Author Archives: Doc

Picket Fences S3 E11, E12, E13

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“Freezer Burn”

Another murder in Rome. This time, the victim has been shoved into a freezer, much like Ginny. Except Ginny’s was accidental and this was intentional.

The victim turned out to be a special masseuse who was giving sensual massages to the women of Rome. He kept a book that indicated which women he would give the “Squiggly.” The mind races.

Turned out that Ed Lawson, who was the main suspect because he had threatened the man, was married to the woman who killed the masseuse. She was in love with the man and mad because Ed had chased him off. She then whacked Ed in the back of the head and shoved him into the freezer too.

This was a great episode and I remember the moment it happened, and it was shocking.

“Frogman Returns”

The Frogman returned to Rome, signing and dancing about frogs, and his son, the same son who had shot Kenny in season one, sued for emancipation from his father.

The other story was really strong too. Matthew, in trying to move the car from the driveway, accidently hits Zack and injures him. Thankfully he did not injure him as badly as he could have. However, Jill arrived on the scene and hit Matthew in anger over the accident.

This unseated some deep feelings from Matthew, believing that Jill did not love him as much as she did Zack or Kimberly.

Justin Shenkarow, the young actor who played Matthew, did a tremendous job playing the anger and the pain of his belief his mother did not love him as much as his brother. He was not just mad, there were times when he portrayed the anger extremely well, with a glance or an expression. It was a very solid and, at times, subtle performance.

“Mr. Seed Goes to Town”

Family drama continues in the Brock house. When Lydia arrives asking for permission to use Jimmy’s sperm to become pregnant, she throws the entire Brock clan into chaos. And just like holidays in the Brock house, it always becomes about more than the overlying situation.

Judge Bone, who was tired of the weird cases he had to rule upon, decided to place Jimmy, Jill and Lydia under house arrest until they could come up with a answer without the court having to make the ruling.

So he put them all together and guaranteed fireworks. Deep hidden doubts and motives come crashing out from everyone, including Kimberly, Matthew and Zack. Zack actually had one of the more brutal moments when he wished that Lydia was dead. Zack and Matthew also had overheard Kimberly saying how she was intrigued with the idea of having a ‘real’ sibling, which made them feel terrible.

This type of episode has happened several times over the run of this series, from “Thanksgiving” to “Buried Alive.” There is always something more under the surface in Rome, Wisconsin.

Oh, and by the way, Ed Lawson is still in the freezer. I mean, he was the mayor. Has no one checked on him?

EYG Comic Cavalcade #71

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December 4, 2023

Another good week of books. I got a chance to read some of the back issues that I have as well.

Books this week:

Ice Cream Man #7. “My Little Poltergeist” Written by W. Maxwell Prince and art by Martin Morazzo. Cover art is by Fabio Moon. This was an excellent issue featuring a little girl named Lucy whose best friend had died of cancer, and she was dealing with grief over it. I really enjoyed this one.

Planetary #8-10. Written by Warren Ellis and art by John Cassaday. This is an interesting series. Seriously, the books are unlike any series I can remember. One of the issues had characters killed that were basically Superman, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman. It was a strange issue.

Amazing Spider-Man: Gang War First Strike #1. Written by Zeb Wells with Cody Ziglar and featuring art by Joey Vazquez with Julian Shaw. Cover art was done by John Romita Jr., Scott Hanna & Marcio Menyz. I am excited about the start of Gang War. Bringing Spidey back down to street level is a great idea, as is matching him up with the list of street level heroes involved in this series. Then, the return of Madame Masque was well done and surprising.

Predator Versus Wolverine #3. Written by Benjamin Percy and drawn by Ken Lashley, Hayden Sherman and Kei Zama. Cover art was drawn by Marco Checchetto. This book continues following Wolverine’s life and seeing how the Predator fits in to the situations.

Howard the Duck #1. This is a celebration for the 50th anniversary of Howard the Duck. There are several short stories falling under the “Waugh If…” (aka What If…) with a variety of writers and artist. Things like Howard as President of the US, Howard as a mutant, Howard as a Guardian of the Galaxy.

Captain America #3. “Stand” Written by J. Michael Straczynski with art by Jesus Saiz & Lan Medina. This series continues to be very compelling. I really do enjoy how the story goes back into the past to see Steve Rogers before he became Captain America.

Spider-Woman #1. Written by Steve Foxe and drawn by Carola Borelli. Leinil Frances Yu did the cover art. The new Spider-Woman series is involved in the Gang War story. And something else has happened with Jessica’s child.

