Idiot Boxing: Preacher, season 3 (2018); GLOW, season 3 (2019)

The wild and deranged crew of season 3. A good number of
them are done justice, in terms of the spirits of their renditions
in the source comic. Others are slight misfires.

Preacher, season 3 (2018)

As the fourth season of AMC's Preacher was just kicking off this August, I finally caught up and worked through the third season. Like the two before it, it's been just good enough and shown just enough creativity relative to the source material to keep me watching. It's never been a sure thing, though.

As I've explained in my reviews of season 1 and season 2, my history with Preacher runs pretty deep. The short version is that I was an absolutely rabid fan of the comic book series through the mid- and late-1990s, not only buying and reading each of the 70-plus monthly issues the moment they came out, but even writing fan letters and going to comic book conventions to see and listen to the creator and writer, Garth Ennis. So it's always been impossible for me to come to the TV adaptation with any sort of unbiased views. I must admit, though, that the series, despite some obvious weaknesses, has done a nice job in some surprising areas.

This season is almost exclusively in Louisiana, mostly in the fictional Annville, a family compound where Jesse grew up. In order to save Tulip, who was killed at the end of the previous season, Jesse makes a deal with his grandmother, Marie L'Angelle. "Miss Marie" is a powerful but ultimately evil witch who bargains for and consumes souls of desperate people, using them to prolong her life. While she does resurrect Tulip for Jesse, it comes at a great cost which Jesse wrestles with through the season. All the while, Herr Starr continues to keep his sights on Jesse as the "Messiah" whom he hopes to use to kick off an apocalypse. And the vampire Cassidy is also around, though at odds with Jesse for various reasons, so finds himself in New Orleans and making a rather surprising friend.

While there were no grand improvements for me this season compared to the first two, I did find the plotting to be a bit tighter. Not great, mind you, but a bit more streamlined than the looseness of the previous ones. Keeping things mostly focused on Jesse's place of origin and the bizarre and dangerous characters within it allowed a bit more coherence to the tale, allowing for more impact once Starr and his Grail goons show up towards the end of the season. The acting is as good as ever, and the casting of characters newly introduced to the TV series - primarily Jodie and T.C. - was spot-on. Actually, the T.C. character was a perfect example of what, for me, is a great strength of the TV adaptation. Since the very beginning, it has been very clear than the show-runners would not be doing a totally faithful retelling of Garth Ennis's and Steve Dillon's graphic novel. They have made many changes, omissions, and additions - some minor and some major - which gives the show a feeling quite its own. This is most apparent in the narrative, but it is also evident with characters like T.C., played brilliantly by Colin Cunningham. In the comics, T.C. is merely a nasty little redneck with a propensity for bestiality. In the TV series, though, there is more to him, as twisted as it all is. The result is a far more entertaining character than the comic offered, memorable as he was. While I may not have loved all of the changes, I tip my cap to the creators for trying plenty of different things, rather than simply leaning on the popular source material.

My primary issue with the show still remains, however, and that is the lack of a fully logical mythology. I'm all on board with the horror and the wild flights of fancy that are part-and-parcel to the entire story. Vampires? Cool. God, the Devil, and a Saint of Killers? Count me in. A doomsday shadow organization conspiring to trigger the Apocalypse? Right on. But I still need to see some consistent logic behind what these amazing and fantastic characters can and cannot do. Whether it is Jesse's "Voice of God" powers, Cassidy's vampirism, or the supernatural voo-doo of Miss Marie, the writers seem to play very fast and loose with the parameters put in place. One moment, the Saint of Killers is an unstoppable killing machine; the other, he gets knocked over by a car. One moment, Jodie can literally walk bare-handed into a compound guarded by two dozen armed killers and murder them all, and later he loses a relatively simpler fist-fight to a lone, smaller Jesse. The show is bananas anyway, so these things don't hurt the proceedings all that much, but they are little details that irk me a bit.

Word is that the fourth season - about halfway through airing as I write this - will be the final season, as planned by the creators. It's good to see another solid show have the guts to call it quits in the name of the narrative, rather than drag it out. I may or may not ever go back to watch the entire series again, but as a tremendous fan of the comic series, I feel that the show has done it a fair amount of justice.

The Gorgeous Ladies bring their act to Vegas. Some handle
the temptations well. Others? Not so much.

GLOW, season 3 (2019)

This show started off strong two years ago, and it just keeps getting better.

At the end of season 2, the Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling (GLOW), along with producer Bash and show director Sam, head to Las Vegas. After being cancelled by their network in Los Angeles, they seek to keep their jobs and the show alive with a limited engagement of performances at an old-school casino in Sin City.

Season 3 of GLOW picks up shortly after these events, and we see the gang immerse themselves in Vegas. The show, while not a massive success, certainly does well enough to entertain Vegas tourists, and continues to be a decent gig for everyone involved. Of course, it doesn’t take long before various wrestlers, Bash, and Sam begin to experience tensions and issues of varying types. Some are relationship-related, others professional, and others business-related.

