Author Archives: Doc

Dexter: Resurrection E4, E5

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Call Me Red”

“Murder Horny”

I was able to catch up with the new season/series of Dexter: Resurrection this morning. New episodes come out on Fridays on Showtime, so I can follow it along as the season progresses for however long it will last.

I was very excited to see episode four as I knew it had some kind of serial killer dinner party at the center of it. I did not know that the guest list would be as sparkling as it was. The party was thrown by Peter Dinklage was something that I knew. He played serial killer fan Leon Prater. He was the employer of problem-solver Charley, who is played by Uma Thurman. We had seen her before.

Having Prater show Dexter (whom he believed was the Dark Passenger) around his trophy room of serial killers was creepy. Especially when he showed Dexter the hammer of the Trinity Killer and the slides of the Bay Harbor Butcher.

Then, shocks kept coming as the rest of the guests arrived. This list included Krysten Ritter as Mia, Lady Vengeance, Eric Stonestreet as family man Al, David Dastmalchian as Gareth and Neil Patrick Harris as slimy Lowell, the tattoo killer. I did not expect such a Who’s Who of actors taking these roles, and it was even more amazing when NPH wound up on Dexter’s table at the end of the episode.

The show also teased a relationship between Dexter (still pretending to be Red, the Dark Passenger) and Mia. Dexter entertained the idea of working with her until he discovered that she was not exclusively killing sexual predators as the press had assumed. He framed her for the murder of the man that Harrison had killed in the hotel. That had a lot of holes to it (including Mia telling her intended victim that he would be her first kill in New York) but the media seemed to grab the idea quickly.

Batista was not as happy about the results. He had gone to see Detective Wallace with a plan to share ideas on the case that, he said, sounded similar to the bay Harbor Butcher.

The fifth episode ended with a promising connection between Dexter and Harrison, after Harrison learned that his father had taken care of the problem with his own murder. Harrison showed Dexter signs that he was not like him, which made Dexter happy.

War of the Worlds (2025)

Posted on by

To be fair, I went into the new version of War of the Worlds on Amazon Prime expecting that it would be a terrible movie. I had watched a… review of sorts.. from Dan Murrell and it was a remarkably entertaining video, you can see HERE.

I also had watched Jeremy Jahns’ review, that he dubbed War of the Worlds “dogshit.”

So, my expectations could not have been lower, but my morbid curiosity overcame my better judgment.

Told in screen time (like much better movies Searching, Unfriended, Host), War of the Worlds featured Ice Cube as William Radford, an NSA computer security analysis, who is in charge of watching the people of the US. According to Rotten Tomatoes, “A computer security analyst working for the U.S. government finds his daily life disrupted by an alien attack. Accustomed to dealing with virtual threats, his struggle extends to secrets the government may be hiding.”

After watching it, I can why everyone hated this movie. It is truly bad. Everything about it was terrible. The acting was terrible. The story full of holes. Nothing makes sense. Characters do the stupidest things.

I do love to see Clark Gregg in roles. The former Agent Coulson is great, but even he could not make up for this travessty.

Now, this is one of those movies that had some laughs in it, but it was not written to be funny. Some of the situations were just so ridiculous that they couldn’t help but be laughable. It feels like a film that would be great for the RiffTrax guys to riff on.

The biggest part is how blatant the Amazon Prime advertising was in the film. If you did not know that this was showing on Amazon Prime, the product placement and reference would surely show you. If only I knew where to get an Amazon Prime gift card.

Truly one of the worst movies of the year.

0.3 stars

Sunday Morning Sidewalk Series Watched

Posted on by

We have been doing the Sunday Morning Sidewalk for almost 7 months. So I figured I better get a list of shows that have been turning into on Sunday mornings.

