I came out of Bloodline right into this so the timing was perfect for me.

Martin Bryd is a financial advisor in Chicago. He also launders money for a Mexican drug cartel. Things are going pretty well until his friend and business partner gets caught doing something he should not have. This forces Marty to relocate with his wife and two kids to the Ozarks so he can make up for what his friend did. Every week the deadline of cleaning $8 million gets closer. Every week the life of him and his family gets closer to being cut short.

I’m a Jason Bateman fan and he crushes it as Marty. In fact, I love the entire cast. Laura Linney holds down a very important and difficult role as his wife Wendy. The kids are fantastic. There’s some complex and intense story telling going down here and I ate it all up.

I love crime stories, people getting into trouble and trying to get out of it is some of my favorite material. Every step is fraught with peril and I appreciated the well thought out and rationalized beats. Every time Marty gets a leg up, something happens.  Twists and turns all over the place, it’s a lakeside Greek tragedy.

I was hooked from the pilot episode and it never let up. I could go without the unrelenting teal (just look at that poster) but that’s my only complaint. The green light for Season 2 has been given and I will be there the second it is put into the Netflix pipe for me to consume.

I’m a big fan of Bloodline and waited to watch the last season because I wasn’t ready for the end. With 10 episodes, it’s the shortest run so there was that much less to anticipate. So did they stick the landing in this family drama of lies and cover ups? Mostly.

I’ve thought of the best way I’d summarize each season. I call Season 1 The Crisis of The Black Sheep, Season 2 The Sliding Aftermath and Season 3 The Consequences. The Rayburn family had an old skeleton in its closet that only got worse with age.

This show had a unique story telling style. The first season wasn’t shy about telling you how it ended almost right from the start. How and why everything got to that point was the story. Season 2 was the escalation of lies. A snowball of cover ups that, for me, made a riveting season to watch.

The final season had a lot of psychological weight to it, a stress that pressed in on everyone for every episode. Mostly it was guilt, surrounded by suspicion and anger from those on the outside (you do not want to be an O’Bannon).

It goes really well for 8 episodes. Then, the penultimate episode took a surreal psychological twist that was very out of character for the show. Maybe not entirely as the Rayburn’s have been under stress that would crack most people. But it was the commitment to doing it for a whole episode that I find bewildering. The 8th episode ends on a major cliff hanger that you have to wait for the final episode to get back to. It’s a detour into a supposed important abyss that I think could have been done in about 10 minutes and then gone back to reality to keep the story on track.

The problem I have is that episode 9 wastes a lot of time that was needed for other characters. With the season being 3 episodes shorter than the norm, time was already of the essence and it made some character motivations come off as unclear and half baked.

There are three characters who basically lose their minds. Two of which I can get behind. The other…it’s a reach. It also feels like they ran out of steam on some story threads (it’s a good thing Netflix didn’t give them a final order of 13 episodes, it would have gotten really bad). I didn’t like what they did with Roy and there was a chunk of important background to him with Sally and Robert that needed to be explored. I didn’t understand Belle’s turn well enough at all. And Ozzy! I loved him in season 2 and he hit a brick wall. It’s like the writer who came up with him left and no one else could figure out how to integrate him back into the story. One of the bigger fizzles of the show for sure. It’s strange. Almost of the threads that went back to Danny (the keystone of the show) ended up being ignored for Marco and Roy.

With those missteps, the finale managed to be strong. At the beginning of the show, you know there can’t be a good ending. I did get closure for most of the main players. That feels good, having a good idea what happens to them after the credits. But the landing stumbles. I felt gipped on John’s ending. It plays out like a dream where some kind of redemption for him is brushed to the side. I’m all for the final scene being between those two characters, but stopping where they did is dumb. End it with a dialog to tell us if the decision was to tell another lie or tell the truth. Then cut it there for an ambiguous but purposeful end. I think all of my problems at the end are easily avoidable, you just need to start with getting that time back from episode 9.

Bloodline didn’t end as strongly as I had hoped, but I still think it’s a great show. I really love the premise (the cast is fantastic) and it’s packed with some intense and memorable scenes. Given time, I’m going return to the Rayburn Inn and enjoy that time in the Florida Keys again.

