Author Archives: Doc

Daily Countdown: Weird Al Songs #4

Posted on by

#4

Amish Paradise

Title: “Amish Paradise”

Album: Bad Hair Day

Release: 1996

Parody: “Gangsta’s Paradise” by Coolio

Written: Douglas B. Rasheed / Stevie Wonder / Larry James Sanders / Artis L. Jr. Ivey/Al Yankovic

Style: Rap/Hip-Hop

Top: Amish life

Lyrics

As I walk through the valley where I harvest my grain
I take a look at my wife and realize she’s very plain
But that’s just perfect for an Amish like me
You know, I shun fancy things like electricity
At 4:30 in the morning, I’m milkin’ cows
Jebediah feeds the chickens and Jacob plows, fool

And I’ve been milkin’ and plowin’ so long that
Even Ezekiel thinks that my mind is gone
I’m a man of the land, I’m into discipline
Got a Bible in my hand and a beard on my chin
But if I finish all of my chores, and you finish thine
Then tonight, we’re gonna party like it’s 1699

We been spending most our lives
Livin’ in an Amish paradise
I churned butter once or twice
Livin’ in an Amish paradise
It’s hard work and sacrifice
Livin’ in an Amish paradise
We sell quilts at discount price
Livin’ in an Amish paradise

A local boy kicked me in the butt last week
I just smiled at him and I turned the other cheek
I really don’t care, in fact I wish him well
‘Cause I’ll be laughing my head off when he’s burning in Hell
But I ain’t never punched a tourist even if he deserved it
An Amish with a ‘tude?
You know that’s unheard of

I never wear buttons but I got a cool hat
And my homies agree I really look good in black, fool
If you come to visit, you’ll be bored to tears
We haven’t even paid the phone bill in 300 years
But we ain’t really quaint, so please don’t point and stare
We’re just technologically impaired

There’s no phone, no lights, no motorcar
Not a single luxury
Like Robinson Crusoe
It’s as primitive as can be

We been spending most our lives
Livin’ in an Amish paradise
We’re just plain and simple guys
Livin’ in an Amish paradise
There’s no time for sin and vice
Livin’ in an Amish paradise
We don’t fight, we all play nice
Livin’ in an Amish paradise

Hitchin’ up the buggy, churnin’ lots of butter
Raised a barn on Monday, soon I’ll raise another
Think you’re really righteous?
Think you’re pure in heart?
Well, I know I’m a million times as humble as thou art
I’m the pious guy the little Amlettes wanna be like
On my knees day and night, scorin’ points for the afterlife
So don’t be vain and don’t be whiny
Or else, my brother, I might have to get medieval on your Heine

We been spending most our lives
Livin’ in an Amish paradise
We’re all crazy Mennonites
Livin’ in an Amish paradise
There’s no cops or traffic lights
Livin’ in an Amish paradise
But you’d probably think it bites
Livin’ in an Amish paradise

Source: Musixmatch

EYG Favorite Comic Covers of the Week

Posted on by

June 24

Also-Rans: Captain America #12, Infernal Hulk #8 (Alex Ross variant), Gotham Academy #5 (B cover), Doomquest #2, The Twilight Zone #8, Blood of the Wolfman #1, and Nectar #4.

Bronze Medalist

The Hab #3

Cover art by Charlie Adlard

This is such an awesome cover with this monstrous creature with some green stuff and those bloody teeth. This is such a dominant looking cover. Love it.

Silver Medalist

Feral #24

Cover B Variant

Cover art by Trish Forstner & Allen Passalaqua

It was another of the classic horror movie homage covers that is just awesome. I love every one they do, and this one is no exception. Colors are great.

Gold Medalist

Narco #4

Variant Cover B

Cover art by Daniel Hillyard & Dave Stewart

Another homage cover as this one is an homage for Alfred Hitchcock. So much creativity on this cover and the body shadows floating around Marcus like the Birds. Love it.

Crash Site (2025)

Posted on by

June 24

Movie 24

It is the last Wednesday of the June Swoon and I needed to pull out one more live action short. I searched through YouTube and I found a short called Crash Site that starred Steven Yeun and Sam Richardson. I like Steven Yeun a lot so I made this be my short for the June Swoon 5.

To summarize this, Crash Site sure seems as if this is “What if Close Encounters of the Third Kind came to us as SIMON, the game of electronic game of short-memory skill.

