Author Archives: Doc
Murderbot S1 E6, E7, E8
Spoilers
Murderbot is my new favorite program on Apple TV +.
I watched three episodes and I really wanted to keep watching, but I needed to pause and move along. There are two episodes left in this season and I will finish it off later this week or this weekend.
All the secrets are out. Sec Unit’s past came out as he was hooked up to Gurathin as they were operating on his leg. Gurathin had been shot in the leg by Leebeebee. Leebeebee was holding the crew hostage until she got what she wanted. As soon as Sec Unit returned with Mensah (after a scene where Mensah cut open Sec Unit’s spine to retrieve some wiring to fix their ship… it was tense for sure), Sec Unit blew Leebeebee’s head off.
That made the others a bit touchy, to say the least.
I still find the inner dialogue from Sec Unit to be hilarious. He provides questions that he does not understand from human behavior and, more often than not, he was right.
Everyone is still very much on edge with Sec Unit as they are unsure about his motives. When they all joined in to fight the other sec unit that arrived (after the two giant monsters had sex on top of the hopper, leaving an egg sac… weird, I know), it was clear that they were not going to be helpful in any way. Sec Unit had to fight despite them.
This is a fast watch and I really enjoy this show.
Stick S1 E5, E6, E7, E8, E9
Spoilers
So I wanted to catch up on Stick, which is on Apple TV + and has episodes dropping on Wednesdays. I do believe the final episode of the season is this week, so I had five episodes to run through in order to get caught up.
Stick is such a great show and it is a easy watch as the episodes run around 30 minutes. It is also very well-written and compelling in a sport that does not truly entice me much.
Much like the F1: The Movie and auto racing, a film/show can be entertaining and engaging if it is intelligent and well-written, acted and smartly plotted out even if I am not a fan of the sport involved. I am not a fan of golf, but Stick is far more than just about golf.
The story of Pryce trying to help Santi to become the best he could be in the world of golf took a lot of turns, some that very not necessarily positive, but everything worked well.
That is, until Santi’s father showed up at the end of episode nine. That feels like one more major hurdle for the characters to overcome.
Some other cool highlights of the five episodes include:
- The truth with Zero and Pryce’s deal coming out rocked Santi’s world. We knew that was going to happen when it first happened.
- Santi and Zero have sex. This was surprising… especially with Santi looking for advice from Pryce. I really thought Pryce was going to respond differently and I liked the uncommon response he had.
- Timothy Olyphant is always a welcome actor in any show I am watching.
- Mitts and Elena’s relationship comes around. I like them together.
- We get more with Pryce and his dead son. The dream of Pryce with his son, Jett, was really hard to watch.
- The whole scam to try and get Santi into a pro PGA tournament was strange, but cool.
There was a lot of enjoyment in these episodes and I have grown to like these characters.
Word Cloud: Fantastic Four
What We Do in the Shadows Season Four
Spoilers
Season four of the FX show What We Do in the Shadows was next up. I liked season three, but it felt like a step down from the previous two seasons. What would season four be like?
I loved this season.
The end of season three sent the crew off in different directions. Nadja and Guillermo went to England so Nadja could be on the major vampire council. Nandor was off on his world trip. Laszlo stayed behind to raise baby Colin Robinson, who had come out of the torso of the dead body of Colin Robinson.
The first episode of the season wrapped these arcs up immediately, bringing them all back to the house, which is in a terrible condition.
Several great season-long storylines including:
- Colin Robinson growing as a baby to a teen and so on.
- The house and the damages to it.
- The Vampire Nightclub- Nadja’s.
- Nandor’s marriage and his Djinn (yes, he found a Djinn)
- Guillermo’s continued involvement with the crew and his wish to be relevant.
My favorite story of the year was Colin Robinson as the baby and his growth, much like baby Groot from the Guardians movies. Laszlo took on a parent role for the baby, even though he was a terrible father. Guillermo stepped in several times to make sure that the baby did not die. Colin singing and dancing on the stage at Nadja’s club, his continued anger, his pounding holes in the basement walls with a hammer… all these things contributed to a wonderful arc for Colin. Or perhaps it was more of an arc for Laszlo, since Colin Robinson wound up exactly where he was when this whole thing started.