2025

Show #1: Band of Brothers (10 episodes)

Show #2: The Sandman (11 episodes)

Show #3: Win or Lose (8 episodes/ 2 a week)

Show #4: KISStory (2 episodes)

Show #5: Lovecraft Country (10 episodes)

Show #6: The Haunting of Hill House (10 episodes)

Show #7: Billy Joel: And So It Goes (2 episodes)

2026

Show #8: Death By Lightning (4 episodes)

Show #9: Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials (3 episodes)

Show #10: His & Hers (6 episodes)

What We Do in the Shadows Season 6

Posted on by

Spoilers

Today I finished the final season of What We Do in the Shadows on Disney +. Season six had eleven episodes, one more than any of the other seasons. I have to say… I thought this season was the worst of the six. Not that it was bad overall, but it just did not feel like it was scattered all over the place.

These were a few of the highlights for me:

  • Laszlo’s ghost father arriving was a funny bit. His father trying to take over Laszlo’s body was a fun scene.
  • I enjoyed the Monster, created by Laszlo and Colin Robinson, but that joke ran out of steam during the season.
  • The big night for the Baron led to the vampires looking to kill the group. This felt familiar (no pun intended), but I thought it was one of the better episodes of the season.
  • I did like the concept of Nandor and Guillermo forming a crime fighting duo. I would have liked more of this during the season instead of a joke at the end.
  • The Finale. I’ll talk about that in a little while.

Low lights:

  • Jerry. Though it was funny that they forgot to awaken another vampire who used to live with them as he entered “super slumber,” the character of Jerry was hardly worth the time and turned out to be a throw away as the season progressed.
  • Guillermo working at the office. It had some funny moments, but it did not work well for me. It was lackluster.
  • They repeated a couple of beats from the series, including how Nandor was ready to go to war with the TV show filming outside.
  • Sleep hypnosis. Nandor as Richard Nixon was funny, but overall the idea was barely enough for an episode.
  • Nandor’s Army? That felt like a waste.

Let’s talk about the finale. I loved this. It was easily the best episode of season 6. It was so meta that I found it highly entertaining. The documentary filming was coming to an end and Guillermo was having trouble accepting it. They had so many fun meta lines which were referring to the documentary, but in reality were designed toward the actual show itself. My favorite was Nadja, who, when talking about how the documentary should end, mentioned how the doc should have ended last year after Guillermo was turned back to human after being a vampire. This line basically said the fifth season finale would have made a better ending to the show than anything done during season 6. She was 100% accurate.

They added some parody endings that came about when Nadja hypnotized the audience. The first one was a spoof of The Usual Suspects. The next two, which came as post credit scenes, were one like Newhart, with Nandor having a dream and telling Guillermo, who is in bed with him, about it. The third spoof was one of Rosemary’s Baby, with Nadja playing the role of Rosemary (and Colin Robinson back as a baby again). These were a lot of fun and an enjoyable way to end the series.

With the whole group (except Guillermo) singing “We’ll Meet Again” was a wonderful moment. Even better was when Laszlo exclaimed, “Now, everyone but the Guide!” because of how badly she was singing. I laughed out loud at that line, which was said off screen.

While this season would be my least favorite of the six, What We Do in the Shadows is one of my favorite comedies of all time. The stories were great. The characters were a hoot. It was very enjoyable. I do think it was time for the show to come to an end [although I would have loved more of the crime fighting Nandor (aka The Phantom…Menace) & Guillermo (aka The Cowboy Kid)].

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #28

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Sundown”

Oh, I am in!

What a kick off to the next show for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk. The only problem is I now have to wait until next Sunday to watch the next episode.

Lovecraft Country was a series that was on HBO, a horror, historical fantasy, drama that centered around the writings of author H.P. Lovecraft.

Starring Jurnee Smollett, Courtney B. Vance and Jonathan Majors, the show had one heck of a debut episode.

Majors played Atticus “Tic” Freeman, a young man who had served in the Korean War. He returned to his home in Chicago when he found out that his father had gone missing.

Going by his uncle George Freeman’s home, Atticus shared a letter that his father had sent him about Ardham, Massachusetts. With a little investiagtion, Atticus discovered this city was in the middle of Devon County, which was an area where H.P. Lovecraft had supposedly set many of his horror tales.

George writes for a black guide book (much like the movie Green Book) so Atticus, George and Letitia “Leti” Lewis, an old friend who was hitching a ride to her brother’s home, took off to this county.

