The X-Files S8 E18, E19, E20

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“Vienen”

“Alone”

“Essence”

With just a handful of episodes remaining in season 8 of The X-Files, I wanted to get them churned out. I have been doing this re-watch of the X-Files since September of 2023 and I am down to one more episode for this season, leaving just season 9, 10, & 11.

My memory of season 8 during its original run was that I did not like it much, but I have to say that this season was better than I had remembered. I have made this speculation before, but it seems obvious that my original thought on this season was the lack of Mulder and what seemed like a replacement in John Doggett. John Doggett has won me over during this re-watch as I was not angry at Mulder not being there.

Of these three episodes, they all had that old X-Files feel to them. With “Vienen” featuring the final appearance of the Black Oil and the ultimate firing of Mulder by Deputy Director Kersh, the whole alien conspiracy felt like it was back, even though it was different and no longer being directed by CSM.

“Alone” was a pretty decent monster-of-the-week tale that had Mulder truly put his trust in Doggett, in a life and death moment. It was a stress-inducing episode where I was reminded of Dr. Curt Connors, aka The Lizard, from Amazing Spider-Man. Oh, those pesky scientists.

“Essence” is a part one of the season finale where we focus in on those people trying to get to Scully’s baby. It reclaimed the old days of the conspiracy as we learn about a baby/alien cloning program and how Billy Miles is like the unstoppable Terminator (ironic since Robert Patrick is on the other end of that). This one was pulling in the old guard too as, of all people, Alex Krychek showed up to help out the good guys team. I still would have loved to see someone put a bullet in Krychek’s head, but I guess he did help things out.

I hope to finish off season 8 either tomorrow or some time early next week. Season 9 has 20 episodes. Season 10 has six episodes and season 11 has 10 episodes, meaning that I am down to 37 episodes remaining in this re-watch of the X-Files. As I said, it has been going since September 2023 so we will be done with this under two years.

What We Do In The Shadows S1 E5, E6

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“Animal Control”

“Baron’s Night Out”

Watched a couple of episodes of What We Do In the Shadows season one this morning. One that I think was very strong and another that was kind of weak.

Episode five was entitled “Animal Control” and it had two main stories. Laszlo had changed into a bat and was knocked unconscious by his neighbors. They called Animal Control and Laszlo is placed in a cage. The second story included Nadja and her old love Jeff, who had been resurrected multiple times.

Episode six, “Baron’s Night Out,” was about the Baron wanting to see the sights of New York. It ends with the drugged out Baron accidentally getting burned to death by the sun.

While there were some funny bits in “Animal Control” I did not find it to be much more than a fluff episode. I enjoyed “Baron’s Night Out” considerably more. I was thinking about the sun being the way the Baron died, but I did not expect it right at the end. When he was playing with the rays of sunlight cracking through the roof.

There are four more episodes in the first season.

The X-Files S8 E17

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“Empedocles”

This episode featured Monica Reyes, investigating a case that she believed had some connection to John Doggett’s son’s death. She brought Mulder into the fray, causing more tension in the relationship of Doggett and Mulder.

I am not looking forward to season nine because of the increased use of Reyes. After just a couple of appearances, she does not appeal to me too much.

A big reason that Reyes bothers me, I think, is that she’s not Scully. There are a couple of scenes between Mulder and Scully in this episode and they are so charming and fun that it really hurts the remainder of the episode when they are not together. Scully spends the episode in the hospital from pregnancy issues. Their banter over the “Pizza Guy” was excellent.

Robert Patrick does a great job with Doggett and his anger and grief. You can feel his conflict within the skepticism he holds about the supernatural aspects.

I did like the advancement between Mulder and Doggett.

Season 8 has just four more episodes left.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #11

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“Sleep of the Just”

Sunday Morning Sidewalk started a new series this week, The Sandman, from Netflix. Based on a classic DC Comics comic book from Neil Gaiman, The Sandman was a show that I had always intended to watch, but just never got around to doing. It has eleven episodes on Netflix so it will be our new Sunday Morning Sidewalk into early June.

At least, that is the current schedule. I do hope that the remainder of The Sandman is an improvement over this first episode, because I was not very impressed with it.

Before I go into the negatives, the show looked absolutely amazing. The visuals were stunning and it was clear that this show did not skimp on a budget for it.

However, there was so much exposition that I had a difficult time keeping my focus on the story the show was telling. It bounced around at first and did not establish the feel well. Then, the story moved on to Charles Dance, a well known character actor playing a man named Roderick Burgess, who was able to capture Morpheus in some contraption. He then holds him for ten years.

