The Penguin S1 E4, E5

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“Cent’anni”

“Homecoming”

Episode four was my favorite episode of the series so far. We saw the backstory of Sofia, how she was taken to Arkham and the horrors that were unleashed on her there.

Legit, some of the scene at Arkham were horrendous… electric shock treatments… to someone who was innocent of the charge of being “The Hangman.” Sent there by her very own father’s manipulations. Her whole family, except her brother, turned on her, keeping her in the asylum for ten years.

It really made Sofia relatable… someone the audience could root for… before she went totally crazy. Sofia gassed her entire family (except the one little girl). She tortured Johnny Viti. When he swore to help her, she brought him to a meeting and promptly shot him in the head when he tried to disagree with her.

Sofia then told the members of the meeting that she was setting up a new family. That the Falcone family was dead and that she was taking the name Gigante. She found Salvatore Maroni, who escaped from prison after one of Oz’s men tried to assassinate him. She formed an alliance with him with the intention of killing Oz and running the new family in the right way.

Cristin Milioti is absolutely brilliant. She had so many scenes that illuminated the power of her performance as she was developing into a massive villain right before our eyes… and one that we were cheering for.

Victor was assigned to protect Oz’s mother Francis. Oz was worried because he was not having quite the successes that he was hoping for, and he sent Victor to protect his mother. Deirdre O’Connell is great in this episode as Penguin’s mother. She has some great scenes with Victor and a tour de force scene with Oz later in the episode. The performance of a woman slowly succumbing to dementia is truly powerful and sad at the same time.

The Penguin’s disposal of Nadia and her son in a blaze of flame was shocking and showed how horrible Oz was too. He may be the protagonist, but he is not a hero.

4F- Friday Fabulous Film Fest

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Coming- Friday, November 8

I have decided that I would try to set a new record of films in one day. I will be streaming as many films as I can on November 8. At this point, I have not set the films yet, though I have been doing some investigating.

The films are all films from 2024 that I missed or had not had an opportunity to see up until this point. The only film that I will guarantee to be among the list is The 4:30 Movie from Kevin Smith. I have several others to be potentially the others.

The previous record is six movies in a day, but that was at Cinemark. That is no doubt more challenging than lounging at home. However, home has more distractions than the theater. The goal is at least seven films. Let’s see if we can accomplish it.

It is 4F. The Friday Fabulous Film Fest! Coming Soon!!!!

Battlestar Galactica S2 E19

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“Lay Down Your Burdens- Part 1”

Part one of the season two finale kicked off a rescue mission led by Starbuck back to Caprica. It also featured some presidential debates between President Roslin and Vice President Gaius Baltar.

By an accidental jump, one of the Raptors heading for Caprica came across a planetary body that had potential for settlement, which gave Baltar a topic to help his struggling campaign.

The Raptor that jumped into the mountain… whoa, tough thing. The old teleportation fear of teleporting into solid objects. Nightcrawler always talked about that and here Battlestar Galactica had it happen.

Starbuck reunited with Anders in a moment of happiness, only to be interrupted by Cylon forces attacking. It seemed as if the whole crew was trapped by explosions.

I have to say I was surprised that Sharon was involved with Starbuck’s crew considering the anger she had over the baby last episode. I kept waiting for her to turn on the humans, but she did not seem willing to do that.

Part II is coming up as the final episode of the second season.

Greatest American Hero S2 E5

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“Classical Gas”

It has been a long time since I have done one of the episodes of The Greatest American Hero. So long in fact it was no longer on Amazon Prime, where I had watched the first season plus. Fortunately, the show is now on Peacock, which I do have a subscription for so I continued with the fifth episode of the second season. Unfortunately, “Classical Gas” was perhaps my least favorite episode of the rewatch so far.

There were so many cliches and tropes swirling around this episode that just made it a tough one to sit through. How about the kids that Ralph teaches becoming a band? How many bands are formed on TV shows- from the Brady Bunch to Joanie and Chachi.

Secondly, Ralph finds himself jealous of Pam spending time with MASH’s Col. Flagg and his atrocious toupee. Edward Winter, who played Flagg, is a music exec. in this episode who happens to be crooked, but also trying to make a play for Pam. And, of course, Ralph was jealous and used the suit to spy on them.

The main antagonist of the show was named Hydra and he had apparently planned an escape from a German prison by having someone have plastic surgery to make him look identical and they flipped spots. Plastic surgery? Please.

