Stuart Fails to Save the Universe S1 E4

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“Spoiler: Stuart Makes a Wallet”

Okay. Episode four is easily my favorite episode of this show so far. It is the first time that I did feel a slight tinge of embarrassment watching it.

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe has Stuart in a mental institution with Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler (reprised by Mayim Bialik) as his therapist. The whole time Stuart is in the institution, he was receiving subtle hints that everything was not real.

This is a trope that has been done many times, including, just off the top of my head, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but this worked really well. Stuart “put in the work” to make himself sane after finding out that he was married to Denise and they had two kids. He seemed to be living the perfect life.

However, of course the truth was different as Stuart realized when he said that he never has perfect things happen to him.

The four of them turned up in a Matrix-like situation, pulling themselves out of the goo. Yet, it was not done yet, as Stuart opened a tear in the reality and the four of them found themselves in an all-white area with their travel machine.

They ended up in a forest surrounded by a mysterious group of people.

I did enjoy this episode considerably more than any of the other episodes. It did feel like it rushed through the story. I would have liked to see more from this Matrix world, and the ending turned out to be somewhat anticlimactic. Still I really enjoyed this episode and would have liked more of it.

Oh… and I LOVED the Weird Al Yankovic cameo!

Boston Legal S1 E1, E2

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“Head Cases”

“Still Crazy After All These Years”

I have been seeing a ton of clips of Boston Legal on TikTok recently, and it influenced my decision to start a rewatch of Boston Legal. I found it on Hulu and I discovered that there were only five seasons. I really thought there were seven of them. Episodes varied per season as season one only had 17 whereas season 2 had 27 of them.

Watching these first to episodes of the series, it struck me how this cast changed over the years. Some of the characters of the first season were flashes from my memory, such as Lori Colson, Tara Wilson and Sally Heep. These women were replaced as the years moved on. No Shirley Schmidt, though I do think she comes soon in season one.

The appearance of the black Little Orphan Annie was a classic case that I did not think was in the premiere episode. It featured a cameo from the Reverend Al Sharpton as Denny’s “Rabbit out of a hat.”

It showed how questionable Alan and Denny’s tactics were at times when they were doing things that were for the “greater good.” I loved how these characters were shades of grey. They are complex and written so amazingly.

Alan Shore debuted on The Practice, as did Denny Crane. Their relationship was not as prevalent in these first two episodes as it would become. The chemistry between James Spader and William Shatner was off the charts. They were better than most couples on TV at the time. These first two episodes did not feature it as much.

Denny’s ongoing inner doubt about his lost of his abilities was highlighted early here and would be a major plot point through to the end of the series.

It was fun to see Elizabeth Mitchell, who I got to know as Juliet from LOST, make an appearance in episode two here. She played one of Alan’s ex-girlfriends who was committed after she tried to kill Alan. Alan helped defend her when she was trying to be released from the asylum. This story extends into episode three.

This David E. Kelley project joined several other Kelley shows that I loved (including Picket Fences, and The Practice).

I am looking forward to watching this 100 episodes moving forward.

Daily Countdown: Animated Movies #55

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#55

Coraline

Released: February 6, 2009

Runtime: 1 hour 40 minutes

Rating: PG

Animation Style: Stop motion animation

Studio: Focus Features/Laika

The Neil Gaiman book was made into this movie, with a great, dark movie that is really pretty scary.

Voice cast: Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Robert Bailey Jr., Keith David, John Hodgman, and Ian McShane.

Ted Lasso S4 E2

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“Carol of the Bells”

The second episode got Ted out of Kansas City and back to Richmond, and we get to meet some of the weird team members on the female team and the assistant coach Alice Chilton. Chilton was angry about being passed over by Rebecca for the head job, and made comments to her hinting at her being sexist (or not a Feminist). Chilton resigned her position but stuck around for a week to help walk Ted through. Of course, we all knew she was staying as she saw the light that was Ted Lasso.

We spent some time with Beard, who has apparently gone crazy and doesn’t want to hurt Roy. Beard’s excessive hairstyle was outrageous.

Chilton’s comment sent Rebecca into a tailspin, which led to her introspection.

The new locker room for the women was a great scene, and seeing Roy and Keeley flirt as Roy fixed the locker room (which was originally the visiting team locker room) from the tricks Roy was pulling to try and get the edge on the other team.

