Hazbin Hotel’s second season ends with two massive episodes that are absolute BANGERS!
The two songs at the end of each of these final episodes are just the best of the entire series. The major ensemble songs were so brilliantly written and kept the mood absolutely amazing.
Alastor is playing the long game. He is awesome. He is not on anyone’s side… only his. I still think he has a respect for Charlie that shines through. He manipulated Vox every second of these episodes. Plus, bringing back the favor from the first season that Charlie owed
Sir Pentious had a big job to do and he had a fabulous song with Seraphim. I was concerned with his place in Heaven when he first got there, but he came through big time these final two episodes.
Angel Dust’s story is clearly not finished as he returned to Valentino after the big final song.
These two episodes were as good as any this season. The show felt a little disjointed at times in season two, but these brought them home in ways that were so satisfying that it made everything worthwhile.
We did not get Lilith this season outside of a few cameos. I really expected her to arrive in this finale, but she did not. That story will also continue into season three I am sure.
Last year, Wicked found its way into my top 10 of the year. I loved the first movie and I was excited to see the follow-up, the finish to the story with Wicked: For Good.
I did enjoy the movie, but it just did not feel as enjoyable as the first half.
We pick up back in Oz with Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) being pursued and demonized as the Wicked Witch of the West, and she is trying to show the citizens of Oz that the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) was a fraud. Glinda (Ariana Grande) was the public face for the Wizard and Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), and was being created as the Good Witch.
The strengths of this film included the two leads, Erivo and Grande. Their chemistry was off the charts in the first film, and they both carry it right into Wicked: For Good. Both of them give Oscar worthy performances once again, however, there was too much of the film where they were at odds, which dragged things down a bit. Specifically, with the love triangle between them and Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), which did not seem to work very well.
The film looked beautiful once again. They had filmed this right after the first film, so everything was still in place and the sequel is sensational looking.
While there is no song in the second film that could match the power or emotionality of “Defying Gravity,” I did enjoy the music throughout. The voices of both Grande and Erivo are spot on and could handle anything thrown at them. My personal favorite songs were “Wonderful” featuring both Erivo and Grande with Jeff Goldblum. The scene of them dancing together really was an awesome shot and “No Good Deed” with Erivo standing out.
I just had trouble with this film not reaching the levels of the first film. Wicked was filled with magic and charm, while it felt like Wicked: For Good was too busy trying to cram the parts of The Wizard of Oz to make it fit the story of the original 1939 film. I am not sure much of the Wizard of Oz bits worked for me.
Specifically, the origins of the Scarecrow and the Tin Man made no sense to me and felt extremely shoehorned into the script. I won’t spoil this for anyone who doesn’t know from the stage play, but I did not like the use of these characters.
A lot of the story was not dealt with, as if there were several dangling plotholes left unfilled. Again, without spoiling I can’t go into too many details, but this was a problem for me, especially in reflection.
The second film is definitely darker than the first one with a few surprisingly dark scenes. There was less humor in this new film, which is not a bad thing, but Ariana Grande, whose comedic timing was on full display in the first film, did not have the opportunity as much in this one. Again, that is not necessarily bad, as it might show character growth, but it was a missing feature for me.
Wicked: For Good is a solid film, if not as good as the first one. I wonder what it would be like to watch both films back to back? I wonder if that would change the thoughts I had for part two? Maybe I’ll do that some day.
A few years back there was a film featuring a Finnish protagonist who had become a legend by his brutality and his survival. Dubbed the “Man who refuses to die,” Aatami Korpi stomped through Nazis, killing everyone in his path.
Aatami Korpi (played by Jorma Tommila) is back after the war and he returned to his home in Finland, which had been annexed by the Soviet Union in the peace treaty, to the home where his wife and two sons were murdered.
Korpi dismantled his house, taking the lumber from it to leave the now Soviet Union so he could rebuild the house again. Unfortunately, the man who killed his family, Yeagor Dragunov, played by Stephen Lang, was hired to go and kill the legend, once and for all.
The story was really simple, and Jorma Tommila does not have one line of dialogue, but he did a nice job with his body posture and his facial expressions (that is, when we could see the facial expressions through the crimson mask that covered his face at multiple times in the film) to express the pain and anguish he was going through.
