You may have heard that Amazon has abruptly announced that Prime Video will have "limited" ads starting Jan 29. So I'm trying to watch everything I'm interested in on Prime in January. 

Taking advantage of an Amex Offer to get 2 free months of Peacock TV, and really enjoying it. I signed up specifically to watch Resident Alien, which did not disappoint. It's a warm-hearted, goofy ensemble comedy with sharp writing and an excellent cast, headed up by Alan Tudyk as the stranded alien.

The other Peacock show I wanted to try was Poker Face, which is a gender-swapped mashup of Columbo and the Fugitive starring Natasha Lyonne. It's not bad, but lacking in imagination. Sure, it's a high-concept setup, but once you get past the cleverness of the elevator pitch it's pretty derivative. I like Natasha a lot, which might be enough to keep me watching through 10 episodes. But if they just keep recycling old Columbo plots with occasional frissons of "Oh no, here comes Lieutenant Gerard again!" I'm not sure I'll stick with it. 

Tonight I noticed that as a companion to some totally unnecessary remake of the old Quantum Leap show, Peacock is offering the original 1989 Quantum Leap, a show I remember dimly but with great fondness. I just watched the first episode and I'm kinda hooked. I'm not sure I'll rewatch all 5 seasons, but at the very least I need to see the 2nd half of the 2-hour pilot. 

I'm also watching Mrs. Davis, but won't know until I get to the end if it was worth spending time on. I'm beginning to suspect that it's another example of what spiderplanet calls the "must be deep because it's surreal" syndrome. Yeah, it is surreal. But I'm increasingly dubious about the "deep" part. 

Even if you don't have an Amex card, Peacock is only $5/month with ads (and the commercial breaks are short). It's definitely worth a month or two just for Resident Alien.

 Undone, Amazon Prime's "first adult animated original series," was one of the most remarkable SF TV shows of 2019. Season 2 just came out. Since about all I could remember about Season 1 was that I loved it, I decided to rewatch it before diving into S2. It's still a brilliant, beautiful, fascinating show, and a nice break from the dismal post-apocalyptic nightmare shows that I keep getting dragged into. 

I have been watching "Twelve Monkeys," an SF series based on the apocalyptic pandemic movie of the same name. It's a solidly well produced show which does its best to be scientifically plausible (insofar as a show about time travel can be). But it was made 6 or 7 years ago, and what seemed plausible then sounds really dated now. 

We've just been introduced to a cohort of scientists, barricaded inside a well-supplied and prosperous scientific hospital, who have been trying to "cure the virus" for almost 30 years. Specifically, they have devoted every resource at their disposal to trying to create a vaccine. After 20 years they were right on the verge of a working vaccine, but THEN THE VIRUS MUTATED!  *gasp* So they had to start all over!  Worse yet, there are signs that the virus is starting to mutate again! Oh no!  Naturally the more ragtag group of scientists that we have been rooting for so far realizes that this is a fools' errand, because nobody can create a working vaccine that fast. We the viewers are invited to agree with them and view the lead scientist of the Spearpoint Project as most likely inspired more by his status as a cult leader than by any reasonable expectation of developing a vaccine against a virus that can mutate as often as twice in 30 years!  Ridiculous. Our group is going to keep trying to perfect their buggy time travel machine instead. 

IRL in 2022 we are upset because when faced with a virus that has developed multiple significant mutations in 2 years time, the vaccine that we developed (in 12 months) is becoming gradually less effective. And it might take as long as THREE MORE MONTHS to develop a new vaccine that will better target the emerging variants. Unacceptable! 

I loved my 7 year old Logitech M510 five-button mouse, but the side buttons were getting sticky and had to be pumped 5 or 6 times to make them work (I have mapped those buttons to CUT and COPY and the scroll-wheel button to PASTE, and I use these buttons constantly). It turns out that this venerable mouse is still being made, but I figured if I'm going to spring for a new one I might as well spend a little more and upgrade to SIX buttons. So I ordered a Logitech G603. This is a gamer-class mouse and thus much more challenging to configure. Actually it wouldn't have been hard at all if devices weren't routinely shipped these days without written documentation. So it took me literally a couple of hours to figure out which cryptic piece of software I needed to download and install and how to get past the early screens of incomprehensible choices having to do with DPI and power settings and connections to Discord to get to the screen where you map the mouse buttons. Other than that, it was a piece of cake. It instantly connected to the tiny little USB receiver and drives like a sports car, fast and smooth. I didn't really have any particular plans for the 6th button, finally mapped it to SELECT ALL. I might actually use it for gaming if I decide to go back to the Bioshock world. In the meantime, Logitech makes great mice, and I like the way they fit my hand.

