COVID-19: What to Binge Watch

From Worldometer, I have adjusted this table to show how new deaths best determine the phase of COVID-19:

DAY     China   Italy   USA   Spain   Germany   S. Korea  WORLD

May   1         0    269   1897      281          113               1        5624

              2         0    474    1691     276            76               2        5215
              3         0    174    1154     164            54               0        3481
              4         0    195    1324     164          127               2        4096
              5         0    236    2350     185              ?               2        5787
              6         0    369    2528     244          282               1        6811

              7         0    274    2129     213          117               1        5589
              8         0    243    1687     229          118               0        5550
              9         0    194    1422     179            39               0        4248
            10         0    165      750     143            20               0        3510
            11         0    179    1008     123            92               0        3403
            12         0    172    1630     176            77               2        5328
            13         0    195    1772     184          123               1        5314
            14         0    262    1715     217            67               1        5317
            15         0    242    1595     138            73               0        5072
            16         0    153    1218     104            26               2        4360
            17         1    145      865       87            22               0        3618
            18         0      99    1003       59            74               1        3445 

Summary:

• A  generally okay day for much of the world.
• However, the USA went up in new deaths and had 22,630 new cases, 25% the world total.
• Brazil could well overtake the USA by next week, unless the economic re-opening scuttles the disease.
• India, Pakistan and Bangladesh remain worrisome.

• From The New York Times:  President Trump threatened to end all funding to the World Health Organization if it didn’t “commit to substantive improvements within the next 30 days,” according to a copy of a letter he posted to Twitter. Earlier Monday, China pledged to donate $2 billion to the W.H.O.

• Our intrepid President, Donald Trump, is now taking hydroxychloroquine to prevent getting COVID-19.  I thought that pill was perhaps helpful for reducing the sickness period for some.  Apparently, though, there is a major study which by mid-summer will report on this drug as a prevention option.  But is it smart for the leader of the free world to essentially participate in this guinea pig experiment?  He is not part of the study itself.

• Speaker Nancy Pelosi, asked about this hydroxychloroquine treatment, worried about Trump's longevity prospects, but just had to provide one dig, calling him morbidly obese.  

• Reportedly, Trump is 6 ft 3 in tall and weighs 236 pounds.  More accurately, his driver's license says 6'2".  Referring to that table in the right column, plugging those numbers in, I get a BMI of 30.3, which puts him right on the line between obese and overweight.  His golf handicap, if true is around 3, making him the best golfing president ever.

• William Taft's BMI calculated to 40, which did make him morbidly obese.
• Barack Obama?  22.1, which placed him in the middle of normal, and is about the healthiest BMI to have.  He improved his golf handicap from 17 (which was mine at my prime) to 13 (the best I ever had for a short period).
• So Nancy Pelosi exaggerated.  Trump is merely just about obese.
• Well....  In any case, this gives me an opportunity to dump two Trump jokes here to clear my desktop, although these are condemnations and not really funny:

Yesterday was a happy day for me.  First, I reported that Just Sam became the latest American Idol (just scroll down to the next article).  Then I weighed myself, and saw 159.8 pounds, which shows that if I don't agonizingly walk 36 holes of golf per week, I can control my weight.  However, I need to be very careful about what I eat and drink.  Looks like I'll soon go back to golfing, so that I can consume whatever I want.  Saw a notice that 15 Craigside will soon be relaxing the lockdown.  Finally, my face shield was delivered.  Below, I can see more and more people, like Nancy Pelosi, wearing the latest in COVID-19 wear (by the way, I bought ten black masks at Daiso--a Japanese thrift store--for $1, thus 10 cents/mask):

Well, life goes on, so today, I will focus on the best  of those Netflix and Amazon Prime series I have thus far experienced.   The problem with these programs is that they take so much of your time.  Some are addictive to the point of changing your life to accommodate the watching.  I never knew they even existed until I started my string of binge viewing.

