Monday Musings: Emmys Surprises, My Review of 'Presumed Innocent', Geez That TV Bar Looks Familiar, Eve Hewson is a Nepo Baby
Just another a'MUS'ing Monday.
Okay, so I was sweetly surprised by some of the Emmy wins last night, how about you? I seriously thought The Bear was going to sweep up in the comedy category because Season 2 was some pretty remarkable television, however I think the Academy voters are really making a point to say, “Is The Bear really a comedy?” I mean, I cried more than I laughed. I kinda like what Joshua Jackson aka Pacey had to say about it though in this red carpet interview with the Los Angeles Times… (watch)
The red carpet fashions were meh, not even worth doing a roundup of my faves, but I will say that some of the speeches were excellent.
I LOVED that when the winners stood up to give their speeches, written in fine print at the bottom of your TV screen were all the people they wanted to thank so no one was left out. Hope the Oscars take note.
What else did I love? Jean Smart winning for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series AND getting a standing ovation, as well as Hacks winning Outstanding Comedy Series and Best Writing.
Baby Reindeer swept its categories as well and I have to say — give this show ALL THE AWARDS. How can a limited series with 30 minute episodes be both terrifying, charming, moving, and utterly disturbing all at once. There were so many layers to Baby Reindeer that it was like an onion growing inside another onion. And if you’ve seen the series and know the struggle that actor/director/writer Richard Gaad has gone through in his real life, then his speech was all the more meaningful.
And by the way….if you’ve seen the series. Tell me you did not think that the bar looked eerily similar to the one in Peaky Blinders.
In other discoveries….
Did you know Bad Sisters and The Perfect Couple’s Eve Hewson is Bono’s daughter in real life?
My Review of Presumed Innocent — The Book, The Movie, The Series.
I streamed Presumed Innocent like any other 80s kid and as God intended — one episode at a time per week. However, Apple TV+ did an excellent job at making this a binge-able series by starting the next episode exactly where the last one left off. Did I love this series? Yes! I had not read the book nor had remember ever seeing the 1990 Harrison Ford film.
The Book - the novel written in 1987 by Scott Turow was first and foremost a legal thriller. I liked the book fine, but because I had watched the Apple TV+ series first, I felt some of the characters were put to better use in the series than in the book. Some of the courtroom drama seemed a little far-fetched to me, but overall I thought it was a good book. Because the novel was written in first person, there wasn’t a time when I was questioning did Rusty Sabich actually kill Carolyn? like I did when I watched the series.
The Harrison Ford Movie - I watched this after streaming the series and it’s quite different. I liked the ending of this movie so much better than the ending of the series. I thought Harrison Ford did a great job in the role of Rusty Sabich, but since it was the early 90s, extra marital affairs were still romanticized in Hollywood and this interpretation of Rusty Sabich made him out to be still a golden boy, leaving much of the home wrecking to fall on the woman. Since this book closely followed the novel, I felt the courtroom drama took up too much of the film and didn’t follow as closely to his private life like the series did. If you don’t want to read the novel, but want a close interpretation of it, see this film.
The Apple TV+ Series - There were many, many changes made in this series from the original novel. It’s almost like it’s just an “inspired by” type of adaptation. I thought Jake Gyllenhaal’s Rusty Sabich was way more unlikable in this reimagining, which honestly I liked better. There were characters that were axed from the original book, but others that were given more storyline which I also liked. The ending for me was just “okay”. It wasn’t as climatic or eery as the original novel and film. The details involving the murder had higher stakes than the novel or the film. Overall, I thought they did an excellent job on this series even though it was loosely based on the original book.
Streaming Today and Tomorrow
September 16
Entourage (Netflix)
Cocomelon: Season 11 (Netflix)
Heels: Seasons 1-2 (Netflix)
Halloween Baking Championship: Season 10 (Max)
Naked and Afraid: Last One Standing - Season 2 (Max)
Truck U (Max)
Candace Renoir: Season 10 (Acorn TV/AMC+)
September 17
Live From The Other Side with Tyler Henry (Netflix)
Culinary Class Wars (Netflix)
Child Star: Documentary Premiere (Hulu)
Handling the Undead (Hulu)
Nothin’ But A Good Time: The Uncensored Story of 80s Hair Metal (Paramount+)
World’s Most Notorious Killers (Peacock)
Body Cam: Season 9 (Max)
Exposed: Naked Crimes - Season 2 (Max)
Road Rage: Season 2 (Max)