For All Mankind is back up tonight as I watched episode 4.
After the tragic events at the end of last episode, NASA struggled to continue the female program. Under questions about potentially pulling the plug on it, Deke goes against orders to announce the four women who were now astronauts. Then, he removed Gordy from the Apollo 15 flight and replaced him with Molly Cobb.
Shockingly, I just discovered that Molly Cobb was played by Sonya Walger, a name that I recognized. Watching her in this episode, I knew she was familiar, but could not place her. Once I saw the name, I was able to place her. She played Penny on LOST! I love her and I was really a fan of the character here too.
NASA put the females on the fast track, even as Nixon was preparing to kill the program to focus on the Moon base.
The episode focused in on the reactions of the different characters in the show. Not only in the astronauts but also with their families and wives.
The film ends with the astronauts heading to the moon.
I was watching the Geek Buddies this weekend and they did a new segment on their show called “What We are Watching.” Vogel kicked off the segment talking about Apple TV +’s show For All Mankind. He raved about the episode, saying that he rewatched the whole series over Thanksgiving. He spoke about it being one of the best shows on TV. He was very outspoken about his love of this show.
It intrigued me. I had never considered watching For All Mankind, but I have really enjoyed all of the Apple TV + series that I have watched. Ted Lasso, The Silo, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Shrinking have set the bar high.
So I decided to start watching the series.
I watched episodes 1-3 to start. Vogel and the other Geek Buddies mentioned that the first couple of episodes of the season were a little slow, but I did not have any trouble enjoying them quite a bit.
The show felt like a giant What If…? show. This was ‘What If… the Soviet Union Beat the United States to the Moon?’. It was an interesting look at a point in history and how this minor change turned into high stress moments and a different world.
Joel Kinnaman was one of the lead actors of this ensemble and he is very compelling as Ed Baldwin, astronaut who wants to go to the moon.
Then the series added another twist and had the Soviets land a female on the moon, which sent Richard Nixon into a tizzy, wanting to have a US female astronaut as well.
They were working on building a Moonlab on the moon too which could lead to some serious issues in the future in the Cold War between the US and the USSR.
I am hooked with the series and I will be following this one along on a semi-regular basis.
The week that Godzilla Minus One was released in the theaters, what was, in my opinion, the worst episode of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters was dropped on Apple TV.
The episode focused on the lost crew in Alaska, facing off with an ice Titan that consumes heat/fire. It had a LOST feel with flashbacks back to when Kentaro and May met. It paralleled the dangers that they were facing after May got her legs wet in Alaska as they hid from the Titan.
Some of the scenes out in the snow were laughable. When Kentaro went off in his own direction and started to hallucinate, the show just felt as if it went off the rails.
I did like how Shaw, Kentaro, May and Cate were brought to Monarch at the very end of the episode, so I am hoping that next week’s episode picks things up.
The series’ Titans do look great, as did this undefined one.
The third episode of Monarch brought us Godzilla… and destroyed him with an H-bomb.
Not sure how I felt about that.
It was an incredible scene and some amazing images of Godzilla, especially on the old time camera, but the explosion was just uncertain for me.
I love the two groups we are following in each of the time frames. Both include Lee Shaw, younger played by Wyatt Russell and older played by Kurt Russell. There was such a great cut transitioning from old Lee to young Lee. It was a wonderful editing moment.
The monster at the end of the episode looks awesome and seems to be a wild danger. Since we learn that Cate and Kentaro’s father survived the trip but is now somewhere in hiding. I expect that he’ll pop up next time.
I do think that this was my favorite episode so far. The car driving by Kurt Russell (and airplane landing too) were all kind of fun.
The new Apple + series that fills out the world of Monarch, the monster hunting organization from the Godzilla/Kong movies, from Skull Island to the recent Godzilla vs. Kong.
I really enjoyed these first two episodes, both dropped in Apple TV + this weekend. The next episode looks to be dropped next Wednesday.
The story jumps around in time, starting off in 1973 with John Goodman during Kong: Skull Island time. We went to the 20-teens and also back to 1959.
What is really cool about this is that, with the different time frames, Wyatt Russell is playing the same character ( a younger version) that his father, Kurt Russell, plays. Such a fun bit of stunt casting.
The show spent a good deal of time setting up characters and the world building. There were some monsters in the episode, but Godzilla appeared in scenes from the 2014 Godzilla movie. And a fascinating part of the episode was dealing with the world suffering from the danger of Godzilla.
