For my taste, the PBS Masterpiece mini-series, "Mr. Bates vs. the Post Office" (based on a true national scandal) is every bit as great as its reputation and huge success that it had in England. An ensemble cast, but starring Toby Jones.  Usually he plays offbeat, quirky characters, sometimes villains, but here he's quiet, low-key, down-to-earth.  That's much the way the series is -- but very personal, involving and often-deeply moving.  Crushing at times as you witness deeply-decent and innocent people being rolled, many with lives ruined, some wrongly imprisoned, all for reasons they don't understand by a government behemoth.  Yet, appalling and tragic as much of the story is -- it's also about the fight back and is very much uplifting, as well.

The story is about small-town sub-postmasters (sort of like a step-up from people who run Mailbox Etc. stores) who are prosecuted for major theft, each told they were the only one with the problem they were claiming, when it turns out it was a systemwide computer error.  That simple description only because to do justice to the building emotion of everything.  Though the series does a great job in focusing the story in a manageable tightness, it actually is still somewhat going on after 20 years, and 160 million pounds in restitution have (so far...) been paid.

Two episodes down, two to go.  If you subscribe to PBS, you can catch up on the series on PBS Passport.  In fact, all four episodes are available there, including a short follow-up featurette on the true story.

Here's the short trailer from when it aired in England. It only touches the surface. As it says, "The largest miscarriage of justice in British history."

I've enjoyed the first two seasons of the documentary series, Welcome to Wrexham.  That's the show about the low-level soccer team bought by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElheney.  In fact, for the past two years, I've tangentially followed how the team is doing, so I'm more prepared for when the TV show airs, rather than be surprised.  The new season of the show premieres on May 2 on f/X.

This year's soccer season ends in about a week, so anyone who watches the show and does NOT want to know how the Wrexham Red Dragons did this year -- you should stop here.  Consider this a SPOILER ALERT.

Just as a reminder, England has four tiers in what are considered "English Football League" play.  The top two are the Premier League and the Championship League.  The other two are known as League One and League.

Below that are the non-official leagues.  Wrexham had been in the next tier, known as the National League.  They hadn't been in official English Football League play for 15 years.

The way this all ways, in general, is that the top two or three teams (depending on the league) get "promoted" to the next tier up.  And the bottom two or three teams get "relegated" down to the tier below.

In the first season of Welcome to Wrexham, the team had their best year in a long time, but just missed getting promoted.  In the second season, Wrexham actually got promoted finally -- after decades -- to compete this year in League Two.

That's where things stood at the end of last year's series.

And where things stand as of today, with Wrexham having two games left in the season -- they are right now in second place and, after winning 6-0 (with the M.K. Dons losing,  Wrexham has actually clinched getting promoted up to League One next season!!  This is very uncommon for a team to get promoted two years in a row.  Usually, it's something they have to build to.  In fact, it's not uncommon for a promoted team to get relegated back down the next year.  Or to add perspective, this is the first time that Wrexham has had back-to-back promotions in the team's 159-year history.

So, for those who watch, just know that the coming season of the documentary, which begins on May 2 -- it has a happy ending.

And as sort of advance preview, here's phone-camera footage the end of today's game, played at home at the Wrexham Racecourse stadium, and the mass of fans rushing onto the pitch to celebrate.  The rush begins around the 4:30 mark, if you want to jump to it.

Last year, a one-man show played in Los Angeles, called Alex Edelman:  Just for Us.  It got raves reviews, and friends who saw it said it was great.  I'd heard of it -- it began off-Broadway, and then transferred to Broadway, again to rave reviews.  But I didn't see it.  For several reasons, most notably because I'm still not going to the theater as much as before the pandemic.

I was sorry I didn't go -- but thrilled when I saw that HBO recorded the show, and is airing it now.  And for my taste, it was as terrific as its reputation. 

It’s very funny, but it’s not a comedy act.  Rather, it’s a long, true story (with him playing many characters) about the night he decided to go to a meeting of neo-Nazis in New York City, but with a great many, long diversions into him talking about his life growing up in a very Ashkenazi Jewish household, anti-Semitism and more.
 
I had heard Alex Edelman interviewed at length on the Naked Lunch podcast which I'd posted here, and he was funny and interesting.  So, I was very glad when I saw HBO had recorded the show.  (What I didn't realize until I tracked down the podcast, is that he briefly appeared on another of the Naked Lunch podcast.  That was the one with guest Hannah Einbinder, who starred in the excellent HBO Max series Hacks.  She and Edelman were dating at the time (and may still be, as far as I know -- or not), and host Phil Rosenthal called him up during the interview.)
 
The Just for Us special is available On Demand, and HBO will be airing it again.  At the moment, I counted 10 airings ahead. It runs about 85 minutes.
 
