Brendan Gleeson and Jeff Daniels in 'The Comey Rule' Trailer

Here we go. Showtime is touting this as the first portrayal of Trump as a ‘dramatic character’ rather than a parody (not that he can ever really be anything but that of course). Seeing this all again is already giving me PTSD, and the obvious showcasing of James Comey and his self-righteous faux morality is going to be insufferable (but it is based on his book, so what did I expect?). Kudos to casting Holly Hunter as Sally Yates though.

REVIEW: "Perry Mason" Season 1

It’s a little frustrating when you watch a show that has a lot of potential, and yet leaves much of it unfulfilled after a complete season. It’s been a while since I felt that way about a new series, so I suppose it was due. HBO’s Perry Mason has all the right elements- a superb cast, sterling production design, impeccable costumes and the seeds of a terrific procedural drama. But after the first season, these elements have all been thrown in the pot and stirred, yet remain to be boiled. I think they will, but it leaves you a bit unsatisfied.

This eight episode season serves as an extended origin story for the character created by Erle Stanley Gardner and made famous by Raymond Burr, who starred as the irate defense attorney in the long running 1960’s CBS drama. This show is a new, gritty reboot (much as I hate the term, which seems to apply to everything these days). Matthew Rhys stars as Perry, private investigator turned lawyer (about halfway through the season), stuck on a horrific case involving the murder of a baby whose mother is framed for the crime. At first he works for John Lithgow’s E.B. Jonathan, the attorney past his prime and whose place he must eventually take, as well as partnering with his trusty secretary Della Street (Juliet Rylance), and ultimately teaming up with cop turned PI Paul Drake (Chris Chalk).

A Depression era setting makes for some great sets

That’s the Perry Mason team of course, but it sure takes us a while to get there. In the meantime the mystery of this kidnapping/murder is only so interesting, as it appears to involve a corrupt church headed by an evangelical preacher nun, played with verve by Tatiana Maslany, but poor Maslany can only fare so well with an inexplicable character given an entire subplot that has no payoff or relevance to the main storyline. By the end you’re wondering why we had to spend so much time with this church (and can’t help but conclude they needed filler to drag out this extended pilot of a season).

You also wonder why this show is set in 1930’s Los Angeles. This wants to be kind of a “woke” version of Perry Mason (Della Street is now a lesbian, Paul Drake is now a black cop facing harsh racism in the police department), but given how far they push these issues you can’t help but wonder why they didn’t pick a different time period- maybe the 70’s? The only conclusion is that HBO’s budget allows for irresistably gorgeous period recreation, and there’s no one better than Emmy-winning director Tim Van Patten (of Boardwalk Empire fame) at setting the mood for this era. The show is filled with mood in every frame- not much can happen in an episode and you still fall for the lighting and heady noir inspired atmosphere. 

And the characters do work. Rhys is a fiery, ornery Perry Mason who has crackling chemistry with his girl friday Della (did she have to be gay in this version? The two have the basis for a perfect will they/won’t they dynamic and it feels like a wasted opportunity, considering the original characters got married in one of Gardner’s books), and Paul Drake’s challenges as a black cop turned private eye is one of the changes that actually works really well for the period. I can’t wait to see the three of them at work in their new office, but why did we have to wait until the finale to set that up? I am looking forward to Season 2 though. With the (unnecessary?) prequel out of the way, it feels like now the real show can start.

Grade: B

The new Perry and Della make a great team, yet this one continues to deprive us of any romantic element between them (whyyyy?)

'The Crown' Season 4 Finally Gives Us Princess Diana

Ohhh, I can’t wait! This is it, Crown fans! The season we’ve all been waiting for (admit it, you know it’s true). The 1980’s are here and with them come Margaret Thatcher (Gillian Anderson), and the Princess of Wales herself (omg, they’re recreating “the dress”). Newcomer Emma Corrin has her work cut out for her in such an iconic role, but she’ll only have one season in which to do it, because it was recently announced that for the final seasons recast, Diana in the 90’s will be played by Elizabeth Debicki! Wow, does this show know how to cast people or what? Season 4 drops on November 15th.

