Things I've watched of late. Forgot to do a July one, so two months in one.

• Schitt's Creek. My wife has raved about this show for a long time, and I've caught a lot of the episodes but never watched them all. So we did, every night, over many many weeks. It's just as good as everyone says it is. Ewww David. I'd watch it all again in a heartbeat.

• Dark. "The end is the beginning, and the beginning is the end". A German sci-fi/mystery show. Three seasons of, well, perfection. The story is just so good. The characters are great. The cinematography impeccable. Know that this is a show set on medium difficulty level. You can't just put this on and scroll Twitter. Everything has a purpose and many scenes have a satisfying payoff many episodes/seasons later. When it ended I thought it was probably the best TV show I'd ever seen. It's one of those shows where you're genuinely disappointed there's nothing more. Watch this immediately if you've never seen it.

• Loki. Speaking of cinematography, if this show doesn't win an award then it's a travesty. I think this was probably my favorite of the three Marvel TV shows so far. (Well, Wandavision was really good…) But Loki has Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson. Who, quite frankly, I could watch on screen all day. Some of these episodes had a big Dr Who feel to them. And I am here for that. Glad it's coming back for a second season. Can't wait.

• The Tomorrow War. A thoroughly entertaining sci-fi tale. Got some negative feedback but don't let that put you off. Plotholes sure. But suspend disbelief and just have fun with it.

• The Morning Show. This was a rewatch with season two approaching. Just as good the second time around. In general I didn't think I was gonna like this show at all but turns out I was hooked from the first episode. Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon are great. The real standouts for me though are Billy Crudup and Mark Duplass.

• The Bad Batch. I absolutely loved The Clone Wars, some of the best Star Wars content around, particularly the season seven four episode Siege Of Mandalore arc. Now, could they really build an entire series around characters that appeared in a couple Clone Wars episodes? Turns out yes, kind of. The Bad Batch didn't hit the highs of The Clone Wars, but it also didn't sink to the lows of The Clone Wars. I'll be watching season two.

• The Haunting Of Hill House. This was great, the story is good, well acted, and oh my did it ever look good.

Previously.

Things I've watched of late. Well, in June. This is what happens when things sit in your drafts for weeks.

• Lost In Space. I vaguely remember watching the original 1960s show on re-runs when I was a kid. Actually the only thing I really do remember is the robot saying "danger Will Robinson". Anyway, this is the 2018 re-imagining of that. And it's an utterly fantastic bit of sci-fi. Two seasons with a third and final to come. Great stuff.

• Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles. What happened was, I watched Terminator: Dark Fate and enjoyed it. Enough that I wanted to consume more & remembered the TV show from 2008. A younger Lena Headey as Sarah. Unfortunately cancelled after two seasons, it's some of the best Terminator out there. Plus Summer Glau so…

• The Road. Post apocalyptic survival movie. I'm a total sucker for all things post apocalypse and this movie delivered. You never find out what happened to the world and why it got so bad. Just a father/son journey to the coast. Because things will be better there. Viggo Mortensen is just so good in this. Quite possibly one of the most depressing movies I've watched. But I couldn't look away as it's so well done. You'll want to do something a little more cheerful after watching this.

• Ted Lasso. Now, I know I already mentioned it last year but the second season STARTS THIS WEEK. So what better way to get prepared than watching season one all over again. If you've never watched this, you really should, it's that good. We're Richmond till we die.

• Army Of The Dead. So a group of mercenaries led by Dave Bautista have to go into a walled off Las Vegas full of Zombies. It's both utter crap and completely enjoyable all at once. You have to suspend your disbelief and there are plot holes wide enough to fall through. But I kinda liked it.

Previously.

Things I've watched of late. Mostly good. Mostly.

• The Falcon And The Winter Soldier. The most recent Marvel TV series on Disney+. As a whole I enjoyed it if viewed as one long Captain America movie. In weekly installments I'm not sure it worked as well. Anthony Mackie and Wyatt Russell were great. But the flag smashers were terrible villains, and I don't think the series really stuck the landing.

• Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. Speaking of Anthony Mackie, he's in this too. And this was a fun movie. What if Abraham Lincoln was a bad ass Vampire killer? Bonus points for Rufus Sewell, and who doesn't love them some Rufus Sewell?

