The X-Files S3 E13, E14

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Spoilers

“Syzygy”

“Grotesque”

Two great episodes in a row. One where we see Mulder and Scully being affected by the planets, amplifying some of their deeper seeded character traits and another where it sure seems as if Mulder has lost his mind and has become a copy cat killer.

In that second episode, “Grotesque,” we actually find out Special Agent Bill Patterson, someone Mulder knew when he was at the Investigative Support Unit at Quantico, was working the case. Performed by Kurtwood Smith, it turned out that Patterson, who had been chasing the killer for three years of his live, diving into the darkness of the killer’s mind, had become the copycat himself and he had requested Mulder be assigned this case as a way to stop him.

Kurtwood Smith was also the surprise killer, Cupid on Picket Fences, making it a specialty of Smith being a hidden murderer. Honestly though, this episode takes a look at mental illness and the darkness that these FBI profilers envelope themselves with in order to ‘get into the head’ of the serial killers.

Smith and Duchovny both gave excellent performances in this episode.

Meanwhile, the first of these episodes included the planets causing Scully and Mulder to be at each other’s throats the whole episode. At first it was pretty subtle, but as they continued to act unlike themselves, it became more obvious what was happening without them ever coming out and saying … hey, why are we acting like jerks?

This episode was meant to lean toward the humor that the show has been including every once in awhile, but most of this humor, with the exception of the bit about why Mulder always drives the car, was not the best of the series.

Hazbin Hotel

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I binged the Amazon Prime adult animated musical series last night and this morning. It was a real easy binge as the episodes are all around 25 minutes.

I started off with the pilot on YouTube. It was posted four years ago and has been very popular on YouTube. That pilot led to A24 and Prime and a big budget. Eight episodes of the series arrived on Prime.

Charlie Morningstar, daughter of Lucifer and princess of Hell, is hopeful and loving (and very musical) and organizing a hotel where she wants to help demons find redemption and go to Heaven, a way to prevent the overcrowding of Hell.

This is such a awesome series. It is absolutely not for kids. There are curse words, sexual situations and innuendo, and adult situations.

The characters are amazing. Charlie is the main protagonist and brings the heart to the show. She is vital to making this a real series. I think of her like Luffy from One Piece who is the center of the show and provides the heart. Charlie’s friend/love Vaggie has a secret background that may destroy their relationship. Angel Dust is the first resident of the hotel who is a porn actor. Alastor the “Radio Demon” was an overlord who comes to watch the events unwind at the hotel. Sir Pentious is a former villain whose pathetic life led him to the hotel. Husk is the straight shooting bartender. These characters are way deeper than I ever expected to be. I really love how these characters grow and their arcs are truly strong.

The music is so epic. Not only catchy and fun, but are used to inform the characters. These songs are way more engaging and fun than they have any right to be.

The animation is spectacular and remarkably unique. The colors and the character designs are exceptional.

Plus, the story of Hell and Heaven is brilliantly developed and you can not guess where things are going. The angels are just as horrible, if not more so, than the demon characters. And there is a definite question about what going to Heaven or going to Hell means.

The finale is just so masterful, and I sure hope there are plans to continue to season two. This was a real treat.

The X-Files S3 E12

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“War of the Coprophages”

Cockroaches.

This is a great X-Files episode that involves what appears to be killer cockroaches. It is written by the same X-Files writer that penned “Humbug” and “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” which meant that this episode had a humorous tone that worked so well with so many X-Files episodes.

One of the best parts of the first half of the episode was how Mulder would call Scully with a potential death from killer cockroaches and she would de-‘bug’ it over the phone. The interaction between the two agents on the phone was really hilarious. The writing is so very clever and popped off the screen.

I found the episodes of The X-Files that used humor to be some of my favorite of the series. This is almost a self-parody and it showed how people can become engrossed with hysteria and how that can affect their choices. This episode was inspired by H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds.

The resolution of the episode was somewhat lacking as we do not really find out anything that was going on, plot wise, which, in itself could be a parody of X-Files episodes. There is an implication that cockroaches had some tie to aliens, but it is only rampant speculation. There was also some hints that these insects had been part of a government conspiracy, but that is debunked immediately.

Scully’s snarky responses toward the character of Dr. Berenbaum, who was working for the Department of Agriculture studying cockroaches to develop more effective methods of pest control. Scully’s snark was directed at her first name, which turned out to be Bambi. Her snark felt almost like jealousy.

This had some great lines and felt like a successful episode even if nothing mysterious was really going on.

Madame Web

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Oof.

When the trailer for Sony’s Madame Web first came out, it looked like all kinds of hot garbage. Then, there was a lot of negative reviews for the flick. I saw it today and it was absolutely one of the worst movies of this year.