They stopped for some food, only to be chased away by gun toting yokels who did not want black people eating in their diner. This was a tense and anxiety-filled scene as the locals shot at them with rifles. It is amazing that such hatred exists in the United States that there are people who think this kind of behavior was ever okay.

A mysterious silver sedan caused the yokel’s car to flip over and a enigmatic white woman came out from the car. Atticus had heard that his father had left Chicago in a silver sedan, so everything seemed to be tying together.

In Devon County, the trio was in the woods looking for an access road, when the racist sheriff came upon them. He told them that they were in a sundown county where any blacks out after sundown would be considered dangerous and he would have to do something about it. What followed was a real tense, horrific scene where Atticus desperately tried to get their car across the county line before the sun went down, unable to speed because the sheriff followed behind, waiting to pull them over for any infraction.

Making the county line, they came to a police roadblock, realizing that the race to the border was irrelevant. As they were face down and about to be lynched, monsters came from the woods and began attacking the cops. These creatures were shoggoths, monsters found in Lovecraft work.

In the end, Atticus, George and Leti found themselves at a mansion in the woods, where they are greeted kindly by a white at the door.

The scene with the shoggoths and the cops was really intense and bloody. You had no idea what was going to happen, although it was awesome to see that racist piece of crap sheriff get his during the scene.

The episode started with a dream Atticus was having involving UFOs, monsters and what looked like Cthulhu. Of course, there was also Jackie Robinson(?). I was in immediately. I love the air of mystery and the unexpected nature of the show. I can’t wait to see where this goes from here.

Building the horrors of segregation into a story with J.P. Lovecraft’s work at the center is ironic, considering Lovecraft was known to be a racist himself. Tying that all together creates a powerful dynamic that will help drive this story, hopefully through the rest of the series. There are plenty of secrets floating around (who was that that Atticus called in South Korea?) and these add such a great color to the plot.

Next Sunday can’t get here soon enough. I was a little nervous about committing to Lovecraft Country for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk as there were ten episodes, which will encompass over two months to finish. At this point, I am thrilled with the choice.

Dexter: Resurrection E3

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Backseat Driver”

Dexter in NYC continued as he is able to capture himself the “Dark Passenger.” One of the things about Dexter that I love is how intelligent he is. He truly uses his brains to do his stalking of these serial killers.

I am very excited too about the next episode which seems to be a serial killer convention. Dexter took the invite that the Dark Passenger was given and he plans on attending in his place. I had heard about that episode before I started the series so I am excited to see what happens.

Det. Claudette Wallace is sniffing around Harrison, basically laying everything out in front of him in an interrogation, trying to get a confession. Harrison does a great job of keeping her at an arms-length.

I love the character of Blessing. The amount of friendship and joy that he brings to the canvas is really needed. I love his family and I also love how his wife isn’t a fool. She did a background check on Dexter (although that eventually helped Dexter find the Dark Passenger).

Angel Batista is on his way to New York as he is retiring from the police force in Miami. There will be some confrontation with Batista and Dexter at some point of the season, you would think.

Good episode. Excited to see the next episode.

Bad Guys 2

Posted on by

Bad Guys 2 is the newest animated film from DreamWorks, released this weekend. It was a sequel to a surprise hit from a few years ago.

The previous movie was fine, but I did not love it. How would the sequel rate in my mind by comparison? About the same really. Honestly, I would say that this sequel is a little better than the first one.

The Bad Guys are a group of reformed criminals who found it difficult to get opportunities as former criminals in the world. After struggling to find gainful employment on the right side of the law, the Bad Guys are recruited by a new group of criminals to join them for a gigantic theft on a worldwide scale.

I had some troubles with this movie. In particular, I did not like the style of animation that they were using. There was something that I was just not on board with in the animation. I believe it was the way they mixed the three dimensional animation with two dimensional flat looking animation. A lot of it was the eyes of the characters, which seemed to be a different animation style than the rest of the characters’ bodies. It bothered me and it took me out of the story several times.

