This show is most likely not as well known as some of the others on this list so far. Yet this Netflix series, which went 2 seasons for a total of 16 episodes, was sensational, and remarkably funny.
American Vandal was a mockumentary series that spoofed true crime shows such as Making a Murderer and Serial. The show followed friends Peter Maldonado (Tyler Alvarez) and Sam Ecklund (Griffin Gluck) who created an internet show where they investigated a couple of cases at their high school, Hanover.
In season one, the pair investigated the prank that saw 27 faculty cars vandalized by someone who drew phallic images on them. Season two the investigation was at a Catholic private high school that had someone spiked the school’s lemonade with a laxative. They called this perp the “Turd Burglar.”
Yes, there were a lot of dick and poop jokes. There were plenty of sex jokes. These are usually the types of humor that I do not find entertaining. This was the total opposite. American Vandal was one of the funniest series I have ever seen. It was not only incredibly smart and funny, it was a great mystery.
Netflix canceled the series after the second season, but these first two definitely found a place on my top 100.
Alien: Earth has been up and down and this episode is a perfect example of that. There were some high moments with the scary creatures, including a weird fly-like creature and some moments I was not a fan of, like everything dealing with Wendy.
Timothy Olyphant was extremely creepy in this episode. I liked what he was doing.
Boy Kavalier was a hoot in his interactions with the debate over who has the right for the crashed ship and its cargo. He was just so obnoxious in the moment that he was so out there.
There were a lot of times in the episode where I was not engaged in the show, but there were some times when I was glued to the screen. It is inconsistent and I am in no rush in a week to watch the show. It came out on Tuesday Sept 9 and I did not watch it until the 15th. I had opportunities to watch it before this, but I was never inspired to do so. I believe there are only two more episodes to go so we will see how it finishes up.
One of the best anthology series around. A few of the seasons of Fargo, based of course on the classic movie of the same name, are as good as you get. There were a couple of seasons that were not as good, but the first two and season five were so awesome.
The casts change each season and have included some gigantic stars such as Billy Bob Thornton, Martin Freeman, Chris Rock, Bob Odenkirk, Jon Hamm, Kirsten Dunst, Jean Smart, Ewan McGregor, David Thewlis, Ted Danson, Juno Temple, Carrie Coon, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Nick Offerman, Kieran Culkin, Brad Garrett, Ben Whishaw, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Patrick Wilson, Jesse Plemons, Joe Keery, Colin Hanks, and Adam Goldberg.
The FX show is always creative and funny with the greatest characters around.
It is time for the EYG Comic Cavalcade. Next week’s edition may be very late because I am going with Todd to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to attend the SiouxperCon 2025. I’ll be busy at the convention on Saturday and Sunday, so I may not have as much time to read, and certainly won’t have time to do this write up next weekend. I am looking forward to heading down to SiouxperCon where I plan on meeting Gail Simone, Zander Cannon, Phil Hester among others. I do plan on using my phone to do some postings at EYG next weekend, maybe with some photos taken at the event.
Meanwhile, I picked up a graphic novel at In This Issue Comics this week by Brian K. Vaughn and Niko Henrichon called Spectators. I had put this on my pull list early on, but it was a weird thing. They sent the shop a promo copy of the book and the online listing indicated that it was pulled for me. It was weird, but then the list removed Spectators from my list. I decided not to worry about it. I saw it on the stands Thursday and I grabbed it. That was when the owner saw me with it and said they were trying to remember who had asked for this book and had the list try to pull the promo copy. They did have the book pulled in a separate place behind the desk. I just finished the book before starting this. It was a great read, but there were more penises than I have ever seen in a graphic novel.
Books this week:
Red Hood #1. “The Tower Part 1” Written by Gretchen Felker-Martin with art and cover art by Jeff Spokes. Okay, this one has a story behind it. I had heard a bunch of people complaining about this book before it ever came out with some of the writing of it. However, that is not the big story. Gretchen Felker-Martin posted a comment on the assassination of conservative Charlie Kirk and, because of that controversy, DC Comics canceled the new book. Heck, it was a day after it was released. I’ve never seen a book canceled so quickly. In fact, there was some book shops that removed the book from its shelves. Goes to show you how social media can cause troubles.
Murder Podcast #1. Written by Jeremy Haun and illustrated by Mike Tisserand. Variant cover B art was done by Mike Tisserand & Nick Filardi. A new podcast has seemingly sent some normal listeners into a murderous fugue state. It is a intriguing new book from Ignition Press.
