Honestly speaking, here we go.
So far, the new season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” has been weak. Three episodes in, about 40 minutes per show and all I’m seeing and hearing are pointless confrontations that are not funny and LOTS of yelling. This smacks of desperation on the part of Larry David and his cast. This 12th season is the show’s last one and to be honest, even season 11 was just so-so. David should’ve closed out with season 10 when he opened his own coffee shop to spite a rival.
The late great Carl Reiner once said sitcoms should run no longer than 5 seasons. After that, the originality and the comedy run dry. In most cases, I totally agree. As much as I was a fan of the “Seinfeld” show from the get-go, the last season of the series was awful. I reviewed the plots of that final season and out of 24 episodes, only 5 were good in my opinion. There were many plots where Jerry and the gang had turned into the Lucy show with slapstick situations that barely got a chuckle from me. Many a sitcom has run out of laughs but have still gone on. M*A*S*H, “Friends” and “Big Bang Theory” are prime examples of shows that stayed around too long because they were so popular but no longer entertaining. Forget about ‘jumping the shark’, sitcoms have a limited shelf life and after that time has elapsed, that shark is dead in the water.
So far the first 3 episodes of the final season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” have been pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty bad.
On the subject of TV, I’ve heard all good things about the latest season of HBO’s “True Detective” which just wrapped up. I need to catch up on this one and hope all the positive reviews are true.
Two TV stars delivering great stuff right now are Jon Stewart and John Oliver. Stewart has returned to doing “The Daily Show” on Mondays only and his first two appearances have been stellar. His on target skewering the ages and feeble minds of both President Joe Biden and Donald Trump was aces work. Wickedly funny and smart, Jon Stewart makes me look forward to Monday nights.
This past Sunday, John Oliver returned from hiatus to his “Last Week” show and was hilarious as ever. Oliver caught up to subjects like the trials of Donald Trump, the Republicans who ran and left the race for President and a special mention and mocking of Chicago’s infamous “Rat Hole.” Then John did a thought provoking and accurate ripping of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Oliver has put out a sincere offer to pay Thomas 1 million dollars a year for the rest of his life IF he retires from the bench in the next 30 days. There was more to this takedown of Thomas and if you get a chance to catch it on reruns this week, by all means do so!
I can’t make up my mind on the attractiveness of “Euphoria” actress Sydney Sweeney who is now seen in movies and even the Rolling Stones video for their song “Angry.” (Like she cares what I think.) Ms. Sweeney does have a smoking hot body (can I still say things like that?) but her face often shows odd expressions that are less than appealing. Hey no matter. She is all over red carpets, commercials and happens to be the most in demand blonde bombshell next to Margot Robbie.
Blonde bombshell Sydney Sweeney wowed the folks at the People’s Choice Awards.
Speaking of Margot Robbie, who’s acting and producing talents I admire, I tried three different times to watch the “Barbie” movie and only made it thru the first ten to twenty minutes before giving up. I’m not saying “Barbie” is a bad film, it’s just not for me.
Movie wise, until the Oscars happen on March 10th, there’s not much in the way of new films to look forward to. One of the recent bombs released last week was “Madame Web.” How bad is this flick? Since Valentine’s Day, its box office totals are only at 15 million dollars. To make things worse, “Madame Web’s” star Dakota Johnson admitted to not even seeing the finished product on screen. Here’s a tip to the folks at Marvel and DC Comics, the super hero movie genre is dead as Dillinger. Time to come up with something new and original.
Terrible reviews and anemic box office numbers spell doom for Madame Web and probably the whole superhero movie genre. Time to give that a rest.
Next blog- Some Personal Truths.