The X-Files S9 E1, E2

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“Nothing Important Happened Today”

This two-part episode kicked off season nine of the X-Files, a show that had gone through a creative overhaul to focus on the character that had been heavily introduced in season eight, such as Agent Doggett and Agent Reyes.

Cary Elwes joined the cast of X-Files as FBI Assistant Director Brad Follmer, a former lover to Monica Reyes. These first two episodes played him as kind of creepy jerk, but there may be more than what it seems.

Lucy Lawless appeared here too, but her character, Shannon McMahon, would not become a recurring character because of Lucy Lawless’s difficult pregnancy.

These episodes centered around a new conspiracy, the US Government involved in an attempt to manipulate ova to create super soldiers, one of which may or may not be baby William, Scully’s recently born son.

These episodes had their moments, but the specter of Mulder still hung over the show. In his absence, it is difficult to really get behind the new characters, and the seemingly switch of Kersh into an… ally(?) of Doggett and Scully felt weird.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #12

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“Imperfect Hosts”

The Sunday Morning Sidewalk continued this week with the second episode of Netflix’s The Sandman. I was somewhat disappointed with last week’s episode and I was worried that the commitment I have made, watching an episode a week for eleven weeks, was going to be a toil.

Thankfully, I thought episode two was a considerable step up from last week’s fare and I have a renewed vigor for the series.

One strength of this week’s episode is that it featured more of a spotlight on Morpheus himself. Sure there were other characters involved, but it felt as if they were all contributing toward the story of The Sandman, and not their own tales. Last week there was so little of Dream that it did not feel right.

I loved the introduction of Cain and Abel in the Sandman world. First, with Gregory, the dragon that Morpheus had given to them right out of the nightmare, and then with the fact that Cain continued to kill his brother, these two characters presented a neat contrast to Morpheus. Abel’s confession to Irving, the gargoyle, that he understood the roles they must play, Cain the first murderer and Abel the first victim, was profound and was a cool way to incorporate them into the dream world.

The show built some antagonists more this week, with an increased look at The Corinthian and the introduction of Ethel Cripps, an art dealer who may have sold Morpheus’s tools along the way. This allows Morpheus a group of McGuffins to chase after this season.

They also introduced a Constantine, though not the one I was familiar with. Her name was Johanna Constantine, supposedly a descendent of John. I look forward to the interaction between these characters moving forward.

Again, I am approaching this without much knowledge of the comics so this is an all-new world for me. I did a little research after the episode an discovered that the character of John that we got at the end of the episode is a major villain, Dr. Destiny. I was unaware of that and it provides a neat little Easter egg for me.

Doctor Who S2 E1 (aka Season 15)

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“The Robot Revolution” 

The Doctor returned for his second season on Disney +, which would correspond with his fifteenth season overall. This is the second season (as well as a bunch of specials) featuring Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor, and Varada Sethu as his brand new companion, Belinda Chandra. However, this companion is not quite the same as any of the others.

You see, Belinda Chandra wants to be taken home. After a whole mysterious adventure on a star/planet named after her (it is a strange occurrence), Belinda insists that The Doctor return her to May 25, 2025.

Problem is… the Doctor can’t seem to get the Tardis to arrive on that date. He said the Tardis is bouncing off that date, and we see things floating (including what looked like the Eiffel Tower) in the space where earth once existed.

Something big seemed to have happened. This is clearly leading to the overarching mystery of the season, once again focused around the companion.

I do love Ncuti Gatwa as The Doctor. I know that there has been backlash against the character, but I find him remarkably compelling and fully interesting. I am very much looking forward to this new season of Doctor Who. It was great last season and I can only expect it to continue this year.

Yellowjackets S3 E10

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“Full Circle”

The third season of Yellowjackets came to a close in dramatic fashion that, once again, made me feel like it was LOST.

At the end of the third season of LOST, Jack was able to get ahold of a phone and contacted the boat off the shore of the Island. At the end of the episode, we see that Jack and Kate had made it off the Island and got back to LA.

