As soon as we learned that a Godzilla/Monster show with Kurt Russell exists, we began checking it out.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters on Apple TV

Season 1 came out a while ago (I had no idea) and Season 2 just started.
The new season adds King Kong to the mix, but we haven't gotten there yet.

It is just as silly and dumb AND AWESOME as one might expect and if you need some dumb, fun TV to, uh, take your mind off things <<gestures at everything >> you could do a lot worse than this. Corny TV really hits the spot sometimes. And there's some cool actors I never knew before.

Some folks get really into Reality TV Escapism, but for me it's spaceships, time travel, monsters, aliens, bring it on.
I dig British spies and detectives as well but those can be a bumout sometimes.

The Thick of It, on Britbox. It's OK. I'm sure it was more shocking 20 years ago, though. Now it's just normal.

I wanted to put something light on, so I put on Wildcard Kitchen on HBO Max (FoodNetwork). It's a fun, light cooking competition show where big name chef's come in with their own money and bet poker-style on cooking rounds with another big name chef as a judge. I also found myself playing around in the kitchen a little more, inspired by the fact that the contestants have to think on the fly.

I like the competition set up. There's a few different decks: the dish deck, the ingredient deck and the wildcard deck. This changes between seasons, but round 1 is a dish that needs to be made, drawn from the dish deck. Then, all the players need to pull a wildcard, which can be awful to awesome. (Can't use knives or Exclusive use of Salt, for examples). Then, each player has to ante, call or fold. Then if there's at least 2 players in, they have 20 minutes to cook and then are judged. Round 2, the ante is bigger, and the time to cook is extended. But with the dish card, an ingredient card is pulled that everyone needs to use and feature. Then, it's the wild card pull and the betting, the ante gets doubled. By the third round, there's a minimum amount, so it adds pressure that if you don't have the minimum, you are knocked out for the third round. The player with the lowest amount of cash has to go all in for the ante. The dish and ingredient card are pulled, then the wildcards. But at this point, each player gets an option to redraw their wildcard.

Some wild combinations happen and new ideas are thrown out. One episode, a chef drew a wildcard where they couldn't use a stovetop. So he deepfried everything, even an egg. Turned out the egg was the star of the show. I can see that chef going back to his restaurant and adding that to the menu. It was something none of the chef's or even the chef judge ever tried before. Another one was the dish was to reinvent rice and the ingredient was cottage cheese. That sounded gross, and all the chef's were grossed out by the concept, but they each came up with really awesome dishes.

cakes wrote: Thu Mar 19, 2026 11:12 am I wanted to put something light on, so I put on Wildcard Kitchen on HBO Max (FoodNetwork). It's a fun, light cooking competition show where big name chef's come in with their own money and bet poker-style on cooking rounds with another big name chef as a judge.

I saw a commercial for that, it looked interesting. I might check it out. I watch Ina Garten's Be My Guest from time to time, where she invites a celebrity to her house and they talk about life, and cook a dish. The earlier episodes were about a hour, but they cut them down to 30.

I used to watch cartoons as a kid, now I'm watching shows like this.

zircona1 wrote: Fri Mar 20, 2026 8:20 am

cakes wrote: Thu Mar 19, 2026 11:12 am I wanted to put something light on, so I put on Wildcard Kitchen on HBO Max (FoodNetwork). It's a fun, light cooking competition show where big name chef's come in with their own money and bet poker-style on cooking rounds with another big name chef as a judge.

I saw a commercial for that, it looked interesting. I might check it out. I watch Ina Garten's Be My Guest from time to time, where she invites a celebrity to her house and they talk about life, and cook a dish. The earlier episodes were about a hour, but they cut them down to 30.

I used to watch cartoons as a kid, now I'm watching shows like this.

I love Ina Garten.

We just finished watching The Lowdown by Sterling Harjo. It was an excellent detective-ish thing, set in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

We watched it on Disney Plus.

hyljetronic wrote: Sun Mar 22, 2026 5:19 pm We just finished watching The Lowdown by Sterling Harjo. It was an excellent detective-ish thing, set in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

We watched it on Disney Plus.

So good. This is a rare example of a series I'm glad to see another season from. I think there are so many places it can go.

I still think about his debate with Peter Dinklage's character about the bookstore's organization. "You put As I Lay Dying next to the Odyssey?!!! Getting home to mama, and getting mama home are NOT the same thing!".

losthighway wrote: Sun Mar 22, 2026 6:30 pm

hyljetronic wrote: Sun Mar 22, 2026 5:19 pm We just finished watching The Lowdown by Sterling Harjo. It was an excellent detective-ish thing, set in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

We watched it on Disney Plus.

So good. This is a rare example of a series I'm glad to see another season from. I think there are so many places it can go.

I still think about his debate with Peter Dinklage's character about the bookstore's organization. "You put As I Lay Dying next to the Odyssey?!!! Getting home to mama, and getting mama home are NOT the same thing!".

Totally! Excellent cast of characters and good writing. I love all things film noir and neo-noir and this had those shades and tropes without being cliched.

And I loved how Tulsa was used.

Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere

Good lord. That Myron Gaines dude is the pits. Can't even imagine having a cool birth name like Amrou and choosing to be called "Myron." What a prick.

rsmurphy wrote: Mon Mar 23, 2026 8:55 pm Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere

Good lord. That Myron Gaines dude is the pits. Can't even imagine having a cool birth name like Amrou and choosing to be called "Myron." What a prick.

SUPER rough watch. Rapey and awful and just so, so, so brittle. Each one of them just caved (in their own way) under the slightest pressure. That british guy seemed like the most weak in so many ways--literally called his mommy in to run game on LT. Kinda wild.

And we're fucked, too. Like culturally. Raising girls (eldest is NB, but assigned female at birth and 'came out' in high school, youngest is about as girly as you can get) in this enviornment continues to turn me into the dude from Falling Down.