As good as the previous two season were, the third is the best thus far. I suppose that viewers who are more interested in the pro wrestling aspects of the show will disagree, as this season focuses far less on what happens in the ring. That was very much a strength of the show’s first season. That was only ever going to take this show so far, however, and the writers seem to have realized that very early on. The personal struggles and drama feel very real in this season, and we get to dig into several minor characters’ personalities and deeper motivations. Some of these are tackled with humor, while others are more dramatic. In nearly every case, the time spent looking past the garish costumed and into the characters’ inner-workings only adds richness to the series.

There were several engaging individual character developments in this season, including Tamme “Welfare Queen” Dawson’s fight against physical injury and Cherry’s break up with her man Frank. For my part, I was most impressed by the development of Shiela the She-Wolf, as she tries to expand into doing serious dramatic acting. From the very first episodes of the show’s first season, Shiela was immediately the most eccentric and enigmatic character, but this season ensures that she isn’t relegated to simply “humorous weirdo” status. Far from it. Hers and others’ stories are given some serious attention, and the show is all the better for it.

And lest you think that the show has become far more dramatic, rest assured that there is still plenty of humor to go around.  Perhaps not as much as the wilder, unpredictable first season, but my wife and I still had plenty of great laughs throughout the season. All of the actors have excellent comic timing, and once again comedy veteran Marc Maron stands out. His character Sam Silvia doesn’t have as much screen time as in previous seasons, but he makes the most of it.

A fourth and final season has already been confirmed and will release later in 2020, which is great since the show has really hit an amazing stride.

Idiot Boxing: Aggretsuko, season 1 (2018); GLOW, season 2 (2018)

The usually demure, cute red panda Retsuko, screaming out
her work frustrations at her favorite karaoke parlor. The
lyrics can be hilariously straightforward.

Aggretsuko, season 1 (2018)

A delightfully playful, satirical take on single working life in Japan, with a hilarious dash of cathartic rage.

Aggretsuko's first season is comprised of ten 15-minute episodes. They follow Retsuko, red panda in a Japan populated by anthropomorphic animals of all varieties: gorillas, dogs, cats, lizards, and dozens of others. Retsuko herself is a low-level accountant in a typically hierarchical large Japanese company. As a 25-year old woman in the still rigidly-structured Japanese corporate culture, the quite and cute little accountant has to deal with her bosses foisting unfair workloads on her, as well as the typical under-estimations of her skills and value to the company. Though the cultural pressures prevent Retsuko from speaking up and complaining, she finds release in frequently going alone to karaoke bars and belting out loud, obnoxious death metal songs. Here, she can scream her lungs out to exorcise the demons which she can't release in public.

The show is not much of a commitment, and my wife and I found it consistently hilarious. I actually lived and worked in Japan for two years, though not in a large city and not for a large company like Retsuko. Still, one only needs a passing knowledge of traditional Japanese business culture and gender roles to see the humor in the show. Retsuko's quest for professional satisfaction and a boyfriend are fairly universal desires. And the show creator and writer - known only by the mononym "Rarecho" - has an excellent sense of balancing certain characters' restrained anger with the more eruptive moments of fury. On its surface, this animated show has the kawaii (cute) exterior one would expect from anime (the show is produced by the Sanryo company, which is responsible for the ultra-cute Hello Kitty line of products). This seemingly harmless veneer covers up the very real angst felt by Retsuko and several of her friends and coworkers.

I'm looking forward to the second season, set to release sometime in 2019.

The "Gorgeous Ladies" will have to face more than a few new
challenges as they try to build momentum for their fledging
show. And garish costumes can only help so much.

GLOW, season 2 (2018)

Season two of GLOW - the Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling - continues and even improves upon many of the strengths of the initial one.

At the end of season one, the GLOW wrestlers have shown just enough success to justify getting their own set, a season's worth of shows, and a prime TV slot. Of course, scripting and performing a wrestling show can be much easier than it seems. While the ladies had gotten their wrestling and acting skills up to a respectable level, they now find themselves having to ratchet up the intensity. Show runner and director Sam Silva (Marc Maron) is just as on edge and irritable as ever, and he goes on a power trip to ensure that he maintains control over the show. He also limits how many matches will be on each episode, forcing the women to up their creativity and boldness with their wrestling moves. On top of that, several of the women are dealing with personal issues outside of the ring, including divorce, overly zealous fandom, and losing the respect of family members due to their negatively-stereotyped wrestling characters.

This second season went right to the places that I was hoping at the end of the first. With all of the primary players now know, the new season is able to dig deeper into several of the women's personal lives. Of course, we see more of the tense dynamic between Ruth (Alison Brie) and Debbie (Betty Gilpin), which is paced and told very well. In addition, we have a very thoughtful episode focused on Tamee (Kia Stevens) as she reckons with her controversial wrestling character "Welfare Queen." There is also a solid story arc with Sam and his newly-discovered daughter, Justine (Britt Baron), who had been a hopeful wrestler in the previous season. All of these stories are balanced and work together extremely well, with just the right balance of drama and humor. Through the season, I didn't feel that there was a single moment or storyline that didn't serve either a comedic or narrative purpose - a flaw than plenty of other Netflix shows haven't been able to avoid (I'm looking at you, Marvel Netflix shows).

Anyone not familiar with the show is of course best served to watch from the very beginning. With a very manageable twenty episodes of roughly 25 minutes each, it's no great commitment to get the full story. And it's a story that's worth it.