Category Archives: TV-G[eek]

Rick and Morty S9 E9

Posted on by

Spoilers

“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.

Rick and Morty S9 E1-E8

Posted on by

Spoilers

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

Posted on by

Spoilers

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.

The Muppet Show S2 E9, E10, E11, E12

Posted on by

Spoilers

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.

Batman: Caped Crusader Season 2

Posted on by

Spoilers

Amazon Prime’s second season of its animated TV show, Batman: Caped Crusader dropped recently and I got to binge it today. I had planned on watching five episodes today and then watch the rest on Sunday, but I just did not want to stop watching once I got into it.

This was fabulous.

The flavor and feel of this show is so much like the Bruce Timm Batman: The Animated Series, but mixed with the violence of the present day, such as Matt Reeves’ The Batman. That makes sense since both of those gentlemen worked on this project.

I can understand if someone did not like this show since the show takes many of the known characters from the Batman universe/rogue’s gallery and give them a different touch. An example is Edward Nygma, known to the Bat-fans as The Riddler. The Riddler was so named because he would “riddle” his victims with bullets. I like most of the new versions. You can compare these differences to those you might see in the Absolute DC universe.

The Joker came into the show this year and spent most of the season in the background doing sneaky stuff. His arrival front and center was downright frightening, especially in episode 9. Watching all of the people dying from laughing was horrific. I was not as fond of the gas turning the people into Solomon Grundy-like creatures. Seeing the people actually die was much worse for me.

The Joker was less crazy as we usually see him portrayed as, and here he is colder, more serial killer-like. I’m not sure it was my favorite version of Joker, but he was a frightening character.

This show is absolutely not afraid to kill of these characters. Season one had the death of Two-Face which was shocking, but this year, we saw Rupert Thorne, The Riddler, Hugo Strange, Hattie Tetch (who was supposedly a version of the Mad Hatter, which I never got) and, of course, countless cops and henchmen. I thought this violence was better used than in, for example, Invincible since it does not focus on the blood splatter.

They took several low-level comic characters that made their way into the show. Carrie Kelley, who appeared in season one, becomes a Robin in Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns, and she takes on a Grey Ghost-like persona. A villain called Thorn, who I actually had to look up. I had never heard of her before.

They gave us a version of The Spectre, which came from season one with the character of Jim Corrigan (which was the episode with Onomatopoeia). Again, it was not my favorite version of Spectre, but, as a part of this episode, I thought this turned out great. As I said, I think of this like a Elseworld version or an Absolute version.

This was a lot of fun and I just enjoyed every episode. I do think episode 9 was my favorite of the season as I was on the edge of my seat the whole time watching these people die from the Joker Smile-X. I hope there will be more of this series in the future because these are great.

Silo S3 E6

Posted on by

Spoilers

“The Drive”

This episode felt like it was setting up the bigger things moving forward.

Juliette getting the Algorithm to approve two people to go to the other silo and retrieve the children. Of course, Juliette wants someone to go to plug off the gas. She agrees to resume taking the memory drugs if they can bring the children back.

This whole things feels as if both of them are lying to adjust their own plans.

We spent a chunk of time with the idea that Knox and Shirley would be the people sent to the other silo, but it did not look like they are heading out, which made their entire conversation moot.

We get some good work from Camille this week. She is really our main antagonist and she has shown more depth than one would expect. When she coldly told the Algorithm she had already placed the Vitamin D in the water supply, it was chilling.

The past story with the controlled car uses the time to learn more about Helen and passing the time until they arrived with Senator Rosalind Thurman asking them if they want to save the world.

Again, this feels as if it were all done to set up the rest of the season, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. I hope this will lead to a real banger of a second half of the season.

Rick and Morty Season 8

Posted on by

Spoilers

I finished season 8 of Rick and Morty this afternoon, leaving me with just the remaining 8 episodes so far of season to watch (I am not sure when new episodes are released on HBO Max. It would be fun to catch up to the current run before it wraps up the season).

I was not as much of a fan of season 8. I found most of season 8 to be average to slightly below average. It wasn’t bad per se, but I just did not think the plan for the season worked as well as previous seasons.

Then, among the first 4-5 episodes, I found a few of them to be in the same vein as season 8… disappointing. It did not make me feel confident about the whole season.

Among those first five, “Summer of All Fears” was one I did not love. It was a Summer-centric episode and, historically, those have not been my favorite. I also was not a huge fan of “The Rick, The Mort & The Ugly” which featured a story with other Ricks, specifically a Wild West version that reminded me of Clint Eastwood from Unforgiven. While I love that movie, this one bugged me. Another trend I am not a fan of is when we follow a character that is not our Rick (and I know that can be convoluted).