When Colin walked out in the finale looking exactly like he always did, it was a shocking moment. He did not remember anything from the past year. What was the most amazing things was the way this clearly affected Laszlo, who, though he remained quiet about it, was very melancholic over the loss of the boy who he had been raising (however poorly) over the last year. It was a subtle and deep moment for Laszlo that truly gave me some emotional investment.
My favorite episode was the surreal “Go Flip Yourself” episode that plays like it is a home renovation show with twins Bran and Toby Daltry. Toby is immediately eaten by Nadja, but the rest was as if the episode was on that show. It had a great payoff too as Brian Daltry, who led the whole renovation (as it was) turned out to be Simon the Devious and the entire Go Flip Yourself renovation show was set up as a scam to get his hands on Laszlo’s witch-skin hat again.
“Private School” was another awesome episode as they tried to get Young Colin into a private school. Nadja constantly hypnotizing the school headmaster to change their story was some comedic gold.
Other highlights included a face off with the Jersey Devil, Guillermo in a vampire fight club where he winds up fighting Nandor, Guillermo coming out as gay to his family in the most wild way possible, Guillermo’s boyfriend Freddie who Nandor developed a crush on and used one of his wishes from the Djinn to turn his wife, Marwa, into a duplicate of Freddie in every way. Then, having Freddie and Marwa-Freddie get together and cheat on Guillermo was horrible.
The finale feels as if season five may finally be the season of Guillermo as he took a bagful of money (that he had embezzled from the club) to Derek, the former vampire hunter club kid who was now a vampire, and asked him to turn him into a vampire. Is it finally going to happen? I do hope Guillermo gets what he wants because he has been such an MVP for the vampire house and he is always getting stomped upon.
Season five is next.
Predator: Badlands official trailer
Smoke S1 E3
Spoilers
Okay, I watched the next episode of the new drama on Apple TV + called Smoke with Taron Egerton. Last episode dropped a big bomb at the end of the show and I kind of expected more from this episode than what I got. Maybe something to explain why I saw what I saw, but that really did not happen.
We got more into the character of Detective Calderone and more about Freddy and his interview to be a manager.
A car got firebombed… seemingly by Dave?
Honestly, this was a slow burn (excuse the pun) episode that did not appeal too much to me. There was something with Michelle going to testify against her mother’s release from prison. It seemed as if the mother is the one who set the fire that Michelle had been caught in as a child. I’m not sure if we had known that before.
I was hoping for more from this show, but I do like the character development going on and I hope the big reveal last episode gets some more attention moving forward.
Murderbot S1 E3, E4, E5
Spoilers
“Risk Assessment”
“Escape Velocity Protocol”
“Rogue War Tracker Infinite”
Okay, I love this show.
Five episodes in and I am fully in.
Sec Unit, played by Alexander Skarsgård, gives me Dexter feels. As he is narrating the show with his inner monologue, it gave me distinct “Dark Passenger” ideas as many of the internal dialogue revealed the true thoughts of the rogue unit.
I am glad that the fact that Sec Unit was rogue was revealed and did not continue to be a cover up. He revealed it in a heroic manner by trying to kill itself before he was taken over by the implant that was inserted into his head by another Sec Unit. Having the crew help remove the implant was a cool trick and surprised Sec Unit.
I hope they give Sec Unit another name soon, because I don’t like typing “Sec Unit” all the time.
It was hilarious when Ratthi tested Sec Bot’s knowledge of Sanctuary Moon to see if Sec Unit had been using the show to transmit secret messages as Gurathin believed. It was a very geeky solution.
The arrival of Leebeebee (Anna Konkle) is someone whom I absolutely do not trust. There are just too many side-eyes given by this character for me to believe that she was just o the “laundry” of the other survey team. There is more to this character than we know yet.
These episodes, at least four and five, have been ending with a great cliffhanger that make me want to continue on in the binge. I am trying to keep from watching the final five episodes of the first season, as I have some of the other shows that I want to get in too.
