Daily Countdown: TV Shows #41

Posted on by

#41

I Love Lucy

Lucille Ball was the undisputed queen of the sitcom for years. She was a powerful force on TV and her show, I Love Lucy will be remembered for ever.

While I may not have followed this on a regular basis, I Love Lucy was a treat every time it made it to my TV screen.

Some of the adventures of Lucy Ricardo were crazy and the iconic woman did what she needed to do for a laugh. She put herself in ridiculous, undignified situations- wrapping chocolates, stomping grapes etc, all for the laugh.

Lucy brought slapstick and pratfalls to TV, making them high comedy. She inspired a ton of female comedians to a career that they may not have believed was possible.

Desi Arnez co-starred as Ricky Ricardo with his real life wife, Lucille Ball. Lucy friend-in-crazy was neighbor Ethel Mertz, played by Vivian Vance. Ethel’s husband was Fred Mertz, played by William Frawley.

I Love Lucy ran from 1951-1957 on CBS. They recorded 180 episodes.

EYG Favorite Comic Covers of the Week

Posted on by

October 30

The 5th week of the month is always a little short with comics, but there are several really good covers any way.

One variant and two A covers this week. All three are very apropos for the time of the year we are (Happy Halloween everybody!)

Also-Rans: Mighty Thor #3, Undeadpool #1, Runaways #5, Cloak or Dagger #1, The Phantom #2, Sleep #6 and Return to Sleepy Hallow #1.

Bronze Medalist

Black Cat #3

Cover art by Adam Hughes

Felicia has herself a top notch cover. I have not read the book yet, but that sure makes me think about Sandman. The black suited Felicia sure stands out beautifully from this sandy background.

Silver Medalist

Stake Presents Jessamy #1.

Cover art by Francesca Fantini

I had no idea what this book was, but this cover was so beautiful that it drew me to it. What a stunning cover with some wonderful imagery. The blood roses and the bats around the big moon… just exceptional.

Gold Medalist

Feral #17

Variant Cover B

Cover art by Trish Forstner

I love these horror film homages that Feral has been doing and there is yet another gold medal for it. This is a homage to Halloween and the jack lantern with the fangs just makes the cover. Love the black background against the orange pumpkin. Another sensational Feral Cover B variant.

Daily Countdown: TV Shows #42

Posted on by

#42

The Walking Dead

After the ending of LOST, I had a huge gap in my heart and I was not interested in replacing it with another TV show. I did not watch much TV after LOST left. I did not watch The Walking Dead’s first season because of that. I had heard some good word of mouth about the comic book adaptation, so I decided I would catch up on the first, short season.

It was so wonderful, it helped in the recovery from post-LOST life.

Few shows have generated the anguish that The Walking Dead has over its eleven seasons. I will be honest, I did not watch much of the last few years of the show. There was onlky so much pain one could take.

I remember the spot that began my end with this show. It was Glen. I am not sure that any TV death has ever been as emptying as when Negan smashed Lucille, his baseball bat, into Glen’s skull, as he did in the comics, it was horrific and left me feeling hollow. I knew it was done brilliantly well and created all kinds of story, but the fact was that Glen’s death was the slow end for me.

Before that though, The Walking Dead was so amazing. It had so many unbelievable moments. Shane and his craziness. Carol telling Lizzie to look at the flowers before shooting her in the head. Daryl Dixon and his overall awesomeness. Rick screaming for Carl.

One of the best additions in the later part of the show was Michonne, played by Danai Gurira. Michonne and her katana was so bad ass. I also enjoyed her eventual relationship with Rick, which I saw more of in the spin of featuring those two characters, The Ones Who Lived.

The Walking Dead took advantage of the resurgence of zombies, leading the way among pop culture in presenting some of the most frightening moments featuring the monsters. However, the show never justbecame about the zombies, or Walkers as they dubbed them. The show was about the relationships between and the choices made by the survivors, and proved consistently that the humans might be the real monsters in a zombie apocalypse.

Daily Countdown: TV Shows #43

Posted on by

#43

What We Do in the Shadows

This past summer, I did a TV show first time watch by watching all six seasons of the FX series What We Do in the Shadows. Since they had usually around 10 episodes a season at about a half and hour, I would binge a season in one day and then do a write up.

