Author Archives: Doc

Fargo S5 E8

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“Blanket”

Sheriff Roy Tillman is absolutely spiraling out of control. 

He is completely unhinged.

And the confrontations with Tillman and Dorothy were totally intense. I want more.

Poor Dorothy is so strong, but you can see the doubts and the anguish she is suffering. The fight scene between them was off the charts. I was so rooting for Dorothy.

Graves had set up the sheriff’s debate and that made Tillman look like a crazy man, which was just what Graves wanted. Of course, Graves wanted to negotiate with Tillman, but Tillman had his own negotiating technique in mind. He shot and killed him.

We also got confirmation that Tillman had killed Linda and buried her. 

It amazes me that there are two more episodes left. This made me feel as if it were a penultimate episode. This episode was so great. I really do love Dorothy and Tillman is one of the best villains you are going to find anywhere. 

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters

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“Axis Mundi”

Episode nine had the least shocking twist of the whole season. One that we all saw coming. Cate, who is lost in the Hollow Earth, was saved from a rampaging titan by a woman with a bow and arrow. The woman was, of course,  Dr. Keiko Miura, who we thought had died back in 1954 when she got pulled down by those bug-like creatures. 

Well, honestly, who really thought she was dead? 

We learned a lot about Shaw’s past in Hollow Earth and why he is so spry for a 90 year old guy. Wyatt Russell does a great job in these scenes.

The scenes between characters are the best scenes of this episode. The scene with Kentaro and his father were probably the best scene that Kentaro has had in the show. 

Kurt Russell’s Shaw and May found each other in Hollow Earth after last episode’s mess and they tried to find Cate. May seemed more worried about Cate than just a friend.

Everything is being set up here in this penultimate episode for the season finale next week. 

My Fair Lady (1964)

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A lot of these musicals on my list are actually very long. Tonight’s Genre-ary DailyView entry is My Fair Lady, which was almost three hours. It is also a iconic classic of musicals. A multiple Oscar winner, My Fair Lady was so much fun.

Phonetics professor Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison) found a flower girl name Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn) and made a bet that he could turn her into a cultured woman of class. 

Honestly, Henry Higgins was a horrible person. He was a jerk. I am not sure that he understood why he was such a jerk. His attitude toward Eliza was shameful at a point. 

I loved the music. ”I Could Have Danced All Night” is an iconic song and is so much fun. There were some songs that I thought could have been edited out, but they were all fun anyway.

Audrey Hepburn was absolutely brilliant as Eliza. She basically played two characters, with the way she was as the flower girl at the beginning and then the refined woman at the end. Every once in a while the flower girl showed up in the refined woman, and it was great.

This is one of those films that everybody should see at some point of their lives. It was really entertaining and fun.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #76

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January 6, 2024

The first EYG Comic Cavalcade of the new year! Happy New Year! 

Kicking off things this week, I have completed my collection of Howard the Duck Vol. 1 with issues #5 and #8. There are more Howards to get from future volumes, but I am pleased that I’m done with that one. I have a bunch of Vol. 2 What Ifs on the way from eBay as well. 

I have been working on inventorying my comics with the app CLZ. I have passed 5300 comics at this point with plenty of boxes remaining. It has been fun going through the collection. 

Books this week:

Captain America #5. ”Sigils, Moxie and Chopped Demon Liver.” Written by J. Michael Straczynski and art by Lan Medina. Cover art was done by Taurin Clarke. The story continued with the present day battle with the demon and the past time against the Nazis. This has been a great story arc so far. 

Pine & Merrimac #1. Written by Kyle Starks and illustrated by Fran Galán. The new Boom! Studios book with Linner & Parker. They are the married couple at the heart of the book. Pine & Merrimac happens to be the street corner where their detective agency was found. I enjoyed this debut very much. It was a good read and I loved the relationship with Linner and Parker.