The problem with this was that Burgess’s motivation was very muddy. Did he want his deceased son back from the dead or did he want immortality and wealth? It seemed as if he wanted all of that in order to free Morpheus. Poor Morpheus had to lay inside this glass container naked for such a long time. Get the man a blanket at least.

Then there was another son, Alex, who was ignored and verbally abused by Burgess. Alex accidentally killed his father and then he held on to Morpheus for an undetermined amount of time. The world suffered from some kind of sleep sickness, but the show really did not go into any specifics on that.

Oh, Boyd Holbrook is here too, as some kind of figure that opposes Morpheus. IMDB tells me his name is The Corinthian. I was not a Sandman comics reader so I do not know whom that was. He seemed to be a potential future antagonist. Not sure why.

The story of this episode was a mess and I was very disappointed in the show. The main story of the Burgess family did not grasp my attention and did not seem to be a worth story to kick off this series with. Again, I do not know if this is a vital comic storyline adapted or if this was completely new for the series, but I did not enjoy it much.

I do hope this gets better as it moves along or else I might have to looking into the possibility of adjusting the Sunday Morning Sidewalk schedule.

Yellowjackets S3 E9

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“How the Story Ends”

Episode 9 ends with yet another tragic death, this time adult Van tastes death and ends up on the plane, flying away with her young self, much like we saw happen with Natalie. Van wound up having a knife stuck through her heart by Melissa after Van decided against sacrificing Melissa to the Wilderness as a sacrifice to fight her cancer.

There is no way around it, Shauna is totally bat-shit crazy. A few seasons ago, Shauna was one of my favorite characters on the show, but now, I see her as just a psychotic woman with murderous tendencies. Both as an adult and as a teen in the Wilderness, Shauna is just such a wild animal.

I do not think she killed Lottie though. She could have. She may have even wanted to, but I do not think she did. I wonder what was on Lottie’s clone phone that Misty manipulated out of Walter. That is clearly a huge piece of evidence that Misty will drop before the season ends next week.

I was shocked when Hannah drove that knife into Kodi’s face. I did not see that coming. Unfortunately, Kodi saw it coming way to closely. Ah, Joel McHale, we hardly knew ye. I mean, on the plus side, the Yellowjackets surely have plenty of meat for the winter now, right?

Hannah is heading into that spike pit that Travis built, isn’t she? We know she ain’t making it out of there. That seemed to clearly be her fate.

The Other One finally lost her grip on Tai after this whole incident. This was a bizarre thing, and it wound up costing Van her life. I hope that is the last we have seen of that storyline.

Congrats to Jeff! Getting a job by telling the people who you want to hire you that your wife is crazy… that is a new strategy. Whatever works I guess. However, it sure seems as if Jeff really believes in Shauna’s craziness.

One more episode of the season. My guess is that we discover who Lottie’s killer is… and see the fate of Hannah.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #147

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April 5

It is time for the EYG Comic Cavalcade once again. I have to shout out to the comic company Mad Cave. I have really found that this independent company has been releasing some excellent books recently, picking up their game. I think this company is just behind Image (close to a tie with DC) for me on my current favorite company list. 1. Marvel, 2. Image, 3. DC, 4. Mad Cave, 5. Dynamite, 6. Boom! Studios, 7. DSTLRY (DSTLRY would be higher if they had a more consistent release schedule) 8. Dark Horse 9. Oni, 10. Keenspot. This list is consistently fluid, of course, as it may depend on specific books released.

Other books this week:

All-New Venom #5. Written by Al Ewing and art by Carlos Gomez. Cover art was done by Adam Kubert & Laura Martin. In the EYG Comic Cavalcade #143, I speculated that maybe Marvel was pulling a swerve and not making this all-new Venom one of the four suspects that they were promoting as the suspects. I had a gut feeling that they were pulling out a surprise and I was right about it. I am not sure how I feel about the reveal of the All-New Venom. We’ll see how it goes.

Spider-Boy #18. “Keys to the Kingdom.” Written by Dan Slott and art by Paco Medina. Cover art was done by Paco Medina and Edgar Delgado. Spider-Boy has to face off with Mister Negative, despite Spider-Man’s objections.

Past Time #1. Written by Joe Harris and art by Russell Olson. Mark Chiarello did the cover art. One of those new Mad Cave books that I really liked. The story had a time frame from early days of baseball and the days of the first night game at Wrigley Field. There are a lot of things going on in this book and I loved it.

