Watchmen (2019) - wild palms ish. at first i did not recognize Hong Chau. *thumbs up*

i finished watching Better Things season 4. it maybe didn't hit me as hard as season 3, but it's never not good. i'm glad it got renewed because the last episode felt like a series finale.

akin to syfy and harley, AMC provided to its cable viewers its own first season of the Shudder webseries adaptation of Creepshow from late last year. this was ok. i wouldn't subscribe for it, but for a few easy to watch episodes when not much scripted content was airing and a bit of a horror tv drought (correct me if i'm wrong), i was grateful for it.

the Worricker trilogy of tv movies was fun, light entertainment with some pretty great casting. if you need a contrast to the many dark and tormented detective/operative stories, seek these out.

i also watched a few episodes of Nature, which is sweet but dramatic in its own way.

less sweet (but same network), i also finally watched ken burns' Vietnam War miniseries. not surprisingly, this was exhausting but in a good way. even if you're not a war buff, this provides a lot of mental exercise following it and unpacking all the decisions and screwups. again, i could see some parallels to right now.

i more recently watched Pope Francis: A Man Of His Word. i'm not a catholic but went to catholic school, and almost everything he said resonated with me. one unexpected takeaway was why smiling matters.

The Decline Of Western Civilization Part III, more about the gutterpunk "lifestyle" than punk rock music, was sad and poignant. i came to parts I & II as a music fan and hadn't watched the conclusion to the trilogy right away, but it's a powerful coda that nicely bookends the same director's Suburbia as well.

i watched Laurel Canyon from EPIX, and it was epic in scope but in feel/delivery more like having hors d'oeuvres. if you enjoy the music of the era and want some anecdotes and background, watch it, it's fun, and i would recommend also watching some of the more substantive documentaries out there on specific performers.

i kept the documentary watching going with Blackfish (about as sad but informative as i expected after all of these years putting it off) and Senna (just awesome and way more engaging than i expected, being unfamiliar with him and the sport overall). i also filled in the gaps of one of my favorite shows of recent years, The Lost Tapes on the smithsonian channel. it's similar in style to ken burns except without new interviews or narration and with more of a focus on specific/smaller but still important, although sometimes forgotten, events. if you love docs, find a way to watch this. there are only 10 episodes, they flow impeccably, and they are all standalone. like in Senna, they really give the feeling of being there rather than someone's spin. it turns out they are all nonetheless written and directed by one prolific guy, which has me wanting to check out more of his craft in the near future.

one of the highlights of The Lost Tapes was the episode about rodney king. (i realize this is well covered.) in the flurry of studios and networks making socially relevant content available for free viewing for a limited time, PBS brought out from its Great Performances archive Anna Deavere Smith's masterful one-woman play Twilight: Los Angeles, which deftly blends documentary footage and her seeming ability to impersonate anyone. see this if you haven't. it was previously aired after the freddie gray tragedy.

PBS also recently made available its Great Performances episode of the 2010 filmed adaptation of Macbeth with sir pat stew. there's some very fine acting in this dark tale, but some of the directing and production design reminded me of marilyn manson music videos. do see this if you want something less traditional in setting and style but with the bard's words intact.

i also got to satisfy my interest in offbeat movies, i.e., cult classics. the 1991 horror-comedy Highway To Hell is now on prime, and it overdelivers IMO, ripe for (re)discovery. pure joy watching it. less below the radar but still neglected is the sci-fi gem The Quiet Earth. watching this wasn't as eerie as was No Blade Of Grass right in the early stages of the pandemic, but this is a much better, smarter, more entertaining film, deserving to be well remembered by those who've seen it. (neil degrasse tyson did the audio commentary in full fanboy mode.) i have a real soft spot for dystopian movies, especially from the '80s, but this made me want to watch more sophisticated sci-fi (i'd already added a couple of the suggestions upthread to my watchlist).

i watched a couple of marx brothers classics, Monkey Business and Horse Feathers. so funny, so clever.