Feral #16. “The Rule Breaker.” Written by Tony Fleecs and art by Trish Forstner and Tone Rodriguez. Variant cover art was done by Trish Forstner and Tony Fleecs. The cats are facing off with some scary potential consequences. Will the mall cats eat Lord? There is more tension in this book than most comics in a month. Feral has been an exceptional book.
Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion #4. Written by Deniz Camp & Cody Ziglar with art by Jonas Scharf. Cover art was done by Sara Pichelli & Tamra Bonvillain. Miles Morales remains searching through the Ultimate universe for his little sister. He winds up in a fight with Illyana Rasputin. Miles is finding it even more difficult as memories of his other universe keep popping up.
It Killed Everyone But Me #1. Written by Ryan Parrott with art by Letizia Cadonici. Cover art was done by Jorge Corona. The brand new Mad Cave comic is a fun new idea. Twenty five years ago, Sutton Reed was the sole survivor of her friends who were slaughtered by a demonic force. She was able to imprison. Now, there is another series of grisly murders and she must confront the old demon. I look forward to see how this goes.
One World Under Doom #7. “Doom Versus Everyone” Written by Ryan North and art by R.B. Silva. Ben Harvey did the cover art. Doom has been shown to be anything but a magnanimous ruler and that leads to some battles. Specifically, a good chunk of this issue featured Doom facing off against a magic-using Reed Richards. Huh?
C.O.R.T.: Children of the Round Table #1. Written by Tom Taylor and art by Daniele Di Nicuolo. Cover art was done by Daniele Di Nicuolo and Rain Beredo. I subscribed to this series because I love Tom Taylor’s writing so much. This feels like a younger book, but I enjoyed it anyway. We dive into the King Arthur legend again with this book.
Don’t Forget Your Briefcase #3. Written by Eliot Rahal and art and cover art by Phillip Sevy. Elmo, upset by everything going on around him with the briefcase, runs off and steals his mom’s car. Things do not go well after that. This is a really fun spy thriller book from Mad cave, which continues to be one of the most consistently good independent comic companies of 2025.
Survive #1. Written by Robert Venditti with art by Doug Braithwaite. Cover art was done by Jorge Fornes. A Russian submarine is sabotaged and we have more action beneath the ocean as the sub sinks. This feels like a cool story from comic company Bad Idea.
Captain America #3. Written by Chip Zdarsky and art by Valero Schiti. Cover art was done by Ben Harvey. Cap and Doom face off. First it seemed as if Doom respected Cap, but he is still playing the game. It is a brutal story that shows some of Cap’s naivety.
Absolute Batman #12. “Abomination Part Four” Written by Scott Snyder and art by Nick Dragotta. Cover art was done by Nick Dragotta and Frank Martin. Whoa. Seems like Absolute Batman’s rogue gallery has come to the absolute universe in full force. Penguin, Killer Croc, Two Face, Riddler, Catwoman all made appearances here. And they are all tied to Bruce. This could be tough on Bruce.
Space Ghost #2. Written by David Pepose and art by Jonathan Lau. Francesco Mattina did the cover art. Eclipse Woman makes her return but winds up having to aid Space Ghost, Jan, Jace, and Blip.
Redcoat #14. Written by Geoff Johns and art by Bryan Hitch. Cover art was done by Bryan Hitch & Brad Anderson. Fascinating issue as Simon Pure finds himself at the White House as it is burning and he helped first lady Dolley Madison rescue a portrait of George Washington. The ghost of George Washington is on his way.
Batman: Dark Patterns #10. “The Child of Fire” Part 1. Written by Dan Watters and art and cover art by Hayden Sherman (Gold Medalist). This starts the final arc of this series, which is an absolute shame because Dark Patterns has been exceptional Batman work. This issue of Dark Patterns is quite literally FIRE!
Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum #2. Written by W. Maxwell Prince and art by Martin Morazzo. Cover art was done by Martin Morazzo and Chris O’Halloran. The duo from Ice Cream Man continues their trip into Superman. The new kryptonite has caused some new troubles for Superman. Specifically, making him a kaiju sized giant.
The Undead Iron Fist #1. Written by Jason Loo and art by Fran Galan. Cover art was done by Whilce Portacio & Alex Sinclair. Danny Rand is back from the dead and I really loved this first issue of this new series. A great new redesign of the Iron Fist costume and a guest appearance for Miles Morales made the issue epic.
