I had no idea where Loki was heading after last episode. The entire TVA was apparently destroyed and all of our favorites were blasted away.
Come this episode and Loki is once again Timeslipping.
I should say that there was a midseason trailer out there for Loki and I avoided that thing like the plague. I really wanted to watch it. I saw that John Rocha had done a trailer reaction with it and the New Rockstars were breaking it down as they had a wont to do. But I refused to watch it, no matter how badly I wanted to because I wanted to go into these final two episode of this series with fresh eyes.
So as Loki was timeslipping around the time lines, seeing where the others had originally come from, it was fascinating to see where these variants were from. Casey as an escapee from Alcatraz? O.B. as a frustrated sci-fi writer? B-15 as a doctor? The only one that made sense was Mobius as a jet ski salesman.
Loki was desperate to save the TVA and he did everything he could think of to try and get the others to help.
When he approached Sylvie, I thought to myself, why would she be on this timeline? She was not a variant like the others were. And I was right. She remembered Loki immediately and it was clear that she was just living out her best life, working at McDonald’s and listening to records at a record shop.
She also helped Loki realize that he was not that desperate to save the TVA and the worlds, but that he wanted his friends back because he did not want to be alone. Once again, Loki’s arc takes precedent and showing how lonely and painful Loki’s life had always been and that he really wanted to have people who cared about him. It was a powerful moment.
Of course, it was not to stay since the other worlds started to spaghettify.
Looks like Loki has learned to control the timeslipping and that he wound up back before the loom exploded at the very end of the episode.
It was a solid episode that was never going to live up to episode four, which was one of the best episodes of Marvel television yet. Still, I think as a penultimate episode, it does a great job of setting the situation up for what’s to come.
If Loki saves the TVA, will he allow Mobius to go back to his real life, where we found out that he had two boys? Will all of the others want to return to their real lives too? Will Loki be the one who remains? Hm.
And…we had nothing with Renslayer, who was pruned last episode and must be at the Void and planning her return. We do not see her though. Clearly she’ll be back for the finale.
With the new Beatles song dropping today, which I had not heard of until today, I discovered that there was also a short which I watched on YouTube.
It was the story of how Paul and Ringo came back and finished a song that had been on the tapes that Yoko Ono had given to them back in the 1990s that led to “Free as a Bird.”
Listening to Paul tell this story was truly emotional and had me feeling as if I were ready to sob. This film is only 12 + minutes long, but it was amazing.
This has been my favorite short in years. It made me feel and I was utterly fascinated by the story of Now and Then, the “last” Beatles song, a song that included John Lennon’s vocals, Paul on bass, Ringo on drums and a mix that included George on a guitar solo.
You are able to get a song that includes all four former Beatles, despite the fact that two of them are gone. For Beatles fans like me, this short is magnificent. I think that even those people who are only slight fans will love seeing how they were able to create this song.
Go out of the way to see this.
5 stars
Edit: I see that this is also on Disney +, which surprises me that I was able to see this short on YouTube.
It is election night in Rome, Wisconsin and there is a surprise write-in candidate, Jill Brock.
Jill decided to join the race for mayor initially to try and get Mayor Pugen to agree to some projects that she wanted to get done. Jill decided she really wanted it.
This was a look on the world of politics, especially how the negativity can mess with people. The press brought up the fact that Jill and Jimmy had gotten together prior to Jimmy and his first wife, Lydia, had actually been legally separated. This brought up huge scars for Kimberly and we got some specifics of how this whole thing happened.
Meanwhile, Kenny arrests a man who was on the run from tax evasion who turned out to be a former pro boxer, “The Poet” Jeff Freed, played by Henry Brown. He was a hero to young Jimmy. Jimmy challenges the former champ to an exhibition boxing match to raise money for his defense. Jimmy was a former Gold Gloves boxer and wanted to face off with him. The relationship between Freed and Jimmy was strong through the episode.
Kenny is knocked out and Pugen wins re-election. Watching Douglas Wambaugh sadly leaving the boxing match after losing the election was devastating.
This is a perfect example of Picket fences. It takes the events and plot points to inform conflict among the characters, whether or not it makes the characters look bad. This is such a wonderful character piece.
A surprise today. I’m listening to the radio after school in the car and they started talking about a new Beatles song.
What?
Apparently there was a song that was sung by John Lennon that the surviving Beatles have been working on for forty years. The recording was Lennon playing piano and singing with a TV playing in the background. With the tech, they were able to remove the TV sound and make a great new song.
