13 Shows to Stream

Ah, the joys of mid-summer, when TV is a vast wasteland. Are you struggling to find something interesting to watch? I am. So, I've listed (for Thursday 13) thirteen shows that I enjoyed recently (across varying streaming platforms). 

(I did this last year for Apple TV Plus and Netflix. I won't repeat any of the shows already on those lists.) 

In the comments feel free to suggest anything you think we also might enjoy. (Please. Seriously. I need something to watch.) 

1. The Way Home (Netflix)

I wrote about this show back in 2023 after seeing season 1. I recently saw that Netflix had added it. (It had aired on the Hallmark Channel.) And season 4 (containing the show's finale) just finished a couple months ago. Only the first three seasons are on Netflix at the moment, but I expect that they'll add the fourth and final season soon. 

The concept: they have a time travelling pond. That is, when members of the Landry family jump into this pond, they can surface at any point in history. The show begins with Alice finding herself in 1999 when her mother was her age. But by the end of the series, they've seen the early 1800s, the 1920s, the 1970s, and then they came home. 

Link to trailer.

2. Death by Lightning (Netflix)

I wrote about this show already in December, but it bears repeating (and I needed enough shows to make 13). 

This show is all about the election of (and death of) President James Garfield. The history is way weirder than I ever knew.

Link to trailer.

3. Dept. Q (Netflix)

Crime drama in Scotland. Very well done. (Also violent. Sorry.) I don't want to give too much away as it would spoil the first couple episodes, and you really don't want me to do that. 

Link to trailer.

4. This Is a Gardening Show (Netflix)

My brother turned this on a couple weeks back (while I was visiting). Zach Galifianakis talks about gardening. The episodes are short. Lots of kids are involved. And while it is informative, it is also comedy, so if you aren't into gardening, you might still enjoy the show.

Link to trailer.

5. Lioness (Paramount +)

An elite team recruits a female soldier to insinuate herself next to a target that they need to "take out". Politics and drama ensue. Lots of famous faces. Murky moral ground. And a great show. I saw recently that season 3 is coming, and I can't wait. 

Link to trailer.

6. School Spirits (Paramount +) 

I avoided season 2 for way too long. Silly me. 

One day Maddie wakes up to discover that she's dead. How did she die? She has no idea. The other ghosts at her high school (because she died at school) want to help, kind of. And her best friend Simon can see her, for some weird reason. 

Link to trailer.

7. Sky Med (Paramount +)

I wrote about this show two years ago, but I'm repeating it here as there've been two whole new seasons since then (and I needed enough shows to make 13). 

Canadian show about an airline that transports people to hospitals. Kind of an air ambulance. The various pilots and nurses have romantic dramas in between them saving people from accidents and such. I like rescue shows, so this is right up my alley. 

Link to trailer.

8. Pluribus (Apple +)

One day an alien virus turns the whole world into one hive mind. Except for Carol (and 11 other individuals across the globe). Carol wants to turn them all back, but she doesn't know how. Oh, and the rest of the world? Very nice. Seemingly happy. And all they want is for Carol to be happy (while they figure out why the virus didn't work on her). 

Getting through the first episode or two was hard. But once the plot settles, it gets interesting.

Link to trailer.

9. Shining Girls (Apple +)

Okay, so I lied. I did mention this one last year on that list, but I hadn't seen it yet. (I rounded out the list with shows that were recommended but I hadn't seen yet.) Now I've seen it, and woo-boy... It's a doozy. 

A woman's reality keeps changing, and she has no idea why. She'll come home from work to find she now has a cat instead of a dog. She'll go into work and find her desk has moved. No one around her notices the differences. (Imagine coming home to a husband you did not have when you left for work. Yeah, that happened.) 

At the same time, there's a series of murders that don't make sense. They take place over a time frame that doesn't make sense. But somehow they seem to be connected. 

It all connects. Eventually. And I don't want to give out how, because the reveal is so good if you don't know what you're walking into.

Link to trailer.

10. Reacher (Prime)

Large man helps people. He's a drifter (retired from the military) who shows up in a town and ends up helping someone who needs help. Not by choice, really. He just gets pulled into these things. Based on the books by Lee Child. They're doing the seasons out of book order, so if you've read the books, it'll seem jumbled. But great entertainment. 

Link to trailer.