I wonder how many people pass this show up based on how it looks. You see a picture and the main character is a horse. The world is animated anthropomorphized animals (and insects) living and working in Los Angeles. If it didn’t grab your curiosity right away to make you check it out, there’s no way to see that it’s an amazingly inventive and mature show. Sure the comedy can be absurd and immature, but that’s how the medicine is coated to entice you to swallow it.

This season picks up right after 2. “Secretariat” is finished (with Bojack being replaced by a CG version of himself) and the promo push through awards season towards an Oscar consideration is underway. The horse who led a corny family sitcom 20 years ago is on an upswing many actors can only dream of. But this is Bojack Horseman. A guy who can’t figure out how, or with what, to fill the void in his heart. Happiness is always just out of reach no matter the success that befalls him.

Relationships are the big focus. The secondary characters are much more independent of Bojack this season. There’s a lot to cover so I’ll stick to some highlights. The secondary cast is integral to Bojack and kudos to the writers for separating them and keeping them such good and interesting characters.

Todd really got the chance to move around without Bojack. A great business venture with Mr. Peanutbutter and a much closer look at him and making relationships (the fear of it). The season ends with him professionally on the bottom floor, but with a personal breakthrough with Emily (Abbi Jacobson!)

The dynamic with Diane and Bojack remains interesting. They don’t spend too much time on screen together, but when they do it counts. She’s working hard to keep her marriage with Mr. Peanutbutter and despite being largely absent from Bojack’s life, she’s still his friend. She’s one of the few that reaches out to him when he’s pushed everyone else away and he’s alone.

I loved seeing Bojack and Princess Carolyn’s past. Made their breakup that much more meaningful.

I think the creativity of the show has reached an all time high. While the staples are still there (the unending background gags, my favorite being the fly waiter), there are some daring episodes that really mix things up. Episode 4 is a real standout where we go with Bojack to an underwater film festival. Some of the series best animation can be found there and the lack of dialog while still maintaining high levels of storytelling is impressive. The great use of flashbacks to 2007. The long story arc with the spaghetti strainers. The story with Diane and Sextina Aquafina. The crazy last run with Bojack and Sarah Lynn that weave blackouts into meta-commentary (the takes on Los Angeles and society in general, are fantastic).

Bojack remains one of my favorite shows, both in terms of Netflix Originals and in animation. The writing and voice cast (I wasn’t expecting more of the amazing character actor Margot Martindale) continue to crush it. This show covers some deep and dark territory but is funny enough to keep it from being miserable and it doesn’t get preachy or judgemental. I love the end, can’t wait for season 4.

“There is no prize like a sur-prize.”

I love when you have no idea that something right up your alley is being made. It comes out and sweeps you up into a frenzy of hugs and kisses.

A mix of 1980’s love and horror, Stranger Things harkens back to my childhood of cinema (look at that poster!). Heavy homages to Spielberg and his various collaborations and contemporaries, I couldn’t believe what I was watching. It’s like going back in time and seeing a 1980’s series that had a stupid budget and access to VFX that didn’t exist yet.

It’s 1983 and Will is riding his bike home after playing Dungeons & Dragons with his friends. In a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Will encounters something that escaped from a secret government project. His friends and family must unravel a local mystery and face a terrible darkness to get him back.

I love way more of Stranger Things than I don’t. So I’ll knock out the negatives in one sentence. Some of the effects are dodgy and there are some cliched “character making dumb decisions in a horror movie” moments.

The cast is awesome. It’s headlined by Wynona Ryder and Matthew Modine, but the real stars are the kids. The main five in particular: Will, Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and Eleven. The whole season rides on them and they are great. Chemistry you pray for when you do casting. These kids are a new generation of The Lost Boys, Goonies, and Stand By Me.

At 8 episodes, I think they nailed just the right timing to tell their story. Enough time to establish characters, set down the threads of the mystery, have all the threads lead each investigative team (the kids, the brother and sister, the adults) together and then the finale. It’s funny, spooky, scary and exciting in all the right measures. Just enough is explained while leaving a good amount of mystery and hook for another season (I’d actually be fine if they went the anthology route with this like Tales From The Crypt. The title isn’t tied to the plot).

There is a silly amount of references to movies, books, and series of years past. There are long articles out there that go into just that. The music is perfect, the show is often gorgeous (really dig the ashy haze of The Upside Down), great production and The Duffer Brothers are killer directors.