Sony keeps making these Spider-Man adjacent movies and none of them seem to be good. Let’s not forget Morbius from a few years ago. Of course, Morbius is a much better movie than Madame Web.

According to IMDB, “Cassandra Webb (Dakota Johnson) is a New York metropolis paramedic who begins to demonstrate signs of clairvoyance. Forced to challenge revelations about her past, she needs to safeguard three young women from a deadly adversary who wants them destroyed.“

There are simply not much to say about this movie that is positive. I guess Adam Scott did the best he could with what he had. He played Ben Parker, who, I guess, was also a paramedic.

This movie has some of the worst, most wooden dialogue that I have ever heard in a big budget movie. In particular, the villain of this movie Ezekiel Sims, played by Tahar Rahim, had the absolute worst lines and delivery of the lines as I think I have ever seen. There was also a strange overdub of his dialogue in some scenes that did not synch up very well with his lips. Ezekiel Sims has to be considered near the top of the list for worst comic book villains of all time.

Dakota Johnson is a very great actor, but she does not look to give two craps about this. I do like the way the last scene with her in the movie (at least the way she looked).

There are so many things that are so stupid about this movie. Plot holes abound. Characters do things that do not make any sense.

So you know, there are no post credit scenes at all, so you can take off before the credits. I waited until the very end.

The three young actresses, Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, and Celeste O’Connor, are implied in trailers to be spider-based super heroes and that is not true. We see them in costumes in a vision of the future, and that is all. The whole movie features these three girls as teenage girls without powers. It does feel like some false advertising.

This movie is very dull too. There is so much missing from this. All that this was for was to throw some poorly written Spider-Man Easter eggs and and a sad attempt to take advantage of the Spider-Man’s success. This is a terrible movie.

0.75 stars

Bob Marley: One Love

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I do not know much about Bob Marley’s music. There are a couple of them, of course, but for the most point, I am unfamiliar.

The music was the best part of Bob Marley: One Love.

This tells the story of Bob Marley’s life. However, I did not feel as if there was much cohesive story in the film. It felt very much like the typical music biopic that we always get. There was nothing much new or different about this Bob Marley film.

Kingsley Ben-Adir played Bob Marley and he does a very decent job. Lashana Lynch played Rita and she was excellent as well. The acting overall of the film was pretty decent.

The main problem of this movie was the story. It was slow and plodding and I was just bored through much of it. The music was great and helped keep things moving.

The trailers focused on the shooting of Bob Marley in Jamaica, and that piece was done in the first ten minutes. I thought this was going to be the key focus of the movie, but it was not. I wish they would have focused in on a smaller section of his life.

The movie was not terrible, but it was not good either. I did enjoy the music here. Did I mention that already?

2.6 stars

EYG Comic Cavalcade #82

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February 17, 2024

Good morning.

Big week of new books. I was re-bagging and re-boarding one of the boxes last weekend and I came across the series of Strikeforce: Morituri from Marvel. I did not have nearly as many as I thought I had and, when I put it into CLZ, I saw that there were 31 issues. I went to eBay looking to fill it out, and found a full series. Actually, the eBay order did not include #10 and I had not known that when I made that order and was a little upset when I went through the books and ten was not there. However, fortunately, #10 was one of the issues I already had so I happily have the complete series.

Other books this week.

Jill and the Killers #1. Written by Olivia Cuartero-Briggs and illustrated by Roberta Ingranata. The cover art was by Sanya Anwar. This is a book Todd made me buy from a company called Oni Press. I hate to say it, but he was right. This was great. It is a cool mystery with some very likable characters. It is a fun book and was an enjoyable read.

The One Hand #1. Written by Ram V and featuring art by Laurence Campbell. The cover art was by Campbell, Lee Loughridge, and Tom Muller. Another new book with a central mystery. It had a really solid noir feel to it and I do like the setting that they are building.

The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos #7. “The Perfectly Monstrous Life of Adam Frankenstein.” Written by Tate Brombal and art by Soo Lee. Nick Robles did the cover art. The first of a two-issue arc to give the origin/back story of Adam Frankenstein, which, of course, means we get a lot of Victor Frankenstein. It is interesting.

The Displaced #1. “Chapter One: No Time for Goodbye.” Written by Ed Brisson and illustrated by Luca Casalanguida. This was my favorite new comic of the week. The Canadian city of Oshawa, Ontario sinks into the ground after a mysterious earthquake, but that is not the only main riddle. People forget everything about the city and the people who survived. This was truly compelling and I am excited to see what the story develops.