However, I did like the Space Beth episode “Valkyrick” a lot. The whole trope of a heist movie spelling out the plan of the heist as we see it on the screen was shown here, but the images on the screen showed the heist falling apart because of too much of a dependence on “Cisco.” I really loved that section of this episode.

“The Last Temptation of Jerry” was another of the first episodes that I thought was really funny, if not sacrilege. the whole Easter bit with the rampaging Easter Bunny was really funny and co-opting the Tim Allen Santa Clause plot was great too.

Episode five, “Cryo Mort a Rickver,” was another that did not impress me, though I found it better than the previous episodes that I thought were lacking.

Then, things turned around for the show, and the rest of the season felt like big hits.

I liked how Space Beth and Beth turned themselves into little girls who were anything but sweet. I liked the episode where Jerry gets lost on the road thanks to another Jerry. It was cool to see Morty’s son Junior make a return, which I think I called back when Junior was originally created.

The finale with Rick trying to purge the memories of his wife Diane from his mind so he could be more emotionally open was a very good episode. I loved the ending where Rick pretended to have killed “Memory Rick” and “Memory Diane” but instead set them up in a memory storage device. The finale was difficult to follow at times, but there is no doubt that it was a strong finish.

Then, episode seven was one of my favorite episodes of the series. “Ricker than Fiction” saw Rick and Morty watching the latest movie from one of their favorite franchises, “Maximum Velocitree,” but they responded with anger and vitriol. The dialogue was great as they were clearly mocking those people online who claim things like a certain movie “ruined my childhood” or some idiotic statement like that. They went to Warner Brothers to complain and came across James Gunn (yes, voiced by James Gunn himself).

They got into an argument with James Gunn and Rick decided to fix the next script to make it better. Rick designed a machine called the Movie-Lizer which can create a movie if given a script. It also allows the user of the machine to change the script easily. This is obviously a commentary on AI and its intrusiveness in the movie industry. Rick and Morty get sucked inside the Movie-Lizer and find themselves in the story, which they have to try to fix before it is too late. This is such a meta episode, but it is also remarkably funny and clever.

I loved the guest star voice of James Gunn who ran across Zack Snyder, who was also an actual voice for this episode. This unbelievably meta and hilarious encounter made me respect Zack Snyder way more. He was really funny and was allowing the script to give him crap.

The second half of the season was considerably more consistent and engaging than the beginning and “Ricker Than Fiction” is probably in my top 10 of all time.

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe S1 E3

Posted on by

Spoiler

“Spoiler: Bert is Magic”

Okay, this week’s guest stars from The Big Bang Theory is Melissa Rauch as Bernadette and Wil Wheaton as Wil Wheaton. Again, this is one of the main features of this show.

There is really no story here. The group, Stuart, Bert, Denise and Barry have arrived in a universe where magic is real. However, their transport machine is not working, requiring magic. Luckily, somehow, Bert is now able to do magic.

Bernadette turned out to be a demon, who has had her magic powers taken from her, and she suckered Stuart into giving her his blood so she could break the spell.

Wil Wheaton arrived to punish Stuart and Bert had a magic fireball fight.

Oh, and Bert turned Barry into a penguin because Barry had left when a mob was preparing to burn Bert at the stake.

Strangely, I watched a podcast about the show afterward hosted by Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day that talked in depth about this TV program that does not have any depth whatsoever.

After the group escaped from the gigantic Bernadette at the last possible second, we see Stuart wind up in a new universe where Stuart is in an asylum.

This feels so rushed every episode as the show is just waiting to see what characters from The Big Band Theory show up and in what format. Stuart in an insane asylum could be the episode that changes the focus of this show.

Ted Lasso S4 E1

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Home”

There may not be a more engaging or positive character on TV than Ted Lasso. I remember when I first started watching the show, I wanted to be more like Ted Lasso in my own classroom.

I was doubtful when I heard that Apple TV was bringing the show Ted Lasso back for a fourth season after a finale of season three that felt complete. Was this worth bringing back or would this just tarnish my memories of the awesomeness of the previous three years?

I watched the first episode on Apple TV tonight and I have to say that I am intrigued. Despite the show feeling at times like a documentary for Kansas City, we placed these characters that we loved square back on the screen and they shone as they always did.

Ted himself is just amazing, making the best out of whatever is around him. He is still teaching lessons and providing the most down-home sayings and quotes. Jason Sudeikis slipped right back into the character of Ted Lasso without missing a beat.

Placing Rebecca, Keeley and Higgins as the fish-out-of-water this time was a nice change as they were attempting to recruit Ted to coach the new Richmond female football squad. While they did spend too much time filming on location around Kansas City, the easy chemistry of these characters came through one again.

I am 100% going to watch this show, as I spent a good chunk of the premiere laughing, but I am not sure yet if this is something that I would have chosen to do. I am still unsure if this will live up to what has come before. Still, I was entertained by this first episode and hope springs eternal.

