Category Archives: TV-G[eek]

Agents of Shield S5 E1-7

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Season five sends the Agents of Shield into space… and into the future.

Agents of Shield jumped full into a post apocalyptic future with huge elements of sci-fi. These first episodes really started the season off strong.

It was teased at the end of season four that Coulson and the crew believed to be the government, but were actually capturing the Agents of Shield to send them into the future.

Not Fitz though. He got left behind.

We end up in a future where the earth was destroyed… by Quake. Daisy is called The Destroyer of Worlds by everyone.

We meet Deke, played by Jeff Ward, who is a character that will become more important as the series progressed. Here, Deke is shown as a somewhat untrustworthy individual who is out for himself.

The Kree become the major antagonists for this season, including a Kree named Kasius, who reminded me quite a bit of Maximus the Mad from the Inhumans comics. Weaselly and manipulative, Kasius had a Kree warrior named Sinara.

It was weird with the Kree warriors using automatic weapons and guns, but I understand why.

We got a guest appearance from Lance Hunter as Fitz, who was left behind, tried to figure out a way to get to the future. It was great to see Hunter again.

There was a lot of great action and exciting turns in this first seven episodes of season five. Fitz’s insane efforts along with Enoch was amazing and the new characters were all cool additions.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #72

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Hulk Hogan: Real American

“Hulk vs. Terry”

The final episode of the docu-series on Hulk Hogan was today’s Sunday Morning Sidewalk entry, which was an episode that featured the controversial life of Terry Bollea, after the Wrestlemania classic with the Rock until his funeral in 2025.

I have been talking about the negative points of Hulk Hogan during these Sunday Morning Sidewalk write-ups and how the documentary has brushed over some of them, giving the surface treatment for it. This episode did bring up and look at a lot more of the negativity of Hogan than some of the other ones. However, the biggest thing that they brushed over was the racism tag that followed Hogan over the last few years of his life.

They mention the sex tape, and they do mention the racist slurs that Hogan was recorded saying during the sex tape, but they do not go into great detail about how those words and his overall opinions shaped the thoughts of a lot of wrestling fans. They treat it like a mistake and one that he regretted.

They showed the infamous Netflix debut where Hogan go booed out of the building in LA, and they linked it heavily to the political connection to Donald Trump. While that certainly played a role in that incident, the truth is Hogan’s brand had been more damaged by the racist remarks than his support of Trump. The Undertaker is a well-known Trump supporter, but he has never received the treatment Hogan did from the fans.

They covered the Hogan Knows Best reality show and dealt with Hogan’s marriage falling apart and his cheating on Linda. They do not mention the accident that Nick Hogan was involved with that injured his friend.

They spent a lot of time on how Hogan’s body was breaking down and mentioning his multiple back surgeries, which was a horrific amount. Some of the images they showed of Hogan was tough with the scars on his back from the operations.

Many of the actual one-on-one interviews with Hogan for this doc were well done and reflective of his time and his mistakes. The doc may have left out some important bits, but I thought the four episodes were fairly well done on the whole.

Next week, the Sunday Morning Sidewalk stays with Netflix as I start the Duffer Brothers’ new show, The Boroughs.

Agents of Shield S4 E16-22

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I have been waiting for the perfect time to finish up the fourth season of Agents of Shield on Disney +. The final seven episodes of this season, which had been split into three sections. This third section of the season was entitled “Agents of Hydra.”

The section included our heroes inside the virtual world called the Framework, which had been around from the early part of the season. It was where Aida had entrapped May, before she replaced her with an LMD. Now, it has expanded as a “prison” for Coulson, May, Mack, and Fitz. Daisy and Simmons entered the Framework on their own accord to try and rescue their friends.

Each of the characters had a regret changed, and it led to the following:

  • Coulson: was a social studies teacher, who made his own soap
  • May: Was one of the top agents at Hydra, which had won the war with Sheild.
  • Mack: Was living a life with his daughter, Hope, who was alive.
  • Fitz: Was the second in command at Hydra, called The Doctor, and was doing terrible experiments and was quite horrible. His father was alive and had raised Fitz instead of Fitz’s mother.
  • Ward: Was alive and with “Skye”. Ward was still a double agent, this time a Shield agent and a good guy.
  • Simmons: When she found her avatar, the avatar had been killed and so Jemma had to dig ehrself out of a grave.
  • Daisy: Called Skye still, she was an agent of Hydra and in a relationship with Ward.
  • Patriot: Still leading Shield as a hero, died saving a bunch of kids.
  • Aida: Was in charge of Hydra, taking the guise of Madame Hydra, and was tied to Fitz.