Watch it! This is the kind of original content that gets people to subscribe to Netflix. It’s all the rage for good reason. If this was a movie, I’d say it would be rated PG-13 for its content, so keep that in mind if you have kids.

Went up on Netflix on Friday. I’m on episode 6 (of 8) and just want to drop a quick note that it’s fantastic. Came out of nowhere and it ticks all my boxes. I’ll get into it when I’m done in a few days.

I got so sucked into season 2 that I watched it all in five days. Back to the Florida Keys with the Rayburn’s I went, eager to see if John, Meg, and Kevin could keep their secrets hidden.

Bloodline is all about lying and keeping up appearances and the tremendous stress that goes with it. Some people are good at it, others are not. Meeting the Rayburn’s last year, we met a well-respected family that entered a dark period when the eldest son, and black sheep of the family, Danny, came back home. Turns out the Rayburn’s have some shameful skeletons in the closet that they’ve managed to hide away for a few decades. Danny flips everything over by pulling his family into a drug smuggling ring. By the end, everyone has crossed boundaries.

Season 2 starts not long after the end of one. Danny might be physically gone but he made some contingency plans. The defense put up by Meg, Kevin, and John to throw off the authorities has more than a few holes in it. The number of lies that it took to cover up Danny’s involvement in Wayne Lowry’s criminal enterprise is simply overwhelming. They lie to everyone, they turn to drugs and alcohol at every turn to try and cope. It never gets better.

I love the setting of Bloodline. The muted and desaturated pastel colors of Florida. Everything and everyone looks beaten by the sun. Day or night. always hot and uncomfortable. The pace and editing of the show mimic the slowed down feeling of being exhausted and stressed all the time.

There are some new wrinkles added to the black shroud of the Rayburn family tree. Danny had a son (Nolan) with a woman (Evangeline) that no one knew about. They enter the picture with Danny’s side of the family story and keep those old wounds from closing.  Along with them, comes Ozzy, Eve’s now boyfriend and one of Danny’s partners in crime. It’s bad news on top of bad news (awesome casting for all three characters, I especially like John Leguizamo as Ozzy and Owen Teague as Nolan is an amazing find. He looks and acts just like a young Danny).

The Rayburn’s are an interesting lot.  Sally, the matriarch, has swept up so much misery under the rug that it’s amazing she’s been able to function for so long. She dismisses everything as a coping mechanism and cannot deal with confrontation. She does try to make it up to Nolan and Eve, despite her being blindsided by the whole thing (she was kept in the dark about a lot of stuff). I think she’s the saddest of the bunch, I often found myself pitying her.

Kevin, the one who’s been trying his whole life to maintain a standard of not being the biggest screw up in the family. It was interesting to see him try to navigate his problems but good lord is he weak. He makes bad decision after bad decision and when he gets mad, he is a colossal baby. The guy doesn’t realize how spoiled he is with all the times he’s been relying on others to bail him out.

Meg tries to get out of Florida and gets sucked right back in. I think I feel the worst for her. The youngest of the family she had the least responsibility for the event that made Danny…Danny. She does her best to help in every situation but just about every situation that comes at her is one that’s forced on her from someone else. She loses her NYC job, driven to drink, embarrass herself and drive a spike between herself and Marco so deep that it could never be undone (Meg trying to reason with Kevin about not going to Marco is one of my favorite beats).

John is the golden child who is far from one. The guilt from lying about Danny’s injuries when they were kids was just the start of his problems. For being the most responsible one, he can be a huge baby too (Meg should have told him to check himself every time he started demanding things from her. The one where he screams at her to get Roy Gilbert’s full support was the real turning point). John has the most conflict in him. He feels like he has to handle and fix everyone and every situation. He gets in so deep with handling Danny that it splinters his relationships (much like Meg). When pushed he’s capable of crossing the same lines that Danny has. And he makes bad decisions, just like Kevin. Going ahead with running for sheriff is probably the worst thing he could have done and he goes ahead with it. It’s a mindboggling stupid decision. He puts himself in the spotlight with added scrutiny when Danny’s actions are still haunting him and his family. It puts more targets on his back.

