What TV SHOWS are you watching?

I'm not positive all Roman Catholic priests are required to be celibate. I know some of them are married, often Anglican or Episcopal priests who bring wives with them into the RC church. Are they required to remain celibate in spite of being married?

Religion can be pretty complex.

I had a friend in college whose father was a Roman Catholic priest, and that was literally only possible because he converted from Anglicanism. Also had a friend whose father left a Catholic monastic order to marry her mother. I guess those are the types of people who go to Jesuit universities.

Also germane to the discussion is the distinction between celibate (not marrying) and chaste (not engaging in intercourse).

I have a friend from college who went to a Catholic high school; her priest teacher left in order to marry her mother.

We finished Fleabag and it did indeed end on a pretty sad note. Like others have said, the main character is a bad person but she's not the worst person of the show. She is a dick but not evil, if that makes sense. Sure, she steals, she tricks, she's bad to the people around her. But it's small and petty. Compare this to her father, who sees very clearly how her new girlfriend is slapping her daughter and pretends not to see it. To me that's a much deeper kind of evil.

There are a couple spots I'm not sure the writing is quite there but I look foward to watching the second season.

Tokyo Vice debuted on HBO today. I knew nothing going into it, but it's right up my alley. The story seems a bit unbelievable, but it's based on a real memoir written by the first non-Japanese reporter for a major Tokyo newspaper. Like all new reporters at that paper, he gets assigned the crime beat, which amounts to typing whatever press release the cops give to the newspaper. Since our reporter protagonist is an American, he can't help himself and tramples the rules and customs to really go after a story. Culture clash is inevitable but I was slightly surprised by the degree of racism and even anti-semitism that he encounters. The first episode starts in 2001, then flashes back for a lengthy origin story in 1999.

Until I got to college, I thought that I wanted to become a journalist. In college, I changed course and went into accounting. A few years later, during a rough patch of unemployment, I seriously contemplated switching careers and becoming an English tutor in Japan. I did a lot of (pre-internet) research and did well enough that I got a job offer. It was a tough decision, but I decided to decline the offer and stick with accounting. Years later, I found a couple of online blogs written by English tutors in Japan, and got a good feel for what I missed out on, for better and worse.

So my slightly elevated knowledge of Japan is often validated by things happening in this first episode. Even my very limited Japanese vocabulary is getting a bit of a refresher from the show, which is mostly in Japanese with English subtitles. But maybe this makes me a less than impartial viewer of this show, so take my comments with that in mind.

The gaijin star of the show is played by Ansel Elgort. I know nothing of Elgort and don't even recognize the ethnicity of his family name. But he has a curious appearance, looking very much like an anime version of a young white guy. I don't know how to say it better than that. I've never been a big anime fan, but my ex was and so I was exposed to a lot of anime for many years. The only specific comparison I can come up with is that our hero looks vaguely like Spike from the animated version of Cowboy Bebop.

I liked Tokyo Vice. It was constantly interesting and engaging, and the Japanese characters do a decent job of standing out without seeming out of place. There is a decent story unfolding here, and the opening scene of the first episode ensures that the stakes are high. The initial episode is directed by Michael Mann (of Miami Vice fame), so everything looks great. Better still, this show is very much its own thing and not even remotely a sequel or imitation of Miami Vice. Hopefully the second and subsequent episodes live up to the promise of this solid beginning.

Interesting, hadn't heard of that

Ansel Elgort is great in Baby Driver and the new West Side Story.

Are y’all talking about multiple Golden Demon award recipient Ansel Elgort, who also is a film/TV star?

demonwinner.free.fr/peintre.php?id_peintre=1464

I’ll definitely check out Tokyo Vice, after I finish season 5 of Better Call Saul, which recently showed up on Netflix. I didn’t see that season when it originally came out, and I am loving every minute of it.

Last season begins April 18.

Baby Driver was great, but I forgot all about Ansel after that. He looked like a teenager in that movie (was actually 23), and now he looks like he is in his early 20s, which fits his role in Tokyo Vice as a recent college graduate.

Been watching Star Trek:Lower Decks on paramount. This is an animated Trek by one of the guys behind Rick and Morty. Same animation studio as well, I think. Anyway, this is an absolute blast of a show. A lot like The Orville, but the humor works much better as animation. Unlike the dreadful Star Trek: Discovery, the callbacks, rapid addressing of a Trek (particularly TNG) plot, and unconventional characterizations work really well here. There is a real love of science and wonder, much like R&M, as well as a similar use of plot to drive character.

Not really sure where this aired, there are definitely commercial breaks in it. But this is worth a month of Paramount+ IMHO even if STD and Picard are not.