REVIEW: "Stargirl" Season 1

With superhero shows a dime a dozen these days, you seek out elements of the unique, original, creative- something that gives us a little something extra in a landscape dominated by formula for so many of these shows. And yet, in spite of that, DCU’s Stargirl is proof that you can do something familiar and yet stellar, and is a warmhearted, welcome diversion from this summer of pandemic anxiety and existential crisis. 

Brec Bassinger is Stargirl herself, 15-year-old Courtney Whitmore, whose mother Barbara (Amy Smart) has recently re-married and is now moving her from California to Blue Valley, Nebraska with her new stepdad and stepbrother. That stepdad is mechanic Pat Dugan, played in a very welcome return to the screen by the impossibly amiable Luke Wilson. Almost as soon as the blended family sets foot in Blue Valley, which is a throwback to a kind of picture perfect 1950’s era slice of Americana, trouble looms in the form of a group of supervillains hiding in plain sight, the Injustice Society of America.

Courtney quickly figures out that Pat has a secret past as a sidekick in the Justice Society of America, a team of superheroes who were annihilated by the Injustice Society, and quickly rallies to take over the mantle of the JSA and lead a new generation of teen heroes, each of whom takes the place of one of the original group. She herself becomes Stargirl after finding the magical, cosmic staff of Starman, and now she can fly and fight and thankfully, has her own sidekick in Pat, who refuses to let her go it alone and builds a giant robot destructor to come along for the ride. Creator and showrunner Geoff Johns (whose original comic was a tribute to his late sister) infuses the show with equal parts nostalgia, lighthearted energy and a sense of adventure- the setting is an obvious tribute to the Hill Valley of Back to the Future, along with the tone. 

A daddy-daughter crimefighting duo

Although the ISA is a real threat and lives are taken, the show never gets too dark and the atmosphere is genuinely family friendly, with the key relationship the growing father-daughter bond between Pat and Courtney. You see it coming a mile away and yet it still works, with the show never straying too far from the family drama, fully integrating Barbara and little brother Mike into the process by the very satisfying season finale. There are beats in the usual superhero tropes that show up here, from the training of the new heroes to the discovery of costumes and names and powers with Courtney’s group of teen recruits, and you know that defeating the ISA has to happen in the end. And yet, the characters take center stage and the limited number of episodes and big budget given to the show by DCU elevates everything a certain step above the usual formula.

Which brings us to the very disturbing future- with DCU in the process of being folded into HBO Max and the fate of every original DCU series in question, the CW, which re-aired this show every week over summer in light of its dearth of original programming thanks to the pandemic shutdowns, has offered to take the whole thing off WB’s hands, which they’ve readily agreed to. So now Stargirl becomes a CW exclusive show with a gutted budget and all that comes with it- aside from highly depleted special effects, expect a slashed cast (since they’ve got to keep the essential Luke Wilson around), severely restricted and reused sets, no more 4K cameras and episodes now written for network commercial breaks instead of ad free cable streaming. None of this bodes well for what was a high quality series, and I say that as someone who does watch a bunch of CW shows. The best of them just barely clear a bar much, much lower than this one sets. I weep for its fate, but hey- at least we’ll always have Season 1.

Grade: B+

Let’s hope the success of Season 1 is not strangled out existence by the CW, its new home

REVIEW: "Killing Eve" Season 3

I was never a fan of the idea that the Killing Eve creators were so proud of, that of turning over each season to a new female head writer from the staff, who would step up as showrunner for a year before handing it off to someone else. I’m pretty sure they’re still proud of this, but from what I can see it’s turned out nothing but increasingly poor results. I always thought the show was short on material anyway (it would have been better served as a limited series from the start, with spinoff potential for one of the two leads), and nothing I have seen in each successive season has proven that wrong, as the writers struggle more every year to come up with something, anything for the show to be about as Eve (Sandra Oh) and Villanelle (Jodie Comer) continue to circle each other with no end in sight.