I started watching "Gentleman Jack" on HBO, a show I really wanted to like. But after 2 or 3 episodes I realized that the main character just totally creeped me out. Which can be okay if the creators realize that their character is a creep, but not so much when they confidently expect the viewer to identify with this person, or at least root for them. So I switched to "The Flight Attendant," which turns out to be brilliant. At least so far. Shows with a murder mystery at the center so often collapse into a heap of nonsensical plot devices by the end, and I'm not far enough along to be sure that won't be the case here. But so far I'm loving it.

And yes, Cub Pharmacy does take walk-ins for the flu shot, so that was easy. I also got a set of basic labs (at ParkNic, not Cub)  in advance of my cardio checkup and was pleased with the results. Blood glucose still rock solid at 79, and everything else was also well inside the target zones. Health Partners hasn't been especially forthcoming with the inoculations (there was a FOUR-WEEK WAIT for flu shots!) but they are lightning fast at posting lab results online. 

 Season 1, anyway. I'm in for Season 2. 

 The single best thing about the Roku device is the remote control, and the best thing about the remote is the voice search and the best thing about the voice search is that instead of searching one service at a time it searches the ENTIRE UNIVERSE of channels. Not just the list of channel apps that you happened to have installed, but every channel that you COULD install. And if the thing you are looking for is only available on some hidden free channel that nobody ever heard of, the search function offers to install it for you immediately.

Thus we were able to watch the little-known holiday special that Richard has been pining for since 1989: Will Vinton's Claymation Christmas Celebration. I had already done a Google search and determined that the only way to see this thing again is to purchase the outrageously expensive DVD. But just to make him happy, I did a Roku voice search and damned if it didn't pop up! On some secret channel called OSI 74 (Outer Space International), which looks like some bozo's YouTube channel but I can't even find it on YouTube. Most of the content looks like it was produced by said bozo, but there are a few obviously copyrighted shows (which probably aren't supposed to be there, but who am I to say?). 

Anyway, a delightful surprise, and all three of us watched it with great pleasure. Then I managed to talk Richard into watching the next episode of Upstart Crow, which he admitted was funnier than he thought it would be. This episode was another one featuring the delightfully unreliable character of Kit Marlowe, who is the kind of best friend that sincerely believes that sharing his scintillating personality and social cachet with a nerdy introvert is more than enough compensation for stealing his plays. 

Britbox seems to be the only place that you can watch all the episodes of Red Dwarf without paying for them by the episode. I think I can watch them all in a month. Then I'll cancel because I am really really REALLY not interested in murder mysteries and crime procedurals, which seems to be 99% of what's available on this channel. 

But I am finding a few other things to watch here. Last night I impulsively watched The Turn of the Screw, Henry James' classic ghost story about the innocent young governess trapped in a country manor house full of Victorian anxieties about sex and class (and a couple of actual ghosts. Probably. Depending on how you interpret it. There are a lot of theories.) 

This was the 1999 Masterpiece Theater version, which is apparently the most faithful adaptation of the source material. And boy howdy, is it ever! Other than removing the classic Gothic framing sequence, it's practically a direct transcription of the novella, well cast and well staged. If you are a fan of classic Victorian literature, I recommend it. But if you want something a little more modern, or a little more twisted, or just more explicit.... 

I ended up going down an Internet rabbit hole and discovering that there have been more than a dozen adaptations, including numerous neo-Freudian interpretations, kinky sex versions, a swinging 60's version, and apparently one interpretation where the children are the real monsters. If you ever watched Dark Shadows, you know that show owed a huge debt to Turn of the Screw, so I suppose it's not surprising that Dan Curtis (DS creator) also took a swing at TotS (1974, starring Lynn Redgrave). That one sounds fun. But the one I watched was probably the right one for me.

