MAXIMUM PLEASURE GUARANTEED? In the land of Chump, you know that's a con. But there are moments of distraction and, sometimes, you can find some solid joy in a program or two. APPLE TV's MAXIMUM PLEASURE GUARANTEED and AMAZON-MGM's RIDE OR DIE are two programs that have delivered recently.
The former stars Tatiana Maslany who was so great in ORPHAN BLACK but manages to top that performance here. She's playing a fact checker for a magazine and shares custody of her daughter with her ex-husband played by Jake Johnson. She's lonely for adult companionship and ends up having an online relationship with a camboy (Brandon Flynn). Then things get complicated and violent.
And each episode whips the story around in another direction. Throughout the ten episode run (hopefully, there will be a second season), you are constantly surprised and -- even in the last minutes of episode ten -- you learn a new detail that adds another layer to the story. In that regard, it's a lot like ORPHAN BLACK and it's the deepening of the character that gives Tatiana so much to work with -- and she runs with everything she's handed.
RIDE OR DIE is a thriller as well but relies more on action for the thrills. The thing that makes this series so enjoyable is the chemistry between leads Octavia Spencer and Hannah Waddingtham. They play two best friends going back two decades where only one was being fully honest. While Octavia's Debbie is pretty much who and what she says, Hannah Waddingham's Judith is revealed to be an assassin early in the first episode of the eight episode season and not the forensic accountant she's presented herself as for 20 or so years.
Debbie and Judith are on the run and there are thrills and twists but the main selling point is the chemistry between Octavia and Hannah.
Of course, everything that streams and airs doesn't live up to the levels of MAXIMUM PLEASURE GUARANTEED and RIDE OR DIE. Take last Thursday when CBS aired Convicted Felon Donald Chump's twenty-six minutes of tired ravings about 2020.
As he whined and lied and claimed the 2020 election was stolen, he came across like Francis Buxton in PEE WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE -- an overgrown, whiny and jealous man-child who covets what others have.
Francis has money and all the toys he could want as a result of his dim-witted father -- he sounds like Donald, doesn't he? -- but he has to have Pee Wee's bike, he has to.
And that's how Chump came off Thursday night.
And that's how he's always came off.
The crazed ravings reminded us that he started the Iran War and thought it would only last 48 hours and then thought it would only lat two weeks and then four weeks and then?
Well it continues to this day.
Remember June 14th? Remember what Chump was doing then? He wanted good press so he was lying and claiming to have ended his war with Iran with a cease-fire. AP reported that day, "President Donald Trump marked turning 80 on Sunday by hailing an agreement to end the war in Iran hours before a birthday celebration that once would have seemed unfathomable: a cage-fighting show on the storied South Lawn of the White House."
And on Friday?
John Ismay, Aaron Boxerman and Leily Nikounazar (NE W YORK TIMES) report:
Two U.S. soldiers were killed and a third service member was missing after an Iranian attack on a base in Jordan on Friday, the U.S. military said. The American troop deaths were the first from hostile fire since a truce in early April.
The Jordanian base came under fire from Iranian ballistic missiles and drones, according to a statement on Saturday from U.S. Central Command. Sixteen U.S. service members have been killed since the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran in February.
Chump lies.
He lied about the supposed cease-fire. He lied Thursday night.
His 'big' speech to the nation.
For 26 or so minutes, he yammered on. 26 minutes and this is what he said about Iran:
We are likewise winning big in Iran, and you will see the fruits of that labor very, very shortly.
That was it. 26 minutes and the most he could say about the war was one sentence.
Of course, he didn't speak to the American people when he launched the war.
No, he taped a message that was released later at 2:30 am. the morning he started the war. Didn't feel the need for a live address then.
The Epstein Files, the Iran War, the attempt to put his trashy name on The Kennedy Center, the reflecting pool, the 250th anniversary of our democracy, so many failures, so many scandals, so many embarrassments and there he was last week whining about . . . the 2020 election.
He's running on fumes.