Jeopardy! is back!

8 September 2025: Long Monday (see previous post re: a bruiser of a week). Got home after Jeopardy! started--and not even aware that we were back to new episodes, but the DVR caught it. Having it back in my evening routine? Now it's a fall semester. 

Forever

2 August 2025: Slowly working my way through Forever on Netflix. I still have about an episode and a half to go, but it strikes me as a really beauitful show. 

The two kids at the heart of it are so sweet and swoony. They feel real. (A credit to the actors--and all the actors involved.) The parents also seem real and nuanced. They remind me of how hard it must be to love your kids so much yet have this wall that springs up when they reach adolescene. 

Little moments are skillfully realized, from the way the kids text each other (or not--lots of hot and cold at times!) to the confrontations between them and their parents. 

It's a slow and quiet show, the kind that sometimes get overlooked by larger audiences, but it really is a gem.  

Somebody Somewhere, again...

24 July 2025: Not a ton of "new" stuff that I am watching right now, but I was searching for something that could make me feel okay--even happy--for evening watching. Decided to rewatch (for the fourth time, maybe?) Somebody Somewhere. I know I've written about it before (more than once), but it's just perfect. Each watch reveals something new. Grateful to have it in my life. 

Pretty sweet Sunday...

20 July 2025: I know I sometimes document days like today--posts that are basically lists of things I did. They aren't the most interesting posts, I know, but for me, they can serve as little snapshots of ordinary but sweet days. So here's one:

I got an early start with a trip to campus (my first in over a week!) to do a little work and (almost more important to me, at least emotionally) water my plants. 

It's pretty cool to be close to the end of my reading for the "Year's Work" essay. My syllabi are coming along well, too. On Friday, I accepted a new role--Coordinator of First-Year Writing--that means a course release for me, which cut that syllabizing work down quite a bit.

Once I got home, I took my walk through the neighborhood. Laughed really hard at an Extra Hot Great episode. 

From there, I was basically inside the rest of the afternoon. (Still pretty hot out there; it's been an intense summer.) I watched some TV (finished You, which was okay) and read a horror novel by a local writer. I'm enjoying it and have about 120 pages to go.

Then Amy and I saw Magdalene, a CATF play. I really enjoyed it; terrific acting, as always, and some cool ideas. From there, we had dinner at King's.

Home now and just finished a phone call with Tim. Bob's Burgers time (it continues to be my comfort show) until some more reading, bath, and bed!

"Replicants"

7 July 2025: Working my way through the latest season of The Bear. It's good (duh), with moments of absolute greatness, but continues to perhaps take too long and retreads familiar ground. 

But, man: the first scene of "Replicants," in which Kate Berlant (in a one-off performance, I think?) talks about her love, frustration, anger, and profound sadness towards her addict brother? I am adding it to the canon of texts that feel so sadly right to me.

I was already thinking about Ryan today, after hearing that a friend lost her sister to an overdose...

Andor

27 June 2025: Given all the political news (including just awful stuff out of the Supreme Court today), it's a heck of a week to start watching Andor. But seeing it was available for a limited time on Hulu, I decided to give it a shot, given all I have heard about how good it is. 

Me being me, I teared up time and again while watching, especially "One Way Out" and "Rix Road." What a show for this moment. 

(On to Season 2, I guess. We'll see how far I can get before the free window on Hulu runs out.) 

Quite the resume...

28 May 2025: As I type up notes this evening, I am continuing the very slow first-time watch of C.S.I. (started last summer). I made it to season five, episode 15, where a very familiar face played the very much non-nurturing mother of an "adult baby." (This show is so wild...)

Anyway, the actress, Nan Martin, had a long career, but two iconic (to me) roles stand out: Freddy Krueger's mom in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Child and Frieda Claxton on Golden Girls. 

What a career! 

School Spirits

9 May 2025: Besides a bit of work on my SSAWW paper and some little things on campus, I've been kind of lazy when it comes to work these past two days. And that's okay. One sign of that laziness? I just kind of randomly decided to start a new series on Paramount+, School Spirits. Since yesterday, I've watched the first six episodes and it is fun and smart, with some Veronica Mars and Buffy vibes. 

"Where'd she go?"

26 February 2025: I first saw Michelle Trachtenberg as Lily Benton way back in 1993. She must have been about eight. When she appeared in the last scene of "Buffy vs. Dracula," I clocked her as Lily right away. And then I just marveled at how well she played the very difficult role of Dawn--a character meant to be a lot and immature and annoying, but also just a kid. She nailed it. 

I keep thinking of the last scene of "The Body," where she asked, "Where'd she go?" as she reaches out to Joyce, with the scene ending just before she touches her. 

Hard to believe that kid is gone. I hope she rests in peace. 

Yellowjackets Season 2 rewatch...

22 February 2025: I decided that I needed to rewatch Season 2 of Yellowjackets before starting the new one. Making my way through it slowly, given how busy things have been. I am glad I decided to rewatch it because it's wild how much I have forgotten. It makes me think I must not have watched it that closely the first time. I know the critical consensus was that this season was weaker than the first--and I agree. It is also much more meandering and gloomy at the expense of a lot of the (dark) fun of of the earlier season. The showrunners' decision to really invest in the supernatural elements also isn't my favorite. But still...it's a captivating show, with such good acting. 

