Last week, after watching Poker Face S2 E11, things just did not make sense. The whole storyline with the Iguana setting up Charlie to lead him to Beatrix Hasp in witness protection seemed so full of coincidences and impossibilities that it was tarring what I had been enjoying. I had hoped, I even think I wrote it in the post, that the writers would have something in the finale to make it all work.
Boy howdy, did they.
They then tossed in the twist of all twists for this show. A twist that they had been setting up for several episodes now. See, last episode when we saw the Iguana killing that guy to go to the wedding and making his prosthetics, it wasn’t the Iguana. This was another hitman….
The Iguana was Charlie’s friend, Alex.
Patti Harrison played Alex, and we thought she had been set up by the real Iguana as a patsy in the murder of Beatrix Hasp’s adopted son in episode 11, but, in truth, this was the Iguana. The Iguana had grown tired of the assassin game, because it lacked any sort of challenge. Then, when someone was trying to hire her to kill Beatrix, the name of Charlie Cale was brought up. A woman who was like a human lie detector and who was infallible presented the challenge for the Iguana. Could she lie to the lie detector?
When she was explaining everything to Charlie, we got flashbacks to the last few episodes, placing everything into context, showing that it all would fit. There are some awesome details that were dropped and we see Alex and her ability to lie to Charlie. Alex told her that every time she had to focus on every little thing to prevent Charlie from discovering the truth. She said it was thrilling.
Poor Rhea Perlman. She had to come back for this episode just to play a dead body with a bullet in her skull. Charlie was able to figure out things, but just too late. I wondered why the show chose to focus on the “Big Red” gum Alex had given to Charlie. It was weird product placement, I thought. But it triggered a memory of a lie Alex had told Charlie a few episodes ago and it put Charlie on to the truth.
The chase scene was fun but let’s talk about the “To Be Continued” that flashed up on the screen as Alex seemingly drove Charlie’s car off a cliff into the Grand Canyon Canyon in Indiana, Thelma and Louise style. The screen froze with the car in the air, about to fall to their doom. I literally screamed out in shock. I wonder if anyone immediately shut off their TV in frustration at that point? I had just stared in shock at the unbelievable cliffhanger when everything started to rewind. The car went backwards and we see the POV of Charlie, as she jumped from the car and held on to a branch, dangling over the cliff as the car flew into the canyon and crashed in a fiery explosion.
What a moment that “To Be Continued” was. It felt both awesome and cruel at the same time. Somehow, Alex’s body was not in the car afterwards. Not sure how she escaped but the show is setting Alex up as Moriarty to Charlie’s Sherlock Holmes. The show gave Charlie an arch nemesis and I liked that, even if I had to suspend disbelief that Alex was not dead. However, after questioning the story last episode, I have learned that Rian Johnson has planned things out so when Alex inevitably returns, it will make sense then.
Sadly, Charlie is on the run once again, now from the FBI. Simon Helberg’s Agent Luca Clark giving Charlie a head start, telling her that the next time they met, he’d have to arrest her. I waited for Charlie to say “bullshit” but she did not, so I guess he is telling the truth. I like how this relationship with Charlie and Luca is progressing. Luca clearly is amazed with her and her intelligence and I hope there will be more with these two moving forward.
I know Poker Face has not yet been renewed, but this show has set up plenty of story for a third season so I hope Peacock knows what they have in this show or if they let it go, maybe another streamer like Netflix or Amazon would give it a go.
Natasha Lyonne directed this episode and she did a great job with several creative and original shots and images. Lyonne is also one of the most interesting characters on TV right now and I really want more of her.
Season two was very strong and ended with a big time splash.
Episode 8 of season 11 means that we only have two episodes of the series remaining.
“Familiar” is a classic feeling Monster-of-the-week style episode where Mulder and Scully investigated a mysterious death in a little town where what happened is not exactly what it seemed.
This did feel like an episode that might have aired in season three or four instead of eleven, which is an amazing fact for the show. The local police are always a big problem in X-Files episodes, either being the guilty party or an eventual victim.
Jason Gray-Stanford, who spent many years as Randy Disher on Monk, was one of those local police officers whose son was killed at the beginning of the show. It is always tough to see someone who I have seen as one character for so many years step into another role like Jason Gray-Stanford does.
Mr. Chuckleteeth, a kiddie show character, was running around the town being the evil killer. However, it turned out he was actually a demon that had been summoned by a witch to curse Gray-Stanford and the curse got out of control.