You Never Heard of Me #3. Written by Iolanda Zanfardino and illustrated by Elisa Romboli. Will is having a difficult time adjusting to his powers to see the best and worst moment of anyone’s life (which switches on a regular basis). He sees that a classmate Rory could die and he wants to figure out how it is going to happen.

I Was a Fashion School Serial Killer #1. Written by Doug Wagner and art by Daniel Hillyard. Cover art (Both cover A & B) by Daniel Hillyard and Michelle Madsen. Rennie has been accepted to the New York Fashion and Design Institute. She was after a certain thing, but it was not necessarily the reason one would expect. She is a serial killer. Look out, Sofie. I had to grab the cover B version along with the cover A because I loved the B, but I wanted A too.

We’re Taking Everyone Down With Us #1. Written by Matthew Rosenberg and art and cover art by Stefano Landini. A brand new story that, when broken down, is really the story of a father and his daughter. Admittedly, there are more levels to this new Image book than that. This first issue was compelling though. We’ll see where it goes.

West Coast Avengers #6. Written by Gerry Conway and art by Ton Lima. Cover art was done by Ben Harvey. We get some Avengers on Avengers violence in this issue as some members of the Avengers face off with the West Coast Avengers over the potential dangers of Ultron. I have enjoyed this series so far.

X-Men #14. Written by Jed MacKay and penciled by Ryan Stegman. Variant cover D art by Woo Chul Lee. Piper, the young girl of the mutant-hating mother, was told that she was not a mutant and turned away by the X-Men. She has disappeared into the wilderness of Alaska and there was definitely something about the girl.

Daredevil: Cold Day in Hell #1. Dialogue by Charles Soule and art and cover art by Steve McNiven (Gold Medalist). I typical am not a fan of the possible future stories like this one. Throw that out the window. I loved this book. It might be the best book of the week. The future version of Matt Murdock is awesome and I loved everything about this series. Charles Soule is a great writer and you can see his skill here. Three issue series and it started tremendously.

Juvenile #5. Written, art and cover art by Jesus Orellana. This was the final issue of this Image series. I have enjoyed this book considerably. It has a Stranger Things meet X-Men feel to it and I think the book is set up to continue at some time in the future. Great stuff.

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #32. “God War Part 1” Written by Cody Ziglar and art by Marco Renna. Federico Vicentini & Neeraj Menon did the cover art. Miles finds himself in the middle of a bunch of Gods, from Thor, Hercules, Anansi to Ares. Miles has to be considered a big gun at this point.

Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu #7. “Pool Party” written by Jed MacKay and art by Domenico Carbone. Cover art by Davide Paratore (Silver Medalist). Moon Knight has a plan to attempt to draw out Hank Pym. The plan involved Pym’s daughter, Nadia. There is a lot of connections between Moon Knight and Hank Pym that they can mine for goodness here. I love when they use the characters’ background.

Absolute Superman #6. “Son of Smallville” Written by Jason Aaron and art by Carmine Di Giandomenico. Cover art was done by Rafa Sandoval & Ulises Arreola. We get the back story of what happened when an older Kal-El, more teenage than baby, arrived in Kansas with Jonathan and Martha Kent. It was a little different than what we were used to.

Let This One Be A Devil #2. Script by James Tynion IV & Steve Foxe and art by Piotr Kowalski. Gavin Fullerton did the cover art. This “True Weird Story” continues with a look at the mysterious Leeds Devil. This reminds me of a horror version of Blue Book, a series from Dark Horse penned by Tynion IV. This has some scary moments inside that really work with his style.

Immortal Thor #22. “The Edge” Written by Al Ewing and art by Jan Bazaldua. Alex Ross did the cover art. Thor and Skurge are joined by Hermod in their quest that may be leading to a major event in this series.

Those Not Afraid #3. Script by Kyle Starks and art by Patrick Piazzalunga. Cover art was done by Glenn Fabry. Turned out that out two serial killers, competing with each other for most kills, were able to squirm their way out of trouble from last issue.

Hyde Street #5. Written by Geoff Johns and art by Francis Portela. Cover art by Ivan Reis, Danny Miki with Brad Anderson. Miss Glee Goodbody is our focus this issue of Hyde Street. She was a horrendous woman. Very unlikable. Hyde Street still has that Twilight Zone feel to it and it delivers a strong story each issue.

The Lucky Devils #3. Written by Charles Soule and art and cover art by Ryan Browne. Charles Soule seems to be very busy lately with a bunch of Marvel books and this one that definitely has that Eight Billion Genies vibe to it. No genies, but demons from Hell instead. This continues to be a fun title with some of the more creative ideas you are going to find.

