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Saturday, August 31, 2019

Primetime TV Update: August 2019

Below is my list of what I finished in August 2019.

This month I finished some game shows and some scripted shows.  There are spoilers about the scripted shows.

Game Shows:

I finished up the runs of "Card Sharks" and "Press Your Luck", both new renditions of the originally 70s and 80s game show respectively. Both shows had format changes, which I don't know if they were completely successful. I liked that Card Sharks had some of the 70s flair, but I wish they had kept the game play closer to the original style (meaning more than one round instead of a longer line of cards). I did like that Card Sharks was two 30 minutes shows, unlike Press Your Luck. The first half hour of Press Your Luck played like the original show, except the prices were bigger and the game digital and animated in that style. The winner of the first half got to stay and play on for even larger prizes, and could keep what they won in the first half (which was appreciated). If the player that made it to the second half was not to your liking though it would be frustrating, and who wants to root for the house. (Me as a child, who wanted to see the whammies, but I digress.) So there was that.

Scripted Shows:

I finished two Netflix, two HBO shows, and a PBS British show.

In Netflix land, I finished "The Society" or rather binged it, I did it in such a way, I can't even recall the characters names though I can describe them. Basically it was about a group of teens who go missing, and have to start their own society. They don't know where they are, or where their families are, but they are in their hometown. The characters have to share living quarters and food to make sure they will survive. The story ran over months, and the mystery of how and why they were there was not revealed though it will get another season. One thing I enjoyed was how they had a dance, and didn't have access to the cloud so all the music they had was random from different eras. (And weirdly "One More Night" was played, and the whole time I wondered what show from the 80s used that song, as I had a weird mental flashback.) The other Netflix show I watched was "When they See us" about the Central Park Five who were blamed for the attack on the Central Park Jogger in the late 80s. All I recalled from then was there was a woman running alone at night in the park, who was attacked, raped, left for dead and survived. (Good way to make people not want to jog alone ever.) Anyway what happened was awful, and decades later the five teenagers who were 16 or younger at the time of the attack were exonerated. Sad, but true story.

On HBO, I finished "Euphoria" and "Gentleman Jack" (co-produced with the BBC), two shows about very different women. Euphoria starred Zendaya as a teenager who had just came back from rehab. I didn't recognize most of the cast, but it was well done. Of course, as the reviews said if you can't take male nudity this show is not for you. There was a lot of that and sexual and drug misadventures of high school students and not all of it being of the heterosexual sort. Gentleman Jack was about a woman in the 18th century and based on the real life diaries of a woman named Ann who lived in England. She was a lesbian, and owned her family's land. The fact this was based on reality and a period drama made it unique though if you don't like period dramas you probably wouldn't enjoy this program.
 
On PBS, I finished the most recent series of "Grantchester" that aired in the UK months ago on ITV. Sydney leaving made it harder to view, as his friendship with Geordie was the focus of the entire show. With Sydney being a preacher, and Geordie a cop who solve crimes together. James Norton appeared in a two hour episode to write the character off, and is busy with other things. I do know they are doing one more series, but with UK shows who knows.

Happy viewing!

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