I enjoyed this episode too. Ted Lasso is awesome and one of the best characters around.

Things are getting set up but I would hope that there will be an overarching story for the season. At this point, it seems like the story is trying to keep the new team afloat.

Apple TV + is the streamer for Ted Lasso.

EYG Favorite Comic Covers of the Week

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August 12

This is the last Wednesday night EYG Favorite Comic Covers of the Week as I have to return to the classroom and will not be able to get both the books at Comic World and In This Issue in the same day like I did this summer. The plan is to move the post to Thursdays starting next week.

For the last Wednesday, we have some great covers.

Also-Rans: Infernal Hulk #10 (A cover & F cover), Absolute Batman #23, X-Men #35, The Punisher #7, Exquisite Corpses: Rascal Randy #2, D’Orc #7, Hank Howard in The Fair Play #1, Clayface: Celebrity Dirt Story #2 (C Cover), Batman & Robin Year One: Dynamic Duos #1 (D cover), Venom #260 (Cover B), Laugh Vol. 1 #166 facsimile (Cover C & D).

Bronze Medalist

Of the Earth #4

Cover art by Charlie Adlard

I had a hart time with the final choice this week, but the blue/black cover really stood out and those eyes are very amazing.

I am not sure what the black across the face is, but it is truly compelling.

Silver Medalist

Barbara Gordon: Breakout #4

Variant cover E

Cover art by Mark Spears

This beautiful cover by Mark Spears is one of the best images of Barbara Gordon I have ever seen and her orange prison attire against the black background really makes this stand out.

Gold Medalist

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #1

Variant Cover B Foil

Cover art by Pere Perez

A stunning foil variant cover that I picked off the stands this morning. The gold foil behind Miles is just amazing and I love the black background and white title. I did not think anything was beating Spears’ Barbara Gordon, but this was just undeniable.

X-Men ’97 S2

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“Survival of the Fittest”

This finale, like much of the season, had ups and downs.

The battle between the X-Men and X-Force/X-Factor was solid with some great mutant on mutant action. Cable vs. Cyclops and Jean.

Rogue’s whole arc was fascianting.

The final battle with Apocalypse and Celestial Rogue was a little anti-climactic. However, the end with Nightcrawler’s sacrifice was heartbreaking, but felt like it needed something more. It felt as if they almost had me emotionally, but it ended so suddenly that it did not have the impact they wanted.

Apocalypse in his little ball form was silly looking.

One must wonder about Storm’s definition of a light touch.

The ending scenes with Mystique killing and replacing Val Cooper as announcement of President Creed set up next season.

Season two has been enjoyable, but a noticeable step backwards. It seemed to be too rushed and lacked some of the depth of season one. In fact, without season one, season two would probably be considered a great success. As of now, ZI liked season two. It just was not what I hoped for overall.

Daily Countdown: Animated Movies #56

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#56

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Released: October 29, 1993

Runtime: 76 minutes

Rating: PG

Animation Style: Stop Motion animation

Studio: Touchstone Picture/Disney

Jack Skellington is an iconic animated character in Tim Burton’s holiday classic. Danny Elfman wrote the songs for the musical.

Voice cast: Chris Sarandon, Danny Elfman (Jack’s singing voice), Ken Page, Catherine O’Hara, Glenn Shadix, William Hickey, Paul Reubens, Joe Ranft, Ed Ivory, Debi Durst, Greg Proops, Kerry Katz, Randy Crenshaw, Sherwood Ball, Carmen Twillie, Thurl Ravenscroft, Glenn Walters and John Morris.

Daily Countdown: Animated Movies #57

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#57

Finding Dory

Released: June 17, 2016

Runtime: 97 minutes

Rating: PG

Animation Style: 3D computer-generated (CG)

Studio: Pixar/Disney

In the spin off to the iconic Finding Nemo, the secondary character of Dory was popular enough to carry her own movie. I did not think that was going to work well, but it was an engaging and entertaining film.

Voice Cast:  Ellen DeGeneres, Albert Brooks, Ed O’Neill, Kaitlin Olson, Hayden Rolence, Ty Burrell, Diane Keaton, Eugene Levy, Idris Elba, Dominic West, Sigourney Weaver, Bill Hader, Kate McKinnon, John Ratzenberger, Willem Dafoe, Brad Garrett, Allison Janney, Stephen Root, and Torbin Xan Bullock.