Netflix/Amazon Series                      Rotten Tomatoes     My Rating

                                                       

                                                         Critics  Audiences

Money Heist  (2017-  )                          91          81                 A
Giri/Haji (2020)                                   100          92                 B+

Into the Night (2020)                              ?          76                 B

Dead to Me (2019-   )                            91          91                 B

Babylon Berlin (2018-  )                     100          95                 B+

Unbelievable (2019)                             98          94                 A-
Killing Eve (2018-2020)                        90          87                 ?
Bosch (2015-2020)                               83          90                 ?
Homecoming (2019-2020)                   98          71                 B
Undone (2019)                                    100          93                 ?
Catastrophe (2015)                              98          92                 ?
Fleabag (2016-2019)                          100          93                 ?

Money Heist is a  Spanish television series created by Alex Pina.  That 91/81 Rotten Tomatoes rating is an average of some sort, as good parts of the effort were rated at 100%.  So far, there have been four parts with a total of 31 episodes, around 50 minutes each.  Can't believe I spent a whole 24-hour day on it. An Italian anti-fascist song, Bella Ciao, used here and there, actually became a summer hit in 2018.  The theme song, My Life is Going On by Cecilia Krull soon will become one of your favorites.  The mask is Salvador Dali.  This has been the most-watched series on Netflix.  This is not a place for a full review, so I send you to Wikipedia for details.  Will there be a Part 5?  You bet.

Giri/Haji, meaning Duty/Shame in Japanese, is a BBC Two production set in Tokyo and London.  To quote reviewers:  violently stylish, complex, really good stuff, fascinating, cross-pollinated genres, mashes together two very different cultures.  There are eight episodes, and I haven't yet completed watching them all.

Into the Night was a six-episode series in season one.  It will be continued.  The Sun suddenly begins to kill everyone in its path.  A commercial flight attempts to stay just ahead of it.  Intriguing and almost addictive, but with many soft spots.

Dead to Me is an American black comedy which includes 10 episodes each through two seasons.  The first year got an 86% reviewers rating, while the second received 97%.  I'm early into season one, so the B rating I gave could well improve by the end.  Stars Christina Applegate, Linda Cardellini, Edward Asner and James Marsden.  Involves twists and twins and a general sense of discomfort.

Babylon Berlin is a German neo-noir TV series which takes place in Berlin from 1929.  The production navigates in a time of the stock market crash, rise of the Black Reichswehr and Communism.  Season one has 16 episodes and season two 12.  There will be a third.  Said to be the most expensive TV drama series in Germany.  It's already won numerous awards.  Reviewers said:  exhilarating, mesmerizing television and irresistible.  It is risqué.

Unbelievable is an American drama from a Pulitzer Prize-winning article starring Toni Collette, Merritt Wever and Kaitlyn Dever.  The miniseries of eight episodes is about a series of rapes in Washington State and Colorado.  Quoting reviewers:  a tough but rewarding watch, great performances (Toni Collette has really matured well), brilliantly structured cat and mouse story, all from a female perspective...harrowing.

Killing Eve is an enigma for me.  AMC now carries it weekly for free.  But this is season 3.  How to watch seasons 1 and 2?  You need go to Amazon Prime.  Season 1 has a 96% reviewers rating from Rotten Tomatoes.  But it's dropping: season 2=93% and 3=82, still pretty good.  The problem, however, is to watch Seasons 1 (13 episodes) and 2 (8 episodes) you need to go to Amazon Prime and pay $40.  I'm waiting for this to all become free.

Also on Amazon Prime, Bosch is enticing but a dilemma.  First, it is now in season 6, or a total of 60 episodes.  Second, season 1 "only" got an 83% reviewers rating.  However, seasons 2-6 received 100% ratings.  So I began to watch last night and got through episode 1.  I'll continue. 

Homecoming on Amazon Prime last year starred Julia Roberts.  Season 2 has the same cast except for Roberts, replaced by Janelle Monae.  Watch episode one this Friday on Amazon Prime.  This is FREE for Amazon Prime members...and everyone who buys from Amazon.com probably is.  Yes, Amazon Prime, too, has hordes of series.  It will depend on how long sports programs remain dormant.

A series on Amazon Prime that bamboozled me was Undone.  I watched because of those astronomic Rotten Tomatoes ratings.  It is animated, and rather awkwardly.  Reviewers liked the hyperreality to draw out emotions.  The faces are somewhat similar to the people voicing those roles, like Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul).  I hate animated films because they remind me of children productions.  But this one is for adults.  A car accident enables the protagonist to manipulate and move time.  I only saw one episode, and will move on the second, maybe tonight.  There will be a second season.