The Cabinet #1. Written by David Ebeltoft and Jordan Hart while penciled by Chiara Raimondi. Then there is my least favorite new book of the week. I did not like The Cabinet #1. The story did not grip me and the color palate was just truly obnoxious.

Vengeance of the Moon Knight #2. “Tigra” Written by Jed MacKay and drawn by Alessandro Cappuccio. David Finch is the cover art. I enjoyed this book with its focus on Tigra. Greer has always been one of my favorite secondary characters and the look at her past, focusing on her loves, was a great touch. We also discover that the new Moon Knight is NOT Marc, but we still do not know whom this guy is. I like the way this book has moved forward since Marc’s death.

Thunderbolts #3. “Worldstrike” Written by Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly and including art by Gerald Borges. The married couple of Terry Dodson and Rachel Dodson did the cover art. What if you crossed the Thunderbolts with a Godzilla/Kaiju movie? This is the issue you would get. A gigantic Bucky Barnes fighting American Kaiju? Yes, please.

The Deviant #4. Written by James Tynion IV and art by Joshua Hixson. This has been one of the most consistently entertaining and engaging books every month and I feel as if it is flying under the radar. The last page of the story in issue four was shocking and really continues to set this book up as a must read every week.

Beware the Planet of the Apes #2. Written by Marc Guggenheim and featuring art by Alvaro Lopez. So far, so good with this prequel to the original Apes movie. I have not been a big fan of the different 20th Century Studios books from Marvel, but this one seems to be intriguing me.

Night Thrasher #1. “Remix Part One: Don’t Call it a Comeback” Written by J. Holtham with art by Nelson Daniel. Alan Quah did the cover art. I loved the New Warriors back in the 80s and so I was excited to see Night Thrasher returning to the front of this book. While he was not my favorite of the New Warriors characters, I think he makes for a very promising protagonist. And the antagonist of Rage is compelling too.

Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver #1. Written by Steve Orlando with art by Lorenzo Tammetta. More fun with Wanda and Pietro. The sibling relationship is on full display in this issue and it was very realistic, even though it is playing out in the most fantastical manner. I am also pleased that Darcy remains a part of this book’s cast as she was one of my favorite parts of the last Scarlet Witch series, which ended too soon.

The Infernals #1. “Chapter One: Bethlehem.” Written by Noah Gardner & Ryan Parrott with art by John J. Pearson with Lola Bonato. This was a very strong week for new books as The Infernals is another fascinating and engaging books dealing with some religious iconography.

Superior Spider-Man #4. “Two Minds.” Written by Dan Slott and penciled by Mark Bagley. Bagley & Edgar Delgado did the cover art. This issue featured a struggle inside the mind of Peter Parker for control between Peter and Doc Ock, looking to reassume the form of the Superior Spider-Man. I am not sure I loved the inclusion of Uncle Ben, but it did make sense storyline wise. I loved the end result of the issue, as I worried about Doc Ock being shown as the actual Superior Spider-Man.

Fall of the House of X #2. “Long Games End” Written by Gerry Duggan and including art by Lucas Werneck. The fall of Krakoa continues in this issue as the X-Men are desperately fighting to save their very existence against Orchis. I am ready for the storyline to take its turn.

Transformers #5. Written and illustrated by Daniel Warren Johnson. Surprise Autobots. The book pulled out the debut of the Devastator, the combined might of the Constructicons giving an edge int he battle for Energon to the Decepticons. The Image version of the Transformers has been very solid so far and brings surprises every issue.

Blade #8. “Mother of Evil: Part Eight.” Written by Bryan Hill and drawn by Elena Casagrande. KJ Diaz did the cover art (one of this week’s medalists). In that post of the Favorite Comic Cover of the Week, I said the cover had Blade with a group of glowing ghosts. I was wrong. They were not ghosts. They were souls of the damned in Hell. Easy mistake.

Amazing Spider-Man #43. Written by Zeb Wells and penciled by John Romita Jr. Romita Jr., Scott Hanna and Marcio Menyz did the cover art. Gang War continues! I have enjoyed this book, even though Spidey has not been the central focus of it. The main focus has been the crimelords, especially Madame Masque, but I loved how Spidey stepped up to her this issue. I just feel as if Madame Masque is out of her league.

Deadly Hands of Kung Fu: Gang War #3. Written by Greg Pak and drawn by Caio Majado. Shang-Chi steps up big time in the Gang War. The question about which side he is on is answered in this issue definitively. I do love Shang-Chi and I have enjoyed the characterization in this short series.

Other books this week: Miles Morales: Spider-Man #16, The Bloody Dozen #3, Daredevil: Black Armor #4, Blood Commandment #4, Kill Your Darlings #6, Black Panther #9, and Spider-Gwen: Smash #3.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire Trailer 2

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Huh.