I purchased it on iTunes and listened to it immediately, and I will say that I really loved it. I had some feelings, some emotions that I did not expect. The fact that both John and George Harrison are gone now was a part of that feeling. I felt as if I could cry.
I was not that much of a fan of the song “Free as a Bird” that the group put out several years ago in the same manner, post John Lennon’s death. It just did not have the same feel. Now and Then, that one had something.
Apparently a video is out tomorrow and there is a making-of short film available somewhere too. The Beatles are one of my favorite bands of all-time and the fascination with them continues to this day.
Picket Fences had a classic Halloween episode as they jumped int0 the history of Rome, Wisconsin and reopened a case from the past.
The case of Rosemary Bauer was unknown to all of us, but the writers did a magnificent job of making it important to the audience by placing several of our key characters at the heart of the original case.
It was believed that the beautiful Rosemary Bauer had jumped out of her window and committed suicide when she had found her husband having an affair with the maid. The maid, Karina Shaw, sunk into a mental breakdown, never to speak again… that is, until the most recent Halloween in Rome when, during the playing of “Ragtime Gal” Karina said the word, “murder.”
That was enough to get Maxine’s investigatory juices flowing and she tried to get the case reopened. The Mayor and Jimmy, who were new to their posts when the suicide happened, were insistent that it was a suicide. Rosemary had been Jill’s patient and the suicide shook Jill’s confidence.
With Maxine, Kenny and Carter leading the way, Jimmy started to wonder if he had rushed to judgement back 10 years prior to get the town past the suicide.
With an ending straight out of Psycho, Leo Bauer, the husband, was revealed to have killed Rosemary in a fit of rage when he found her in bed with Karina, and Leo had dug up the body of Rosemary and was keeping it in his house, dressing her in her wedding gown.
A very engaging and intriguing mystery and a solid pay off. Leo’s insanity did kind of come out of nowhere, but grief had truly crippled him.
The episode was also fun when they went to Carter’s Halloween party and we saw Douglas Wambaugh dressed as Dracula singing songs and Judge Bone dressed as a Martian (a throwback to actor Ray Walston’s past in My Favorite Martian).
This episode saw they debut of Howard Buss, who would become a major character over the life of the series.
It is November 1st and this is officially my anniversary in collecting comics. I have been collecting comics since I was in 5th grade, which makes this my 43rd year.
I remember the night well. I went to stay overnight at my friend, Jeff’s house. We were going to go trick or treating for Halloween. After that, Jeff and I went and hung out at his house. Jeff already collected comics and he showed me some of his books.
Jeff had what was called a “folder” at Comic World in Dubuque. The folder was basically a pull-list at the comic shop. Comic World is still the comic store that I buy my books from today. It has had different owners and lcoations, of course, but it is a cool thing.
The next morning I said that I was going to start collecting comics too. I had always been a superhero fan. I remembered being a big fan of the Batman TV series. I was always more of a Robin guy. I made my mom make me a Robin half-mask.
So November 1st became my anniversary. There were stretches where the amount of comics that I bought were down. The years after college were tough on money so I did not buy many during this period, but I never felt as if I was not a collector.
I am happy that this anniversary lands on NEW COMIC BOOK DAY and I will be heading to Comic World later today to buy my new issues. This year has starte da new push in my collecting as I have taken steps to get my collection organized and I am preparing for rebagging and reboarding the older books in my collection, hopefully next summer.
Here is to another 43 years!
PS: I spent the afternoon at Comic World and eating supper at Old Chicago with my friend Todd. He even sprung for the tax on my six dollar pizza….
Frank the Potato Man was one of my favorite recurring characters on Picket Fences. He had been mentioned earlier in the first season, but had not made an actual appearance. So now, we get some good people directing their biases toward poor Frank.
There is a serial bather running around Rome, breaking into houses and taking a bath. As silly as it sounded, it planted worries about sexual deviancies and sexual predators. And Frank, who had been watching high schoolers from across the street, becomes a prime suspect.
Because Frank was strange, odd… he became an easy target and Maxine and Kenny went out of their way to prove that Frank was the serial bather. They had no evidence except some of the slightest circumstantial evidence.
Still Rome gets stirred up into a craze. Even Jill, in worry over her children’s safety, was reacting in such a bigoted manner, all because Frank was different.
Douglas Wambaugh stepped up this episode though. His confrontation with Maxine over her tactics in trying to arrest Frank was an episode highlight. Any time Wambaugh drops the clown act and speaks truth, he is powerful. His reference to his parents dying in the Holocaust and that he knows about bigotry and oppression was an amazing moment. It is why a character who is seemingly as over the top as Wambaugh is, truthfully, a compelling and complex person.