X-Men ’97 S2 E8

Posted on by

Spoilers

“The Dead Man’s Hand”

We remember him.

Gambit is back and very dark.

Apocalypse, whose skeleton was found last episode by X-Force, was apparently killed by this reanimated Gambit, but he is just inside the mind of Remy.

I think this episode was one that we were waiting for since “Remember Me” from last season, and this, while fine, there was not that emotional punch that I was expecting from the return of Gambit. I think a big reason behind it has been one of the issues with season two, which was that the stories have felt too rushed. I think this whole Gambit return could have been two or three episodes. The emotions were not allowed to breathe in the story.

There are still some good moments, specifically between Gambit and Rogue inside Gambit’s mind.

Surprisingly, this did not play out like we all thought, with Gambit as Death leading a new formation of the Horsemen of Apocalypse (maybe with Magneto beside him). Instead, Gambit was shown as more of an individual who killed Apocalypse. That is, clearly not the case, but it was interesting that the show took this different path.

We got the huge X-Men team shot that we saw in the trailers early on, and it is awesome, as is the controlled Nightcrawler fight scene as he just dominated the X-Men. Nightcrawler has always been a personal favorite of mine and to show his capabilities (in a cool POV shot) was great.

There is just one more episode remaining in season 2 and I assume it will have something to do with Apocalypse, but I am not sure what the focus will be on. With the remaining members of X-Force teaming up with X-Factor, I am wondering exactly how this will resolve itself.

Rick and Morty Season 7

Posted on by

Spoilers

I have to say, Season 7 of Rick and Morty was my least favorite overall so far.

It was amazing when I found out that they had replaced the actor who voiced both Rick and Morty, Justin Roiland, because of a domestic abuse charge, because there was absolutely no concernable way to recognize the difference. Big shout out to  Ian Cardoni and Harry Belden for their seamless transition into the roles.

The season had a bunch of episodes that were fairly meh, and at least a couple that were total flops. Specifically, “Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie” may have been my least favorite Rick and Morty episode of the series run so far.

The end of season 6 hinted at season 7 being all about finally ending Rick Prime, but that story arc did not run the whole season. In fact, it was mentioned early, but all came to a close in episode 5, “Unmortricken,” which also brought about the return of Evil Morty. Rick ended up, thanks to Evil Morty, beating Rick Prime to death his his own hands. I found this end to be very unsatisfying. I think that might have been the point, having the theme be that revenge never makes you feel better.

Rick was scattered the rest of the season, and I do not think the show was able to regather the momentum of previous years. The Fear hole episode finale “Fear No Mort” was pretty decent, as Morty tried to face his fears at a Denny’s. There was a character introduced in “Mort: Ragnarick” that was fun with Bigfoot. Finally, there was a sick episode where there was a world where the people who committed suicide turned into tasty spaghetti that the Smith family loved to eat.

My favorite moments of the season came from the guest star Hugh Jackman in the season premiere featuring Mr. Poopybutthole. Actually voiced by Hugh Jackman, they spent the whole episode making fun of everything. Jackman clearly has a great sense of humor.

Other episodes featuring the return of Unity, turning Morty into a “Kuato,” and Rick and Jerry combined into the Jerricky were all lower than I thought.

Next up is season 8. I am streaming these all on HBO Max.

Silo S3 E5

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Memory”

This was a big episode, focusing heavily on the shocking cliffhanger that they gave us last week, the very much alive Bernard.

The biggest part of the episode was the flashbacks to show us how Bernard survived the fire and how he wound up not being incinerated. Of course, the man behind Bernard’s survival was Sims.

This is the first time in three seasons that I did not see Sims as the villain. Same with Bernard. Both men were given material to show how much they were forced to do what they did. That did not excuse their choices, but it helps to understand the levels that they were at.

And, as the episode’s title implies, the show was also about memory and the reclaiming of the memory by Juliette. By the end of the episode, Juliette had gotten her memories back of the other silo and the information she learned about the Safeguard. Thanks to the Pez Dispenser.

Rebecca Ferguson continues to be excellent as Juliette, playing her confusion and the slow return of her memory beautifully.

Meanwhile, a new danger is uncovered by Sheriff Billings, and it sounds really bad. Light bulbs are being stolen and they are down to just about two years supply remaining, which means, soon, they will be unable to grow their food.

We only get a little time at the very end of the episode for a flashback to the before times, but it is a big one as Daniel and Helen are driving and the car suddenly takes control and is driving itself.

Great episode this week that really built on the shock from the last scene last week. Silo has been a touch slow at times this year, struggling to get its story going. That is not a factor any more.

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe S1 E2

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Spoiler: Zack’s in this One”

The second episode of The Big Bang Theory spin-off, Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, is not very good. It just feels like it is a car wreck that I can’t stop glaring at.