This third season proved itself to be particularly aimless, as new boss Suzanne Heathcote seems to believe the series is entirely about creating individual disjointed scenes meant to generate internet gifs. Newly minted Emmy winner Jodie Comer pretty much takes over this year (she even gets an entire episode about her with sole onscreen starring credit as Oh is nowhere to be found), but is Villanelle the sort of character that can carry a series on her own? Not without developing her a little more, expanding on her backstory and finding new rifts in her character, all of which serves to demystify her allure and lessen the mystique, frankly. It turns out that Villanelle isn’t really the sociopathic serial killer she was made out to be and it all stems from unrealized emotions toward her mother who didn’t love her enough. Boo. Hoo. This turns our delightfully deranged psychopath into a far less interesting, less dangerous, more human figure, and though Comer is still compelling, I did not enjoy this turn of events.

Fiona Shaw never fails to amuse as Carolyn at least

The rest of the show is even worse. What little poor Sandra Oh gets to do this season makes virtually no sense as she hobbles from one inexplicable economic status to another, the unnecessary drama with the Polish husband continues for yet another season with no resolution, she seems to have experienced no residual effects from her murder of the Russian assassin in last year’s finale (I think the show forgot that happened), and gets to solve no mystery or find any conclusions to the setup of the season’s “Who killed Kenny” plotline.

Speaking of which, let’s talk about that storyline, shall we? Fiona Shaw is maybe the one person who fares decently this season, as Carolyn’s son Kenny is unnecessarily and thanklessly killed off in the opener, seemingly only to give Shaw a chance to show off her momentous talent as a coldhearted, grieving mother. She’s great, but unfortunately, instantly saddled with yet another inexplicable subplot that introduces a never before mentioned daughter Geraldine (Gemma Whelan) who spends all eight episodes berating her mother for her lack of emotion over and over and over again. What’s the point of this? You got me. We never come close to resolving this situation and the daughter is such a bizarre addition to the show that I genuinely think the most important scenes she was in were cut, as a completely unexplained affair with Konstantin is hinted at and then dropped so quickly that you wonder if you imagined the inference. 

I kind of wonder if I imagined the whole season. It came and went without so much as a baby step’s worth of progression for anyone except Villanelle, whose surprise humanity was not a turn I approved of in any way. On another note, Heathcote seems pretty determined to kill off any worthwhile male on the show, but the offing of Kenny was a horribly miscalculated decision that immediately negated the quality of the series (especially if the point was to replace him, an actual likable character, with his god awful sister who added nothing to the proceedings except confusion and bafflement). Every episode of the season was pretty much spinning its wheels making you wonder where it was going, where they thought it was going, if they ever had any idea for how to move this show forward after Season 1, and if there’s any possible way to get things back on track after this. I doubt it, to be honest. 

Grade: D

Eve wonders what she did to get moved to the sidelines of a show for which she’s the titular character

First Look at Brendan Gleeson as Trump in 'The Comey Rule'

Ugh. I’m really not ready to watch movies or TV shows about this horrible era we’re living in yet, but the best part about this one is how much it’s going to drive Trump insane with rage. Gleeson obviously nails it here- positively ghoulish. The Comey Rule is based on former FBI director James Comey’s book and is set to air on Showtime over two nights, starting Sep 27th. Director Billy Ray made a big stink over the fact that CBS (which owns Showtime) was trying to delay this until after the election, due to government pressure, and his going public pretty much forced their hand to let it air before. Shame on them for even attempting to push it back- any little bit helps at this point, and sending the fat fuck squatting in the WH into convulsions counts as helping. So mark your calendars (if you can stomach it).

'Watchmen' and 'Mrs. Maisel' Lead the 2020 Emmy Nominations

Oy. These are a real mixed bag for me this year. First of all, that Mandalorian nomination is an embarrassment. Nominating that show for drama series is like something the Golden Globes would do to seem cool, not the Emmys, which are supposed to be a little more of an arbiter of quality (which Mandalorian is not- it’s practically fan fiction). Watchmen dominating in limited series (the most noms ever for any show of that kind) is fine, and it’ll likely win. In fact, I think I can predict right now the three winners in the series categories- Succession, Schitt’s Creek and Watchmen. But shame on them for snubbing Better Call Saul. Yes, it got a series nod, but this was its BEST season and they choose this year to dump the actors? Only Giancarlo Esposito got in, not even Bob Odenkirk or Jonathan Banks made it like they usually do, to say nothing of standouts Rhea Seehorn and Tony Dalton. Which just confirms to me that Emmy voters don’t really watch the show and probably never have- it’s been coasting on leftover Breaking Bad love all this time. But Emmy voters really love Killing Eve, because there’s no way the show deserved all those noms for a season they really shit the bed on. Can’t talk about Ozark- I don’t watch it.

