Shrill is a Hulu series about Annie, an overweight woman who, as the show promises, “wants to change her life without changing her body.” It basically doubles as a half-hour fat shaming show where she refuses to be shamed.

So here’s the thing. I’m overweight too. And I love people who want to embrace themselves, their true beings, etc. But a show that drags out every fat shaming stereotype, puts it on steroids, and dresses it up for humour doesn’t “burst the fat shaming bubble”, it just makes it seem ridiculous.

And, quite frankly, Annie is a mess. She’s passive with her job, avoids confrontation with everyone, seems to like her boyfriend mostly because she likes having one, and while somehow being self-aware and loving herself, her giant “I’m okay” moment is that she gets pregnant and has an abortion. There are lots of reactions that studies have shown after an abortion. Suddenly figuring out who you are is not a common one. She bounces back the next day, new dress, new girl, taking control of her life.

Annie is played by Aidy Bryant, and it feels like one long SNL skit that has no end. She’s okay, but no real presence for most of the episode because she is so passive. Her boyfriend Ryan, played by Luka Jones, is more of a plot device than a presence. Annie’s parents are played by Julia Sweeney and Daniel Stern, and I was disappointed Daniel didn’t have more to do…the voice of Dilbert, the narrator of The Wonder Years, and the best friend in City Slickers, and he has a minute or two of screentime.

The only real scene that works in the whole episode is a dramatic moment in the middle. Annie is having a conversation (in the middle of a rummage sale) with her best friend and roommate Fran. And Annie is having her moment where she is basically confronting her life, her weight and her pregnancy, and Fran has a reality check conversation with her that basically tells her she’s worthwhile as a person and deserves everything she wants and dreams. Annie is almost watchable, but Fran is awesome. Played by Lolly Adefope, Fran has the best scene and lines of the EP. Too bad it went for light-hearted comedy everywhere else, because this scene worked.

Based on the premise, I would have predicted CANCELLATION. After watching, I would leave it there. Except it’s Hulu and they like shows showing they’re socially relevant, and it’s already been renewed. I hope it went somewhere better than FAT PERSON MAKES GOOD.

I knew absolutely nothing about the show Riviera before watching it, and imagine my surprise to see three decent-sized names — Julia Stiles, Anthony Lapaglia, and Lena Olin — as the stars. That alone would give me enough insight to predict RENEWAL sight unseen. I’d certainly have to give it a fighting chance. Except what I didn’t know is that the show is from 2017 and is already on SEASON 3! Umm…I’m a little behind the times.

But I watched the first episode without knowing that status. Julia and Anthony are fabulously rich, or at least Anthony is. Jet-setting, art purchases, yachts, homes in Cote d’Azur. High finance people flying here and there. Actively managing their wealth. Then the wife goes to NYC to buy a painting, and she wants to know if she can go above $30M for the painting or not, while he goes to a late-night meeting with some people on a yacht that then explodes. The wife wants to know what happened, and the search begins. I ignored the family drama.

Julia plays Georgina Clios, former security officer and mistress of Constantine Clios and now his wife. They are madly in love, but with a sense of insecurity, almost desperation at times between them. Julia is hit and miss for me. I liked her for part of the Bourne series, but not all, and a few movies here and there. She’s pretty stoic, and it’s actually interesting to see her as a full-fledged woman, not a girl-bordering-on-womanhood character. She’s a force to be reckoned with. She’s pretty fragile for EP1, having just found out her husband is dead, and understandably so, not that she is completely convinced of it at times.

Anthony plays Constantine, and it is hard to get a handle on his character, a bit slippery. He loves his wife, yet keeps a love nest with pictures of her everywhere in it (is it really a love nest?). He is distracted while talking to her on the phone just before the explosion, staring at a beautiful young woman. Seems like a slimeball, but appearances might be deceiving. He certainly had secrets of some kind. Not a lot of screentime, but memorable.

Lena Olin is disappointing as the ex-wife. She is supportive, but has her own agenda and seems more like a cliché than anything. Quite disappointing that is all she is given to do.

The only other real character of note is a police detective, played by Amr Waked. He was okay in the movie Lucy, and he is okay here, but a weird vibe — he is incredibly intense about the investigation, with no explanation of why. Beyond him, there are several family members who might have decent roles in the show, hard to tell. Mostly Constantine’s kids, and the son of the yacht owner who claims the explosion was murder.

Up until about the three-quarter mark, I was thinking “Meh”. But once Georgina starts investigating, the show picks up, and it makes me curious where it might go. I find it hard to decide if I want to continue or not, but I think I will.

From the brief descriptions I had seen of the show Queens of Mystery, it sounded like Murder They Wrote — three crime-writing aunts help their niece with her police investigations. It wasn’t sounding promising, but shows with smaller ideas have made it to renewal. On a coin toss, I would predict CANCELLATION, sight unseen.

Now that I’ve watched Episode 1 and 2 (they’re two parters), I’m not completely sure what to predict. The basic description is still apt — DS Mattie Stone returns to the area she grew up, and starts working for the local constabulary. Her first case? A murder at a small mystery writers festival, and one of the suspects is an aunt. The story unfolds a bit like a Christie whodunnit, with each person getting a turn in the barrel as the lead suspect, and slowly they are eliminated until the killer is found.

Mattie is played by Olivia Vinall and I’ve not only never seen her before, I also don’t care if I see her again. For 90 minutes of the two-parter, she is wooden. A completely passive character. There is no emotion, no movement, NOTHING. An android would show more emotive capacity. Her character is done as a Sabrina look-alike for some reason, but I thought I was watching a zombie movie. In the one scene where she actually has to move and do something, a small action scene, she’s relatively alive, and relatively bad. Pass.

By contrast, her three aunts all have some presence. Aunt Cat is played by Julie Graham, and while she has a long list of credits, I’ve seen none of them. Here she plays an aging rocker with a bit of hard-living sass to her. Not perfect, but at least she’s interesting. Siobhan Redmond plays a very bookish Aunt Jane, and while I have seen none of her credits either, she is good here. Very prim and proper but an active little sleuth…could easily see her playing a young Miss Marple. Sarah Woodward plays a down-to-earth simple Aunt Beth, and she has very little to do in the episode (except get arrested for murder), and it’s hard to see if she has much to offer other than looking dough-eyed.

There are five or six guest stars as the suspects of the week, and they’re okay, but nothing exceptional. Ditto the supporting police cast.

But, if I’m being honest, the real problem with the show is the narration. The whole show is set up as if someone is narrating different connecting bits of the show…so the backstory for Mattie is told by a narrator who has a “Once Upon A Time” style with a Brothers Grimm-type voice doling out the details. When Mattie meets an attractive man, she shakes his hand, all action stops, and the narration explains how for a moment her heart is going pitter-patter, etc. The problem is that it is constantly taking you out of the story. CONSTANTLY. It is hard to get into the episode when every couple of minutes, the narration does some exposition of context before moving on.

In the end, I thought the murderer was obvious (if not the motive), the acting okay but not stellar, and the narration very oft-putting. Pushing Daisies-like, though, which some people love.

Overall, I’m still going to predict CANCELLATION even though it has a different business model (two double episodes at a time, more like little mini-series).