At the end of the third season of Yellowjackets, Natalie is able to use the phone from the scientists to contact the outside world, leading to the possibility that the Yellowjackets are soon to be rescued.

At, much like Jack in the flash forward, adult Shauna wants to reclaim her power, maker herself the “Queen” again. In sense, Shauna wanted to “go back.”

Also, much like LOST, we got to a point seeing who was in the pit from the first season, revealing a long term mystery as Mari was the doomed victim.

Lottie’s killer was revealed as Shauna’s daughter Callie. Callie and Jeff took their stuff and left Shauna. Shauna found the letter Melissa left with the tape under the fridge. Of course, she tore it up and put it down the garbage disposal. Shauna is truly an unhinged crazy person. And with her family gone, what is keeping her from going all whack-a-doodle once again?

Tai and Misty met to discuss Shauna… or to blame her for everyone’s deaths. I am not sure I find these two together as much better. And what is up with Walter?

This does feel as if the show is preparing to transition into a different reality, to re-invent itself into a different show, much like LOST did in season 4. I’ll be anxious to see where this show takes the story.

Drop

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Drop is a Hitchcockian-type film set in the world of cell phones.

According to IMDB, “A widowed mother on her first date in years, who arrives at an upscale restaurant where she is relieved that her date, Henry is more charming and handsome than she expected. But their chemistry begins to curdle as Violet begins being irritated and then terrorized by a series of anonymous drops to her phone.”

Is this overly ridiculous? Yes. Is the story difficult to believe? Yes. Are there a ton of coincidences that had to happen for things to work out as they did? Of course. None of that bothered me. I was entertained.

I did enjoy the chemistry between Meghann Fahy and Brandon Sklenar. Was Sklenar’s Henry the most patient and understanding man in the world? Absolutely. I would have been so out of there way before this.

This was, for the most part, a one location setting for the film and the restaurant made a solid place for this adventure. I thought there were a lot of fun secondary characters who could be the antagonist and a bunch of them that were red herrings.

There was some dark reasons behind Violet’s past, which was a tough to watch at times. I did like the back story that we got.

There felt like there was a lot of reasons why this movie should not have been very good, and yet I found myself really enjoying it. I suspended my disbelief and found myself entertained.

4 stars

The Amateur

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The new action/thriller movie, The Amateur, released this weekend, starring Academy Award winner Rami Malek.

This movie is the Geek version of John Wick, who uses technology and computers instead of guns and knives. Rami Malek has a interesting presence on screen that is different than would be expected out of a lead protagonist. I found his acting style to be an intriguing change of pace for this type of revenge movie.

Charlie Heller (Rami Malek) worked as a tech guy for the CIA, and receives tragic news. His wife, Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan), on a trip to London, is grabbed and killed by a group of terrorists. Charlie decided to use his skills to search out and kill the people responsible. The CIA sent killer Colonel Henderson (Laurence Fishburne) after him.

I enjoyed this revenge flick quite a bit. I really loved how Charlie was able to get these people by being smarter than anyone else. He was always two steps ahead of everybody. I do think they showed us too many of the deaths in the trailer. I understand why they had to show some of them, but I would have liked to have been more surprised by a few of the moments than I was.

I did really enjoy the conclusion of the film, which felt very unexpected considering what I had seen up until that point.

This may have been a bit too long and could have cut out some of the fat in the middle, but for the most part, I liked this watch. It was a little slow at times, but I found the differences a cool change in a revenge/spy movie.

4.1 stars

EYG Comic Cavalcade #148

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April 11

A little lighter week this week. Plus I missed out on a couple of Marvel titles that had not been delivered yet. Hope to get those soon.

Books this week:

Amazing Spider-Man #1. Written by Joe Kelly and art by Pepe Larraz. Back up story entitled “Death to the Tyrant” by Joe Kelly and John Romita Jr. I have two variant covers, one foil by Mark Chiarello and one by CAFU. The new volume of Amazing Spider-Man arrived this week, but it was one of those books that did not arrive. I was able to grab the couple variants. I enjoyed the new story very much. I think it was much better than the most recent run on ASM.

