more confident and violent as he continues to train. As he rises in the esteem of Sensei, however, it becomes clear that there is something much darker going on at the dojo and among some of its students.

This movie won't be for everyone, just like any dark satire. It operates on its own wavelength, simplifying and distilling its elements in order to create an altered reality which is clearly not meant to be an accurate representation of the world which we really live in. Like any good satire, though, it does an excellent job in honing in on the subject of its commentary - in this case, toxic masculinity - and giving us plenty of great laughs along the way. One just needs to realize that the humor is very much of a satirical nature: dark, dry, and making liberal use of oversimplifying very real facets of society in order to draw us down the paths of their logical conclusions.

Casey, under the tutelage of his eerily intense sensei, puts
everything he has into becoming a lethal practitioner of
karate. This includes hard work and listening to metal.

Like any well done satire, this movie isn't for everyone. In fact, I could tell that more than a few viewers around my wife and me seemed a bit perplexed by the film. "I thought this was supposed to be a comedy," stated one semi-confused fellow. And more than once, my wife and I were among only a few people laughing at what, to us, were obviously meant to be moments of dark humor.  If one isn't picking up the vibe of the movie, it will seem very strange; twisted, even. For those who lock in, though, it provides some thoughtful commentary and plenty of laughs to go along with the rather brutal and violent shocks.

As an aside, we were treated to a post-show Q-and-A with the Austin-based writer/director Riley Stearns (very much to my wife's and my surprise), and he seemed a very thoughtful, talented, and rather grounded young director. I'll be keeping my eyes out for what he does next, as The Art of Self-Defense is a really strong piece of work. 

New-ish Releases: Late Night (2019); The Dead Don't Die (2019)

Late Night (2019)

Director: Nisha Ganatra

A solid comedy with a strong cast, even if it is one that is fairly predictable.

Emma Thompson plays Katherine Newbury, a late night talk show host who, while an icon of immense achievement, has seen her popularity and relevance fade for about a decade. When word comes down that her show will be cancelled after the current season, Newbury and her all-male writing staff go scrambling for solutions. Newbury's knee-jerk is to hire a female writer, quickly tapping Molly Patel (Mindy Kaling), a motivated and aspiring but vastly inexperienced young woman who has been working in a factory. Despite her lack of writing chops, Patel has enough new ideas to inject a bit of life into Newbury's late show.

Late Night is a decent enough dramedy, even if it doesn't offer many surprises in terms of overall plot, character development, or interpersonal dynamics. It does, however, offer the requisite amount of laughs, which should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the charming Kaling and the immensely versatile Thompson. These two, along with nearly all of the supporting cast, wring the most from the script (written by Kaling) - a script which has some good comic moments but also has its share of somewhat flat or predictable gags.

The overall themes are what one might expect, with the primary focus being on empowering women. Fortunately, this element is never too heavy-handed, despite it clearly being a subject that Kaling wanted to address. There are a few secondary stories, such as the obligatory slow-burn love interest tales (which are actually done well) and a marital strife tale involving Newbury and her terminally ill husband (John Lithgow)  that never fully materializes completely.

I don't know that I'll ever feel the urge to watch this movie again, but it was fun enough. Fans of Thompson or Kaling will enjoy themselves, even if this is hardly a life-changing work of cinema.

The Dead Don't Die (2019)

Director: Jim Jarmusch

Rather disappointing, but not a completely unexpected letdown.

As a fan of Jim Jarmusch, it was very easy to get excited about the prospect of a comedy zombie movie starring Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tilda Swinton, and a slew of other great actors. Jarmusch has written and directed some wonderfully unique and stylish films which I absolutely love, but he's also made a few which did not resonate with me at all. And when I saw the rather lukewarm reviews pour in, I wasn't stunned that The Dead Don't Die fell far short of what I consider his very best films.

The story is set in the fictional town of Centerville, where local sheriff Cliff Robertson (Bill Murray) and his two deputies Ronnie and Mindy (Adam Driver and Chloe Sevigny) start seeing bizarre murders and other grisly behavior in their otherwise sleepy town. As they try to deal with the increasing death toll, it becomes clear that the earth is being overrun by a global rise of zombies. The three officers try to deal with the horror the best that three easy-going, small-town cops can.

I'll give Jarmusch credit for taking some big, off-beat swings in this movie. Attempting to present a zombie apocalypse in such a slow, lazy way is certainly a different approach. And it's actually charming in moments. But there are times when is really just drags with overly long, repetitive gags and just a tad too little happening at certain moments. There's also the character of Zelda Winston (Tilda Swinton), the oddball mortician in town whose little tale begins as highly intriguing and then ends in a turn so bizarre as to feel like a cop out.

