Is it possible that there is just too much television? Of course there is, and with that in mind, may I offer up a few suggestions to help you find a few gems for your viewing pleasure. No guarantees, mind you.
Fans of The Beatles – and that would be, well, everyone – will love Beatles ‘64 (Disney+). Using restored, never-before-seen footage and fresh interviews, Beatles ‘64 is a must-see for Beatlemaniacs and a fascinating look at a world so different from today it seems from a different century … oh, wait, it is! (Read Bill’s full-length review here.)
If you don’t have Disney+, deep in the archives of free service Tubi is the most complete documentary series ever done on the band, The Beatles Anthology from 1995. At nine episodes, you won’t need to watch anything else about The Beatles (but you will, won’t you?).
Apple TV+ continues to produce quality TV that seems to sail under the radar. While Shogun got all the Emmy love this year, Pachinko deserves to be seen. Based on Min Jin Lee’s bestseller, the two seasons blend history and family drama into a compulsively watchable, top-tier series. It is, as they say, non-linear, jumping back and forth between eras and nations. This may make it a bit of a challenge to follow, which also makes it ideal for binge-viewing. There are hints that a third season may be in the works.
The central event of Apple’s Where’s Wanda – a young woman walking out the door of her home and disappearing – sounds like a standard crime drama, but it is anything but. This German series is roughly one-third drama and two-thirds comedy. Wanda’s parents, Dedo and Karlotta Klatt, hatch a plan to find their daughter by putting cameras in nearby homes in their small town, looking for clues to her whereabouts. Stuff happens, and it’s all entertaining. The full eight episodes (dubbed or subtitled, or in the original German) are streaming, and the final episode leaves an opening for a second season, as yet unannounced.
Don’t have Apple TV+? Tubi is home to the original, and still the best, TV miniseries, Lonesome Dove from 1989. Based on the Larry McMurtry bestseller, this gritty, sprawling series follows a couple of aging cowboys (Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones, both terrific) on one last cattle drive. Duvall has called his character, Augustus McCray, his greatest role, which is recommendation enough. The cast includes Anjelica Huston, Danny Glover, Ricky Schroder, Robert Urich, Chris Cooper and Steve Buscemi.
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Now that the ‘holiday’ (formerly known as Christmas) season is upon us, it’s time to watch the classic seasonal cartoons. If you’ve seen A Charlie Brown Christmas (only on Appletv+) so many times you know every line (I have seen it, without exaggeration, at least 30 times), or the delightful The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, I have a suggestion.
Disney+ has every episode of the great Bob’s Burgers available for streaming. I am an unabashed fan of Bob’s Burgers. While The Simpsons has been a zombie series for years, Bob’s Burgers is still fresh and alive in its 15th season, and it was never better than in its Christmas episode, The Plight Before Christmas (season 13, episode 10). Harried parents Bob and Linda find themselves trying to be in three places in one night, as doughy musical son Gene is in a xylophone concert, boy-obsessed teen Tina is in a Christmas production, and rabble-rouser Louise is set to read a poem she wrote at the library.
Louise won the right to read a poem she wrote that is about family and Christmas, but she plans to read a different, very inappropriate poem. The final 10 minutes of the show is Bob’s at its best; heart-tugging but still funny sentiment (Kristen Schaal’s reading of the poem is perfect) supported by Bob’s trademark original music. That includes a beautiful piece for strings and what could be a Christmas song classic if it ran longer than the closing credits. It’s funny and beautiful, animated with Bob’s Burgers attention to detail, and it deserves to be seen as often as Charlie Brown’s Christmas and The Grinch.
These are bleak days for network sitcoms, but there is some good news on that front, even if it involves a series that has been off the air for 20 years. The Drew Carey Show, a reliably funny working-guy sitcom that ran from 1995-2004, is finally available. The entire series is available on the Plex streaming service. Unfortunately, you have to put up with fairly lengthy commercial breaks, but that’s the price you pay for free TV. Other older sitcoms available on streaming are Scrubs (2001-2010) on Disney+, and Newsradio (1995-99) on CTV Throwback and Prime Video. Even the worst of any of these shows is better than Happy’s Place.
