Ruth: Normally, this is the time of year where I look at public affairs programming passed off as news. Not doing it this year. I am greatly disappointed in the YOUTUBE programs from left hosts pretty much across the board. One of the biggest political stories of 2022 is the merchandising of hate towards the LGBTQ+ community but you would not know that to watch our 'left' 'heroes.'
I am not in the mood to promote those who cannot stand up to the merchandising of hate.
10) INSIDE THE MIND OF A CAT (NETFLIX). This is a great documentary about research into cats (which, we are told, lags about 15 years behind the research on dogs).
9) FIREFLY LANE and DEAD TO ME (NETFLIX). Both are excellent programs -- and popular ones, as well. FIREFLY LANE's latest season began December 2nd and, as of December 31st, has no spent 30 days in the top ten. I am grouping the two programs because they are examples of popular programs NETFLIX is cancelling. It has become a big issue this year. DEAD TO ME is an example of a program that the streamer has an excuse to cancel because Christina Applegate's health provides them with that. But there are no known health issues with the leads of FIREFLY LANE and the program's popularity argues that it should be continued.
8) PEACEMAKER (HBO MAX). One of the three strongest programs HBO MAX offered in 2022. John Cena starred in the best super hero TV show of the year. He was charming in the lead and the rest of the cast wholly committed as well. That especially includes Danielle Brooks who played Leota who was both his spy and (eventually) his friend. HBO MAX has been making like Lizzie Borden with her hatchet and killing one series after another. As it stands now, PEACEMARKER will be back for a second season. Let us hope there is no updated from the streamer changing that.
7) REACHER (AMAZON). A cast that pulls you in is a requirement for solid entertainment and Alan Ritchson led the cast of REACHER with all the magnetism he demonstrated earlier as Hawk on TITANS. REACHER is Jack Reacher of various novels and Tom Cruise films and it is so much powerful to see Reacher played by a man who is not 60-years-old. Season two is expected to begin streaming at some point in 2023.
6) THE TOURIST (HBO MAX). One of the three strongest programs HBO MAX offered in 2022. This one stars Jamie Dornan as a man who has no idea who he is or that (and later why) someone is trying to kill him. I really enjoyed this program and it has a place in my heart alongside 1967's THE PRISONER starring Patrick McGoolan.
5) MINX (HBO MAX). The third of HBO MAX's best shows of 2022. (I have intentionally left out WHITE LOTUS -- I do not give the show a pass on anti-gay stereotypes -- two seasons worth -- just because creator Mike White is bisexual. As Glenn Greenwald's actions and statements have made clear, self-loathers no longer live in closets.) A funny show, MINX takes on a number of topics including Ophelia Lovibond's desire to get the feminist message out even if means using pornography to do so. Jake Johnson, Idara Victor, Jessica Lowe, Oscar Montoya, Michael Angarano and Lennon Parham round out the strong cast which hooks you in as does the twists and turns. Nothing is every what you expect on this show -- the ally turns out to be an enemy determined to destroy you or the romance you did not pick up on is suddenly revealed. MINX has been cancelled by HBO MAX. I hope another streamer picks up the show and does so quickly. NETFLIX? PRIME? FREEVEE? ROKU? PEACOCK? PARAMOUNT TV? You could all use a show like MINX.
4) LOPEZ VS LOPEZ (NBC). If you have given up on a good sitcom emerging these days, I do understand. What is with the faux documentary approach? And did no one notice that MODERN FAMILY never explained why the characters spent so many years talking to camera crews -- what was that for? It was to justify so-so scripts that didn't generate real laughs. As someone who was in college when President John F. Kennedy was murdered, I do remember the 'funny' sitcoms without studio audiences -- the garbage shows like THE COURTSHIP OF EDDIE'S FATHER and others. They were not funny. And that has been the same thing in the last two decades as the single-camera sitcoms returned. There is a reason that the big sitcoms in syndication are THE BIG BANG THEORY, EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMON, SEINFELD, etc. They are funny. So is LOPEZ VS LOPEZ.
3) THE THING ABOUT PAM (NBC). This was an outstanding mini-series starring Renee Zellweger as convicted murder Pam Hupp. I covered each episode at my site. Leah Aksey, the real life prosecutor who railroaded the wrong man into prison, popped back into the news this week in Brett Murphy's PROPUBLICA report about how prosecutors are using junk science in trials to get innocent people convicted:
In 2016, Missouri prosecutor Leah Askey wrote Harpster an effusive email, bluntly detailing how she skirted legal rules to exploit his methods against unwitting defendants.
“Of course this line of research is not ‘recognized’ as a science in our state,” Askey wrote, explaining that she had sidestepped hearings that would have been required to assess the method’s legitimacy. She said she disguised 911 call analysis in court by “getting creative … without calling it ‘science.’”
“I was confident that if a jury could hear this information and this research,” she added, “they would be as convinced as I was of the defendant's guilt.”
What Askey didn’t say in her endorsement was this: She had once tried using Harpster’s methods against Russ Faria, a man wrongfully convicted of killing his wife. At trial, Askey played a recording of Faria’s frantic 911 call for the jury and put a dispatch supervisor on the stand to testify that it sounded staged. Lawyers objected but the judge let the testimony in. Faria was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
After he successfully appealed, Askey prosecuted him again — and again called the supervisor to testify about all the reasons she thought Faria was guilty based on his word choice and demeanor during the 911 call. It was Harpster’s “analytical class,” the supervisor said, that taught her “to evaluate a call to see what the outcome would be.”
This judge wouldn’t allow her to continue and cut the testimony short. Faria was acquitted. He’d spent three and a half years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit.
None of this bothered Harpster, who needed fresh kudos to repackage as marketing material and for a chapter in an upcoming book. “We don’t have to say it was overturned,” he told Askey when soliciting the endorsement. “Hook me up. … Make it sing!”
[. . .]
Askey, who now goes by Leah Chaney and is no longer a prosecutor, did not answer questions about the case other than to say she didn’t know about Harpster’s work until after Faria’s first trial. She has denied allegations of misconduct in other media interviews.
2) THE GRAY MAN (NETFLIX). Of all the films streamers made for their own services in 2022, the best one has to be this one starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans with great supporting performances from Alfre Woodard and Billy Bob Thornton. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it months ago until it popped up on the main menu for NETFLIX earlier this month. It is a great action film and one that you can watch repeatedly over and over, still finding something new, and still jumping up from the couch at moments you already knew were coming.
1) THE CLEANING LADY (FOX). Rebecca has been covering the series since it first started airing. Click here for her summary of the recent season two finale. It is must-see-TV at a time when broadcast networks struggle to find programming worth airing.
[Ruth also covered programming for the years 2021, 2020, 2019, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009 and 2008.]
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Community year-in-review pieces: Cedric's "They really believe this," Ann's "Trump and his snowball chance in hell," Wally's "THIS JUST IN! 1 MORE WTF MOMENT!" and Betty's "I'm guessing Elvis Presley wasn't available?," Ann's "Worst films of 2022" and Stan's "10 Worst films of 2022," Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "THE PEW loses it," "2022: The Year of WTF," Kat's "2022 in music," Ruth's "Ruth's Report: Networks and Streaming," Martha and Shirley's "2022 in Books (Martha & Shirley)," Stan's "2022 in film (Ann and Stan)" and Ann's "2022 in film (Ann and Stan)" Trina's "Labor story of 2022," Mike's "Idiot of 2022," Marcia's "The Most Disgusting Person of 2022" and Elaine's "What album am I looking forward to most in 2023?."