At the other end of the creative spectrum is Jarmusch's unispired choice to have Adam Driver's character go completely "meta" by making references to the "theme song" and the "script" of the movie. Such things were funny back when they were fresh - many decades ago - but it ceased being funny long ago. Maybe if Jarmusch had done something novel with the gag, it would have worked better, but he didn't do anything with the idea. It was one of several elements that hinted at bigger, funnier, and more creative developments which never emerge.

It's obvious that I was underwhelmed by this movie. Still, it had some laughs, and it never takes itself very seriously. That helps, to be sure, even if it doesn't much redeem the film. Fans of any of the actors or of zombie flicks will certainly find a few things to like about it. Just don't expect any consistency or anything particularly ground-breaking here. I still love Jarmusch, but this won't go down as one of my favorites of his. 

Idiot Boxing, FX Edition: Legion, season 2 (2018); Archer, season 9 (2018)

Legion, season 2 (2018)

If you watched season 1 of Legion and thought, "Wow, a superhero TV show can't get any trippier than that!", you were wrong. Season 2 brings it all to a whole new level.

Season 1 of Legion unfolded the tale of David Haller (Dan Stevens), an immensely powerful mutant with both telepathic and telekinetic abilities that give him nearly godlike powers. The problem was that David has severe mental distress, exacerbated by drug and alcohol use. As the season unfolds, however, we learn that much (or perhaps all) of David's schizophrenia is the result of a parasitic entity - Amahl "The Shadow King" Farouk (Navid Negahban) - an incredibly powerful psychic whose consciousness has entrenched itself into David's mind. By season's end, Farouk has been chased out of David's mind, but he latches onto another and begins to search for his long-lost physical body, with which he can completely regain his old, terrifying powers. Season two is essentially a race between Farouk, David, and David's friends and colleagues to get to The Shadow King's body first.

Admiral Fukuyama - one of the many bizarre and captivating
characters within the vibrant and disorienting world that
David and his friends inhabit.

Any viewer who prefers clear, straightforward narratives and visual storytelling styles needs to stay well away from this show. Even beyond the wonderfully creative and fantastic plot and character elements, the narrative absolutely refuses to go in a straight line. There are frequent uses of flashbacks, allusive flash forwards, and curious instructional breaks in which an unknown narrator teaches us about various forms of delusion and insanity. I get the sense that show runner and co-writer Noah Hawley (also behind the brilliant Fargo TV show) is having a blast in using unconventional storytelling, and the show is all the better for it. It can be baffling at times, but if you have some serious patience and faith in the tale-tellers, then it is highly rewarding.

At the center of everything is still David Haller, his fractured mind, and his effect on those around him. It's a bold story that reflects the perspective of a protagonist who: (A) is is schizophrenic, and (B) has supernatural powers that allow him to alter reality itself. These were illustrated brilliantly in the first season, and they are on even more vibrant display in season two, as the characters and scenes are whisked between imposing buildings in the U.S., wide open deserts in the Eastern Hemisphere, alternate realities, and various other wonderfully imaginative mindscapes. And beyond the large-scale settings, this a show that really rewards close, careful viewing of small details. Brief images, props, and even costume details go uncommented upon, but can offer even more depth to an already rich narrative landscape.

This review is very vague, I must admit, but Legion is a show which defies easy description. Even in a movie and TV show landscape which is ever more overloaded with superhero stories, Legion is head and shoulders above the others in nearly every way. It goes light years beyond the popcorn fantasy/adventure appeal of 99% of the other shows in its genre, and it exhibits many of the best features of the highest-quality imaginative, surreal fiction in any medium. Anyone who enjoys having their minds bent in fun and clever ways needs to give this show a serious try.

As a bit of a side-note, I felt a combination of joy and sadness when learning that the currently-airing third season if Legion will be its last. This is, apparently, exactly as Noah Hawley has always wanted it, as he has a clear, complete vision for the entire primary story arc. While it will be unfortunate to lose such a great show, I applaud FX's willingness to tell a limited, compact tale of high quality, as opposed to milking a successful show well beyond its narrative limits.

In yet another "dream" season, the creative team decided to
thrust Sterling and his crew into a world that combines
elements of Casablanca, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and other
action/adventure movies from the 1930s and '40s.

Archer, season 9 (2018)

Continuing in the show's recent tradition of centering its seasons around particular themes, season 9 of Archer uses as its foundation the classic "Indiana Jones" style of 1930s action/adventure tales of North America. Sterling is an alcoholic pilot of a ramshackle seaplane, with Pam as his burly assistant; his mother runs a swanky hotel and casino, a la Rick's in Casablanca, on a remote island in the Pacific. Also inspired by the famous Bogart/Bergman classic, Ray Gillette is a corrupt and indolent French constable. Not as inspired by Casablanca are roles by other Archer regulars, such as Lana as a local power-grabbing princess, Cyril as a German Nazi treasure-hunter, and "Crackers" - a wise-cracking parrot whose voice sounds suspiciously like the warped Dr. Krieger from earlier seasons of the show.