Those numbers rating Catastrophe by Rotten Tomatoes must be some kind of average, for this series on Amazon Prime got 100%, 100%, 100% and 95% ratings from reviewers for seasons 1 to 4.  I have only seen episode 1 from season 1.  Nothing special, but those 100% scores must mean something I will appreciate over time.  The writing is exceptional.  This is a romantic comedy that takes you from an unplanned pregnancy on a weekend fling by an American tourist in London into four full seasons.

Fleabag on Amazon Prime is one of those series that must take time to appreciate, for I was underwhelmed by episode 1 of season 1 (there are two).  However, both years were rated 100% by Rotten Tomatoes.  This is a British comedy based on the one-woman show performed in 2013 by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who stars.  A fleabag apparently is a free-spirited, sexually active, angry and confused young woman in London.  In the cast is Olivia Colman, who won an Oscar for Best Actress as Queen Anne in The Favourite, and an Emmy for The Night Manager (there will be a season 2 with Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie).

Let's see now, I'm now into 1987, so here are the #1 songs of the year, in 4 minutes.  The year featured:

• Aretha Franklin selected as the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
• Dow Jones hits 2000 for the first time.
• Ronald Reagan in Berlin challenged Michail Gorbachev to tear down the wall.
• Huawei founded in Shenzhen, China.
• Black Monday, Dow Jones Industrials fall 508 (22.6%--the equivalent today of a 5000 point drop) to below 2000.

• 800,000 people stood on the Golden Gate Bridge for a 50th Anniversary celebration.
• First Kentucky Fried Chicken in China.
• First Starbucks outside of Washington.
• Microsoft releases Windows 2.0.

-

Ocean storms are starting early this year, with the first one in the West Pacific, Typhoon Vonfong, making landfall over the Philippines at 93 MPH, rolling over the country, and dissipating close to Taiwan.

In the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Arthur, the first of the season, formed between Cuba and Florida, reached 60 MPH, but moved into the Atlantic Ocean:

In the Indian Ocean, Super Cyclone Amphan, the strongest ever in the region, once a Category 5, has weakened into a 2, and will strike India and Bangladesh:

From The New York Times:  An analysis of satellite imagery from the past four decades suggests that climate change is making hurricanes stronger.

-

THE BEST SERIES OF ALL TIME

But first, a segue into the make-up White House Correspondent's Dinner last night, the one added to the first attempt on April 25, when a Trump assassin showed up.  This second one was almost as chaotic.

• Of course, you must know that President Trump refused to attend any of these dinners in his first term.

• 
  His first appearance was on 25April2026.
• From the liberal viewpoint, CNN:

Trump bombed at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner — and proved its point

Members of the media mocking a leader’s dismal performance on live TV and all across the internet? In some other countries, that’s a criminal offense. But in the US, it’s the norm, so maybe Trump’s speech unwittingly underscored the theme of the dinner: America’s robust First Amendment protections.
In a rambling hour-long speech, Trump insulted journalists by name, repurposed old nicknames for political opponents, made a strange number of fat jokes that weren’t funny at all, and sounded mad at his unnamed writers for giving him weak material to work with. “Does anyone understand this stuff?” he said at one point, and the answer was generally no.

• You can read the rest of the article.
• 
  From Fox News:  Trump spares no one at WHCA dinner, taking aim at Dems, press and his own Cabinet.

• Trump in particular hates Kaitlan Collins of CNN, and said so.  She ended up winning the award for Best Broadcaster.  And, oh, President Trump shook her hand.  Watch that!
• These dinners are all about the First Amendment, honoring what journalists deserve and taken with some humor.

So into my topic of the day, for I have spent too much time recently streaming.  

• Not swimming, but watching TV.  
• With all the new films and series popping out on all your streaming and regular channels, surely you've considered going back in time and seeing the entire production of the most popular ones.  
• But which ones?
• They're all there, somewhere.
• Scores of sources provide ratings of the best ones.   But there are so many biases based on age, context shift, country and the like.
• Plus which streaming channels carry them. 

