Welcome to the Q&A with TV critic — also known to some TV fans as their “TV therapist” — Matt Roush, who’ll try to address whatever you love, loathe, are confused or frustrated or thrilled by in today’s vast TV landscape. (We know background music is too loud, but there’s always closed-captioning.)
One caution: This is a spoiler-free zone, so we won’t be addressing upcoming storylines or developments here unless it’s already common knowledge. Please send your questions and comments to askmatt@tvinsider.com. Look for Ask Matt columns on most Tuesdays.
Tied Up in Classic Knots
Question: Hope you can mention the wonderful development of Knots Landing finally available On Demand on the free streaming service Plex!!! I started watching the FAST version with constant shows but didn’t find out about it till it was already 8 seasons in. How did that happen so suddenly without warning? Fans have been asking for it for years! — Douglas H.
Matt Roush: What a great late-summer treat! (If only they’d made the On Demand option available earlier in the summer when I had more time to indulge my appetite for TV nostalgia.) For those who’ve followed my TV coverage since my days at USA Today in the 1980s and ’90s, my affection for Knots Landing above all of the other prime-time soaps of that era would have been hard to miss. (When the show went off the air after 14 seasons, I interviewed Michele Lee — the only actor to be in every single episode — in her own kitchen, considering how much Knots gossip went down in her character Karen’s kitchen.) When I learned Plex was streaming episodes in order on a FAST channel, I dipped in a few times randomly and that was fun, but to be able to watch the entire series in sequence does feel like a dream come true. (Quite a few Knots fans wrote in, including Rob R, who wrote, “I know I am not the only one who is going nuts over the return of Knots.)
As for how this came to pass, all I know is that Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution is among the platform’s leading content sources, which explains why several of the studio’s other hits including Falcon Crest and Sisters, and for the first time The Drew Carey Show, are all now available on Plex. Whenever I have a spare hour (which is pretty much never in the fall), I’ll try to revisit my old Knots friends. I just wish they were able to place the ads (sometimes stacked six or seven at a time) at the actual ad breaks.
Was Last Season’s Jeopardy! Emmy Worthy?
Comment: I just saw that Jeopardy! won the Emmy for Outstanding Game Show during the Creative Arts Awards weekend for this most recent season. Of course, the format always works and will probably continue to work until the sun burns out. But I’m a bit disappointed to see them honored for this season in particular, with the endless tournaments and returning “Jeopardy celebrities” players, which frankly felt gimmicky and definitely not as outstanding as it usually is with regular episodes. — Jake
Matt Roush: Thankfully, as we’ve just reported, the tournaments will show up later and be of shorter duration than last season — though to my mind there are still too many of them, if they necessitate a pause in regular play from January to April. That said, even an annoying season of Jeopardy! is miles beyond the competition, and while there are pleasures to be found in the show’s rivals — Celebrity Family Feud, Password, The Price Is Right at Night, and Wheel of Fortune — I couldn’t imagine any of those beating Jeopardy! And it also made sense to me that this year’s Emmy for Outstanding Host went to Pat Sajak for his final season on the syndicated Wheel.
Breaking Up with The Bachelor, Bachelorette, Golden Bachelor
Comment: OK, I am finally done. Granted the Bachelor and Bachelorette franchise is an insane guilty pleasure that I watch to keep up my social ability to chat with other watchers. Every season I say, “No more!” But after Jenn loses out at the end of The Bachelor and then becomes the next Bachelorette, from the beginning, Devin was rude and obnoxious, but at the end Jenn picks him and then he dumps her big time in such pain. What an idiot — and we watched. No more for me. Add in The Golden Bachelor divorcing — what a stupid game and I also said on day one, ANYONE but Teresa. I will stay with Masterpiece and PBS. No more network TV except the Olympics. — Sandra R.
Matt Roush: I keep waiting for the day when Charlie Brown decides not to take another run at the football that Lucy is holding, but that’s human nature for you. Even as a guilty pleasure, tapping into Bachelor Nation is an activity I can’t make sense of — although I’ll admit to tuning into the first season of The Golden Bachelor because it was different and newsy, but when even that relationship went down the drain, it only surprises me when I don’t hear from legions more people that this ridiculous exercise in pretending to fall in love (or lust) in front of TV cameras while serial dating is for the birds. And I’m not talking lovebirds.
Will KAOS Go Over People’s Heads?
Question: I like KAOS on Netflix a lot, but I wonder whether viewers who have never read much about Greek myths will have trouble following it. From the opening episode, where Cassandra talks about her ignored prophecies, through to Orpheus in the Underworld (also the name of a nice Offenbach opera), the fact that I had read most of these myths in the past (even though distant past) certainly helped me to follow what was going on. Have you heard from anyone who had no knowledge about the myths, as to whether they understood what was going on? And, by the way, have you ever seen a better ensemble cast? Revered veterans and startling newcomers alike are excellent in the many sizable roles. — D.P.
Matt Roush: Yours is the first response I’ve seen to this whimsical series, positive or negative, but my take is that while familiarity with the mythical source material will surely enrich your enjoyment of the satire, it should be able to work on its own merits, and as far as I can tell, that appears to be the case. And yes, the casting from Jeff Goldblum and Janet McTeer on down is very impressive.
Life After Young Sheldon
Question: Why do you think Chuck Lorre et al made the decision to make a show about Mandy and Georgie (Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage) to replace Young Sheldon? Of the possible spinoffs, these two characters strike me as the most boring and overused plot of them all. Other choices would have been (to my mind) Mary dealing with widowhood and being on her own as her kids leave the nest, or Missy coming of age without her father to help keep her in line, or Meemaw and the problems with aging and dating. Even just seeing the promos for the new show, my brain says, “Ho hum.” – Linda
Matt Roush: Here’s one of my cardinal rules about TV: Prejudge at your own peril. I have yet to see a frame of Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, so can’t comment on how well they pull off this transition from the single-camera filmed format of Young Sheldon and back to Chuck Lorre’s comfort zone of filming in front of a live audience (The Big Bang Theory style). While all of the angles described here make sense, staying with the Cooper family unit might have just felt like a continuation of Young Sheldon minus Sheldon. I’d expect and hope we’ll see a fair amount of Mary, Missy, Meemaw, and other Young Sheldon characters along the way, but it also doesn’t surprise me that Lorre and his partners would try to make something new by following a young couple with a newborn living with Georgie’s in-laws (Will Sasso and Rachel Bay Jones) and all of the stress that entails. Given Lorre’s track record, including dealing with harsh realities in a domestic sitcom like Mom, I’m curious to see where this goes. Whether the third show in this universe is a charm remains to be seen.
And Finally …
Question: We started watching Tulsa King when CBS started airing the first season this summer and we’re hooked! I know the show streams on Paramount+ which we don’t have. Has the show done well enough on CBS that the network might eventually air season two as well? — Ray G., San Bruno, CA
Matt Roush: Hard to tell and too early to know. The show seems to have done well enough by summer TV standards (which are awfully low), but this move wasn’t as much about ratings as it was an opportunity to expand the series’ reach and perhaps lure new customers into the Paramount+ tent when Season 2 begins, not so coincidentally starting this Sunday. It’s quite possible CBS would look at this again to fill the gaping programming hole of summer TV, but series like Tulsa King were developed as streaming exclusives, and typically, that’s what they remain.
That’s all for now. We can’t do this without your participation, so please keep sending questions and comments about TV to askmatt@tvinsider.com or shoot me a line on Twitter @TVGMMattRoush. (Please include a first name with your question.)
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