MY FAVORITES FOR 2022 - TV AND JAZZ

Here are the TV shows that I really enjoyed in 2022. They're not the best I'm sure some of them you will agree with and some you won't and you have your own list which is as valid as mine or any television critic out there who agonizes for hours over putting a list together. You can't quantify this. Sorry.

I think all of these shows came out in 2022 but I could be wrong and we are at a point where it's really about what you finally got around to rather than an arbitrary release date range. For instance BAD SISTERS will probably make my list for 2023 although it dropped this year. You just can't watch everything.

Lists are also a function of what streamers you subscribe to. I don't get Paramount+ so there might be good stuff on there which is just not in my world. I also watch less and less broadcast TV although I enjoy the 911's on FOX and THE RESIDENT but they are not among my faves.

Unlike the jazz albums I recommend below, these 14 shows are sort of listed in order of like although, to be honest, RESERVATION DOGS is in a class by itself. Please watch it. DARK WINDS was a pleasant surprise. I had read the books but was not prepared for just how excellent this series would be and look forward to another season. One show on here that you may not find anywhere else is MISS SCARLET AND THE DUKE which gets more fun and richer with each season. We've already seen season three which comes on in January.

OK enough. Here's my 14 favorites of the year which I would recommend to you.

Reservation Dogs - FX on HULU

Dark Winds - AMC

Ramy - HULU 

P Valley - STARZ

Somebody Somewhere - HBO

Better Call Saul - AMC

Hacks - HBO MAX

Under the Banner of Heaven - HULU 

The Dropout - HULU

As We See It - AMAZON PRIME

Derry Girls - NETFLIX

Miss Scarlet and the Duke - PBS

What We Do in the Shadows - FX

Winning Time:The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty - HBO

I listen to a lot of jazz....a lot. Here are the 18 albums (actually more here) which I would recommend. They were all released in 2022. How do they get here. Well I have a playlist of all the jazz albums I downloaded over the year and these are the ones that, when they pop up on shuffle, I stop what I am doing and look over to see (or confirm) who's making these joyful sounds.

This list is in no particular order. If you are not a fan of the genre I think these would make a good introduction as to what's happening on the jazz scene. Most are pretty accessible.

Cécile McLorin Salvant - Ghost Song

Wadada Leo Smith: The Emerald Duets

Gerald Clayton - Bells on Sand

Tyshawn Sorey Trio - Mesmerism

Tom Harrell -Oak Tree 

Steve Cardenas, Ben Allison, Ted Nash - Healing Power

Steve Davis - Bluesthetic

Tierney Sutton - Paris Sessions 2

Terri Lyne Carrington - New Standards Vol 1

Samara Joy - Linger Awhile

Steve Feifke, Bigon Watson _ Generation Gap Orchestra

Here It Is: A Tribute to Leonard Cohen

Charles Lloyd - Trio of Trios

Jim McNeely/Frankfurt Radio Big Band - Rituals

Emmet Cohen - Uptown in Orbit

Cameron Graves - Live From the Seven Spheres

Kirk Knuffke Trio - Gravity Without Airs

Tyshawn Sorey Trio with Greg Osby – The Off-Off Broadway Guide to Synergism

A FAREWELL TO THE LANDMARK

The Landmark Theatre on Pico closed its doors yesterday.

That's sad.

Growing up in a city where there were several options to see independent cinema, listen to jazz, eat pizza and get a real bagel or Chinese food; the transition to Los Angeles back in 1991 remains painful. Yeah there's the weather and sports starts earlier here (don't have to watch Mets games starting at 10PM) but that's about it. Going to see independent films in Los Angeles required a bit of a schlep but it was generally worth it.

The Landmark and the Laemmle Town Center or Royal were our go to theatres. Before the pandemic we would go virtually every weekend and, in retirement, during the week where we were often surrounded by ten or so people. When the world changed, out movie consumption changed with it. We were not alone in this and now our favorite theatre is gone.

The Landmark had around 8 or 9 screens including one set up as a living room with couches. We saw "Lambert & Stamp" in that venue. It was awesome.