According to IMDB, “Two men discover the crash site of a mysterious object. As one of them begins investigating the strange find, his fascination soon turns into a dangerous obsession.“

The mysterious object is a weird black box that Steven Yeun takes home with him after they saw this crash. He then goes about trying to figure out what it was. It was literally like SIMON and made little beeps as he pressed buttons.

The story then started as someone arrived, pounding on his door and breaking in…just as SIMON was starting to work.

Then the film was done.

This felt like a short that was way too short. The story was missing rising action and a climax. All we got was an inciting incident.

There was so much more that what was here. I am amazed that you got a big star like Steven Yeun (and Sam Richardson, who was there for a minute) to do this.

I liked the short, but it was so incomplete that it was hardly worth watching.

Daily Countdown: Weird Al Songs #5

Posted on by

#5

Word Crimes

Title: “Word Crimes”

Album: Mandatory Fun

Released: 2014

Parody: “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke

Written: Clifford Harris / Jr. / Pharrell Williams / Robin Thicke/Al Yankovic

Genre: Rap/Disco/R&B

Topic: Your bad grammar (NOT YOU’RE BAD GRAMMAR!)

I have shown this to my 7th grade literacy class since the release in 2014. It has all kinds of my personal gripes over grammar and the people who just do not know how important grammar is.

Lyrics

Everybody shut up, woo!
Everyone listen up!
Hey, hey, hey, uh
Hey, hey, hey

If you can’t write in the proper way
If you don’t know how to conjugate
Maybe you flunked that class
And maybe now you find
That people mock you online

Okay, now here’s the deal
I’ll try to educate ya
Gonna familiarize
You with the nomenclature
You’ll learn the definitions
Of nouns and prepositions
Literacy’s your mission
And that’s why I think it’s a

Good time
To learn some grammar
Now, did I stammer
Work on that grammar
You should know when
It’s “less” or it’s “fewer”
Like people who were
Never raised in a sewer

I hate these word crimes
Like I could care less
That means you do care
At least a little
Don’t be a moron
You’d better slow down
And use the right pronoun
Show the world you’re no clown
Everybody wise up!

Say you got an “I”, “T”
Followed by apostrophe, “s”
Now what does that mean?
You would not use “it’s” in this case
As a possessive
It’s a contraction
What’s a contraction?
Well, it’s the shortening of a word, or a group of words
By the omission of a sound or letter

Okay, now here’s some notes
Syntax you’re always mangling
No “x” in “espresso”
Your participle’s danglin’
But I don’t want your drama
If you really wanna
Leave out that Oxford comma
Just keep in mind

That “be”, “see”, “are”, “you”
Are words, not letters
Get it together
Use your spellchecker
You should never
Write words using numbers
Unless you’re seven
Or your name is Prince

I hate these word crimes
You really need a
Full time proofreader
You dumb mouth-breather
Well, you should hire
Some cunning linguist
To help you distinguish
What is proper English

One thing I ask of you
Time to learn your homophones is past due
Learn to diagram a sentence too
Always say “to whom”
Don’t ever say “to who”
And listen up when I tell you this
I hope you never use quotation marks for emphasis
You finished second grade
I hope you can tell
If you’re doing good or doing well
About better figure out the difference
Irony is not coincidence
And I thought that you’d gotten it through your skull
What’s figurative and what’s literal
Oh but, just now, you said
You literally couldn’t get out of bed
That really makes me want to literally
Smack a crowbar upside your stupid head

I read your e-mail
It’s quite apparent
Your grammar’s errant
You’re incoherent
Saw your blog post
It’s really fantastic
That was sarcastic (Oh, psych!)
‘Cause you write like a spastic

I hate these Word Crimes
Your prose is dopey
Think you should only
Write in emoji
Oh, you’re a lost cause
Go back to pre-school
Get out of the gene pool
Try your best to not drool

Never mind I give up
Really now I give up
Hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey
Go away!

Source: LyricFind

The Muppet Show S1 E2, E3

Posted on by

Spoilers

Guest: Connie Stevens

Disney + gives me an option to skip the intro, but it will never be done. The opening theme is one of the best and most entertaining themes of all time. It is just like X-Men ’97, I will always watch the theme song.