Other than that... is there anything on Britbox that is not about sweet old ladies and fish-out-of-water city cops solving the endless murders that apparently plague the English countryside? 

Today's Amazon delivery brought more than just little aluminum nose bridges. I bought a Roku! For the past 10 years I have been using a now very obsolete Sony Playstation 3 as the center of my cobbled together home entertainment center. This gallant and sturdy little device shows no sign of wearing out, but it can no longer do everything that needs to be done.

For one thing, it doesn't support the new 5GHz wireless network that my new router is pumping out, so I really am getting absolutely no use out of the extra 250 Mbps bandwidth that I am now forced to purchase from my Internet provider. I'm not sure if the fast wireless network has enough oomph to make it all the way to the far side of the attic, but if it does that should increase my streaming speed. If not, it's fast enough for an old HD TV anyway, so no big deal. 

But mostly, Sony has (understandably) stopped releasing new PS3 apps for new streaming services. I would like the ability to get HBO Max, Disney Plus, and probably more services that I don't even know about because my device can't connect to them. 

However... it was non-trivial to get all these pieces of mismatched equipment to talk to each other (at least back in 2010). I finally got everything to come on at all once when I power up the TV and mostly do the things I want it to do, but the wiring was complex and I'm pretty sure that the PS3 is the center of everything. The idea of taking that out and replacing it with a newer, better box was daunting. And then I wouldn't have my PS3 anymore, just in case I actually wanted to play a game on it.

Then, during the Thanksgiving Kahn Family Zoom I heard about the Roku Streaming Stick. It's not a hub, it's just a device that plugs into the TV's HDMI port and supposedly gives you instant access to the whole world of streaming, all without having to recable your soundbar. I am a little dubious about this, given how old my TV is, but the Roku Stick cost only $30 so it seemed worth trying. I am now about to attempt to deploy it. I am a little afraid that it won't work without some newfangled HDMI protocol that my TV is far too old to support, but I figure there's at least a 50/50 chance. Wish me luck!

ETA. Well. That mostly worked! Easily connected to the 2.4GHz network. With a little more effort I managed to connect to the 5GHz network. But because the connection was only Fair instead of Good, the download speed turned out to be faster over the slow network. Oh well. It's still almost 50 Mbps on the slow network, which is considerably faster than the poor little PS3 ever managed. So it's possible that streaming will run a little smoother than it did before. If not, no loss. It was acceptable as is. What is a massive improvement is the slick little Roku remote, which is hands down the best designed remote I have ever seen. Most of the remotes in this house have dozens of buttons which do nothing useful at all and make it impossible to find the button that you actually need - the mute button. This one has a mute button all by itself on the side of the remote, which I heartily approve of. Setup was easy and fun, except that it involved running up and down the stairs a couple of times to do things on the computer and then back up to the attic. 

I managed to get signed in to my two paid streaming services (Netflix and Amazon Prime) and discovered to my delight that it is far easier to access them through the simple little Roku remote than through the collection of remotes I have to bring into action to get to them the old way. Now I'm waiting for Amber to send me her login to Disney Plus (which is perfectly legal, at least so far). 

We finished the second season of Umbrella Academy (loved it!) and now I need something else to watch. I managed to get Richard to watch UA pretty much every night, which has exhausted his minimal interest in TV watching for now. So this can be something for just me (i.e., it doesn't have to be based on a comic book). I am still poking away at Outlander, but I can only take just so much stabbing and maiming and raping and grisly medical procedures. I finally made it to the long-awaited reunion episode (which had a lot of sex and no violence at all!) and I think that's a good place to pause and contemplate before coming back for the fairly predictable resolution of the cliffhanger ending. 

So... anybody have recommendations? I saw favorable mentions of Dark in some of the online commentary about Umbrella Academy, but I can't say that the one-sentence summary of the show looks at all promising. More sumptuous costume drama might be fun, preferably with a higher sex:torture ratio than Outlander.  I really enjoyed The Great (which actually had about the same ratio as Outlander but more humor). I prefer the short series format, but I do have a weakness for odd little indie sci-fi movies. Odd little indie sci-fie series are even better. I just rewatched Maniac and enjoyed it just as much the second time around. 

Really, I'd just like another Hamish Macbeth, but I think it was one of a kind.