I liked this episode. It was creepy, but the addition of these hellhound/wolf things was a bit too much. Mr. Chuckleteeth would have been good enough, I think.
Happy Friday to everyone. We had some big time storms last night. So much that my house had some leakage and water came in the basement. It nearly got to some of the short boxes of comics, but thankfully, I saw it in time to prevent anything more than a short box with a little damp bottom. I was able to switch the books to another that I had free and then I had to move all the boxes off the carpet to higher ground. Not an easy task and I am still not sure what will happen with them now. It could have been way worse than what happened though.
I went to Superman, the new James Gunn movie that kicked off the DCU at Warner Brothers. It was a tremendous film. It was a lot of fun with a version of Superman that we have not seen in awhile.
Books this week:
Superman Treasury 2025: Hero for All #1. Written by Dan Jurgens and art by Bruno Redondo. Scott Koblish did the variant cover C art. In honor of the new film, Superman gets his own Treasury Edition comic original story with a large scale invasion of the earth. After Superman is sidetracked and held captive, the heroes of earth struggle to defend the planet. I enjoyed this book quite a bit, even though it is difficult to find a bag and a board to fit it. Go see Superman in theaters when you have a chance.
Detective Comics #1098, 1097, 1096, 1094, 1090. Tom Taylor has drawn me into Detective Comics after reading the Nightwing books he wrote. Taylor is one of my top five writers currently writing and this is a great couple of issues with Harvey Bullock and Penguin having to work with Batman. The three earlier books were from the stories that were reprinted last week in the soft cover book I picked up. Tom Taylor is the man.
Wild Animals #1. Written by Ed Brisson and art and cover art by Andy Kuhn (Silver Medalist). This was my absolutely favorite book of the week. The new comic from Mad Cave, who have been doing such great work this last year or so, is just emotional, powerful and I could relate fully with the character. This is a personal tale of retribution and revenge and it goes in ways that I did not expect. Loved this book.
Archie Meets Jay and Silent Bob #1. Written by Kevin Smith and art by Fernando Ruiz. I picked up A & B cover and both had art done by Fernando Ruiz & Rosario “Tito” Pena. Archie Andrews gets a job at the Quick Stop and meets the cast of Clerks after Dante died (in Clerks 3). Archie then meets up with Jay and Silent Bob, the local drug dealers. Archie gets tickets for them all to go see Josie and the Pussycats. The book has that adult feel of a Kevin Smith movie as well as the silly fun of Archie. Weird and wild crossover event.
Planet Death #1. Written by Derek Kolstad and Robert Venditti with art by Tomas Giorello. Cover art by Tomas Giorello and Sunny Gho. Planet Death #0 was out in May as a preview of this new book from Bad Idea. This is full of action and excitement for a first issue.
Fantastic Four #1. “The Uncommon Era.” Written by Ryan North and art by Humberto Ramos. Mahmud Asrar did the gold foil variant. The Fantastic Four is trying to take advantage of the upcoming MCU film in a couple of weeks by restarting FF with a new number one. It is a fascinating story of time. How many families decide ahead of time what to do if they are lost in time? The FF does. I have become quite a fan of Ryan North over the last couple of years too.
Red Hulk #6. “Traitor” Written by Benjamin Pearcy and art by Geoff Shaw. Variant cover B (Retro Vision) art was done by Michael Allred and Laura Allred. I enjoyed this book, but as I was reading it, I thought to myself, why am I this confused. I thought Red Hulk was in Latveria. I after I finished reading, I checked CLZ and I was missing issue #5. I knew it felt confusing.
The UnChosen #1. Written, Art and cover art by David Marquez. This new Image book is like a fantasy adventure meets anime. There was a lot going on here and I will say that I did not love it. I do think it is interesting enough to give it another issue or so, but I expected to be grabbed more by this first issue than I was.
Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion #2. Written by Deniz Camp & Cody Ziglar with art by Jonas Scharf. Sara Pichelli & Tamra Bonvillain did the cover art. Miles has arrived in the Ultimate universe and has teamed up with the Ultimates. They head to Wakanda in an attempt to find Miles’s baby sister who has also crossed over from 616. Cool final page of the book for sure.
