Author Archives: Doc

The X-Files S8 E4

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“Roadrunners”

I have to say that so far, I have been enjoying the second watch of John Doggett in the X-Files. My memory of these episodes when they first aired was that I simply was not a fan of them because he was not Mulder. I think that I was really being a hater toward Doggett because this was an awesome episode.

It was creepy as hell. It was so good that I was able to ignore how Doggett seemingly teleported from Washington DC to Utah during a commercial break. I have no idea how he made it across country so quickly. But the fun episode allows me to ignore the little things.

And this story was one of the creepiest X-Files episodes in quite a few years.

I believe the idea was to help solidify John Doggett as a good guy, and to help the audience accept him more. There is no doubt that I have that same issues.

I enjoyed the work from Gillian Anderson as she was just awesome. I was yelling at my screen when she gave her gun away. There is no way I was giving up my gun, if I were her. Her frustration of the events which changed to utter anger was fabulous. When she was threatening the cult members and calling them SOBs, it was tremendous.

So far season eight has been more consistent than season seven. The first four episodes I liked to loved. I am hoping that this continues in this manner.

Paradise S1 E5

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“In the Palaces of Crowned Kings”

What an intense episode. I love this show so far.

Paradise dropped its fifth episode on Hulu last night and I watched it this night, and it is just exceptional. Just when you think everything is clearing up, the show twists away from the story and takes the tale in a different direction.

Lots of flashbacks in this episode back to prior to Cal’s death, including a potential motive for the death of the president. We see his relationship with his son Jeremy and his father Kane Bradford. Gerald McRaney is fantastic as the president’s father, slowly succumbing to dementia of some form. His mistaking Jeremy for Cal lead to some powerful moments… including a huge WTF moment when it seemed as if Xavier’s daughter Presley was involved in everything.

I did not see that one coming.

Nor did I see the big cliffhanger… a message across the “sky”- THEY’RE LYING TO YOU.

That is because there is the possibility that there were survivors above ground. We know now that this is the reason “Sinatra” sent Billy Pace to the surface to kill the group of investigators.

I am not sure how many more episodes there are for Paradise, but I will be here for them moving forward. I even have a hope for a season two, especially with the possibility of survivors from above.

Dark Matter S1 E4

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“The Corridor”

The Apple TV + series Dark Matter episode four was on the docket tonight and we get a very cool display on the multiversal travel. It felt as if the corridor where Jason and Amanda found themselves after their harrowing escape from Leighton. They found their way into the Box and were transported to the corridor, with an infinite number of doors, and an infinite number of possibilities.

I was really wondering how they were intending on finding their way anywhere without it feeling random and coincidental. It seemed as if this was never going to have a reasonable answer to how to navigate the multiverse.

And then Jason figured it out.

So far, this has been great. I am still working hard to keep in focus on which Jason is which, and when they brought Leighton into the situation, I was even more confused (though I think I worked my way through it). The concepts here really work well and feel very tightly scripted. It had to be otherwise it would feel like a major issue.

The story of Charlie’s twin brother was very emotional and how his family honors him (Max) is quite lovely. It is also something that I am not sure if Jason 2 knows about and could be something to trip him up eventually.

Jason 2 is taking some big life changing steps as he occupies Jason’s life. Quitting a job and going full in on the Box, with Leighton’s help, of all people. It was interesting how Charlie had been picking up some vibes from Jason 2. Charlie knows something is not right, but he would never in a million years be able to come up with a theory of why.

Dark Matter is some outstanding sci-fi so far, even if it is a slow burn. I am loving it so far.

No Title

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By Unknown

Once upon a  time there was a girl named Razzy with brown hair, long lashes and rosey cheeks who loved to make new friends and loved to play volleyball. It was her everyday thing to practice in her backyard and go to her games because she was on a travel team so she loved to practice a lot. Traveling teams are fun because you get to travel and see new things and meet new people and maybe go out to eat after, and also get cool colorful jerseys. 

One day she was at her volleyball game and her and her whole team was so happy because they won their game and her mom offered to take the whole team out to eat. Razzy and her volleyball team went out to eat at Chuck ‘E’ Cheese and were sitting down and eating pizza in a hurry so they could all go play some games and  get a lot of tickets so they could get cool toys with them when the lights went out. Everyone was in shock and couldn’t see anything and then the lights went back on. Everyone was confused why the lights went out for 20 sec and then went back on, but they ignored it and continued to eat their pizza so they could go play some fun games to get a lot of tickets.