2020 EMMY NOMINATIONS

DRAMA

Succession got nearly every person in its cast nominated- expect it to run the gauntlet in September

OUTSTANDING DRAMA

• Better Call Saul (AMC)

• The Crown (Netflix)

• The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu)

• Killing Eve (BBC America)

• The Mandalorian (Disney+)

• Ozark (Netflix)

• Stranger Things (Netflix)

• Succession (HBO)

LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA

• Jason Bateman, Ozark

• Sterling K. Brown, This Is Us

• Steve Carell, The Morning Show

• Brian Cox, Succession

• Billy Porter, Pose

• Jeremy Strong, Succession

LEAD ACTRESS IN A DRAMA

• Jennifer Aniston, The Morning Show

• Olivia Colman, The Crown

• Jodie Comer, Killing Eve

• Laura Linney, Ozark

• Sandra Oh, Killing Eve

• Zendaya, Euphoria

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA

• Laura Dern, Big Little Lies

• Meryl Streep, Big Little Lies

• Fiona Shaw, Killing Eve

• Julia Garner, Ozark

• Sarah Snook, Succession

• Helena Bonham Carter, The Crown

• Samira Wiley, The Handmaid’s Tale

• Thandie Newton, Westworld

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA

• Giancarlo Esposito, Better Call Saul

• Nicholas Braun, Succession

• Kieran Culkin, Succession

• Matthew Macfadyen, Succession

• Bradley Whitford, The Handmaid’s Tale

• Billy Crudup, The Morning Show

• Mark Duplass, The Morning Show

• Jeffrey Wright, Westworld

GUEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA

• Cicely Tyson, How to Get Away With Murder

• Laverne Cox, Orange Is the New Black

• Harriet Walter, Succession

• Cherry Jones, Succession

• Alexis Bledel, The Handmaid’s Tale

• Phylicia Rashad, This Is Us

GUEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA

• Andrew Scott, Black Mirror (“Smithereens”)

• James Cromwell, Succession

• Giancarlo Esposito, The Mandalorian

• Martin Short, The Morning Show

• Jason Bateman, The Outsider

• Ron Cephas Jones, This Is Us

COMEDY

The Emmys love a farewell bow and Mrs. Maisel has won too many times- this season was Schitt’s Creek’s strongest Emmy haul

OUTSTANDING COMEDY

• Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO)

• Dead to Me (Netflix)

• The Good Place (NBC)

• Insecure (HBO)

• The Kominsky Method (Netflix)

• The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon Prime)

• Schitt’s Creek (Pop TV)

• What We Do in the Shadows (FX)