Korpi is beat all the crap in the film, to the point where it is amazing that he could possibly still be functioning, much less alive.
I have to say that while I did enjoy a lot of the excessive violence that was going on in the film, it got to a point where it may have been too much. It was difficult to accept that he was still alive after so much without any sort of magical/mystical abilites.
Some of the things he does is also too cartoonish. Some of the things had me rolling my eyes or trying to decide exactly why he did that. There was one scene with a tank that truly showed this concept.
Because of the violence becoming too out there, I felt like the movie took a step back from the previous one. I do not remember the last Sisu movie being this over-the-top, Looney Tunes type violence and this just was more than I wanted.
It was still a fun revenge flick, but, interestingly enough, Korpi wasn’t in search of revenge. Had the Soviets not sent Dragunov after him, he would have just left the Soviet Union and built his new home. I am not even sure Korpi knew that Dragunov was the man who killed his family until he started bragging about it.
A solid revenge flick that does takes things too far for my tastes, Sisu: Road to Revenge is a decent afternoon watch, it is paced quickly and has some good humorous kills. Lots of blood too.
This is the third time that The Tick has made it on to this list. His live action show on FOX was first, then his live action show on Prime was next, and now is the show that, for me, started it all.
Yes, I know the Tick was from comics, but I had not owned any Tick comics when he debuted on FOX Kids Saturday mornings. My introduction to the character was from that animated series and it made the Tick, along with the other eccentric and wild characters from this world, one of my favorite shows ever.
Spooooooooooooooooooooon!
From sidekick Arthur to Chairface Chippendale to Man-Eating Cow to Barry, the characters were so fun, so funny and worth the time. This is the last time we would see Die Fledermaus and American Maid, as these characters did not appear in live action because of legal reasons.
There are a couple of notable episodes that I will never forget with minor characters (if you can call them that) that absolutely were sensations. Little Wooden Boy was Tick’s sidekick after a spat with Arthur. I wanted my own Little Wooden Boy, so badly. Then, there was Tick’s pet, Speak, the “dog” who was named because “that’s what you do.” Speak was actually a capybara, which is a rodent.
Blowhole, the Terror, Proto the Clown, El Seed, Dinosaur Neil, Thrakkorzog, the Breadmaster, Filth, The Evil Midnight Bomber that Bombs at Midnight… so many creative and extremely clever characters, some adapted from the comics, some seen first time on the animated show. The group of super heroes running around The City was as great too.
There were three seasons of this animated show and I waited patiently for each one. I loved this show so much. It gave me a character that I could completely relate to and it was as funny as any show on this list.
Creator and EYG Hall of famer Ben Edlund was behind the show, in all its forms. With all due respect to both Patrick Warburton and Peter Serafinowicz, the classic and all-time Tick performer was Townsend Coleman, who voiced the animated version in this show. Coleman’s voice was perfect for this character and was what helped this show become the cult classic that it is.
Because of this show, I spent many years finding Tick comics from New England Comics (thanks Todd) and the Tick is one of my favorite comic book heroes of all time.
The animated show provided some of the best quotes of all time… some of which I still use in real life.
“Gravity is a harsh mistress”
“You’re not going crazy. You’re going sane in a crazy world!”
“Four yaks and a dog. Laxative log. Susan.“
“You know, Arthur, when evil is afoot, and you don’t have any arms, you’ve gotta use your head. And when evil is ahead and you’re behind, you’ve gotta do the legwork. But when you can’t get a leg up, you gotta be hip. You gotta keep your chin up, and kick some-…”
“Eating kittens is just plain… plain wrong! And no-one should do it, ever!“
“Yeah, well, don’t count your weasels before they pop, dink!”
“Yes, destiny has her hand on my back, and she’s pushing.”
As we enter the Top 20 remaining in our Daily Countdown, we come to a sitcom that ran for 12 seasons on CBS.
Bazinga!
The Big Bang Theory was the story of a group of four geeks, all incredibly smart scientists, engineers and physicists, who love geek culture, playing D & D, and comic books. We follow these four men, Leonard Hofstadter, Howard Wolowitz, Raj Koothrappali and Sheldon Cooper, through their lives, loves and shenanigans.
