December 12, 2021
I really do have a goal of having a recap posted for every episode by the end of the year. However, my job decided that I needed to travel to Phoenix, St. Louis, and this week East Hartford in a span of 5 weeks. Not to mention several other visits to spots local-ish to our office - meaning within an hour's drive.
I somewhat disagree with the assessment that I am required for all these trips. Maybe I shouldn't complain. I'm not sales so these are really the first work trips I've had since Februrary 2020. Then something pandemic-y happened in March 2020. There's still an ongoing pandemic, so if I come back with COVID (managed to avoid it thusfar) I'm going to be pissed. I'm not that worried - I'm boosted and whatnot, but the proximity to Christmas is such that any quarantine now has the potential to start interfering with holiday plans.
I always think I'm going to have enough downtime to knock out a recap or two during one of these trips, but it never pans out that way. Right now there are three orphaned episodes:
- Halloween
- November 14
- Forever Young (Primetime special)
I have started the recap for all but the Forever Young special, so I think this is feasible. It would help if I didn't write long rambling introductory sections that are totally divorced from the content I'm supposed to be writing about, but I can't help myself.
So allow me to put in a few brief words about Happiest Season. Yes, the Hulu Original romantic comedy that dominated the internet for a hot minute in 2020. Struggling to come up with better options last Saturday, I watched it. It's a perfectly pleasant movie and I was kind of looking for something that would put me in the holiday mood. I can't say anything about the LGBTQ-ness of it - I belong to no category of the extended alphabet soup. Other than coming out as a plot device, you could almost have made the movie with straight characters (save one earnest speech delivered by Dan Levy which is the emotional climax of the movie) but that's probably at least partly the point of the movie.
I also usually don't go for rom-coms, so why did I watch it? In a word, the cast. I have greatly enjoyed the work of Aubrey Plaza, Alison Brie, Kristen Stewart, and Mary Steenburgen in various rolls. I haven't watched Schitt's Creek (I know, I know...) but am aware enough to know that Dan Levy is going to be funny. Mackenzie Davis was one of those, "Where have I seen her before?" situations. And while half the answer was that she was a bright spot in the OK to mildly enjoyable Terminator: Dark Fate the other and more important half of the answer was Tully. Boy, could I waste words digging into Tully for awhile. But let's not and say we did.
The point I'm circuitously make my way towards is that the true hero Happiest Season is the middle sister, Jane.
Jane, as played by Mary Holland, is consistently given all the funniest throw away bits. Her character, an aspiring fantasy novelist, is mostly ancillary to the driving action of the plot, so the character is allowed to go to weird and interesting places both subverting and paying homage to the overlooked and forgotten middle child trope.
The movie requires that the characters pair off at the end for bonding and reconciliation. You could argue that Dan Levy's character John gets paired with Jane (non-romantically) because they are both loose ends and the mathematics of the film demands it. But I choose to interpret it as the John (the movie's moral compass and arbiter of taste) immediately recognizing that Jane is the most interesting person there and his innate curiosity demands it. Everyone else in the movie (except maybe Aubrey Plaza's character) fulfills the role of an archetype that can be summarized in two sentences or less. But not Jane.
The CBS SUNDAY MORNING POWER RANKINGS
Some long segments this week, which means fewer to rank - not even sure we have ten slots to fill this week.
First things first - I usually don't rank breaking news updates as I don't consider them true Sunday Morning segments. Used to be there was a rundown of headlines at the top of the show and anything they needed an extra minute or three of coverage got tossed in with the headlines. Because there's space for it, I'm ranking David Begnaud for his coverage of the tornadoes in Kentucky and neighboring states, but the ranking is irrelevant. The devastation caused by the tornadoes was on my mind for much of the day. I'm from Kentucky and while the outbreak is pretty far removed from where I'm from, past versions of myself were fairly well acquainted with Western Kentucky - Bowling Green and Paducah and certain points in between. Bowling Green got hit. Paducah did not suffer the worst of it, but Mayfield, which did, is fairly close so I'm sure it's involved in the rescue/relief efforts and that at least some of the injured survivors were transported to hospitals there. Please consider supporting the ongoing recovery efforts in my home state.
1) Lee Cowan
"Jane is off this weekend. I'm Lee Cowan and this... is Sunday Morning." Yes you are and yes it is. Enjoy your weekend off Jane. We're in good hands with Lee.
Pretty much anyone who pulls the host/segment double gets the #1 spot. I can't say that Lee's ten minutes on the potential parole of Sirhan Sirhan would get a top ranking without the hosting duties to back it up, but so be it. I've been known to make comments about Jane's outfits from time to time. I understand that men usually aren't scrutinized in this way, so I hope that doesn't come across as sexist in any way. It's not like I'm criticizing the wardrobe - Sunday Morning is not Project Runway. So, let's scrutinize a man in that way!