Amazing Spider-Man #41. Written by Zeb Wells and penciled by John Romita Jr. John Romita Jr., Scott Hanna and Marcio Menyz did the cover art. The Gang War continues as Kingpin and Tombstone battled with each other over their respective children. Spidey and She-Hulk were funny with the interactions with Typhoid Mary.

Ghostlore #7. ”Babe at the Threshold.” Written by Cullen Bunn and illustrated by Leomacs. The cover art (which was the cover of the week) was from Reiko Murakami & Vincenzo Riccardi. A storm is coming. And it is going to be a danger for Harmony.

Thanos: Smash of the Titans #2. ”Yesterday’s Lovers Never Make Good Friends.” Written by Christopher Cantwell and art by Luca Pizzari. Leinil Francis Yu & Sunny Gho did the cover art. The Illuminati recruited the Hulk to take on Thanos, to keep the Mad Titan away from Roberta. And the ending was a shock.

Silver Surfer: Rebirth Legacy #5. ”The Devil You Know.“ Written by Ron Marz and penciled by Ron Lim. The Silver Surfer does battle with Mephisto with help from Eve Warlock and Genis-Vell. This flashback series came to a conclusion, but there seems to be something being set up for Eve Warlock and Nova (Frankie Raye). 

Love Everlasting #11. ”Just West of Love” Written by Tom King and art by Elsa Charretier. This new arc seems to be revealing to us the origin of the Cowboy. 

Fall of the House of X #1. ”The Trial of Cyclops“ Written by Gerry Duggan and art by Lucas Werneck. Pepe Larraz & Marte Gracia did the cover art. The Orchis storyline is coming to a head as Cyclops refuses to put up a defense. This are definitely happening in the X-verse.

Doctor Strange #11. ”Circus.“ Written by Jed MacKay and art by guest Danilo S. Beyruth. Alex Ross did the cover art. Dr. Strange and Clea take Clea’s new sister to the circus and all kinds of chaos breaks out. 

Vengeance of the Moon Knight #1. ”Reese.” Written by Jed MacKay and art by Alessandro Cappuccio. David Finch did the cover art. Marc Spector is dead. Or is he? Quite an intriguing new issue with the staff of the Midnight Mission stepping up for the loss of Moon Knight. Who is the new Moon Knight? I am excited to find out.

Fantastic Four #15. ”The China Brain.” Written by Ryan North and art by Ivan Fiorelli. Cover art by Alex Ross. The Baxter Building and the children make their return after a year of absentee. This run of FF has been excellent and I am glad to see the group happy once again.

Beware the Planet of the Apes #1. Written by Marc Guggenheim and art by Alvaro Lopez. Taurin Clarke did the cover art. A prequel to the original Planet of the Apes movie from 1968. It was an interesting issue. I’m not sure if I plan on continuing with the series, but I did like the first issue. I may have to try issue #2.

Kid Venom Origins #1. Written & drawn by Taigami. This is a collected version of the original five-page sections of the Kid Venom story from Death of the Venomverse series. I enjoyed the art of the book and I kind of liked the character. There is another series coming from this character. I’m not sure whether I liked this enough to read it, but I will certainly see number one.

Other books read this week: Miguel O’Hara: Spider-Man 2099 #1, Marvel Meow #1, Destiny Gate #4, Nights #4, Marvel Zombies: Black, White & Blood #4, and The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos #6. 

Picket Fences S4 E18

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“Three Weddings and a Meltdown”

It is official. I have decided that Jill Brock is one of my least favorite characters on Picket Fences. I am not sure how she has gotten away with all the things she has said or done over the last three and a half season, especially during season four, and still acts as pretentious as she does. 

Jimmy finally called her out about her behavior from a few episodes ago, but it was dropped immediately as Jill promptly made it about him. She then she took off her wedding ring and left him, telling people that she and Jimmy had split up. 

Of course, it was over before the end of the episode and they were back together, thanks to Jimmy’s words.