11. Leverage: Redemption (Prime) 

Back several years ago, there was a broadcast show about a group of thieves who used their skills to take down criminals with power. They rebooted it with kind of the same cast, and it's now streaming. I have not quite finished the current season (which reminds me I do have something to watch), but the previous one (or two? hard to recall) were well worth it. 

Link to trailer.

12. Ride or Die (Prime)

I'm only halfway through this new show about an assassin and her best friend. Best friend did not know the woman was an assassin (for 20-something years), but found out because now people are after her. I'm enjoying it so far, and definitely recommend it.

Link to trailer.

13. Percy Jackson and the Olympians (Disney +)

One of my twin nephews was watching this show while I was visiting. I watched some of the show with him, but our timing didn't sync, so I saw an episode here or there, and then he was on to the second season. 

So, when I got home, I pulled up my rarely watched Disney + (which I bundle with Hulu, so it's not costing me extra) and watched it. And now I see season 3 is due in November. 

This show is based on the series of books. Percy finds out that he's a demigod, son of one of the Greek gods, and monsters are after him. He ends up going on quests that bring out various characters out of Greek mythology (and The Odyssey, for those of you who have seen the movie--like Medusa and Circe and Cerberus and...)

Link to trailer.

Death by Lightning

The other day (a couple weeks ago) I was scrolling through Netflix, looking for something to watch. I happened upon Death by Lightning. I read the description: 

Presenting the story of James Garfield, who rose from obscurity to become America's 20th President and Charles Guiteau, the man who assassinated him.

...and I was in. 

(My high school U.S. history teacher's favorite president was Chester A. Arthur, who became president upon the death of James Garfield, so I had a vague understanding of the times and events.) 

I was surprised how much I liked it. I mean, I wasn't expecting to hate it, but the first episode (of the four total) totally sucked me in. Of what I know of the actual events, the show was factual, although I'm sure many dramatic liberties were taken to dramatize the story. 

So, now I'm telling people about it, as I haven't heard too much about other people watching it. I can't be the only one who saw it. And if I am, I want to make sure you get a chance to see it too. 

Enjoy the trailer: 

If you subscribe to Netflix, have you seen it? Have I tempted you to take a look?

13 Netflix Shows

A couple weeks ago, I listed shows from Apple TV Plus that I have seen and rather liked. In the same theme, I thought I'd do the same for Netflix. This is by no means a best-of list. These are just my rather limited choices that I liked. And, of course, it's a Thursday 13. 

1. Midnight at the Pera Palace: A reporter in Istanbul doing a puff piece on a hotel's 125th anniversary manages to travel back in time about a hundred years and of course throws history off course. I wrote about this show already, and I hope they give us a season 3 (although I have no idea if it'll happen), but the two seasons are still excellent. If you like these sorts of stories (and don't mind that the show was dubbed into English). 

2. Travelers: Five travelers from the future have taken over the bodies of people who were about to die, and their mission... Well, I'm not sure what their mission was, but it was fascinating to watch. Three seasons (with a finale, not a cliffhanger) were not quite enough, but a great show nonetheless. 

3. 3-Body Problem: You may have heard of this one. A group of college friends end up in the middle of... Well, it's hard to explain without giving the whole thing away. Give it three to four episodes, for that's how long it takes to really get off the ground. And then just hold on. I'm not sure if there's going to be a season two, but it really does need a season two.

4. Man on the Inside: Ted Danson plays a retired widower who is driving his daughter crazy. So, he takes on a "project". He takes a job with a private investigator as the "inside man" in a nursing home. He's investigating a theft. Sort of. (He's not a very good investigator.) This one is a comedy and it's definitely as good as you've heard. 

5. Warrior Nun: A dead, disabled young woman is revived with a "halo", and now she's part of a group of warrior nuns who hunt demons. It was only two seasons and then cancelled, but it was fun while it lasted. 

6. Lucifer: This one was on broadcast TV, then cancelled, then brought back to be finished off on Netflix. Six seasons (and it ended with a finale). The devil left hell because he was bored. He hangs around an LA police detective and helps solve homicides. (Yes, a procedural.) 

7. The Good Place: Originally on broadcast, but now all four seasons are on Netflix. Eleanor died and went to "the good place", only she knows she does not belong there. So, she's going to do all she can to fake it so she doesn't get sent to "the bad place". It's a comedy. If you haven't seen it, totally worth it. 

