A final ride with the Mayans: More of what I'm watching
It's been a couple of weeks now and I am finally working my way towards the end of the list of shows that I have been watching lately. Now that the writer and actor strike is over, they should be coming out with new stuff, so I am sure my list will eventually start growing again.
With football season in full swing and college basketball staring in just about a month, @mrsbozz and I have still found a way to work some regular shows into the mix. Actually, there was a season a couple of years ago where I watched far too much football. @mrsbozz made that clear to me in no uncertain terms, so I try to do better these days and only pick select games that I care about watching.
Mostly the Spartans and the Lions.
I feel like we have been reaching the end of a lot of shows lately which has me a bit worried about what we might watch moving forward. The good news is, there are several adaptations from books my wife has read that she has shown an interest in watching, so we will likely be checking those out.
It's often hard to say goodbye to characters you have come to know and love. It's also exciting when characters you thought you said goodbye to come around for a second go at things. I have a little bit of both for you this week.
Mayans M.C.
The fifth and final season of Mayans M.C. has wrapped up over on FX. I've gotta admit, it was a wild ride. Being fans of "Sons Of Anarchy", Mayans was a must watch for @mrsbozz and I. Kurt Sutter who ran both shows is know for being quite gritty and dark. That is highlighted perfectly in the fifth season of Mayans.
I think I can safely say without giving too much away, there's no sunshine and roses in this show. Season five continues the progression EZ Reyes down the path he feels is the only choice for him. We have slowly seen him embrace his dark side over the last several seasons and season five plunges him over the edge.
You don't need to watch Sons of Anarchy if you want to start watching Mayans, but it will help if you do. Some of the characters crossover and the dynamics of the motor cycle club will make more sense to you if you have that background.
I'm still not really sure how I feel about how this ended. Shocking just doesn't feel like the right word. Something more like inevitable seems to fit better for me. The characters have always been really well written and there is even some surprise redemption that you don't quite see coming.
It definitely gets in your head and makes you think. If you are looking for some gritty drama, this is definitely for you.
Suits
My wife and I have been slowly working our way through Suits over the past month or so. I think we are currently in season four or five of 9 total seasons, so we still have a ways to go. The premise is a young man who has a photographic memory pretends to be a lawyer and gets a job at one of the top law firms in New York. Chaos ensues.
My wife and I are really enjoying it so far, but we do have a few issues with some of the writing.
Let me point out, the characters are really well written and played in a way that makes it really easy to love or hate them. Hats off to the cast of this show. They totally killed it.
Here are my issues though:
First, some of the plot lines get pretty drawn out. There was a point where @mrsbozz looked at me and said, when do we go back to the "case of the week?", I'm tired of these characters. I can't say I don't agree with her, there are some story lines that just got tedious over time. Season 3 is a good example of that.
Second, and I think part of this ties into the first issue, I feel like these people are actually quite horrible lawyers. They are supposed to be the best of the best in their field and yet it seems they are constantly getting out played and out maneuvered by their competition. Leaving them to scramble to save the day. Of course they almost always do, and I understand it's TV, so this is just good drama, but if they are really as good as they are supposed to be, they should be like five steps ahead of everyone else.
I know @ericvancewalton really enjoys this show, so I am curious to see what his take is on my opinions.
All that being said, I really do enjoy the show and I can't quite remember so many attractive people being assembled into a single cast in quite a while. Shame on you royals for being so horrible to the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle is delightful in Suits.
Justified: City Primeval
Back in the early 2010's when Suits was first hitting the scene on USA Network (I think), there was another show over on FX that was entering its second season. I consider Justified to be one of the best television series I have ever watched. Timothy Olyphant brings legendary writer Elmore Leonard's Deputy Marshall Raylan Givens to life in such a fantastic way that you can't help but fall in love with him.
Like I said, the six seasons of Justified are absolute gold in large part to the credit of Olyphant and Walter Goggins who plays Boyd Crowder, the Joker to Raylan's Batman. If you haven't watched Justified yet, stop reading this now and go binge it. I will wait.