The second episode the series has another classic song that I loved, which was “Lydia, the Tattooed Lady” sung by Kermit. That was the opening act in the show.

There was a running gag with Fozzie kept overhearing Gonzo asking people about his “Teddy Bear,” which is old and ratty, and Fozzie believed that they were all referring to him.

Ernie and Bert made a guest appearance from Sesame Street so Bert could sing a song with guest Connie Stevens (“Some Enchanted Evening”). Connie had sung Teenager in Love earlier in the episode with the back-up group, The Mutations, (Not the Temptations).

There was a cool version of “Ain’t Misbehavin'” sung by Floyd. I have a feeling this was one of those acts included in the British show replacing commericals.

Guest: Joel Grey

Episode three would have been the first place I saw Joel Grey, Broadway legend and EYG Hall of Famer. Grey did two songs, a version of Willkommen from Cabaret and Razzle Dazzle from Chicago. Both were great performances.

Fozzie was involved in the running backstage story again, which was that Fozzie was working on his act of telling a joke over any topic mentioned. He was becoming annoying backstage, but he wound up nailing it onstage after Statler and Waldorf tossed out the topic “anemia.”

Rowlf portrayed Sherlock Holmes in a skit about a murder. It was a cute bit.

Wayne and Wanda made their debut as a singing group, doing Stormy Weather. Wayne and Wanda would start their regular act where something horrible that wrecked their act here. Wayne and Wanda made a cameo appearance in the Connie Stevens episode but did not sing.

Love the Muppet Show and I am excited about continuing this rewatch.

Rick and Morty S1 E1, E2

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Pilot”

“Lawnmower Dog”

I started another show today on HBO Max. Rick and Morty is an animated program that I have seen a few episodes from over the years, but not as many as I would have liked. Seeing the whole series available on HBO Max recently gave me the happy chance to see everything.

What I know of Rick and Morty was introduced immediately as Rick showed himself to be a poor influence, a drunken-mad scientist using his grandson Morty for his own warped, dimensional means. In “Lawnmower Dog” there are two major arcs: One was going into Morty’s math teacher’s dreams to try and get Morty an A in math and two trying to prevent Morty’s dog, Snuffles, who was given intelligence from Rick, from taking over the world.

Rick and Morty parody several movies & TV shows, including Steven King’s Lawnmower Man. There was also a parody within the episode of Freddy Krueger, called Scary Terry. They made some references to the Christopher Nolan movie, Inception as well.

The character of Rick is unlike any character on TV. He truly is a horrible person, and I know he will only get worse as the show moves on. I am not even sure that Rick could be given the benefit of the doubt that he cares about his family.

The show is very funny and I am looking forward to continuing this show watch as the days and months come.

Nouvelle Vague (2025)

Posted on by

June 23

Movie 23

During the June Swoon, I have had the opportunity to watch several foreign films over the years. Today, I watched a French film from director Richard Linklater called Nouvelle Vague. Nouvelle Vague told the story of the filming of the French New Wave classic “Breathless” from director Jean-Luc Godard.

I had a little bit of trouble getting into the movie at first, which might have had to do with the French speaking going on, but it was not too far into the movie that I had become enthralled with the wild portrayal of the filming of the movie. Godard was anything but a typical director and his style and chocies were driving the people around him crazy.

Guillaume Marbeck played Godard with a flare and a carefreeness that was contagious. The performance of the lead actress of the movie, Jean Seberg, played by Zoey Deutch, was outstanding. She played both the joy of the creation of the film and the frustration of not understanding Godard’s vision beautifully and I thought she was a standout of the movie. She had chemistry with Aubry Dullin, the actor who played Jean-Paul Belmondo, the lead character of Breathless.

The film was shot in black and white and it helped to create the mood of the story. It was a lovely looking film that helped portray how unconventional Godard’s style.

The non-English speaking films are some times pushed back on my watchlist because of the subtitles, but i am glad that I watched Nouvelle Vague. It gave me an insight into a film classic and the different ways someone could create art.