If you do decide to watch, my only recommendation is that Edelman talks very fast (which he actually addresses, having ADHD), so I put on close captions so I could check if I missed a laugh.  It’s not necessary, but it definitely helped.

If you're interested, whether before watching the special to help decide if you want to watch, or afterwards if you enjoyed the special, here's the link for hour-long interview he did for the Naked Lunch podcast.
 
This is the minute-long trailer, which will give you a very brief idea of the show, though it’s much more diverse and textured than this.

This is where I get to do my victory lap.  While I’m sure that I wasn’t alone in my prediction, that’s no reason to not celebrate.
 
As I wrote a couple months ago here, after the final season premiere of Curb Your Enthusiasm, that I suspected the show was heading “towards ending the same way that Seinfeld did – in a courtroom, with the star on trial for flaunting local laws.”  (In this case, it's for when Larry unwittingly gave a bottle of water to someone he knew standing in line to vote in Georgia.)
 
The finale has now aired, and – this is exactly what the show did.  Larry David, being Larry David, decided to double-down on the criticism of the Seinfeld finale, and pretty much did the exact same thing.  But…he did it wonderfully, filled with nods to the Seinfeld episode, and some tweaks to address things that didn’t work ideally before, and I thought it was hilarious.
 
Once again, the trial brought in characters who had appeared earlier in the series, who Larry had been egregiously selfish and obnoxious to, including a follow-up appearance from the week before by Bruce Springsteen who Larry had given COVID to, forcing him to cancel the final concert of his Farewell Tour. (Larry insisted that Bruce gave him COVID…)  However, there was one exception:  a prosecution witness against Larry who had not appeared previously in the show – a wonderful appearance by Alexander Vindman as himself, testifying against Larry David.
 
As I said, there were nods to the Seinfeld finale throughout, including one character trashing it ("I'm bingeing Seinfeld, and I'm up to the finale.  Alhough I heard terrible things about it, that you f*cked it up."), and a somewhat substance role here by Jerry Seinfeld himself who shows up at the trial for support.  And there were several valuable “fixes” to improve on the earlier show.
 
One fix was that they didn’t make the episode entirely about the trial, but had several subplots going on, all of which were very funny.  So, the full show was entertaining on several levels. 
 
Also, the trial itself was totally justified, since Larry did break the local law, after all (though they’re able to show it’s unjustified, as well, because it’s a horrible law that deserves to be overturned). 

But further, unlike on Seinfeld, where the characters were on trial in part for being self-absorbed throughout the run of the series, Larry David’s character went far beyond that -- utterly obnoxious, deeply thoughtless, sometimes intentionally hurtful, always yelling and argumentative about nearly everything, and even would say that he literally didn’t like people.  The Seinfeld characters were self-centered, but generally preferred to keep to themselves and not inflict their rudeness on others, in fact they even occasionally tried to be kind to people which is what would backfire.  So, it was hard to be “outraged” at them in the finale as being terrible people.  They weren’t.  Larry David’s character absolutely was.  If he was on occasion an innocent victim, it was usually because he’d put himself in that position by doing something unnecessarily self-aggrandizingly obsessive.  So, it was more fun and far more justified watching the parade of characters coming back, slamming him for his virulent transgressions and testifying against him.  His past should have nothing to do with the final verdict, of course, but it still made the anger at Larry fully believable and entertaining.  I never felt the outraged anger at the Seinfeld characters and its impact of their verdict was much warranted.
 
There was one other area of the Curb Your Enthusiasm finale that they improved, though it gives away some important plot points, so anyone who still plans to watch the episode, you should stop here.  Just know that at the very end, I’ll embed a three-minute scene from the trial.  It’s a lot of fun. 
 
For those who likely won’t watch the finale episode, or don’t care if anything’s given away, we shall continue. 
 
By the way, as I noted in my previous article on the final season, I didn’t watch Curb Your Enthusiasm much over the years.  Largely because I didn’t subscribe to HBO for most of its seasons, though I was able to catch up with certain episodes.  But also, once I did subscribe, I found him too obnoxious to enjoy in full doses.  What I learned to do was record the show and fast-forward through sequences.  It made it far more fun (for me).
 
Anyway, what they fixed as a major improvement was the very end.
 
Larry is convicted.  And the judge hates him so much, he’s sentenced to a year in jail.  There’s a funny scene of Larry in jail – when Jerry Seinfeld shows up and says, “You’re free!!”  I won’t explain how that works out, it was amusing, but the short version is that it’s declared a mistrial – thanks to something Jerry is able to discover. (So, Jerry Seinfeld is who saves Larry David, which is a lovely touch connecting the two shows).  But then there are two wonderful lines –
 
The first is that with the cell door now open and Jerry explaining the situation to him, a bewildered Larry remains inside, At which point Jerry tells him to come on, leave now, “You don't want to end up like this.  No one wants to see it.”  And then adds, knowingly, “Trust me.”
 
