From the Couch Hole: I Hear You Calling, but I Can’t Come Home Right Now

Previously on FTCH, on the road to Omaha, the running man found love so right. His companion carried the works of man and hot cocoa creamer and crackers. This week was a nice change of pace in a month of weeks that have seemed repetitive. It was good for me to have some family in town and do some group painting projects around the house. Football and eating occupied the rest of the weekend. This week a nice Indian boy met Beth and they talked about the rule of Jenny Pen. The unquiet dead are materialists who like Cinnamon Toast Crunch with Mexican Hot Chocolate. Remember, FTCH is built Ram tough.

Pop Culture Ephemera

• Materialists (2025) (Directed by Celine Song): “Dating takes a lot of effort. A lot of trial and error. A ton of risk and pain. Love is easy.” – Lucy. Director Celine Song (Past Lives) has a complicated vision of modern relationships. I think I enjoyed her more subtle portrayal of them in her previous film. There’s a moment in this film where Lucy is watching a wedding from a distance and has a long monologue about the newlyweds eventually falling out of love. It serves a purpose for her character deciding to pursue money or love, which is the ultimate theme of the film, but it is delivered in such a monotone way by Dakota Johnson that it put a pallor over the rest of the story. The writing is strong, but the take on modern relationships is maybe too frank and dour. This isn’t a world with a “Happily ever after.” It’s more of just an “After for now.” The acting was flat, considering the quality I expect from Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal. It’s just a little too uneven for my liking. I will continue to look forward to new works from Celine Song, but I don’t think this will be a priority to rewatch.
  
• Doctor Who – “The Unquiet Dead” (2005) (V.2 S.1 E.3) (BBC): “Now, don’t antagonize her – I love a happy medium!” – Doctor Who. I started this year watching Tom Baker episodes. I’ve pushed through a number of Doctors to get to the Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper as Rose reboot. I have not watched these episodes since a brief rewatch in 2010. I remember this episode where the Doctor and Rose encounter Charles Dickens as when I was finally excited for the reboot. It’s the first episode that feels like we haven’t completely ignored the stories that have come before.
  
  I loved the early Doctor Who episodes where he encountered historical figures like Marco Polo. Writing Charles Dickens into a story influenced by his writings is quiet a fun twist. The appearance of H. G. Wells during the 6th Doctor didn’t work because his writings didn’t contribute to the solving of a mystery. Dickens is an active hero of this story. I think the chemistry between the Doctor and Charles is one of the reasons I like this episode. The other reason is the continued excellent writing of Rose’s character. She learns the valuable lesson that not everything in the past is at it seems. This season might not live up to what’s to come, but I’m finding it a good base.

Buy Doctor Who: Complete Series 1-4 Blu-ray

• KISS – “Beth” (1976) (from Destroyer): “Just a few more hours / And I’ll be right home to you.” My apologies to the Beth who moved into my neighborhood in about 1978 who had to hear this song sung to her by us middle schoolers on the bus for months. While I have a special spot in my heart for this song, it’s a shame that it’s their biggest charting hit when they have so many rock and roll songs that should have been, including “Detroit Rock City” on this same album. Written by Peter Criss, it would be one of his very few songs to make any of their albums. It would be solidified in my mind as a Criss song when I saw Peter sing it in KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park (1978). It wasn’t the first rock ballad, but the success set the tone for rock bands for the next 30 years.

Buy KISS – Destroyer

• The Rule of Jenny Pen (2024) (Directed by James Ashcroft): “We don’t stop playing because we get old, we get old because we stop playing.” – Dave Crealy. This is a good illustration that horror plots can be found anywhere. Former judge Stefan Mortensen (Geoffrey Rush) is confined to a wheelchair in an elderly home after a stroke. There he encounters Dave Crealy (John Lithgow) who rules the home tyrannically with the assistance of a hand puppet he calls Jenny Pen. The setting allows for its own model of the outside world. The overall symbol of the film is how a fascist leader takes over by using terror and fear. The battle between the two varies between dark humor and actual horror. The illustration of aging and Stefan’s lack of attachment to reality at times is portrayed as confusing. As good as Lithgow is at playing the possibly crazy bad guy, Rush conveys the scary feeling of aging that really make this a watchable film. This New Zealand film is a refreshing little horror film that just needs a little tightening to be a top tier of the genre.

• A Nice Indian Boy (2024) (Directed by Roshan Sethi): “My parents are super-liberal for Indians. Just, uh, don’t bring up drinking, or meat, or sex, or drugs, and obviously, no display of physical affection or open declarations of love.” – Naveen Gavaskar. The plot is simple. Naveen (Karan Soni, who you will recognize as the cab driver from Deadpool) falls in love with Jay Kurundkar (Jonathan Groff from Hamilton). Jay is white, raised by Indian parents. That kind of out-of-normal romance that has to navigate sibling and parental roadblocks is as old as films have been being made. This manages to feel fresh, and the cast is incredibly endearing. Naveen’s parents are the stars for me, but I might be showing my age as a viewer. I was charmed by the film, and I don’t want to say too much about it that could ruin your expectations. While the world gets darker, this is the type of film that gives me hope.
  

Best of the Rest

• It’s not difficult to cover KISS’ “Beth” but there just aren’t lots of interesting versions. There are a few decent punk covers that just bang a guitar at triple speed to the beat. In general, Glee (Fox) is a forgotten show that was hugely popular at the time. I was a fan, partially because my daughter was at the perfect age for the show too. The song shouldn’t work emotionally for a high school setting, but it was a memorable performance that I still remember today.