Daily Countdown: Weird Al Songs #6

Posted on by

#6

The Hamilton Polka

Title: “The Hamilton Polka”

Released: 2018

Genre: Polka

Included in: Lin-Manuel Miranda’s monthly “#Hamildrops” project

Written by Albert Johnson / Osten Harvey / Christopher Wallace / Roger Troutman / Kejuan Muchita / Lin-Manuel Miranda/Al Yankovic

Songs: “Alexander Hamilton,” “Wait For It,” “The Schuyler Sisters,” “Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down),” “Dear Theodosia,” “You’ll Be Back,” “The Room Where It Happens,” “Right Hand Man,” “Guns and Ships,” “Washington on Your Side,” “Helpless,” “Non-Stop,” “History Has Its Eyes on You,” and “My Shot.”

This is Weird Al’s Polka Opus, taking the Broadway sensation Hamilton and turning it into a polka. There was a video of Lin-Manuel Miranda listening to The Hamilton Polka for the first time, and he had tears of joy running down his face. Miranda is a huge fan of Weird Al and you could tell how honored he was with Al using his work as a polka.

Lyrics

How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a
Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten
Spot in the Caribbean by providence, impoverished, in squalor
Grow up to be a hero and a scholar?

The ten-dollar Founding Father without a father
Got a lot farther by working a lot harder
By being a lot smarter
By being a self-starter

By fourteen, they placed him in charge of the trading charter
Alexander Hamilton
My name is Alexander Hamilton
And there’s a million things I haven’t done

But just you wait, just you wait
Wait for it
Wait for it
Wait for it
Wait for it

I am the one thing in life I can control
Wait for it
Wait for it
Wait for it
Wait for it

I am inimitable
I am an original
And if there’s a reason I’m still alive
When so many have died
Then I’m willin’ to—

I’m willing to
Work, work!
Angelica!
Work, work!

Eliza!
And Peggy—

Look around, at how lucky we are to be alive right now!
History is happening in Manhattan and we just happen to be
In the greatest city
In the greatest city in the world!
The world turned upside down
The world turned upside down
The world turned upside down
The world turned upside down

Yeah you’ll blow us all away
Oceans rise, empires fall
We have seen each other through it all
And when push comes to shove

I will send a fully armed battalion to remind you of my love!
Da da da dat da dat da da da da ya da
Da da dat dat da da ya da!

No one else was in
The room where it happened
The room where it happened
The room where it happened
No one else was in

The room where it happened
The room where it happened
The room where it happened
No one really knows how the game is played

The art of the trade
How the sausage gets made
We just assume that it happens
But no one else is in the room where it happens

We are outgunned (What?)
Outmanned (What?)
Outnumbered
Outplanned

We gotta make an all out stand
Ayo, I’m gonna need a right-hand man
Hamilton!
Sir, he knows what to do in a trench
Ingenuitive and fluent in French, I mean—

Hamilton!
Sir, you’re gonna have to use him eventually
What’s he gonna do on the bench? I mean—
Hamilton!
No one has more resilience
Or matches my practical tactical brilliance—

Hamilton!
You wanna fight for your land back?
Hamilton!
I need my right hand man back!
Uh, get ya right hand man back

You know you gotta get ya right hand man back
I mean you gotta put some thought
Into the letter but the sooner the better
To get your right hand man back!

It must be nice, it must be nice
To have Washington on your side
It must be nice, it must be nice
To have Washington on your side
Look back at the Bill of Rights (Which I wrote!)

The ink hasn’t dried
It must be nice, it must be nice
To have Washington on your side—
Somebody has to stand up for the South!
Somebody has to stand up to his mouth!

If there’s a fire you’re trying to douse
You can’t put it out from inside the house
I’m in the cabinet, I am complicit in
Watching him grabbin’ at power and kiss it
If Washington isn’t gon’ listen
To disciplined dissidents, this is the difference:
This kid is out

In New York you can be a new man
How do you write like you’re running out of time?
Write day and night like you’re running out of time?
Ev’ry day you fight like you’re running out of time
Like you’re running out of time

Are you running out of time?
Let me tell you what I wish I’d known
When I was young and dreamed of glory
You have no control
Who lives, who dies, who tells your story
I know that we can win
I know that greatness lies in you
But remember from here on in
History has its eyes on you (Whoa…)

And I am not throwing away my shot
I am not throwing away my shot
Hey yo, I’m just like my country
I’m young, scrappy and hungry
And I’m not throwing away my shot
We gonna rise up, time to take a shot (Not throwing away my shot)
We gonna rise up, time to take a shot (Not throwing away my shot)
We’re gonna rise up, rise up! (It’s time to take a shot!)
Rise up, rise up!
And I am not throwing away my
Not throwing away my shot
There’s a million things I haven’t done
But just you wait (Just wait)
What’s your name, man?
Alexander (Hamilton)
Alexander (Hamilton)
Alexander (Hamilton)
Alexander

Source: Musixmatch

The Muppet Show S1 E1

Posted on by

Spoilers

Guest: Juliet Prowse

One of the goals for the summer is to finish the rewatch of the Agents of Shield, which I am preparing to start season six. However, I could use a couple of new shows to rewatch for the site, and I decided that Disney + would have yet another great show that would fit that need perfectly.