The hubris of the Rayburn family is loyalty and protection. The family never talks to each other. In an effort to keep other family members safe (and innocent in a courtroom) the kids omit things to the others (those are called lies). “The less you know, the better” is often the creed. When some sort of success is made, it’s often undermined by no communication (Kevin’s smooth move of going to Lowry comes to mind). John, Meg and Kevin are all in the same boat together but they leave each other out of the loop until it blows up in their face and they can’t hide it any longer. If they just talked and planned things out together, they could have avoided a lot. It’s how Danny got out of control, John did what he thought he had to do with the intentional/unintentional go ahead by Meg and Kevin. They keep doing the same thing and what happens? History repeats itself. When Eric is discovered to be their next biggest threat, John is sent in again to handle it.

The end is pretty nuts (both good and bad). Watching Kevin and Meg turn on John was something to watch. A whole lot of resentment and anger came out of that one. It had been building and seeping out here and there and was long overdue. The season ends right in the action, though. At 10 episodes, it’s cut at least an episode short. The set ups for next season (we better get one) are numerous but we’re left in a complete lurch. Cliffhanger isn’t the word for it, made me mad when the last credits rolled.

I’m totally invested in these characters (the cast rules). The ties that make them a family are pretty amazing on a writing front. I admire how they layer each Rayburn child as different but so alike. The overall story arc is kept strong with some thoughtful planning based on Danny’s past that goes on to pay off well. The new characters are all great and the intensity is kept up through every episode. There’s some useless fat that could be trimmed here and there (that weird shower subplot with Sally) but nothing that broke my suspension of belief. I can see getting one more really good season out of this to bring all the threads to a satisfying end. I’m looking forward to it.

Netflix is producing so much content and at such a high quality they are a network now. I’m going to make them their own category since it doesn’t exactly fit into TV. This will make it easier to search for Netflix material.  We’ll talk about two today.

Lady Dynamite– I like comedian Maria Bamford. She’s a tough sell for a lot of people because her material is really out there. This is her show and it allows her to do her thing in a more approachable manner with a slew of co-characters for her to interact with. Lady Dynamite is super weird. Think Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, South Park, and Arrested Development. The show is partially auto-biographical, going into struggles with mental illness that took over her life a few years ago and how she came back to the industry. Each episode visits three times as the plot unfolds. Her past (as her problems were mounting), Duluth (the not too distant past when she had to move home after her break), and present where she’s trying to get back on her feet professionally and personally. It’s a unique show that’s packed with crazy situations, cameos, prat falls, 4th wall breaking, cursing and a good dose of love. I’m happy Maria gets this stage to share and I’m looking forward to season 2.

Happy Valley– It took us awhile to get season 2! It’s not too long after the events of the first season. Catherine skipped getting counseling after all the trauma and is more or less keeping her nose to the grind stone at work. While chasing some perps, she finds a body that kicks off a serial killer investigation. On top of the main plot, one of her co-workers gets into trouble and Tommy manages to have some influence on the outside of prison walls. An inventive season that moves along well in its 6 episodes. Keeps the antagonist of last season in the picture but smartly on the side. We get some more time with supporting cast members, Catherine remains a brilliant and strong female character and two Harry Potter alumni have gigs in this. I have a minor quibble about the end (shoehorning more sinister angles into it that’s rather amateurish…it wasn’t needed) but that’s about it, the rest was aces for me. I’m down to watch more.

Up Next: Bloodline season 2

Shock. Disgust. Anger. Disbelief. Rage. Those were the main feelings I had while watching Making a Murderer. My favorite documentary has been Cocaine Cowboys for many years, but MaM thunders on through 10 episodes of absolute injustice and evil of the Manitowoc, Wisconsin police and the completely bent Criminal Justice system. This is a tale you won’t soon forget and want to talk about with everyone you meet.

The story of Making a Murder is Steven Avery. While he’s far from an angel, racking up a rap sheet by the time he was 18, he didn’t try to hide from what he had done and served his time. Then, in  1985, he’s accused of raping a woman. Despite spotty at best detective work (I’m being polite) and a multiple eyewitness backed alibi that is ignored for some reason, he was declared guilty and locked up for 18 years. In 2003, he’s exonerated through new DNA evidence. He said he was innocent the whole time and that the Manitowoc PD had it out for him. Two years later while his lawsuit against the county is underway (looking for millions in restitution and punitive damages and would ultimately end many careers and start serious reform), a woman who was last reported to be at the Avery scrap yard for work goes missing. The police come after Steven again and it happens all over again.