And the second is the topper.  As Larry and Jerry walk through the jail hallway away from the camera, Larry suddenly says, “Oh, my god” – and then there’s a long pause – “This is how we should have ended the finale.”  Jerry gets a look of angst and throws up his hands, “Oh, my god, you’re right.”  And they turn to walk away – when Jerry adds, their backs to the camera, “How did we not think of that???”  And the two raise their arms in dismay and both go, “Agghhhhhhhhhh…”

Producer-writer Jeff Schaffer was asked about Seinfeld's reaction.  He replied that "After we shot that jail scene, [Jerry] was excited.  He said, 'That was a joke 26 years in the making.  When do you get a chance to do that?"
 
That could have been the end, and it would have been joyous and perfect, though they had another scene that was very good and a fine way to go out.
 
But in the end, Larry David doubled-down on the reviled Seinfeld finale – and improved on it.  A great way to end.

​This is an great treat, most especially if your lovers of Kukla, Fran & Ollie.  But not limited to that.  It’s my annual posting of their April Fools' Day program from 1950, over 74 years ago.  (I say “over,” because oddly the date of the broadcast is not April 1, but March 31.  I have to assume that April Fools' Day that year fell on a weekend, and so they were weren’t on the air that day.
 
This is a particular delight for me because it not only features my favorite Kuklapolitan who is rarely on the show, Cecil Bill, but it’s one of the longest appearances I’ve ever seen for him.  He comes on about the 11:00 mark, in costume for April Fools Day.  And he even gets to sing a song!  Now, that might not sound like much, but you have to realize that Cecil Bill only speaks with the words “Toi-te-toi-toi…”   And that holds for the lyrics of a song he sings.
 
Cecil Bill is quite nuts.  And when I visited the 50th anniversary tribute to Kukla, Fran & Ollie about 20 years ago at the Chicago Historical Museum, I discovered something that Burr Tillstrom did to reinforce that lunacy, which was quite clever – something I never noticed before through the TV, but finally saw close up in person.  That’s because they had all the Kuklapolitan puppets on display.  And looking at Cecil Bill (which was a joy for me…), I noticed that Tillstrom hadn’t painted his mouth on where someone's mouth would normally be.  Instead, he made it a crescent that was angled a bit and ever-so-slightly off to the side, askew, not centered directly under his nose.  So, without exactly knowing why, unless you paid extremely close attention, Cecil Bill would seem somehow…off.  And if you look closely in the video, you’ll see what I mean.  He jumps around a lot in his song, and is covered with a big coat, so you can’t always see his mouth clearly, but you’ll notice what I’m talking about.

Or you can just check out the good fellow here below, second from the left --

​​Fun, too, in this episode is Fran gets a chance to impersonate Ollie in a song, and clearly is enjoying herself with it.
 
But then, the whole show is fun.

​The only positive part of this story is that a Wall Street Journal article says MSNBC president Rashida Jones "told employees the cable network has no plans to have McDaniel on the channel." This came about after MSNBC anchors and producers voiced concern. Though good for MSNBC, assuming this policy holds (and though there’s no reason to doubt it won’t, though no reason to doubt it will, it’s just wait-and-see) there is no similar disclaimer from the larger, more-watched parent division of NBC News.
 
There are so many horrible problems with this “What on Earth were they thinking???) decision.  But high on the list, even beyond credibility, is that when you reward someone who enabled Trump and his fascism so much that she changed her name for him – not to mention made phone calls with Trump to pressure Republican officials in Michigan not to certify the state’s election results -- it only encourages others, knowing there is a major $300,000 payday waiting for them to legitimize their actions. Do not expect one whiff of honesty on behalf of democracy from Ronna (Romney [sic]) McDaniel.  That wasn’t her brand running the RNC, there’s no reason to expect her to change what’s worked for her now.
 
When she appears in any segments on NBC News, I will be switching away when it is on the air.  If it turns out that she does end up on MSNBC, the same holds.  In fact, from all that I’ve been reading of the unbelieving outrage on social media, I’m far from alone.  Indeed, some people have even written off the two channels until this disastrous hire is reversed. 
 
A friend wrote to me wondering if McDaniel is “ready to come over from the dark side?"
 
I was surprised and disappointed by the naivety of the question, since he is a smart, insightful person, to whom “naïve” would never be ascribed.
 
No, I don’t believe for one second that Ronna (Romney [sic]) McDaniel is planning to come over from the dark side.  She has much, much, much too much personally invested in defending herself and her actions for the past seven years.  You don’t suddenly flip 180-degrees overnight and say, “Erp, y’know, I was wrong enabling fascism for seven years and trying to overthrow democracy and the government, and should never have changed my name to appease Trump.  Boy, was that stupid!!” 
 