Luke Cage: Gang War #1. Written by Rodney Barnes and art by Ramon F. Bachs. Caanan White did the cover art. Mayor of New York, Luke Cage, is looking for form a new super team. In order to skirt the anti-vigilante law in place from Wilson Fisk, Luke Cage got a new costume and a mask to hide his own identity.

Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant #4. “What it Means to Be a Mutant” Written by Iman Vellani & Sabir Pirzada with art by Carlos Gomez & Adam Gorham. Sara Pichelli & Matthew Wilson as cover artist. The mini series wrapped up with Ms. Marvel taking on the Stark Sentinels.

Moon Knight #29. “The Final Hours of Moon Knight.” Written by Jed MacKay and art by Federico Sabbatini. Cover art was done by Stephen Segovia & Rachelle Rosenberg. Moon Knight and Black Spectre are facing off in the final struggle.

Something is Killing the Children #35. “Showdown at the Easy Creek Corral” Part Five. The confrontation between Erica and Cutter comes to an end with tragic results. I have to say that the resolution of this story was very surprising and emotional.

Other books read this week: Miles Morales: Spider-Man #12, Marvel Zombies #2, Local Man #7, X-Men Blue: Origins #1, Swan Songs #5, Slow Burn #2, Alien #1, Grim #15, The Schlub #4

For All Mankind S1 E1, E2, E3

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I was watching the Geek Buddies this weekend and they did a new segment on their show called “What We are Watching.” Vogel kicked off the segment talking about Apple TV +’s show For All Mankind. He raved about the episode, saying that he rewatched the whole series over Thanksgiving. He spoke about it being one of the best shows on TV. He was very outspoken about his love of this show.

It intrigued me. I had never considered watching For All Mankind, but I have really enjoyed all of the Apple TV + series that I have watched. Ted Lasso, The Silo, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Shrinking have set the bar high.

So I decided to start watching the series.

I watched episodes 1-3 to start. Vogel and the other Geek Buddies mentioned that the first couple of episodes of the season were a little slow, but I did not have any trouble enjoying them quite a bit.

The show felt like a giant What If…? show. This was ‘What If… the Soviet Union Beat the United States to the Moon?’. It was an interesting look at a point in history and how this minor change turned into high stress moments and a different world.

Joel Kinnaman was one of the lead actors of this ensemble and he is very compelling as Ed Baldwin, astronaut who wants to go to the moon.

Then the series added another twist and had the Soviets land a female on the moon, which sent Richard Nixon into a tizzy, wanting to have a US female astronaut as well.

They were working on building a Moonlab on the moon too which could lead to some serious issues in the future in the Cold War between the US and the USSR.

I am hooked with the series and I will be following this one along on a semi-regular basis.

Picket Fences S3 E10

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“Away in the Manger”

This was the episode that was supposed to have been the crossover event with The X-Files. Apparently, David E. Kelley and X-Files creator Chris Carter had wanted to do a event involving cows and alien DNA. However, the fact was that Picket Fences was on CBS TV and The X-Files was on FOX TV and a crossover event at that time across two competing networks was just not going to work. So the great idea wound up being squashed.

However, while all the references to Picket Fences were removed from the X-Files episode (Mulder and Scully were reportedly supposed to go to Rome, Wisconsin), there were still references left in this Picket Fences episode. Carter Pike mentioned about weird things going on in Delta Glen, Wisconsin (the city where the X-Files episode was set) such as alien DNA, cows, a plane crash, and a doctor named Larsen (which are all involved in the X-Files episode).

How cool that could have been, this episode has cows giving birth to human babies. You certainly would think that Mulder would be intrigued by that.

As with all Picket Fences episodes, this main plot was used to deconstruct main characters of the show. This one was used to help look at Kimberly’s belief that there is no God as well as continuing to confuse the young Brock boys. Poor Zack has no idea what religion he is or which one he wants to partake in.

Former mayor Rachel Harris returned for this episode. She had really disappeared since losing the mayor’s office back in season two, but she popped up here as the owner of the cow and the mother of the baby boy that cow gave birth to.

Fargo S5 E3

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“The Paradox of Intermediate Transactions”

This episode of Fargo was okay, but it felt like a step back from the two episode debut of the new season.

This episode had several moments, such as Roy Tillman, thinking about the missing Dorothy. Dorothy heading to the gun shop to try and pick up some home defenses, while her husband Wayne looked on shockingly. Gator having a spirited confrontation with Deputy Farr.