8. North of North: A 26-year-old woman is trying to find her place in the world. Hijinks ensue. It's only one season so far (a second is coming). What's unique about this show is that the main character Siaja is Inuk and living in a small Arctic town. It feels familiar and relatable in a place that is foreign to most of us (I suspect). 

9. Bridgerton: This is another one you may have heard of. Historical romance. Three seasons thus far (plus a spinoff). The eight children of the Bridgerton clan will find their spouses one by one (each season). If you like historical romance, this is the show for you. 

10. The Queen's Gambit: This one season and done miniseries is based on a book. A young girl in an orphanage discovers chess, and the game gives her access to money and success in the mid-twentieth century. 

11. Wednesday: Wednesday Addams (of the Addams Family) has been sent to a boarding school after she has some "issues" at her school near her home. Only one season so far, but I believe that season two is coming soon. 

12. A Discovery of Witches: Based on a trilogy of books, these three seasons are about an academic witch who has inadvertently stumbled upon the "book of life" for all the "creatures" (witches, vampires, and demons). It was originally on cable TV, but now the whole series is on Netflix. I just finished rewatching (which was great to watch it all at once rather than with a year plus between seasons). 

13. Dead Boy Detectives: Another one and done series, sadly cancelled too soon. The dead boys are ghosts who solve mysteries for the also dead. 

Anyone have any good Netflix recommendations. There's so much there, it's hard to know what else to try. 

13 Apple TV Plus Shows

When the show Murderbot began on Apple TV Plus, an account I follow on Bluesky did a list of other shows people should check out when they subscribe. Because they assumed that certain people would just subscribe for that one show. And this got me thinking. 

Are there 13 shows I would recommend from Apple TV Plus? (Because Thursday, this is a Thursday 13.) Do I recall 13 separate shows from the service? Let's see... 

1. Ted Lasso: This is the one about the American football coach who is hired to coach a UK soccer team. This is absolutely my favorite Apple TV Plus show. I may be due for (another) rewatch...

2. Severance: What if you could leave work at work, because you literally have no memory of your work life when you're outside of it? That's the premise of this show executive produced by Ben Stiller (yes, that Ben Stiller). Two seasons thus far, and that corporation has gotten up to some nefarious activities. Creepy, but fascinating. 

3. Silo: In a post-apocalyptic future, 10,000ish people are living in an underground silo, but they have no idea why. I had been avoiding starting this one, but then my father said it looked interesting, so we watched it together. Two seasons, but I heard a third season has been ordered. 

4. Mythic Quest: As of this writing, I am just a couple episodes into season four (the last season, as it's officially been cancelled). This is a workplace comedy with Rob McElhenney as the creator of the video game in the title. 

5. Schmigadoon!: Do you like musicals? How would you like to end up stuck in the middle of one? Yeah, no? Our heroes don't particularly like it, either. They go hiking/camping in the woods when they stumble across a town adhering to musical rules (plot, breaking into song), and they can't get out until they complete the story. Two seasons, also sadly cancelled. 

6. The Morning Show: At the beginning of season three, one of the characters goes up to space in a rocket for a publicity thing. Several months before it happened in real life. This is all about the cast and crew of an early morning TV show. They try to be topical (so seasons one and two will feel behind the times now). It's really well done.

7. The Buccaneers: As of this writing, season two just dropped (and I haven't started it yet, but I will). Based on the unfinished novel by Edith Wharton, it's the story of four rich young American women who travel to England (in the 1870s) and end up hunting for husbands with titles. Things don't go really well. (Culture clashes. The titled are kinda horrible people.) 

8. Lessons in Chemistry: This was a one (season) and done, based on the book of the same name. Midcentury female chemist and her struggles. She ends up hosting a cooking show. 

9. Franklin: Another one (season) and done, with Michael Douglas playing Benjamin Franklin when he went to France to try to secure funding for the Revolutionary War. The political intrigue... These are the stories missing from history in school. 

10. Time Bandits: If you've seen the 1981 movie, you understand the premise. Lisa Kudrow leads a group of time bandits who aren't very good at the bandit part, and aren't all that sure of the historical periods, either. I'm not sure if any more seasons are coming, but this one was fun. And, unlike the movie, I could actually follow the plot. 