After close to a decade hiatus, I was over the moon when I learned that Justified: City Primeval was coming to FX. On top of that, it was set in Detroit (where Leonard was from I think), which is just a couple hours down the express way for me, so that made it even more exciting for me.
Elmore Leonard passed away a few years ago, but I feel like they still captured the magic of the original series in this limited run engagement. Without giving too much away, they did leave the door open for more stories from the world of Justified, so that could be a good thing.
It was cool to see some of the locations I am familiar with in the opening shots of each episode. Olyphant still has the swagger and mindset to pull off Raylan Givens even though he is ten years older now.
I honestly can't think of a single bad thing to say about this show. I don't think it was as good as the original episodes, but it stands up as a really great sequel to the original series.
Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports
I have heard of the, Suits, but I haven't seen it and that's because of how Americans sctipt writers can bring unnecessary dramas in. I have watched lots of their seasonal movies to pick this up.
Haha, I love how mrsbozz made you know you need to choose selected games to watch .haha
I think they were doing a foreign remake of Suits. I saw it online, but I am not sure what region it was going to be for. Maybe India. I didn't check too closely. We do have a lot of drama over here sometimes!
A foreign remake. Wow... I don't know what else to say.
I was browsing the GenX sub of Reddit the other day and someone suggested that to fill in the gaps between new shows today, going back to rewatch some of those sitcoms and dramas of the 80s.
I thought that might be fun, to go back and watch Cheers in order, for instance. I'm not sure if I'd be able to stand the laugh track these days, but it could be an interesting experience. The only show I've ever done that with was TNG. I really enjoyed that rewatch (as painful as some of those S1 and S2 episodes are).
I went back and rewatched Voyager a while ago. I would like to do that with Stargate SG1. That was a great show and I missed a lot of episodes. Going back and watching the original Magnum PI is always fun. They have cable channels that only show that old stuff now.
I haven't watched suits in years, I just lost interest and never went back... I'll have to check out Justified though.
Justified is so good. Like I said, probably one of the top ten best shows I have ever watched.
I have actually not heard of suits but I may try to give it a watch and see if it is something I would love but I'm sure that you don't recommend bad things so it should be a good one
It's available on Netflix in the US, but I am not sure if it's available on the platforms outside of the US.
I noticed some of the same issues with the dialogue and plot. You could clearly tell when they switched up their writing team. Certain episodes and seasons were far better than others. The writing definitely wasn't at the same level as series' like Madmen or Breaking Bad. Despite its shortcomings, we thought Suits had enough charm to keep us watching. We both still talk about how we miss the characters.
The characters for sure. They are really well done. We are only half way through and we don't plan on stopping despite our minor annoyances. In the grand scheme of things our caveats are pretty minor.
From what I remember of the plot, it gets better halfway through. The Mayans are on our list now. I think you told me about that a while back and it totally slipped my mind.
I've not seen this and have been wondering if it might be worth watching. I guess I'll watch a couple of episodes and see for myself.
I just finished The Terminal List on Amazon Prime and finished reading the book only a few days earlier. I'm so glad I read the book because it's way better (and quite different) to the TV show, but the show is also good. It might be worth your time.
I will look into that. My wife has a small list of stuff that I need to appease her a bit with. I feel like we have been watching a lot of shows that I picked lately.
I started watching Rogue Heroes tonight...True story about the beginnings/history of the British SAS in Africa in WW2. It's pretty damned good, based on the book by Ben Macintyre.
Interesting. I'm looking forward to that new WWII Air Force show they have coming out. I can't remember the name of it, but it looks interesting.
I haven't heard of that WWII AF one...do you know what it's called?
Masters of the Air. It's based on a book apparently as most good things are!
https://www.militarytimes.com/off-duty/military-culture/2023/10/05/spielberg-hanks-wwii-series-masters-of-the-air-gets-premiere-date/#:~:text=Based%20on%20Donald%20L.%20Miller's,the%20fight%20to%20Hitler's%20doorstep.
I'll check it out. Cheers.