"Resident Alien"

Syfy has had a troubled past in creating shows of quality.  So, much to my surprise, "Resident Alien" is delightful.  It is complex and layered and unexpected.  Honestly, I only watched it initally because of Alan Tudyk.  I would pretty much watch Alan Tudyk in anything.  He doesn't disappoint here.  Playing an alien with less than honorable intentions he is stranded on Earth with little love or understanding of humans.  Things happen.  It is almost impossible to cover all the elements of this show which goes way beyond the word "quirky".  It is Science Fiction, Horror, Comedy, Drama and has a touch of Romance.  The characters are taken straight out of the original "Fargo" and their weirdness is barely eclipsed by Tudyk, who is hysterical in his efforts to mimic human facial expressions and speech patterns.  Definitely a male-produced show the women are thankfully "real" and varied.  At first it was almost too strange but it has grown on me with every week and quickly become "that show I have to watch" the next day after I record it.  A special shout-out to Judah Prehn who steals every scene he is in (which is not easy with Tudyk) and don't fast-forward through the credits.  The cartoon diagrams of "what to do" and "what not to do" will leave you giggling all night.  Bravo to Syfy for finally coming up with a winner. 

Why Didn't I Hear It Before?

I've been watching a lot of "old" TV on the Senior Citizen channels.  "Adam-12", "Emergency", "MASH", "Hogan's Heroes", etc.  One station has also revived the Saturday Morning Cartoons of my childhood.  I like the comfort of familiar G-rated fare in these difficult times.  But ... I'm hearing things I didn't hear before.  I've seen these things a million times.  Half-watched them while working out or doing the laundry.  But suddenly, there is a difference.  Yes, I know that gender relations have changed a good deal over the past four or five decades but I didn't realize how much.  Dialog which wasn't even noticed before now sends chills down my spine.  On "MASH", they joke about rape.  On "Emergency" Gage talks about how there are no good nurses left -- according to him they must be under 30 and under 150 pounds.  He and the others openly joke about women who are dogs.  On "Adam-12" Malloy is similarly judgmental of the women he dates.  He and Reed often refer to women as "girls" and explain to a battered wife that it's her job to calm her husband down.  

This isn't a shock.  Not too long ago a colleague and I tried to explain to a younger, "woke" woman about #MeToo and the changes we had seen in our lifetimes.  In our pasts a lot of these kinds of things happened, and it was wrong -- we knew that, but we also accepted it to some degree, the way the world was.  To this day I'm not offended by what I call "the little stuff" which others might label as microaggressions.  I grew up with it.  Yes, when it was bad, you spoke up ... carefully (or lose your job).  But you didn't swing at every pitch.  If you did you would be dismissed as one of those crazy/whiny feminists.  You wouldn't be taken seriously, no matter how serious the complaint.  

It's not an excuse, it was reality.  The world was literally different.  And it changed.  But not overnight.  Baby steps.  I interviewed with men who hit on me during the interviews (more than one) and had one boss who tried to hook me up with a friend, determined that I would be a better employee if I got laid (yes, he said this -- out loud).  I had another boss who had a good friend drop into the office every now and then.  The man had a habit of giving unwanted shoulder massages to any woman in the vicinity.  The network of women in the building let each other know when he was in the house and made a point to stay busy and avoid him.  The same was true with a co-worker who loved hugs -- long, too-long, lingering hugs.  Women just ducked out of his way every time he approached.  A male colleague, observing this, was shocked that no one had spoken up.  "To what end?" he was told.  Telling the boss wouldn't have gotten the man fired.  Also, since his behavior was already a little predatory I guess the women were afraid of what might happen if he knew how much his behavior was disliked.  

Being hit on in job interviews was particularly difficult.  You want the job, so you play along -- just enough but not too much.  It was part of the icky reality of women's lives, and still is in some fields.  I always thought women must be very brilliant to play this game to get the gig and not be destroyed in the process, but you forget that many women -- many -- were hurt.  Badly.

This was the reality of the 1950s and 60s (watch "Mad Men") but the stories I'm telling are from the 80s.  Not so long ago for my aging brain.  Should we have spoken up more?  Called them out as people do today?  It wouldn't have worked.  Anita Hill spoke clearly and eloquently about her experiences with Justice Clarence Thomas in 1991.  She wasn't believed.  Not even by our current President.  The Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, Justin Fairfax, faced two different charges of sexual assault a year ago ... and nothing happened.  Nothing.  Not even an investigation.  

So, we've made progress.  But not enough.  The women of Ancient Greece protested, as did Lady Godiva and the women of Seneca Falls.  They would be pleased with all we have accomplished but would they recognize that the glass ceiling is still in place?  Many young women of today don't.  Today's youth might watch these old shows and flinch at some of the behavior but see it as the past.  It isn't.  Should I turn off these shows permanently?  