11. Amazing Stories: There's five episodes of this show, and I've seen two. But I liked the two, and I intend to watch the rest eventually. I have fond memories of the '80s show (exec produced by Steven Spielberg), and these episodes recapture a bit of that. 

Oops, ran out of shows to recommend. So, for my last two on the list, I'll add two shows I plan to watch next. 

12. Shining Girls: I've heard good things about this one. The official description: Newspaper archivist Kirby Mazrachi's dreams of becoming a journalist are put on hold after she survives a brutal attack that leaves her in a constantly shifting reality.

13. Constellation: And this one also came highly recommended. We'll see. The official description: Jo returns to earth after a disaster in space and discovers that there are missing pieces in her life, so she sets out to expose the truth about the hidden secrets of space travel and recover what she has lost. 

Does anyone else have Apple TV Plus? If you do, do you have any other recommendations?

Franklin

Covid update: Currently I feel like I have a very mild cold. I still test positive, but I'm confident that when school starts back up next week, I'll be fine (and back at work). 

It's a good thing that school is starting back up soon as I am running out of TV shows to talk about. As I was lamenting that with the Olympics on, I wasn't watching anything new, I realized I had not talked about a show I saw a couple months ago. Franklin. 

Franklin, on Apple Plus, is about Benjamin Franklin in France during the War of Independence doing the diplomacy thing to secure supplies and such to help finance the war. 

There are spies, double crosses, and diplomacy. And half of the show is in French. (This was not a show I could knit to. A character would start in English, switch to French, and then switch back into English in one speech.) The subtitles are in English, though, so I didn't have to rely on my high school French (which was a long time ago). 

If you like history, you will probably enjoy this. I couldn't get over how anyone could dress like that day in and day out. Yikes.

Has anyone seen this show? Has anyone heard of it before? (When I stumbled across it was the first time I had heard of it.) Have you been watching anything other than the Olympics lately? What's your favorite sport to watch?

3 Body Problem

Last week I talked about how I had started a bunch of shows, but I couldn't get past the pilot episodes. Luckily, one show interested me enough that I was able to finish its first (and only, so far) season. 3 Body Problem.

I had heard some rumblings about this Netflix show, but they weren't the sort of rumblings that would normally draw me in. Incomprehensible. Violent. Weird...

Okay, weird I'm okay with. I'm not fond of violence, but I can put up with it for the right sort of story. As for the hard to understand part, I am familiar with the 3 body problem from my physics studies (in that it's not solvable). 

As nothing else was sticking, I figured I'd give it a go.

The pilot episode didn't turn me off. I was ambivalent, but willing to give it a second episode. It wasn't until episode four or five that I felt like I got my feet under me, and then I was on board. (That's about the time the underlying mysteries got explained. It went from what the heck? to oh, I know these tropes.)

The show starts off with some weird things happening in science. Particle colliders are turning up weird results that are upending all particle physics theories. Something's wrong with the accelerators or something's wrong with the theories. Science is broken.

At the same time, various scientists are dying--many by their own hand. It's too many to be a coincidence. And one of our main characters is seeing a countdown in her vision that no one else can see. It's clear that some of the other now-dead scientists had seen this same countdown. (She goes to see a neurologist. They can find nothing wrong.) 

The show centers on a group of people (age: 30-ish) who went to university together (I think it was Oxford--they're in the UK). They studied physics. Two are working scientists. One went into developing something in the private sector. One became a physics teacher. And the last one left the field and became a millionaire selling chips (food, not computer chips). 

And then there's a parallel story set in China in the late '60s. That connects it all together. Eventually.

This is a great sci fi show. If you like that sort of thing. And if you have Netflix. (Sorry if you don't.) 

Have you seen it? Are you tempted if you haven't?

Continuing to Watch

When I write these posts, I tend to look for a TV show that I'm currently watching. I want to recommend something I'm enjoying and something you might not have heard of. But alas, everything I'm currently watching are shows that I wrote about already.

Well, okay, that works. Kind of...

First off, Evil is on its last season. I initially wrote about it five years ago when it started. Since then, it's just gotten weirder and creepier. And the student priest was fully ordained. (It's on Paramount Plus. Sorry, Alana.)

(Oh, it looks like the first two seasons are on Netflix. I'm sure they'll get the last two seasons later.)