Godzilla Heist #1-2. Written by Van Jensen and art by Kelsey Ramsay. A intriguing Godzilla tale. The big monster is being manipulated, used to help carry out some highly constructed heists. I have not picked up a bunch of Godzilla books before, but I have always liked the character.

The Herculoids #1. Written by Tom Sniegoski and art by Craig Rousseau. Cover art was by Francesco Mattina. Another of the new Dynamite Comics books featuring classic cartoons of the 80s. I was never a Herculoids kid, but I wanted to give this one a shot. I do not think that I will be continuing with this one.

Batman: Dark Patters #5. “The Voice of the Tower Part 2.” Written by Dan Watters and art and cover art by Hayden Sherman (Gold Medalist). Batman is continuing to go into the building in search of Scarface. The monstrous building is weird for sure.

Phantom Road #11. “The Horrormen Part 1” Written by Jeff Lemire and art and cover art by Gabriel H. Walta. The new arc of Phantom Road kicked off with this issue and I really liked this. The character of the Horrormen are very intriguing and I enjoyed these debuts.

Return of the Living Dead #3. Written by S.A. Check and James Kuhoric with art by Andrea Arcari. Cover art by Mark Spears (Silver Medalist). The continuation of the zombie outbreak and I really have been liking the plotline. The covers by Mark Spears are always top tier.

Uncanny X-Men #13. “Machinations of Dread.” Written by Gail Simone and art by David Marquez. Variant cover art by Luciano Vecchio. The new story arc, titled “The Dark Artery” begins with this issue which included a new character named Henrietta Benjamin. It is very interesting and I like how the issue builds along. Plus, Deathdream shows up at the end with.. Man-Thing? Huh?

Daredevil #20. “Rites of Reconciliation” Part One. Written by Saladin Ahmed and penciled by Jose Luis Soares. Cover art is done by John Romita Jr., Scott Hanna, and Richard Isanove. Daredevil takes a step forward in an old outfit. DD takes out the old black armor to feel something different.

Storm #7. “Serpents, Salamanders and Storm Gods.” Written by Murewa Ayodele with art by Luciano Vecchio. Variant cover art by Marguerite Sauvage. Storm is taking on the storm gods around… and then … we get Thor!

Behemoth #3. Script by Grant Sputore & Ryan Engle and art and cover art by Jay Martin. This Dark Horse series has been a great book so far. Our characters are meeting some new people who have also been inside the monster. Can they escape before the military uses a nuclear weapon on the beast?

The Great British Bump-Off: Kill or Be Quilt #1. Script by John Allison and art and cover art by Max Sarin. Shauna has her uncle’s boat and damaged it. She had to find a way to pay for the repairs. This led to Shauna gaining a job at a quilt shop… and more.

Vatican City #1. Written by Mark Millar and art by Per Berg. Another strong new Dark Horse book. This time, with vampires! Vampires take over the world, but they can not go into the consecrated grounds of Vatican City. Greta start to this one.

Phoenix #10. Written by Stephanie Phillips and art by Alessandro Miracolo. Cover art by Yasmine Putri (Bronze Medalist). Cosmic Phoenix is still out there and we see flashbacks to the young Jean. This has been a strong series so far.

Incredible Hulk #24. “Blood Magic” Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and art by Kev Walker. Nic Klein did the cover art. Bruce and Charlie head to the Sanctum Santorum see if Doctor Strange could help Charlie out. Unfortunately, Strange is currently in Asgard (see later) and they come across Clea. Things may not be as they seem and this is the second book this week with a last page Thor cameo.

Laura Kinney: Wolverine #5. “Brother in Arms- Part 2” Written by Erica Schultz and art by Giada Belviso. Cover art was done by Elena Casagrande & Edgar Delgado. Laura and Bucky take on Hydra? Laura and Bucky have a great chemistry in the book. I would love to see them together again.