Return to Skull Island #1. Written by Simon Furman and art by Christopher Jones. Cover art was done by Inityuk Lee. This apparently continues on from an animated series of the same title, btu I had never seen it before. I grabbed it because of Kong’s presence and a cool looking cover. I enjoyed the sotry quite a bit too and I did not find myself confused or lost because I had not seen the animated show.
Magik #7. “Beneath the Veil” Written by Ashley Allen and art by German Peralta. Pablo Villalobos did the cover art. Illyana is attempting to save Cal, who has been taken over by Liminal. Dani took them back to the Society of Eternal Dawn, which does not go as smoothly as it could have. Magik is not sure if there are any of them she could trust.
Doctor Strange of Asgard #5. Written by Derek Landy with art by Carlos Magno. Geoff Shaw & Espen Grundetjern did the cover art. Stephen Strange has gone to Asgard to claim the mantel of Sorcerer Supreme of that dimension. He has faced several issues, including a murder mystery. He made it.
Laura Kinney: Wolverine #8. “Honor Bound.” Written by Erica Schultz and art by Giada Belviso. Elena Casagrande and Edgar Delgado did the cover art. Haymaker returned and Laura helped him to search for a young missing mutant.
Uncanny X-Men #17. “Murder Me, Mutina.” Written by Gail Simone and art by Luciano Vecchio. David Marquez & Matthew Wilson did the cover art (Gold Medalist). There is a new mutant in the spotlight. Her name is Mutina and she stars in the blockbuster movie, Murder Me Mutina. The X-Men are not pleased with the way the mutant community is being portrayed and they go to see Mutina. Fireworks come after that. This would have been my favorite book this week without Wild Animals #1. I love the concept of a big screen summer blockbuster being at the center of this story. Gail Simone has been excellent with this X-Men run. She was great at the beginning and I think she is only getting better.
Uncanny Valley #10. Written by Tony Fleecs and art and cover art by Dave Wachter. This fun comic that sees the combination of human story with cartoons comes to a close with this issue as Oliver takes his destiny and faces off with the First. Uncanny Valley has been creative and consistently entertaining. I like the originality of this series.
Trinity, Daughter of Wonder Woman #2. “A Corgi in the Family” Written by Tom King and art and cover art by Belen Ortega. I also picked up a variant cover B that is an homage to the “Death in the Family” iconic cover. This variant cover was done by Ben Oliver. In her pursuit of the missing Corgis, Trinity winds up with Jason Todd. They were really cute together as it was funny seeing them sitting uncomfortably on a couch. Trinity also wondered what would happen if she let it slip that Jason Todd was going to be killed.
Godzilla: Here There Be Aliens #2. Written by Frank Tieri and art by Angel Hernandez. Cover art was done by Fero Pe. This issue had alien creatures, a giant robot named Jet Jaguar, and Mechagodzilla. It just was missing Godzilla. This book is fun and sets up a future battle well.
Marvel Swimsuit Special: Friends, Foes & Rivals #1. Written by Tim Seeley & Tony Fleecs with art by Nick Bradshaw. Adam Hughes did the cover art. This is not just like the old days with the Marvel Swimsuit Specials. This told a story as well. Roxxon is using AI to show the superheroes off in their scanties, so the heroes decided to do their own instead. Silly book, but a lot of fun.
Batman: Dark Patterns #8. “Pareidolia Part 2” Written by Dan Watters and art and cover art by Hayden Sherman. This Dark Patterns book has been consistently engrossing so far and this new arch gives us something I am not sure I have seen before among Batman. Nice work showing us stories from Batman’s past.
Other books this week: Superior Avengers #4, The Power Fantasy #10, It’s Jeff: Infinity Paws #1, The Slasher’s Apprentice #3, Predator: Black, White & Blood #1, The Toxic Avenger #1, Transformers #22, and Life #5.