Lots of returns happened this season too. We got to see Trip again, which was cool. He was helpful in the rebellion. Robbie Reyes, aka Ghost Rider, came back to help finish off Aida and take charge of the Darkhold. Talbot returned, with the same schtick he always had and got shot in the head by an LMD of Daisy. He survived, but ended the season in a coma.

It was sad to see Mack have to say goodbye to his daughter again, as the Framework was shutting down. Yo-Yo went into the Framework to try and convince Mack to come back with her.

Radcliffe sat alone on the beach, toasting the end of the world they had created and he disappeared.

The tag at the end sets up Coulson on a space station somewhere, as the next arc for season 5.

I did enjoy the shorter story arcs that this season had done.

Widow’s Bay S1 E8

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“Your Baggage”

With the corpse of Richard Warren officially gone, everything in Widow’s Bay is all peaches and flowers, right?

Maybe not.

Tom went to his house to deal with his son, Evan, who had all the pictures of his mom and wanted answers. Tom gave them to him, even though he did not want to do so. The father and son had some moments together when Tom gave Evan Red Sox tickets, signaling that they could leave the island.

We all knew that last week was too good to be true and, when Wyck showed up at Toms door with the message that it was not yet over, Tom’s face revealed how crushed he was, certainly because he was just making plans with his son to go to Boston for the weekend.

While this was going down, Patricia was being chased by the Boogeyman, the serial killer who killed a bunch of high school girls years before, and who tormented Patricia (though no one believed that this happened).

The Boogeyman pursued Patricia across Widow’s Bay in grand Michael Myers fashion. Patricia eventually dowsed him with gasoline and set him on fire. Unfortunately, the gas station attendant put him out with a fire extinguisher, thinking that he was doing the right thing. He learned his error as the Boogeyman grabbed him by the throat and threw him away violently.

Luckily, Patricia was able to shot him twice with a shotgun, but not before the former sheriff Bechir got slashed with a knife by the killer.

It was hilarious as Patricia kept the gun trained on the Boogeyman’s head the whole time, on the ambulance, in the morgue, as he went into the crematorium, and until he was nothing but ashes. That was really funny, but I would have shot him in the head immediately when he was down. Patricia was dedicated in making sure this killer was not coming back.

There are two more episodes in the first season of this awesome series. All eight episodes so far can be streamed on Apple TV +.

Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair

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I used to like Malcolm in the Middle, though I never would say that I loved it. It was something that I watched when it was originally on ABC. I knew that there was going to be a new series featuring the returning cast on Hulu/Disney + and i was somewhat interested, but I had not gone out of my way to watch it. It came out in April and I saw it on Disney + a few times, but just never got around to watching it.

Finally, tonight I had an open evening and with only four episodes of the show to watch, I decided that I would finally watch it.

Overall, I am glad I did. However, I would not say that I loved it. There were parts that bugged me, and I am not sure I would have continued if it were a longer series. I do think that this was just the right amount of episodes at four.

The show did tell a specific story centered around Lois and Hal’s 40th wedding anniversary. Again, parts of the storyline was great and other parts were cringe. The final episode had a spectacular conclusion that was emotional and heartfelt and made everything else feel better.

I want to say immediately that I really found Leah, the daughter of Malcolm, played by Keeley Karsten, to be remarkably charming and a perfect fit for the role. The show cleverly gave Leah the ability to talk to the screen like Malcolm could do, narrating much of what was going on. It is obviously a trait passed along from father to daughter.

It was very funny, and well in character, that Malcolm had not ever told Hal and Lois that he had had a daughter, and so when they crashed his home because Malcolm had been avoiding the question about attending Lois & Hal’s big party, all of Malcolm’s lies came crashing down.

I am not sure how I felt about the whole Hal story arc of these episodes, but there is no denying that he came out a better person in the end. I was torn about the whole drug trip he went on (reminded me very much of the trip taken by Mayor Tom on Widow’s Bay), but there were some very funny moments within it.

I was sure that the role of Francis had been recast, but, according to IMDB, it was Christopher Masterson playing the role. I was shocked. I thought that the recast was very similar to Francis, but that it was clearly not him. I was in err on that. Turned out the only recast of the kids was Dewey, who was now played by Caleb Ellsworth-Clark instead of Erik Per Sullivan.