More on TOKYO VICE

This is a new series on HBO, produced by Michael Mann . He also directed the pilot episode. The combo of modern urban crime and Mann should produce a winning combo, but here that's not the case. You'd never know the pilot was directed by Mann. Its not bad mind you, but the usual Mann trademarks like sharp photography, strong soundtrack and well choreographed action scenes are absent. After the initial three episodes ( they release one ep per week after this I think ) I am interested enough to continue, but its def more a slow burn than a thriller, that's for sure. 




The premise, based on a true story, is that a young American decides to become the first Westerner to work for Tokyo's largest newspaper. The pilot shows him adapting to being a lowly street crime reporter, who by Japanese custom is basically only allowed to regurgitate police press releases and basically avoid any impression that murders occur in the city. Over the next two episodes he gains the trust of a few police detectives who give him acccess to insider info and based on the recaps I've read of the real life reporter the series is based on, will endevour to write a more accurrate acount . There are a fair number of scenes involving yakuza, but this isn't like movies like BLACK RAIN chock full of flashy violence that's for sure. One thing that is impressive is that the few American actors are well trained in Japanese language and in the main characters case, even writing. The only actor I recognized was the excellent Ken Watanabe. Mann's usual cast of familiar supporting actors is not present. 




In short, interesting but despite Mann's presence, this ain't MIAMI VICE goes to Tokyo. Its not as slow as say THE NIGHT OF, but similar to that its more character based than plot or action based. The depiction of life in Japan from the viewpoint of an insider seems fairly well done and isn't afraid to convey the casual racism and sexism that occurs there. 

Three episodes in, I'm still enjoying Tokyo Vice. Our protagonist continues to struggle to succeed as a journalist while conforming as much as possible to a somewhat xenophobic society. There are a lot of realistic details presented, like the pervasive gift-giving/bribery at every level of society. The tiny bars. The sidewalk noodle shops. The hostess bars. The racism. The sexism. The formal interaction between the police and the yakuza. There is a lot of tension throughout the show, but only brief eruptions of action or violence. This is a drama, not a cop show or crime show, though there are plenty of cops and criminals in the mix.

The anime season has begun and I'm now following three shows with my girlfriend:

Kaguya-Sama: Love is War - Ultra Romantic - This is one of the best, most fun animes of the last few years and the third season is off to a great start. It's just great. The cast is just so well-rounded and charming that even the simplest plots are a joy to watch. The show is willing to give them depth and a cohesive personality with positive and negative traits.

Take Fujiwara, the secretary of the High School council. She's bubbly and kind of an idiot, but fairly intelligent. She's childish and often fails to read the room, making her the most likely character to ruin a well-planned romantic setup. However, she also has a mean streak. She cheats at games, is manipulative and somewhat prideful. That's a lot of nuance and depth in a character and she's just funny. Every character is like this.

Really, if you fancy watching anime and want something new, this is the show to watch. It's just great and pretty much for everyone.

SPY x Family - A spy must infiltrate a high school as a parent to get closer to the leader of a reclusive far-right group. In order to do so, he must pretend to be a father and enroll his child into the school so he can approach his target at parent-teacher meetings. The only problem? He has no family. He is not married and has no children of his own. Also, he has just one week.

Hence, if he doesn't have a family, he must create a fake one. He goes to a clandestine orphanage and picks up a child called Anya. What he doesn't know is that she's an Esper. She can read minds, his mind, and knows he's a spy. And she really loves spy fiction. Hinjinks ensue and, like you can imagine, the fake family becomes a little bit real. We haven't seen the mom yet, but we know she will be a professional assassin.

This is a bit of the surprise hit of the year. With that premise, I expected something very silly. And yet, it actually wasn't. It is a comedy show, sure, but it took a slower burn with the initial episode. This is absolutely the right choice but it shows some trust in being able to gain an audience. I think I expected it to be the typical anime about exaggerated events and the straight man doing a funny face and it's not. Characters stay in type, the pace is slower and situations last for several scenes instead of just seconds. The first episode was still a bit rough (The Spy has a very easy time getting a kid) but I liked it quite a bit.

Ya boy Kongming (Paripi Koumei) - This is a second tier show. It has a noticiably lower budget than the other two and it is inherently sillier than both. However, it has quickly garnered a lot of recognition because its opening is a banger. and, once you actually see it, it's a much better show than it seems a first glance. A great tactician from the Three Kingdom period is in his dying bed. Wishing a life free of conflict after years of fighting, he is "reborn" in modern day Japan, where he becomes the manager for a young singer.

It is a silly premise and I was again surprised by how they took the slow route. He doesn't use his warfare tactics on the first episode, they build a surprisingly serious backstory for the singer and they don't rely on exaggerated reactions. It's not a deep show, nor the funniest but it was a good watch. There's skill involved here. The flat scenes without animation, like 70s shows, are noticiable, but they seem to have been chosen carefully so as to keep the other scenes in good shape.

Again, this is a second-tier show. But it's 20 minutes and we can watch it after Kaguya-sama so why not?

I happened to watch Spy X Family. It was good! Looking forward to more.