LEAD ACTRESS IN A COMEDY

• Christina Applegate, Dead to Me

• Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

• Linda Cardellini, Dead to Me

• Catherine O’Hara, Schitt’s Creek

• Issa Rae, Insecure

• Tracee Ellis Ross, black-ish

LEAD ACTOR IN A COMEDY

• Anthony Anderson, black-ish

• Don Cheadle, Black Monday

• Ted Danson, The Good Place

• Michael Douglas, The Kominsky Method

• Eugene Levy, Schitt’s Creek

• Ramy Youssef, Ramy

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY

• Betty Gilpin, GLOW

• Yvonne Orji, Insecure

• Cecily Strong, SNL

• Kate McKinnon, SNL

• Annie Murphy, Schitt’s Creek

• D’Arcy Carden, The Good Place

• Alex Borstein, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

• Marin Hinkle, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY

• Mahershala Ali, Ramy

• Alan Arkin, The Kominsky Method

• Andre Braugher, Brooklyn Nine-Nine

• Sterling K. Brown, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

• William Jackson Harper, The Good Place

• Daniel Levy, Schitt’s Creek

• Tony Shalhoub, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

• Kenan Thompson, Saturday Night Live

GUEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY

• Angela Bassett, A Black Lady Sketch Show

• Bette Midler, The Politician

• Maya Rudolph, The Good Place

• Maya Rudolph, Saturday Night Live

• Wanda Sykes, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

• Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Saturday Night Live

GUEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY

• Adam Driver, Saturday Night Live

• Luke Kirby, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

• Eddie Murphy, Saturday Night Live

• Dev Patel, Modern Love

• Brad Pitt, Saturday Night Live

• Fred Willard, Modern Family

LIMITED SERIES/TV MOVIE

Watchmen’s 26 nominations set a record for a limited series

LIMITED SERIES

• Little Fires Everywhere (Hulu)

• Mrs. America (FX on Hulu)

• Unbelievable (Netflix)

• Unorthodox (Netflix)

• Watchmen (HBO)

MADE-FOR-TELEVISION MOVIE

• American Son (Netflix)

• Bad Education (HBO)

• Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings: These Old Bones (Netflix)

• El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (Netflix)

• Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. The Reverend (Netflix)

LEAD ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE

• Cate Blanchett, Mrs. America

• Shira Haas, Unorthodox

• Regina King, Watchmen

• Octavia Spencer, Self Made

• Kerry Washington, Little Fires Everywhere

LEAD ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE

• Jeremy Irons, Watchmen

• Hugh Jackman, Bad Education

• Paul Mescal, Normal People

• Jeremy Pope, Hollywood

• Mark Ruffalo, I Know This Much Is True

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE

• Uzo Aduba, Mrs. America

• Toni Collette, Unbelievable

• Margo Martindale, Mrs. America

• Jean Smart, Watchmen

• Holland Taylor, Hollywood

• Tracey Ullman, Mrs. America

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE

• Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Watchmen

• Jovan Adepo, Watchmen

• Tituss Burgess, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. The Reverend

• Louis Gossett Jr., Watchmen

• Dylan McDermott, Hollywood

• Jim Parsons, Hollywood

REALITY/VARIETY

The talk shows have been filming at home for months, but I’d expect the usuals to take home their standard trophies anyway

REALITY SHOW HOST

• Making It‘s Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman

• Nicole Byer, Nailed It!

• Queer Eye‘s Bobby Berk, Karamo Brown, Tan France, Antoni Porowski and Jonathan Van Ness

• RuPaul, RuPaul’s Drag Race

• Shark Tank‘s Barbara Corcoran, Mark Cuban, Lori Greiner, Daymond John, Robert Herjavec and Kevin O’Leary

• Top Chef‘s Padma Lakshmi and Tom Colicchio

REALITY SHOW COMPETITION

• The Masked Singer (Fox)

• Nailed It! (Netflix)

• RuPaul’s Drag Race (VH1)

• Top Chef (Bravo)

• The Voice (NBC)

VARIETY SKETCH SERIES

• A Black Lady Sketch Show (HBO)

• Drunk History (Comedy Central)

• Saturday Night Live (NBC)

VARIETY TALK SERIES

• The Daily Show With Trevor Noah (Comedy Central)

• Full Frontal With Samantha Bee (TBS)

• Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC)

• Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (HBO)

• The Late Show With Stephen Colbert (CBS)

In other news, I hate to say this but I’m really not well versed in the comedy series categories this year. I keep meaning to catch up on Schitt’s Creek, but 6 seasons of it feels daunting at the moment. I promise to make it my goal before the Emmy “ceremony” (whatever it is they end up doing, because clearly an actual show isn’t going to happen). I never saw The Good Place, I haven’t seen Dead to Me. In fact, this is the first year in forever where I haven’t seen a single show nominated for Comedy Series, so, yeah I really need to get on that. Expect SNL and John Oliver to dominate the variety categories as usual.

Yeah, so this? Is bullshit. Best Drama Series my ass.

REVIEW: "High Fidelity" Season 1

Nick Hornby’s 1995 novel had a pretty great film adaptation in 2000 from director Stephen Frears, when John Cusack played the lovelorn slacker Rob with a history of heartbreaks that he recited for us point blank to the camera. You wouldn’t think you could improve on that film or this material, but Hulu’s new series at least does something different with it- and that’s gender flip the protagonist.