Actor David Proval does a great job as Frank, the Potato Man. The sadness in his eyes is just painful as he takes the bigotry from everyone around him.
The ending of this episode was sad as we, once again, see that our main characters are just as likely to make mistakes and be bad as anyone. This show was truly ahead of its time.
This week’s Bonus Action kicked off almost immediately with…COMBAT!
Yes, we picked up with the group on the ship just after we had the drama of Victor’s backstroy last week and we suddenly found ourselves in the middle of a battle with a monstrous Chimermaid.
Yes, I said Chimermaid.
It had multiple heads, a shark, eels, alligator etc. It was a horrific creature that gave our crew a real battle.
The battle featured several fun moments including:
Bric kicking off with some huge shots
Marlon having some of the worst luck rolling in a long time.
Bar’B and Todd coming up with an epic teamwork attack
It was nice to have Marlon end the battle after having such a tough time.
Then, after the battle, it was back to character development as sweet, sweet Rory kept talking to Victor and we had an awesome moment where Victor admitted what he needed was friends, and without saying it, he implied that Rory was his friend. It was a beautiful time and was a nice button on the end of an action packed episode.
This group of six D & D players have been excellent and are a lot of fun to watch.
A tough episode of Picket Fences that shined a light on the behavior and choices of all of our favorite characters all centered around the upcoming mayoral election between Mayor Pugen and Douglas Wambaugh.
It also goes into some deep character bits throughout the story, including fat shaming, lack of respect, businessmen and their criminal acts, and police overstepping their rights.
The end of this episode did feel anti-climatic and I think that that is the whole idea of the episode. There were no easy answer to these difficult questions and Picket Fences was never about giving easy answers to challenging questions.
One of the best things about the show is that these characters are real people, who all do good, who all do bad, who all just try to get by. No one is one-dimensional. They are all deep and developed.
By the way, there is also Douglas Wambaugh singing. Oh, the outrageousness of this show is just wonderful.
This is really the first time when our heroes looked tarnished. It would not be the last time.
The official DailyView Rewatch of Picket Fences starts tomorrow. I will be watching at least one episode daily through the month of November. I am looking forward to it.
The dancing midget from Twin Peaks arrives in Rome, Wisconsin riding on the back of an elephant.
Okay, so it wasn’t the dancing midget. However, the actor, Michael J. Anderson, who played said dancing midget played Peter Dreeb, a circus performer who had stolen an elephant from that circus because the circus owners were being cruel to the animal and beating it as a way of training.
Honestly, though, the animal cruelty aspect of this episode was down the list of the storylines. Mr. Dreeb and Maxine had some dates, and that was higher up than the case. Wambaugh and Mayor Pugen were looking for any camera they could stand in front of since they were both running for mayor. Kimberly’s gifted teacher was dismissed from his job because of a tumor that he had in his brain that was affecting his mental state. The teacher asked Jill to help with the surgery.
There were a bunch of scenes strung together without that major throughline. The finale of the show was very emotional and helped make the episode finish strongly, especially when focused on Jill, Jimmy and Kimberly.
This was a good episode with a strong ending, but was weaker than what this show is known for.
A film that has been on my “To Watch” list for a few weeks now has been the 2023 drama Fair Play. It has been on Netflix and today was the day that I finally got the chance to watch it. This one was quite brutal and turned really ugly.
Emily (Phoebe Dynevor) and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich), who work together at a cutthroat hedge fund, were in love and became engaged to be married. Since they worked together, they were going to wait for the perfect time to let people know.
That perfect time did not come as an unexpected promotion at work started to create tension between the two ambitious people.
Watching these two individuals who had been in such a positive place at the beginning of the movie devolve into a brutal, toxic relationship was tough. The couple started slowly, with resentment being forced down, but the anger and frustration was never going to stay hidden and it was obvious to the audience that this engagement was doomed.
Both of our lead actors, Dynevor and Ehrenreich did a spectacular job playing the emotions that they were burying inside of them. As communication broke down, mistrust started filling the emptiness.
This is not a movie I would throw on to have a pick me up. It is most definitely a downer of a story, but it is extremely well told and acted. It is one of those movies that I would admire, but never want to see again.