I mean, what's not to like about a show with a nun who sees (and fights) demons. And a priest who does remote viewing (for the Vatican). And four daughters who always talk at the same time. And their grandmother (who's gone full evil) is babysitting the antichrist who is her biological grandson. The show is wild.

Here's the trailer for the current season:

Last year I wrote about The Lazarus Project. It's currently airing season 2 on TNT. (I would assume you can catch the episodes on demand at this point.)

Last season the show was about resetting to July 1st when things went wrong. This season someone built a full-on time machine--that created a black hole that's going to destroy the earth three weeks after July 1st, so they've got to figure out a way to stop this. How (or if) they get a season 3, I have no idea.

Here's the trailer for the current season:

I have started a bunch of series. Some I got through the whole pilot episode. Most I couldn't even make it that long. So, when trying to come up with something interesting to watch, I thought, why not a rewatch? So, I'm rewatching Ted Lasso. I wrote about it three years ago. That was about season 1. They did three full seasons and then ended it. 

As I write this, I'm a couple episodes into season 2. By the time you read this, I'll probably be finished rewatching it. Instead of finding a trailer, I found a video titled "convincing you to watch ted lasso in 7 minutes". It's 7-ish minutes of scenes from the show. I do need to warn you, the language is "salty". (Roy Kent can't utter a line of dialog without at least two F-bombs. And the others don't hold back.)

Have you seen any of these shows? What shows are you currently enjoying?

SkyMed

When I first subscribed to Paramount Plus (mostly for The Good Fight, but also a bit for Star Trek: Discovery), I ran into SkyMed. (Okay, maybe not right when I first subscribed.) And then the second season dropped a few months ago, so it's back on my mind. I might as well tell you about it.

It's a medical drama. It's also a rescue show. But instead of ambulances, these nurses use airplanes. They have to as they are in the north of Canada, and they service the remote villages which are mostly accessed via the air.

Between the rescues, the show is about the nurses who man the planes. And the pilots who fly the planes. And they're all young and ridiculously attractive, so they're all hooking up and young drama and such. It's fun, though, really. 

If you like rescue shows, definitely check this out. Here's the trailer:

Since the show is Canadian, I assume it was just a regular show in Canada. If any of you can confirm this, I'd appreciate it. South of the Canadian border, it's streaming. 

Has anyone seen this show? Any good recommendations for me?

Almost Paradise

For today's what to watch Wednesday, I have the perfect summer-type show. It's called Almost Paradise. 

It's on the streaming service Freevee. Don't get Freevee? If you can stream TV, you have access. It's a free channel (supported by ads), so if you're finding you have nothing to watch, you might find something to interest you there. (I talked about it a year and a half ago.) 

In Almost Paradise, we have an ex-DEA agent expat named Alex who moved to the Philippines to retire. Of course things didn't go according to plan, and things are way more expensive than Alex expected. But he tries to make do while trying to take it easy. But, of course, he keeps getting sucked into solving crimes with the local police (who don't really need or want his help). 

Description via Google: 

Alex Walker, a former U.S. DEA agent who was forced into early retirement. Once the DEA's most resourceful undercover operative, the combination of his partner's betrayal and a life-threatening battle with hypertension has sent him as far from the madness as he can go -a small tropical island in the Philippine Archipelago.

For a show that takes place in not-America, a surprising number of people speak English (sarcasm intended). So, yeah, some of it is a bit far-fetched. But it's the perfect summer show--beachy, light (relatively), and not too involved. (It is a crime show. Crimes are committed and solved.) 

Trailers help, so here's the trailer for season 1. (There are two seasons thus far.) 

Ignore the Universal Plus. It is on Freevee.

Has anyone else seen this show? Does anyone have a recommendation for another show I can start?

Renegade Nell

In last week's "what if?", I mentioned Renegade Nell. Since it's summer, Wednesday is the day I talk about whatever weird show I managed to stumble across.

It turns out that if you subscribe to Hulu, you also subscribe to Disney Plus, no extra fee required. (This was news to me when I found out. Of course, I couldn't take advantage of this right away due to how I was subscribed to Hulu, but things changed and I sorted it out.) Once I was newly receiving Disney Plus, the first thing that popped up was this show, and it looked kinda interesting, so I checked it out.