Zoe Kravitz is Rob (Robyn), now a 29-year-old with her own history of loves lost in New York City and her own record store with which to play gatekeeper for the music tastes of others. It’s a change that surprisingly works. Kravitz (daughter of Lisa Bonet, who co-starred in the original movie) is believable as a hipster millennial with an obsessive knowledge of Fleetwood Mac and David Bowie (among others) and now she obsesses over playlists instead of mixtapes. She’s not as believable as a perpetually dumped on loser in love and life, I mean….she’s Zoe Kravitz. She looks like Zoe Kravitz, so it’s hard to buy that she has trouble finding a guy (any guy), and a 29 year old who owns her own record store? That doesn’t exactly signal that she’s not succeeding in life, does it? 

The record store trio is perfectly reimagined in this new version of High Fidelity

But aside from that, Kravitz mostly sells Rob’s romantic woes, and her exes fit the bill too, from Kingsley Ben-Adir as the one who broke her heart most recently to Jake Lacy, who’s practically typecast as the doting nice guy boyfriend at this point (he’s showed up in this role on at least three different series that I can think of). The supporting cast is wonderful, with the hilarious and energetic Da’Vine Joy Randolph as co-worker Cherise (filling the Jack Black role from the movie), and David H. Holmes as other co-worker Simon, this time Rob’s gay ex-boyfriend and best friend (so good he gets to narrate his own episode late in the season).

The show kind of reminded me of Sex and the City and/or Girls, but with diversity and without the shallow wish fulfillment fantasy of wealthy lifestyles from the former or the unbearable smarminess of the latter. You can still relate to Rob (nothwitstanding Zoe Kravitz’s definite non-loser status) and her romantic travails are funny and amusing enough to watch in spite of her self-destructive tendencies. Pals Simon and Cherise make it funnier and up your investment in Rob and her friends at least. Overall it’s fun, breezy and I liked it. I can see myself coming back for a potential Season 2.

Grade: B+

Jake Lacy is always the good guy- you don’t not choose him

REVIEW: "The Baby-Sitters Club" Season 1

Kristy. Mary Anne. Claudia. Stacey. Dawn. These names are familiar, almost by heart, to anyone who read and grew up on Ann M. Martin’s 1980’s series of children’s novels, The Baby-Sitters Club (shyly raises my hand). The books were iconic, spawned spinoff series and really became something of a franchise, as most of the hundred plus novels were eventually written by ghostwriters, and with a 1990 TV show and 1995 movie to its name as well. 

I owned most of them myself, read them from about age 8-11 before outgrowing them, but after watching this frankly miraculous new adaptation based on the original books, realized that the characters have stayed with me, somewhere in the back of my mind, years after the last time I ever thought about them. I never thought there was a chance this wholesome series could be adapted in a new iteration that would have anything to say to today’s kids, but I think creator Rachel Shukert has proven me wrong about that. This new version of the BSC is remarkably faithful to the original premise, nails the casting for the major characters, and updates itself to modern times, incorporating all the right touches without going overboard. It just feels right.

Kristy’s mom’s wedding happens early in the series

These ten episodes are closely based on the first Ann Martin authored books, from Kristy’s Great Idea to Mary Anne Saves the Day, etc. The girls are perfectly case with age appropriate actresses- especially Sophie Grace as protagonist and Martin alter ego Kristy Thomas, the tomboy and president of the club. Each girl’s personality is familiar to readers, from Claudia as art student, to Mary Anne as wallflower, and Stacey as NYC sophisticate (and her diabetes is updated to reflect today’s treatment standards). The biggest change is probably Dawn (now changed from a blonde CA surfer girl to a latina CA activist), but Xochiti Gomez is one of the strongest screen presences of the young cast, frankly making Dawn far more memorable than she was in the books.