The new universe that Stuart, Bert and Kripke jump into is an AI-Overlord run universe where everyone is forced into happy thoughts and any negativity would lead to an electric jolt into the person’s neck through an implant at the base of their skull. This joke was used what felt like a million times in the first fifteen minutes of the episode.

I have come to the conclusion that this show is designed to show us alternate versions of all of the cast of The Big Bang Theory in weird new ways. Here we get to see Zack, as the title stated, but also Penny. I’m not sure why Kaley Cuoco would agree to “reprise” her role as Penny in this, but it was nice to see her again.

It was strange to see Christine Baranski used in a cameo as herself when she had a Big Bang Theory character already.

The episode never got a chance to get any footing under it, because after the over excessive amount of the electric shock gags, they came across the rebellion, led by Zack and Penny, and then the episode was over.

While I did not love this… heck, I could probably not claim to even like it that much… Stuart Fails to Save the Universe is a short show that does not feel like anything that is aggressively bad… or at least, bad enough to make me stop watching it at this point. It was fun to see the Big Bang cameos (including the woman who was obsessed with Sheldon). I’ll watch at least one more episode, probably.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #80

Posted on by

Spoilers

The Boroughs

“Triple Audible”

So the Sunday Morning Sidewalk comes to the end of yet another show, this one Netflix’s The Boroughs. This eight-episode series from the Duffer Brothers was a lot of fun and was a show that, each week, I wanted to keep watching.

One of the ideas that I dreaded was that, since Netflix canceled the show, it would wind up with a cliffhanger that would never be resolved. I am happy to say that, although there was a little mystery centered around Sam in the last few moments of the show, the main story of the show is wrapped up and will serve as a sufficient finale to the show.

However, the finale felt a little rushed to me. I think it could have easily been spread out to a ninth episode without having too much trouble, because a lot was packed into this ending.

In the end, it was a satisfying conclusion that was able to wrap up the stories well and left our characters in a positive situation.

The ending sequence in the cave with mother, Sam and Blaine was okay, but I am just not sure what was going on. Why did Mother explode? How did Sam survive it? Did he? These are questions that linger, but does not ruin the finale for me.

The cast of the show was wonderful and the main strength of The Boroughs.

With that, the Sunday Morning Sidewalk finishes another series. Next week, we will begin the Apple TV + series Black Bird, a six-episode mini series.

Rick and Morty Season 6

Posted on by

Spoilers

Season six had two of my absolutely favorite episodes from the entire six seasons.

“Full Meta Jackrick” is my favorite episode of the series. The full embrace of the 4th Wall breaking with the return of Story Lord and new characters such as Miss Lead, Flash Back, Protago Nick, Connie Tinuityerror, and Mr. Twist. There was another character called Rhett Caan that made me laugh out loud. It was such a clever episode that it really stood out for me.

Following that episode was “Analyze Piss” which saw Pissmaster come to challenge Ric. However, Rick had decided, through therapy, that he would try to ignore the supervillains that come to challenge him. This led to Jerry stepping up and defeating Pissmaster. This episode had a trigger warning at the beginning about suicide because Pissmaster takes his own life. meanwhile, Rick takes his place to help give Pissmaster a happy ending for his daughter.

Both of these were just fully engaging and entertaining.

The first half of the season saw Rick lose the ability to form the portals. There was a running joke that Rick kept saying that he could fix the portal gun, but he hadn’t gotten around to it. Funny too was the fact that the dinosaurs were the ones to fix the portals.

We also got a season long arc with Rick Prime, the Rick who killed our Rick’s wife, free and searching for Rick to kill. Rick Prime killed off Jerry Prime, who we met again after “Mortynight Run” in season two.

The end of the season sees Rick, who had built a robot to replace himself, without the family knowing, so he could continue his search for Rick Prime. The Rick-Bot was programmed to give more support to Morty (22% more…) and soon became a beloved family member to the whole Smith clan.

Space Beth was around a lot this season, even though there were not too many major events with her. Of course, she did have an affair with married Beth in “Bethic Twinstinct.”

“Rick: A Mort Well Lived” had Summer at the heart of a Die Hard parody. Maybe parody isn’t the right word, since they openly talked about Die Hard and how this episode was like the movie. I do love Die Hard so the use of the allusion was awesome for me.

“Night Family” was not one of the best episodes of the year, but I did like the attempt at the horror genre. There were some imagery that worked well, but the story did not appeal to me as much.

Perhaps my least favorite episode of the season was “Final DeSmithation” which had Jerry get a fortune cookie that said that he would have sex with his mother. This only got stupider from there.

Sounds as if Season 7 is going to be Rick and Morty hunting down Rick Prime. I’m in.