Later that day when it got dark and they were done eating and playing games, they were all getting their prizes and saying ‘bye’ and  ‘thank you’ on their way out to the people who worked there, Razzy’s mom, and Chucky the mascot, and while Razzy’s mom was paying and then they were walking out the door, Chucky yelled, “Wait let me walk you guys out.” Jen thought he was just trying to be nice and said “okay”. As they walked out the door Chucky said “ I hope everyone had fun,” 

Razzy smiled and walked to the car. When they got to the car they were walking to the other side to get in and, as they opened the car door, Chucky quickly kicked a rock by the tire and grabbed a needle out of his pocket and popped the tire and it made a big *BOOM* and everyone jumped, even Chucky, as he went down to look at the tire. Jen went over to the other  side of the car to look at it and she said “Oh no, the rock popped my tire.” She looked stressed.

  Chucky said, “I can call someone for you if you would like?” 

Jen nodded and said “ that would be nice thank you” 

“ Of course,” Chucky said and walked inside and called someone to help her with her tire.

After the tire was done Chuck came to tell them bye while he waved and went back inside to close up. Razzy and her mom waved bye back and went home 

The next day Razzy woke up to her mom making pancakes,eggs, and bacon for breakfast so she hurried to her room to get ready really quick so she could go and eat breakfast. After getting ready, she sat down at the table ready to eat.  After she was done eating she went into her room to watch Tiktok on her phone for a little  but videos of Chucky kept coming up. She ignored it and was making a Tiktok video, and after she was going for a walk the all the sudden this random girl she didn’t know with long blond curly hair ,green eyes, and jeans on with a pretty white shirt that was whiter than milk, says, “ You’re the girl people are talking about aren’t you? Is your name Rozzy?” 

Rozzy was in shock because she didn’t know her.

 “Uhhh yeah? What do you mean? What are people talking about? And also do I know you? “

  “Oh yeah, sorry about that. My name is Sally and it was about just how you took your whole volleyball team after the accident there.” 

“What accident?” Razzy looked at her confused.

 “Well this girl our age and her mom were kidnaped by him and they found them in his basement. They weren’t hurt or anything but if they hadn’t gotten them out soon they didn’t know what would’ve happened. I don’t know if he would always try to keep them there for longer by doing stuff like hiding their car keys under the car or something like that when he saw them. And he just got out of jail” she is in shock while Sally said “Well gotta go bye,” 

Rozzy was thinking about how their tire popped that one time and ran home to tell her mom and her mom called the cops to tell them just to keep a lookout, and their    life went back to normal after that and never went there again. The end.

Heart Eyes

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I was not expecting a mash up of Rom-Coms and slasher-style horror flick in the new film, Heart Eyes. Directed by Josh Ruben, who worked with this type of tone in the awesome independent film Werewolves Within in 2021, Heart Eyes truly does an excellent job of blending humor, romance and bloody gore.

The last two years, one in Philadelphia and one in Boston, a serial killer had been killing loving couples on Valentine’s Day. After February 14th, the Heart Eyes Killer, or HEK as he was called, would disappear. This year, the killer resurfaced, this time in Seattle.

Ally (Olivia Holt), going through a recent break-up, was struggling to do her job as an advertising creator, especially for the romantic product they are selling. Because her pitch was so dark, the head of her agency called in a freelance advertising designer, Jay (Mason Gooding).

Ally and Jay had a spark between them, but Ally’s own issues kept them apart. However, the HEK saw them together, mistakenly thinking they were a couple, and started to stalk them.

The cast does a strong job with the material. None of the actors were known to me. I saw that Olivia Holt was on the TV show Cloak and Dagger, so I did watch her there. I thought everyone did an excellent job with their characters and I was never certain about what way the story was going to take .

I can’t imagine that it is easy to balance the tone for a film like this. Heart Eyes never feels as if it is too silly with the humor or too much with the romance or too much with the gore. It all balances well, fitting together well. It had the feel of Happy Death Day combined with Scream. It was serious when it needed to be, and funny when it needed to be. All the while, providing us a couple that was worth rooting for and who were very relatable.

I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. It felt like it walked that line that kept everything nicely even and prevented it from becoming just a mess.

4 stars

One of Them Days

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I was never a fan of the trailers for the movie One of Them Days, and I swear it was shown before every movie I watched for months. Because of that, I have ignored this movie for several weeks. However, I have heard positive word of mouth about the film so I figured I would fit it into the schedule. A lot of times when I set up a film like this, I come back loving the movie. Sadly, that is not the case for this one.