Jane Kaczmarek was giving me Candace Bergen feels as she returned to her multiple Emmy nominated role. You’ve got to appreciate how committed Bryan Cranston is to playing Hal, because he is clearly willing to do anything. They really work together as well.

I was very much split on the Malcolm/Lois confrontation in the men’s room. The toilet humor just did not work for me. I have never been a fan of this style of humor. I thought the writing of the scene between the two characters was outstanding though.

Some of the other characters from the show looked rough. I am not sure if that was intended or if the actors had had tough lives. I would hate to speculate on any of them. I am glad that they were here.

The revival of this show was hit and miss for me, but I am glad that I watched it and I might even watch another show, if they did any more.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #71

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Hulk Hogan: Real American

“Hollywood Hogan”

It has been a couple of episodes so far that I was wanting the Hulk Hogan: Real American documentary on Netflix to look at some of the more negative aspects of his life. Episode three came along and they dove deep into several of the controversies Hogan found himself in during the 1990s. Of course, they downplayed much of it.

Steroids? The lies on Arsenio Hall? The steroid trial? NWO? Downfall of WCW? Finger poke of Doom? These were all part of this episode of the doc and, to a certain extent, they were all dealt with in a way. This felt more balanced of an episode than the previous two, as some of the warts did seem to come out.

Hearing about these moments from Hulk Hogan’s own lips was a fascinating thing. It was also time for Bret Hart and Jesse Ventura, who had said positive things in previous episodes, to state their true feelings about Hulk Hogan.

The doc went all the way through to Wrestlemania 18 with his match against The Rock, which changed course for the character once again.

The doc included the infamous moment in LA where the crowd chanted F-you Hogan. That was a more recent event. The tag for the end of the episode, with Hogan saying that he wished he had ended everything after Wrestlemania 18.

One more episode of the doc remains for next Sunday.

Spider-Noir S1 E7, E8

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“Nobody’s Hero”

“The Man in the Mask”

The final two episodes of Spider-Noir wrapped up our story with Ben Reilly in the final showdown with Silvermane and the other superpowered henchmen.

This show does a great job of building towards everything. Ben came out of episode six in a bad place, at a bar, drinking heavily, and getting into a bar fight with some loud mouths.

The finale gave us some Spider-Man action, with a big time battle with Sandman and Megawatt.

Nicolas Cage is amazing in this. There is a scene in the bar that Cage is completely stunning with his performance. A shoutout needs to go to Lamorne Morris, whose performance as Joe “Robbie” Robertson was excellent.

There were some great moments in the trope of mirrors, like a funhouse when Cat Hardy is confronting Silvermane. I will say that Silvermane’s death felt a little anti-climactic. Still, I was pleased that Cat was able to get the final shot on Silvermane.

Another shoutout for this series is Karen Rodriguez, who played Ben’s secretary Janet Ruiz. This secondary character was awesome and she felt like she was the glue holding everything together. The montage of Janet finding out the “truth” about The Spider (over and over) was hilarious.

I also loved how this show was full out fil noir without any excuses or apologies. The black & white version that I watched was so beautiful. I am curious about the color version, so I may have to watch that some time during the summer.

Widow’s Bay S1 E6, E7

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“Our History”

“Seasickness”

Widow’s Bay dropped episodes 6 & 7 together on Wednesday this week, probably because of the format of episode six, which took us back in time to see the origins of the curse of the island with Richard Warren and Sarah Westcott.

Richard was a horrific monster back in the day, which led to them to burying him alive, as his wife Sarah took his children off the island. At the time, they did not know that this would mean they would all be doomed. I have a suspicion that some of the bloodline of Richard Warren survived that encounter.

The present day, Wyck and Patricia dug up the coffin of Richard Warren to retrieve the object he wore around his neck. However, they found a surprise in the grave… Richard Warren was still alive.

This was a hoot of a twist. I actually thought of the idea as Wyck was digging up the grave, but I never seriously considered it as an option. Hamish Linklater played the town founder and man who entered into a pact with the demon of the island. He was great, both as the demonic killer from episode 6 and the ancient man surviving in the coffin for hundreds of years.

Evan discovered a lie that Tom had been telling him. He found pictures of his mother, who he thought died in childbirth, alive while Evan was alive too. These moments are very powerful and Kingston Rumi Southwick, who played Tom’s son Evan, does a solid job conveying his heartbreak.

Stephen Root had some powerful scenes too as he recounted a time as a youth where he lost his best friend because of his own poor choices and the island’s curse.