I am loving Murderbot so far. I think Alexander Skarsgård has been sensational so far and I do love the relationship between the Sec Bot and Ayda Mensah. Mensah is one of my favorite characters on the show so far. She is such a great person and a leader who will not just choose the easy choice, even if Sec Bot thinks it is a mistake.
This has been awesome so far and I can’t wait to see Murderbot continue.
Stick S1 E3, E4
Spoilers
“Daddy Issues”
“Zero Sum Game”
Episodes three and four of Apple TV’s new series, Stick, starring Owen Wilson were really great. I have to say though I am a little disappointed with Pryce and his weaknesses that are coming through. He does feel manipulative in his involvement with Santi and he is clearly also a problem with betting. These will both come back to haunt him later in the season, I am sure.
I do like the first few steps between Mitts and Elena. The whole “Mitts is trapped beneath the bed” part of episode three was fun and was a good way to learn about who these characters are.
We learned specifically what happened to Pryce’s son as Mitts told Elena about it after she had made an off-hand comment about Pryce not knowing about kids because he doesn’t have any. The little boy died at 4 from cancer, which is way too horrible to even think about. Elena immediately made the connection between the loss of his son and the meltdown Pryce had on the golf course that ruined his career. I had inferred this as well, but knowing the details make it even more painful and allow us to understand where Pryce is coming from.
We are introduced to Zero, played by Lilli Kay. I had seen her on the IMDB page and I did not know who she was, but she has been added as a “love interest” for Santi. Not sure I loved this character at this point, as she was portrayed as a far left idealist with big words for the society around them.
I did not think that the deal made by Zero and Pryce was a good idea. It will absolutely explode on them later in the season. Why they don’t just stick to the truth? It is such a better choice.
Stick has been solid so far and I am looking forward to see these seeds that the show is planting grow as the season progresses.
Sunday Morning Sidewalk #26
Spoilers
Week twenty-six of the Sunday Morning Sidewalk takes a bit of a turn as we start our first documentary series, a two-part show originally on A & E (which I watched on Disney +) featuring the EYG Hall of Fame rock band known as KISS.
The first episode of the series was about an hour and a half and outlined the early days of the band and their struggle to rise to the top of the record business, all the while struggling with their personal turmoil and behavior.
The doc heavily featured new interviews from Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, but only had archival footage or interviews with band members Peter Criss and Ace Frehley. There was a disclaimer that appeared in the documentary stating that Ace and Peter refused to participate in KISStory and did not agree with the presentation. That really triggered my curiosity. I knew that there had been issues between the band for years, especially with Ace and Peter, and I wanted to know why they refused to participate. Online, what I could find was that Ace and Peter refused because the amount of money offered was insultingly low and that they wanted final editing rights. I don’t know where that came from. Apparently, Peter Criss also refused to allow the song “Beth” to be used in the doc so that was in my head the entire time they were discussing the success of that song and how it helped propel the group upwards.
Peter and Ace were shown to have their own problems, specifically with alcohol and drugs, but I do not think it was done to the exclusion of the others. Gene spoke of his own issues, trying to put his ego aside while Paul spoke about plenty of his own troubles, including his anxiety over a birth defect he had with his ear. It did not feel like the doc piled on Ace and Peter. They definitely included how important they were to the band. Heck, even Gene and Paul admitted that the band’s sound did not come into focus until Ace came in to audition.
The feelings of the band were being made clear as they became more successful and started doing things like “KISS Meets the Phantom” or going more disco with “I Was Made for Loving You.” They addressed how some fans felt as if the group sold out as the success came fast. You could tell from the way Paul and Gene spoke about it that they felt much the same way, but they could not refuse it.
The clips from the Tom Snyder interview where Ace was clearly drunk were amazing. The looks on the faces of Gene and Paul were unmistakable and were painful to watch. The anger in their eyes was so obvious that anyone should have been able to see it.
The first episode ended with Ace’s announcement that he wanted to do solo work, and the band was definitely falling apart.
I truly would wish to have had more than just Paul and Gene’s voices in the doc, reflecting back on the history of this band. Peter and Ace’s absence 100% put a cloud over the documentary, even if it felt as if the doc did a good job of being balanced despite of their absence.
Next week will be part two of KISStory for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk and we’ll see where the band went from there.
