The recent Sci-Fi Saturday post listed the SF books I’ve been reading (so far) this year, and even more recent Mystery Monday post listed the murder mystery books. Haven’t read any worthwhile science books lately, but I have been watching TV. Maybe too much, but at least it’s evenings only.
Baseball has occupied a lot of my viewing time this summer. I can only stand to watch three to five hours of TV in an evening, so a three-hour baseball game doesn’t leave much room for stories.
Nevertheless, there is more than enough for a TV Tuesday post.
In fact, it’s hard to know where to start, so this may be a bit jumbled. There are enough TV shows to talk about that I’ll have to list movies another post.
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I’ll start with some shows, old and new, that I’m currently watching.
▶ Last post I mentioned I’m (slowly) working my way through two British series on Hulu: Agatha Christie’s Poirot (1989-2013) and Agatha Christie’s Marple (2004-2013). I give them an Ah! rating (but confess to some bias).
▶ I also mentioned I’d watched the two seasons of The Night Manager (2016 & 2026), starring Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie. I haven’t read much John le Carré, and the show was new to me, so it gets an unbiased Ah! rating (muchly on the performances of the two leads).
▶ I’ve tried to get into the One Piece anime (my buddy rather likes it) so I could then watch the new-ish One Piece live-action series on Netflix (about which I’ve heard good things). But it just doesn’t grab me. At all. My first false start got me about six episodes in. I tried again, taking it from the top, and got further into the first season, but haven’t had the urge to get back to it. I can’t say why; just a matter of taste, I guess. It remains in my watch queue in case I want to try again (but three strikes and “you’re out”).
▶ The only other thing I’m tracking on Netflix lately is The Tick. The older 2001 series with Patrick Warburton, not the 2016 series with Peter Serafinowicz. Nothing against the 2016 series; I like that too. In some ways, it’s a bit better, but I re-watched it not too long ago. I haven’t watched the 2001 series in a while, so it’s fun to catch an episode once in a while [see Channel Surfing for a bit more on the Tick].
▶ Besides the two Christie series on Hulu, I’ve been keeping up with two revivals: King of the Hill (1997–2010 Fox, 13 seasons; 2025-present Hulu, 2 seasons) and Futurama (1999–2003 Fox, 4 seasons; 2008-2013 Comedy Central, 4 seasons; 2023-present Hulu, 4 seasons).
Many years ago, King of the Hill was on my watch list, but I dropped out around season 8. I was surprised a while back when Hulu was promoting it. I assumed it was the old series. Which went to 13 seasons. I finally realized the show was revived with new seasons. I started back in season 8 and over the months worked my way up to the new seasons, 14 and 15.
I found the new seasons somewhat more enjoyable than the old seasons. I thought they’d ploughed the ground pretty thoroughly by season 8, which is why I lost interest. The revival acknowledges the 15-year gap; the characters are all older now. And Bobby is grown up and co-owns, manages, and cooks for his own Japanese-German fusion restaurant in Dallas.
The fourth season of the second revival of Futurama is still being doled out. It’s the 14th season of the show. All episodes should out by the end of the month. I watched season 13 to get in the mood but am holding off on 14 until all the episodes are out.
▶ I was also waiting for all the episodes of Rick and Morty (2013-present), season 9, but those are all out now. I’ll start watching them this Saturday (I try to be sure to watch or read science fiction on Saturdays).
▶ Kinda bogged down watching Bewitched (1964-1972; 8 seasons). Samantha was a huge youthful crush, but I no longer have much tolerance for 1960s sitcoms. In fact, I’ve been thinking about a post discussing what over 60 years (three generations!) of TV viewing has done to our worldviews.
▶ Over on Amazon Prime (my only streaming platforms right now are Netflix, Hulu, and Prime), I’ve been re-watching an old friend: Person of Interest (2011-2016; 5 seasons). I didn’t take to the show at first when it came out, but it grew on me, and I was hooked by the later seasons.
