Sincere thanks to everyone who has taken advantage of my first sale in four years and become a paid subscriber.
That is greatly appreciated. Sincerely.
Thanks also to the rush of folks who subscribed during this summer run of free columns, and any one of you among those who are still thinking about joining the paid ranks. I wanted to point out that the sale is ending very soon — in less than a week (Aug. 31) and you can lock in the Times Are Tough Summer Sale price of $35 (instead of $50) yearly.
Continuing a pattern of Deep Diving into the Big Binge — seen recently in “The Bureau,” “MobLand,” “House of the Dragon,” “The Capture” and “Baby Assassins” — I plunged in to “Lioness” (Paramount+) and burned from start to current (the third season is at the halfway point, with new episodes airing Sundays), which means 20 hours and 20 episodes has me all caught up.
If you pick the right shows, as I have above, this is a pretty good way to live and watch.
Highly recommended.
Why? Because it’s like reading a book. Plain and simple. A long, strong book with characters and momentum and, in the best cases, the revelation of interiority.
I’m also highly recommending a Big Binge because that’s what I’ve been doing and I’m trying to build a club. I mean, kind of.
Who doesn’t want to share relevant new experiences with others? This hit home on Sunday when, to my horror, I had caught up with “Lioness” and I could no longer burn through episodes. Not to be bluntly obvious, but the greatest joy is in the never ending continuum, even if the individual episode, week to week, is also enjoyable.
Be that as it may, that’s not the point I’m trying to impart. Living inside the seemingly never-ending Big Binge is. There’s nothing else quite like it.
“Lioness,” the Taylor Sheridan series starring Zoe Saldana in the lead role, a cast of appropriately appealing and skillful operatives filling out the middle, and big name gloss like Nicole Kidman and Morgan Freeman (with the exceptional character actor and gravitas additive, Michael Kelly) in key supporting roles, is quite the unexpected revelation.
It won’t be for everyone, but much like the “Bourne” movie franchise, it’s a lot better than you’re probably imagining. In fact, my initial wants from “Lioness” were pretty simple — that it would provide me with a Mid-Plus level of entertainment, meaning lots of action, smarts in the realm of espionage (and reality), and the kind of well-oiled, multi-part plotting that is a must-have but lacking in a lot of today’s streaming offerings.
“Lioness,” however, exceeded the ask.
Count me as more than a little stunned that I find this series so good. Whenever I come across a globe-trotting “special ops” kind of series, one that’s heavy on military intervention in far off regions, 75 percent of the time it comes with a hollowed-out story; character depth is replaced by helicopter shots; logic is lost in a hail of timely bullets. I’m not knocking that genre — I often seek it out after some brain-bending film or ultra sophisticated TV series, just for a break. In that regard, I know what I’m looking at.
But in some kind of impressive amalgamation, “Lioness” manages to juggle all kinds of elements to achieve an overall higher level of quality.
One example, recently, where I even paused the TV for a critical golf clap, was when “Lioness” went from a lengthy, nudity-filled sex scene to having the wonderful Hal Hartley muse, Martin Donovan, who plays Kidman’s financier husband, breakdown geopolitical coincidences that aren’t really coincidences and which are, deep in the background, influencing the world in the kind of dangerous ways Kidman and Kelly’s characters must deploy Saldana’s character (and team) to mop them up.
That doesn’t have to be academic-paper level brilliant, but it needs to be believably smart and demonstrably accurate.
After 20 hours and 2.5 seasons, I can assure you this kind of tone-shifting isn’t a fluke. It’s what has been setting “Lioness” apart from the expectations and demands I had for it.
I don’t think I’ve seen “Memento” since I watched it in a theater, but it remains one of my favorite Christopher Nolan films all these years later. It was also the perfect movie to watch with my son, who had started to get the film love thing while in college, and I’m urging him to expand now that he’s graduated and has more free time. The joy in that is there’s so much to start with, to share together.
Late last week we watched “Memento” and it was as fun and reversal-film tricky as I remembered it, with that rare indie-film glow that Nolan has mostly outgrown now as he makes more complicated blockbusters. The film is streaming on Hulu.
Also, Joey Pants. Man, I love that guy.
I’ve written about this briefly before, but I’ll reshare it: Even though I’m hooked into director Kristopher Borgli (“Dream Scenario”) and his oddness, I (mistakenly, which is why we’re here) thought the trailer to “The Drama” looked like a bid to cash in on some mainstream rom-com success with Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, failing to realize that 1) It was hiding a secret that couldn’t be revealed in the trailer and 2) I had relied on a trailer against my better judgment and own advice to others, to decide whether I’d watch.
I should have trusted Borgli, and also maybe have peeked and found out that Ari Aster was a producer, which would have allayed any fears, but I didn’t. Which means — connecting thread! — that my son actually saw it in the theater before I did, and he was eager to return the sharing of films favor with me. But it turns out Viewing Wife KB and I were sort of eager to see it ourselves, and I felt like it was better if my son’s nascent film appreciation kept moving forward, not returning to what he’d already seen.
Anyway, we loved “The Drama” more than expected (possible theme alert?). Dark/bleak comedy is in my wheelhouse, so many good (and wince-inducing) laughs were had. It’s streaming on HBO right now.
Caught the second episode of HBO’s “Lanterns,” which is fine but not my thing. VWKB is completely into it and will continue watching.
Should I burn through “Dark Matter” S1 before S2 kicks off on Apple TV on Friday? Asking for a friend whose viewing partner has already seen the first season, and maybe can’t be trusted anyway because of her whole “sci-fi thing”? (Also she’d rather I just do a Big Binge of the German series “Dark” first, which is probably more likely.)
By the way, if all of that stuff above didn’t convince you that I’m all-in on “Lioness,” then this should: I told VWKB that I’d be willing to start the whole thing over and watch with her.
I’m not entirely convinced that the coming “fall season” is going to be all that great, having peeked ahead a couple of months, but I definitely have these on my must-watch list, duh:
“The Audacity,” a favorite and recommended series of 2026 from AMC+, is now streaming on Netflix.
Aug. 26: “The Undeclared War” on Peacock; the long-awaited S2.
Sept. 3: “The Gentleman” on Netflix (also just renewed for 3rd season).
Sept. 16: “Slow Horses” S6 on Apple TV. (You probably knew, but yes there’s a seventh season agreed upon).
Sept. 18: “MobLand” on Paramount+.
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