• Star Wars Biomes. If you own an Apple TV, you know how utterly fantastic the aerial drone screensavers are. So this is like that, but set in Star Wars locales. Hoth is just fantastic.

• For All Mankind. Season two just came to a close. And it was one of the best seasons of TV I've watched in a long time. Actually this has got to be one of the best TV shows I've had the pleasure of watching. If you've not seen it, and have an Apple TV+ subscription, watch it immediately.

• Fear The Walking Dead. There is no amount of apocalyptic end of the world media that I find too much. Possibly my favorite genre. A spin off of its big sibling show The Walking Dead, it started out well, faltered for a couple seasons, but is back to being good in season six.

Those of us who purchased an Apple device at the end of last year got a free year of Apple TV+. It's approaching subscription renew or cancel time. And I find it's a dilemma. Are For All Mankind, The Morning Show, and Ted Lasso worth re-upping Apple TV+ for another year?

Here are a few things really worth your time.

• Ted Lasso on Apple TV+. What started out as Jason Sudeikis commercials for NBC Premier League now turned into a series. And it's great. Heartwarming fish out of water story of an American coming to England to manage a football team.

• Minimal Gallery on Flickr. Minimal photography is probably my favorite. This gallery is must daily viewing.

• All Or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspur on Amazon Prime. I'm biased obviously, because they've been my team since I was a kid. But an utterly fascinating look behind the scenes of life at Tottenham in 2020. Thoroughly recommended.

• Sunday Live chat with Lol Tolhurst and cEvin Key on YouTube. Founding members of two of my favorite bands of all time Skinny Puppy & The Cure have a chat. And it's great.

• World's Toughest Race: Eco Challenge Fiji on Amazon Prime. Bear Grylls hosts a grueling cross island race with 66 teams. You really get to like some of the teams and their own back stories.

About a month ago my wife surprised me with a Disney+ subscription. Thoughts, I has them.

The UI is nice, responsive, and gets out of your way. Pleasant both on mobile and on a big screen TV. Categories make sense, and searching is easy. Well as much as "typing" on an Apple Remote is easy.

The nostalgia factor was strong. Watching movies from my childhood with the kiddo has been so much fun. In the last week we watched Tron, The Black Hole, Escape To Witch Mountain, and Bedknobs & Broomsticks.

The Mandalorian has single handedly restored my faith in the Star Wars universe. It's utterly fantastic and I think Disney should just hand over the keys to the kingdom to Jon Favreau. Liking the slow weekly release of episodes instead of the all at once Stranger Things approach.

The World According To Jeff Goldblum also very very good. It's Jeff Goldblum, doing an Anthony Bourdain style show. What's not to love?

In 2020 all streaming interfaces should have table stakes "remember what I've seen and my position". Disney+ doesn't always get this right. I was 20 episodes into the first season of Clone Wars when it reset and recommended I start watching. "You might like this show". You think?

Licensing is a bit wacky. Avengers Endgame is fine to watch, but Avengers Infiniti War is "coming soon". Maleficent also "coming in October 2020". These titles all happily appear in the UI mind you and are clickable which is frustrating when you can't actually watch them. The majority of Andi Mack season 1 is missing because reasons.

The lack of new TV show content is a bit worrying. After watching The Mandalorian and all the old Disney/Marvel movies there is an element of "now what?". I know they've got big plans for various Marvel TV shows and the Obi-Wan Kenobi show with Ewan McGregor. But that's not where we are today.

Good outweighs the bad. The kiddo has lots to watch. That plus The Mandalorian & promise of future shows set in the Star Wars universe probably makes this a keeper. We have a year subscription already paid for so it's not like we're gonna bail now. I'll let you know if we renew it in December.

A new Apple device brings a year of Apple TV+ for free then. A nice four days off awaits this week so let's see what's what.

Update: well I watched none of them. Because my wife bought me a Disney+ subscription. So it's been all Mandalorian, all the time.

While watching the trailer for the new Magnum P.I it became clear that some TV shows should just be left alone.  There's really no need to go back and remake every single one of them.  It's ok to just let the past be the past.