The parents are well written too, from Alicia Silverstone as Kristy’s mom to Marc Evan Jackson as Mary Anne’s strict widower father. The show maintains a wholesome tone but commits to taking the coming of age of 12-13 year old girls seriously and with a winning belief in their friendships, family problems, heartbreaks and discoveries of who they want to become. It’s an idealistic approach that pays tribute to the lasting ideals of Martin’s books, which had the same effect on millions of female readers. Some of the extended cast is clearly played by some amateur child actors, but it’s so endearing that any imperfections are pretty easily overlooked, as it kind of is a perfect show for its target audience- kids. I don’t know if it intends to keep following the pre-written plots of the books (there are plenty to choose from, so they definitely could), but unlike the BSC, these girls will age quickly, so if the show continues, we may see them go on into high school for a bit. And that’s fine, because I have a feeling we’ll want to keep following them for some time to come.

Grade: A-

A perfect show for young girls to watch

2020 TCA Nominees Include 'Watchmen,' 'Unbelievable,' 'Better Call Saul'

You may have forgotten this is the time the TV awards start coming out. There were still plenty of shows to honor over the past year of course. As usual, the TV critics have little to no impact on TV’s major award, the Primetime Emmy, but the Emmys have made some pretty darn good choices of their own in recent years, so we’ll see. Here are this year’s Television Critics Association nominations:

TCA Nominees 2020

Individual Achievement in Drama
Cate Blanchett, “Mrs. America” – FX on Hulu
Kaitlyn Dever, “Unbelievable” – Netflix
Regina King, “Watchmen” – HBO
Mark Ruffalo, “I Know This Much Is True” – HBO
Rhea Seehorn, “Better Call Saul” – AMC
Jeremy Strong, “Succession” – HBO
Merritt Wever, “Unbelievable” – Netflix

Individual Achievement in Comedy
Pamela Adlon, “Better Things” – FX
Christina Applegate, “Dead to Me” – Netflix
Elle Fanning, “The Great” – Hulu
Catherine O’Hara, “Schitt’s Creek” – Pop TV
Issa Rae, “Insecure” – HBO
Ramy Youssef, “Ramy” – Hulu

Outstanding Achievement in News and Information
“60 Minutes” – CBS
“Frontline” – PBS
“Hillary” – Hulu
“The Last Dance” – ESPN
“McMillions” – HBO
“The Rachel Maddow Show” – MSNBC

Outstanding Achievement in Reality
“Cheer” – Netflix
“Encore!” – Disney Plus
“Holey Moley” – ABC
“Making It” – NBC
“Top Chef All-Stars L.A.” – Bravo
“We’re Here!” – HBO

Outstanding Achievement in Youth Programming
“Carmen Sandiego” – Netflix
“Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” – PBS Kids
“Molly of Denali” – PBS Kids
“Odd Squad” – PBS Kids
“Wild Kratts” – PBS Kids
“Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum” – PBS Kids

Outstanding Achievement in Sketch/Variety Shows
“A Black Lady Sketch Show” – HBO
“The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” – Comedy Central
“Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” –TBS
“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” – HBO
“Late Night with Seth Meyers” – NBC
“Saturday Night Live” – NBC

Outstanding Achievement in Movie or Miniseries
“Little Fires Everywhere” – Hulu
“Mrs. America” – FX on Hulu
“Normal People” – Hulu
“The Plot Against America” – HBO
“Unbelievable” – Netflix
“Watchmen” – HBO

Outstanding New Program
“The Great” – Hulu
“The Mandalorian” – Disney Plus
“The Morning Show” – Apple TV Plus
“Never Have I Ever” – Netflix
“Watchmen” – HBO
“Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist” – NBC

Outstanding Achievement in Drama
“Better Call Saul” – AMC
“The Crown” – Netflix
“Euphoria” – HBO
“The Good Fight” – CBS All Access
“Pose” – FX
“Succession” – HBO

Outstanding Achievement in Comedy
“Better Things” – FX
“Dead to Me” – Netflix
“The Good Place” – NBC
“Insecure” – HBO
“Schitt’s Creek” – Pop TV
“What We Do in the Shadows” – FX

Program of the Year
“Better Call Saul” – AMC
“Mrs. America” – FX on Hulu
“Schitt’s Creek” – Pop TV
“Succession” – HBO
“Unbelievable” – Netflix
“Watchmen” – HBO

It will likely be a battle between Cate Blanchett and Regina King for Best Actress in a Limited Series (Mrs. America vs. Watchmen)