The Muppet Show.

There are few shows that will trigger the nostalgia for me like the Muppet Show. I remember being in 2nd grade and going home to watch the first Muppet Show. I did not know anyone except Kermit, but I grew to love the cast of characters.

This episode had a couple of classic songs: “Mah Nà Mah Nà” and “Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear”– both of which are personal favorites from the show. “Mah Nà Mah Nà” in particular is a song that will get stuck in my head very easily.

The Muppet Choir’s rendition of “Temptation” was a lot of fun too as we basically see Miss Piggy groping Kermit.

Juliet Prowse did a beautiful dance routine to “Solace” alongside six Green Gazelles.

Gonzo tried to eat a rubber tire, Statler and Waldorf were their cranky old selves, and Scooter’s dog Muppy tried to manipulate Kermit into changing the name of the show to the Muppy Show.

This rewatch is going to be a lot of fun.

The AI Doc or How I Became an Apocaloptimist

Posted on by

I have been wanting to see this doc for awhile now, actually since it was in the theater, but I haven’t gotten around to it. The AI Doc or How I Became an Apocaloptimist documentary did not make me feel better about the concept of AI.

As a teacher, I hate AI. Many of my colleagues use AI such as ChatGPT to help them with lesson plans or ideas to help present material. I do not have issues with others doing that to make their lives easier. My biggest problem is how AI can be used by students to simply write a paper without any of their own writing skills.

So I immediately came into this movie with a negative mindset about AI. After watching this, my concerns were not removed.

The premise of the film, according to Wikipedia, was “old through the perspective of filmmaker Daniel Roher as he prepares to become a father, the film investigates the existential threats and potential promises of artificial intelligence. Roher conducts interviews with leading experts in the field to understand the world his child will inherit, balancing anxiety with ‘apocaloptimism‘.” (Focus Features).

Roher presented a series of talking heads to speak to the idea of AI and what it could mean to the future of the world. To his credit, Roher does provide a fairly comprehensive opinions on both sides of the subject, providing thoughts from the pro and anti AI experts. There are those who believe AI will lead to an new utopia or that could lead to an apocalyptic end of the planet.

He brought in the CEOs of some of the major AI companies (except Mark Zuckerberg, who refused, and Elon Musk, who agreed to come and then got too busy). These CEOs sounded reasonable in the doc, but one wonders what that means.

The doc was a difficult watch. I am not sure how to feel about the info that it was presenting, though I did like the way Roher framed this, with his concerns over the upcoming birth of his first child and the idea of bringing a child into this current world. I do think this is a valuable doc to watch to make sure you have, at least, a surface level knowledge of where the world is heading.

It did not help me figure what to do about those AI generated research papers, though.

3.6 stars

Eternity (2025)

Posted on by

June 22

Movie 22

Today’s June Swoon 5 film is one that I am torn about. It was on Apple TV and it was entitled Eternity, starring Elizabeth Olson, Miles Teller and Callum Turner.

According to IMDB, “In an afterlife where souls have one week to decide where to spend eternity, Joan is faced with the impossible choice between the man she spent her life with and her first love, who died young and has waited decades for her to arrive.“

Elizabeth Olson played Joan, who spent 65 years married to Larry, played by Miles Teller. Larry died before Joan, as he choked on a pretzel. Joan died soon after from a terminal cancer. Joan was married once before to Luke, played by Callum Turner, who died during the Korean War.

When someone died, there is a waiting area where souls have to decide where their eternity is going to be spent. However, Luke had waited for Joan and now she had to make a decision between her first love and the man she spent her entrie life with.

There were several specific details that bothered me about this premise that stuck with me through the film. The entire idea of this afterlife bugged me. A soul has to pick an eternity and cannot change that choice. That means that you may never see family or friends unless they chose the same eternity. That was bothering me as the film moved on.