Absolute Batman #7. “Absolute Zero.” Written by Scott Snyder and art by Marcos Martin. Cover art as done by Nick Dragotta & Frank Martin (Gold Medalist). We get our first look at Victor and Nora Fries, along with their son… who turns out to the the Absolute Mister Freeze.

Geiger #13. Written by Geoff Johns and art by Gary Frank. Cover art by Gary Frank &Brad Anderson. This is a heavy set up issue as we are about to have Geiger vs. Glowing Woman. Next issue should be a huge one.

Doctor Strange of Asgard #2. Written by Derek Landy and art by Carlos Magno. Geoff Shaw & Arthur Hesli did the cover art. Remember my comments earlier about Dr. Strange? Well, here he is in Asgard, trying to help out Loki and get some of the Sorcerer Supreme power back. This is a fun series with the Doctor.

Other books this week: Transformers #19, The Moon is Following Us #8, Golden rage: Mother Knows Best #1, and Creature Commandos #6.

The Studio S1 E4

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“The Missing Reel”

This is another great episode of this new show from Seth Rogan.

One of the reels of the new movie from Matt’s (Seth Rogan) movie studio Continental Studios disappears and Matt and Sal are on the case.

“Good artists borrow; great artists steal.”—Pablo Picasso

They use this premise to set up a noir-like story, which is absolutely hilarious. The writing on this episode is just so clever and awesome. The background music makes this all the more epic.

This show has had some special cameos so far. In this episode, we get the cameos from Zac Efron and Olivia Wilde. Olivia Wilde’s cameo is so fun because they play off her own image in the real world.

This was such a fun little mystery, and filmed as a noir, it makes it even better.

And the ending… unbelievable.

EYG Favorite Comic Cover of the Week

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April 9

I had a personal day and spent the afternoon at Comic World. It is always a fun and relaxing time spending time with the books this week as well as friends and other customers.

It is a lighter week overall at this point, but I was able to pick out our top three medalists again. One of them has been fairly recurring through the year so far.

Bronze Medalist

Phoenix #10

Cover art by Yasmine Putri

The flames surrounding Jean Grey in space as she encircles the earth make this a beautifully powerful image. I love how the space behind her becomes her new costume. Strong start.

Silver Medalist

Return of the Living Dead #3

Cover art by Mark Spears

Mark Spears has been a master of monsters over the last year or so and these zombies are extremely scary and beautifully rendered. The green and purple make such a compelling contrast on the cover that you forget about this frightening creature on its way to eat your brains.

Gold Medalist

Absolute Batman #7

Cover art by Nick Dragotta

This Batman cover really stands out with the icicles dangling from the title and the dark background with the blue indicating coldness. Oh, there is some red in the corner of the page. Blood maybe? Batman is down looking at it and we see him investigating. Love this cover.

A Minecraft Movie

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My teacher buddy Ambarlee stopped by my classroom Monday morning and she told me that she went to A Minecraft Movie over the weekend and she loved it. When I said I was going Wednesday morning and not looking forward to it, she said that she was watching her middle child and there was so much joy on his face that it made it so much better for her. Sadly, I had no child’s face to stare at when I watched this thing. I am sure I would rather be watching a child’s face than this movie.

According to IMDB, “Four misfits are suddenly pulled through a mysterious portal into a bizarre cubic wonderland that thrives on imagination. To get back home they’ll have to master this world while embarking on a quest with an unexpected expert crafter.”

I do like Jack Black and Jason Momoa. They are reasonably likable characters here… well, at least, they are likable representation of themselves. I always enjoyed when Jack Black would break into song in A Minecraft movie. Black is a full-fledged entertainer.

After that, there is little in this movie that I enjoyed. I found the story repetitive and dull. The comedy missed way more than it hit. There were a few moments were I found myself laughing, but they were few and far between.

I was not a fan of the manner in which the story was told nor did I think the film looked that great. It absolutely had a feel like a video game where the background was cartoonish. I am not sure what the whole Jennifer Coolidge sections were about, though Coolidge is another actor that I like, but her entire story arc was unnecessary.

