This week’s Better Call Saul has it all—comedy, drama, pathos, zither music, Hummel figurines, hunting trophies, talking toilets, Jell-O, and maybe even a clue or two about Mike’s mysterious past. For a detailed recap that gets (at least some) of the many references to television, movies, literature and OH MY GOD OPERA!!!! please head over to Happy Nice Time People NOW! (Then you can come back here and peruse.)
Category Archives: Kay Gardella Memorial TV Review Blog
A Very Downton Christmas — S5 E9+
So does this mean that Anna and Bates are free? Or will they never be free? And when we next pick up, what year will be and will Mary and Edith still be living at Downton? Sure the house is big, but is it ever going to be big enough for both of them? Also we were teased by something this entire season with Hughes, and I’m still not convinced we’ve got the whole story. And will Tom every actually just go already OR shut up about it?
I’m kind of hoping there’s an alternative explanation for Miss Clark and her boy. Like maybe Lord Sinderby has a terrible brother who’s the real babydaddy but won’t take any responsibility, so he helps out. And she named him Daniel for her brother that died in the war because otherwise it looks like he’s a hypocrite, and it undercuts the whole importance of marrying within the faith, as well as Rose’s belief that setting up that little photo shoot wasn’t his style. We have no idea what his style is.
Wouldn’t it be awesome if they jumped ahead to 1929 just in time for Robert to lose the family fortune again?
Meantime, if you want to relive Sunday’s Christmas episode (shown in the US in March!) with jokes, my recap should be up over at HappyNiceTimePeople sometime on Monday. And if you need something to do between then and now, might I suggest looking at one of these books or this one?
The Americans — Beyond the Frosted Glass Door
What revisionist bullhockey will The Americans try to shove up our butts this week? (And yes, I’m using bullhockey because I would like recaps of The Americans to be a thing on The Rachel Maddow Show, kind of like the way Keith Olbermann used to read Thurber stories on Friday only more better.) The answer is: The Boland Amendment! That’s right for those of you old enough to remember who weren’t too stoned to care! For you young ‘uns, the Boland Amendment was a weak compromise that made it a little harder to give money to the right-wing death squads to overthrow the democratically-elected leftist government in Nicaragua. This led to Reagan and his cronies finding other ways to fund them, which gave us the Iran/Contra scandal and CRACK COCAINE. What the Boland Amendment was NOT was a communist conspiracy from the Soviet Union except maybe in the wet dreams of Dick Cheney. SO PLEASE SHOW SHUT UP ABOUT THE POLITICS BECAUSE YOU ARE MAKING MY HEAD EXPLODE.
If you’d like to catch my complete ‘cap of the episode or any of my fine writing about television, please head over to Happy Nice Time People.
(If you want to help pay my cable bill, please buy something for almost nothing.)
Better Call Saul S1 E4 “Hero” A Religious Experience
Surely, a nice Jewish girl like me is not the only one to have caught the Catholicism refs scattered like Easter Eggs on last night’s show? It was like The Sting — if The Sting had been written by Jesuits. You can go over to Happy Nice Time People to read my recap and tell me if I’m just hallucinating.
(And if you want to thank me later, buy one of my books or this one that maybe I also wrote.)
Downton Abbey — London Edition RECAP S5 E8
We’ve time-jumped two months from the unfortunate dinner with Dickie’s devil-spawn. Doesn’t look like he and Isobel will be tying the knot anytime soon, but Rose and Atticus are about to get hitched. That is, if a certain someone doesn’t stop the wedding. Tune in at your local PBS station, or skip that part or relive the experience over at Happy Nice Time People the folks (like me) who bring you the bestest recaps on the net!
(Hey, when you finish over there, please come on back and look around! Also buy one of my books maybe?)