Okay, I am always excited for Godzilla movies.

However, this trailer really made me question it.

I did not like this trailer very much. It felt kind of stupid. It showed a lot. And I was just not very impressed.

I hope that this is not the type of tone this film is going to take.

X-Men ’97 teaser trailer

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Yeah, baby!

The animated X-Men is back, picking up directly after the original animated series ended back in the 1990s. Charles Xavier is dead, and the X-Men have to move on.

And it looks as if the X-Men are moving on, big time!

I like how the animation resembles the animation of the old show, but definitely improved. It has the same style, but looking much better.

And I am sorry, but that whole Wolverine/Gambit scene with Gambit charging the adamantium claws… I have perhaps never seen anything more epic.

EYG Favorite Comic Cover of the Week

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Week of February 12

Three Marvel books in the medalists this week. There were some solid independent book covers too, but the finals are all excellent.

Bronze Medalist

Blade #8

Cover Art by Elena Casagrande & KJ Diaz

Blade is fighting against more than just vampires. How about some glowing green ghosts? This cover looks awesome with Blade standing like a bad ass.

Silver Medalist

Vengeance of the Moon Knight #2

Cover Art by David Finch

Khonshu is in the background as we get the mysterious new black suit ‘Moon Knight’ along with Hunter’s Moon. Great cover.

Gold Medalist

Fall of the House of X #2

Cover art by Pepe Larraz & Marte Gracia

Polaris in a green shine really stands out of the cover with the giant head of a sentinel (maybe?)

The X-Files S3 E11

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“Revelations”

A young boy appears to be a stigmata, attracting a man who is killing fake stigmatics. Mulder and Scully are on the case to try and protect the boy from the evil force. However, in this episode, because of the religious implications of the case, Scully was the believer, the one with faith, and Mulder was the skeptic, the naysayer. It felt weird.

The little boy was from the Air Bud movies, actor Kevin Zegers. He is effective in the episode opposite Gillian Anderson, who does some excellent work. David Duchovny though just did not feel right. Mulder believes in everything, but having him so anti-religion felt against the character. Not that he had to believe in God, but how he was so dismissive to everything was so unlike Mulder that it was jarring.

And when Scully came up with the answer where Kevin had been taken, Mulder did not go with her. I found that to be hypocritical of him, since she has followed him through how many potentially hairbrained ideas before. I wanted him to go with her, even if he did not believe she was right. That would have shown that he believed in her. 

I did like how Mulder’s refusal to believe in the religious moments of the episode led to Scully having a crisis of faith and ending up in a confessional. 

Our evil killer was played by the excellent Kenneth Walsh, who was Windham Earle from season two of Twin Peaks. He was Simon Gates in this episode and he was creepy and eerie with his religious zealot persona. 

Some of the events that happened in the episode were shaky. Some coincidental things that could have been tightened up more, but overall, I enjoyed the episode and I liked the focus on Scully’s personal beliefs.

Deadpool & Wolverine Super Bowl teaser trailer

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It has been awhile since I have done a trailer post. There are several on the home page sure, but not many here. This one demands it.

Deadpool & Wolverine, also known as Deadpool 3, dropped during the Super Bowl on Sunday and it was a thing of beauty.

So many epic things including:

  • TVA
  • Logan as Patch
  • The 20th Century FOX sign
  • The whole cast of Deadpool and Deadpool 2 at a birthday party. (By the way, did I sense some issues between Wade and Vanessa in these scenes?)
  • 4th Wall break directed toward Disney.
  • Wade’s wig?
  • Pyro
  • Is Wade at the setting from the opening of Avengers: Age of Ultron or Logan?
  • Truly teasing Wolverine with an epic shadow
  • Amazing action during gun reloading
  • Official title: Deadpool & Wolverine

Absolutely loved this and I can not wait until July.

The X-Files S3 E8, E9, E10

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“Oubliette”

“Nisei”

“731”

X-Files season three has been rocking.

“Oubliette” was a stand alone “monster-of-the-week” episode that had a more human ‘monster’ than typical. The supernatural aspect was a strange, empathic connection between the current victim of the ‘monster’ and a previous victim from years before.

A young girl named Amy was abducted by photography assistant Carl Wade. At the same time across town, waitress Lucy was going through the same pain/injuries as Amy.

Lucy had been kidnapped by Carl Wade when she was younger and spent five years in a black pit as his captive. She survived, but the experience was scarring for her entire life.