Patricia’s job was to distract the sheriff so Tom and Wyck would get Richard onto the boat to take him past the “Dead Zone” because Richard believed that if he went past that spot, he would turn into dust because of age. Patricia’s scene with Sheriff Bechir Clemmons as she started to tell him about what they were doing was hilarious. Sherriff Clemmons tapped out and said he did not need to know any more. That was one of the funniest parts of this episode.

While it seemed this were good when it came to the curse on the island, I would guess that there is a surviving bloodline of Richard, keeping the conflict on the island.

There are three more episodes in season one of Widow’s Bay. This has been one of my favorite shows of the year as it really combines styles with LOST, Twin Peaks, and Northern Exposure.

Spider-Noir S1 E4, E5, E6

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“A Mistake I’ll Never Make Again”

“Betrayal”

“Nightmare on a Gurney”

I watched the next three episodes of the Amazon Prime series, Spider Noir. I loved the first three episodes of this pulpy-fun and we jump right back into the action.

When episode three left off, Silvermane was shooting someone, and it turned out to be just another guy with Winston.

We are introduced to another ex-army platoon guy, who turns out to be a low-level villain from Marvel Comics named Megawatt. The Spider fought him in public and does defeat him.

We are introduced to actress Amy Aquino’s character, Dr. Faber. She was the connection between the four villains, as she treated them all just before their powers manifested. She was a decent person who made some bad choices trying to save her son, who was another person in the experiment.

We get an origin of The Spider, and see how he is connected to Sandman, Tombstone, and Megawatt. It was one of the scarier moments of horror in the show as Ben got bit by a transformed man-spider.

The third episode, “Nightmare on a Gurney,” felt very much like a sci-fi, B-movie, crazy scientist noir. The show has been great, using all noir tropes in the different episodes.

An interesting point mentioned in that third episode included Faber’s son telling Ben Reilly that they were looking for the Spider, but he had changed his name, so they could not find him. Could Ben have been originally Peter Parker and changed his name to Ben Reilly. We know they could not use the name Peter Parker because of rights and technicalities, but this way covers the base.

Ben Reilly has been playing this character as anything but a hero. He is downright selfish, but it feels as if that came form Ruby’s death more than anything else.

Nic Cage is spectacular in his Cage-i-ness. Brendon Gleeson has been doing a great job bringing the sinister to Silvermane.

This has been great. I can’t wait to watch episodes 7 & 8.

Spider-Noir S1 E1, E2, E3

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“Step Into My Office”

“Tread Lightly”

“Double Cross”

Amazon Prime’s new series, Spider-Noir, starring Nicolas Cage as Ben Reilly, aka The Spider.

The Spider was a character from Marvel Comics, a version of Spider-Man from the 1930s. It became even more popular when the character appeared in the Sony animated film Into the Spider-Verse, voiced by Nic Cage.

In a brilliant piece of business, the episodes of this series are available in both color and black & white. I, of course, chose the black & white version.

This was such a great first three episodes. Ben Reilly was a private detective, struggling, and no longer the Spider, since his girlfriend was killed by drowning.

Our main antagonist is Silvermane, played by Brendan Gleason. Other characters we get are Cat Hardy, played by Li Jun Li, Robbie Robertson, played by Lamorne Morris, Flint Marko (Sandman), played by Jack Huston, and Janet, played by Karen Rodriguez.

This had a real noir tone. We got the Sandman, and also Tombstone. I get a feeling we are getting more too.

The end of the third episode was a solid cliffhanger. I have really enjoyed the story we are starting here, and Nic Cage was in all his glory.

I loved the secretary, Janet. I hope there will be more with her.

The music is great. I actually immediately purchased the theme song, “Saving Grace” by Kirby, on Apple Music.

The dialogue is wonderful. The Nic Cage performance as Ben Reilly is really witty and funny. It is beautiful to watch in the black & white. There are so many awesome shots.

After three episodes, I am a big fan of the series. The whole series was dropped on Prime today.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #70

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Hulk Hogan: Real American

Episode 2: Hulkamania

The second episode of the Netflix documentary Hulk Hogan: Real American featured the time frame from when Hogan returned to the, at the time, WWF through his winning of the championship all the way to reclaiming the title from Sgt. Slaughter at Wrestlemania 7.

There was so much covered during this hour episode. In his career, it looked at Wrestlemania I, Wrestlemania III, Wrestlemania VI and VII. In his family, it looked at his marriage to Linda and the birth of his two children Brooke and Nick. All with Hogan doing voice overs and narration.

We got an interview from President Donald Trump speaking about what a great guy Hulk Hogan was.