The attendants were friendly and helpful and the popcorn was fresh. They would have someone introduce every movie and the audience would always applaud. You came up the escalator (the theatre was on the second and third floors of a shopping mall) to the lively main area. We would often run into people we knew. For some reason we would see Henry Winkler there quite often. I would remind him that I sent him an entire season of 24 when he was working in Europe. It was a community.

What I especially liked about The Landmark was it was the first place you could see the newest independent films, often a week or so before they would spread to the Laemmles. It was always  a "be the first kid on your block" experience to see films like "Moonlight", "Lady Bird", "Whiplash" or "Phoenix" there.

My favorite story was going to see "La La Land" the night it opened (one of the few venues in LA). We were walking out in front of an elderly couple. The woman calmly asked her husband what he thought of the movie and he shouted in that cranky old man voice "I HATED IT". We all got a good laugh.

When we first started going to The Landmark there was a Barnes and Noble connected to it and that became part of the experience. That shut down as well as the Nordstroms which occupied the mall's east side of Westwood Ave. The whole area eventually became a ghost town.

And now it's gone. Maybe we should have made more of an effort to head down to Pico and support it (our local independent theatre also closed down recently) once it became a bit safer and we were triple vaxxed but we didn't. So I'll just say thank you to all who created a comfortable venue for independent films.

Hopefully others will fill the void.

RANDOM THOUGHTS ON THE 2022 UPFRONTS

 CBS revealed their 22-23 schedule this morning. I would often wait for the CW announcement to pontificate but, really, why bother. I think David Zaslav and the WBD possé has declared themselves the fifth "network" so here are some thoughts and impressions.

I'M SO HAPPY I'M NO LONGER IN THE BUSINESS. That's it. Next.

WE HAVE TO BE NEAR THE END OF THE TRADITIONAL NETWORK UPFRONTS AND THE BEGINNING OF THE DISNEY+, PARAMOUNT+, PEACOCK, WARNER DISCOVERY, FOX/TUBI. The broadcast networks are part of a studio/multi-platform delivery eco-system. More ad money will be moving into that system and out of traditional broadcast. within a year or so WARNER DISCOVERY will be the model for these presentations.

AVOD will be the growth area and, as I predicted, NETFLIX will get into the advertising game. The beauty of streaming and advertising is, for now, you can't fast forward through the ads....for now.

SOMEONE IS GOING TO INVENT THE NEXT ITERATION OF "TV GUIDE" AND MAKE A FORTUNE. Right now figuring out what to watch and where to find it is a mess and most streamers don't make it easy for their own users. There's money there.

FBC NEEDS TO GO COLD TURKEY FROM THEIR FORMER STUDIO PARTNER. They dodged a bullet this year and, no matter what Charlie said, they held off announcing a schedule because two of their successful scripted shows were being held hostage. Those 20th Television people were assholes when we were all under one roof, I can only imagine the negotiations now that they are separate entities. Animation will be the next battleground.

YOU GOTTA LOVE CBS. Rudyard Kipling said it best:

If you can keep your head when all about you

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you

They continue to use the playbook with the frayed yellow edges with a binder that is falling apart.....but it works. If the other networks acted this way there would have been far less erosion over the past decade.

I'm not going to bother evaluating every network's schedule but some observations:

Back in the day you were always looking for a "big move" by one of the networks. I was part of several of them. It was a way of announcing that these schedules matter and where shows go impacted the other networks. These moves were far less risky than portrayed by the press but they got the networks "ink". That has been replaced by "stability"...fewer new shows and fewer time period changes. There is little showmanship here and that has been the case for a while.

The "colonized nights" are the way to go because.....

......network TV is becoming like radio. You can turn it on at 8PM and stay for three hours and you get the same stuff. If there was one questionable (to me) scheduling move it was ABC separating it's colonized "The Rookie" show from the mothership but.....

.....don't expect networks to change their schedules based on the competitors schedules. Another lost art. Back in the day I would study the other skeds and if my spidey senses tingle I would suggest a tweak to my bosses who generally trusted me.