It felt like it was setting up the next big thing, which feels like it is coming next issue as Gator and his team are using Halloween to take another crack at Dorothy.

It did feel a little lacking this episode, but some of the character development was good in this episode.

There was a weird flashback 500 years before too. Not sure what that was for.

Family Switch

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I regretted starting this movie on Netflix ten minutes in…maybe sooner.

It is Freaky Friday, but with a whole family.

The cast was pretty good featuring Ed Helms, Jennifer Garner, Emma Myers, Brady Noon as the family members and Rita Moreno appeared as Angelica. Sadly, the cast looked to be struggling through the material of this film.

The story was the same as any of these body swap movies. Nothing original here (with the exception of the baby and the dog switching bodies too- but that is just a few scenes).

Some of the situations were just ridiculous. How about a lactose intolerance fart joke? There are just so many instances of this that I can’t even begin to go into the stupid moments.

It is so predictable and I really wanted it to be over.

1.2 stars

The X-Files S2 E1

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“Little Green Men”

The second season of The X-Files started with a solid episode involving the mythology of the series. The X-Files has been shut down at the FBI and Mulder and Scully have been reassigned. Mulder is doing brain-numbing stake-out, listening to tapes.

Mulder is starting to doubt what he had seen. Mulder losing his faith is a theme that has happened a couple of times over the series’ run.

Mulder gets pointed to a outpost where contact has been made from space. There is a frightened Puerto Rican man, Jorge. Jorge runs out during a storm and is killed.

Scully has to try and find where Mulder is, while avoiding the people watching his apartment.

There is a tense scene where we get a glimpse at the first extraterrestrial on the series.

Mulder showed off some awesome combat driving too as he and Scully tried escaping from a military outfit arriving to get rid of the evidence at the site.

It was a cool episode but I want the X-Files at the FBI back.

Moonlighting S2 E15

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“Witness for the Execution”

I remember not being that big of a fan of this episode when it first aired back in the 1980s. It lacked all the bombastic chases scenes and comedy that I had come to expect from an episode of Moonlighting. I was much younger then and, after watching it this morning, I have a much different opinion on “Witness for the Execution.”

A ninety-year old man arrived at the Blue Moon Detective Agency to hire someone to come and witness his own murder. He told Dave and Maddie that he had set up a man to come and shut off his oxygen and he needed an observer to tell the police that it was a murder.

Dave and Maddie argued over the case, of course. Dave said he understood what the man wanted and Maddie said that the company would not take the case and if David wanted to do this, he was on his own.

When David showed up to tell the man that he had changed his mind, he discovered that the man was already dead. David tried to turn the machines back on, thus making it look as if he had been the person who had killed him.

This led to a tense meeting in the parking garage between David and Maddie where David told her that he was leaving, going underground. They shared an unexpected kiss. making the situation even more awkward.

Maddie was able to figure out the truth of the murder in the best piece of observation that she had ever had during the series.

The scene where David told Maddie about the events of what happened was some of the best acting that we have gotten out of Bruce Willis during the series’ run.

Admittedly, there were a few questions I had about the plot that had to happen in order to set this meeting up, especially why David took off in the first place. He believed that he had accidentally killed the man, but that seemed an odd thought considering the situation. However, everything with the case was really secondary and used as a trigger to get to the kiss. Moonlighting was, once again, the relationship between David and Maddie above everything else.

Always, Lola

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I have been a fan of Roxy Striar for years, since she was the host of TV Fights. So when I heard she had such a significant role in a movie, I wanted to see it. It was very much an independent feature and with it finally available on Prime, I rented it.

This was a very fascinating movie. These actors are all new faces except for Striar and Andrew Ghai, who I knew from the Movie Trivia Schmoedown. I think you can see the inexperience from these actors, but they did a decent job.

The film dove deep into the concept of depression and mental illness, dealing with grief and guilt that comes with it. I did like the way they told the story, through flashbacks to when Lola, Roxy Striar’s character, was still alive.

The film had a well written interactions between these characters. There was a weird transition about half way through, but I did like the way the film ended up.

I am very happy for Roxy, getting a role like this and doing such a solid job. There was a lot of emotion and sadness, as well as hope and rebirth. An independent film that gives a clear message.

3.7 stars

Doctor Who Special 2: Wild Blue Yonder

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I am not a long time viewer or fan of Doctor Who. My knowledge of the character and the shows are limited. Last week’s special was fun. This week’s second special, Wild Blue Yonder, was unbelievably awesome.