Much like last week, the negative things about Hogan during these years (Richard Beltzer, Road Schedule, drug use) were addressed but just surface. There was interesting part about Hogan’s brother showing up, asking for money, only to wind up overdosing. There were some real emotions coming from Hogan in this section of the doc, but he did not want to go into depth on it either. It clearly still affected him even after this many years.

The doc seemed to go back to the time when everyone would bash the Ultimate Warrior. There was a time when the Warrior was back in the good graces of the WWE but the section on the Warrior and Wrestlemania VI felt more like the Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior, a WWE produced doc that bad mouthed Warrior the whole time.

Next week’s Sunday Morning Sidewalk sounded as if it was progressing into the negative time of the steroid trial. I am interested to see how this doc, which has been very heavily positive toward Hogan (even long time critics such as Jess Ventura and Bret Hart were recorded saying positive things about him), deals with this time of Hogan’s life.

Widow’s Bay S1 E5

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“What to Expect on Your Trip”

After finding the body of Reverend Bryce hanging in his office, Tom, Wyck and Patricia find a mysterious phone number in Bryce’s phone that he called multiple times. It turned out that this was one of Patricia’s old classmates who supplied drugs to people.

Specifically, there was a drug called the “True sight” drug that Todd, Patricia’s old classmate who, when Tom calls him a drug dealer, responded with “I’m a shaman.” And yes… that’s cocaine.

This was a drug trip episode for Mayor Tom and it was hilarious. Matthew Rhys does a wonderful job as playing this incredibly stoned individual, bouncing around to different places in the city, trying to mitigate the chaos of the town being mad about the curfew ruining the night of the fireworks.

We also get Evan sneaking out with his friends yet again and heading to the serial killer’s house, nearly heading inside.

We get flashbacks to when Tom’s wife died in childbirth… after they had attempted to leave the island for the first time.

Another excellent episode of the Apple TV + show. I laughed multiple times while the show is still able to create tension and anxiety about the mysterious island and the curse that it has succumbed to.

The Boys S5 E8

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“Blood and Bone”

Extremely satisfying conclusion for this series.

The characters of The Boys were all served very well in this conclusion. They all feel like they have taken this full circle, back to the beginning. As I said, this was so satisfying of an ending. It is hard to make a finale that really hits all the right notes, and I believe this one was special.

Hughie stepped it up big time in this episode as he really came through. Apparently, much of the ending matched up with what happened in the comics (which I have not read). The end of the episode with Hughie and Butcher facing off over the virus, with Butcher wanting to kill all the supes and Hughie killing him. It was wonderful that Hughie got be be a leader again.

I have had a difficult relationship with Butcher over the five seasons

Homelander’s fall in the White House’s Oval Office was fabulous. The battle between Butcher and Homelander was brutal and the use of Kimiko and Ryan in the battle was great. The final death of Homelander with the crowbar was perfect and gross at the same time. The use of Frenchie’s memory for Kimiko was beautiful, reminding her that rage was not what she did best, that herpower came from her heart .

Annie getting to be the one who finally brings down The Deep is a full circle moment, and the way they paid off the sea creatures getting their revenge on “Kevin” is great. There has not been a character in this show more despicable (except for Homelander) than Deep.

I did not expect that Soldier Boy had been killed last week. I thought Homelander only choked him out, but, apparently, he did kill him. Homelander made a comment about dropping him in the Thames, so I guess that was the end of Soldier Boy.

Sister Sage had her powers taken away with the Kimiko blast and she is happy about it. She does not have to lobotomize herself to enough Taco Bell and reality TV. Sage heading off to Harry Potter land in Orlando is a great end for that character.

MM is reunited with Monique and they get remarried. It also seemed as if MM is taking Ryan in too. It was one of the happier ends of the characters.

Of course, Annie pregnant at the end and involved with Hughie’s “start-up business” was cool too. It felt like another pay off for this relationship that had endured for so long through so much tragedy and turmoil. With Annie being pregnant after aborting the child in a previous season, I think that throwback is another strong character beat.

Terror RIP.

The performances of this show were all outstanding. From Karl Urban and Jack Quaid to Antony Starr and Chace Crawford, from  Karen Fukuhara and Tomer Capone to Daveed Diggs and Colby Minifie, from Erin Moriarty and Cameron Crovetti to Laz Alonso and Jensen Ackles, the cast brought it every episode and made these characters pop (sometimes even literally as head were exploding in moments).

The Boys finished off a strong season and a top-notch super hero satire.