• I’m not even sure what this is below. That it involves Timothee Chalamet and Josh Safdie it makes a little more sense that there’s something I’m confused about. It’s essentially a promotion for the Marty Supreme (2025) film, but it’s also 18 minutes. It’s a short film. It’s an inception film of a marketing meeting about marketing meetings about an advertising campaign that is itself the advertising campaign. My head hurts trying to explain it while I’m sitting through an ad that’s 1/6th the length of the film. Just know this exists. Watch at your own mental peril.

• If you ever read FTCH or Sunday Morning Tuneage around this time of year, you know that one of the markers of the holiday season is the John Lewis Christmas Advert each year. Last year was a return to some of the classic ads of the 2010s. It wasn’t all the way back to the whimsy, but they are getting closer. This year is a father/son ad that knows just how to get this old man in the feels. I guess I’m old enough that sons bond with their fathers over EDM, but it still makes an emotional impact. This sets the bar for other companies to try to match. I’m looking at you, Chevrolet.

• The second half of that John Lewis advert has stuck in my head this week. I don’t know anything worth sharing about Labrinth. It’s a great vocal that I would have liked even if it wasn’t in the John Lewis advert. Just let it play while you read.

Sunday Morning Tuneage Flashback

• Sunday Morning Tuneage from 1/3/2010, I’m going to pause here for a few weeks while I look deeper into my Best of 2009 lists that I released on this morning. My lists have evolved/devolved over the years. This was probably only the fourth or fifth year of standardizing my lists. In general, 2009 was a good year for pop culture and for me, I remember it positively with six-, twelve-, and thirteen-year-old children at home. I’m more terrible about catching up with television shows that I miss starting when they start than I am about catching up on films. The list at the time included all shows currently airing in 2009 that I wasn’t watching The list of Best Television Shows I Haven’t Watched should serve as a Holiday Watch-List.
  
  My #82 Top TV Show of All-Time was Quantum Leap (NBC) (1989-1993): This list is paused until I move forward to the next Tuneage release.
  
• BEST TELEVISION SHOWS I DIDN’T WATCH IN 2009 (2010)
  • 10. Glee (Fox)
  • 9. How I Met Your Mother (CBS)
  • 8. Hung (HBO)
  • 7. Big Love (HBO)
  • 6. Mad Men (AMC)
  • 5. Modern Family (ABC)
  • 4. Damages (FX)
  • 3. Chuck (NBC)
  • 2. Breaking Bad (AMC)
  • 1. Dexter (SHO)
    
• BEST TELEVISION SHOWS I HAVEN’T WATCHED OF 2009 (2025)
  • 10. The Good Wife (CBS) (2009-2016): There are lots of season to watch here when you talk about a network drama. I love Julianna Margulies and this has always looked like a good show.
  • 9. Modern Family (ABC) (2009-2020): Talk about lots of episodes. I have watched the random episode or two on syndication and I can tell I would get some laughs from the series. It didn’t last that long without some redeeming values.
  • 8. Party Down (Starz) (2009-2023): There are only three seasons over the course of those 14 years. A cast to die for including Paul Rudd, Martin Starr, and Adam Scott.
  • 7. Southland (NBC) (2009-2013): It was one season on NBC and ended up on TNT. I had meant to watch this show so much that I had to look at the descriptions of the episodes to convince myself that I hadn’t watched it. The show looks like an above average police procedural.
  • 6. The Middle (ABC) (2009-2018): Patricia Heaton leaves one successful sitcom and lands in another that will go for nine years. The commercials always looked funny, and somehow I never watched even a single minute of it.
  • 5. Men of a Certain Age (TNT) (2009-2011): Ray Romano leaves the same successful sitcom and only manages two seasons. This edges out The Middle mostly because of supporting cast like Scott Bakula and only two seasons to catch up on.
  • 4. Nurse Jackie (SHO) (2009-2015): I love Edie Falco and this show looks like some of the quality Showtime shows that were happening in the same era.
  • 3. Better Off Ted (ABC) (2009-2010): ABC needed their own workplace comedy, and this was their entry. I think I didn’t watch this or Modern Family because I didn’t trust ABC with comedies.
  • 2. Misfits (UK) (E4) (2009-2013): I believe that I watched the first two episodes and then lost whatever source I was watching them. I don’t remember much other than how much I was intrigued by the concept. It just seemed to need a slightly bigger budget.
  • 1. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (Japan) (JNN) (2009-2010): I don’t know much about this anime other than it always shows up on lists of Best Anime Series of All-Time. The trailers back in 2009 always looked interesting. This is definitely a possible 2026 watch.

Buy Modern Family: The Complete First Season

1975 in Review

• November – Batman #269 (DC Comics): Cover by Ernie Chan and Tatjana Wood. Written by David Vern Reed. Art by Ernie Chan. Batman has to solve the mystery of multiple murders all of people named Terry Tremayne. It’s a clever little mystery that reads more like Agatha Christie even though the issue is dedicated to Dashiell Hammet.
• November 30 – Graham Hill, an English race car driver who won the 1966 Indy 500 and was the Formula One World Champion in 1962 and 1968, died in an private airplane crash in a London suburb.
• November 23 – The 63rd Grey Cup was played in Calgary between the Edmonton Eskimos and the Montreal Alouettes. The final score of 9-8 in favor of Edmonton was the result of Montreal missing a potential winning field goal that became a single instead of a 10-9 victory kick. It was the last professional football championship without a touchdown to this day. Montreal’s coach Marv Levy would move South to Buffalo to lose some more heartbreaking championships.

What the Hell Did I Put in My Mouth?

“You say you feel so empty
That our house just ain’t a home
That I’m always somewhere else
And you’re always there alone.” – KISS