Douglas and nuMiriam apparently got back together as well. It happened off screen, I guess [EDIT: actually it looks like it happens in one of the next few episodes. It is explained below]. Max and Kenny were also back together. I’m not I remember that happening either.

Carter and Sue decided to get married and Max and Kenny and the Wambaughs joined in on the ceremony. 

Matthew was not here and we have no idea why. This is listed as the series finale on IMDB, but there are four more episodes on Prime. Not sure if they are just out of order or if there were more.

So as I was writing this, I did some research. According to IMDB: “The actual series finale was episode #18, “Three Weddings and a Meltdown”, a feel-good episode that offered happy endings all around. So how did four more episodes wind up showing after the series finale? CBS had canceled the show, and was eager to replace it with a higher-rated new series, so they officially ended its run on April 24 by airing the series finale, without having entered the previous episodes. There was a possibility that those episodes might have never been shown, once the show was canceled. But when summer arrived, CBS dug them up and broadcast them in June, probably thinking that brand new, unaired episodes of the acclaimed show get better ratings than the typical reruns that usually dominated TV in the summer time. But it’s clear from the various plots in those last four episodes that they were originally meant to be aired before the series finale, not after. Character arcs (such as Wambaugh’s troubled marriage, and Kenny & Maxine’s off & on romance) that were finally resolved in that series finale were suddenly unresolved again in these belated episodes. So, although episodes 19 – 22 are listed as the show’s last four episodes, episode 18 should really be listed as the final episode of the series, regardless of when it aired.“

That made more sense than the storylines that happened in episode 18.

The three weddings were cool. I loved Carter’s story arc. You would expect him to bail on the wedding, but he did not. And he was able to convince Kenny and Max to not give into their doubts and to go through with the wedding. 

It was a nice wrap up to the series, although it does kind of ruin the remaining four episodes of the series.

Night Swim

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Well, it is January. That usually means that we are up for some terrible movies that the studios want to dump. Those January horror movies are typically some of the worst of the year. However, last year, January brought us some actually really great movies including M3GAN, Plane and Missing. Perhaps the month will be turning over a new leaf.

Nice thought, but nope, not with this movie.

Night Swim is a bad horror movie that had too many laughs, unintentional of course, and suffered from some of the worst writing that you’ll see.

A family moves into a new house. Ray Waller (Wyatt Russell) was a baseball player who was diagnosed with MS so he and his wife Eve (Kerry Condon) and their two kids Izzy (Amélie Hoeferle) and Elliot (Gavin Warren) look to start over. One of the house’s biggest selling points was the swimming pool. Unfortunately, they did not know the tragedies surrounding the pool and the fact that it was haunted.

Yes, the pool was haunted. We don’t really know why or how. It was just there. And the actors had to do so many stupid things to keep the drama going. I don’t know how many times I just said, “Get out of the pool” during the film. It would have been over.

I will give credit to the four main actors. I think they did the best they could with this stinker. Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon are both talented actors, and both kids were good. Amélie Hoeferle especially had a quality about her. It was just that the script was so dumb it did not give these actors much chance to make the material better.

The problem is that this movie was based on a live short from 2014 and it did not seem as if there was enough of a concept here to stretch it out to a 90-minute movie. 

Sadly, 2024 does not start off with a splash. More of a drip.

1.3 stars

Dicks: The Musical (2023)

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I chose not to save this on for the June Swoon and include it in the Genre-ary.

I’m not sure how I feel about that decision.

Dicks: The Musical is raucous, dirty, profane, obscene, potentially blasphemous, and offensive, but there were some scenes that were surprisingly full of heart and that may have won me over from completely crushing this movie in this review and, instead, hemming and hawing about the picture.

Two identical (that term being used in a non-identical way) twins, separated at birth, find each other and make lots of dick and sex jokes and innuendo. Then they try to reunite their parents who had each taken one of the boys to raise.

Yeah, there is not much of a plot here. 