Of course, I did not hate this. I would say that it was passable.

According to IMDB, “When best friends and roommates Dreux and Alyssa discover Alyssa’s boyfriend has blown their rent money, the duo finds themselves going to extremes in a race against the clock to avoid eviction and keep their friendship intact.“

While I did not love much of anything in the film, my favorite part was easily the performance of Keke Palmer. Her performance as Dreux was full of charm and humor. She pulled off the main protagonist of this film wonderfully well. She was absolutely a star on the screen. I was not as much of a fan of the performance of SZA, but she definitely had chemistry with Palmer. I was not a huge fan of the character that SZA was playing. I feel as if I have seen this type of character before.

The story was too compressed into this time frame and I think it is tough to buy everything happening in this single day. Still, several of the individual scenes were funny and well set up. And i guess the idea that this is “one of them days” is part of the concept.

Keke Palmer and, to a lesser extent, SZA is the reason to watch this movie. Their chemistry and charm carries the film through for me.

3 stars

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #3

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February 9

“Carentan”

Week three of the Sunday Morning Sidewalk was the third episode of Band of Brothers, which showed that it continued to be one of the most realistic and stunning displays of wartime battles ever put together.

This episode featured Private Albert Blithe, a solider who was struggling with the war and its trappings. He went through a bout of “hysterical blindness” and ended up being wounded on a scouting mission. This was an amazing story of self-doubt and fear. 1st Lt. Speirs was a key piece to this story, as his brutal nature became legend among the men, but it was his wisdom that helped keep Private Blithe going. Speirs’s death was totally foreshadowed when he told Blithe that he was scared because he still had hope, and had not accepted the fact that they were all already dead.

There was a great scene at the end of the episode where Sgt. Malarky went to pick up his laundry that he had dropped off before the mission. Mrs. Lamb had done the laundry and he paid her. She asked if Lieutenant Meehan had forgotten about his laundry and she hoped he would come and pick it up. She had not realized that he had been killed. Malarky paid for his laundry as well, not telling her that he had been killed. She then asked about 1stSgt. Evans, Pvt. Moya, Pvt. Bloser, Pvt. Gray, PFC. Miller, Sgt. Owen, T-5 Collins, and Pvt. Elliot and Blithe, all of whom were dead. The show used this as a way to indicate that the Easy Company had lost 65 men during this offensive and that Blithe did not recover from his wound and died in 1948.

Dark Matter S1 E1, E2, E3

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“Are You Happy in Your Life?”

“Trip of a Lifetime”

“The Box”

Apple TV + has had some great series. Ted Lasso, Shrinking, and Silo are three of my all-time favorites shows. So with an opening in the schedule and Battlestar Galactica done, I needed a new show to go along with the X-Files and The White Lotus. I knew of a show called Dark Matter, which I had heard positive things about, and I decided this would be a good opportunity to start this watch.

After the first three episodes, I am completely in! This is some fantastic sci-fi storytelling and some top notch multiverse action.

I will admit the first episode or so was kind of confusing until I was able to figure out which one of the Joel Edgertons were Jason and which one was Jason 2. Once I was able to focus in on which one was which, things fell into place.

Three episodes in and this is really rocking hard. So hard that I am trying to avoid just binging the entire nine episodes in one sitting. That would defeat the purpose.

Joel Edgerton is awesome in this series, playing two versions of Jason Dessen. You can see the differences, subtle as they may be, between the two men. Edgerton does a fantastic job of carrying this story on his back.

With Jason and Amanda conceivably back in Jason’s universe (or on their way) I am curious to see where this show goes next. When Jennifer Connelly took a bullet to the head in the one universe, it was a shocking moment that told me that anything could happen. No one was safe in this multiversal tale.

I have found yet another massive winner on Apple TV +.

Dexter: Original Sin S1 E9

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“Blood Drive”

I was more impressed with this episode of Dexter: Original Blood than I had been for a few episodes. Then Dexter did something so stupid that it defies explanation.

In the last few minutes, he captured Captain Spencer and wrapped him up on his table. He taunted him for awhile and then decided to let him escape. I understand he was doing it so he could follow Spencer to where he had the missing Nicky hidden away, but there are so many things that could go wrong with that idea that it is shocking. I mean, just off the top of my head, the police captain could decide to turn Dexter in and frame him for the death of the kids. I can’t believe that would be hard to do… especially since Dexter had already cut off Spencer’s little finger, something that everyone knows the killer had done.