The description via iMDB: 

A quick-witted and courageous young woman framed for murder unexpectedly becomes the most notorious outlaw in 18th-century England. When a magical spirit called Billy appears, Nell realizes her destiny is bigger than she ever imagined.

Nell (don't call her Nelly) goes through some stuff. Newly widowed, she returned to her father's home (tavern) only to have him killed by the local toff. When Nell tried to get justice from the magistrate (who was that toff's father), the toff killed him (yes, his father), and framed Nell for the deed.

Now, Nell had her two younger sisters to take care of, no home (as the magistrate gave it to someone else), and no recourse. So she turned to highway robbery. As one does...

And I'm not even mentioning her pixie helper or the sister of the toff who found her way into dabbling in dark magic. It's quite a show.

It's funny how I've wanted Disney Plus for so long to watch shows I've heard of, and then when I get it, I end up watching a show that it seems no one has heard of. Or have you?

Anyway, it's best to see it, so here's the trailer:

If you have Disney Plus, have you seen this show? Interested? Any good shows I should check out?

Chemistry Lessons

It is spring break, so that means I go into vacation mode here. (Last week's subbing stories will appear next week.) And on Wednesdays, I talk about something I watched that I would recommend.

(For A to Z I cheated a bit to fit the letter of the day. Sorry, not sorry.) 

Lessons in Chemistry streams on Apple TV Plus. I heard about it at about the time I discontinued my subscription, but knowing that eventually I'd subscribe again I kept it in mind. The good news: that means that I don't have to wait for new episodes to drop weekly. That doesn't mean that I've finished the season, however. I'm only about half way through.

The show follows Elizabeth Zott who is a chemist in the 1950s (the show seems to span the '40s through the '60s). Through some misfortunes (and here I mention the content warnings as those misfortunes include her r*pe and a later sudden death) and that fact that she's female in the '50s, she ends up hosting a cooking show. 

I understand that the show is based on a book. 

So far, I'm rather enjoying the show. Whether I end up loving it or am more ambivalent will depend on how it ends. 

This is the official trailer: 

Has anyone else seen this show? (Please, no spoilers.) Has anyone read the book? Do you subscribe to Apple TV Plus? (I recommend if for no other show than Ted Lasso.) Does anyone have any good TV recommendations for me?

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter

Doom Patrol

It is winter break at the schools, so I will save any subbing stories until school is back in session. That means it's time to talk about a TV show.

When it comes to TV shows, I sort of collect lists of what sort of looks interesting, but I don't actually start any until the right mood strikes. In late November, the mood was finally right to start Doom Patrol. (Well, that and the new season had started, which meant it was at the top of the streaming page.) 

And... it's dark. I made it through the pilot, barely. It took about half of the first season for me to be on board. (It helped that I don't have much to watch at the moment, so each night I'd just start the next episode.) I like the show, but with reservations. 

We start out with five main characters. In season one, they're trying to find their "chief", the man who found them all and has tried to help them. 

So, for some character soup: we've got Cliff the robot (whose brain was the only thing that survived a car accident), Jane with DID (and each of her personalities has a different superpower), Jack who has an energy being trapped inside him (and who almost died in a plane crash), Rita the former movie star (who turns into a blob of goo), and Victor the cyborg. 

It's not your typical superhero show. These characters are damaged. They've all suffered some serious trauma, and the show is mostly about how they deal with that, and with their superpowers (which they don't really use to save people). 

The best way to get a feel for it is to see a trailer. The show just finished its fourth (and last) season, so I'm posting all four seasons' trailers. 

Season one:

Season two:

Season three:

And season four:

Have you seen Doom Patrol? Is there another show you could recommend to me? (I'm always on the lookout for something to stream.)

The Gilded Age

I'm on winter break, so any subbing stories from before the break will be saved until after. Until then, it's "summer schedule" time, so I'm going to talk about a TV show I've been watching.

I'm not sure if I should call this "streaming" as it's been airing on HBO. (I just have the streaming service, but if you subscribe to HBO, you could have been watching this as it was broadcast. It had its season finale last week.) Everything for me nowadays is streaming, though. (The pros and cons of this belong to their own post.) 