I begin with some classics, like Taxi, Cheers and Seinfeld.  

• Turns out that Taxi only has a 77 audience rating.  On Paramount+.
• Cheers?  87/95.  Also on Paramount+.
• Seinfeld?  89/92.  9 seasons and 180 episodes, each 22 minutes.  On Netflix.

Then I turned to to Rotten Tomatoes, and they have a top 50:

• #1    Brooklyn Nine-Nine 95/88.  On Peacock.
• Never heard of this one.  And it is #1! 
• Andy Samberg, Terry Crews (yes, the guy from America's Got Talent).
• Aired from 2013 to 2019 for eight seasons and 153 episodes.
• 22 minutes/episode.
• Revolved around the New York City Police Department.
• Scored 100% in seasons 2, 4, 5 and 6.
• On Peacock and Netflix.

• 
  #2    Grimm 89/90.  Peacock and Prime.  Never heard of it either.
• #3    2 Broke Girls 65.  Prime.  What, how can this be #3, only scoring 65 on Rotten Tomatoes.
• #4    Game of Thrones  89 85.  Netflix.  Okay, this is one that I've looked into watching.  Now on Max (was once known as HBO Max).

• 
  #5    The Walking Dead  79 78.  Netflix.  I don't understand why this is #5.
• Seasons 1-11 will remain with Netflix.
• But multiple spin-offs will depart on 19August2026.
• #8    Spartacus  64.  Netflix.  Also never heard of this one, and further makes no sense to me in the top ten with only a score of 64.

• 
  #9    Modern Family 85 89.  Peacock and Hulu.  Okay, I've seen a few episodes. After all, 11 seasons and 250 episodes.  Sofia Vergara is a judge on America's Got Talent.
• #11  Parks and Recreation  93 89.  Peacock.
• #16  Breaking Bad  96 97.  Why isn't this near the top?  It's on my watch list.  5 seasons and a total of 62 episodes.  Can be found on Netflix.

• 
  #18  Big Bang Theory 81 85.  12 Seasons and 279 episodes.  Watched many of these.  Max
• #20  The Office 81 89. 9 seasons and 201 episodes. Peacock in the USA, Netflix internationally.
• #29 24  87 87.  The one with Kiefer Sutherland.  9 seasons and 205 episodes.  On Hulu.

• 
  #33  The West Wing  81 95. 7 seasons and 154 episodes on Max and Netflix.
• #34  The Sopranos  92 96.  Also on my watch list. 6 seasons and 86 episodes, but 55 minutes/episode. On Max, Hulu and Prime (but must also have Max).
• #35  Batman and Beyond  100 95.  Wow, should be #1 with those scores.  3 seasons with 52 episodes, each around 22 minutes long.  On Max.

• 
  #43  Seinfeld  89 92. 9 seasons and 180 episodes.  Netflix.  But the series is currently set to leave on October 1.  Where to?  There will be a bidding war.
• #50  The Twilight Zone  92 95.   So highly rated, and so low?  First one in 1959, with 5 seasons and 156 episodes    Length for 25 minutes, except for season 4, with each episode at 51 minutes.  Can be found on Paramount+, Amazon Freevee and Tubi.

I've long wanted to watch Breaking Bad, but five seasons and 62 episodes will keep me occupied for a long time.  I might now do it because I subscribe to Netflix, and it is leaving in 2027.  Further found out from Google AI that it was right at the top of all global series.

While "the best" is ultimately subjective, Breaking Bad (USA), The Wire (USA), and The Sopranos (USA) are universally considered the greatest television series of all time by global critics and audiences. However, several global masterpieces frequently top international and critical lists. [1, 2, 3]

• 
  UK/USA  Chernobyl (see review later)
• Germany  Dark on Netflix.
• UK  Sherlock, with Benedict Cumberbatch on Hulu.
• Spain  Money Heist.  One of the best I've ever watched.  On Netflix.
• Denmark  Borgen.  Started, but never finished.  On Netflix.