Spencer’s motive for kidnapping Nicky (and the kid before whom he killed) was fairly week too. I mean, just to get back at his ex-wife, he was going to torture and kill his own son? That felt so bizarre. I assume the other kid was taken and killed as a way to throw off the investigation, but that was so out there that I just do not accept that any of this made sense.

The flashbacks this episode were more engaging, which was not typical for this show. They featured the two traumatized brothers, Brian and Dexter, being adopted by Harry and Doris and having Brian be psychotic. It feels like it was a bit of a stretch from Brian and Dexter seeing everyone killed to Brian trying to suffocate baby Deb with a pillow to make her stop crying. The time frame seemed rushed.

I do think making the serial killer involved in this season Dexter’s separated brother is a good twist. I’m just not sure that this is done well either. Brian did not show much emotion about being separated from Dexter as a child, so having the separation be the driving force behind Brian’s murder spree did not feel right. Maybe it was just his excuse to unleash his own Dark Passenger, which makes more sense to me.

I believe there is only one more episode remaining for this season so we’ll see how things get wrapped up. The Brian storyline does not feel like it can be finished up in one episode, especially an episode where the Dexter-Spencer story is still a high priority. Still, we’ll see what happens.

The White Lotus S1 E4, E5, E6

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“Recentering”

“The Lotus-Eaters”

“Departures”

I finished off the first season of The White Lotus with some mixed feelings. The show is amazing, beautifully shot with gorgeous imagery of the Hawaiian Islands. However, the characters, while intriguing and deep as well as wonderfully acted, are just the worst people around.

Even those characters that I think we were meant to connect with as an audience are just the worst examples of people.

Armond is the perfect example. I am both sorry for and disgusted by Armond. He took so much grief and unnecessary strife, particularly from Shane, but he made so many choices that led to his own downfall. The scene of him pooping in Shane’s luggage was gruesome, shocking, and downright disturbing (albeit really funny). Of course, this “feud” with Shane sure seemed as if Shane came out on top and I am not sure how I felt about that. Shane was one of the biggest jerks on the show. Just losing his wife did not seem to be enough Karma for him.

Another character that we were meant to support was Paula, but she was every bit as bad as Olivia. She totally corrupted Kai which led his his arrest. That arc was anything but satisfying as that character was sacrificed to the show. I kind of expected Kai to have given the jewels he stole back, maybe anonymously, because he was better than that and had felt the regret of his actions. I guess not as Armond just said he was caught and that was all we got from him.

If there was one character who was worth rooting for, it was Belinda, who got royally screwed over by Tanya. The whole storyline with Tanya and Greg did not work much for me. He just blew in, had sex with Tanya, and told her he was sick. This was so out of nowhere, it felt out of place. Plus, it led to Tanya turning away from Belinda, whose heartbreak over the rejection of her business plan, a plan that Tanya encouraged in the first place, was crushing. Actor Natasha Rothwell did some wonderful acting in the final episode, keeping much of her own disappointment and ache inside and expressing it through her eyes and face.

There are seven episodes of season two also on MAX and I expect that I will be jumping into them soon. This first season was really well done and acted, creating some definitive feelings for these people. They just may not have been a happy feeling.

The X-Files S8 E3

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“Patience”

Agent Scully and Agent Doggett went together for the first time as partners out to chase down DC Comic’s Man-Bat.

Okay, so maybe it is not specifically the Man-Bat aka Dr. Robert Kirkland “Kirk” Langstrom. But there sure were a few similarities to the two characters.

I thought that the scenes with Scully and Doggett worked fairly well. Scully going out of her way to try and fit into the role of Mulder in the story seemed logical and the conflict with local authorities continued to be a trope of the X-Files.

John Doggett is an interesting piece. He seemed more willing to buy into the paranormal than Scully would have been, but he proved himself with his late second return after what looked to be a potential watery grave. I was never worried that Doggett was going to be killed, but it was a dramatic moment as Man-Bat and he fought in the water.

The ending was a bit anticlimactic as the Man-Bat just swooped down, was shot at, and disappeared. Doggett’s idea that he had shot him, as did Scully did not feel like a satisfying conclusion. Sure, it fell into the type of ending the X-Files thrived on, but this did not work as well as many of these previous monster episodes did.

Overall, it was an okay episode, and it furthered the partnership of Scully and Doggett, which was a vital component for the rest of the season.