Television
Taxi (Paramount Plus)
Actively in love with Judd Hirsch. His character, Alex, is so soft and accepting of all his friends. (edit: Until season 4, where they have lost the plot completely)
I have also fallen in love slightly with Christopher Lloyd’s Jim Ignatowski. He just doesn’t give a fuck, and something about the way Lloyd plays him is very attractive to me. I think it is a talent crush on Lloyd more than being in love with his character, though.
Yeah, we’re almost to season 4 – it’s definitely a crush on Christopher Lloyd’s talent more than it is on the character. Jim is a mess, but even so, there is something I love about him. He’s himself, with no filters.
And he’s not ashamed about it.
Most everyone on the show seems fairly accepting of themselves and each other, which is honestly something I am unused to in both real life and fictional television life.
One thing that makes me extremely angry about this show is that it is extremely fat-phobic. Not just to women, either! But the innate fear of all of these characters of being fat, or worse, being called fat, seems crazy to me.
It reminds me of some liberal, accepting people I know who still make judgemental statements about people with bad teeth, like it’s okay to joke about them. This always hurts most when it comes from someone who is accepting of almost every other aspect of life, except that. Like people who are vocal about standing up for the little guy and not judging someone because of their race or sexual orientation.
But they have no problem talking badly about someone with bad teeth, like that’s an okay thing to make fun of. Granted, this is something I take very personally because I, Jacki, have bad teeth. I inherited them from my dad (and probably all of the candy I have eaten my entire life).
Plus, neurodivergent folks often have trouble with oral hygiene for a number of reasons. For some, brushing their teeth can be a sensory nightmare. For others, jaw clenching or teeth grinding might be part of their stimming or coping mechanisms. And then there’s the whole executive function nightmare of making, going to, and waiting for an appointment.
Oh and paying for it. It’s so dumb that teeth and eyes aren’t covered by normal insurance. Not that it would be much more inexpensive if it were.
And if you’re reading this and thinking, “Just suck it up and do it! I don’t like going to the dentist either, but I have to!”
To you, I say, “It must be nice to be able to do that. Not everyone can.”
For me personally, the many unknown factors of the dentist, plus a healthy dose of dental trauma from when I was married, has kept me away for many, many years. And my teeth were already bad. And this doesn’t even go into the mom who “didn’t believe in the dentist.”
I didn’t even visit the dentist for the first time until I was an adult.
I dunno, I guess; check your privilege before you talk poorly about anyone or any group of people. Yeah, sometimes that’s a lot of work, but that’s what it takes to be a well-rounded human.
For the purposes of this blog, I am specifically talking about saying offhand mean things about people with bodies larger than yours or humans with teeth worse than yours.
(see, I didn’t even mention the PDA response to *having* to do things, which defintiely also comes into play when going to the dentist or doctor.)
This goes well with my rant above, but this show is also pretty rough on mental health. There was an agoraphobia episode that made me actively angry. I shook my head almost the entire time.
And then another one about sexual harassment that undid ALL of the work they did in the preceding 24 minutes with a butt grab at the end… that was smiled at, as if, “oh he can’t help it. How cute.”
It was gross.
One more Tacsai thing
(that is how you say it in Irish. Shit, I guess that statement makes these two more Tacsai things.)
In the third season, the widespread use of cocaine among the team and cast feels apparent. Some of the folks (Bobby, played by Jeff Conaway in particular) are jangly with it. Like, the character of Bobby went through some changes, particulary in the speech pattern arena.
Another thing that makes me feel like the writers are doing less writing and more “creative thinking” are these long stretches where they just let an actor ad lib. Like it says in the script, “Latka does something funny” and not much more than that.
I’m interested in watching this evolution into the last two seasons.
Update: I am well into season 4 and they have lost the heart of the show somewhere.
For All Mankind (Apple TV +)
I worked more on the mural this week, so I watched more of my favorite space crew (except Space Grandpa, fuck that guy).
I cried and painted my way through the season 2 opener, and it made me realize that one of the excellent things I get from this show (and the soundtrack, which you know if you read my Binchy Blog this year) is an emotional release.
Sometimes, it feels like I feel a full range of emotions in every single episode: happy, sad, scared, relieved, worried, frightened, proud, joyful, confused, inspired, and delighted.
I feel no shame in crying openly or laughing loudly when I am alone and watching this. It’s a great process, honestly. I still feel shame about crying when I’m with people, but that growth will come in time.
Oh, above is a photo of what the mural looks like now. I extended it to kind of hug in the area where the daybed that we use as a couch sits. I freehanded this section, and I am very proud because I used a grid system and Canva to help me with the first bit.
This project has given me so much confidence, y’all.
Australian TV (Or Dropout TV)
Australian Survivor Heroes vs. Villains
This week, we’re watching one of my favorite episodes of the season, which includes a side story that I like to call “The Cookie Idol.” I didn’t realize it happened this early in the season, so I had to hold in my excited yelp when I saw it on the preview last week.
The thing we talked most about this week was how horrible George’s injury was and we thought he probably had a concussion.
Then we said goodbye to Dollar Store Qui Gon Jinn or low-rent Australian Daniel Craig, whatever you’d like to call him. The poor castaway wasn’t there long enough for us to give him a proper nickname.