Up to this point, Greatest American Hero has been better than I remembered and was an underrated series. This episode was a real flopper.

The X-Files S7 E3

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“Hungry”

This X-Files episode tells the story through the POV of the monster-of-the-week. Apparently both David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson had movies to film and they had to film their scenes ahead of time.

So the episode focused on the character of Rob Roberts, played by Chad Donella. We discover early on that he is the monster, eating people’s brains, and we see him through most of the episode.

LOST’s Jacob, Mark Pellegrino, also guest starred as Derwood Spinks, a dirtbag employee of the fast food restaurant where Rob worked.

This was an interesting episode with a noted bit of humor going through the episode. It is a light episode, but a fun watch. It is not going to find its way onto any best of lists of the X-Files episodes, but it is watchable.

Bates Motel S4 E9, E10

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“Forever”

“Norman”

In my mind, I thought I remembered that the whole gas thing was an accident. I misremembered that because, seeing episode nine again, it was painfully clear that Norman had intended for them both to have died in that room. Had it not been for Romero, they both would be dead.

I will forever remember Alex desperately trying to give Norma CPR and holding her corpse, sobbing uncontrollably. It was a horrific punctuation to this relationship that, in very short order, became one of my favorite relationships in the history of TV.

Norman really goes crazy in the season finale as he kept waiting for Norma to tell him the plan and eventually digs her up out of her grave. We know that Norman from Psycho did dig up his mother’s corpse, although it sounded as if his relationship with his mother was considerably different than the TV show. In Psycho II, Norman says he poisoned his mother when he was young. I know that Bates Motel Norman may not be exactly the same version of Norman Bates from Psycho. Perhaps he is a multiversal variant.

The cruelty of Norman not telling Dylan about his mother was unbelievable. Yes, there were some strange coincidences with Dylan, so he remains unaware of the death. They felt a little too on the nose, but I know it works for the story.

When Norman glued Norma’s eyes open… I mean… how creepy was that. Was that Vera Farmiga being the dead body because, if so, she was brilliant.

When I originally watched this show, I really thought that these episodes ended the series, but there is a whole fifth season to go. This felt like a good wrap up for the series, at least for Norman and Norma, but there are 10 more episodes to go. The side characters all need more of a wrap up, but I could see this having been the end of Bates Motel.

Not sure I liked the Christmas lights popping on at the end of the episode though.

Yellowjackets S1 E7

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“No Compass”

An exciting episode. With the three current day women dropping off the money, and the dramatic danger at the end of the episode with a pack of wolves, this was exciting throughout the whole episode.

So many things happened. Taissa had tackled the guy who was blackmailing them, but took an elbow to the face allowing him to get away. Kevin discovered that his gun was messed up and questioned Natalie about it. Shauna came back and had sex with Adam.

I saw that Christina Ricci was on the credits and I did not know that she was on this show. So I looked up who she played. I thought it might be current day Natalie, but I was shocked to see that she is playing current day Misty. Couldn’t believe it. Then, we see Misty and her sociopathy tendencies as she interviewed the reporter.

The wolves attack at the end with them tearing off parts of Van’s face. It was a brutal reminder how dangerous of a situation that they were in.

The whole Shauna/Jackie story with Shauna’s pregnancy was another key component of the episode. Jackie found the diary with the truth in it after Shauna had told her that it was Randy who had gotten her pregnant.

Three more episodes of season one.

Bates Motel S4 E8

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“Unfaithful”

Norman’s presence back home causes strife for Norma, who is scared to tell him about Romero.

Norman is trying to establish his own place by going to see Romero and telling him that he can start divorce proceedings. Romero was not happy about it, and he told Norma that she was going to have to take care of it. Norma said that she was not giving him up.

When the secret came out (sort of, though. Norma told Norman that she ‘liked’ Alex), Norman did not take it well. He has so much jealousy directed toward them that you can see his anger was clearly coming through.

The dinner with Norma, Alex and Norman was remarkably tense. The blow up between Norman and Norma was rough to watch.

All it did was reaffirm how much I love the relationship between Romero and Norma. He was in such control during Norman’s rampage and all he thought of was Norma’s safety.

They also teased what’s coming up. A little foreshadowing with the heater repair guy.

The Changeling (1980)

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The October 11 of 13

So The October 13 has been a little lower of quality than I would have preferred this year. However, we came across a good one today. The Changeling, starring George C. Scott, is one of the best haunted house movies I have seen.