I've read that many fans of Archer have been frustrated with these last couple of seasons of the show, given how they take place not in the "reality" of the show's long-running continuity but rather in Sterling Archer's mind, as the boorish superspy and man of action languishes in a coma since the end of season 7. While I understand the frustration, I've actually found these alternative "Archerverses" mostly fun, if not quite as consistently hilarious as the first several seasons of the show. If I were to gripe about anything, it's how the show has been trimmed down from the 13-episode seasons of its first five seasons to now being a rather brisk 8 episodes. I suppose that it does allow for a more streamlined, focused story, free of any tangential one-episode tales that populated earlier seasons. But those episodes were often some of the very best, typically focusing on one of the secondary characters like Ray or Pam, who could carry a single episode as well as Archer himself.

Though I enjoyed this season, I'm sensing that the show is running out of steam to an extent. Given the shorter seasons, the "alternate" universes, and the fact that the gags aren't quite as fresh as they were in the first several seasons, I wonder if the writing isn't on the wall for this classic adult cartoon series. Whatever the case, it still offers enough laughs for me to tune in, and it's always fun to accidentally surf across an episode on TV. 

New Release! Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019)

No Spoilers, sort of (there are some big ones from Avengers: Endgame, for the seven Earthlings who haven't seen that movie yet)

Director: Jon Watts

The Marvel Cinematic Universe just keeps the hits coming, much to the delight of fans like me and the deep chagrin of those who see superhero movies as a blight on the cinematic landscape. Far from Home only solidifies Disney and Marvel's death grip on the blockbuster scene, as it offers yet another blast of a fantasy/action film that points the massive MCU towards its future after the landscape-altering mammoth movie Avengers: Endgame from two months prior. And while it certainly relies on several previous MCU films to convey its fullest effects, it is also a genuinely fun film on its many smaller, more intimate levels.

Picking up roughly eight months after half of the galaxy's living beings have been returned from the "Death Snap" of Thanos, as chronicled in Endgame, Peter Parker and several of his classmates are finishing up their five-year-delayed junior year of high school with a trip to Europe. Unbeknownst to nearly any of his friends, Peter is also dealing with the weight of the loss of his mentor, Tony "Iron Man" Stark. As he is dealing with the pull between the looming responsibilities that Stark bestowed upon him and his desire to live a normal teenager's life, a strange new threat arises in the form of massive elemental creatures attacking various cities around the globe. Attempting to deal with this threat is a newcomer to the superhero game - Quentin Beck, a man who explains that he is from an alternate, parallel universe which was destroyed by the same elemental monsters which threaten to do the same to Peter's earth.

Far from Home was wonderfully entertaining. Maintaining the vibe and buoyancy of the first film, Homecoming, this is definitely one of the most touching, down-to-earth films in the MCU. It's much more in tune with the small-scale charm of Ant-Man than the rollicking, ensemble-cast smash-ups of Avengers: Age of Ultron or even the Guardians of the Galaxy films. I find Tom Holland to be the best Peter Parker yet, no disrespect to Toby McGuire or Andrew Garfield, who did well in their turns as the web-slinger. But Holland brings all of the sweetness, awkwardness, and acrobatics to the role that one could ask. It also helps that the film once again offers a fantastic supporting cast. From Samuel L. Jackson to Jake Gyllenhaal, to the many lesser-known but highly capable talents like Jacob Batalon as best friend Nick or Zandaya as clever love interest MJ, there's not one character who feels out of place or doesn't bring some good laughs.

The story itself is another strong one - maybe one of the better ones in the MCU, in terms of taking some fun turns and offering a few new directions for the Parker character. If one is familiar with the comic books (I was a massive Spider-Man fan when I was younger) or recent cartoons, then certain revelations in the plot will be far less surprising. But even for someone like me, who could mostly see them coming, it is impressive to see how the writers pulled it off. The visual effects, like all MCU movies, are top-notch. More importantly, they are actually used to great effect in two particular sequences, the details of which I will refrain from offering, just to keep from spoiling anything.

Nick Fury's presence highlights the double-edged sword of
a shared film universe: you can bring back great characters
and tell longer and more complex stories, but it stunts
each individual movie's ability to be its own story.

The one criticism I can level at Far from Home is essentially the same one that we can level at every MCU movie, to varying degrees, since the films started building their "shared universe" in earnest, way back in Iron Man 2 in 2010. One cannot fully enjoy this movie without having seen several of the earlier movies in the MCU. If you haven't, then several characters, important and minor, will feel bafflingly enigmatic. If you don't know the full story of Happy Hogan from the Iron Man films or Nick Fury and Maria Hill from a good half-dozen MCU movies, then you'll certainly have a "late to the party" feeling. And no really good movie should do that to its viewers. Devoted fans like me love the inter-connectedness of the MCU, but it ultimately kills the chances that they will ever be able to do a truly stand-alone movie again.