Men need put in minimal effort fashion wise. Unless you're Herb Tarlek, pretty much all you've got to do is pick the right tie to go with gray or navy suit. Sometimes Mo Rocca will take some big swings, but Lee is more button down type newsman. Having said that, this tie is a 9/10 for me. It's festively Christmas-y without being tacky. It made me wonder if that tie was a woven tartan wool or not. I'm sure the pattern is woven in and not just a print, but if the tie is really wool 10/10.
Sirhan Sirhan? Can I just shrug off having an opinion on this one? On the one hand, I'm pro-victims rights. There's an argument that the voice of the RFK's children should have the most sway. On the other hand, there are a bunch of them and they aren't a monolith. One says let him out and of the two Kennedy's Lee interviewed, one said they forgive him, but don't let him out, and other said they don't forgive him and don't let him out. My feelings on criminal justice is that if someone not a threat to anyone, they shouldn't be in jail.
I think a 77 year old Sirhan Sirhan is probably not a threat to anyone except for the anxiety that it would cause the surviving Kennedys. There has to be acknowledgment of a capacity for change over the last 53 years. But, if he hasn't expressed any acknowledgement of responsibility, I think I'd need to talk to a mental health professional to understand that.
I guess I want to believe that it's safe to release Sirhan Sirhan because I want to believe that anyone who's spent 53 years in jail has let go of whatever irrational hatred that led him to kill Robert Kennedy and shoot five others. I want to believe in change for the better. But I fully acknowledge this is likely just naïveté
on my part and something that is easily exploitable, which is why I'm inclined to just shrug it off.
2) Nancy Giles
I want to love Christmas every year. I watch all the specials every year. Charlie Brown, Rudolph, Frosty, and Mickey's Christmas Carol if I can find it. Is it on Disney+? It IS? There are too many OTT services, but it's tempting... CBS stopped airing the Garfield specials long ago, but those too were part of my childhood holiday canon. (Aside: if you've never seen the Garfield Halloween special, and why would you, it's actually kind of freaky.) I attempted to inject some holiday cheer into my travel interrupted Advent by going to a production of Every Christmas Story Ever Told.
Which is to say, give me all the schmaltzy Christmas segments I can handle Sunday Morning. This involves seniors responding to Christmas letters written by children. The heart melts. Also, some fun historical facts about the town of Santa Claus, Indiana. I lived in Indiana for 8 long years, but I've never been there. Most of Indiana is in the middle of nowhere, but at least Santa Claus is close to I-64 about 2/3 of the way from Louisville to Evansville. Pretty I've only driven that stretch of highway once in my life. I guess I had realized it, I could have taken the southern route from my home to St. Louis this past week and stopped off for some extra holiday cheer. Maybe next time.
3) David Pogue
Speaking of living in Indiana for 8 years, every Thursday the Physics faculty and grad students were encouraged to attend the week's physics colloquium - a one hour lecture given on someone's research. Usually someone from invited from another university and paid a small stipend. The truth is that physics becomes so specialized so quickly, I could usually only get through the introductory slides before my eyes started to glaze over unless the talk was mildly related to my particular field of research - atomic and molecular physics.
I attended enough astrophysics talks to hear about the James Webb space telescope at least a dozen times over my academic career. Probably starting when I was an undergrad, so like a long time ago. More than 15 years. So their finally launching that doohickey into space. Bully for them. It's going to get some really really cool pictures. Like really cool. I'd say the computer desktop backgrounds that will be produced by the telescope alone will worth the $15 billion we spent on it.
Why is it worth putting a telescope in space? Well, even if you put a telescope in the most atmospherically advantageous place on earth - on top of a mountain in a desert with no clouds and no nearby light pollution (such viable locations are becoming vanishingly limited) - the atmosphere will filter out certain bands of the electromagnetic spectrum and distort pretty much all bands. We can do a certain amount of mathematical correction, but the only way to get those pure, grade A images is to do it in space. The problem is that pointing the thing and transferring the images is non-trivial, so if you want to collect a lot of data about the universe, it's more efficient to do that from Earth, say, from a mountain in Chile.
Fun fact: We measure distance to other objects in our universe by measure how fast they are moving away from us. Basically, the universe will expand forever (because of general relativity) meaning the distances between objects not bound together by some force like gravity or electromagnetism will always be moving away from other objects. Because this expansion is always accelerating, the objects that are the farthest away from us are also moving away from us the fastest. Also this expansion will eventually overcome binding forces like gravity and electromagnetism leading to the heat death of the universe.
I think I have that last part right, but I like I said, I also struggled to make it past the third slide in most of these colloquium talks.
Former collegiate baseball player and husband of Katy Tur, used to be a Sunday Morning regular until he got moved to CBS This Morning, now rebranded CBS Mornings, which is I'm sure is a ploy to bask in the reflected glow of the vaunted Sunday Morning brand. He still pops up occasionally, but by my math this is first appearance in the Power Rankings. Here's to old friends returning. Also he said nice things about Joe Posnanski, which makes me happy. If memory serves me well (and it rarely does) his last appearance was the van life segment back in 2019.