What We Do in the Shadows was based on a movie from writer/director Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement. The show is shot in the mockumentary format following a group of four vampire roommates living together in Staten Island.

The cast was exceptional and had a ton of chemistry with each other. The main stars included Kayvan Novak, Matt Berry, Natasia Demetriou, Harvey Guillén, Mark Proksch, and Kristen Schaal.

Much of the POV came from the human character Guillermo, who was the familiar for Nandor the Relentless, one of the four roommates. There was the married couple Lazlo and Nadja and the “energy vampire” Colin Robinson.

Every episode saw this out of time foursome dealing with something unbelievable. The one thing you could count on with What We Do in the Shadows was that it was funny.

The show was not only funny, but it was shocking. There was blood and other bodily fluids involved and provided a humorous look at a world that one wouldn’t think of as funny.

There were a ton of guests stars during the six seasons including such notable stars as Mark Hamill, Tilda Swinton, Dave Bautista, Paul Reubens, Scott Bakula, Patton Oswalt, Kevin Pollak, John Slattery, Wesley Snipes, and Evan Rachel Woods. This is just a few of the stars who found their way to this show.

The mockumentary style of the show was one of the big stars as well. It brought a wonderful quirkiness to the show that worked.

Every season was hilarious and, even the weaker ones, had some fabulous moments.

Only Murders in the Building S5 E10

Posted on by

Spoilers

“The House Always…”

Another season of Only Murders in the Building wrapped up with a finale that revealed the killer of the beloved doorman Lester and tied all the loose ends up neatly.

It turned out that Mayor Beau Tillman, played by Keegan-Michael Key, killed Lester, and it was his finger that had been severed and placed in Oliver’s shrimp. The billionaires knew about the whole thing too. They were in the game to find the finger and that person would receive the casino contract from the city.

After they were arrested, it seemed as if the building was saved, though I am not 100% sure how that happened.

I do love this show and there were so many wonderful moments in this finale as they were capturing the Mayor. Charles shimmying up the pole and sliding down like a stripper (instead of a fireman) was a hoot.

Introducing the “New mob” to the “Old Mob” was another fun thing. That group of men was ridiculously funny.

The show also set up the next mystery for season six as we hear a new podcast from Cinda Canning (Tina Fey) and she seems to have be killed… just outside the Arconia, disappointing everyone that she was not “in the building.” A final twitch of the body brought her hand just inside the gate… allowing the trio to investigate the new case.

Love this show. I can’t wait for the next season. This finale was much better than the penultimate episode.

Daily Countdown: TV Shows #44

Posted on by

#44

The Tick (2016)

The second time The Tick has appeared in the top 100 is the also the second live action version of the show. This version went two seasons on Amazzon Prime, and still deserved so much more.

The Tick was portrayed, this time, by Peter Serafinowicz and Arthur was played by Griffin Newman.

This Amazon Prime version had more action than the 2001 Tick series. This included classic Tick character The Terror, played by the one and only Jackie Earle Haley. Season one was split into two parts, ending with 12 episodes. Season two was 10 episodes.

The series was a fantastic rendition of the show, combining the bests of both the FOX live action show and the animated program. Once again, despite critical success, it seems as other forces took out the Tick.

Serafinowicz was an excellent Tick and did some cool things to make himself stand out with the other two exceptional actors who had portrayed the big blue superhero.

Daily Countdown: TV Shows #45

Posted on by

#45

Batman: The Animated Series

Some may say that “their” Batman was Christian Bale. Some may say “their” Batman was Michael Keaton. Some may say “their” Batman is Adam West or Ben Affleck or Robert Pattinson. Some may even say “their” Batman was George Clooney (I’d have to question those people).

Well, I think my Batman is Kevin Conroy.

Kevin Conroy became THE voice of Batman thanks to his work on Batman: The Animated Series, which went for four seaosns on FOX kids. The show is lauded as one of the greatest animated programs of all time.

The show also featured one of the mst iconic Joker performances ever done. Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker himself, provided the demented Clown Prince of Crime’s voice for the show and helped to make his name as a predominant voice actor.

The series was developed by Bruce Timm, whose style of the show became a trend unto itself. The animation of the Batman series had a flair, a style unlike anything anyone had seen up to that point and it became a sensation.