Even if every rare while she said, “Well, on occasion, maybe Republicans possibly were somewhat a bit wrong on this point,” that would be meaningless, since it would overlook all the  time she spent supporting fascism, lying and supporting the Jan. 6 Insurrection, to the degree of being at risk of indictment.  Even if she spent 80% of her time on NBC criticizing GOP criminal actions and efforts against democracy, it still would leave enabling Trump and fascism 20% of the time.  Which is 20% too much.  Defending Trump and fascism to any degree is like being “only a little pregnant.”  You refute fascism and you refute the racist, congenital lying, anti-Semitic, adjudicated rapist, adjudicated business fraud, malignant narcissist Trump, period, full stop, because otherwise you leave your support open, and allow it to fester, grown and infect.  It’s like putting a bandage on someone’s broken arm and saying you fixed the problem. 

People don’t change what they’ve invested their life to, 180-degrees overnight – especially for something so devil” and dishonest.  That’s something that takes many years of soul searching and introspection – or being in prison and having nothing to so all day but think, “Oh, my God, what have I done to my life?????!!”  And then begin weeping uncontrollably.  To think maybe, possibly, she will suddenly come over from the dark side overnight is having one’s “being polite” gene malfunctioning,
 
And worse, this isn't just someone who enabled and defended Trump for seven years -- but someone who is at risk of being indicted as a con-conspirator for trying to overthrow the government, being caught on a recording with Trump trying to pressure the Republican chair in Michigan and another member of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers not to certify the results there.  If she had even a whiff of thinking she’d should “come over from the dark side,” her first stop would be to knock on Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office to be a cooperating witness and save herself from jail time.  Not go on TV to admit her crimes. 
 
And this is who MSNBC hired as a commentator!! 
 
More to the point, if anyone had just the slight question whether Ronna (Romney [sic]) McDaniel might possibly “come over from the dark side,” all they need do is check out her appearance yesterday as a guest on Meet the Press.  Come over from the dark side??  Oh, heavens, please.  McDaniel wouldn't even acknowledge that President Biden won "fair and square," the best she could offer was only that the results were "certified."  Worse, she then said “I must push back” and insisted there was on “uncertainty” about the results – sure there was, because Trump and his enablers lied to Republicans about it, and because she herself pressured state officials with Trump not to certify official results!! – adding that we must all agree that elections should be safe.  Well…they are safe!  Trump’s team tried to prove otherwise, and lost 60 court cases.  Trump’s own head of election security told him directly how safe the election was.  And Trump fired him.
 
And she was just getting warmed up.  There was this following exchange with host Kristin Welker –
 
McDANIEL:  Voters right now in this country are going to be making a choice is November, and they don’t care about 2020. 
 
WELKER:  A lot of people say that it’s fundamental to our country’s democracy.
 
McDANIEL:  I think they’re thinking about inflation, the border, crime…
 
Let that sink in a moment: McDaniel just totally dismisses Jan 6!  Literally says the public “doesn’t care” about the Insurrection, storming the U.S. Capitol, about the violence, the deaths, the beating of police, the noose for vice president Pence, and about Trump and his conspirators, including herself, trying to overthrow the government!!
 
Yet even at this, even putting aside the Insurrection to overthrow democracy as if it was unimportant, she goes into her default Lying Mode and tries to flim-flam viewers into ignoring the reality that inflation is down (in fact, lowest in the world), crime is down (in murders, violent crime and home crime), and House Republicans voted down a border bill.  As she pushes the GOP lie.
 
And this not even Day One yet, she’s just there on NBC as a…"guest".

Following her appearance on "Meet the Press," Lynn Cheney posted a tweet which said, "Ronna facilitated Trump’s corrupt fake elector plot & his effort to pressure MI officials not to certify the legitimate election outcome. She spread his lies & called 1/6 'legitimate political discourse'” That’s not 'taking one for the team.' It’s enabling criminality & depravity. "
 
Come over from the dark side??!  Ms. McDaniel is like a possum.  She’s a nocturnal animal.  She lives on the dark side.  And she’s already burrowing deeper to avoid the light.
 
Ronna (Romney [sic]) McDaniel is an enabler and defender of fascism, who has regularly lied for seven years, pressured state officials not to certify the election at risk of being indicted as a co-conspirator, and bent over backwards so far for Trump that she changed her name for him.
 
And the powers that be at NBC News, for reasons that are both inexplicable and reprehensible -- apparently blissfully unaware about her history defending fascism, lying and participating in the Insurrection -- because being aware and just not caring would be (even before the history of democracy in the United States is written) irresponsibly too pathetic... -- hired her as an analyst.