As for the interview of Maggie Gyllenhaal (currently #1 in the Gyllenhaal power rankings thanks to Taylor Swift) I found myself asking about halfway through, why is the interview taking place in a movie screening room? This is not unique to interviews intended to promote upcoming films, but is it pure pretense or is there any utility. Was the interview squeezed in while Gyllenhaal was screening a fresh new cut of the movie to make sure there were no issues? Maybe she was watching something else? She's admitted cinephile, so I'm guessing the classic Jason Statham vehicle, Crank 2: High Voltage? No? What else could it be?
Whatever. Despite being the older sister who's been at this longer, it's always seemed that younger brother Jake's star shined brighter. But maybe that's just because the first movie I recall seeing her in was Donnie Darko where Jake famously played Donnie in the cult classic and Maggie played the older sister, Elizabeth, just as she does in real life.
Vote Dukakis!
5) Antelope
The eastern United States is overrun with deer because we've essentially gotten rid of all their natural predators as they do not play well with livestock. Still, it's always a little bit a "Nature!" moment to come across them because they are much larger than your standard varmint. They are pretty close to horses and seeing one in full gallop has a certain graceful majesty to it.
But antelope just look cooler.
Moments of nature from Montana are, as always, brought to you from Captain Vasily Borodin from The Hunt for Red October:
6) Rita Braver
Rita gives up a solid 10 minutes on Dr. Jill Biden and I have 2 main takeaways from the segment.
First, Rita mentions that Dr. Biden's Christmas decorations have gotten "rave reviews". I feel like this is at least an indirect shot at Melania Trump and her famously derided Christmas decorations. Melania certainly had aesthetic, but I'm not sure modern and edgy is vibe you want to go for when decorating for the holiday most steeped in nostalgia and tradition. But the deeper question is why are we "reviewing" the first lady's annual decorating prowess. First ladies have always been judged on looks, style, and decorating in some kind of theoretical homemaking competition. But the combination of television and Jackie O kicked things into overdrive in the 60s. I like the decorations, but something about the phrase "rave reviews" rubs me the wrong way. Also if I had to guess, it's mostly someone else's work that maybe she ok'd or gave a little input on.
In retrospect, I almost want to give Melania a little credit just for taking a big swing. I'm pretty sure no one brought those designs to her...
Second, remember when conservative media tried to make a big deal about referring to Dr. Jill as "doctor" as if she was pretentiously trying to inflate her credentials or something. I personally don't like being called doctor because it's weird and it reminds me of a time in my life that almost broke me. But damnit, if I wanted to be called doctor and people make a thing about it, I would be pissed. I suffered to get that stupid title and I'll use it if I want to. They don't just hand those things out. It also speaks to the dangerous streak of anti-intellectualism that runs through the country. Instead of being seen as experts, PhDs are "elites" when you don't want to listen to their expertise. Because you can learn just as much by scrolling through your phone while on the toilet.
Dickerson's Polly Adler segment was an exciting look at what he can contribute when freed from the shackles of straight political coverage.
However, John Dickerson is, was, and always will be a political junkie which is find. He brings a refreshing, "Hooray for democracy!" optimism to his political coverage that has all but been abandoned by the typical 24 hour cable news cycles cynicism. I know Bob Schieffer is still alive, but Dickerson keeps his spirit of probing questions and civility alive.
Dickerson profiles Ritchie Torres, a young congressman from the Bronx. Not much to say other than I appreciate his pragmatism. The electoral breakdown of the country is slanted against Democrats so I don't really have time for ideologues who take an all or nothing approach. Something is better than nothing in my opinion. But people are free to disagree.
8) Mo Rocca
Straight talk: I'm not sure I get the appeal of Fran Lebowitz.
Maybe I would need to read some of her writing - no matter how meager the complete works are. Maybe I need to be from New York or the New York area. Maybe I needed to be alive in the 70s. It's just that it doesn't seem that hard to find an irascible geriatric person. I'll grant that her particular brand of "get off my lawn" irascibility is unique in that I could never imagine Ms. Lebowitz actually having a lawn. I guess the New York equivalent is "Outta my way."
Her 1994 take on smoking from is wrong, but that's 27 years ago. Somehow, I'm not sure she'd admit to being wrong. Her underlying point is correct about not having a right to not be annoyed. It is just incorrectly applied to smoking.
Let's talk a Mo's hair a second. Here's his last couple appearances:
Someone got a spacetime continuum defying shave and a haircut (two bits!). Maybe Mo decided that Fran would go for a slightly more unkempt, authentically New York look and worked some television magic to travel back in time to make it happen.
(Yeah, I know that segments aren't aired in the order in which they are produced necessarily. Some are evergreen placeholders and some get bumped when, say, a full third of the episode must be scrapped to accommodate the passing of Stephen Sondheim. But just go with the bit, OK?)
See above.
10) Martha Teichner
No Teichnerizations. We only rolled 9 segments deep this week - including the nature segment and the update on the Kentucky tornadoes. So no one was sacrifices to make room for doyenne of Sunday Morning's honorary spot.
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