Hi everyone, here's the roundup of May's new shows and returning ones that are (or aren't) worth your attention.
Citadel
The second season of the action show is out, where the Illuminati fight the reptilians fight the secret services fight who the hell knows who else. If you like low-rated action flicks or just want to gaze at Priyanka Chopra Jonas, this is the one.
Legends
A miniseries based on real events. With the British economy heading into a recession, Margaret Thatcher urgently needed a victory over some kind of crisis. So she declared a merciless war on heroin dealers. The show is about British customs officers planted in drug gangs with hardly any training. The rating is decent, the cast is fine too, will be watching.
Good Omens
If you once liked the two seasons of “Good Omens”, the adaptation of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's joint book, then here you go. Out of the blue, a third season came out, consisting of one episode called “The Finale”. They say that after the second season a merciless wave of harassment allegations caught up with Neil Gaiman. So he stepped away from making the episode, but the BBC, not wanting to just drop the show abruptly, put together a single 90-minute final episode.
By the way, if you like the Michael Sheen and David Tennant duo, I recommend the comedy Staged, where they (and a few others) play themselves and just talk over Zoom, because Covid and lockdown. It's pretty funny, and you can practice your English.
Off Campus
A romantic drama with a good IMDb rating about a boy, a girl, sports, studying, growing up and probably something else. I don't usually watch young adult romances. But this one's rated over 8, so it's probably good. Maybe someone will like it?
Dutton Ranch
The prolific Taylor Sheridan has brought you yet another Yellowstone spin-off, this time a sequel about Beth and Rip and their adventures in Texas. Basically the same thing, but without the other characters. If you're not tired of neo-westerns yet, this one is far more watchable than “Marshals”, and it's rated 8.4 on IMDb.
The Boroughs
And the Duffer brothers have made a new show à la Stranger Things. But this time the heroes aren't schoolkids — quite the opposite: elderly grannies and grandpas who've moved into The Boroughs, a retirement community for grannies and grandpas in the middle of the New Mexico desert. So they moved in, and suddenly discovered that monsters have also moved into the community, and these monsters really love juicy grannies and grandpas. The show is about how brave American retirees strike back, defeat evil and inflict good!
Of course, it's no breakthrough like Stranger Things — not that anyone expected one. The show is quite watchable, no worse than many others. But the magical cozy vibe of the first seasons of “Stranger Things” can't be repeated. And the only cozy thing here is the many old TV sets.
Rick and Morty
If you're still watching this wild cartoon, the ninth season is out.
Dear England
A biographical drama about England national football team manager Gareth Southgate. A drama that asks the question: why, why, WHY can't the inventors of football win a damn thing at football :whyyy: Why can't they be like the inventors of hockey, the Canadians who aren't great at football either. The rating is decent, only 4 episodes. Let's watch — I really do want to know why.
Star City
The description says it's a show about how “Soviet cosmonauts, engineers and spies risk everything in a desperate space program to make the first landing on the Moon”. In reality it's a full-blown “spreading cranberry”, as we call absurd Western takes on Russia, in the alternate history genre. The Soviet Union landed the first people on the Moon instead of the Americans. All, of course, thanks to the terrible, horrible KGB goons who send the poor little cosmonauts into space at gunpoint. The goons see reptilians, Illuminati and American spies everywhere, so they diligently watch every resident of the town and wiretap everyone. There are actually American spies, though — but the reaction is deliberately disproportionate. Gloom everywhere, everyone is afraid of everything, and the main characters don't know how to be happy at all. In short, it's all by the well-known template: the head KGB lady scares everyone, party officials get in everyone's way, and the brave cosmonauts fly to the Moon with defiant middle fingers hidden in the pockets of their spacesuits. “Like being doused from a shower,” Lev Natanovich might have said.
The only thing missing so far is Chernobyl-style idiocy along the lines of “Chief Designer, explain to me immediately how rockets fly into space, or the soldier will throw you out of the helicopter.” But maybe it'll come later.
On the plus side, they managed without color-blind casting. And the commissar in the dusty helmet is played by Anna Maxwell Martin, who's great at roles like this of any nationality. They also brought in rivet counters who dressed the actors in Soviet track jackets and taught the set decorators to hang carpets on the walls. And they got hold of authentic buses. And they translated the folk song “In the Field Stood a Birch Tree” into English so that one of the heroines could sing it mournfully.
Judging by the rating, viewers aren't too fond of it. As for me, I watched one episode and that's enough. By the way, it's a spin-off of For All Mankind, if anyone's interested.
That's about all that caught my eye. A reminder that @tv_botopotamus_bot will always keep you posted about new shows and premieres on Telegram and Max.