Cate (Anna Sawai) heads to Japan to look into her recently deceased father’s apartment (that she did not know about) and found her father had another family. Cate had been front and center in G-Day (when Godzilla rampaged through San Francisco) so she is suffering from Godzilla PTSD.
We’ve seen some other monsters, including a really frightening bug-monster/World War Zombie-like moment.
This is a good start to this series. I am curious to where it is going from here.
As a fan of musicals, I had always wanted to watch the Apple TV + series, but I never had gotten around to it. However, recently, I found some time and I figured that I could give this a try.
After the very first episode, I was in.
I did not binge the whole series, spreading out the two season, 6-episode seasons over about a week, which worked extremely well.
I have always been a fan of Keegan-Michael Key, who stars as Dr. Josh Skinner. To be fair, Keegan-Michael Key is not the best singer of the cast, but the show keeps his songs to a minimum and, truthfully, his song in season 1 was one of the most emotional moments of the first season.
Dr. Josh Skinner’s girlfriend in season 1 and wife in season 2 is Dr. Melissa Gimble, played by Cecily Strong, who has a strong comedic presence and great timing. She makes a effective team with Key. Even when I was not sure about what the show intended, I was always rooting for this couple to be together.
Season 1 was based on musicals such as Oklahoma, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and the 1947 musical Brigadoon.
Season 2 takes several musical inspirations/parodies including obviously Chicago, Sweeny Todd, Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar and Annie.
There is some remarkably clever writing in the series and the music is both enjoyable and extremely funny. You can hear the homage to the classic music from the different musicals that Schmigadoon parodies in the score for the show.
The ensemble cast included some heavy hitters like Alan Cumming, Fred Armisen, Martin Short, Jane Krakowski, Ariana DeBose, Tituss Burgess, Aaron Tveit, Dove Cameron, Kristin Chenoweth, Jaime Camil and Michelle Rios.
That cast played different characters in the two seasons, highlighting different styles of musicals and some great work. Alan Cumming was especially brilliant in season 2 as the Sweeney Todd-inspired butcher, Dooley Flint. His unbalanced performance was spectacular.
Season two’s inclusion of the Narrator character, played by Tituss Burgess was a stroke of genius. It kept the meta aspects of the series in place.
I hope there will be more Schmigadoon on Apple TV in the future. This was a lot of fun and entertaining as could be.
Harrison Ford’s name attracted me to start watching Apple TV +’s series, Shrinking. I knew practically nothing about it going in except that Ford was on it and that he had said some great things about the scripts that he had read.
It was a few episodes into the season before I started watching, but once I started, it became my Thursday night go to show. I loved how funny, heartwarming and emotional the show was.
Shrinking starred Jason Segal as Jimmy Laird, who was in the process of grieving the loss of his wife. Jimmy was a therapist in the practice run by Ford’s character, Dr. Paul Rhoades. Jimmy was a mess through most of the season, trying to deal with his daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell), his patients like Sean (Luke Tennie), his neighbors Liz and Derek (Christa Miller and Ted McGinley), his best friend Brian (Michael Urie) and his co-worker and wife’s best friend Gaby (Jessica Williams).
I thought these characters were outstanding. It was brilliantly written and was always funny, outrageous and thoughtful.
Not only was the series about dealing with grief, it also focused on Harrison Ford’s character and his Parkinson’s diagnosis. This side storyline was one of the bests on the show because Harrison Ford was epic in the role. Dr. Paul Rhoades was grumpy, mean, and completely uncomfortable… meaning Harrison Ford was perfectly cast. If Harrison Ford does not receive an Emmy nomination for this series, it will be a crime.
I have seem some criticism of the show by people claiming that the therapy shown on the show is not accurate and that these characters would never be effective psychiatrists. None of that bothered me. The therapy helped us dive into characters and give us an insight into Jason Segal’s character. I have never had therapy nor have I studied anything about it, but it did not give me any problems. He was certainly unconventional about therapy and he does get called out about some of the things he does, especially with Sean.
Along with Ford, Jessica Williams played a therapist at Paul’s practice and she was absolutely awesome. She was funny and brought an attitude that helped carry several moments throughout the season. She had lost her best friend when Jimmy’s wife died and she had her own arc of grief to go through.
The show was ten episodes and the season finale aired tonight. I feel that Apple TV + has now a second excellent comedy (dramady) to go along with Ted Lasso. If you have not watched Shrinking, give it a try. It is a lot of fun.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 