Rick and Morty S9 E9

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“Salute Your Morts”

Yesterday, I had finished the ninth season of Rick and Morty… or, at least, finished the episodes of the ninth season that were currently available on HBO Max. There were two more episodes from the ninth season that were not yet available on the streamer. Today, the ninth episode was dropped on HBO Max and I watched it.

“Salute Your Morts” started off with Beth and Jerry called to the principal’s office to deal with Summer and Morty, who were doing whatever they wanted at school as disruptive forces. Principal Vagina was going to expel Summer and Morty until Rick portaled into the office and turned Principal Vagina into a giant carrot.

As a way to try and herd in the kids, Rick dropped them off on a different planet at a camp. Unfortunately, the camp they were at had been taken over by the kids, who killed all of the campers.

Meanwhile, with the kids gone, Jerry and Beth found Summer’s drug stash and smoked what was revealed as “Forever High,” where the parents spent the whole time stoned out of their mind. Rick joined in later as well.

I found this very funny and this new episode fit well into the strong season 9 batch of Rick and Morty. While seeing the parents stoned was a fairly regular storyline, seeing Jerry and Beth across the universe with anything possible made this funny.

Next Monday should see the final episode of season 9 released.

Daily Countdown: Animated Movies #58

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#58

Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox

Released: July 30, 2013

Runtime: 81 minutes

Rating: R

Animation Style: bold, anime-influenced and hard-hitting action style

Studio: Warner Bros. Animation and DC Entertainment

The film that I had listed as the best animated movie of 2013 was not released in theaters. Instead, it was a home release that featured an adaptation of the 2011 DC Comics crossover event Flashpoint by Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert.

Voice cast: Justin Chambers, C. Thomas Howell, Michael B. Jordan, Kevin McKidd, Cary Elwes, EYG Hall of Famer Kevin Conroy, Nathan Fillion, Ron Perlman, Dana Delany, Vanessa Marshall, Dee Bradley Baker, Kevin Michael Richardson, Lex Lang, Jennifer Hale, Steve Blum, Sam Daly, Grey DeLisle-Griffin, Danny Huston, James Patrick Stuart, Andrea Romero and Candi Milo.

Rick and Morty S9 E1-E8

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I started the ninth season of Rick and Morty on HBO Max today and watched the first eight episodes. I discovered that the Rick and Morty show was shown originally on Adult Swim earlier this summer and then it debuted on HBO Max, releasing every episode weekly. I was confused at first as I saw episode 9 and 10 listed on Wikipedia as having been released already, but it was not available yet on HBO Max. I see that the last two episodes will be released over the next two Mondays, so we will finish as we go.

The last few seasons of Rick and Morty have been lesser than I was used to. They weren’t bad, but there were more episodes that I did not love as much as some of the earlier seasons.

However, I thought that the season nine episodes were just awesome.

The first episode kicked off with the return of Evil Morty, and Morty discovered that Rick was running adventures with Evil Morty. Rick was able to trick Evil Morty into destroying the Omega blueprints in all universes. It set off a war between them and Evil Morty gets arrested by the time police after he tried to time travel.

In “Ricks Days, Seven Nights” Rick went on vacation in a dimension and he wiped his own memory. He does it every year and goes to a planet under the name Ted. Ted decides to stay, and he has to fight against himself trying to get Ted to remember. This was so clever and creative… I loved it.

“Rick Fu Hustle” is next up and while Rick and Morty are trying to keep themselves from having their hearts exploded from a Kung Fu master’s special punch, Jerry is having sex with his robot pool cleaner. Not kidding.

The season seems to have a running storyline where Rick is trying to stop drinking after he has had several bad events, including locking himself out of the lab in the garage. He also lost his always filled flask of vodka from a world of pigs. There was another incident where Rick’s head is decapitated from his body, and the two parts of Rick get into a war with the other. While Rick’s head was separated, he saw how good he felt without the alcohol. Morty had the head and Summer had the body and they tried to reunite.