Blue Falcon and Dynomutt #1. Written by Jimmy Palmiotti and art by Pasquale Qualano. Cover A art was done by Lucio Parrillo (Silver Medalist) and cover D art was done by Francesco Mattina. The new Dynamite book featuring the Hanna Barbera super hero is great and we have an origin for Dynomutt kicking off the book.
The Punisher: Red Band #1. Written by Benjamin Pearcy and art by Julius Ohta. Cover A art was done by Marco Checchetto & Matthew Wilson. I also got Cover B by Frank Miller. The new Punisher book is excellent. It takes place, I believe, in the time frame of The World to Come, but you could not tell by this issue. It was great to see Frank Castle back in the outfit. This was quite bloody and might be the first Marvel “Red Band” book that really deserved it.
Project Chimera: The Hero Trade #2. Written by Matt Kindt and art by David Lapham. Corey Wolfe did the cover art. I did not know that this was the just a two-issue series so when it all wrapped up in the book, I was very surprised. I did enjoy this very much and I would have liked it to continue.
Transformers #24. Written by Daniel Warren Johnson and art by Jorge Corona. Daniel Warren Johnson & Mike Spicer did the cover art. This was a huge final fight between Optimus Prime and Megatron. I say final, but I don’t actually mean that. There is no way that was their last fight. However, it was a huge boss battle. It was the final issue for Daniel Warren Johnson who has been with the book since the beginning.
Exceptional X-Men #13. Written by Eve L. Ewing and art by Federica Mancin. Carmen Carnero & Nolan Woodard did the cover art. This is the final issue of Exceptional X-Men, which makes me sad. I have enjoyed the Kitty Pryde/Emma Frost team. I do not know if it is coming back after the Age of Revelation. It felt like an end to the series.
Wolverines and Deadpools #3. Written by Cody Ziglar and art by Roge Antonio. Cover art was done by Alessandro Cappuccio and Mattia Iacono. This short series came to an end. It was a fun little series with the father-daughter tandems working together to stop the Shadow King. Ellie even broke the fourth wall.
Red Hulk #8. “Allies” Written by Benjamin Percy and art by Geoff Shaw. Cover art was done by Geoff Shaw and Marte Gracia. Thunderbolt Ross is going through a ton of stuff. However, Machine Man, Deathlok and Wildstreak are there to help him.
Racer X #1. Written by Mark Russell and art by Nuno Plati. Cover art was done by Francesco Tomaselli. Another book that falls into the world of Speed Racer. Racer X is Speed’s supposedly dead brother. Racer X is a fun series and I am curious to see how it crosses over with Speed Racer.
Other books this week: Spider-Verse vs. Venom-verse #5, Imperial War- Nova: Centurion #1, Blood Type #4, Powers 25 #1, Superior Avengers #6, Blood & Thunder #5 and X-Men of Apocalypse Alpha #1.
Quick Hits: Todd picked me up Maria Llovet’s Artificial #1, a new romance book with robots to purchase for dates. It is kind of a sexy book. Tama #2 wound up with the Bronze Medalist this week. There were more Kong action with Return to Skull Island #3. Trinity: Daughter of Wonder Woman #4 sees Trinity searching for Damian corgi by heading to a timeline where Batman is getting married to Catwoman. Hello Darkness #14 has its horror once again. Godzilla is busy this week with both Godzilla (Kai-Sei Era) #2 and Godzilla: Here There Be Aliens #4. There are a bunch of Godzilla books available these days. Eddie Brock: Carnage #8 sees the problems continue to rise between Carnage and Eddie Brock. Ultimate Wolverine #9 brings out the Sentinels. Conan the Barbarian #24 has a tough loss for Conan. The book Cul-De-Sac #2 from Bad Idea came out this week too. I still have liked The Unchosen #3 more. I was not a fan of number one, but this has improved each issue.
“Theorising that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Doctor Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished… He woke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own, and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. And so Doctor Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong, and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home…”
“Oh boy….”
Quantum Leap is a great sci-fi show that aired on NBC in the late 80’s, early 90’s. It starred Scott Bakula as Dr. Samuel Beckett and Dean Stockwell as Al.
Sam Beckett would jump around time, into the body of someone else, and then have to try to fix the history of this person’s life. Some were smaller, more personal stories while others were big and bombastic, featuring famous people’s stories.
Al was a hologram of a man from Beckett’s actual timeline who was there to aid Sam through his missions. Al could only be seen by Sam.