Pop Kill #2. Story by Jimmy Palmiotti & Dave Johnson and art by Juan Santacruz. Variant cover B art by ark Chiarello. What happens when you get James Bond fighting villainous agents over a pop formula? You get Pop Kill. Another new Mad Cave book that has a lot going for it. I love this cool variant cover too. Probably could have competed for the medal if I had gotten it earlier in the week.

Darkwing Duck #2. Written by Daniel Kibblesmith and art by Ted Brandt & Ro Stein. Cover art was done by Tad Stones. This issue of the Disney character Darkwing Duck featured Gosalyn and her school play. She is manipulated by a super villain posing as her substitute teacher. Ah, if I had a nickel for every substitute teacher who was truly a super villain.

Plague House #1. Written by Michael W. Conrad and illustrated and cover art by Dave Chisholm. Another good new independent book, but this time it is from Oni Press. An online ghost hunter group, looking to debunk the false houses, go into a house where it is anything but fake. There are some very dramatic moments in this issue.

Concert of Champions #1. Written by Jason Loo and art by Rafael Loureiro & Ruairi Coleman. Cover art was done by Javier Garrón & Romulo Fajardo Jr. Dazzler, Luna Snow and Lil Cheney are putting on a concert. That means there will be trouble coming. Here in the form of a super villain heavy metal band. Hmm.

Hello Darkness #9. Variant Cover art by Jenny Frison. Once again, there is a group of intriguing horror/thriller stories inside this anthology series. “Teacher’s Pet” from Cullen Bunn is probably my favorite of the issue. That has some personal connection as a teacher.

Psylocke #6. “House of Ghosts.” Written by Alyssa King and art by Vincenzo Carratù and Moises Hidalgo. Mahmud Asrar & Matthew Wilson did the cover art. What is happening to Kwannon? And can a trip to see the Uncanny X-Men, in particular Deathdream, help out. Will Rogue think it is a good idea? More conflict between the two X-teams.

Absolute Green Lantern #1. “The Black Hand.” Written by Al Ewing and art and cover art by Jahnoy Lindsay. Al Ewing is everywhere these days. How many books is this guy writing in a month? He hits another home run with this new version of Green Lantern. I love the way he weaves these other Lanterns into this story. Another strong Absolute DC book.

Resurrection Man: Quantum Karma #1. “This Body Holding Me.” Written by Ram V and art by Anand RK and Jackson “Butch” Guice. Jeff Dèkal did the cover art. This is a solid book from DC Comics’ Black Label. I did not know this character before, though Todd said he used to love him. I am intrigued by what I read here and, with a grumble, will pick up yet another DC book.

Hornsby & Halo #5. Storytellers are Peter J. Tomasi & Peter Snejbjerg. Zach and Rose are reeling from the things that have been happening to them so far, but this issue takes that to another step. Pinch each other to see if they are dreaming.

The Atom Project #4. “Catalyst.” Written by Ryan Parrott and John Ridley and art by Mike Perkins. Variant cover B art by Mark Spears (Bronze Medalist). Captain Atom vs. Zmeck. The Atom Project has been a solid series so far, and I believe it is coming to an end soon. It shows that you can have a good series with any characters as long as there is good writing.

Deadpool #13. Written by Cody Ziglar and art by Rogê Antônio. Taurin Clarke did the cover art. Deadpool and Daughters are on the path to find Death Grip. On the path, they must fight Solem, he with the adamantium skin. If you haven’t had enough of them together yet, Wolverine makes a cameo with Deadpool.

Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe One Last Time #1. Written by Cullen Bunn and art by Dalibor Talajic. Cover is the April Pool’s Day Variant cover with all white. Remember when I mentioned earlier about how I usually did not like possible future stories but I loved the new Daredevil one? This is an example of the other way around. I did not care for this at all and liked it even less when I learned it was more than just a one shot.

Two-Face #5. “Roll the Dice and Die!” Written by Christian Ward and art by Fabio Veras. Cover art was done by Baldemar Rivas. Two-Face’s daughter? Die. Rolls her way into this issue, trying to find her father. This penultimate issue of the book sets up the next issue with Batman.

Olympians: Hades-Lord of the Dead Graphic Novel. Created by George O’Connor. I picked this up off of Amazon this week because my 8th grade class will be reading an excerpt from this graphic novel out of their HMH curriculum this coming week and I wanted to see the whole thing. I did the same thing with Monster: A Graphic Novel by Walter Dean Myers. I do like how this program includes some graphic novels in their units.

