TV You Might Have Missed 11 — Star Trek: Lower Decks

The main characters of Lower Decks (L-R):
D'Vana Tendi, Sam Rutherford, Beckett Mariner, and Brad Boimler.

The Star Trek franchise's first first comedy, Lower Decks focuses on one of Starfleet's least important starships, the USS Cerritos. Unlike previous Star Trek series, whose principal characters are typically starship captains and other senior officers, Lower Decks focuses on the missions and adventures of the "lower deckers", low-ranking officers with menial jobs, while the captain and other senior staff appear as supporting characters.

I first heard of this on Scott's Self-Indulgent Movie Podcast. Scott had never watched any Star Trek of any sort but had the cultural understanding of the show. He enjoyed this animated series so much that he binged the whole thing. We had to try it. By Episode 4 we were hooked. Part of the fun is the references to other Star Trek shows that the lower decks gang toss around. Part of it is the friendship between the lower decks gang. And, finally, part is the wackiness and humor. As for the rest, go read Scott's review. Here's a key part that drew me in.

Lower Decks basically handles a movie-level problem every episode as the main thrust or A plot, often with direct homages to the Star Trek movies themselves. Action scenes are quick and feature everything from hand-to-hand combat to space battles and hell they can destroy a moon or a planet if they want to without obvious green screen work. Meanwhile the secondary storylines, either the B or C storylines, are the equivalent of a sci-fi workplace comedy where one character is trying to impress a superior, deal with some interpersonal conflict, or essentially an episode-long joke.

But because it's a comedy, the life or death stakes often have a silly bent to them. For instance, the recurring villain the Pakleds are deadly serious when encountered in combat but are also...complete morons whose hierarchy is based on hats.

This captures the gist of the thing. We've caught up with all four seasons and are eagerly awaiting the final season which will begin streaming in October. Give this a try.

TV You Might Have Missed #10 — Pokerface

Poker Face is a murder mystery "case-of-the-week" series with each episode adapting the inverted detective story format popularized by Columbo.

Charlie Cale, a former casino worker with an innate ability to detect lies, is on the run from a casino owner following a suspicious death. Along the way, she encounters colorful characters and solves homicides in a variety of settings.

We really love procedural murder mysteries and this one is really entertaining. In each episode, we see the crime being committed, then we back up in time to see how Charlie was involved on the fringes of the victim's life, and the final section has the crime solved and justice served. The justice is sometimes unorthodox but always satisfying. I was always fascinated by how ingeniously Charlie has been included off-screen in the murder we've seen happening.

We were drawn to it because Rian Johnson developed it. Just as he did with Knives Out and The Glass Onion, this show is an homage to classic mystery TV series. 

The series was inspired by Columbo, being referred as a "howcatchem". Johnson also used Magnum, P.I., The Rockford Files, Quantum Leap, Highway to Heaven and The Incredible Hulk as influences for the tone of the series. Johnson was interested in "doing that Columbo or even Quantum Leap thing of having every episode be an anthropological deep dive into a little corner of America that you might not otherwise see." — Wikipedia

As with most Rian Johnson work it is a creative, superfun throwback to TV the way it used to be. 

Season One is streaming on Peacock and Season Two is in the works.

TV You Might've Missed 9 — Killing It

Florida underdog Craig Foster (Craig Robinson) and perky Aussie Uber driver Jillian Glopp (Claudia O’Doherty) enter the Florida Python Challenge to win $20,000 so he can pursue his dreams of owning a saw palmetto berry farm.

Like most people, one of my favorite characters from The Office was Darryl who ran the warehouse. I'm not alone. Mention Darryl and the universal response is, "I love that guy!" That's what made us try his series Killing It, about Florida security guard Craig Foster whose dream is to own a saw palmetto berry farm. He and Aussie Uber driver Jillian enter the Florida Python Challenge which we discovered is a real thing) to win $20,000 seed money.

Craig is trying to show that he can provide for his daughter and maybe win back his ex-wife. He's a good guy faced a lot of the time with choosing the lesser of two evils. Jillian becomes a good friend as well as snake hunting partner. She is the moral compass of the show. She always knows the right thing to do and will push for it even if if hurts personally. 