Funny story to start off with this week. A few weeks ago, I read issue #3 of The Cull from Image Comics, but I actually did not know it was number three. Instead I thought it was number two. Why? Well, I had not gotten number one and when I got number two (the numbers of which are very small on the cover of the comics) I thought it WAS number one.
When I read issue two, thinking it was number one, things seemed to make sense for me. Where the issue picked up, it seemed to make sense for the story and the characters. It just felt like there were some holes that I assumed would be picked up on later in the five issues.
When I noticed that I was reading number three and not number two as I thought, I was surprised. I had The Cull on my pull list, and number two wound up pulled, but apparently, number one was not there. So I quickly went to eBay and bid on a #1 of the Cull. It came this week and I read it and, guess what? It made the actual number two and three make way more sense. Who would have thunk it?
The Cull is written by Kelly Thompson and has spectacular art by Mattia De Iulis.
Other new books read this week:
The Defenders #76-77. Written by Steven Grant and art by Herb Trimpe. I guess we are starting off with an “old” new book this week. This two issue arc of The Defenders came from 1979 and was the wrap up of the Omega the Unknown storyline from Omega #1-10. That was written by Steve Gerber and I had been following along with it for awhile now. This finished up the story, which I wonder if the fans of the Defenders hadn’t read Omega #1-10, would they understand what this was all about? It was nice to get a bow tied to the storyline though.
Howard the Duck #1-6 (MAX Comics). Written by Steve Gerber and penciled by Phil Winslade (except for issue three which was penciled by Glenn Leach. This six issue series was published in 2002 and had a “Parental Advisory Explicit Content” label on the covers. I saw this while surfing around eBay and I was able to get a good deal on it. It was strange because for most of the issues, Howard the Duck had been transformed into a 60-lb mouse instead. This was very much a satire and it poked fun at everything from politics to Witchblade to religion.
Gone #1. Written and illustrated by Jock. The larger scale book from OSTLRY is an interesting science-fiction tale. It was difficult to read at times because so much of it is new and the world building is so important in a new sci-fi series. It is a beautiful book and I will certianly be looking at in the coming weeks and months.
Universal Monsters: Dracula #1. Written by James Tynion IV and illustrated by Martin Simmonds. I do love me some James Tynion IV. I also love me some Dracula so this was a clear winner for me when I saw the ad for it in Previews a few months ago. This book is another top notch job from James Tynion IV and Martin Simmonds, who worked with Tynion on several projects, brings his distinct style of artistic flair to the book. I am happy to be able to say, “Blah Blah.”
Captain Marvel #1. “The Omen” Written by Alyssa Wong and featuring art by Jan Bazaldua. Stephen Segovia & Romulo Fajardo Jr. did the cover art. The MCU movie, The Marvels is just a few weeks away, so it is time for the new ongoing series for Carol Danvers, Captain Marvel to be replaced. And the storyline seems very similar to what I know of the storyline for The Marvels. Curious timing, hm?
Amazing Spider-Man #36. Written by Zeb Wells and penciled by Ed McGuinness. Rek-Rap is back and being chased by other demons to try and get him back to Limbo. Spider-Man joins in to the excitement, but has to team up with the demon on his “big case.” I’m not a big fan of Rek-Rap, but this was a little better than his last appearance.
Uncanny Spider-Man #2. “Blue Streak” Nightcrawler, in his new Spider-Man outfit, takes on the Rhino while trying to deal with Silver Sable and Mystique too. This has been a fun book starting Kurt Wagner so far.
Marvel Zombies: Black, White & Blood #1. Three stories featuring Daredevil, Spider-Man and Moon Knight separately. The cover was a beautiful rendition of Wolverine as a zombie by Gabriele Dell’otto which was weird because Wolverine is not in this issue. The Spider-Man story was my favorite of the three with the Moon Knight one being my least favorite. Good zombie action though.
Captain America #2.“Taking A.I.M.” Written by J. Michael Straczynski and art by Jesus Saiz. I am really enjoying this new take on Captain America, going into his pre-Super Soldier past as a young boy in Brooklyn and matching it up with his current Marvel Universe world. This includes a guest appearance from Spider-Man which is always a plus for me.
Rare Flavours #2. “Chapter 2: Mirchi” Written by Ram V and illustrated by Filipe Andrade. I actually had a little hard time following this story this issue. I do find the book beautiful to look at and I am hoping that I can figure out what is happening after a re-read or so.