This movie will definitely please fans of the MCU, just as it will please fans of Spider-Man who aren't as dedicated to the 23-films-and-counting sprawl of the MCU. Much more casual fans will likely be entertained by the spectacle and the humor of the movie, but they should expect to be confused by characters and plot threads that have been developed in earlier movies. 

Idiot Boxing, HBO shows: Insecure, season 3 (2018); Ballers, season 4 (2018)

Insecure, season 3 

Another strong season from a great young voice in comedy, although a season where one or two of the show's flaws become more obvious.

The third season of the show sees Issa (Issa Rae) continuing to try and move on from failed relationships with her long-time boyfriend from season one and short-time fling from season two. Now, she is also dealing with leaving behind her job at We Got Y'All, where she felt that her voice was not being heard, despite her being the one and only African-American in an organization whose purpose is to assist underprivileged kids, many of whom are African-American. In addition, her relationships with certain friends start to become a bit strained, as they start to have children and become more focused on their jobs. All the while, Issa's love life is in shambles, and her professional life is far from satisfying.

The humor is still as good as its ever been in this season, which is to say excellent. The writers continue to create engaging, organic situations for Issa to work through, and Issa Rae is a brilliant actress, especially when it comes to the comic elements of the part. As a woman rolling right up on the age of 30, her self-examinations about who she is and what she wants all feel very organic. Relationships with her friends which could be overly dramatized actually feel fairly organic. She is stuck in that place where a person is trying to seriously decide who they will be for the rest of their lives, but they are still young enough to make some head-shaking mistakes.

My one and only criticism of this show regards the men in the show. Frankly, they're pretty boring, fantasy types. I suppose that this is probably what women have felt for ages, watching TV shows with and endless parade of pretty but relatively simple and shallow women brought through the show as fodder for the main characters to figure themselves out. Thus far, the only man in Insecure who has been allowed any depth and long-term development is Lawrence, who had been Issa's long-time boyfriend until the end of season one. Aside from him, every man in the show is a handsome but one-dimensional foil for either Issa or her best friend Molly's personal growth. It's a minor point, and one that is probably a well-earned turning of the gender tables, but I think that it is something that could strengthen the show a bit.

I'm looking forward to the next season, and I'm hoping that Issa Rae and the rest of the show-runners can find the delicate balance between having Issa start to find herself while maintaining the awkward  missteps that provide the humor, which is still the show's greatest strength.

Spence and Joe talking business with Lance, the rebellious
extreme sports mogul. This new story line keeps things afloat
for a while, but the season ends up where the previous ones
have - with the characters more or less where they started.

Ballers, season 4

I'm starting to lose interest in this show, sad to say.

Ballers has never been what I would call a "great" show, but it's always had enough going for it that I would tune in. Through three seasons, former NFL star player Spencer Strasmore (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) has been trying to build his business as a financial adviser to professional athletes, all while trying to put his wilder days behind him and deal with the chronic pain from his playing days. For each of its four seasons, the show has touched on some of the more serious elements of professional sports. The problem is that it has never really dived in, choosing to pull its punches and take easy ways out of what could be intriguing narratives. The fourth season of the show was no exception.

The end of the third season saw Spencer and his partner, Joe (Rob Cordry), ultimately scuttle their own plan to facilitate moving the Raiders from Oakland to Las Vegas. The fourth season sees the guys pivoting into the market of extreme sports. To do so, they court the brash, rising media prince of that semi-fringe realm, Lance Klians (Russell Brand). While Joe spearheads that movement, Spence starts making some ethically questionable moves towards the mother of the hands-down hottest high school football prospect in the country. Spence, also dealing with unresolved feelings about his older brother, who had committed suicide, decides to also take on the entire NCAA system of using athletes to make huge profits while casting aside those who end up injured or otherwise unable to produce for the massively wealthy organization.

As already stated, this season set up what could have been some really intriguing story-lines, only to let them come to uninspired or unsatisfying ends. And the show is at the point where one can be less and less sure of why anyone would trust Spence and Joe with much of anything. While they always seem to land on their feet, it is often after several colossal and colossally public missteps. The other two primary characters - Ricky Jarret and Charles Greine - also have stories that only reach semi-interesting levels, at best.

I think this was probably my final season of watching the show. A fifth season is planned and forthcoming, but I feel zero excitement about watching it. Maybe my tune will change when football season is closer, but for now I think I'm finished with Ballers. It didn't end poorly, but there's simply too much other excellent television out there for me to give much time to anything that is merely "OK."