Killing It feels like it really belongs in the Floridian setting thanks to the irreverence and shock humor, especially in the first season which takes us on a tour of snake oil salesmen in society. The second season is all about how Craig and Jillian weather the many ethical trials that they encounter in running their business. 

All this is while never forgetting to tie up the smallest threads in each episode to finish the story, drive the point home, and make the joke bigger than it was in the beginning.

TV You Might've Missed 8 — The Fiery Priest

Nobody messes with Father Kim Hae Il. He's ready to bring the Holy Order to serve justice, one fist at a time.

This is a really fun K-drama action thriller about Father Kim, a priest with big anger management issues. Following the mysterious death of a beloved elderly priest, Father Kim attempts to bring the culprits before law. The journey in taking down the gangsters and corrupt officials in the city is both dramatic and funny. 

We were a bit worried about how the priesthood would be depicted. I'm happy to say that the show represented Catholicism well. We felt there must have been a Catholic adviser or writer. Even when a couple of women rhapsodized about Father Kim's good looks, it never went further than simply noticing and a bit of a crush, which eventually wore off and was never acted on. Father Kim's struggles to overcome his sins are real and we were impressed by the fact that many characters wound up in prayer or looking for divine help with their problems. 

That's not to say that it was spiritually deep or sappy. Most of the show is taken up with the investigation, plot twists, and character development. But it is a thread that is always just below the surface. The last episode blew us away and I even shed a few tears.

This was a really popular show that grew by word of mouth. It features parodies of popular movies and dramas which we obviously didn't get. However, you often could tell when they were happening. The drama was genuinely engaging, the mystery of who killed Father Lee was a great springboard for a lot of other plot points, and we especially enjoyed the Catholic parts.

A fellow reviewer on Letterboxd summed up well:

The depiction of "fiery/mad" priest is really genius. Something I never imagine, yet something that I NEEDED the most. Being a priest means being a leader, not a God. They hold a big community, but they're not a sinless bcs they're human after all. And anger is one of human nature. We should and needed to be angry for the sake of change the world and speak for injustice.

I personally love the endings. Sometimes we misinterpreted the terms of "forgiveness". Forgiveness doesn't mean we could run from our sin, but rather realize ourselves that we're wrong and we must atone it by fighting the evil inside us.

It is certainly a special action show that leads to such a review. And I agree with it.

Streaming/Viewing Notes:

This is streaming free on Kokowa. The show has 40 episodes, but don't panic. They are actually 20 hour-long shows which are broken into two pieces so they could put ads in the middle when it ran in Korea. Evidently, there's a law that you can't run ads except before and after shows. This is how some shows get around that law.

Just fyi, it sags in the middle and we almost stopped watching but decided to give it one more episode to prove its worth. It turns out that was the one where everything suddenly hit high gear and took off.  

TV You Might Have Missed 7 — Wellington Paranormal

Sergeant Ruawai Maaka of the Wellington Police enlists the aid of Officers Minogue and O'Leary to tackle paranormal events in New Zealand's capital city. The mockumentary follows these kiwi cops as they investigate cases such as the demon possession of a teenager, a noise complaint at a haunted house and a blood bank robbery.

What the description above misses is that the whole thing is done with deadpan humor as the cops clearly don't have the faintest idea what "paranormal" involves. They don't believe in ghosts, think that a wolf in jeans is just like dressed up dogs on YouTube, and are baffled by crop circles.

Partway through the first episode I felt echoes of Flight of the Conchords and, sure enough, Jermaine Clement is a creator. I haven't seen What We Do in the Shadows, having been assured by my girls that it is way too gory for me, but this is a spin-off of that, which makes sense.

TV You Might Have Missed 6 — Tale of the Nine Tailed 1938

This second season of Tale of the Nine Tailed is unusual since Korean TV doesn't run much to sequels. This one is a prequel as Lee Yeon is sent back to 1938 to retrieve a precious, supernatural object that has been stolen. While there the quest becomes increasingly complicated — of course — and it takes 11 more episodes to get everything wrapped up. 

