First…some housekeeping.
I’m so happy to find out people use RSS feed readers still! I’m also happy it works after so much chaos with my website. But, I’m embarrassed that none of you still feel so much anger at the demise of Google Reader that you can’t even think about RSS feeds without sobbing. I AM STILL SOBBING OVER LOSING GOOGLE READER.
But seriously, I might be ready to move past my hurt. Is there a feed reader I can use on my phone? Am I totally an old for even asking that question?
Now…for TV talk…
During 2020 I relied on a lot of feel-good stuff, or stuff I had seen before. Between the pandemic and taking care of Mom I found myself rewatching Schitt’s Creek and Shadowhunters and Twilight over and over again as some sort of salve on my anxious soul. I also rewatched all of my favorite movies like White House Down and Knight’s Tale. I didn’t get into the things everyone else was getting into like Tiger King. And while I’m not doing only that anymore…the theme of reliable/predictable still stands. Maybe with a little bit of emotion thrown in for good measure.
I still have not gotten into a lot of the TV or movies that anyone else seems to be picking up or enjoying. Obviously Ted Lasso is the exception and I’m thrilled that GBBO is back. But there’s a lot of other stuff out there I’d probably be enjoying if it had come out two or three years ago. Like What We Do In The Shadows or any of the Mike Flanagan creations (Bly Manor and Haunting of Hill House). It’s weird because I see all of that stuff and I think: Kim would really like those shows.
But Kim has no desire to try. And when she does she never sticks with it.
I am trying, though, because Donnie still really likes to watch TV together at night and so we try some shows and I’ll stick with them because it’s something we do together, but honestly? If it wasn’t for him wanting something to watch? I’m not sure I’d watch much anymore.
I feel like I should I should divide the TV I’ve been watching into two categories:
- Stuff Kim Watches On Her Own Because She Really Enjoys It and
- Stuff Kim Watches With Donnie But Would Not Watch If He Did Not Like Watching TV Together Every Night. Which doesn’t mean the shows are not good, they are, I’m just apathetic about ALL television right now. So me putting a shows on this list, even if it’s a list of apathy, means it made it through despited my apathy.
In that first category it’s: Ted Lasso and GBBO. If you’re not watching Ted Lasso, you really should give it a try. I know we’ve hit the cycle of popularity where now it’s so popular it’s kinda cool to not like it, but I’ve never watched a show that deals with grief or loss or even anxiety as beautifully as this show does. Also? I want every female friendship on every show to model after Rebecca and Keeley. They are my favorites.
But we’re here to talk about the shows in that second category, shows I’m not sure I’d watch if I wasn’t watching them with Donnie. But since we watched them, I have thoughts to share! We recently finished Home Before Dark which I enjoyed, although you have to definitely suspend some disbelief as the show tries to balance the kid-investigator feeling of Stranger Things with some serious journalism/criminal investigation storylines that kinda seem silly when the kids are solving the mysteries. We called it the “Little Girl Crime Fighter Show” which is how it was best, in my opinion, because some of the adult storylines made it hard to get into the kid stuff.
In the end, though, it was a sweet show about family and grief and I enjoyed it.
We also watched Jupiter’s Legacy which was…okay? I liked the concept and I love Josh Duhamel but…I don’t know. It felt clunky at times and season one ended in a cliffhanger and then the show got cancelled so I’m not sure I could recommend it in good faith.
We started watching The Nevers before I knew it was a Joss Whedon show and I enjoyed it at first, although I did get some icky feelings about some of the weird Male-Gaze-Based fight scenes but then I learned about his involvement and was like…Oh that explains a lot. It does seem like though that the negative media around him as people who worked with him in the past come out to discuss their experiences came mid-production and he stopped his work on the show after a few episodes.
It’s an interesting show with an interesting concept and some REALLY REALLY REALLY fun characters. But…the mystery/lore/world-building is a bit confusion and convoluted at times. Just when you think you understand it, they change it again. I’m not sure I’m 100% sold on the show but if you like steampunk and badass females fighting in corsets? This show is for you.
Donnie sold me on Doom Patrol by telling me it had Brendan Fraser in it. WHO I HAVE LOVED SINCE MRS. WINTERBOURNE. But, he is mostly there in voice and in flashbacks because his character currently is a robot acted by Riley Shanahan who Fraser never misses an opportunity to credit. Which makes me love him EVEN MORE.
The show is a mix of profanity/vulgarity of Deadpool with the Team Of Misfits feel of everything from Goonies to Stranger Things with a little bit of darkness thrown in. The 3rd season of the show just started and I’m enjoying it. Again – I’m not sure I would watch this (or any of the above shows) if Donnie wasn’t also watching them…but I think this one I probably would stick with. Sometimes it’s a little dark for me, but there’s also enough silly to it throughout that I still smile in most episodes at something. Brendan Fraser script is basically him screaming the F word constantly and it’s hilarious.
I also love the character Rita. I’m excited because it seems like season 3 may have a spotlight on her and I love that!
