Watch This
Three series recommendations for you
One day, I’m going to write a rant about how, in addition to paying my local cable company for the fastest internet service available as well as a full channel lineup that includes HBO, whatever is left of Showtime (I still haven’t figured out how to watch it since they made it part of Paramount+), and Starz, I am also paying for the Hulu+ subscription that includes Disney+ and ESPN+ and Netflix. I get Apple TV+ for free via T-Mobile; Peacock’s basic service with commercials is included with my Instacart+ membership, and Paramount+ is free through one of my credit cards (I don’t remember which).
Our entire existence has become social media platforms and paid subscriptions to every single part of our lives.
I’m very sure I have subscription fatigue, but I haven’t canceled anything yet, so I guess I should shut up about it and get to the point of why I started writing about this in the first place.
I’ve gotten a lot of use out of my multiple subscriptions as of late, and I want to share with you some of the best things I’ve watched because I encourage you to watch them as well, and then let’s discuss, show we?
Reasonable Doubt
Reasonable Doubt is a Hulu series focusing on Jacqueline “Jax” Stewart (played by Emayatzy Corinealdi), a Black corporate defense attorney in Los Angeles. The shows main plots feature her work as an attorney as well as her attempts at reconciliation with her husband Lewis (McKinley Freeman), from who she has separated. Jax and Lewis also coparent their two children, Spenser and Naima together.
I like the format of the show because these first two seasons have each focused on one particular case. The first season gave us eye candy in the form of Michael Ealy, who is always playing a problematic light-skinned nigga, and he was a problematic light-skinned nigga in that first season.
The second season, which I liked more than the first (but both were good), features Morris Chestnut, and baby? Yum.
The storylines are engaging and move fast, and each episodes ends with a bit of a what the fuck moment that leaves you waiting for the next one.
After watching the first season, I learned my lesson and waited until the entire second season was available before I started watching.
I highly recommend it because it’s Black AF, and Jax is to defense litigation what Oliva Pope was to fixing things.
Cobra Kai
I’m usually the first person to say “We don’t need a remake of that shit” when it comes to things I loved from the 80s, and I may have said something similar when I heard Netflix was doing a Karate Kid reboot, but I’m all in for the return of Daniel-san and Johnny Lawrence.
The show picks up with Daniel and Johnny as adults; 34 years after Daniel crane-kicked Johnny in the fucking face.
Daniel is a successful car dealership owner. He’s married with two children, and he’s trying to figure life out after the death of his friend and mentor, Mr. Miyagi.
Johnny has fallen on hard times since his days as a rich boy in Encino. He lives in a crappy apartment; he’s bottomed out and is a low functioning alcoholic, and he is estranged from his teenage son Robby.
The show is up to six seasons so far, and it’s a campy but fun watch.
They manage to bring back most of the characters you remember from the original Karate Kid movies featuring Pat Morita and Ralph Macchio, and so it is fun seeing what everyone is up to and looking like these days. They even brought Allie back, and that was a time, baby.
It’s very unserious at its core (it’s written as a comedy with serious moments), much like the Kung Fu movies we used to watch on Saturdays when we were younger – those of us who watched those shows in the 80s anyway.
The fight scene choreography is immaculate and probably one of my favorite things about the show.
I just finished part 2 of season 6, and I was not prepared for that ending!
The third part of season 6 is slated to drop in February, and I can’t wait.
It’s corny, but it’s good, and it appeals to my 80s nostalgia heart.
A Man in Full
A Man in Full is a book by one of my favorite authors, Tom Wolfe.
Netflix made it into a limited series with an ensemble Jeff Daniels, Diane Lane, Lucy Liu, and the phenomenal Chante Adams among others.
My plan was to reread the book first (I read it when it first came out in the late 90s, and I still have my poor paperback with the cover hanging off of it), but this weekend I was like fuck it and started watching it.
I’m glad I did.
This series is good and a lot of the characters are true to their book representations. There are some differences in the plot. The book has an accused sexual assault that plays a big part in the book, but that is somewhat muted in the series and is more of an “oh and also he did this” kind of thing about a character we never really meet, but I’m going to guess maybe Netflix decided against it because in the book it’s a Black athlete accused of raping a white heiress.
A character that is white in the book is Black in this series, and that actually makes his story way more compelling.
Like me, Wolfe was a journalist, and his writing style reflects that, and it’s always so good. He is very descriptive and his characters jump off the page, so seeing them manage to keep that in place with the casting and the script for this limited series made me very happy.
Regina King directed 3 of the 6 episodes of the series, and her sister Reina is named as an executive producer.
Please watch it. It’s delicious. Jeff Daniels is superb, and he eats in every scene he’s in.
I’m going to start Cross on Prime Video next.
What are you watching? Any recommendations for me?
Was literally talking to someone about my subscription overload the other day. I feel like I got got and am still getting got by paying for all of them. Luckily, my cable is paid for via my HOA so I’m a little less got? Not really. 😁 Bad Sisters on Apple + and Day of the Jackal are both solid series. Just started Cross and told my husband that the lead is too fine for us to watch together. 😀
I go through periods where I cancel them all ... and then I slowly end up adding them back. 🤨 I have been at two for months but now, of course, there is something I want to see on Netflix so I'm going to have to add it back. Sigh.
Reasonable Doubt keeps popping up as recommended-for-you but I keep ignoring it, thinking "I don't need yet another detective or lawyer series." But your review made me decide to watch it. So thank you! Or maybe not, since I shouldn't be watching anything. 😊