Quick Hits: Another book released this week to try and take advantage of the upcoming film is Fantastic Four: First Steps #1, which is the title of the film. This is a prequel and it was written in an interesting manner. I am really excited for the film. I picked up the Galactus popcorn bucket at Cinemark this week. It’s gorgeous. Absolute Superman #9 continues to be good. Again, Superman is in theater right now. The book from AWA that had a misprint and led to a recalling, They Choose Violence #1 came out with its corrected copy this week. Miles Morales: Spider-Man #35 (Bronze Medalist) continued their God War arc and I am not really liking it much. Cool cover though. FML #5 is back after several months. It is strange too because this cover, which is listed as cover A is not on my CLZ app. There is a different cover listed on CLZ as cover A. I did not understand why, but I did mark the cover A on the app as the one I have. The James Tynion IV short with Erica Slaughter wrapped up in Hello Darkness #12. That was my favorite in the anthology this month. Buried Long, Long Ago #3 kind of lost me last month, but this issue pulled me back in. Solid work on this one. Conan the Barbarian #22 from Titan Comics really does give me an old time Marvel feel. Todd made me buy Master of Kung Fu #60 this week as a back issue this week. I have always liked Shang Chi. Finally, Blood Type #2 is really a compelling vampire story. We get a lot of those right now, but this book with the main character Ada is different than we usually see.
The DCU is finally here as James Gunn revealed his huge blockbuster to officially kick off the DC Universe films, in a reboot that has been in the planning stages for years. They started off with their classic character, Superman.
I can state, without a doubt, that James Gunn has done an amazing job with a film that soars to remarkable heights and is loaded with a ton of comic book-y fun.
It seems as if you can’t do a comic book movies these days without a ton of controversy, and Superman is not an exception. There have been complaints flying around about the use of the term immigrant in reference to Superman as well as the movie being “woke.” Despite these criticisms and talking points looking to drum up hatred, Superman (2025) is a wonderful movie and a great time in the theater.
No origins here, which is a great thing. We all know where Superman came from and how he wound up in Kansas, so why waste time showing it once again? Gunn is right in that we do not need to see baby Kal-El land, Bruce Wayne’s parents shot or Uncle Ben be killed ever again. We know these stories.
The world of this movie is fully encompassed with metahumans already and the dangers of the world are quite clearly shown.
The opening info tells us that Superman has stopped a war between a couple of countries and this is one of the big sticking points for a lot of people involved. This is the back drop of everything that goes down.
David Corenswet played Superman and he does an unbelievable job at it. He approached Superman with the right amount of heart and joy, even if he seemed to have a bit of a temper. It is really refreshing to see a Man of Steel concerned with saving people around him. There are a bunch of scenes showing that Superman cares for the people of earth, even after they turn on him.
I won’t give away why they turn on him, but it feels like it absolutely could happen in the world we live in today.
Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan’s Lois Lane are already dating, and she knows about his true identity. There is amazing chemistry between these two and they bring sparks to the screen. Lois Lane is shown as an intelligent and strong woman who will take whatever risk she needs to take for her passions, whether that be the story she is pursuing or the man that she loved.
Superman’s iconic enemy, Lex Luthor, was played by Nicholas Hoult. This is my favorite version of Lex Luthor to ever appear in live action (or animated, btw). Hoult gave him such an evilness, but he did it without creating a cartoon. I understood Luthor’s motivations, even if they were horrendous. Nicholas Hoult was sensational in the role.
There were several other heroes appearing in the film, inside the Justice Gang, which included Guy Gardner, the Green Lantern, played with that slimy perfection by Nathan Fillion. Isabela Merced (from season two of Last of Us) as Hawkgirl, who did not have as much to do, but was pretty cool when she was involved. Mister Terrific, played by Edi Gathegi. Mister Terrific had a major part to play in this movie and he was awesome. I loved how they used these group of heroes instead of pulling out some of the more heavy hitters of the DCU.
The film looked really good, especially any scene with flight involved. The score was decent but James Gunn, who is well-known for his needle drop songs in some of his other movies, did not have many here. That did not distract me. In fact, I did not even think about it until the end credits.
When we first meet them, I was not a fan of Ma and Pa Kent (Neva Howell and Pruitt Taylor Vince), but I have to say they grew on me later in the film.
Krypto the dog was well used, even if I thought maybe he was used too much. Krypto has some solid scenes in the film. He is important and not just there to make everybody “awww” over a cute dog.
Some of the jokes did not land, which made a few scenes a touch awkward, but most of the humor worked fairly well. There were not as many jokes as some of James Gunn’s previous films, but there definitely had some humor in it.
I don’t think there is any other way to look at this other than as a triumph for James Gunn’s new rebooted DCU. Superman was colorful, exciting, dramatic, funny at times, and had so much heart that has been missing from Superman in other recent iterations. Outside of a few nitpicks (such as some of the workers at the Daily Planet… what was up with those characters?), I think this was a smashing success.