The Doctor (David Tennant) and Donna (Catherine Tate) crash landed the out-of-control Tardis on a seemingly deserted spaceship at the end of time. The Tardis then dematerialized, sensing a danger, stranding The Doctor and Donna on the ship to face the mystery of what had happened.

I do not want to spoil anything here. Let me just say that this was one of the best science fiction stories I have seen in ages. The cleverness of this episode and the creativity of the situation that The Doctor and Donna found themselves in is steeped in sci-fi history yet provided some much originality and pay off for those who have watched the franchise.

The only thing that I would criticize about this special would be that someone like me who has just come to the franchise now, with a very limited amount of Who knowledge, would not understand as much as those who have watched them all. That is not a bad thing and I do not think it is required viewing to watch this special. I just think that it would have made this a richer experience.

However, I thought the last 25 minutes of this special was just spectacular and I was completely thrilled with the story. The cliffhanger made me ready to see the thrid sepcial next week.

4.6 stars

Candy Cane Lane

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It is Christmastime and that means it is time for some movies that are targeted toward the family and may be sugary sweet and silly.

That is a very good description of the new film on Amazon Prime, Candy Cane Lane, starring Eddie Murphy.

According to IMDB, “A man (Eddie Murphy) is determined to win the neighborhood’s annual Christmas decorating contest. He makes a pact with an elf (Jillian Bell) to help him win–and the elf casts a spell that brings the 12 days of Christmas to life, which brings unexpected chaos to town.”

There is a lot of dumb, holiday fun in this hokey family film. Eddie Murphy is always great and he is in full Christmas mode here. There are actually several moments through this film where the movie avoids those pesky family film clichés. There are tropes that you expect, but he film does not go down the same path.

Jillian Bell is funny as the villainous Pepper. The mini figurines of the others who failed the task was clever. Nick Offerman, Chris Redd, and Robin Thede was fun as these little characters.

There was a lot of dumb in the story too, but I found it inoffensive and cute at times. I think if a family’s looking for a funny film to watch for Christmas, you could do worse than this.

3 stars

Dream Scenario

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We got a new Nic Cage movie released this weekend focusing on celebrity and the potential toxicity that comes along with that. It was called Dream Scenario.

Nic Cage played a college professor named Paul Matthews, a hapless man who is just going through an unremarkable life. Then, one day, he discovered that people were all dreaming about him, people that he did not know. Paul would just walk through the dream like an observer, doing nothing to help the person. It got to the point where real life Paul was feeling guilt over not helping despite the fact that he had zero control over it.

As this phenomenon went viral, Paul started to become well known and in demand. This is, until the dreams he was appearing in began to turn dark and nightmarish. The people who were fascinated by Paul before turned on him quickly, forcing Paul into trying to get through his life.

Nicolas Cage was sensational as Paul, playing completely against his typical character. Paul was frumpy and depressed, unable to understand why things were happening and why people were turning on him considering he had done nothing wrong. You can’t help be feel sorry for Paul considering things were happening that were totally out of his own control.

I really enjoyed this film, but I will say that the ending did not strike as well as I would have liked it. Unfortunately, I can’t talk about that without diving into spoilers. Suffice it to say that I did not love the way the film concluded.

There were some funny scenes of the film, which is listed by A24 as a comedy/horror film. I’m not sure that is an accurate classification, but there are several funny moments. Nicolas Cage does great job bringing this schulb to life, and seeing what happens to him is a warning about the fickleness of pop culture as well as a commentary on cancel culture.

3.8 stars

Picket Fences S3 E6, E7, E8, E9

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The running storyline of the season has been the struggle of race relations and the first of these three episodes is part of that, but then the next two do not include it. The last two go back to the Brian Latham case.

“Elective Conducts”

The Rome mayoral campaign dominates the episode, and Jill faces more controversy as Zack writes a report that included racial stereotypes. When Zack is confronted by a group of black students in the rest room, Zack peed on them in self-defense. It was shocking.

When it came to the mayor’s race, Carter stepped up and became a true challenger in the election. So much so that, when Jill realized that she had no chance, Jill decided to drop out and support him instead.

Ed Lawson wound up winning the election in a 12 vote difference. Ed Lawson is Donald Trump decades before Donald Trump. It is actually a bizarre correlation.

“Rebels with Causes”

This is the crossover episode with David E. Kelley’s other TV show at the time, Chicago Hope. It guest starred Mandy Patinkin as Dr. Jeffrey Geiger, his character from the show.