This was a dumb movie that especially young audiences might enjoy, especially those that have spent hours playing the game this movie was based on. This was not for me. I went in with a low level of expectations and the film struggled to reach them. A Minecraft Movie made a massive amount at the box office this weekend (though my Wednesday morning showing at Phoenix Theaters was empty except for me) and this will undoubtedly be a major success. I wish it was a better movie.

1.75 stars

Daredevil: Born Again S1 E8

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“Isle of Joy”

I haven’t been this tense for a long time.

I was not sure where this show was heading after last week’s death of Muse, who seemed as if he was meant to be the big bad of the season.

Daredevil: Born Again then ratcheted up the suspense in the most beautiful and gut wrenching way.

Bullseye was back, and things start to be filled with anxiety. Matt was losing his temper and everything was building inside of him as unexpected mysteries began to be revealed. Mysteries dealing with why Foggy was killed.

It was not revenge. Ben Poindexter was not going after Foggy for vengeance. He was hired to take the lawyer out. But it was not Wilson Fisk. It was Vanessa.

Everything was coming out at Fisk’s Black and White Ball, amazingly enough, on the dance floor. And Poindexter, who had escaped from prison, was about to shoot Fisk… although I thought it might have been Vanessa in his sights. Matt throws himself in the path of the bullet saving Fisk. Didn’t see that coming.

I liked some of the focus on the secondary characters because there has not been enough of that this season. Especially this week was BB Urich.

We find out so much more about Vanessa. And she shot Adam dead in front of Wilson.

I just did not know what was going to happen on this episode and I was so pleased with how much suspense this show was. Just fabulous with this penultimate episode of the season.

The X-Files S8 E21

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“Existence”

After so many years of me screaming for Mulder to shoot Cigarette Smoking Man in the head and not getting it, it was incredibly satisfying to have Skinner shoot Krychek in the head. Finally! This character was long overdue to meet his maker, and the fact that it was Skinner who got to do it really paid off the torture that Krychek put him through recently.

Baby William was born in this finale of season 8, and, after a lengthy chase and dangerous situation after situation, the Billy Miles led group let the baby alone and left without him. I suppose the baby did not come out like an alien as we had seen in some other births over the last season.

The final scene with Mulder and Scully sharing a kiss with the baby in her arms was excellent and felt very much like an ending. I know there is much more with these two, even if they are stepping back in season 9, but had they not come back, this would have made a very welcome close to the pair.

I did enjoy Doggett standing up to Kersh. It was clear that Doggett and Reyes were going to be the next generation of the X-Files at the FBI and that Kersh will be a major antagonist for them. I am still not necessarily looking forward to the ninth season, but we’ll give it the same chance that I gave this season.

As I have said in previous season 8 write-ups, this turned out to be a better season than I remembered. I bonded more with Doggett than I did the first time around, and while I am still not fond of Agent Reyes, I am willing to give her a chance.

So there are one full season left and two shortened seasons in this rewatch. I believe the count was 36 remaining episodes of the X-Files. I may have to do rewatches of the two feature films from the franchise too before the end of this rewatch.

The White Lotus S3 E8

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“Amor Fati”

No justice for Tonya, after all.

I do not think I have been as disappointed in a character as I am with Belinda. Going from a likable character to a blackmailer was an unsatisfactory ending for me. I really had hoped Gary/Greg would get his comeuppance, but all he had to do was pay some money.

Rick and Chelsea ended in such a tragic manner. I had guessed the possibility of Rick being the son of the man who he had confronted last episode, but I did not see it paying off as it did.

The Ratliffs all survived even though it did not look like they were going to. Lochlan sure looked as if he had passed on, but I guess he was able to shake it off. Not sure how that will end. I just see a lot of stress for that group moving forward.

The three blondes had a nice scene together as they spoke from the heart and rebuilt their friendship. I still do not see how that trio really fit into the story well. Their final scene together at dinner was beautifully acted though.

I found this season’s overarching story to be the worst of the three seasons, but I did like a lot more characters this year. However, I may not be a fan of many of them at the end of the episode.