What I Are Watching

A few months ago I asked for recommendations about what I should be watching on the tube, and I’m pleased to report that I’m enjoying some of your recommendations.

I’m finding “Continuum” pretty darn good, though I think Keira loses points for somehow not noticing that she is a jackbooted enforcer for an illegitimate slaver regime.   And also I’m now at the start of Season Three, and what with a brand-new alternate timeline the plot has now got too complex for even me to follow— and dammit,  I’m Plotboy!  This would be completely incomprehensible for anyone casually watching an episode, and pretty challenging even for a binge-watcher.

And “Rake” is a lot of fun for someone of a disturbed cast of mind, like me.   Cleaver somehow manages to seem hapless while he’s snorting all the drugs, banging all the women, and getting repeatedly punched in the face by people to whom he owes money.   He’s got that, “What?  How did that get up my nose?” expression down pat.  Though now, in Season Two, I’m beginning to find his behavior depressing, and far too reminiscent of friends I made a point of losing track of years ago.

But the best part of “Rake” is that our barrister’s clients are all so completely, irredeemably guilty, which makes Cleaver’s squirmings at the bar all the more delightful.  And even another best part is how distinguished Australian actors are cast as characters so depraved as to beggar belief.  Already we’ve had Sam Neill as a man guilty of having sex on video with his dog; and Hugo Weaving as a cannibal.  (“WELCOME TO MY ABATTOIR, MR. ANDERSON!”)

I’m now looking forward to Nicole Kidman as a politician caught on camera as the middle strut in the Eiffel Tower, and Hugh Jackman as an all-singing, all-dancing Santorum fetishist.

And Cate Blanchett, I’m given to understand, plays Cleaver himself in a movie-within-the-TV-show, which is pretty clever.

I also watched at least ten minutes of the Grumpy Cat Christmas Special, which really, really tried to be a satire of itself, but which failed to hold my interest.  I feel I have now done my duty by holiday specials, and feel no impulse to watch another— unless of course I find my absolute favorite on the television.