No.  These shows stopped production a lifetime ago.  Boycotting them would have little effect.  I do recognize the bigotry and inapropriate comments but I also know what it was like to live in those times.  I see the shows for their totality.  They reflected their times but they also fought against it.  The "Dragnet" shows lumped gay people in with drug users (no, I really didn't remember that) but all of the Jack Webb shows also made a point of pushing against the racism of the day.  Cops and victims of crimes were both black and white, with most characters depicted as honorable and decent.  Criminals were rarely black.  Looking back, I realize how edgy that was, how it pushed the boundaries of what so many believed at the time (and still believe).  In one of their final episodes, "Adam-12" featured a female cop.  Intelligent, strong and still a woman.  The paradigm was flipped on its head.

It is a bit disingenuous.  I stopped watching Woody Allen films a long time ago.  But for me there is a line of delineation.  These shows have elements which can be offensive but what Allen did was criminal.  Advocates of #MeToo may disagree but that's my personal line in the sand.  Feel free to select your own line, putting it at a different point.  This is, at its heart, a deeply personal issue.

Yes, Foghorn Leghorn makes a comment that something is "as unlikely as getting rent from (a certain racial/ethnic minority)" and I wince.  I shake my head.  So wrong.  And, for the record, I won't be watching Foghorn Leghorn again.  But the important thing is that I hear it.  I see it.  I'm aware, unlike I was so many years ago when first watching these shows.  I note that we have moved forward.  New shows, current shows, would not do this (okay, that's a lie, "Call Me Kat" did).  There is progress.  Maybe it's not an end-goal, maybe it's an unending journey.  And there is no way of knowing how long the road is.  We can only keep putting one foot in front of the other, keeping our heads up, our ears alert, our eyes open.

"The Equalizer" Reboot

Queen. Latifah.  

Enough said?  

It's truly fabulous.  (Not to mention multi-talented Liza Lapira being generally delightful and and nicely aged Chris Noth grounding the whole thing.  There is also Adam Goldberg's dry humor and Lorraine Toussaint's luminosity).  

Watch it.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Call it Covid Fever but the turnover in casts this year has been ... interesting (not to mention the plethora of pregnancies, but that's another story).  There have always been cast changes here and there, from "Bewitched" to "Roseanne" but this year feels different.  It is as if Covid made a lot of actors reconsider what they want out of life.  It also gave producers a chance to ditch some deadwood.  And so, some of the notables ...

"9-1-1 Lonestar".  SO much better after replacing lethargic Liv Tyler with the amazing, incredible Gina Torres.  And giving her character a husband and family?  Brilliant.  As if that weren't enough there is an Amuse Bouche for "West Wing" fans in the form of a Rob Lowe/Lisa Edelstein reunion.  More than a few Easter Eggs and nod-nod, wink-winks going on.  It's terrific.  And takes a very strong series into the stratosphere.  (And while we are on it, the addition of John Kim to "9-1-1" ain't bad either.  Loved him in "The Librarians").

"Mom".  Really didn't know how a show based on Anna Faris and Allison Janney's relationship continues without Anna Faris, but it does.  The show has already built a strong group of women who continue to carry the torch and do so with humor, struggles and a grounding in reality.  Ratings are down by almost half but all of network TV has suffered from the streaming revolution during Covid, so who knows?

"Chicago Fire" ... is changing paramedics again.  By my count this is the fourth woman to come and go in the job.  'Nuff said.

"DC's Legends of Tomorrow" has more cast changes.  Quelle surprise.  It's really news when they DON'T have cast changes.

Speaking of which, Brandon Routh has a multi-episode arc in "The Rookie".  As a bad cop.  Good guy Routh is truly terribly creepy playing a bad guy.  He's a great actor to make this shift but it makes me ache for his superhero charm complete with dopey smile.  I don't like it when I want to punch him.

Rosario Dawson and Katee Sackoff on "The Mandalorian".  SUPER COOL!

In the biggest news of the year, according to me, Javicia Leslie replaces Ruby Rose in "Batwoman".  Only a couple of eps in and there is a new energy to the show.  Ms. Rose's subtle performance may have worked in "Orange is the New Black" but seemed insufficient for the CW superheroes shows.  Ms. Leslie's character already has a fresh, mouthy, quirky style she brings to things.  Should make for good back-and-forth with Alice, Rachel Skarsten's impossible-to-take-your-eyes-off-villain.  Ms. Skarsten has had a busy dance card of projects over the past decade or so.  With good reason.  She inhabits her roles entirely.

UPCOMING:

Alan Arkin is not returning for the final season of "The Kominsky Method".  Huh?  How is that possible?  Makes the "Mom" departure seem simple in comparision.

Jensen Ackles (yum, yum) will join "The Boys".  But he likely won't be a good guy.  No kidding.  Is anyone a good guy on that show?

Jim Carrey didn't work out as the SNL Biden so there seems to be a bit of a revolving door on the role.  I'm thinking it isn't easy.  Even the late night hosts haven't really nailed the Biden thing yet.  After President Babypants I guess it's hard to get back to someone grounded in reality.

Last and not least, what's with giving female characters male names?  I bought into Michael Burnham in "Star Trek:  Discovery" but now we have a Ryan and a Jake and a Tommy.  I'm sure there is a point to it all but it hurts my brain trying to figure it out.