Watched from the beginning some years ago and decided it was a damn good show. Easy Ah! rating.
I have some notes on the show, so I’ll probably post about it again, but for now just some highlights: created by Jonathan Nolan (Christopher’s brother); features Enrico Colantoni as a recurring villain; Amy Acker as root; Sarah Shahi as Shaw; and the dog Bear. So much to like. A fair amount of FBS but balanced by good, exciting, creative stories with engaging characters. I’m in season 3 now.
▶ Speaking of revivals, Amazon’s new The Ghost in the Shell (2026) has (as of today) dropped all ten episodes, so there’s another SF treat waiting for me this weekend. I’m a huge fan of the 1995 original film (one of the best anime films ever) as well as the various spin-offs the franchise offers (such as the Stand Alone Complex ones).
▶ Still waiting for all the episodes to drop, the fourth season of Reacher (2022-present). I really liked season 1; season 2 disappointed me (a lot); season 3 was better but not as good as season 1.
Season 4 is based on the thirteenth Jack Reacher book, Gone Tomorrow (2009). [See Jack Reacher or Lee Child on Jack Reacher for details.]
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And now a bunch of shows I watched:
▶ I have to start with a cathartic Korean drama I think any teacher will thoroughly enjoy: Teach You a Lesson (Netflix; 2026; single season; 10 episodes). It got an easy Ah! rating from me.
It’s about (one part of) the government of South Korean establishing the Educational Rights Protection Bureau (ERPB), which is dedicated to ensuring every student has a safe, supportive, and effective education.
Each episode involves ERPB Inspector Na Hwa-jin (Kim Mu-yeol) going to another school, usually under cover, to attack another problem situation (e.g. drug dealers, violent bullies, overly protective parents, delinquent students, corrupt teachers). The Inspector is a former Special Forces captain, so he is a force to be reckoned with.
It’s actually a bit authoritarian, and citizens and other parts of (a jealous) government do create problems for Choi Gang-seok (Lee Sung-min), the Minister of Education who created the ERPB. That said, it makes the point that perhaps we’ve gotten too lenient or permissive in our schooling. It’s not at all a case of not sparing the rod but of not allowing disruptive elements to corrupt education.
As I said, enjoyably cathartic, and it became a popular series. Supposedly it’s a one-and-done, and the 10-episode arc does land at an ending, but popular demand might result in a sequel series.
▶ Spider-Noir (Amazon Prime; 2026; single season; 8 episodes). Stars Nicolas Cage as Ben Reilly. His character is a reference to the black-and-white noir version of Peter Parker that Cage played in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), the animated film (which was really good).
This series is live action, and Cage’s Spider-man is more half-assed detective than superhero. It can be viewed in two modes: color or black-and-white. I watched the color version. I thought it was okay; it didn’t piss me off like a lot of superhero stuff does, especially live-action adaptations of comic book characters and stories. I give it an Eh! rating.
The series got 11 Emmy nominations but was canceled after the one season.
▶ Speaking of revivals, Scrubs (ABC; 2001-2010; 9 seasons) is back with the same cast in the same hospital. The original run is among my (not small) list of all-time favorites, and the revival stands up to the original pretty good. I give it a (weak) Ah! rating.
A second revival season premieres on September 30.
▶ A less successful revival, Night Court (NBC; 2023-2025 3 seasons), stars Melissa Rauch as Judge Abby Stone, the daughter of Judge Harry Stone (the delightful Harry Anderson) from the original series (1984-1992). Her name is actually Abracadabra Stone — her father was an amateur magician.
Fans of the original series will enjoy this, I think. It brings back John Larroquette as Dan Fielding as well as few others. But this time around Dan is the public defender, having been talked out of retirement by Abby.
I enjoyed watching it but can only give it a strong Eh! rating. It’s a lot more of a gag-line-oriented comedy than a situational one. It’s been a while since I watched the original, but I don’t recall it being as gag oriented.