 It wasn't as good as the original series (my review here) but entertaining overall. The first three episodes were extremely light on story with a lot of time devoted to broad humor which felt like a real waste of time and talent. However, it began picking up speed and plotlines from there and turned into a good series by the end. 

As a prequel, it worked as long as you don't worry too much about timeline continuity. Which we didn't. You do learn a lot about Lee Yeon's past as a mountain god and meet a few of the other mountain gods from the area. (Don't worry. None are as awesome as Lee Yeon.)

We also learned a few things about the Japanese occupation of Korea during WWII, indigenous gods, and other tidbits of Korean culture. Not to mention zombies and time-travel thrown in for good measure.

As an American it was fascinating to see how the Japanese villain was equivalent for Koreans to what a Nazi villain would have been for us. I hated that villain so much.

We also had wondered how any tale about Lee Yeon would be possible without his true love. No problem. There is always the brotherly angst and heartache of striving for little brother Lee Rang's love. And, of course, Lee Rang's struggle with trusting his brother. Which, to be fair, was just as absorbing as a romance.

If there's a third series we'll be ready to watch!

TV You Might Have Missed 5 — Law School

Yang Jong-hoon, a prosecutor-turned-professor, teaches criminal law at a prestigious law school. He and his first-year law students get involved in an unprecedented case during a mock trial. During a mock trial class, the supervising professor is found murdered and Professor Yang is arrested as the main suspect. Showing on Netflix.

We expected that the law students would band together to prove their professor's innocence. It turns out that Professor Yang needs no one's help. He is a formidable master of the law and detection. As he fights his arrest and investigates his fellow professor's death we see that he is the coolest of cool. (As you can tell from the poster above.)

We follow not only the professor but some of the students who have a study group. Some turn out to be connected to the murder victim while others have their own mysteries for us to discover. It soon becomes obvious that the professor regards every situation as an opportunity to teach his students. Whether in class or not, even when he is in jail fighting for his own freedom, he is continually teaching. This isn't always obvious but thinking back over the series it is a tribute to the writing and what drives the character's actions.

There was a refreshing lack of romance, aside from the occasional glance sent from one student to another while they weren't looking. This was a straight up drama that's wildly intricate and inventive in the plot's twists and turns. Somehow it had plenty of drama without being emotionally over-the-top, which we appreciated too.

We found this series by looking for more shows featuring actor Kim Bum after watching Tale of the Nine Tailed where he played Lee Rang. 

However, we're now fans of Kim Myung-Min who played Professor Yang. So we're going to follow him to the Detective K film series where he plays the titular character during the Jeoson dynasty. Which means wonderful period costumes as well as mystery!

Professor Yang is off to the side while actor Kim Bum is front and center.
We can see who is expected to draw the fans! Hey, he got us here!

TV You Might Have Missed 4 — Tale of the Nine Tailed

The nine-tailed fox is a magical creature that appears in the folktales of East Asia and legends of Korea. It can transform into a beautiful woman, often to seduce men in order to eat their liver. Korean television plays fast and loose with this idea, as television often does, to create an urban fantasy where the titular nine-tailed fox is an enigmatic man, Lee Yeong. 

He works on earth for the the gods' Department of Immigration of Life After Death — hunting down mythical beings who kill humans. A lovely television producer, Nam Ji-Ah, whose show investigates the supernatural, suspects that he is involved in a murder case. She investigates him and he investigates her. Ji-Ah's looking for her long lost parents and Yeong's on the lookout for the reincarnation of his lost love. Naturally they will work together. Just as naturally, nothing is as it appears on the surface.

The plot just gets deeper, more intertwined, and definitely more fun from there. With 16 episodes of over an hour long, there is plenty of time for the obligatory romance of the K-dramas along with the many adventures into the supernatural. The writers did an extraordinary job of skillfully leading us to expect plot developments and then yanking the rug out from under us with twists and turns for every episode.  We also really enjoyed seeing the supernatural creatures from Korean culture which were often really different from anything American.