IMDb has a top 70:

• #1    Chernobyl
• #2    Breaking Bad
• #3    Band of Brothers
• #4    The Pacific
• #8    The Sopranos
• #10  Game of Thrones
• #16  Sherlock
• #30  The Big Bang Theory
• #31  Money Heist
• #38  Vincenzo.  First Korean entry.  Terrific.
• #60  Shogun.  Excellent.  Second season coming at the end of 2027.

As Chernobyl was rated so high, thought I would see it last night.

• First problem, there are dozens of films, series and documentaries with that title.
• Digging deeper, found out that Chernobyl, a 5-part HBO/Sky miniseries, was the right one.
• Rotten Tomatoes scores of 95 by reviewers and 97 audiences.
• Watched Episode 1 on Max.
• Grim.
• Nightmarish.
• I'll definitely finish this series, but maybe only reluctantly.
• Why?  You could get nightmares and feel awful after this experience.  Watch this trailer to decide.

Typhoon Noul at 100 MPH made landfall over China.  However, the track turned slightly east, with the eye around 50 miles to the north and east on Hong Kong.  

Fights out of Hong Kong could have been cancelled.  While all that was happening, my travel partner sent these photos from the Hong Kong International Airport.  Luckily, she departed on time to Manila according to Philippine Airlines, and I'm now awaiting her call when her connecting flight arrives in Honolulu.

From the airport lounge, a chicken dish.  Don't look too closely, for there are parts of a chicken you don't normally see in a meal.

Good news.  She just called.  Her flight arrived in Honolulu.

- 

SQUID GAME and NETFLIX

   From Worldometer (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):

        DAY   USA  WORLD       Brazil    India    South Africa

June     9    1093     4732         1185        246       82

July    22     1205     7128         1293      1120     572

Aug    12     1504     6556        1242        835     130

Sept     9     1208      6222       1136       1168       82

Oct     21     1225      6849         571        703       85

Nov    25      2304    12025        620        518      118

Dec    30      3880    14748       1224       299      465

Jan     14      4142    15512        1151       189     712              

Feb      3       4005    14265       1209       107      398

Mar     2        1989      9490        1726       110      194

April   6          906     11787         4211       631       37

May    4         853     13667         3025     3786       59 

June    1         287    10637        2346      3205       95

 July   7          251      8440        1595        817      411

Aug    4          656    10120        1118        532      423 

Sept   1        1480    10470          703        505      235

          8        1700      9836          250        339      253

        14        1934      9001          709        281      300

        22        2228      9326          839        279      124

        29        2190      8859          643        309      108 

Oct    6        2102       8255         543        315        59

        12        1819       7544         201        249        37

        18        1563       7228         381        199        55

        19        2005       7528         401        160        80

Summary:  Oh, oh, not improving for the USA.  We also had 80,425 new cases yesterday, with UK #2 at 48,964.  Interestingly enough, Russia had "only" 34,073 new cases for #3, but with 1028 new deaths to UK's 179.

The FDA yesterday announced its approval of booster shots for Moderna and Johnson&Johnson vaccines.  Bad for J&J, but there is reason to believe that mix-and-match is being allowed.  Very few who gave any thought to this would now take a J&J shot to match the original Moderna and Pfizer sequence.  I expect to be injected with my Moderna booster next month from some pharmaceutical company coming to 15 Craigside, where both residents and staff are up to 99% compliance, and there are hints staffers (only a very few left) will be let go if they don't go ahead and get inoculated.

Read this article for details on the three prominent U.S. vaccines:

• Pfizer-BioNTech:
• Has always been the first to gain approvals, including booster shots for the elderly and a few others, plus okay to proceed with children from 5-11.
• Initially was said to be 95% efficient, but this later dropped to 91%, with a further diminution to 84% at 6 months.   Another study showed the decline to 77% in four months.  Even then, efficacy against severe disease was at 97%.
• More specifically, 96% effective against hospitalization for the Alpha variant and 90% for the Delta variant.
• 
  Moderna:
• Finally received approval for half a dose booster shot, and will soon get expansion to 5-12 year olds.
• Minor warning about heart problems in 12.6 cases per million, but this condition seems to work itself out.
• 95% efficacy after two doses, declining to 90% after six months.
• 95% protection from severe conditions.
• Prevents 96.3% efficiency against symptoms, compared to 88.8% for the Pfizer.
• 
  Johnson and Johnson:
• One shot.  Booster approved.
• Minor Guillain-Barre syndrome and blood clotting disorder symptoms.
• A different kind of vaccine from Pfizer and Moderna.
• ONLY 72% efficient, with 86% efficacy against moderate and severe disease.
• Just approved for booster shot, which two months after first shot improves protection to 94% from moderate and severe disease.
• Not as efficient for the Delta variant, but still 95% effective against death.
• 
  Two more:
• Similar as a carrier vaccine to J&J, AstraZeneca from the UK/Sweden is 76% effective after two doses and 100% efficient against severe disease.  Slightly less effective against the Delta variant:  60% against symptoms and 93% against hospitalization.