The other two episodes returned to the government conspiracy/aliens mythology that the show had made so popular. It added layers of mystery to Scully’s abduction as well as laid out a plausible explanation of what was going on. 

There was a fun, meta moment on the show as Mulder had purchased a video for $29.95 of a reported alien autopsy. Scully made a snide remark about the alien autopsy that was aired on FOX around the same time criticizing it as “even hokier than the one they aired on the Fox network.” FOX, which was the network that aired the X-Files, had shown a TV special, Alien Autopsy (Fact or Fiction) in 1995 that was eventually shown to be a hoax.

The X-Files mythology is one of the problems of the show, especially as the seasons moved on. The mysteries felt too big, and as more and more was piled on, it got to the point that anything that they would do to reveal the truth would never be able to be sufficient. So while each episode on its own were highly entertaining and exciting, when looked at as a whole, I am not sure that everything worked together. ”Nisei” and “731” were great episodes with some excellent action, but did it work with other mythological episodes in the past or future of the series? I’m not so sure.

True Detective: Night Country S4 E5

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“Part Five”

I had forgotten that True Detective: Night Country was releasing its penultimate episode on Friday night instead of its typical Sunday night because of the inevitable competition of the Super Bowl. I did not think of it until tonight as I was watching American Nightmare on Netflix. After that was over, I pulled up Max and loaded up episode 5.

What an episode.

The confrontation at Danvers’ home between Hank Prior, Danvers, Otis and Peter was just shocking. Watching Peter put a bullet into his father’s head to protect Danvers after his father had shot and killed Otis was an unbelievable scene. 

The scene between Peter and Danvers at the police station was compelling as hell and really set up what was to come.

It was a tough episode for Peter, ending with one of the most tragic things that he had to do. He could not stand there and watch his father execute Danvers and so his hand was forced.

Hank did confess that he did not kill Annie, but he did move the body. I guess you can scratch him off the suspects list. With Navarro and Danvers on their way to the cave where Annie was killed, I expect all kinds of drama coming next week in the finale.

By the way, the Tsalal deaths have been deemed an accident by way of an avalanche by the medical examiners in Anchorage. This, of course, is fairly coincidental as Pete had just found evidence linking Silver Sky Mining with Tsalal. Silver Sky Mining’s exec Kate McKittrick is clearly crooked and had ordered Hank to make sure Otis could not take Liz and Navarro to the caves.

Something is in those caves and the reveal next week could be epic.

American Nightmare

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Unbelievable.

I have had this three episode true crime documentary on my list at Netflix for a few weeks now and I found a time to binge it tonight. What an unbelievable story. Shocking and outrageous in many ways.

Honestly, even the manner the show presented the story messed with the emotions and the comprehension of the audience. What actually happened? It laid out the story in a definite manner that was meant to have audience members draw their own conclusions… and then they flipped the script.

In 2015, Denise Huskins was the victim of a home invasion that led to her kidnapping. Her boyfriend Aaron Quinn reported the abduction the next day, claiming that he had been instructed that the kidnappers were watching him on a camera and that they would hurt Denise if he called the police.

The Vallejo Police investigated but the story of the kidnapping was so out there that they switched gears and began to believe that Aaron was responsible for Denise’s disappearance.

Then, she returned.

At this point, the police began thinking that this is a real-life case based on the Ben Affleck movie Gone Girl, and that this kidnapping was a hoax.

Except, it wasn’t.

This was amazingly compelling. The first episode focused on Aaron’s story and how the police were looking at the case. the POV of law enforcement was a major theme throughout all three episodes. I was shocked when Denise came strolling to her father’s house at the end of the first episode.

Episode two dealt with her story and the horrors that she went through. Again, her story was so wild that it was difficult to believe and it was much easier for the police to believe that a hoax was a much more likely scenario.

I really liked this doc because it had quite a bit of finality to it. A lot of these true crime docs that I have seen have an air of uncertainty to them, perhaps a mystery that is still unsolved. This may have had some unanswered questions (in particular, the kidnapper had told Denise that he had intended to kidnap Aaron’s ex instead of her), but there was a very definitive result which I truly appreciated.

It is a resounding accusation against police forces in the area that did not believe the stories of the women victims and instead, chose to relate it to a fictionalized movie. It also showed that there were police officers who took their jobs seriously and were dedicated to finding the truth, in particular Misty Carausu, a police officer with the Dublin Police Department in Dublin, California, who found the kidnapper, found goggles and a strand of long blonde hair that she eventually tied to Denise. It was the efforts of Misty Carausu that led to the arrest and conviction of the kidnapper/rapist, Matthew Muller.

This was an amazing documentary series, shocking and a powerful watch. I am very pleased that I decided to watch this compelling story.