A final ride with the Mayans: More of what I'm watching

It's been a couple of weeks now and I am finally working my way towards the end of the list of shows that I have been watching lately. Now that the writer and actor strike is over, they should be coming out with new stuff, so I am sure my list will eventually start growing again.

With football season in full swing and college basketball staring in just about a month, @mrsbozz and I have still found a way to work some regular shows into the mix. Actually, there was a season a couple of years ago where I watched far too much football. @mrsbozz made that clear to me in no uncertain terms, so I try to do better these days and only pick select games that I care about watching.

Mostly the Spartans and the Lions.

I feel like we have been reaching the end of a lot of shows lately which has me a bit worried about what we might watch moving forward. The good news is, there are several adaptations from books my wife has read that she has shown an interest in watching, so we will likely be checking those out.

It's often hard to say goodbye to characters you have come to know and love. It's also exciting when characters you thought you said goodbye to come around for a second go at things. I have a little bit of both for you this week.

Mayans M.C.

The fifth and final season of Mayans M.C. has wrapped up over on FX. I've gotta admit, it was a wild ride. Being fans of "Sons Of Anarchy", Mayans was a must watch for @mrsbozz and I. Kurt Sutter who ran both shows is know for being quite gritty and dark. That is highlighted perfectly in the fifth season of Mayans.

I think I can safely say without giving too much away, there's no sunshine and roses in this show. Season five continues the progression EZ Reyes down the path he feels is the only choice for him. We have slowly seen him embrace his dark side over the last several seasons and season five plunges him over the edge.

You don't need to watch Sons of Anarchy if you want to start watching Mayans, but it will help if you do. Some of the characters crossover and the dynamics of the motor cycle club will make more sense to you if you have that background.

I'm still not really sure how I feel about how this ended. Shocking just doesn't feel like the right word. Something more like inevitable seems to fit better for me. The characters have always been really well written and there is even some surprise redemption that you don't quite see coming.

It definitely gets in your head and makes you think. If you are looking for some gritty drama, this is definitely for you.

Suits

My wife and I have been slowly working our way through Suits over the past month or so. I think we are currently in season four or five of 9 total seasons, so we still have a ways to go. The premise is a young man who has a photographic memory pretends to be a lawyer and gets a job at one of the top law firms in New York. Chaos ensues.

My wife and I are really enjoying it so far, but we do have a few issues with some of the writing.

Let me point out, the characters are really well written and played in a way that makes it really easy to love or hate them. Hats off to the cast of this show. They totally killed it.

Here are my issues though:

First, some of the plot lines get pretty drawn out. There was a point where @mrsbozz looked at me and said, when do we go back to the "case of the week?", I'm tired of these characters. I can't say I don't agree with her, there are some story lines that just got tedious over time. Season 3 is a good example of that.

Second, and I think part of this ties into the first issue, I feel like these people are actually quite horrible lawyers. They are supposed to be the best of the best in their field and yet it seems they are constantly getting out played and out maneuvered by their competition. Leaving them to scramble to save the day. Of course they almost always do, and I understand it's TV, so this is just good drama, but if they are really as good as they are supposed to be, they should be like five steps ahead of everyone else.

I know @ericvancewalton really enjoys this show, so I am curious to see what his take is on my opinions.

All that being said, I really do enjoy the show and I can't quite remember so many attractive people being assembled into a single cast in quite a while. Shame on you royals for being so horrible to the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle is delightful in Suits.

Justified: City Primeval

Back in the early 2010's when Suits was first hitting the scene on USA Network (I think), there was another show over on FX that was entering its second season. I consider Justified to be one of the best television series I have ever watched. Timothy Olyphant brings legendary writer Elmore Leonard's Deputy Marshall Raylan Givens to life in such a fantastic way that you can't help but fall in love with him.

Like I said, the six seasons of Justified are absolute gold in large part to the credit of Olyphant and Walter Goggins who plays Boyd Crowder, the Joker to Raylan's Batman. If you haven't watched Justified yet, stop reading this now and go binge it. I will wait.

After close to a decade hiatus, I was over the moon when I learned that Justified: City Primeval was coming to FX. On top of that, it was set in Detroit (where Leonard was from I think), which is just a couple hours down the express way for me, so that made it even more exciting for me.

Elmore Leonard passed away a few years ago, but I feel like they still captured the magic of the original series in this limited run engagement. Without giving too much away, they did leave the door open for more stories from the world of Justified, so that could be a good thing.

It was cool to see some of the locations I am familiar with in the opening shots of each episode. Olyphant still has the swagger and mindset to pull off Raylan Givens even though he is ten years older now.

I honestly can't think of a single bad thing to say about this show. I don't think it was as good as the original episodes, but it stands up as a really great sequel to the original series.

source

Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports

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All pictures/screenshots taken by myself or @mrsbozz unless otherwise sourced