Another issue I have is the situation Joan is placed into by everyone around her. She had to choose between her two husbands and I think it is an unhappy premise of the story that was not something I liked.

All of these actors are great and they do excellent work, even though I am not a fan of the story. Da’Vine Joy Randolph played Anna, a soul who helps recently deceased souls with the transition. She was perhaps my favorite part of the film as she was wonderful once again.

The ending of the story, without any spoilers, was fair and helped to balance out my thoughts on the movie as a whole.

There were so many little details that bugged me about the film that it kept me from enjoying it fully. It was still a decent flick that I did not hate watching.

Daily Countdown: Weird Al Songs #7

Posted on by

#7

Dare to Be Stupid

Title: “Dare to Be Stupid”

Album: Dare to Be Stupid

Release: 1985

Written: Al Yankovic

Style Pastiche: Devo

Genre: New Wave/Comedy

Topic: encourage listeners to embrace absurdity, let go of common idioms, and be playful.

Title track to Weird Al’s third studio album, Dare to Be Stupid is one of the greatest original songs Weird Al has ever written. The silliness involved is epic and his Devo style pastiche is brilliant.

Lyrics

Put down that chainsaw and listen to me
It’s time for us to join in the fight
It’s time to let your babies grow up to be cowboys
It’s time to let the bedbugs bite

You better put all your eggs in one basket
You better count your chickens before they hatch
You better sell some wine before it’s time
You better find yourself an itch to scratch

You better squeeze all the Charmin you can
While Mr. Wipple’s not around
Stick your head in the microwave and get yourself a tan

Talk with your mouth full
Bite the hand that feeds you
Bite off more than you chew
What can you do?
Dare to be stupid

Take some wooden nickels
Look for Mr. Goodbar
Get your mojo working now
I’ll show you how
You can dare to be stupid

You can turn the other cheek
You can just give up the ship
You can eat a bunch of sushi then forget to leave a tip

Dare to be stupid
Come on and dare to be stupid
It’s so easy to do
Dare to be stupid
We’re all waiting for you
Let’s go

It’s time to make a mountain out of a molehill
So can I have a volunteer?
There’s no more time for crying over spilled milk
Now it’s time for crying in your beer

Settle down, raise a family, join the PTA
Buy some sensible shoes and a Chevrolet
And party ’til you’re broke and they drive you away
It’s okay, you can dare to be stupid

It’s like spitting on a fish
It’s like barking up a tree
It’s like I said you gotta buy one if you wanna get one free

Dare to be stupid
(Yes)
Why don’t you dare to be stupid?
It’s so easy to do

Dare to be stupid
We’re all waiting for you
Dare to be stupid

Burn your candle at both ends
Look a gift horse in the mouth
Mashed potatoes can be your friends

You can be a coffee achiever
You can sit around the house and watch “Leave It To Beaver”
The future’s up to you
So what you gonna do?

Dare to be stupid, dare to be stupid
What did I say?
Dare to be stupid

Tell me, what did I say?
Dare to be stupid
It’s alright
Dare to be stupid
We can be stupid all night

Dare to be stupid
Come on, join the crowd
Dare to be stupid
Shout it out loud

Dare to be stupid
I can’t hear you
Dare to be stupid
Okay, I can hear you now

Dare to be stupid
Let’s go, dare to be stupid
Dare to be stupid
Dare to be stupid

Dare to be stupid
Dare to be stupid
Dare to be stupid
Dare to be stupid
Dare to be stupid

Source: Musixmatch

Agents of Shield S5 E13-E21

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Principia,” “The Devil Complex,” “Rise and Shine,” “Inside Voices,” “The Honeymoon,” “All Roads Lead…,” “Option Two,” “The One Who Will Save Us All,” “The Force of Gravity,” “The End”

I have set a goal that I wanted to get through the rewatch of Agents of Shield this summer break, and so I sat down to finish off season today with a binge of the last 10 episodes.

A wild season that started off in the future with the earth destroyed, supposedly by Quake, the Destroyer of worlds, revealed the answer to all of that. It wasn’t Daisy that would shake the world apart, it would be Graviton.

I really loved the use of this secondary villain who has the power to be more than secondary. Graviton could control gravity and he was always cool in the comics. In Agents of Shield, I liked how they took General Talbot and made him into a decent variation of Graviton.