Murderbot S1 E1, E2
Spoilers
“FreeCommerce”
“Eye Contact”
The third new series for me to watch was also on Apple TV +. It is a sci-fi/action/comedy based on a book series called Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, specifically the first book of that series called All Systems Red.
After the first two episodes, I love this series.
What a great concept. Alexander Skarsgård played our title character, Murderbot. It was a construct designed from cloned human tissue and mechanical parts, and it was controlled by humans. However, this robot was able to gain his own thoughts and went “rogue.” It gave itself the name Murderbot.
Murderbot was purchased by a crew from the Preservation Alliance as a Sec Bot for their science mission to another planet. The company insisted that the crew had a Sec Bot, despite the crew not feeling the need for one. Team leader, Ayda Mensah, was very much nervous around any kind of “killing machine” as she put it.
The story is told through the POV of the Sec Bot as an internal monologue tells us what he thinks about the humans… which was never anything positive. His snarky inner voice was one of the funnier parts of the show.
I am a fan of David Dastmalchian, who is a member of the crew, and the one most suspicious about the behavior being displayed by the Sec Bot (aka Murderbot).
Murderbot has a favorite TV show too, which is a sci-fi (Star Trek type) show that we get glimpses of called The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon. This was an absolute blast as we see John Cho playing one of the characters on the show within a show. Clark Gregg was also there as was Jack McBrayer and DeWanda Wise. This felt very much like GalaxyQuest with this TV show that Murderbot enjoyed watching.
There is a neat mystery involving the planet that they are on as well and I am finding this to be a fantastic start to the series.
As I did not read the book series this was based upon, I am very engaged with the show and I am not sure what way it will go. I feel very nervous with the uncertainty of the Murderbot’s inner thoughts. “Stupid humans.”
Smoke S1 E1, E2
Spoilers
“Pilot”
“Your Happy Makes Me Sad”
Since I currently do not have any active TV shows going, and having finished off the X-Files recently, I started to look for some new programs to watch. Yes, I am doing the season binges of What We Do in the Shadows, but I needed something to spread out over a few weeks to a month. I have started Stick on Apple TV, which was great. I then started another Apple TV + show called Smoke.
Apple TV + has had some great shows such as Ted Lasso, Shrinking, Silo, The Studio and Dark Matter. There have been a bunch of Apple TV + shows that I have not watched, but are fairly well liked.
Smoke caught my attention from the show synopsis: “When an arson investigator begrudgingly teams up with a police detective, their race to stop two arsonists ignites a twisted game of secrets and suspicions.”- from Apple TV + website.
I will say that after the pilot episode of the show, I was not sure how I felt about it. It was a slow burn for sure and I was just not sure if I was engaged enough to commit to it. However, by the end of the second episode, I was fully in. This show is currently active, with, I believe 5 episodes out. A new episode comes out on Fridays, so it would be nice to get caught up before the next episode is released.
Taron Egerton starred as the arson investigator who has his share of troubles and he is working with former marine and current police detective Michelle Calderon (Jurnee Smollett). Egerton is excellent so far in the show and the two leads have great chemistry. Egerton was probably the main reason why I kept going after episode one.
I do like the mystery aspect of this show, even though it seems that one of the arsonists is not much of a mystery. The second one has a massive reveal at the end of the second episode that makes me wonder what exactly was going on.
Stick S1 E1, E2
Spoilers
“Pilot”
“Grossweiner’s Law”
Owen Wilson starred in a new series on Apple TV + called Stick and it had been on my radar recently. With my TV shows currently lacking, I decided to get a few new ones to watch over the next few weeks or so. Stick was the first one to try.
I really love Owen Wilson. Well, to be fair, I was not that familiar with Wilson until he took on the role as Mobius on Loki, Owen Wilson has been one of my favorite actors. And after watching the first two episodes of this series, you can tell that he has found another awesome role to play.
There is an absolute feel to this series, and, although it is early, I can say that the show Stick gave me Ted Lasso vibes. I really enjoyed the first two episodes. Owen Wilson is utterly charming in the role, again making a comparison to Jason Sudeikis’s Ted Lasso.