The writing of the episodes were amazing, too. These stories were not just for kids, though kids could enjoy them. There was an adult complex feel to these episodes that made Batman: TAS stand out among the Saturday morning fare. This style of Batman animation led to several longer movies, including the special Batman: The Mask of the Phantasm, considered one of the greatest Batman movies of any genre.

The iconic character of Harley Quinn made her debut on the animated series, becoming one of DC Comics most popular female characters.

IT: Welcome to Derry S1 E1

Posted on by

Spoilers

“The Pilot”

I loved IT. I loved the original TV show miniseries starring Tim Curry and the 2017 movie. The second part of the movie was not as strong, but I am a fan of Pennywise the Dancing Clown.

So when I heard that there was a series in the works for HBO Max set in Derry in prior years when Pennywise would terrorize the children of Derry, I was all in.

While we did not see Pennywise in this first episode, it was anything but lacking. In fact, I found it shocking and, somewhat, upsetting.

They set up a group of kids, much like the “losers” from the film, and gave them a mission. Find Matty, the boy who we meet at the beginning who wound up with a weird family in an attempt to leave Derry.

These kids included Teddy, Phil, Lilly, Phil’s little sister Susie and Veronica. They were trying to solve the mystery of Matty’s disappearance after Lilly heard him speaking to her out of her pipes in her bathtub.

Shockingly, Lilly and Veronica were the only two to survive the encounter at the end of the episode. I couldn’t believe it because it sure seemed as of Teddy and Phil were being set up as the main characters of this show. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and I was sure something would happen to save them, even after seeing their blood splatter and Teddy actually being slammed face first into the projector room glass.

I am sad that they are gone, because I really liked them. I saw an interview with director Andy Muschietti who said they wanted to show that no one was safe in this setting. He did that for sure.

We’ll see where this goes from here. I thought this pilot episode was really good and it definitely defied what I expected to see.

Good Boy

Posted on by

I was interested in seeing Good Boy for awhile now. It came available to rent on Fandango at Home so I gave it a try. You know what I discovered… this was a horror movie.

I knew the film starred the director’s dog, Indy, and that they did the dog scenes all with practical effects. I knew the film was from the point of view of the dog.

But I had no idea it was a horror film. That was why when the title card for SHUDDER came up, I paused and wondered to myself… SHUDDER?

Turned out, Good Boy was a supernatural horror film that put that poor dog into plenty of stressful and suspenseful situations.

According to IMDB, “A loyal dog moves to a rural family home with his owner, only to discover supernatural forces lurking in the shadows. As dark entities threaten his human companion, the brave pup must fight to protect the one he loves most.”

It was basically a haunted house film with the main protagonist being a dog. The dog does a remarkable job of making this movie. Indy clearly worked hard to get these shots. According to the film’s Wikipedia page, the film was shot over 400 days.

Indy made a very easy protagonist to support as he was everything good about dogs on display and the film looked great, including the creepy as heck mud creature in the house.

Good Boy is a quick 72 minute film with some really clever ideas and a loveable lead character. You can currently rent the film, but I would expect it to become available sooner rather than later on Shudder.

4 stars

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (2025)

Posted on by

Hulu has a new remake of the 1992 psychological thriller The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. I do not think that I ever saw the original although the plot is well known enough.

According to IMDB, “An upscale suburban mom brings a new nanny, Polly Murphy, into her home, only to discover she is not the person she claims to be.“

Mary Elizabeth Winstead does a good job as Caitlin Morales, the mother who has had her share of emotional troubles and who brings Polly into the lives of her family. Winstead is easily the best part of the film.

There is not too much more here that is worth the time. Even without seeing the original, I can tell that this is subpar in comparison. There is no way that this movie will be remembered some thirty plus years later.

The writing is low level. The contrivances are scattered throughout the film. The twist at the end was dumb and underdeveloped. The final scenes did not look good at all and took away from the intended power it wanted to have.

The characters were supposed to have lots of back issues, but none of them are developed enough to be anything more than just info that we are told about them. Because of that, I never felt the connection to either character as I was meant to.

I should watch the original some time, but I do think that if you are going to want to watch a film entitled “The Hand that Rocks the Cradle,” I would recommend you choose the original, sight unseen.

2.5 stars