We’re having some bona fide winter weather in New Orleans. It’s not exactly a winter wonderland but it will do: November was too damn warm. I’m glad it’s over.

I’ve been afflicted with insomnia ever since the election. It’s why my early morning posts land at inconsistent times; otherwise I’d rewrite them to death. I haven’t the foggiest idea what a dead post looks like and I’m too groggy to investigate.

It’s the 83rd anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, so the featured image is one of many bar scenes in From Here To Eternity. It remains the finest film set before and after the attack. In the picture, Frank Sinatra gets chummy with his fellow Oscar-winner Donna Reed as Monty Clift, resplendent in a Hawaiian shirt, looks on.

This week’s theme song was one of many earworms I had during my illness. My mind was clearly on my veins and what went through them.

Through My Veins was written by Steve Howe and John Wetton for the OG Asia’s 2010 album Omega. Some of my fondest memories of the pre-Musk Twitter involve my exchanges with John Wetton before his death in 2017. We chatted about cats and old movies. Anyone surprised? I thought not.

There aren’t many songs with vein in the title. This bit of funk jazz by the great Herbie Hancock is one of them:

There are, however, many songs with vain in the title. This is one of them:

This week’s second act consists of brief reviews of two TV series currently streaming on Britbox and Netflix, respectively.

Sherwood: I promised to write about this outstanding British series in my Revenge Is Stupid post. Promise kept. I nearly said mission accomplished but that didn’t work out that well for George W Bush, so I bagged it.

Sherwood is a genre jumper. Make that genre combiner. It’s part social commentary part crime fiction. As I said on Thursday:

The first season focused on the long tail of the 1984 showdown between the miner’s union and the Thatcher government. Season two focuses on revenge, which turns out to satisfy nobody.”

The cast of both seasons will be familiar to fans of British TV dramas: David Morrissey, Leslie Manville, Kevin Doyle, Aisling Loftus, Philip Jackson, and Lorraine Ashborne, among others. It’s not quite a cast of thousands but it comes close.

Season two’s plot is tighter and more focused, I slightly prefer it because it’s more crime oriented. That’s what happens when your humble blogger used to practice criminal law.

A common thread between the two seasons is writer-producer James Graham. He’s from Nottinghamshire and based both series on true stories. That’s right: they’re ripped from the headlines.

Here are the trailers:

Grading Time: I give Sherwood 4 stars and an Adrastos Grade of A-. It’s streaming on Britbox, eh wot.

Let’s see what’s playing on Netflix next.

A Man On The Inside is a series from writer-producer Michael Schur who brought us Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Good Place. That’s a helluva comedy resume. The cast is loaded with players from both series including star Ted Danson.

Have I told you lately that Ted Danson is one of the greatest comic actors of his or any other generation? He’s a likable actor who made unlikable characters such as Dr. Becker and Sam Malone, well, likable.

In A Man On The Inside, Danson plays a retired engineering professor who takes a job with a private eye and goes undercover at an assisted living facility to find the MacGuffin: a stolen necklace.

The MacGuffin is a sideshow, it’s the characters that matter. They help Danson come out of his grief funk. Shorter Adrastos: The star is charming, so is the ensemble cast.

Here’s the trailer:

Grading Time: I give A Man On The Inside 4 stars and an Adrastos Grade of A-. It’s a pleasant antidote to our unpleasant times.

The last word of our second act goes to Aimee Mann:

That was charming. Thanks, Aimee.

We begin our third act with our favorite stolen feature.

Separated At Birth Casting Edition: Let’s put on our green tights and silly hats and return to Sherwood Forest. Robin Hood wasn’t a real dude, but his mythic game is strong. We have three Robins below: Kevin Costner, Cartoon Robin from the 1973 Disney flick, and Errol Flynn.

Cartoon Robin Hood was voiced by Brian Bedford. I wonder if he knew this tune:

Your Weekly Oscar: This week, one of OP’s compositions, which poses the eternal question: Where Do I Go From Here?

Have I told you lately how much I love Oscar Peterson?

The Best Of Johnny: What’s not to love about Johnny Carson reading kids’ letters to Santa?

Saturday GIF Horse: A lesser electoral disappointment was that Maya Rudolph didn’t get a 4-year gig playing Kamala Harris on SNL. Here’s Maya as the cranky judge in The Good Place:

That’s an understatement, hon.

We have a new holiday oriented feature that expires the day after Christmas

Weird Christmas Ad Corner: Who wants hair product for Christmas? This guy:

Let’s close down this virtual honky tonk with some Christmas music.

Saturday Closer: Getting into the holiday spirit isn’t easy for me but I’m trying. I will, however, never be synonymous with Christmas like Der Bingle.

That’s all for this week. The last word goes to the backgammon buddies of A Man On The Inside: Stephen McKinley Harrison and Ted Danson.