The plot is Owen Wilson played Pryce Cahill, a former pro golfer who had a meltdown on a course and sent his life spiraling into chaos. The show has not specifically told us what caused the meltdown, but it certainly implied heavily and I feel as if I have a clear idea of what happened without even going into specifics.
Pryce is on the course to give gold lessons when he hears a 17-year old boy driving the golf ball on the driving range. Pryce was unbelievably impressed with the boy’s swing and tries to convince the boy to allow Pryce to take him on the circuit.
The Boy, Santi, had that natural swing that told Pryce that he was special. Santi was not excited about it and worried that Pryce was simply a stalker. Pryce went to see Santi’s mother, Elena (Mariana Treviño) and tried to convince her to let him take Santi on the road.
The show also featured Marc Maron, as Pryce’s friend ad former caddie, and Judy Greer as Pryce’s ex-wife Amber-Lynn.
I really liked the set up of these characters. There are life details that we will be learning as the show progresses that will make these characters deep and well developed. There is something that happened with Santi’s father. Something happened to Pryce and Amber-Lynn’s child. I’m excited to see more of this show.
What We Do in the Shadows S3
Spoilers
So I dove into the third season of What We Do in the Shadows this morning, planning another binge watch of the ten episodes. I do like this model of taking some time and binging this series. I pulled it up on Disney +.
Overall, I have to say that I think season three was not as entertaining as season two, which has been my favorite so far. However, season two was more of a bunch of individual episodes whereas season three has a running throughline of the season. Although you may not know about it at the start, it does all pay off in spades by the end.
I was finding myself liking Colin Robinson more each episode this year, so the death of this character was tough. Seeing him as a Colin-faced baby at the end of episode 10 was rough too. I did enjoy how Laszlo was bonding with Colin Robinson through the season, with the knowledge that at 100 years old, energy vampires die.
Nandor’s eternal-life crisis was another storyline that progressed through the season, and came to a head at the end. He tried to join a cult, take the Super Slumber and, eventually, choosing to take a trip across the world. It was a sad ending for him too as he expected Guillermo to accompany him on the trip and he promised the familiar/bodyguard that he would turn him into a vampire at the end. Of course. Guillermo would face yet another trouble.
Poor Guillermo had a tough season as well, as he felt rejected and afraid of winding up alone. As the vampires all were ready to make their away out of the house and on adventures, Guillermo did not know what he was to do. Of course, his skills as a vampire killer was shown off several times during the season, including a cool final battle with Nandor. I was shocked when Laszlo, who was preparing for Nadja and his trip to England, flipped Guillermo into the coffin that was meant to be for Laszlo and sent him in his place. It was all because Laszlo needed to stay behind and look after baby Colin Robinson.
Even though I may not have considered this my favorite of the seasons, it continued to be extremely funny, even if some of the situations turn out to be silly. It is consistently one of the funniest shows on TV.
I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025)
In 1997, there was a horror movie released called I Know What You Did Last Summer, with Sarah Michelle Geller, Freddie Prinze Jr, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Ryan Phillippe. It was a reasonable hit, but it was not a film I loved. I rewatched it a few years ago and felt that it was a decent watch, but had a lot of stupid things happening in it.
In 2025, a Legacy sequel was released to I Know What You Did Last Summer with younger stars, along with a couple of the actors who had appeared in the first film. It was not a reboot or a reimagining. It was a sequel 28 years later… and not a zombie movie.
A group of friends were involved in a tragedy on the 4th of July and decided to cover it up. A year later, much like before, the friends reunite and a slicker-wearing, hook wielding killer stalked them, trying to murder them.
Couple of things, the movie is basically the same film from 1997. The plot is very similar to the original. Then, the film is basically Jaws. Why don’t the people in charge believe in the dangers coming to their towns on the Fourth of July?
This was truly stupid. The acting was terrible. The characters were all just barely characters. The story is totally stupid and made almost zero sense. The end of the film was such a mess, even for a slasher movie.
There is a pre-credit scene that sets up for a sequel, but I can not imagine that it is something that we will ever see.
The only parts that had any sort of interesting pieces was the part of the movie that nostalgia was involved. The rest was just so bad.
1.5 stars
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 