Heroes, heroes, heroes and healers. Cops, Firefighters, EMT, FBI, Doctors, Prosecutors. You know what won't work? ALASKA.

Sci-fi pretty much gone from the network schedules. This increases the chances of success. You have LA BREA returning from last year but that was starting to fade which is common for the genre. QUANTUM LEAP is IP and high concept but much closer to TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL and HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN....the feel good anthology.

ANOTHER WAVE OF THE VIRUS AND ALL THIS WILL TURN TO SHIT REAL FAST.

Good luck to everyone involved and it's gonna be real interesting to see where the money goes, what measures are being used and how guarantees are handled.

 

WRESTLEMANIA 38: SIZE DOESN'T MATTER

I have been around for every WRESTLEMANIA. I have been to four of them in person. Never been less excited about the overall card. I feel, with maybe one or two exceptions, I have seen everything already on the two flagship shows. Every fucking combination of every fucking pig fuck tag team match. Even Roman and Brock have been laying hands on each other for weeks.

Nothing feels fresh or exciting.

....And two nights of this nonsense. Who does the WWE think it is? New Japan? Wrestle Kingdom? Nope.

The setups for most of the matches have been ridiculous and silly. Edge turning heel for no good reason. Lashley showing up to challenge Omos......and the fucking celebrity matches. Yeah yeah I know it's sports entertainment but it's pretty bad sports entertainment in my opinion. Even the KO/Stone Cold stuff. KO is the best and a true lover of the art. I much sooner have had him team up with Austin than be his adversary. It just doesn't make any sense.

Anyway I could give a shit about much of the two nights and with the Final Four on Saturday (GO JAYHAWKS) I will probably fast forward through Saturday.

I'll stop here and just go through the card with predictions. In addition to wholy shit expectations (spoiler alert low) I will add "I can give a shit" scores both on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 the best.

BECKY V. BIANCA

Becky's return has been underwhelming and she is not a good heel. The fans want to love her. Bianca got screwed out of her title. I think that is rectified tonight. This should be one of the better matches of the weekend.

GIVE A SHIT:💩💩💩💩

HOLY SHIT:💩💩💩💩1/2

MIZ/PAUL V. MYSTERIOS

Dominick has a long way to go before he deserves a spot like this. I just don't know what the point of all this is and one of many matches I will fast forward through. I feel like they have been doing this match for weeks. I'm guessing Miz/Paul win and the Mysterios finally have their breakup and Miz stirs the pot

GIVE A SHIT:0

HOLY SHIT:💩 (just because it's Rey)

SETH V. MYSTERY MAN

I assume it will be Cody, if it is it could be a pretty solid match. Seth can take the loss with minimal damage to whatever nonsense his character is right now. If it's not Cody and it's Shane McMahon ugh. Better if Cena or even the Undertaker show up. One other option is Gargano. That could be an amazing match....but yeah Cody and at least it brings something new to the table.

GIVE A SHIT:💩💩💩

HOLY SHIT:💩💩💩1/2. (assuming Cody or Gargano)

DREW V. HAPPY

No words. Drew wins

GIVE A SHIT:0

HOLY SHIT:💩1/2

USOS V SHINSUKE/BOOGS

I think the Usos retains because of how I think Sunday's main event plays out. Other than that who cares.

GIVE A SHIT:💩

HOLY SHIT:💩💩

THE QUEEN V. RONDA

Rousey is terrible on the mike and you really feel she doesn't want to be here. She's better off as a heel. Charlotte is the best and I think she will eat the loss from some submission hold but Ronda will be a transition champ. She bad.

GIVE A SHIT:💩💩

HOLY SHIT:💩

THE KO SHOW WITH STONE COLD

I don't know what this is but KO will make it fun so no HOLY SHIT here but a 💩💩💩GIVE A SHIT

EDGE V AJ

Hated the Edge heel turn. Made no sense to me. Regardless this is one of the few professional wrestling matches we'll see this weekend so I will sit through it. I assume Edge wins

GIVE A SHIT:💩💩

HOLY SHIT:💩💩💩💩

LOTS OF WOMEN FIGHTING FOR THE TAG BELT

Little interest but the WWE women can surprise you in how well they can do a match like this. Assume title change with Sasha and Naomi walking out with the straps.

