Peter Jackson’s documentary trilogy, The Beatles: Get Back, concluded today on Disney + with the third part to the series debuting, with where everything had been building to… the rooftop session.

It is iconic now, but to watch the Beatles performing, interspersed with the crowd on the street being interviewed and watching the police get the run around by the Beatles’ people was a hoot. Hearing from people on the street who loved what was happening to those people who thought it was just a gigantic disturbance was truly fun.

The first hour or so of part 3 felt a little anticlimactic as we just got more of the rehearsal footage that we got heavily in the first two parts, but it is no doubt fascinating. The process by which these musical geniuses came up with and developed these classic songs was amazing to watch. From Ringo starting a bit from Octopus’s Garden to George coming in with lyrics he wrote the night before for Old Brown Shoe and watching them tweak these into what we would know later is just amazing. Still, there may have been a touch too much.

However, every scene with Paul’s little stepdaughter Heather and her interactions with the rest of the band was absolute gold. Watching the Beatles embrace that childlike humor and fun was an absolute treasure.

I was unaware that several of the songs recorded on the rooftop actually wound up as the final version on the final LP, Let It Be.

It speaks to the enormity of the Beatles that this three episode documentary created such a stir in the community and that Disney + was willing to release it on their streaming platform. It has been over 50 years since the Beatles broke up and two of them have passed away, yet the hunger for the band remains at a high level. Jackson does a wonderful job creating a story out of this footage and giving us an up close look at these four iconic musicians from the greatest band of all time.

I want more event-like releases from Disney +. This was absolutely worth the 8+ hours I committed to it.

Part two of Peter Jackson’s epic documentary on the Get Back recording sessions featuring the Beatles dropped on Disney + today, picking right up from where part one left off.

When we left part one, George Harrison had left the band and they had gone to a meeting that, as the film indicated, did not go very well.

So there led to some deep discussions about the future of the band and what they were going to do, especially when John was late the next day and speculation was that he maybe was not coming in. Paul dropped the quote, “And then there was two” referencing him and Ringo.

However, John did eventually arrive and the three of them played around for much of the day. There was an uncertainty around what the band was going to do and exactly how they were going to continue with their project.

After deciding to switch sites to Apple EMI studios helped soothe some issues and George returned. What really seemed to help the Beatles was the arrival and subsequent use of keyboardist Billy Preston, one of George’s friends, who they convinced to play the piano so the other members of the Beatles would not have to. This helped their idea of playing the songs live to tape.

Billy Preston brought an energy back to the Fab Four, and helped them out. In fact, on the days when Preston was not available because of another show he was working on, you could see that the Beatles were less on task.

This leads to the idea of the rooftop concert as a solution to their live performance problem. When Paul had this suggested to him, you could see his eyes light up and the expression on his face brightened.

We got a cameo from EYG Hall of Famer Peter Sellers early in the episode, during the Is John coming part. Oh, and the Yoko Ono singing while Paul drummed was ear-splitting. It cannot be described.

Can’t wait to wrap up the documentary tomorrow.

What an amazing couple of hours.

The first part of the documentary series, The Beatles: Get Back from director Peter Jackson debuted on Disney + on Thanksgiving with part 2 coming tomorrow and part 3 on Saturday. On the whole, there is over 8 hours of footage in the three parts detailing the “Get Back” sessions that helped lead to the break up of the Beatles.

I loved the way Peter Jackson stayed out of the way here and let the footage tell the story. He would throw in some on screen text when the narrative needed a little specificity, but there was no sign of a voice over and no talking heads who want to hang on to the groups success (I’m looking at you Beatles: Up Close & Personal).

Jackson gained the footage of these sessions, which had originally been intended as a documentary back in 1969-70, and he arranged it to show not only the creative process of one of the most brilliant bands in music history, but also how that creativity put strains on the individuals in the group and how it led to an eventual split.

Watching the Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr for those of you living under a rock, working through arrangements of a group of brand new songs on a deadline because of a TV special they were going to record was utterly fascinating. The creative process that these men showed during this was inspiring and quite impressive. The songs we knew, but they were in mid creation so some lyrics were rough and incomplete.

You could feel the tension between the group, especially with Paul and George, who clashed over the guitar bits throughout the part 1. John seemed to be constantly late to the sessions, which was also called out by the boys.

Part 1 ends with George Harrison having left the sessions saying that he was done, that he was leaving the Beatles. The film let us know that they set up a meeting with the Beatles on a Sunday and, ominously, the meeting did not go well.

I’m very excited for part two tomorrow on Disney +.

SPOILERS FOR HIT MONKEY EPISODE 2

“Bright Lights, Big City“

Whoa. The pilot episode of Hit Monkey was good, but episode two is absolutely insane. I loved it. There were so many shocking and hilarious moments in the show. Jason Sudeikis is a riot as Bryce, the ghost who is bonded to Hit Monkey, following him around and giving his opinions whether wanted or not.

My favorite line came in the battle with the old woman.

“She’s going to play through it“

Of course, it was a reference to her having her right arm torn off.

That fight with the old woman was brutal and showed why I am watching this on Hulu and not Disney + and why this is not MCU canon. Bloody and violent, Hit Monkey is something that I did not know that I needed.

We also got the origin of the monkey suit. No pun intended.

I love this so far. Excited to see episode three at a later point.

SPOILERS FOR HULU’S HIT MONKEY

Okay, what just happened?

I watched the first episode of Marvel’s Hit Monkey on Hulu, an animated show that is way too violent for the MCU or Disney +.

I believe that I will be watching this as the year goes on. It dropped all ten episodes on Hulu, but I am not planning on binging this in a few days. The episodes are around 30 minutes, so a binge would not be a huge time investment, but I get the feeling this would go down better spaced out.

Jason Sudeikis voices hitman Bryce who, after a hit goes wrong, ends up in the snow with a tribe of monkeys. The monkeys try to help him and heal him, but there is one among the group that did not appreciate Bryce’s arrival.

This show was remarkably violent. You could tell that would be the case 2 minutes into the show when a guard is decapitated. That was unexpected and, once again, tells you why this is on Hulu.

The animation style reminds one of Archer, which works with what is here. The animation is not going to blow anyone away, but it is serviceable for a show about Hit Monkey.

Not knowing anything about Hit Monkey (outside of the character’s existence), I kept waiting for some kind of mystical powers that would send Bryce’s mind in the body of the monkey. That was not going to happen. After Bryce dies, he returned to the monkey, who has started using the guns, to be a spiritual guide of sorts.

This is truly weird, but it is fascinating and somewhat entertaining. I hope it goes into more than just the revenge plot because it could get repetitive otherwise. I looked up Hit Monkey and it appeared that he is a Deadpool villain. That sounds as if we can consider him an anti-hero. It also looked as if the show stuck pretty close to the origin of Hit Monkey with only some adjustment.

I’m curious to see where they take this. I enjoyed this more than I did the first couple of episodes of MODOK, which just was not for me.