I picked up my comics from Bettendorf this morning and prepared to head over to Cinemark to see the new Superman (review yet to come). It was a fun day, though we have storms going down right now.
No variants in this week’s medalists, though there are a few in the Also-Rans.
Also-Rans: Trinity: Daughter of Wonder Woman #2 (B cover variant), Batman: Dark Patterns #8, Hello Darkness #12, Marvel Swimsuit Special: Friends, Foes & Rivals #1, Red Hulk #5 (B cover variant), Fantastic Four #1 (Gold foil variant cover), and Predator: Black, White & Blood #1.
Bronze Medalist
Miles Morales: Spider-Man #35
Cover art by Federico Vicentini & Neeraj Menon
This book gave a nice flavor to the story, drawing Miles, Ares, and Hercules in what looked like Ancient Greek artistry. It was a fun cover that helped a storyline that has not caught on for me.
Silver Medalist
Wild Animals #1
Cover art by Andy Kuhn
This is sort of a wrap-around cover too. This new book by Mad Cave was incredibly compelling and it started out with a cover that really grabs you as a reader. As I have said many times, I am a Sucker for whit backgrounds and this really stood out for me.
Gold Medalist
Uncanny X-Men #17
Cover art by David Marquez & Matthew Wilson
What a great cover for this awesome issue of Uncanny X-Men. The new character Mutina is shown on the cover, but the shadows and the blood make it seem quite sinister. The red and black background is great too. Plus, a cool tidbit was the film-like credits at the bottom of the page, which gives you an idea of what the story will contain. Strong work in the X-Men universe.
I watched three more X-Files from season 11, leaving me with just three left to complete the entire series.
“Ghouli”
Episode 5 was a wild ride with Scully receiving a vision in a dream that led her to a case of two girls who seemingly did not know each other who had stabbed each other viciously.
The girls shared the same dream as Scully did, down to the last detail so Mulder and Scully were involved. Turned out that the only connection between the two girls was that they both were girlfriends for a boy named Jackson Van De Kamp.
When Scully and Mulder tried to find the boy, they arrived too late. They found the boy’s parents dead and the boy in his room, an apparent murder-suicide.
Van De Kamp was a name given to Scully a few episodes ago as a possible name used by William, her son. Scully was afraid that the boy who had killed himself was William and she tearfully spoke to his body before setting up a DNA test.
When the body was left alone, it unzipped the body bag and escaped from the morgue.
Turned out this was indeed William and he had some mental powers, specifically mental illusions that allow him to make people see things he wanted, such as himself dead on the floor.
The DOD was in pursuit of both Mulder and Scully and the boy as well. Mulder and Scully tried to find William, protecting him from a group of men trying to capture him. William used his abilities to escape.
The whole Jackson/William thread here created some strong scenes, but I did wonder why Scully thought this was her son. Maybe it was the connection to the visions that he had. She had talked to Jackson’s therapist and she confirmed that Jackson had seen the whole story from the end of season 10, with the virus and the collapse of the earth. Maybe it is just that mother’s feel.
The episode ended with William getting away, but he had approached Scully at a gas station making her see the form of Dr. Pierre Chang from LOST. Just kidding, the actor who played that role was in the episode.
This was a nice episode that left Mulder and Scully with the knowledge that there son was alive.
“Kitten”
We got an episode featuring Skinner, looking back at a time in his youth as he was in Vietnam.
In his platoon, a soldier nicknamed Kitten was accidentally exposed to a mysterious gas and it caused him to murder civilians.
Other members of Skinner’s troupe were being killed off too and Skinner disappeared. Kersh called for Mulder and Scully, expecting them to know what was going on with Skinner. When they did not, they started to investigate what was going on.
This episode featured Haley Joel Osment as the son of Kitten, Osment ended up being the killer as he had set several traps for the other veterans, including his own father.
People were having their teeth falling out in this town too. It is implied that this was because these people were also exposed to the gas. Perhaps in a small dose than what sent Kitten into a murderous rage.
Mulder and Scully seemed to be back on the trust train with Skinner, but he technically never told them about his current situation with CSM, so can they truly trust him?
“Rm9sbG93ZXJz”
What a bizarre episode this was.
The X-Files has had several episodes where they were involved with technology, such as artificial intelligence and typically those have been some of the worst of the episodes. This one is better than some of the other ones, but it all felt really odd.
