TV Notes

I’m running out of stuff. I usually knock off from reading or doing math by 8 p.m. and plant myself in front of my Sony big-screen. (55”, 16 years old, and runs like a top. If only my pit bull hadn’t eaten the remote.). I might actually have to change my schedule and read more of my books. The horror.

I still have a few seasons of the old British cop show “Inspector George Gently” in reserve. The appeal there is one, that it takes place in Northumbria, so the unfamiliar accents are fun, and two, it is unsentimental.

Here are a few reactions to other things.

I enjoyed “The Count of Monte Cristo” on PBS. The main virtue is the intricacy of the stories behind the protagonist’s schemes for revenge. Also Jeremy Irons’s shot in one episode. I tried to read it but put it down. It was tedious. It’s very long, but I scored a free PDF. Less investment made it easier to put aside.

“Life, Larry, and the Pursuit of Unhappiness” was pretty good, albeit not including the unwatchable second episode. The bits stolen from “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” which I’ve watched all the way through, twice, did not sit well with me. I dislike and avoid knock-offs. The Obama role in the final installment is well-done. As David has said, Obama can be very funny.

“Sugar” with Colin Farrell is a pretty good private-eye yarn with a nutty alien visitor overlay. Who thought that was a good idea. Another sci-fi, “Silo,” is pretty good. I’m still missing “The Peripheral” and “The Expanse,” good sci-fi shows that were both cancelled. In the latter, I liked that the space ships are armed with rail guns, which are a real thing, not lasers or space torpedoes.

I’m a sucker for anything about New York City, hence “Westies,” happening in Hell’s Kitchen in Manhattan. Problem is, the Irish gangsters and revolutionaries are all too dumb to believe. The Italians are smart enough. I would be surprised if Hells Kitchen still existed, in light of Manhattan gentrification.

Also taking place in NYC is “The Godfather of Harlem.” (Harlem is disappearing too.) This series absorbs me but also bugs the hell out of me, since it deprives black radicalism of its radical core and integrates it with drug gangsterism. The story entails completely improbable incidents of radical protest and cartoonish representations of an array of famous African-Americans. The black ‘radicals,’ including the Black Panthers, are no more than angry MLKs. The only convincing character is Giancarlo Esposito as Adam Clayton Powell, decidedly not a radical. The Malcolm X character isn’t bad. The nobility of the show’s good guys, like Malcolm, is a little overwhelming.

The saving grace is the fabulous cast, including Forest Whitaker, Vincent D’Onofrio, Esposito, Chazz Palminteri (briefly), and Michael Raymond-James, who plays Joe Columbo. Whoopi Goldberg is there too and does well enough.

The worst bit in the series, which should be a hanging offense, is a moment when the show restages the famous picture of an armed Malcolm X standing guard at his window with the gangster Bumpy Johnson standing next to him. Evidently they did know each other, but Johnson was not there.

In the telling of the story, Bumpy Johnson is alleged to have great plans for the benign uplift of Harlem. Utter fantasy. There are so many true, exciting stories of black radical upsurge. Why concoct one that relies on drug pushing murderers for protagonists, with a gangster-rap soundtrack.

The film-bio of Fred Hampton was not terrible. They tried for accuracy. But the best depictions of U.S. radicals ever are still in the movies of John Sayles: “Return of the Secaucus Seven” and of course “Matewan.” The best right-wing hate-fantasy portrayal of leftists was in the third Dirty Harry movie, “The Enforcer.”

I was glad to see the arrival of a new season of “Reacher.” Also unsentimental. The star is so ripped he looks photoshopped. I also confess to the guilty pleasures of watching “The Punisher” and “Daredevil.”