• 
  Novavax from the U.S. is a protein adjuvant and can simply be stored in a refrigerator.  Is 90% effective against symptoms and 100% against moderate and severe disease.  91% effective in protecting people in high-risk population.  Will soon be approved by the FDA.

Since I began visiting South Korea a third of a century ago, I've been impressed by how much the country has advanced in technology and home products.  Their chaebols (large industrial conglomerate controlled by a person or family) were able to influence the central government into helping them help themselves.  The result has been a plethora of scandal cases.  Yet, the overall effect was impressive.

More recently, K-pop, or Korean pop music, groups, such as BTS and Blackpink, have gained massive fan bases in the U.S., and their popularity continues to grow. Movies like the South Korean film Parasite have done well, winning the Academy Award for best picture last year.

There was a time that I made fun of people who weekly watched certain Korean soap operas on television.  I couldn't imagine what would influence them to spend so much time so religiously on something like that.

Well, time to eat humble pie, for the pandemic led me to Netflix and several Korean series.  

• In particular, I can recommend Something in the Rain and Crash Landing on You, starring Son Ye-jin (right), now my favorite actress.  
• Also Vincenzo (Rotten Tomatoes: /96) is worthy of your time.  These series tend to sometimes run 80 minutes, and go on for a dozen and more episodes.  Vincenzo has 20, so you will spend 1600 minutes, or almost 27 hours.
• Crash Landing on You has 16 90-minute episodes (24 hours).  There are signs that there will be a season 2.

Now...Squid Game on Netflix, rated 92/85 by Rotten Tomatoes.  Why is it popular?

• From South Korea, released on September 17, and is #1 in streaming internationally, for it is available in 37 languages.
• Nine episodes, 54 minutes (varies from 32 minutes to 63 minutes) long each, or only 8 hours of your time.
• Simply, "some organization" picked 456 people in debt to compete in kids games for what will ultimately be a $38 million prize.  Those who lose will die, meaning everyone but the victor.
• I'm giving a lot away, but so what.  Competitor #456 wins all the money and the person who is controlling everything is someone who you would think is the last person to do so.  The clue is in that previous sentence.  Plus there is one more controlling individual who I will also not name at this time.

K-dramas have catapulted the country into prominence.  Something about their story complexity and humanity make binge-watching easy.  There is something for almost anyone.  If you like history, they are educational and entertaining.  I'm into relationships, intrigue and adventure, but not back in time.  The lifestyle in Korea today is something the USA will experience in a few years.  Too much smart phones, which are, for example, used to get into a movie theater with reserved seats.  You just beep in and go to your seat.  I tried to buy a ticket and could not figure out how to do so.  Their theaters also have a wide range of pop corn and a variety of alcoholic beverages, and these came almost a decade ago.

While South Korea is beginning to dominate the Netflix series scene, Spain (Money Heist) and a half dozen European countries are doing very well.  There are five parts to Money Heist, with season 1-3 getting Rotten Tomatoes reviewers' scores of 100.  Japan is returning after a long hiatus, and several programs related to cuisine (Samurai Gourmet and Midnight Diner), of all the things, are particularly interesting.  Midnight Diner, for example, earned 100/94 scores from Rotten Tomatoes.  This show is that good.  And there are five seasons, 50 episodes of 25 minutes each, or 21 hours.

Next on Netflix, video games.  That seems to be the next direction of the world's leading streaming channel.  What is free today, won't soon be so.  How will they synthesize three dimensions with Oculus?  Such is the future of television.

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