I often will seek out a TV show if I am familiar with the team behind it. A decade ago, I kept up with Downton Abbey. I enjoyed it. And so when I heard Julian Fellowes, the executive producer, had created a new show, I was in. Like Downton Abbey, it's a period piece. Unlike Downton Abbey, it takes place in America.

The Gilded Age takes place in (gasp), the Gilded Age, which sets the era as the 1880s. New York. 

The show centers on two families, one who is "old money" and one who is "new". Or, as they call them, "the new people". They live across the street from one another. At the beginning of season one, the Russells are just moving into the new mansion they built as Bertha Russell has made it her mission to join the high society of the "old money" establishment. 

The thing that's great about this show is that I can't really explain all the various plots in the space of a blog post. The wealthy and their servants each have story arcs, and these arcs intersect at various points, but sometimes they are quite separate. The complexity is a good thing as that keeps the plots from falling into melodrama.

Well, not the usual melodrama. 

I have embedded the trailers for seasons one and two. That's the best way to see who's in it, as you will recognize several actors, I am sure.

Season one trailer:

Season two trailer:

Has anyone seen this show? (I'm sure many of you don't get or stream HBO, so no worries.) If you have seen it, what do you think of it? Do you have any good shows to recommend for me?

Quantum Leap

So far this summer, my Wednesday posts are less "show I watched that I think you might like" and more "show I watched and I need something to write about". The show I started last week was Quantum Leap. 

The Quantum Leap reboot/sequel premiered last fall with the new shows of the regular season. As a fan of the previous incarnation, I was willing to give it a shot. I set up my DVR to record it. And then I proceeded to not watch a single episode.

Why? I don't know, exactly. Starting things for me sometimes is hard. And once I had stacked three or four episodes, it just seemed like a lot of work. I couldn't quite get into the right mindset to put on an episode. I found other things to watch.

So, now it's summer, and I have the whole season sitting, waiting. I realized that now is as good a time as any to start the show. I don't really have anything else to watch.

And you know what? I like it.

As of this writing, I'm six episodes in. And I can't figure out why I waited so long to start it. If you saw the Scott Bakula Quantum Leap, this is a sequel. They reference Sam Beckett and the previous show quite a lot. But if you never saw the previous iteration, you won't be missing too much as the important stuff is referenced to catch us all up. (It's been decades since I watched it last.) 

What I like is something that modern shows do, and that's they expand the universe. (They did something similar with the now-defunct Fantasy Island reboot/sequel.) The original Quantum Leap was all about Sam and Al and the leap of the week. This one gets out of the imaging chamber and explores the modern day side of the experiment. 

I'm glad to hear there's a second season coming. At least now that I've started the thing, I should watch the show as it airs next season. (I got over the hurdle of starting.) 

Here's the trailer:

Did you already see this first season? Did you watch the original show? I'm still looking for TV recommendations, so have you seen anything interesting that I should check out?

Sometimes When We Touch

Some days I scroll through the various streaming services I subscribe to, just looking. If something looks even slightly interesting, I'll add it to "my list". 

Other days, I'll open my lists just to see if there's something that catches my eye to watch. Last week, I perused my list on Paramount Plus, and my mood matched Sometimes When We Touch. 

This is a three part show about soft rock. Remember soft rock? (Many of my regular readers are of the right age to remember the '70s.) I certainly do. 

They interview various artists from that era. They show clips from shows like The Captain and Tennille and Donny & Marie, and I remember those shows. I liked those shows. Now, I can't recall if I was the one who insisted on those shows or if I watched what my parents put on the TV, but I know I watched them. (I have no idea if I would watch those shows today without cringing, but child me loved them.) 

The show talks about the music and how the perception of the music has evolved over the last fifty years. Apparently, it's enjoying a resurgence. Did you know that yacht rock is a thing? Apparently, if you want these songs, just look for the yacht rock stations on satellite radio or wherever you stream. 

Here's a trailer: 

What's your favorite soft rock song? I think I have to go with something from Chicago. "You're the Inspiration." (Ask me tomorrow, and I'll probably pick something else.) 

The Wheel of Time

So, summer. And nothing is on TV. Sigh.

My original plan for Wednesdays was a show that I happened upon that you might not have heard of. But I've got nothing. I scroll around for a while until I find something, and last week that something was The Wheel of Time. 

Season one came out in 2021. Season two is going to premiere in September. It's on Amazon Prime.