The automation of all the technology of the episode made me think I was in a Ray Bradbury sci-fi story. I really pictured “April 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains.”
Everything started to go to hell after Mulder did not tip at a fully automated sushi restaurant. Apparently, the technology took this poorly. When Mulder finally tipped on his phone, all the chaos ended.
This episode was told with the minimal amount of dialogue. Both Mulder and Scully had very few lines and only spoke when absolutely needed. It helped create quite the mood of the episode.
It was an episode that spoke to putting aside one’s phones at times and, I guess, to make sure to tip your waitresses (although Mulder finally only tipped 10%).
I had a feeling that something was happening to Sydney’s father when he gave her that call at the beginning of the episode. A heart attack left Sydney shaken and all of us scared for Sydney.
Natalie bringing the baby to the restaurant brought all kinds of feels for everyone involved and there was nearly no other moment that was as sweet as Carmy holding his baby niece for the first time as Natalie left the room.
Neil trying to get as close to the baby as he could was hilarious, as was protective mother Natalie. When Neil asked to hold the baby, Natalie asked him when he last washed his hands. A couple days ago was probably the answer she was expecting.
It was cool to see Luca again. Will Poulter fit right into the cast perfectly after guest starring a couple of years ago.
Rob Reiner returned again to help with the business plan for Ebraheim.
“Sophie”
We get more on Sydney’s father’s heart attack and the episode is really showing how much everyone at The Bear loved her. Claire finds her at the hospital and comforts her as Sydney was waiting for word. The dialogue between them is one of the strengths of this show as everything is done so well.
Sydney’s father is going to recover and the rest of the episode was basically prep for the wedding with Tiff and Frank.
“Bears”
This was the best episode of the season so far and one of my favorite episodes of the entire series. It was the wedding of Tiff and Frank and the party afterwards where all of the family descended on each other.
All you can expect is yet another Berzattos crash and burn, and yet, this turned out to be a wonderful night with some remarkable scenes without the over-the-top drama that one would expect.
I absolutely loved the interactions between Richie and Frank. The tension was thick between them, but they were able to put anything side to help Eva, who was scared about doing a dance with Frank. All I could think of during this scene was “How big is that friggin’ table?” as more and more members of the Berzattos clan, both related and honorary, found their way underneath the table. It turned into a giant “What are you afraid of?” share time to help Eva feel better. I loved this scene even if it felt like there were enough people under the table.
Other awesome moments/scenes:
Donna and Sydney talking. Sydney got stuck with Donna as Carmy got taken off. The scene was both wonderfully caring and deeply sad at the same time. Jamie Lee Curtis is a tremendous actor and she conveyed multiple feelings with single looks.
The feud between Natalie and Francie went full boar as they yelled at each other but ended the day hugging as friends. Apparently they were a thing at one time.
The scene between Uncle Jimmy and Tiff was sweet and dealt with Tiff’s concerns that the divorce with Richie would lose her the Berzattos family.
As Carmy hid in the kitchen, Lee (Bob Odenkirk) showed up and they had a deep discussion over everything. The dialogue played it as if they were on the edge through the whole time, but that they both wanted to clear the air.
Sydney and Richie dance at the wedding and he asked her about the other thing she wanted to tell him. She said it was a decision she had to make. Richie asked if she had made it and she said she only really had one choice. Not sure what that meant.
Stevie, played by John Mulaney, was hilarious through the entire episode. His line about all of the Berzattos attending the wedding was laugh out loud funny.
There was so much wonder here and the amount of chaos was limited to a normal wedding, not a Berzattos meeting.
The fourth episode of season eleven of The X-Files brought another excellent, comedic show that loosed its venom on itself.
What I mean is that this is clearly a parody of the X-Files as a TV program, poking fun at a lot of the tropes of the series.
Our new informant was named Reggie and the episode featured the Mandela Effect (or as Reggie would put it, the Mengele Effect). According to Wikipedia, the Mandela Effect is when “specific false memories can sometimes be shared by a large group of people.”
Besides the parody of the show, the episode also had some pointed comments about both the use of disinformation and Donald Trump. One of the conspiratorial characters, Dr. They, told Mulder that the days of hiding the truth were gone because the truth can be told and nobody will believe it.
There was an alien that Mulder, Scully and Reggie (who claimed that he had been their partner on the X-Files for years- which included a theme song for the show including his picture) met at the end. This alien spoke lines directly from Trump, talking about building a beautiful wall (invisible), around the galaxy because earth was not sending its best people into space. The Trump effect was in full swing with this episode.