If you like musicals and movies that are crude and profane, this is the film for you. I do like musicals, but, honestly, I have never been much of a fan of the real raucous and abrasive type of movies and this is one of the most brazen films of that type I have ever seen.

Honestly, I disliked the two main characters, Trevor (Aaron Jackson) and Craig (Josh Sharp). These characters are designed to be unlikeable, though. In that manner, they did a great job.

Their parents, Harris (Nathan Lane) and Evelyn (Megan Mullally), are definitely the best parts of the movie. Nathan Lane, in particular, really rises above the material and gives that standout performance that you expect from him. There is a joke with Megan Mullally’s character’s vagina that is borderline hilarious, yet amazingly offensive.

I did find the songs to be fun and catchy, albeit also obscene. 

I really did hate this for awhile, but by the end, I would be lying if I said that I did not have sort of a smile on my face. 

Tommy (1975)

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“Tommy, can you hear me?”

That is a repeated line throughout the rock band The Who’s film version of their rock opera Tommy. 

Tommy is a psychadelic trip of a film based on The Who’s album from 1969. 

Apparently. the film is very different than the album, with songs in different orders and others performing some of them.

The film was filled with stars including Eric Clapton, Tina Turner, Elton John, Jack Nicholson, Roger Daltrey, Keith Moon, and Pete Townshend. The music played throughout the entire film with the only dialogue being sung as well. 

It was a real bizarre film that was engaging. You had to watch this thing closely if you wanted to keep up with what was happening. ”Pinball Wizard” was easily my favorite song from the movie.

Ann-Margret played Tommy’s mother and wound up winning a Golden Globe for the role. She was also nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actress, though she did not win the award.

I did enjoy this movie, but it was not one that I would consider watching again.

Top Hat (1935)

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Today’s Genre-ary DailyView musical goes back to 1935 with the iconic pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

This was a classic comedy with the old mistaken identity trope was very cute and charming. Both Astaire and Rogers were very fun to watch. Their dancing was on point every time. 

There were some iconic songs that I did not know came from this. ”Cheek to Cheek,” “Top Hat, White Tie and Tail,” and “Isn’t This a Lovely Day (To Be Caught in the Rain).”

Though Astaire and Rogers were wonderful, I do think the best comedic performance of the movie was provided by Eric Blore, who played Edward Horton’s ‘man-servant’ Bates. He was just silly enough running around the film and I laughed every time.

I also enjoyed the comedic performance of Helen Broderick, who played Madge Hardwick, too. 

This was light and fun, charming as could be. I can see why Top Hat received four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture.

EYG Favorite Comic Cover of the Week

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Week of January 1st

I had three choices this week I had a tough decision on my hands. 

Ghostlore #7

Boom! Studios

Cover Art by Reiko Murakami and Vincenzo Riccardi

Issue title: ”Babe at the Threshold“

This week I have added two runners-up because both of these were close to actually taking the crown, and to be hones, I may look at them tomorrow and think that I made the wrong choice. Those runners-up were Vengeance of the Moon Knight #1 (by David Finch) and Captain America #5 ( by Taurin Clarke).

And a special this week… Back-issue cover of the week.

I purchased several back issues today and my favorite cover of those were the following: 

Deathlok #29

Cover art by Kevin Kobasic and Greg Adams

Percy Jackson and the Olympians S1 E4

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“I Plunge to My Death”

Okay, this was my favorite Percy Jackson episode so far.

And it ended so quickly. It seemed as if I had just started watching it and suddenly the episode was over. 

It was great too. The Mother of Monsters showed up with a creature of some kind, poisoned Percy, chased them through St. Louis and confronted Percy in the St. Louis Arch. 

Then the episode title shows the relevance. Percy plunged from the arch after trying to battle the monster. However, Poseidon whipped some water over to Percy and saved him. We then learned that Percy could breathe under water. 

Walker Scobell continues to be just excellent as the titular character, showing some real heroism and bravery in this episode, and hearing the words spoken to him from his father’s emissary was a real awesome moment.