The film grabs your attention immediately as it sets up the tragedy for George C. Scott’s character, composer John Russell. His wife and daughter are killed in a tragic accident and this sends him spiraling out of control. Renting a house in Seattle, John goes to hopefully work on his music.

However, once in the house, strange sounds and events started happening, leading John to investigate what had happened in the house’s past.

Honestly, the seance scene was one of the scariest seance scenes I have ever seen. The way that the psychic approached the actual execution of the seance was great. I had never seen a seance handled in this manner before and it really set the stage for the rest of the mystery that would be at the heart of the film.

There is also a horrifying scene with a young boy and a bathtub that I will not go into further description of because it is unsettling.

George C. Scott is a tremendous actor and his very presence in the film give it a credibility that a lot of these haunted house movies lack.

I am happy that this film made the October 13 list this year and I am happy that it has helped put the list back on track.

Kill List

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The October 10 of 13

After a poor stretch of films in The October 13, I was hoping for a really great one to balance out the list. I had been watching The Breakroom, which is a YouTube show from the New Rockstars and they gave a list of horror movies to watch before you die. One of the panelists brought up Kill List and I had never heard of it, so I hoped that it would break the unfortunate run I had been on.

It did. It was good. It was not great, but I found it a good time.

According to IMDB, “Nearly a year after a botched job, a hitman takes a new assignment with the promise of a big payoff for three killings. What starts off as an easy task soon unravels, sending the killer into the heart of darkness.“

This is a British psychological horror film directed by Ben Wheatley. It was a real slow burn, so slow that after the first act, I was afraid that this would be just another failure in the October 13. However, the film absolutely picked up and wound up with a batshit ending that tied the whole film together in a tragic tapestry.

Neil Maskell played Jay and Michael Smiley played Gal, out two lead protagonists in the film. They were partners in this hired killers job that led to them getting involved in this story. MyAnna Buring played Shel, Jay’s wife and the mother of his son Sam (Harry Simpson).

Throughout the first two parts of the film, you can see the mental instability of Jay as the killings he was hired to do became all the more brutal as they progressed. You would begin to think that the horror would come from inside Jay’s mind, but then things got considerably more real.

Hit List was not what I expected when it started, but it morphed into a wild ride that kept the tension to the final moments and a dramatic final scene.

Grotesquerie S1 E7

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“Unplugged”

WTF?

I mean… WTF?

This episode started off with Lois being just a totally vicious bitch toward her daughter and her new fiancé, Travis Kelce. She was so cruel that I found myself hating her so much. Then she pulled the plug on Marshall. Then we found out that Father Charlie was Grotesquerie and that Sister Megan was his accomplice. Megan got into a massive fight with Lois, where she stabbed her multiple times.

Then things changed.

Lois is in the coma. Marshall is alive and in the Lois role from the beginning. Lois had been the one having the affair. Sister Megan was the police chief. Marshall decided to pull the plug on Lois. Travis Kelce wanted to say goodbye, but Marshall wanted no part of that, keeping him from the room. When they pulled the plug, Lois floated up and seemed to get her heartbeat back.

What the hell is going on?

Is this show implying that Lois has been in the coma the whole time and the first six episodes were all in her head? I think that is what is going on here.

Does that mean that everything prior to Lois waking up from her coma in this episode means nothing?

That is a massive sized twist if that is the case. It is also extremely confusing in this episode. Where does this story go from here? Is this a totally different story than the one we have been watching?

Only one episode released this week, but it was nearly an hour long, and it was totally insane. I am not sure what happened or where it goes from here. There are three more episodes remaining.

Yellowjackets S1 E6

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“Saints”

Man, there are some things going down on this show.

There were several huge things that made me feel fairly anxious from both the crash site and the present day. Just to touch on a few of them…

  • What the hell is up with Taissa and the dirt eating? She seems very feral-like when she is doing it. She is the one terrorizing her son? Why?
  • The whole almost-abortion scene with Shauna was tense as could be.
  • Every time they are in the water and they shoot from that outside perspective just above the water level, I anticipate something attacking them, like it is some creature watching them. The baptism scene was wild. Not sure what is going on with that.
  • Um… how crazy is Misty? A little kidnapping between friends.
  • The whole scene with Natalie and Travis in the past was nice.
  • We find out for sure that Jackie is dead in the present. How and when is a mystery.
  • Lottie is having visions. The maggots inside the deer they just killed shows this. She also had one as she was underwater being baptized by Laura Lee.
  • The blackmailer has texted instructions to Taissa and Natalie. It’s go time…
  • Supernatural events are becoming more involved in the story.

