2019 in TV

Russian Doll

Natasha Lyonne goes full Groundhog, repeating her hipster birthday party again and again, dying each time, until she stops being a cynical deadbeat, with bad taste in men, and hooks up (literally and figuratively) with a man going through the same thing.

Veronica Mars S4

VM S1 was one of the most perfect TV shows and then it declined until, by the end of S3, I didn’t want any more. Then came the fan-pleasing film and I was re-hooked, followed by this season of grown up Veronica, still solving crimes in the still seedy divided-by-class-and-money SoCal seaside town of Neptune, until the end when - SPOILER - Veronica leaves to have crime solving adventures in other places, should S5 be commissioned. But without Logan. Sob.



Dead To Me

The TV show that finally made me like Linda Cardellini, as she plays the hippy daffy best friend to Christina Applegate's uptight, angry young widow. The twist – that Judy (Linda) accidentally killed Jen (Christina)'s husband, is revealed in episode 2, but there are quite a lot of twisty turns along the way, as well as a great turn by James Marsden, last seen playing the overly nice cowboy/robot in Westworld, as Steve, the narcissistic epitome of toxic masculinity Judy's on/off fiancé. Really great to see a TV series about 40-something women, written and directed by women and NOT being about ageing or cancer or kids  or having it all or indeed wearing multiple vests to stave off the menopause (c.f. Desperate Housewives).

Back To Life

Daisy Haggard (the sister from Uncle) returns to her family home after leaving prison for a crime she can't remember committing. Her parents are concerned that Folkstone is the new Margate and her dad is worried about global warming whilst her mum complains that the plates haven't been rinsed before being put in the dishwasher. She has to negotiate civilian life in a town that hates her, helped and hindered by her best friend, who knows more than she's letting on, and her next door neighbour with whom a sweet and very awkward romance soon blooms.



Catch 22

Unfortunately, the whole war is absurd thing totally passed me by as Christopher Abbott hanging about tanned and naked or in little short shorts very much distracted me for 8 episodes. I liked the untangling of the book's plot into a linear form, and it was brave of Clooney to make an anti war production about the “good” war, although it would have been even braver if he'd done it in the mid-2000s, during the invasion of Iraq. Yossarian tells the essential truth: there’s no point in beating the enemy if you yourself are dead.

The Other Two

A Justin Bieber style kid goes big overnight and his older siblings try to cash in on his fame to kick start their dancing and acting careers, with increasingly humiliating results. Despite this, the series is quite sweet with Cary and Brooke mostly concerned about their little bruv, from exposure to scantily clad backing dancers to worrying about his incompetent manager. Their mum, instead of being a pushy stage mom, is a recently widowed young babyboomer who's having a year of saying yes! to everything. There's also Cary's attempt to get a boyfriend and Brooke's attempts to get rid of her boyfriend: a loveable lunk Lance whose invention of trainers that hold pennies so you can jingle whilst you walk is as daft as he is.

The Dublin Murders

Nastiness in Eire. Ever since Red Riding Hood went off into the woods, forests have been eerie places. This Celtic noir dealt with not one but three child deaths, two in the '80s and one in 2006 when people still had flip phones, but strangely talked about social media (pretty sure social media back then was Friendster). Fucked up but handsome Rob and his fab feminist partner Cassie did the sleuthing until their respectful, affectionate relationship turned sexy and then he was horrible to her 'cos he’s a man and also fucked up. She went off to solve a frankly ridiculous sub plot in which she posed as a murdered lookalike living in a house with four dreadful people, one of whom killed her alter-ego. This was the plot of the second book in the series; I wondered if the Divine Sarah (Phelps) didn’t think it would be recommissioned? It felt like there was enough plot in the first novel to fill eight episodes.

Undone

I usually don’t watch cartoon (not even Bojack Horseman) because cartoons are for kids. As are graphic novels! But I liked this one, the tale of a Mexican-American bored woman who is in a car crash and then develops the ability to see her dead dad and also travel into the past to solve his murder, whilst also dealing with her sweet but sappy boyfriend, her demanding sister who’s getting married to her WASPy boyfriend, and her uptight mum.

Barry

Bill Hader plays a hitman and an actor. The Fonz is his narcissistic acting teacher. There are some funny theatre (The Actor’s Studio type) moments with Good Janet from The Good Place and Kirby Baptiste (from just about everything). Bill (Barry) wants to leave the assassination game and become an actor. He’s terrible at it. Some Chechens want him to work for them and it’s an offer he can’t refuse. It’s funny!