Excited to start Season 3 when I finish up.

(Maybe not the best world to dwell in too much, mood-wise, at least not for too long, though...)

"the walls were information"

31 December 2024: Should be a quiet New Year's Eve here, which has been the pattern these past four years or so, and that's okay. Took a good long walk, wrote my Christmas thank-you notes, taking care of odds and ends... 

Also--of course--making time for good TV. It's been quite wonderful to keep finding shows that show me a bit of myself, even if quite obliquely. Right now, I am working my way through How to Die Alone, which is just wonderful.

I can't stop thinking about the analogy one character, Terrance, used to describe Mel, the protagonist, who was venting to him about "hitting wall after wall after wall." "I don't want to give up," she says, "but...shit hurts."

"You sound lime my Roomba," he tells her, and when she is amusedly offended, he explains it: when he first got it, it kept hitting walls and he thought it was broken. Then one day, and "the shit was working. Turns out, the walls were information. And every wall was teaching it where to go--and where not to." (By the way, am I shipping this couple? Sure am! We'll see what happens...)

A little research tells me that Natasha Rothwell and the other folks behind the show see this as a central metaphor for Mel's journey, which is smart as heck. 

Looking back and looking forward--in the spirit of the day--I think I'll try to carry that with me. 2025 looks to full of so many walls, but the walls are information. 

[Also, now nine straight years of one post per day--including "catch-up" posts.]

English Teacher

9 December 2024: "A dying profession chose us." -Gwendolyn on English Teacher

Really enjoying this show after (finally!) starting it last week. There isn't much--just eight episodes--but I hope we get more of it. 

"Boogie Days"

24 November 2024: "Jamiroquai and Mark Twain also said, 'um, don't not do fun stuff 'cause your dad got scared one time.'" --Bob to Louise in tonight's episode of Bob's Burgers. 

Laughed out loud at that line (a call-back). Perfect accompaniment to finishing grading the last few ENGL 301 Annotated Bibliographies. Shew! 

"the deceptively simple goal of trying to find people who love you..."

21 November 2024: I watched an episode of the latest (and sadly, final) season of Somebody, Somewhere last night and found myself welling up, feeling so seen by the show once again. So that's kind of how last night wrapped up for me--crying over this miracle of a show. 

This morning, while listening to the latest episode of Extra Hot Great while on my walk, I found myself welling up again when Phil Maciak (this week's "Valued Guest") pitched an episode for the Canon (season 2, episode 2). Here's the line from Phil that got me: "Somebody, Somewhere is about the deceptively simple goal of trying to find people who love you and learning to accept that love when they give it." 

Burger box

9 August 2024: Got a really fun cat-themed birthday package from Vogel today. The theme extended even further when I gave the girls the box. Perfect perch for watching Bob's Burgers.

May Not-Quite-Still Life

25 May 2024: Initially had the urge to snap this picture as a kind of riff on my "Veronica as Streaming Properties" series. Then I saw Jo's cameo below and had to take it. 

Good day here so far; cleaning, laundry, a good walk, and some fun TV. Chill times for the three of us.

Shōgun

24 April 2024: Still have about twenty minutes to go in the last episode of Shōgun and I am already missing it. Just simply one of the best shows I've seen in some time. 

"You need to know the difference"

28 January 2024: “The thing about the dead, some come because they miss you, some come because they need to tell you something you need to hear, some of them just want to take you with them. You need to know the difference.” 

Rewatching episode two of True Detective: Night Country before episode three airs tonight. The quotation above--from Rose, played by the terrific Fiona Shaw--is pretty darn good writing. That turn it takes in the final clause of the first sentence! Reminds me of Maxine Hong Kingston's "No Name Woman." 

"The Bleakening"

23 December 2023:

[Catch-up post]

Made to NY in pretty good time on Saturday. That evening, I was thrilled to introduce Krista and Isla to Bob's Burgers, specifically to "The Bleakening." 

Friday things...

15 December 2023: Gonna do a little list for this post...

1) Fall 2024 course evaluations got released today. I never really worry about these until the moment before I look at them and then I think to myself, "Is this the semester where it all turns? Where I am revealed to be an imposter?" Well, the "not-an-imposter" streak continues, at least for another semester, because they were really lovely.

2) Spent a big part of today working on the syllabus for my Dickinson seminar. That also meant spending time thinking about the last time I taught it--that strange, tough semester that was Fall 2020. That course, that material, and that group of students turned out to be one of the most important teaching, sustaining, and meaningful experiences of my life. Eager to give it another go.

3) Good reviews and the realization that man who made Paddington 2 also made it were enough to persuade me to see Wonka. And you know what? It was delightful. Very sweet and fun.

4) Just watched Susan Lucci win a lifetime acheivement award at the Daytime Emmys and man, do I miss my soaps. They really did help form me.