Tale of the Nine Tailed is a sixteen episode roller coaster ride of that never fails to leave you wondering how they'll get out of each predicament, while the romance keeps things feeling cozy in the background.

TV You Might Have Missed 3 — The Brokenwood Mysteries

Set in the quiet New Zealand town of Brokenwood, this is a cozy mystery show that manages to avoid being too cozy. It is more of a Midsomer Murders than a Murder She Wrote, in other words. 

Detective Senior Sergeant Mike Shepherd is an experienced, big city cop with plenty of quirks like an inordinate love of country music (on cassette tapes), a "classic" car which is more of a beater,  too many ex-wives to keep track of, and a habit of talking to the deceased when he first meets them. Local partner, Detective Kristin Sims, does detective work by the book but they soon form a good working relationship. Soon they're joined by a subordinate and a medical examiner who both provide a bit of comic relief but never anything that is too over the top.

It's got a good amount of humor but always keeps the focus on solving the mysteries. The "kiwi" element is strong because the show was made for New Zealand audiences and that makes it just exotic enough. The murders always pull the detectives into a bit of local culture that is fun to see also, like the local Shakespearean troop or tours for the Lord of the Ringz filming locations. (That "z" in Ringz is important.) sometimes they just go for something everyone understands like playing Clue.

We've been really tired of edgy, melodramatic mystery shows and this fits just right. A procedural with a new case each week and slightly quirky detectives to watch do their thing — just what we like on a Sunday night.

TV You Might Have Missed 2 — Extraordinary Attorney Woo

Woo Young-woo is a female rookie attorney with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who is hired by a major law firm in Seoul. Being different from her neurotypical peers, her manner of communication is seen by them as odd, awkward, and blunt. With each legal case and through her intelligence and photographic memory, she becomes an increasingly competent attorney. Wikipedia

There isn't a good way to describe the show's premise that conveys the charm and delight of this show. A legal drama at its heart, each episode features an interesting  case that has to be won. Often we learn about Korean culture in surprising ways such as the case of the bride whose wedding dress dress fell down or the fact that a beautiful tree can be eligible for national treasure status. Woo Young-woo's different point of view often yields the key to resolving tricky details. At the same time we learn more about her life and see how her presence changes the people on the legal team that she's assigned to.

This all sounds like something we've seen before and yet this show is unique and quirky without being over the top. The need for others to understand Woo's way of thinking yields interesting results. Her passion for whales and way of seeing complex relationships through a whale-centric focus is startling, refreshing, and adorable. The show is funny and optimistic and has genuine depth.

Even more importantly it has excellent acting, superior writing, and sensitive directing that isn't afraid to let the camera linger on silence while the actors convey complex thoughts without words. It avoids standard romance tropes although there is indeed romance — K-dramas demand romance. It is truly an extraordinary show and every time I get done watching an episode I feel happy for the rest of the day. That is rare indeed.

This is showing on Netflix.

TV You Might Have Missed 1 — Crash Landing on You

A sudden storm leads to a successful South Korean businesswoman and heiress crashing her paraglider in the North Korean portion of the DMZ. She meets an army captain in the Korean People's Army who decides he will help her hide. How will she get back to her own life and escape prison in North Korea? Over time, they fall in love, despite the divide and dispute between their respective countries.

I came for the accurate depiction of North Korean life. I stayed for the charming actors, the romance and the drama itself. Granted, the drama can be pretty sparse in some episodes when the romance is front and center, but there are some genuinely bad guys and interesting dramatic tension. 

We're only halfway through but have learned some fascinating things about North Korean life. The writer interviewed North Korean defectors to get those details right.

Also it is sweet in the same way that I like in Indian movies. The romance is winning, the side characters are fun (the four Korean soldiers are great, as are the village women who interfere in the captain's life). 

Rose has seen enough K-dramas (Korean dramas) to clue us in to typical behavior or plot devices, but you don't need that to enjoy this. You do need to have time to watch a 19-episode show with each episode lasting between 1-1/2 to 2 hours. We often split them up in order to fit them in our schedule.

 It definitely is worth trying.