▶ The fourth and final season of Resident Alien (SyFy; 2021-2025). I really like the Resident Alien comic but think the show is a very poor adaptation [see Resident Alien]. I especially disliked the second season, but either acclimated to the disappointment or the third season was better. I think the latter because I really dislike the show but found the third season watchable.
Likewise, the fourth season, though I still think the adaptation sucks. It starts off almost faithful to the comic but goes off book pretty quickly. By the second season they were in their own world.
▶ The fourth (and regrettably not final) season of Invincible (Prime; 2021-present). I hate everything about this show and can’t understand why I keep watching it. I mean, I utterly loath it. And I hate the comic just as much.
It claims to be an alternative to the same old “corporate comics” with the same old stories, but that’s exactly what it is. Just with a lot of seriously infantile gore and gross-out stuff. In full-page graphics. I’m not offended (let alone shocked) because it’s actually old hat, not original, and just plain childish.
Watching the show and reading the comic is painful, so what’s the attraction? Wish I knew because then maybe I could stop. I think it’s related to a kind of fascinated horror at what people consider interesting, let alone as popular as this is.
Far as I’m concerned, a no-contest Ugh! rating. I can’t think of a superhero I dislike more. Mark Grayson is an infantile dickhead with major anger-management issues, yet the comic paints him as heroic.
▶ The fifth (and I hope not final) season of the French TV series HPI (Haut Potentiel Intellectuel — high intellectual potential) ends on one hell of a cliffhanger [see TV Tuesday 2/24/26 for details on the series]. I sure hope there’s another season!
On the flip side, I decided I didn’t care for the American version, High Potential, with Kaitlin Olson. The problem is that I buy Audrey Fleurot in the role but not Olson. And, as usual, Hollywood writers struggle to implement a highly intelligent character (because they ain’t so smart themselves). For instance, at one point Kaitlin’s character Morgan Gillory says the kids in grade school didn’t like her because she “thought she was so smart.”
But that’s a not-smart-kid response: thinking smart kids think they are so smart. Trust me, we don’t (for one thing, we know it from a lifetime of comparison to others). More to the point, we don’t flaunt it. We just can’t help being what we are.
[My buddy has a comparable IQ, and he made a conscious choice in early grade school to “hide his light” and became (and remains) a very popular fellow liked by all. I didn’t fully appreciate the difference until late college, but by then the die was cast and I was largely outcast. The grass-is-greener irony is that we envy each other’s choices. He sees me as someone true to his being; I see him as having the friendships and family that always escaped me. He’s a grandfather now!]
Sorry. That was an unintended digression, but some things strike an old nerve.
▶ On a lighter note, So I’m a Spider, So What? (2021; 24 episodes) is an isekai series centering on a Japanese student who is reincarnated as a dungeon spider when her whole class is killed by a mysterious explosion. In fact, they’ve all been translated to a fantasy realm as various characters.
The fantasy realm is built on an RPG foundation, and while the spider is small and insignificant at first, she is able to gain status, powers, and size in the context of the realm. (A god-like voice announces upgrades when they happen, usually through winning combats against others.).
Cute. I give an Ah! rating. At root, it’s about pluck and determination. It reminded me a little bit of the series That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (2018-present). That one is also isekai but the fantasy realm is more standard Medieval-with-magic-and-monsters [see TV Tuesday 3/24/26 for details].
▶ Lastly, I’ll mention Sakamoto Days (Netflix; 2025-present; 22 episodes). As is often the case with Japanese anime, there is a manga foundation (and/or light novels). Sometimes even a live-action version. That is certainly the case here: two manga series, a novel, and a live-action film. And this anime.
The story follows the expert-hitman-retires-and-tries-to-lead-a-quiet-life pattern (the John Wick movies start that way). I give it a strong Eh! rating and look forward to more seasons.
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Stay in school, my friends! Go forth and spread beauty and light.
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Logos con carne 
And what do you think?