My least favorite of this season was “MortGully: The Last Rickforest” which saw Rick and Morty on a planet trying to find some special sap from a tree. The tree was alive and called the Warden, who sentenced Rick and Morty to be single celled organisms. The episode was the two of them trying to evolve enough to escape the Warden’s trap. It was funny, but it really went a long way for the joke, which was replayed multiple times.

There was also a wild story with Jerry consuming a bunch of space worms which made him more confident, but caused him to eventually vomit up a massive amount of worms.

I have liked this season more than the previous couple, but there does not seem to be much of a thorough line for the overall story arc. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but I would like a little more connection.

Two more episodes to go.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #81

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Black Bird

“Pilot”

With our next Sunday Morning Sidewalk show, we dive into the world of Apple TV +. There are so many top quality shows on Apple that you can easily miss something. Black Bird is a good example.

I started the first of six episodes of this limited series this morning.

Jimmy Keene was a drug dealer who gets caught and sent to prison for a ten years sentence. The FBI approached him with an offer for him to switch prisons to get close to another inmate, Larry Hall, who was accused of killing 14 women, in an attempt to find out info about where a body is buried.

This is a true crime story.

The story is also told through flashbacks to before the deaths. We see Greg Kinnear playing Detective Brian Miller, who was investigating some of Larry’s victims. I really liked the flashback scenes, but the interview scene with Greg, Larry and the other cops was strange because I just could not get a grasp on the other cops. They seemed like they were actively trying to help out Larry by trying to convince Brian that Larry was just a serial confessor who was full of crap.

Pau Walter Hauser has some big time sideburns, or as the show says ‘burnsides.’ Hauser’s initial scenes were great, and I feel like he is going to rock this show.

After the pilot episode, I think this one is going to be an awesome entry to the Sunday Morning Sidewalk.

Daily Countdown: Animated Movies #59

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#59

Toy Story 4

Released: June 21, 2019

Runtime: 100 minutes

Rating: G

Animation Style: hyper-realistic computer-generated (CGI)

Studio: Pixar/Disney

This film was considered unnecessary by a lot of people. Toy Story 3 ended with such a perfect conclusion with Andy giving his toys away and going off to college that many people thought they should have left it well enough. Then, the put out this fun and exciting follow up, expanding the Toy Story world even more. Maybe you shouldn’t doubt Toy Story as this is now the second outing to make the Top 100.

Voice Cast:  Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Blake Clark, Jeff Pidgeon, Laurie Metcalf, John Morris, Joan Cusack, Estelle Harris, Tony Hale, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Christina Hendricks, Keanu Reeves, Carl Weathers, Ally Maki, Lori Alan, Jack McGraw, Jay Hernandez, Mel Brooks, Carol Burnett, Betty White,  Carl Reiner,  Alan Oppenheimer, Emily Davis  Steve Purcell, Melissa Villaseñor, June Squibb, Lila Sage Bromley, Patricia Arquette, Maliah Bargas-Good, Juliana Hansen, Bill Hader, Flea, and Rickey Henderson.

The Muppet Show S2 E9, E10, E11, E12

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Guest Star: Madeline Kahn

Guest Star: George Burns

Guest Star: Dom Deluise

Guest Star: Bernadette Peters

We got a couple of iconic bits during the first episode. Kermit singing “Happy Feet” is one of my favorites of all time. I will start singing this just out of nowhere many times in my life. Then, Gonzo singing the “Wishing Song” which is one of the sadder songs you’ll hear.

Of the guest stars, Bernadette Peters was easily the best. Her song with Robin was so beautiful. Robin was feeling ignored and her song (with the other Muppets) was just amazing and nearly gave me goosebumps. It helps when the guest star is actually a singer with a great voice.

The George Burns episode was fun and they had a running joke, “Gonzo fiddles while George Burns.”

I was not that much of a fan of the Dom Deluise episode, but I did enjoy his song at the end with the Muppets, “We Got Us.”

Kermit and Piggy had a lot of songs in these episodes. Kermit and Piggy sang “I Won’t Dance” on the set of At the Dance. Piggy even went as far during the Dom Deluise episode paying off the audience to cheer for her.

The running joke of the Bernadette Peters episode was other Muppets showing up behind Statler and Waldorf in their box and forcing them to cheer or boo as wanted. Piggy was especially jealous of Miss Mousy, who sang with Kermit.