There are people I know who hate The Big Bang Theory because of their portrayal of the main characters as geeks. They say it is insulting to the geek community. While they are welcome to that opinion, I disagree. It is a sitcom and the characters are exaggerated. It’s like saying that detectives should be mad about Monk or that doctors should be offended by Doogie Howser.
The center relationship of the show is Leonard and Sheldon, who are roommates. Sheldon is, let’s say, difficult to deal with, yet Leonard continued to put up with his craziness. When Penny (no last name) moves in next door, Leonard fall for her hard. Other love interests were introduced into the show as regulars: Bernadette Rostenkowski, who would wind up marrying Howard, and Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler, whose relationship with Sheldon would be a major focus of the last half of the show’s run.
The relationship with Howard and Bernadette, for me, really saved the character of Howard, who I disliked for much of the early seasons. He was so creepy so often that I just did not understand why the others wanted him around. Still, Howard had his moments and became one of my favorites as he became a husband and father.
The show had a regular set that was a comic book shop, which I always find awesome. The comic book shop owner, Stuart, eventually became a regular, and is reportedly part of a spin off of the show coming sometime over the next year or two.
The cast included Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki, Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg, Kunal Nayyar, Mayim Bialik, Melissa Rauch, and Kevin Sussman. Recurring actors to appear on the show included such stars as Kathy Bates, Bob Newhart, Sara Gilbert, Sean Astin, Wil Wheaton, Jerry O’Connell, Teller, and Stephen Hawking. There were also a bunch of cameos of people as themselves including Stan Lee, Leonard Nemoy, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, Levar Burton, Kareen Abdul-Jabbar, James Earl Jones, Kevin Smith, Nathan Fillion, and many more.
Seriously, as I start typing this, I am not sure which of the FOUR covers that will earn a medal this week (yup, a tie) is going to get the GOLD. When I first separated the books, I had chosen 16 comics as potential medal winners. Then, it took some real soul searching to decide which ones were out. That was after I had decided to make there be a tie.
Here are the others this week that did not make the cut…
Also-Rans: Batman Deadpool #1 (variant C- Doom and Joker), No Man’s Land #3, Exquisite Corpses #7 (Claire Roe Stealth Variant), Spawn: The Dark Ages (Virgin Variant), Final Boss #1, Pecos bill and the Guns of Oz #1, One World Under Doom #9, Radioactive Spider-Man (Variant Cover C), Terrorbytes #2, Everything Dead & Dying #3, Red Book #2, The Twilight Zone #2, Hello Darkness #16, and Space Ghost #5. WHOO.
And now… I have finally made my decision for the medal rounds. This was the toughest week I have had in a long time… and it has become a special week where HISTORY was made. The first ever TIE FOR THE GOLD MEDAL!!!
Bronze Medalist
Nova Centurion #1
Foil Variant Cover C
Cover art by Ivan Shavrin
I already had a copy of Nova Centurion #1 (the A Cover) and then I saw this on the shelf. It was just a gorgeous foil variant and I could not help myself. I honestly thought this was going to be the GOLD medalist this week, and it only could muster the bronze. It got dropped because of the gimmick.
Silver Medalist
High Strangeness #2
Cover art by Noah Bailey
What a beautiful cover. The snow storm surrounding this man who looks to be confronting some kind of creature with red eyes that blends into the blizzard. This was another book that I thought deserved a GOLD Medal but came up short to two other books this week. This would have won the race in many other weeks, but not this week.
FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER… A TIE FOR THE GOLD MEDAL!!!!!!!!!
Gold Medalist
No Man’s Land #3
Antlers Variant Cover C
Cover art by Szymon Kudranski
I first thought this was an homage to The Thing, but it turned out it was an homage to Antlers. I have been a big fan of the horror homages Feral has been doing this year, so this really attracted me. What a stunning cover. Szymon Kudranski has hit the heights with this No Man’s Land Series. I believe it won a Gold medal three times now. What book could compete with this awesome cover?
Gold Medalist
Mark Spears Monsters #4
Second printing
Witching Hour Homage
Cover art by Mark Spears
If there was going to be someone who ties for the GOLD medal for the first time ever with the HOT No Man’s Land artist Szymon Kudranski, it’s gonna be 2025’s eventual cover artist of the year, in Mark Spears. He had another multiple printing book this week that could have been in the medalist too (I should have added that one to the Also-Rans). Love this cover with the skeleton Santa Claus. Spears never seems to miss.