GIVE A SHIT:💩

HOLY SHIT:💩💩1/2

McAFEE V THEORY

Pat McAfee put on two awesome matches in NXT. I mean awesome. Dude can wrestle. Much better at that than announcing. The Vince/Theory angle is interesting and I think Pat needs to win here so Vince can torture and toughen up Theory. He seems to be positioned as the next John Cena. He can eat losses right now.

GIVE A SHIT:💩💩💩

HOLY SHIT:💩💩💩1/2

SAMI V KNOXVILLE

Another fucking celebrity match. Like his pal KO, Sami will make this entertaining and Knoxville will sacrifice his body and get a win.

GIVE A SHIT:💩1/2

HOLY SHIT:💩💩💩1/2

BROS V STREETS V ALPHAS

RKBro is one of the most over acts right now and I can't see them taking the belts away and this should be a fun one

GIVE A SHIT:💩💩💩1/2

HOLY SHIT:💩💩💩💩1/2

LASHLEY V OMOS

God I hope Bobby beats him but this is Vince McMahon so sadly the giant wins and goes on to Brock and Roman

GIVE A SHIT:💩

HOLY SHIT: If Bobby wins 💩💩💩1/2 if it's OMOS 💩

ROMAN V. BROCK

The Bloodline is the best thing in wrestling since Sasha and Bayley carried the company through a lot of the pandemic. I'm not super excited for the match and I think Brock will have to acknowledge Roman as the undisputed champ. Roman is on a different level than anyone else and deserves this. This cowboy clown Brock? nah. The feud won't be over but The Bloodline and Mr. Heyman deserve to remain royalty.

GIVE A SHIT:💩💩💩💩

HOLY SHIT:💩💩💩💩1/2

That's what I think. Wish I was more excited.

WELCOME BACK QUANTUM LEAP

 Well well look what's coming back. QUANTUM LEAP! Finally a reboot, reimagining, sequel or whatever that I look forward to seeing knowing it could very well suck.

I was still in NBC research in New York when the QL pilot was made. It was picked up but did not get on the schedule until March of 1989. I was sent a set of all the NBC pilots that were picked up since my job was to do the ratings estimates on the new schedule which were used by sales in the upfront.

I remember it was a Sunday evening and I popped the QL pilot in the old VCR player. The Masked Wife was putting our daughter to bed and said she would join me in a few minutes. I started watching the pilot which I believe was two hours and immediately passed out. Two hours later the Masked Wife was shaking me all excited.

"How come you didn't tell me about this show" she asked

"Why?

"I loved it!"

She's never wrong and QL stayed around for five seasons.

Like many shows QL occupied many time periods over its run. I remember in May of 1990 when Brandon Tartikoff was still head of entertainment he asked me to help him out with the upfront presentation. The show was moving time periods again and I pitched him a joke. "If it can leap through time it can leap through time periods" I was met with stone cold silence from Brandon.

In the 92-93 season we replaced MATLOCK and IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT on Tuesday night with QL and REASONABLE DOUBTS. At the upfront presentation we put up a picture of Andy Griffith and Carroll O'Connor which morphed into Scott Bakula, Marlee Matlin and Mark Harmon to show how we were aging down the night. Now that I am 71 I sort of regret that.

We had a bit of controversy when we aired a gay-themed episode. There was a lot of debate about running it. We did and took a substantial hit from several advertisers pulling out. They were replaced by the "bottom feeders".

In 2017 when we had a WGA strike and were looking for shows that we could reshoot with no change to the script I immediately thought of QUANTUM LEAP but because it was a Universal property we couldn't pursue it. I was surprised that NBC didn't think about that.

Anyway, I look forward to its return and hope not to be disappointed. This one is a no brainer.