Day: May 13, 2018

Recommended by one-half of the Cube Critics, I started watching because I enjoy the rat-a-tat dialogue of Amy Sherman-Palladino but do not have the time to watch 150+ episodes of the Gilmore Girls. This has some annoying TV things–continuity from episode to episode; sometimes the characters can feel very one note–but every episode has funny lines, an engaging hook and–my favorite–includes a choreographed dance number.*  It’s too bad that this only ran for 18 episodes, but they are a fun and interesting 18 episodes.

Cost: free via Freeform (I got to once again experience the fun TV-watching exercise of muting the commercials. There were five of them and they played repeatedly. )
Where watched: at home

*There are also three generations of characters (teenagers, 30-something, woman of a certain age) and I enjoyed seeing a variety of older actresses rotate through as minor characters.  I suspect many of them regularly turn up in Sherman-Palladino ventures.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/tv/bunheads_ver2.html

Chris Evans’ directing debut* that will be of interest to everyone who likes Before Sunrise-esque movies.  In this case, Evans is in town for a big audition (he plays trumpet) and Eve has just missed the last New York-to-Boston train. While this movie has been done, the performances were engaging, the mechanization keeping the actors together felt real and overall, this was a nice film for a Sunday afternoon.

Cost: free from Netflix
Where watched: at home

*DVD extras have a quote from Evans that says something like: “My first time directing, I figured, why not make it easier and only have two people in it?”

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2015/before_we_go.html