The show had some really exciting moments, some humor, and plenty of sci-fi goodness. The show did not shy away from the deeper subjects either such as racism, sexism and hatred.
Every episode ended with the tie in to the next episode, as we see Sam arrive in the body of someone new. Sam continued to hope that the next leap would be the leap home.
I did not watch the revival of Quantum Leap that aired on CBS for a couple of years. This is completely the original show that is at #88 on my list.
This week’s Lovecraft Country focuses on that comment, and we get an episode centered around Hippolyta.
This was a wild, sci-fi romp through alternate dimensions and spiritual encounters. Hippolyta finds herself dancing on a stage with Josephine Baker in Paris, a warrior woman training in what appeared to be Africa (reminded me very much of the movie, The Woman King) and back in bed with George (with Courtney B. Vance returning to the role).
It was a journey of self-discovery for Hippolyta as she is able to work through her grief and anger over the events that she had gone through in the series.
Of course, before she had been pulled into the portal by this strange machine, she had shot and killed a police officer who was going to kill her after catching her in this place. Atticus showed up and helped out, sending another officer through the portal. However, the dead officer’s body was lying on top of Diana’s comic book, leading us to think bad things are coming for the young girl.
We also discover that Atticus had gone through a portal as well. We do not know where he had gone, but he returned with a paperback book entitled Lovecraft Country written by George Freeman.
Other items from this episode:
The show has been implying that Leti is pregnant. I am curious to see how that will play into the narrative.
Emmet Till is referenced in this episode as a friend of Diana.
Atticus learns the truth that his father Montrose was gay. He did not take it well. In fact, Atticus’s response using the f-slur was one of the most shocking moments of the episode. It is a term that we don’t hear much anymore, but would have been more common during this time frame. It was still very hard to hear coming from our protagonist’s mouth.
Ruby and her relationship with Christina is bizarre and could lead to Ruby betraying her sister.
This was a strong episode of Lovecraft Country, which built on the idea of the power of women, much like last week’s episode featuring Ji-ah.
There are just three more episodes of Lovecraft Country remaining. Because next weekend I am going to attend SiouxperCon 2025 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the Sunday Morning Sidewalk will be poster this coming Friday, September 19th.
I am all stiff and tired after driving for 100 miles. I can’t imagine having to walk it.
A ensemble of characters have to do just that (and more) in the latest film based on a Stephen King novella called The Long Walk, and it is absolutely tremendous.
My first feeling was that this was a combination of Squid Game and Hunger Games, which made sense considering Francis Lawrence directed it and he had directed several of the Hunger Games movies.
In this dystopian future, a group of young men volunteers win a lottery drawing for the right to participate in the “Long Walk,” an annual event where the group start to walk and must continue to walk at a brisque speed or else they would be eliminated. The last man standing would be declared the winner and would earn a wish and prize money.
I tell you, The Long Walk is one of the most difficult, heart-wrenching, hard-to-watch movies of the year. It keeps you, as an audience member, off balance and uneasy, if not outrightly disturbed. There were some scenes in this movie that were totally unsettling, and I do not just mean the scene of the execution of the walkers.
I was extremely emotional during this movie because they did such an amazing job of setting up and developing the characters that I cared for them in a limited amount of time and I found myself tearing up on more than one occasion and felt gut-punched more than once.
The film really was a character piece, as the driving force of much of the movie was the dialogue that was going on between the actors. It was so expertly written that there were characters who only received minimal attention that I cared about so much. The interaction between these actors drove the story and only helped serve the shocking violence that would follow. Nothing was held back. The violence was brutal, crushing and significant.
Our main two fixtures among the characters were Raymond Garraty and Peter McVries, played brilliantly by Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson, respectfully. The performances of these two actors really created a bond between the characters that carried you through a film where you knew that only one of the ensemble would survive. They became brothers-like and gave the film real heart.
Mark Hamill played the Major, the head of this activity who would show up throughout the Long Walk to be an a-hole and continue to harass and remind the walkers of what was going on. Mark Hamill is awesome as a villain, but to be fair, this Major is not the most developed character in the film as he was a bit too mustache-twirly. Hamill played him extremely well though as I had sufficient feeling of resentment toward him as the film progressed.
This is not a fun watch by any means. It gives us a depressing world with an even worse premise that will lead only to violent death and loss. As an allegory to the Vietnam War, which is was back in the 1960s when Stephen King wrote this novella, it works well. As a character piece, introducing us to these sad people through dialogue and death, it works even more. The Long Walk is a powerfully compelling, hard to watch film that gave me a lot of feelings and things to think about.