Donnie just introduced me to What If… which is a cartoon that reimagines some of the Marvel stories and it is REALLY fun. They’re all stand alone episodes and I think it will be one we revisit periodically. It requires ZERO commitment and honestly, even if you only know the basics of the Marvel stories I think you’d still enjoy it. If you have kids who like Marvel movies this might be a fun one to introduce them to because it definitely is fun to consider!
So that’s basically all I’ve watched in 2021. Donnie has tried to get me into a handful of other things (like the aforementioned Mike Flanagan stuff) that I’ve watched an episode or two of and then abandoned. As you can see there’s definitely a theme to what I like…action/superhero being the dominant theme. But I’ve kinda always turned to that stuff as my dependable source of entertainment which is why Donnie keeps bringing me those shows to try.
What are you watching? Or have you been watching?
I can’t help with the TV show question at all (I mostly just watch hockey games), but I can say that Feedly does the job for me as a feed reader. I too was crushed when Google shut down Reader! But I’ve gotten used to Feedly, and yes, it for sure works on my phone. In addition to following a lot of active blogs, I just love that if a long-quiet blogger pops back up, it lets me know.
I flailed around too after Google Reader was murdered, but theoldreader.com spun up not long after and was specifically intended to replicate GR’s look & feel. I’ve gotten totally used to it–though my interest lay in little more than just reading threads, I do little or nothing with any of its other features.
There is a TheOldReader app, though I’ve never used it. On my phone I open a Firefox tab and use the desktop version.
YMMV
I’ve been using Feedly since GR was laid to rest. It has gotten better over the years and it works great on my phone too. Every once in awhile, some blogs just don’t show up anymore and then all of a sudden show up again so that can be annoying.
As for TV shows, I have shows I watch: Just finished the new season of Gossip Girl, currently watching Shrill on Hulu (I think you’ll love it) and just started 30 Rock. Last year I watched New Girl, the orginal Gossip Girl, Schitts Creek. But none of these are shows the husband is interested in so together we’ve watched pretty much most of those shows you and Donny watch but we’ve also enjoyed all the Star Trek stuff on Paramount+, Picard, Discovery and especially Lower Decks (it’s animated and hilarious).
I also use Feedly since that fateful day they put Google reader down, the phone app is pretty good, but for some reason I don’t love reading blogs that way. And there are certain blogs that I still have to click out to the actual site to read – yours and Bloggess for example. But it is still handy to use as a way to know there is new content.
My 13yo loves What If, it’s just ok for me, I’ll watch with him because then we get to hang out. We also watched WandaVision and Loki together and I loved those, I cannot wait for Hawkeye to come out. In that same arc, The Boys on Amazon is pretty good too, but I do NOT watch that with the 13yo 🙂 On AppleTV I also enjoyed the Morning Show, Little Voice, and Mythic Quest. And the weirdest thing my husband watched with me that I didn’t see coming was the Lularoe documentary, he was totally into it!
I use Feedly and I love the app on my phone – it’s how I just read and am commenting on this post.
I am not much help on the TV front because I have only been binge-watching veterinarian reality shows on Disney+ (19 seasons of The Incredible Dr. Pol, and now Dr. K’s Exotic Animal ER, and Yukon Vet). I finally realized why – it’s because the vets on those shows are trying to help people and their pets or livestock, and it’s a feel-good antidote to the nastiness of politics and COVID – these vets are proof that people are good and care about others. And the shows don’t require a lot of energy from me as I watch while I wash dishes or do other chores. 🙂
I’ve been out-of-the-loop with a newborn, but I have your blog updates on Feedly too! I use the web version and the app is great! It felt really bad at first compared to google reader, but I like it now – not sure if because of the updates they made or it’s been long enough to forget how reader was.
I’ve been watching Sex Education, which you might enjoy. There’s A LOT of sex, as well as complex characters, good storylines, and beautiful scenery. I’m attached to all the characters and it delves into lots of teen issues in a fun way. I love it so much.
The other show I watched recently and enjoyed was the Beforeigners, which is a Norwegian show about people from the past who get hurtled into the present, without knowing why or how. The people from the past are treated like a different class of people and the show does some interesting things to draw the parallels between the types of bigotry we see in our world and this new type in their world. It’s just been one season so far but I enjoyed it!
And Ted of course!
Ditto on Ted Lasso. I love Ted. And am jealous of Rebecca and Keeley’s friendship. And Roy… even though he curses at inappropriate times, he is precious. My son has me watching Brooklyn 99 with him. We also watch Lucifer together. Now that the season is starting back up, I’ll be watching a ton of stuff… 9-1-1, all the NCIS shows, The Rookie (another my son watches with me), Blue Bloods, the Chicago Med/Fire/PD trio… and tons more.
I tried Feedly, and I just couldn’t get it to display exactly how I preferred things in Google Reader. Then I tried TheOldReader, I think, and then something broke and THEN I found InoReader, which I LOVE. I can make it look exactly like Google Reader used to and so I haven’t lamented the loss of Google Reader in years and years. Give a try and see if it will do what you want – I use it in a browser almost exclusively, though there is also an app which I use maybe once a year while I’m on vacation.