It's based on a series of books by Robert Jordan about a magical world with a reincarnated person known as the Dragon Reborn. There's a Dark One who threatens the land, etc. 

There were eight episodes in season one, and I quite enjoyed the show. I do like this sort of high fantasy most of the time. 

Here's a trailer:

Have you seen The Wheel of Time? Do you subscribe to Amazon Prime's streaming service? Does anyone have any shows they can recommend? (Seriously, I need something to watch.) 

The Way Home

School is out, so to fill blog space, on Wednesdays I tell you about a TV show I stumbled across that you probably have not heard of but you may enjoy.

When I say, "The Hallmark Channel," you get a certain idea in your head. Cheesy Christmas movies. Yeah?

They have some original series, too. Family-centered fare. Wholesome. Stuff I enjoy, but not usually stuff I recommend. 

But, earlier this year, they started a new show, and it was not quite like what they usually show. I was going to talk about it in April, but it absolutely would not fit on J-day, and W-day was on the wrong day of the week.

It's called The Way Home. It's about a teen girl who falls into a pond in our time and reemerges in 1999. Her family is going through some serious drama, then and now. Divorce. Missing kid. And more.

Unfortunately, you can only stream it now if you subscribe to Hallmark or Peacock. But, there's going to be a season two, and I bet they'll do a "catch up" of season one before season two airs.

The trailer:

Did anyone else see this earlier this year? Have you ever watched a Hallmark Channel TV show?

Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Season 5 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel started yesterday on Amazon Prime. 

You're not watching it? It's a period show (I believe season 1 started in the late 1950s, but the current season is in the 1960s) about a woman trying to become a stand-up comedian. It's by the people who made Gilmore Girls, so it was something that was on my radar from the beginning.

I'm excited, but I'm also sad. This is going to be the last season. 

Are you watching?

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter

Freevee

As we are on vacation from school, this week I'm on my "summer schedule", which means it's What to Watch Wednesday.

While I was plotting out my posts for my two weeks of winter break, I did a mental inventory of what I've been watching of late. And I couldn't think of one show to recommend. It's not that I haven't been watching anything, but nothing sticks out as something that I really want to write about. 

But while thinking through what I've been watching, I realized that there's a streaming channel that keeps pulling my attention. And just in case you haven't heard of it, I thought I'd bring it to your attention.

Freevee is a free streaming channel that is allied with Amazon Prime Video. At least, that's what brought it to my attention. Well, that and the fact that it was the streaming channel that had the reboot of Leverage. (Did anyone watch Leverage back in the day? Mostly the same cast and the same type of show.) 

Once I started looking, I found all sorts of TV movies from the '90s that I remembered. A quick perusal of shows includes Columbo, Dallas, Perry Mason, Night Court, Bewitched, and The Waltons. There were plenty of newer-ish shows, too, but I thought I'd hit more classic TV for that list.

The downside is because it's free, there are commercials. And I don't think there's a paid tier that will let you skip them. But with all the paid streaming channels out there, it's nice to find one that you don't have to pay for.

Have you found Freevee? Any shows you care to recommend?

Midnight at the Pera Palace

As it is a holiday week, I am pushing my subbing stories from last week to next week, and this week I am on my "summer schedule", which means today I recommend a TV show that I stumbled across that you probably haven't heard of.

It was September, and I was out of things to watch. I headed over to Netflix, and this title popped up. I skimmed the description. It sounded interesting. But it was Turkish, and I wanted something I could knit/crochet to. (I listen more than I watch.) 

Upon further examination, I saw that it was dubbed into English. Good enough. It was worth trying out...

And I was hooked. I think I watched all eight episodes in about three days. (For me, that's quick.)

The story is about a reporter in Istanbul who is given the job of writing a story on a local hotel, the Pera Palace. The hotel manager gives her a tour, and he also gives her a room for the night when the research takes her all day. Then somehow she manages to slip through time and ends up in the past. 1919, to be exact. 

So, obviously, she screws something up that she then needs to set right before she can go back to our present time. As I am not at all familiar with Turkish history, the event she screws up was unknown to me.

The trailer doesn't give much away, but you do get a feel for it: 

I highly recommend this show. (We need enough viewers so we get a second season. Season one, alas, does end on a cliffhanger.) Has anyone seen it? I really need someone who has seen it so I have someone to talk about it with.