Talbot was always a fringe character that was an ally/enemy for Shield during the shows entire run, and they did a great job of using the Gravitonium, which was a season one storyline, and circle it back into a major item in season five.

This season was set up to be the final season of the show, as you could tell with the ay they left Coulson behind in Tahiti to spend his last few days/weeks with May. I never believed that he would die from this when I first saw the show, expecting the whole time to see him survive again. It really set up some powerfully emotional moments surrounding Coulson.

Fitz’s death at the end was powerful, but I knew the solution to it this time through. Having Fitz in suspended animation somewhere out in space was a clever way to write in a death scene without losing the actor.

The team really felt splintered through the year, with them all suffering PTSD of some sort from their trip to the future. Por Yo Yo was the epitome of this as she was anguishing over what her future self had told her, and she did some desperate things in an effort to prevent that future.

The show did make some references to Thanos in the MCU timeline, but it did not have any dustings happen. I would have liked this to have happened to help illustrate it more. This is the start of where Agents of Shield separated from the MCU main timeline, I believe. The movies did not ever mention the show, but the show did mention things that happened in the movies at times.

On to season 6, which is a shorter season of 13 episodes.

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale (2025)

Posted on by

June 21

Movie 21

I did not watch the TV show Downton Abbey, and I was never that interested in seeing the previous two movies. I ignored them each, and wound up watching them in June Swoons or other binges. Funny thing is that I then enjoyed the movie after watching it.

So when the Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale came out in 2025, it did not surprise me that I was not interested in seeing it, even though the previous movies were very enjoyable for me. I even think I can remember thinking that this finale would be a good film for the June Swoon.

Once again, the film was a fun and enjoyable time, even if I am not as familiar with these characters as someone who was a longtime viewer of the TV show.

According to IMDB, “When Mary finds herself in a public scandal and the family faces financial trouble, the household grapples with the threat of social disgrace. The Crawleys must embrace change with the next generation leading Downton Abbey into the future.”

The whole Mary scandal felt odd considering how many people in the world are divorced, but I understand there was a different time and perception at this.

My personal favorite character in the film was Noël Coward, played by Arty Froushan. Coward was a real life English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer and Froushan played him wonderfully in a short role. I did not realize until after that Froushan played Buck on season two of Daredevil: Born Again, and he was awesome there too.

I am sure fans of the show would have been more emotionally connected than I was, but I did like most of this film. I am glad that I saw it in the June Swoon again.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #74

Posted on by

Spoilers

The Boroughs

“The Mourning After”

Last week, in episode one of The Boroughs, I commented that I had hoped that Jack survived the attack of whatever that thing was. Sadly, as this week started, we learned that jack did not.

RIP Jack.

Sam, who discovered the creature “feeding” on Jack, became obsession (as one would) with trying to figure out what was going on. A trip to see Edward at the care facility gave Sam a clue… “The key is in the lights and the owls are in the wall.”

So Sam started tearing out the light fixtures in his house.

Jack’s death affected more than just Sam as we learned that Judy had been having an affair with Jack, and his death was causing her serious grief. Judy’s partner Art apparently knew about the affair but never confronted her in fear that she would leave him.

It led Art to a bizarre occurrence with a murder of crows. A huge murder of crows that circled the sky above him and like kamikazed themselves into the ground. Weird scene.

Renee pushed for an investigation when more quartz items turned up missing. Hank came back with a fake report from Albuquerque PD saying that they caught a guy with the missing items.

F- Hank.

Clearly, Hank has some kind of inside knowledge of what is going on in the Boroughs, and he is going out of his way to cover it up. He is easily the biggest piece of crap on this show.

Only Blaine Shaw comes close. Shaw showed up at Jack’s memorial and dropped some lies about how much Jack meant to him. It was sadly obvious how insincere he was being, but Shaw knows more than he is letting on too.

Wally got more bad news about his cancer, which has made its way into Wally’s liver. It left Wally searching for a miracle. Maybe Sam has found it.

The Boroughs has had two exceptional episodes filled with great actors and a captivating supernatural mystery. I know that there will be only one season as Netflix has cancelled season two of the show. I sure how the show did not leave off on a massive cliffhanger at the end of season one, because this is a show that I am fully engrossed in.