I am a huge fan of This is Spinal Tap. It is not only a cult classic, but, for me, it is one of my all time favorite movies. So I was very excited when I saw that there would be a sequel bringing the boys back together.
Spinal Tap is David St. Hubbins, Nigel Tufnel and Derek Smalls. These three, along with director of the film Marty Di Burgi, have been making the promotional rounds, talking about the movie. Of course, these characters are being portrayed in kayfabe by Michael McKeon, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, and director Rob Reiner.
The new “mockumentary” follows the guys as they reunite after years to play one more contractually required concerts. The film is about Spinal Tap getting back together, dealing with their problems and rehearsing for the big show in New Orleans.
I love Spinal Tap and this was a lot of fun. It was great seeing these characters again, even if seeing them aged is a bit of a shock. The music is wonderful. The lines are funny. I assume they did the same kind of improv that they used in the first film.
I am going to say that there was no way this was going to match the first film. This is Spinal Tap is such a brilliant film, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues was never going to be able to reach the levels of the first one. However, this was still a lot of enjoyment. There was something missing in the story. Perhaps it was the tension between the band that was causing that feeling, but there was something that brought the story down a touch.
It does tell you how iconic Spinal Tap is when you can get Paul McCartney and Elton John to come to your film and sing with the band. There were a couple of other cool cameos here including Questlove, Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Chad Smith, and Lars Ulrich (of Metallica).
A lot of the jokes are recycled, including clips from the original movie. There are a bunch of new songs, but none of them received the full song version in the film. We do get full versions of “Cups and Cakes,” “Stonehenge,” and “(Listen to the) Flower People.” I would have liked to hear a few of the new songs extended outside of the slight usage in rehearsal footage or band discussion.
These critiques are minor for me as I laughed and enjoyed the reunion film. Fans of the original movie are going to have a lot of fun with this new sequel, which would make a great double feature with the original.
Sometimes a TV show comes in like a comet and burns itself out before its time. NBC’s coming of age show Freaks and Geeks is one of those. It was one of the most universally beloved shows, but only after its run of one season of 18 episodes ended. Freaks and Geeks is on a ton of people’s favorite TV show lists and sits at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Yet it only lasted one season. Why? Part would have been because of the sporadic episode schedule and apparent conflicts between the network and the creators. Freaks and Geeks became a cult classic after the show was gone from NBC.
What a cast! An amazing who’s who of young actors at the time included Linda Cardellini, Seth Rogan, James Franco, Jason Segal, Busy Phillips, John Francis Daly, Martin Starr, and Samm Levine. Joe Flaherty, Tom Wilson (Biff Tannen himself from Back to the Future), Becky Ann Baker, Steve Bannos, Dave Allen, Kayla Ewell, Ben Foster, Joel Hodgson and Ann Dowd also appeared among a group of distinguished actors.
Written and directed by Paul Feig, the show was produced by Judd Apatow.
I have only ever seen this show once, but the memory of it holds a sweet spot in my heart. It is down the list because of its short run, but this is one of those shows that deserves a rewatch.
Olivia Pope and her crew is at #90 in our TV show countdown. Scandal was part soap opera, part governmental thriller and always fun.
Starring Kerry Washington as Olivia Pope and Tony Goldwyn as President Grant, Scandal was created by Shonda Rhimes. Olivia Pope was a DC “Fixer” who would be hired to deal with problems in our nation’s capital.
The big draw for many people was the on-again-off-again relationship between President Grant and Olivia. They were portrayed as soulmates thorughout the seven seasons, but I was never a fan of this relationship. Mind you, I loved Olivia, but I always found Grant to be a jerk and not worth her. Their relationship was definitely toxic, and that brought a ton of drama to the show.
Other stars from the show included Bellamy Young, Jeff perry (whose Cyrus was one of the most intriguing antagonists you would find), Scott Foley, Kate Lowes, Darby Stanchfield, Guillermo Diaz and Joe Morton.
These were some of the most rotten characters you will find on TV, even those that you were rooting for. The levels of GREY on this show was stunning.
I did not love every storyline of Scandal, and it did feel like it went a little too long. Of course, Joe Morton’s character, Rowan Pope (Olivia’s father) was one of those characters like the Cigarette Smoking Man from the X-Files that I would have loved to see a bullet placed into his brain.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 