I was not a huge fan of the story being told either, though I did appreciate the messages that the story was holding to and how they were looking at certain concepts. They definitely looked at how difficult it was to “go good” when no one believed you had gone good. Some of the story was a little slow and predictable.

Of course, they spent a lot of time with the fart jokes. Now, I shouldn’t criticize that since I found the fart jokes in Naked Gun today funny, but they kept it at a scene or so where as this was a main character trait for Mr. Piranha.

However, I will eventually recommend this movie and the biggest reason is for the characters involved and the voice actors of the film. The voice work is easily the best part of the movie. Whether it be Sam Rockwell as Mr. Wolf, the lead of the film, or Zazie Beetz as Diane, his love interest and the current governor. Whether it be Marc Meron as Mr. Snake and his love interest Susan, voiced by the wonderful Natasha Lyonne. Whether it be Danielle Brooks as the main villain Kitty Kat or Craig Robinson as Mr. Shark. This cast was great.

I left out Anthony Ramos as Mr. Piranha, Awkwafina as Ms. Tarantula, Alex Borstein as Chief (actually she is the Commissioner) Misty Luggins (and I think she stole all the scenes she was in), and Maria Bakalova as Pigtail. All of these characters had their moments in the film and helped pull what was not the best film I had seen into a much more watchable time at the theater.

In the end, I am giving this a higher rating than the original, but neither of these Bad Guys films are knocking my socks off. They are okay and that is about it.

3.3 stars

Naked Gun (2025)

Posted on by

Trying to post review on phone as I have a busy afternoon and this would help. We’ll see if my tech ability matches my plans.

The new Naked Gun arrived in theaters today and it was a lot of fun. I’ve missed this type of movie, a satire film that used to be regular. Some of the top films of this subgenre included Airplane!, Hot Shots and Young Frankenstein. Unfortunately, these films just became stupid instead of funny and this type of movie became rare.

Naked Gun franchise was some of the best of this style of film as Leslie Nielsen led the way as Frank Drebin.

Now, Liam Neeson has taken the lead of this film as Frank Drebin Jr. and showed some remarkable comedic timing while delivering a deadpan attitude and straight face to all the insanity around him.

Pamela Anderson is a co-star of the film and she does an exceptional job. There is a scene with Anderson and jazz that is tremendously funny.

It is also great to have Paul Walter Hauser in the film as Frank’s partner. He fits in well too.

The cast is great and are game for just about anything. Some of the comedy does not hit, but most of it does really well.

The story is much like other Naked Gun films, but the craziness feels fresh and funny.

While I wouldn’t want a million films like this, Naked Gun proves that this style of film can work if it is clever and funny, and provides us with a cast willing to do anything.

4 Stars


Eyes of Wakanda four-episode limited series

Posted on by

Spoilers

Marvel Animation released it latest animated series on Disney + this morning, executive produced by Ryan Coogler.

The four episodes were told across the history of the world, showing a group called the War Dogs and their efforts to retrieve artifacts that had been stolen from Wakanda. What felt like separate stories actually came together in a clever way in the final episode, “The Last Panther.”

I was watching Fatman Beyond on YouTube when Marc Bernardin announced that he had written two of the episodes and that he was also a producer on the show. I have always been a fan of Marc Bernardin so it only helped my anticipation for the series.

Disney + dropped all four episodes on the same day.

The show included a trip to Crete, to the Trojan War and to China. The very end of the fourth episode connected the show to the greater MCU too, which was a really fun call back.

The episodes got better with each one. The show looked beautiful and the action was very dramatic and violent.

There were some characters that I had a harder time getting behind, especially in the earlier episodes. However, that was not as much of a problem for me as the show moved along.

I loved the use of Achilles in episode two and the use of the Iron Fist in episode three (which was probably my favorite one).

I like that some of the ideas of the show is that Wakanda is shown as not necessarily the heroic kingdom, a kingdom that only cares about staying isolated. There are some moments of showing this too. I like the shades of grey that the show provided.

This was a worthy addition to the Marvel animation cannon. It was a fun and quick watch.