Other books this week: Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 10th Anniversary Special #1, The Terminator #6, Red Before Black #5, Ironheart: Bad Chemistry #1, Rivals #1, Secret Six #2, Money Shot: Big Bang #0, Ripperland #3, Sam and Twitch Case Files #12, and Ultimate X-Men.

Hell of a Summer

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I realized this the other day. It turned out that the next movie review I was going to write would be my 2700th review on this site. I did write several years of reviews before EYG moved to Word Press, but those are gone into the recesses of the internet.

What would be the 2700th review on EYG? Yes, it was Hell of a Summer, the new film written and directed by Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk.

Finn Wolfhard from Stranger Things was one of the few actors I recognized from the movie (although, there was also Fred Hechinger who was just in Kraven the Hunter).

A group of counselors go to Camp Pineway to prepare for summer camp and to discover that a masked killer was knocking them off.

Now this is not an original concept for a slasher movie. Plenty of them are set at a summer camp. However, this felt kind of like a bit of a satire of those movies as there was a lot of humor etched in the situation.

Yes, none of the characters were very well developed, but, again, you can say that in any of the slasher movies, and much of that was played for laughs.

The film was paced well and never slacked off. There were some funny bits and some characters who you really were cheering to get killed by the killer, especially Bobby (Billy Bryk). The story was simple and straightforward and checked all the boxes you would need for a slasher flick. Was it great? No, but it was an enjoyable enough film to pass the time on a Saturday afternoon.

3.2 stars

The Studio S1 E3

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“The Note”

The third episode of the behind the scenes, meta show, The Studio, was hilarious. This is yet another huge success for Apple TV.

This episode had Matt, in his role as the head of the studio, needing to give a note on a new film directed by Ron Howard. Matt is afraid to do so because he had done something stupid years before after viewing A Beautiful Mind with Howard at a friends and family viewing party.

The note was that they needed to cut a sequence at the end of Howard’s movie that was dragging down the film, a sequence that everyone who saw it, hated. However, no one could face up with Ron Howard and tell him. Apparently, it was a sequence in honor of his dead cousin.

Ron Howard, who appeared last season on Only Murders in the Building as himself in a fabulous cameo, is awesome here and Anthony Mackie guest stars as himself, the star of the aforementioned film.

Kathryn Hahn is here quite a bit too and you can never go wrong with more Kathryn Hahn.

This pull-back-the -curtain series has been really fun so far and I have enjoyed them tremendously.

EYG Favorite Comic Covers of the Week

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April 2

A quick happy heavenly birthday to my friend Frank. We always joked about Frank’s birthday being the fallout from April Fools Day. I wish we could make that joke to him now.

Anyway, here are this week’s medalists.

Bronze Medalist

Justice League: The Atom Project #4

Variant cover B

Cover Art by Mark Spears

Mark Spears appeared again as a medalist, this time with a DC Comics book with the Atoms. This was a neat cover with the cool background.

Silver Medalist

Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu #7

Cover art by Davide Paratore

What a dramatic cover this is with 8-Ball looking quite suspicious. The excellent poses and the blood across Moon Knight makes this truly exceptional.

Gold Medalist

Daredevil: Cold Day in Hell #1

Cover art by Steve McNiven

This is a beautiful design on this cover. You have old man Matt Murdock up from, standing in a graveyard with snow everywhere. The specter of Daredevil in the background. Again it is the white background, which is always a favorite.

Daredevil: Born Again S1 E7

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So the latest episode of Daredevil: Born Again dropped on Disney + and, for the first time during this series, I am of mixed minds on an episode.

There was a final confrontation between Daredevil and Muse. We confirmed what we all expected back when we saw the kid in the book signing for Heather Glenn, the kid who approached her and hoped to have her work him into her client list. That kid, Bastian, turned out to be Muse, and he was coming to Heather with terrible plans for her.

Matt discovered Muse’s connection to Heather and Daredevil rushed to her aid, arriving just in time. Daredevil and Muse engaged in a fight in Heather’s office, but before it went too far, Heather recovered the gun that Muse had brought with him and shot him multiple times, killing him.

While the confrontation was tense and suspenseful, and the fight was cool and brutal as always, the death of Muse felt like a missed opportunity. It seemed as if this death was rushed and that there was so much more that could have been mined out of that character that I can’t deny that I felt disappointed at the resolution.