There were clips from previous episodes of The X-Files with Reggie superimposed in them to illustrate his point. Episodes included “Home,” “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose,” and “Small Potatoes” to name a few.
The whole parallel universe argument that Mulder was making was really funny, as was Mulder’s own frustration on how silly the parallel universe argument was. When Mulder threw his pencil across the room in a fit of frustration, it was just hilarious.
The X-Files could do silly as well as any show and this was a very good example of that.
I decided that, since the show What We Do in the Shadow had ten episodes each around 24 minutes, it would be a good idea to go ahead and binge these seasons instead of spreading it out. I will be finishing the X-Files soon and my goal is to run through this total series before school starts again.
So I started the season two this morning and went through it. I think the second season was tremendous, and I think I liked it even more than I did season one.
There were some awesome guest stars/cameos during the season. This included an amazing performance from Mark Hammil, plus Benedict Wong, Haley Joel Osment, Craig Robinson, Greta Lee, James Frain, and Lucy Punch.
Some of the fish out of water things that the show threw Laszlo, Nadja and Nandor into some of the oddest situations. They had to attend a “Superb Owl” party at a neighbor’s house which was actually a Super Bowl party. They had to figure out their own laundry after Guillermo left them. The email curse, which everyone knows is BS, caused them massive concern. Colin Robinson’ promotion which led to his great power.
The show brought us a zombie (Haley Joel Osment who is killed by Guillermo accidentally), witches, ghosts (in a very clever episode), Black Peter- a talking goat and, of course, other vampires. There were vampire slayers too, or at least, a group of vampire slayer-wannabees, who get crushed by a house of vampires.
The story of Guillermo being a descendent of Van Helsing is a major driving force of story this year, as is Guillermo’s desire to be appreciated by his master. We see how vital Guillermo is to this group, even if they still do not necessarily see it. Even when Guillermo saved them from the Vampire Council by killing all of them, all Nandor could think of what his laundry.
Mark Hamill’s appearance as Jim the Vampire was so great and led to a solo story for Laszlo, who ran away from Jim the Vampire and hid out in Pennsylvania as a bartender named Jackie Daytona. Laszlo is able to hide his identity by having a toothpick in his mouth. This was a hilarious episode and one of the standout episodes of the season.
This was a great way to watch this season and I will continue to pick days to binge the remainder of the seasons of this show over the next six weeks or so before school. I have seasons 3 – 6 remaining, each season (except 6) have ten episodes.
Who knew that playing Hangman could be so dangerous?
“Plus One” was the second consecutive really strong episode of season 11 that did not feature the show’s overall mythology. However, it does, once again, touch upon the biggest event in Scully’s life, that being her desire to be a mother.
Our antagonists, Little Judy Poundstone and Little Chucky Poundstone, are twins with some kind of psychic connection that can show people their doppelganger, which would drive them to suicide. Little Judy Poundstone and Little Chucky Poundstone were both played by Karin Konoval.
If you are a long time X-Files fan, you know who Karin Konoval was. She played Madame Zelda from “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” and Mrs. Peacock from “Home.” Both of these characters were creepy or over-the-top. Playing these twins add to Konoval’s rogue’s gallery of X-Files characters.
I liked this episode not only for the creepy villains and the strange story, but for the interactions between Mulder and Scully, as their banter continued to provide insights to these two characters, despite already knowing them for decades.
David Duchovny’s song “Unsaid Undone” was in the cold open for this episode. It was from an album that he put out in 2016, something that I had never heard before.
Two very solid episodes of The Bear are next in their season four on Hulu.
“Scallop” featured Carmy, dealing with a bunch of his own issues. There is a tremendous scene between Carmy and Marcus outside on a smoke break. Their dialogue between them was sharp and filled with evidence about how important they were to each other. Carmy is slowly straightening his life around by seeing the energy and effort given by the staff of the Bear.
Rob Reiner guest starred as Albert Schner, in the episode with Ebraheim, who had asked for his opinion as a mentor about the window for “The Beef” which had been doing great business as a window behind The Bear.
This episode finished with a long overdue confrontation with Carmy and Claire. I would be lying if I did not say that I was yelling at the screen about this scene, waiting for Carmy to just apologize. While it did not feel resolved, I think it is the first baby steps in getting these two back together. Splitting them apart was the start of Carmy’s downward spiral and getting them back together is so needed.