This is wild and it still reminds me very much of LOST. In fact, every time I write one of these up, I want to say that the survivors are on an island. Funnily enough, young Taissa, who wanted to go off to try and find her way for help, said that they were not on an island. Ha ha.

Shrinking S2 E1, E2

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“Jimmying”

“I Love Pain”

Season one of Shrinking on Apple + was one of the great unexpected treasures on streaming. Jason Segal, Harrison Ford, Jessica Williams, Christa Miller, Ted McGinley. Luke Tennie and Lukita Maxwell are a great cast that brought these stories of grief, loss and recovery to life.

The first two episodes of season two dropped on Apple + this week.

“Do you know what sucks about your baby carrots? They make you think they’re Cheetos”- Paul (Harrison Ford). I laughed out loud at this line. This is a perfect example of some of the great writing on this series. The dialogue is special and they are delivered by amazing actors.

I have to say specifically that the writing for Harrison Ford is unbelievably amazing in this show, and this episode is a prime example of that.

Episode one had a shocking surprise cameo at the end as Brett Goldstein (Roy Kent from Ted Lasso) showed up at Jimmy’s office. His name was Louis and he was the drunk driver that was involved in the car crash that killed Jimmy’s wife, Tia. This was just as Jimmy was getting past the loss, but dealing with his own worries over his patient Grace who pushed her husband off a cliff.

These first two episodes reminded me just how awesome this series was. It is so well written and acted that it is both deeply poignant and outrageously funny. I am happy that it is back again.

Smile 2

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The original movie Smile was a surprising hit a couple of years ago. With it making a lot of money, you knew that there would be a sequel. This weekend brought us Smile 2.

Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) is a hugely loved pop star who was preparing to make a return tour after being involved in a tragic accident the year before. When she was trying to get pain killers from her drug dealer friend, he brutally killed himself in front of her, transferring the parasitic demon to her. This demon goes into the victim’s head and slowly drives them crazy.

Naomi Scott does a fantastic job in this lead role. She carries so much of the movie on her shoulders, with so much fear and confusion and anger. She is easily the strength of the film.

The film keeps the audience on the edge of their seats, filled with anxiety as you want Skye to get through the problem. There may be too many jump scares in the film, but a lot of them are effective.

The film does feel too long at 2 hours and seven minutes. I think it could easily have shaved off 15-20 minutes of playtime and it would have helped the movie. However, the finish of the film was just horrifying. I really thought the final shot of the film worked very well.

Smile 2 was a worthy sequel to the huge hit. Is it better than the original, I’m going to say no, but this is very solid. Naomi Scott does tremendous work and the effects are great. The film will keep you thinking.

3.75 stars

We Live in Time

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I do love Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield so I had planned on seeing this movie after seeing a trailer for it. However, the title was not recognizable so as I was looking at the Cinemark movie list this week, I almost missed it. I saw the title and thought, “What is that?”

After seeing the movie poster, I realized that this was the Pugh-Garfield film, and I knew I wanted to go to it.

According to IMDB, “Almut (Florence Pugh) and Tobias (Andrew Garfield) are brought together in a surprise encounter that changes their lives. Through snapshots of their life together — falling for each other, building a home, becoming a family — a difficult truth is revealed that rocks its foundation. As they embark on a path challenged by the limits of time, they learn to cherish each moment of the unconventional route their love story has taken, in filmmaker John Crowley’s decade-spanning, deeply moving romance.”

Starting off, the film’s narrative structure is told in a non-linear manner. It was as if time is not a line, but a flat plane. The film leapt around from all parts of this relationship, from where they meet to where they are giving birth. It did make following the story a little challenging for awhile until Florence Pugh cut her hair (thanks, Florence!)

The chemistry between Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh was absolutely off the chart and this is the main reason this movie worked as well as it did. Both showed their acting chops in these roles and I loved them together. Every scene with them in it was wonderful.

The story was very emotional at several times and it worked well. The melodrama of the film was over-the-top at times, but it worked because of Garfield and Pugh. Perhaps the time jump storytelling technique kept the emotion in check.

This was a solid film with great performances.

4 stars