What a week of covers. The year is coming to close soon, and it feels as if the cover artists are bringing their best yet!
Two girls debuted on Happy Days as a blind date for Richie Cunningham. Laverne DeFazio and Shirley Feeney made a couple of appearances on Happy Days and, from that, wound up in their own spin off series on ABC that lasted for eight seasons.
Channeling their inner Lucy Ricardo and Ethel Mertz, Laverne and Shirley had amazing chemistry with each other and were unbelievable with physical comedy. Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams had found that perfect balance with each other that when Shirley stepped away from the show, you could feel the hole.
The show included the breakout characters of Lenny and Squiggy, played by Michael McKean and David Lander. “Hello” became a huge quote from the show as Lenny and Squiggy burst through the door.
The characters went from Milwaukee bottle cappers to Caliofornia girls. Over the years Laverne & Shirley were placed in all kinds of funny situations and they were always up to it with the power of friendship.
And with that, WKRP went from an elevator-music playing radio sttion in the greater Cincinnati area to a rock ‘n roll station with some of the most eccentric characters you are ever going to find.
WKRP in Cincinnati was a CBS sitcom that aired for four seasons. Some of the funniest moments on television originated on WKRP.
The cast ensemble was tremendous. Gary Sandy, Howard Hessman, Loni Anderson, Gordon Jump, Tim Reid, Frank Bonner, Jan Smithers and Richard Sanders were amazing in their roles. Each person brought something special to the crew.
I can’t talk about WKRP in Cincinnati without talking about “Turkeys Away” which is maybe my favorite sitcom episode ever. Station Manager Arthur Carlson wanted to get involved in promotions so he came up with a Thanksgiving plan that no one ever forget. He rented a helicopter and dropped live turkeys over the parking lot of the Pinedale Shopping Mall. The turkeys crashed to the ground, as newsman Les Nesman watched on horrified. Actor Richard Sanders delivered the iconic line, “OH MY GOD THEY’RE TURKEYS!”
DJ Dr. Johnny Fever added, as Les’s connection was lost, that the “Pinedale Shopping Mall has just been bombed with live turkeys… fim at 11.”
Tying the event into the crashing of the Hindenburg was brillaint. Finally, the episode was finalized with the line from Mr. Carlson that would live in infamy.
“As God is my witness I thought turkeys could fly.”
I watch this episode as my Thanksgiving tradition every year.
WKRP in Cincinnati struggled for ratings during its time on CBS, but the show’s quality was obvious to anyone who watched it.
January 11, 1993 at the Grand Ballroom at the Manhattan Center, a show debuted on the USA Network. 33 years later, Monday Night RAW is live weekly on Netflix, nearing its 1700th episode.
RAW has been a major influential show among the pro wrestling world. Created by Vince McMahon, RAW was shot live and dealt with storylines as they went.
Over the years, RAW has been on USA Network, Spike TV, and Netflix.
It had some of the greatest memories of WWE wrestling over the years. Just a few included:
Mankind (Mick Foley) defeating the Rock for the WWE Championship thanks to a chair shot by Stone Cold Steve Austin (Still the largest “pop” by a crowd I have ever heard).
D-Generation X invading rival wrestliong company WCW in a tank.
CM Punk’s “pipebomb” promo
Stone Cold Steve Austin’s confrontation with Mike Tyson
The SHIELD collapsing when Set Rollins turned on his brothers in the SHIELD.
Shane McMahon showed up on Monday Nitro to official purchase WCW out from under his father.
Edge and Lita had a “live-sex celebration”
The Dudley Boys put 80 + year old Mae Young through a table off the stage.
Mr. McMahon’s limosine exploded… with him inside!
Brian Pillman brings out a gun to prevent Stone Cold’s home invasion.
Chris Jericho debuts, interrupting the Rock, bringing Y2J to the WWE.
Mick zfoley hosts “This is your Life” for The Rock.
Triple H reveals that he had married Stephanie McMahon in Vegas.
After 33 years, the show continues to surprise and create the controversy necessary for headlines to be made.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 