Money Shot: Comes Again #5. Written by Tim Seeley and drawn by Gisele Lagace. The climax of this series feels a little premature. I feel as if they could have squeezed out some more by getting a handful. It can’t be that hard. Come on…
Void Rivals #5. Written by Robert Kirkman and featuring art by Lorenzo De Felici. Solila and Darak started off together, but both had a dark future fate in their heads. Darak gets rescued by an underground resistance force and Solila has to face her destiny as a Keeper of the Light (whatever that means).
Hallows’ Eve: The Big Night #1. Written by Erica Schultz and illustrated by Michael Dowling. Ben Harvey does the cover art. Halloween is just a couple days away so we have a one-shot featuring Hallows’ Eve. She uses some new masks, including one like Captain America and another like the Hulk in her actions. This is a fun character that has been enjoyable to read and one of the better things to come out of the recent Dark Web story arc.
Uncanny Avengers #3. “The Arrogants” Written by Gerry Duggan and drawn by Emilio Laiso. Javier Garrón & Morry Hollowell did the cover art. I love it when Captain America is monologuing and everyone listens and is in awe of him. That happens this issue showing how much presence Steve Rogers has.
Immortal Thor #3. “The Riddle of Raidho” Written by Al Ewing and art by Martin Coccolo. Alex Ross did the cover art (and it is gorgeous!). Loki has Thor trapped in a dimension and seems to be playing games with his brother. Thor has to use his mind to escape instead of his typical fisticuffs.
Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant #3. “Waking Nightmare” Written by Iman Vellani & Sabir Pirzada featuring art by Carlos Gomez & Adam Gorham. Sara Pichelli & Matthew Wilson are the cover artists. There is a tense story going on inside Kamala Khan’s dreams as she is confronted by her mutant mutation and Orchis is setting her up to be the ultimate weapon against the other mutants.
Something is Killing the Children #34. “Showdown at the Easy Creek Corral” Part Four. This showdown has been building for what seems months and it seems as if it is finally here as the last panel of the book gives us a huge shocker. Next issue must be the big wrap up of this storyline.
Other Books read this week: Marvel Unleashed #3, Slow Burn #1, The Schlub #3, Newburn #12, Jean Grey #3, and Plot Holes #3.
The second episode of Picket Fences is a classic episode that brought a serial kidnapper to the borders of Rome, Wisconsin named The Green Bay Chopper.
When a little brought a severed hand to school for show and tell, Maxine knew what this meant. The serial kidnapper who would cut off the right hand of his victims had come to Rome.
The FBI followed close behind and was anything but happy with the involvement of the Rome Sheriff Department.
This episode made the deputies and Jimmy look better than the last one did. M.E. Carter made some crucial discoveries. Kenny and Maxine found the car that they believed the Chopper had left, including samples of urine from victims in the trunk. Ginny could tell the severed hand had been removed from a dentist because, as she said, she could read palms.
When Carter said that the hand had been removed after death, the case was now a homicide investigation, preventing the FBI from insisting that the deputies stay out of the way. Another brilliant courtroom scene featuring Douglas Wambaugh for the Rome Sheriff’s Department! Fyvush Finkel was listed as a guest star on the episode, but this was one more reason why he would become a series regular. The few minutes you spend with Douglas Wambaugh is always some of the most entertaining parts of an episode.
It’s Sunday morning and it is time for the next American Horror Story episode. This one is entitled “Home Invasion” and it is really creepy.
The episode starts off showing a home invasion into the Murder House from the past when a couple of nursing students were tortured and murdered by a man. This led to Vivien and Violet being taken hostage by a group of three wanting to re-enact the famous murder.
Lots of weird and frightening things happened this episode:
We find out that the house is on the LA famous murder tour.
Ben gets a call from the woman he cheated on Vivien with and she told him she was pregnant. He went to Boston so she could have an abortion. He lied to Vivien about it.
Constance made some poison cupcakes for Violet.
Constance was having an encounter with a young male model.
She shut Addie into the “bad girl closet” with a bunch of mirrors.
Tate mortally wounds one of the home invaders with an axe.
The ghosts of the dead nurses murdered the other two home invaders.
Tate, Constance and Moira have a connection and knowledge of each other and work together to get rid of the bodies. Tate says that they had to get rid of the bodies, “If we want him to keep treating me.” Mysterious.
Constance could sense that Vivien was pregnant.
Vivien is worried that she has not been getting sick with this pregnancy unlike before. She worries that something is wrong.
Vivien ends the episode saying that they were going to sell this house.
Packed full of horrific goodness, I remember how confusing everything was when this first aired. Watching it with foreknowledge of what happened is a new experience and bring more depth to what is happening.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 