Then in “Worms,” we focus in on Sydney and her decision between staying at the Bear or moving over to Shapiro’s. She has been split over this choice dating back to the last season and she is reaching the point where she is needing to decide.
She goes over to her cousin’s place. Her cousin was played by Danielle Deadwyler, who had had some of the top performances over the last few years. If you have not seen her in Till, do yourself a favor, get some tissues, and watch it.
Sydney winds up watching her cousin’s daughter, TJ. TJ and Sydney have a really nice episode bonding and talking over their own troubles. Sydney tries to use an analogy to get TJ’s opinion about where she wanted to work. She pretended to talk about sleep overs, but, we find out in the end, TJ knew it was about a job.
Sydney called Shapiro and started to talk about paperwork, making us think that she was ready to make the choice to leave the Bear.
These episodes are just nice, calmer character episodes, keeping the craziness to a limit. I like the way this season is going so far, but I expect fireworks coming up soon.
Bringing back Langley of the Lone Gunmen in a creative and original way really started the episode with a cool mystery that led to a wild conclusion and a typical X-Files ending.
The hardest part to accept, however, was when Mulder and Scully were at Arlington Cemetery at the graves of the Lone Gunmen and made their Batman Leaps to figure out what the message was. The clues with the presidents and their death dates was bizarre and practically impossible to figure out. Mulder and Scully figured it out in just a few minutes. Adam West and Burt Ward would be proud.
Seeing Mulder and Scully really work together to survive and to get through the mystery was awesome. They truly are a great pairing and the chemistry was still alive after all of these years. And Scully kicked some serious ass in this episode.
Tying this mystery to the death of Langley gave Mulder a way to honor his old friends who had died back in season nine while Mulder was in hiding. It also brought back the idea of Deep Throat, whose gravestone contained another surprise.
The comment about how the FBI was not in the good graces of the Executive branch during this time was a direct reference to Trump and his troubles with the agency.
This monster-of-the-week entry was considerably more entertaining than the bizarre season eleven opener. It still played up the mistrust between Scully and Mulder with Skinner, something that this show has built on not only the last few episodes, but across the run of the series.
The next two episodes of Win or Lose are this week’s Sunday Morning Sidewalk and we have two more bangers.
The show has been playing with perspective of the same week between a win by the softball team The Pickles and the championship game. We actually got the first flashes of the championship game with the “Mixed Signals” episode.
“Steal” followed Ira, the little brother of Taylor, who was anything but excited about softball. He just wanted to spend time with his older sister playing video games. His imagination was in full throttle as he pictured himself as a hero, saving the world from a comet. However, a new boyfriend for Taylor interrupted Ira’s life, and he wound up meeting and joining with The Bleacher Creatures (Brian, Rinna and Chicken-Kevin)
The Bleacher Creatures get Ira to help them steal candy from the concession stand by being the distraction. Ira’s imagination makes the Bleacher Creature appear to be the heroes of the story, even though they were anything but.
Ira was taken to the party where the Brian was involved with holding Rochelle, trying to get her keys to the concession stand. Ira goes to the championship game with his sister and leaves a note of apology for his part in stealing the snacks, but Brian showed up and apologized to him.
Meanwhile, in “Mixed Signals” we get a focus on Yuwen, the loud mouthed pitcher of the Pickles who used the obnoxious attitude as a front to hide the insecure and lonely kid on the inside. The show illustrates this with “Little Yuwen,” a paper craft diorama character.
Through a series of youthful taunts and barbs, Yuwen shouts out that he liked Taylor and she agreed to go out with him on a date. They get along great at first, and Yuwen shared his insecurities with Taylor. This was such a sweet scene of young love.
They get in a fight over Yuwen’s jealousy of Tom, who was asking for tutoring help from Taylor. The carefully constructed relationship of trust and care crumbled away quickly.
For the first time, we got a glimpse at things happening in the championship game as Rochelle is a no show and Taylor takes over as catcher. Yuwen let his anger get the better of him and refused to throw any pitch that Taylor called, leading to the go ahead run to score. Taylor stormed off in the middle of the game.
We have two more episodes for next week to complete this first season. I can’t wait to see where this championship game goes and how someone else’s POV of the situation may change.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 