We’re on twitch on Thursdays at about 8pm for 90-minutes to three hours, depending on the day. See you there?
Movies
Jackpot (Amazon Prime)
First, this movie was fantastic. It was a fun ride from the very first scene to the very last end-credits scene. I have loved Awkwafina, from her YouTube days to the days she starred in Oscar-nominated films (The Farewell, for which she should have been nominated), to today, when she starred in what has the makings of a great franchise… or possibly a cult classic.
Here is a description of the movie from Amazon Prime.
In the near future, a ‘Grand Lottery’ has been established – the catch: kill the winner before sundown to legally claim their multi-billion dollar jackpot. When Katie Kim (Awkwafina) mistakenly finds herself with the winning ticket, she reluctantly joins forces with amateur lottery protection agent Noel Cassidy (John Cena) who must get her to sundown in exchange for a piece of her prize.
Solid concept, well executed. The director is Paul Fieg, who created Freaks and Geeks, one of the best single season shows ever to grace the small screen.
What I didn’t know until watching this movie is that Paul Fieg is also partially responsible for one of the best two-season shows in recent memory, Welcome to Flatch. I didn’t know he was the executive producer of this little-known masterpiece until I looked him up in the middle of this movie!
So many people from Flatch were in this show. I’ll show ’em to you individually so you can peep ’em out for yourself. The only way to watch this delightfully strange network comedy is to pay for it. I’ll let you know the instant it’s available on a streaming service again.
This is Sean William Scott in Welcome to Flatch. He’s the first person you see onscreen in Jackpot! and he is not a priest, y’all. I had to turn to Mickey and go… “Is *that* Sean William Scott?!” and it was.
This is actress/comedian Holmes as her loveable character Kelly Mallet on Welcome to Flatch. And Kelly Mallet was a hard character to love. In the hands of a lesser talent, Kelly would have been insufferable. Holmes added a soft, humanness that really made the viewer root for her.
Look for her as the cab driver in Jackpot! I would love to see the full improv takes of these scenes because what made it into the movie and the during-credits scenes were hysterical. Holmes is a talent, and I think we should all be keeping an eye on her.
This is Taylor Ortega as Nadine on WTF. In Jackpot!, she plays a wildly different character, but I recognized her immediately. Look for her in the “showcase” scene.
When I saw Krystal Smith onscreen in Jackpot!, I started tearing up because it was obvious to me that someone else who loved Flatch was involved with this movie. Krystal plays Mandy on Flatch and was one of my favorite characters.
Krystal Smith has only been in three things so far, but I can feel the talent oozing out of her pores every time she’s onscreen. She’s stunningly beautiful, too, I think. Her comedic timing is second to none, and she’s also great at being gruffly soft.
She’s the tour guide bus lady in Jackpot! and I was so happy to see her.
There was one other Flatchian in the movie that I don’t really remember from that show – he was only in one episode. HOWEVER, I remember him from this:
Season 1, Episode 8 of Hacks. If you know, you know.
There were two other actors I was excited to see, but this is already so picture-heavy that I will only post their names: Dolly DeLeon (the incredible standout maid from Triangle of Sadness) and Murray Hill from Somebody, Somewhere, which is a show that can make me tear up just by thinking about it.
Okay one last thing. Mickey and I were talking about this movie and he brought up a good point. This might be one of those movies where the cast was hired as a way to keep their SAG benefits going. It’s a good-feeling idea and a good-feeling movie.
Strawberry Mansion (Amazon Prime)
I watched this movie on “No Type Friday” so I only have paper notes.
The first paper note reads:
”Is this woman me?”
After the dream auditor fumbled around the pink room pictured above in his, uh, dream, he met his newest assignment. She is an older lady who has kept track of her dreams on VHS tapes and has never been taxed on them.
This movie is about that, kind of. It’s a delicate dystopian sci-fi about taxing your dreams (and falling in love and being alive and other stuff). It takes place in 2035.
When he meets his latest assignment, he asks her what she does for work. She answers much like I do, with a random list of seemingly unrelated things before settling on “atmosphere creator.”
He wrote down artist.
I am currently designing business cards for myself, and my job title is “vibe curator,” so I felt this deeply in my soul.
I don’t want to give away much about the movie because I also went in pretty blank, but I was delighted.
It’s quirky and surreal and, for a low-budget film, a feast for the eyes. The score was perfect, and the acting fit the vibe. All in all, I enjoyed it very much.
The idea of both taxing dreams and having advertisements in dreams is horrifying.
This felt like a full-length Channel 101 short and I will 100% be keeping an eye on the directors/writers Albert Birney and Kentucker Audley.
Audley also plays the main character – and looks like a young Richard Dreyfuss while doing so. I liked this movie, and I watched it at the recommendation of my kid, who has excellent taste in movies.
Man on The Moon (Fandango At Home)
We watched this because we are watching Taxi. I’d watched it before, but barely remember it.
It’s an okay movie. It was interesting that so many of the original Taxi cast came back to play themselves (except for Tony Danza, for some reason).
Jim Carrey did a fine impersonation, but I don’t think he deserved an Oscar nomination for this. It felt imitate-y and not act-y to me.