Douglas Wambaugh collapses as he prepared for the trip to the Supreme Court. Jill believed he had a heart attack, but wanted to take him to Chicago to see a specialist. She then came into major conflict with Dr. Geiger, whose manner and attitudes rubbed her the wrong way.

Turned out that Doug had M.S. and not a heart attack.

There was also a conflict between Jimmy and Kimberly because Kimberly wanted to date Kenny. Jimmy flipped out over the possibility, and, like all things with Picket Fences, there is much deeper truths behind it. Everything here dated back to Jimmy’s infidelity.

One of my favorite moments was very meta in this episode when Jill commented that more people went to the other hospital (meaning the TV show ER which was also set in Chicago).

“May it Please the Court”

Douglas Wambaugh and John Littleton go to Washington to argue the Latham case.

This was an amazing acting episode from both Fyvush Finkel and Don Cheadle. Their passion showed through the great writing of the episode.

The Supreme Court justices are portrayed wonderfully by the group of the actors cast in these roles.

The second storyline going on in this episode was involving Carter. Carter had made an agreement to have a surrogate give birth to his child. When the surrogate decided she could not go through with it, she wanted to abort the baby. Kelly Connell gives a serious performance from a character that is usually used as a joke.

“For Whom the Wind Blows”

The Brian Latham case comes to a close here.

Maxine, Kenny, and John start to believe that Brian Latham was actually innocent. They convinced Judge Bone that he was innocent and that the father was the killer. Bone took to the court to sentence Latham, except, instead, he threw out the conviction stating that the evidence was not enough to convict. He overturned the conviction and set Latham free.

All of this came from Maxine’s hunch that the father had gone to confession to confess that he actually killed his daughter. Father Barrett would not break the seal of confession, but Max could tell from his expression that there was more to this story. Bone went to Father Barrett and asked him whether or not, in his opinion, Brian Latham was guilty. When Father Barrett said that he thought Latham was not guilty, he was implying to Bone what he knew.

The group went after the father, pushing hard for his wife to testify against him, offering immunity.

Then the mother tells the truth on the stand… she had killed the daughter in a fit of rage and the father had just helped cover it up.

Judge Bone had to, once again, skirt the rules as he said the immunity agreement was gone because the mother had committed fraud. In the end, the police got it done, if not with questionable methods.

Jimmy during this whole time started to have doubts if he could handle the position of sheriff any longer. He saw the fire in the eyes of John, Max and Kenny and Jimmy started to believe that he was in the way.

The Brian Latham storyline came to a close here with another shocking twist that Picket Fences was known for.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters S1 E4

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“Parallels and Interiors”

The week that Godzilla Minus One was released in the theaters, what was, in my opinion, the worst episode of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters was dropped on Apple TV.

The episode focused on the lost crew in Alaska, facing off with an ice Titan that consumes heat/fire. It had a LOST feel with flashbacks back to when Kentaro and May met. It paralleled the dangers that they were facing after May got her legs wet in Alaska as they hid from the Titan.

Some of the scenes out in the snow were laughable. When Kentaro went off in his own direction and started to hallucinate, the show just felt as if it went off the rails.

I did like how Shaw, Kentaro, May and Cate were brought to Monarch at the very end of the episode, so I am hoping that next week’s episode picks things up.

The series’ Titans do look great, as did this undefined one.

2023 The Don’t Feed the Trolls: Insane Rage Scandal of the Year

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The internet can be an ugly place. Yes, it has its awesome moments, but it allows some individuals (or groups) rage against things that they do not like. Hence, this award came into being three years ago.

The term “Trolls” has been given to those on the Internet that go out of their way to speak down to something. Previous winners of this award include:

The Don’t Feed the Trolls: Insane Internet Rage Scandal of the Year

Previous Winner:  Baby Yoda eats frog’s eggs (2020), Masters of the Universe: Revelations part one (2021), She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022)

Twitter purchased by Elon Musk, becomes X

There are few ends of the internet with as many Trolls than we saw with Twitter. Only billionaire Elon Musk chose to purchase the social media site and immediately made some changes that created an even more toxic environment, enabling the trolls to run wild.

The issues occurring on Twitter even drove millions of people, temporarily, to Threads, a new online community. It was huge for a minute but it could not sustain the momentum.

Then Musk decided that he wanted to put his own stamp on Twitter, so he changed the name to X.

X? Yes, X.

Twitter… errr, I mean… X can still have its moments. Unfortunately, the hate is free as well.