It sounds like a movie but it’s not. I’ve given a basic outline of the setup, but the follow through to condemn Steven Avery (and his family) is mindboggling. There was no hesitation, they thought Steven had to have done it. The following weeks of investigation construct a case for the ages.

I’m not going to get into great detail because you have to see this to get and process each bat shit crazy bit and it would take me hours to write about just a fraction of it.

The first case of 1985 is shocking in itself, Avery was clearly railroaded and the actual criminal went on to commit more sexual offenses for 10 more years. The cops got away with what they did to Steven.  Steven wants justice and sues the county with corruption allegations. Law enforcement circles the wagons to protect themselves when a few of them go to court. As the film clearly shows, step by step, the MPD (the 2 higher ups and a specific deputy) went after Avery again with a shocking disregard for protocol, humanity and the law they were sworn to uphold.

Timelines that make no sense. Suspects that were completely ignored. Tampered with evidence. Exploiting a retarded child’s trust in authority with blatant and gross manipulation and rights dodging. Collusion between the prosecution and a shady defense lawyer. Written down instructions to get Avery associated with evidence that was improperly obtained. Admitted tainted DNA results. Blatant lies to the media and on the stand. Bizarre double talk. Bias that you would not believe (MPD says they will hand over the investigation to another district PD, but they remain are all over the scene, going back multiple times and magically finding “evidence”.)

I watched the 10 episodes in 4 days. I never do that. Clearly the filmmakers had a view of what was happening to Avery from the start (they filmed for 10 years) and push that narrative and it’s around 30 years condensed into 10 hours. Steve’s trial went for 6 weeks and was shown in about 2 episodes. His nephew Brendan’s trial went for 2 weeks and was shown in 1 episode. Sinister music is played during the bad guys talking to drive the point home. But it doesn’t take background music to make the likes of former (haha) District Attorney Ken Kratz into a villain. You just need to see how he conducts himself and smirks when talking about a murder investigation. The number of suspicious events (at the very least I think the MPD is incompetent) stokes a lot of reasonable doubt. It’s hard to understand how this all happened. But, again, this idea is fostered from getting all of the information in Avery’s favor in a neatly organized package instead of a lengthy trial). In order for a jury to convict, there has to be a lot of information that the prosecution gave that the filmmakers left out (which could be circumstantial evidence, but with how shady the MPD and Lawyer Len were, you’d imagine it would be pretty easy to flip in Avery’s favor. It’s suspicious though).

I was obsessed with watching this to the end. I have never been so shocked and disgusted from a documentary of what’s wrong with our justice system. There’s no one person to blame, the whole thing needs to be re-evaluated and remade. Hopefully Making a Murderer stirs the pot again and puts pressure on the right place. Every bit of this trial needs to be made public so we can get all of the information and not a heavily edited film.

A must watch.

I had no idea Bill Burr had a show coming out until it was just a few days out from hitting Netflix. I’m a fan of Burr and I’m stoked for him that this turned out so well.

F is for Family is about the Murphy family, boys Kevin and Will, mother Sue, father Frank and daughter Maureen (plus Major the dog) in the 1970’s.  Frank is more or less the main character, working in the baggage department at the airport.

I wasn’t sold after the first episode, but once the family dynamic takes root (especially with Kevin and Will), it really comes together. Every episode is simply better than the last, they really found the heart of the show by the end. The parents struggling to keep afloat and happy and the kids who range from screw up to princess tomboy who are all getting old enough to see the cracks in the world. I think the best material is with the kids, as it’s the most well thought out and given the most time (Will is my favorite). I wasn’t too sure of Frank at the beginning, but the last episode really got to me. I found him to be more of a loud cartoon character before then, but the culmination of his trials at work came together in a smart and beautiful end.

While this show looks like it could be for The Simpsons and King of the Hill audience, it’s not for kids. A ton of swearing (weird hearing Burr in interviews saying they were careful about F-bomb usage when it’s all over the place), some seriously dark humor and a heavy dose of sex jokes have this show pegged at the older crowd.

Fun surprise and bonus points for casting Laura Dern as Sue!