Moonlighting S3 E11

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“Poltergeist III- DiPesto 0”

At the end of the last episode, The Straight Poop, they promised a new episode next week. It was a new episode, but it was an Agnes DiPesto episode. Worse yet, it was the one that started the Herbert Viola downward spiral.

Miss DiPesto is unhappy when she heard that Herbert was getting case work at the office. When she confronted Dave and Maddie, they dismissed her, saying they needed her in the office. 

A case came in that, Maddie and Dave, agreed to turn down a case. Miss DiPesto overheard this and decided to do the case on her own. Herbert saw this and felt threatened and horned his way into the case.

It is a haunted house story, with Agnes and Herbert trying to Scooby-Doo this adventure.

Again, this episode was fine, but it just is not Moonlighting when they focus the main story on anyone that is not Dave and Maddie.

Picket Fences S4 E17

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“Bye-Bye, Bey-Bey”

Some uncomfortable discussion going on in Rome on the episode “Bye-Bye, Bey-Bey” of Picket Fences. Turns out that Laurie Bey had given birth to the baby for her brother and his husband. Laurie announced this at the baby’s baptism that she was giving the baby to be raised by the gay couple.

This led to so much hatred and homophobia in Rome as this small town has so many hate groups and repressed angry people that it is amazing. 

So many of the comments made throughout the show, including by some of the main cast members, were disgusting and so very much language of the 1990s. In 2024, this sounded way out of touch.

Although they do not come out, during this episode, Jill feels very judgy when she is treating Laurie’s brother. During this rewatch, I have to say that I am not a big fan of Jill Brock. She is very judgmental and does not seem as liberal as I expected her to be. Especially after the episode 15 of this season, I have found myself really disliking the Jill Brock character.

Kinky Boots: the Musical (2019)

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What a treat.

Today’s entry for the Genre-ary was a filmed version of the musical stage play, Kinky Boots. I found this on Vudu and I was curious about it. I only had a slight knowledge of this play and it surprised me how much I loved this.

Charlie Price (Killian Donnelly) took over his late father’s show factory and, in an attempt to save it, adjusted the plan of products into a niche market for kinky boots directed toward transvestites and drag queens. Charlie had been inspired by Lola (Matt Henry), a feisty drag queen that he met in London.

Based on a book by Harvey Fierstein, the music of Kinky Boots was written and scored by Cyndi Lauper. I did not know any of the songs from Kinky Boots, but they were catchy, energetic and thoroughly entertaining. 

The stage show was amazing. I especially enjoyed the “Everybody Say Yeah” routine with the choreography and the treadmills. It was spectacular.

I found myself feeling vey emotional at the end of the film too. I did not expect that and it was a welcome situation.

I would love to see more Broadway plays filmed in this format and available for those of us who are not near these productions. Kinky Boots: The Musical was a joy this morning.

The X-Files S2 E14 E15

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“Die Hard Die Verletzt”

“Fresh Bones”

Boy, what a double feature this was. Satan worshipers and Voodoo practitioners. Spooky.

Episode 15 visited a small town that had a group of parents who were Satan worshipers and terrible things were happening and being covered up by the group. There was another teacher in the school, Mrs. Paddock, who was the true antagonist of the episode. She was a creepy

In Fresh Bones, there also a creepy semi-villain named Pierre Bauvais, who was an imprisoned refugee from Haiti. As well as him, there was a kid running around named Chester Bonaparte who Mulder and Scully discovered at the end of the episode had died weeks earlier. The real villain of this piece was Colonel Wharton, the head of the compound.

Both of these episodes had similar structure to them and both featured Mulder and Scully in real bad situations that looked as if they were doomed, only to sneak by with their lives intact.

Mulder and Scully are lucky to be alive after both of these episodes, neither of which they were able to capture the guilty party. Honestly, neither of them are very good field agents. They are much better in the lab or the profiling area.