Kingpin’s manipulations of the situation to make his Anti-Vigilante Task Force look better to the people of New York.

This did feel like it went too fast. This could have been spread out over several episodes and, while it was a great battle and anxious moments, it seemed as if it could have been more.

The X-Files S8 E16

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“Three Words”

Mulder is back.

However, not on the X-Files. Deputy Director Kersh continued his crusade against Mulder by not reinstating him to the X-Files, leaving Agent Doggett assigned to the section.

Mulder does not trust Doggett. He has no reason to. This episode tried to give Mulder a reason to.

Doggett showed his strength as an agent and his level headedness even in spite of Mulder’s paranoid response to him. He just wants to do what is right. He clearly respects Scully and wants to protect her and the unborn baby. He wants the truth, but he is more skeptical than Scully ever was.

It was nice seeing Mulder reunited with the Lone Gunmen. It was a sweet scene that was very funny… highlighted by the hug between Mulder and Frohike.

This was a good return for Mulder and an interesting set up. I understand Mulder’s doubt of Doggett. I mean, Mulder was never one to trust easily. Outside of Scully and Skinner, Mulder did not trust anyone in the FBI and few others outside of it.

This definitely leads to Mulder being ousted from the FBI which would lead to the end of the original series.

The White Lotus S3 E7

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“Killer Instinct”

The penultimate episode of season three of The White Lotus aired tonight on MAX and it set up several major storylines for a potential explosive finale.

Greg/Gary offered Belinda $100,000 to basically forget everything she knows about him and about Tanya. She was not happy about the offer and there is a whole tension built by the show. I feel this has been my favorite storyline consistently the whole season.

Rick was able to confront the big bad from his past. Meanwhile, Frank is distracting the wife, drinking whiskey after ten years of sobriety. Though it feels like Rick took a step toward getting past his childhood trauma, I have a sense that something tragic is about to happen in this story. I felt bad for Frank.

Timothy slips deeper into his depression and drug use and his thoughts of killing himself and his family are filling his head. I’m nervous about what Timothy might do.

I still find little engagement with the three blondes, even though now Laurie hooked up with Aleksei. The whole three blondes and the Russians story has gone nowhere for me.

One more week to go. I hope things wrap up well.

Justice for Tonya!

What We Do In the Shadows S1 E4

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“Manhattan Night Club”

Nandor, Laszlo, Nadja, Colin and Guillermo head to a Manhattan night club in order to try and secure an alliance with other vampires in their continued effort to gain control of the land.

This was another very funny episode that reminded me of an episode of The Tick.

I know that is strange, but in the animated Tick show, episode “Tick vs. Tick,” the Tick goes to a superhero club and fights with another hero using the same name. What especially reminded me of that episode was the “Sidekick Lounge” which is where Arthur went. He found a group of sad sack sidekicks that had been regulated to the lounge.

In “Manhattan Night Club,” Guillermo went to the “Familiar Lounge,” in search of a bathroom, where he met a group of sad sack familiars. I could see the similarities to that Tick episode.

Things do not work out for our group though as the whole escapade was a trap in order for the head vampire, Simon the Devious (played by Nick Kroll), to get his hands on Laszlo’s hat.

Yes, his hat.

That hat was not just any hat. It was cursed. Laszlo refused to accept it, despite the overwhelming evidence supporting the cursed theory. I mean, after Simon stole the hat, he accidentally blew the club up.

Definitely cursed.

The X-Files S8 E14, E15

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“This is Not Happening”

“Deadalive”

These two episodes played as a two-parter that would lead to the return of Fox Mulder to the land of the living, literally.

Mulder was abducted by aliens at the end of the seventh season. David Duchovny had decided that he wanted to move on from The X-Files and a contract dispute with FOX resulted in Mulder being written out of the show.

However, everything was settled and Duchovny agreed to be in 11 episodes of season 8. These two episodes were the way they brought the character back from the abduction.

It was a rush of emotions as Mulder was missing, discovered dead, buried for three months before being exhumed and placed on life support. Eventually, the removal of life support is what brought Mulder back fully.

Does any of this make any sense? Not really. The story was all over the place, including the rebirth (?) of former X-Files character Billy Miles, who was abducted at the same time as Mulder was. How did Mulder survive being buried alive for three months? Or was he buried dead? No autopsy? No embalming? If you examine this plot too closely, there are a lot of nagging issues.

Having Duchovny back makes you happily ignore those problems. The final scene with Mulder and Scully was exceptional and worth the wait. Mulder joking about not knowing Scully was awesome and right in Mulder’s character.