SPOILERS FOR STATION ELEVEN EPISODE 3

“Hurricane”

I am just not sure what they heck is going on with this TV show.

But I do believe that I am here for it.

After the first two episodes, which were totally different in structure and story, centered around the arrival and the after-effects of a deadly flu that has spread across the planet, “Hurricane” comes as episode three and is completely bizarre and tells the story of a woman who we met only momentarily in the premiere episode (and honestly, I did not remember that). Miranda Carroll (Danielle Deadwyler) was the author/artist of the graphic novel that was given to Kirsten when she was younger, one we thought was not widely spread.

Turns out that Miranda and Arthur (remember when Arthur died on stage in the premiere) had a great love affair and that Arthur was the love of Miranda’s life.

We went through the entire episode and never once flashed ahead to the future Kirsten or to Jeevan and Frank or to the Travelling Symphony. We did see young Kirsten as a cameo during that time when Miranda brought Arthur the graphic novel that she had, apparently, been working on for years as a passion project that she never intended for anyone to see. In fact, she went as far as burning her work (along with Arthur’s poolhouse).

After a failed attempt to escape the flu on a vessel out to sea, Miranda went back to her hotel room and duct taped herself inside. A knock came to the door and… who was there? The astronaut from episode one. What the hell?

I was fascinated by the episode almost as much as I was completely confused by the episode. The story structure jumped all over the time frame with Miranda and there were times when I had to stop and think to myself… “okay, WHEN is this happening now?” I seriously think the title cards that the show would drop only made it more confusing.

Does this all have to do with the origin of the flu that killed so many people or is that just a side note and meant to be just the backdrop of the entire series so we can see the lives of these people and how they lived their lives. Kind of like how we do not find out details about the zombie outbreak in The Walking Dead.

Who is this Astronaut and what is his/her story? Is Arthur that important of a central figure? Where did the flu come from? Are there aliens involved? Will next episode have anything to do with this one or will we return to the characters that we had met prior?

I’m not sure, but I would like to know.

SPOILERS FOR STATION ELEVEN E2

“A Hawk for a Handsaw”

Okay, this took a weird turn.

We had a big time jump into the future 20 years and spent the majority of the episode with Kirsten in a traveling actors troupe through the remains of the world that had been ravaged by the flu.

We flashed back a few times to the apartment with Jeevan and Frank, including a tough scene where young Kirsten got a text in response to her text to her father stating that the owner of the phone was in the morgue.

It was a strange episode because it was difficult to understand what exactly was going on. I got a definite LOST crossed with The Walking Dead vibe to this show. Problem was that I was less connected to these people in the future than I was for Jeevan and Frank. I wanted to know what had happened to them, and they tossed us a few minor bits with them, including a flash where Jeevan told Kirsten to run.

Then there was this guy….

Honestly, I am not sure about who this guy was, or why Kirsten stuck a knife in his gut and left him for dead. Of course, he did not end up dead, but what was the deal here? He had a cult leader feel to him and he is certainly going to be a problem moving forward.

I have to say, this episode threw me for a bit of a loop. I think it is a good thing to take a break from it right now. I may yet return to the show before the weekend is up, but this new episode changed how I was perceiving the show. We’ve yet to see if that was a positive thing.

SPOILERS FOR STATION ELEVEN EPISODE 1

“Wheel of Fire”

I had heard about this show on HBO Max from a few places, but I was not sure if a show about an apocalypse brought on by an out-of-control flu was exactly the type of content I wanted to watch at this moment in time.

So I gave it a chance. It was good.

You are immediately grasped by the strange relationship between Jeevan Chaudhary and the young actress Kirsten Raymonde. Kirsten was in a play where her mentor died of a heart attack and Jeevan helped out the stranded girl. However, a dangerous flu outbreak was sweeping the nation and Jeevan’s sister, who was a nurse, told him to go to their brother Frank’s and barricade them in Frank’s apartment.

Kirsten’s parents were not home and Jeevan could not leave her alone so he took her with him to Frank’s place.

There was a dramatic plane crash scene that cemented how serious the situation had become. It then ended with a couple of time jumps that shook the status that the show had started was now completely out the window.

The first episode was pretty good. Good enough for me to continue to watch the show for now. I do not plan on binging the whole 10-episodes that are available. That feels like more than I want to do right now, but I can see myself setting up a viewing schedule to complete Station Eleven.

SPOILERS FOR PEACEMAKER EPISODE 3

“Better Goff Dead”

The third episode of James Gunn’s Peacemaker series, which dropped episodes 1, 2, & 3 this week, sent our crew into the field after a family connected to the Project Butterfly, opening up a moral dilemma for Peacemaker.

It appears that Peacemaker may have an issue with the potential murder of kids. Despite what he said about murdering anybody for peace, Peacemaker found himself freezing up when he had the perfect shot to take out a family that were Butterflies, something that we got a bit of a hint about at the end of the show this week.

If it was not for Vigilante following Peacemaker and the others, the mission would have been a failure. However, Vigilante did not seem to share the moral objections of Peacemaker as he happily shot three of the family members. However, this led to the arrival of Judomaster.

Judomaster proceeded to kick the butt of everyone there, capturing Peacemaker and Vigilante and taking them for interrogation. This left Harcourt, Leota, and Clemson Murn to try and rescue them and finish the job.

Leota also showed that she may not be quite the chip off the old block as she may like. As the daughter of Amanda Waller, Leota did not have the killer instinct either, not wanting to kill one of the guards for the Goff family when they had the drop on him. Harcourt did it without any issue.

This episode had some pretty solid character development and was a tad slower over all. Poor Vigilante had to suffer the consequences because Goff saw Peacemaker as the Alpha who would want to keep his friend from being tortured. However, Peacemaker continued to refuse to give him any information (not that he had any to give).

When Goff had his head blown off by Peacemaker, we got a glimpse at what could be the key behind Project Butterfly.

Episode four comes out next Thursday and I would expect some questions from Peacemaker about what he saw. We also saw a world map with tons of Butterflies identified worldwide.

SPOILERS FOR PEACEMAKER EPISODE 2

“Best Friends, For Never”

“Can’t house train an eagle, dud, without stealing its soul.” -Peacemaker, while in the back seat of a car with Eagley and being told that the eagle had better not shit back there.

It really is poetry.

However, there is an absolute correlation between Eagley and Peacemaker and the words of Chris Smith could easily be taken as a comment about himself.

Peacemaker found himself trapped at the hotel where he had the huge fight with the Butterfly at the end of episode one (although he still does not know what a Butterfly is). Thanks to Harcourt and Leota, he was able to escape, but not after he stole several things, including the record albums that he was impressed by last episode.

However, the team meeting that followed was not the most positive one. After this, Chris went back to his home and had a good cry.

John Cena is great here. You can see into the soul of Peacemaker, someone who definitely wants to do something different with his life, but is not sure what that is. Plus, nobody likes him because he is a dick.

Vigilante showed up this episode.

Yes, the lower level DC character makes a perfect foil for Peacemaker and the two bonded over the use of some guns, arrows, explosives in the woods.

Because Peacemaker had left his car at the scene of the murder of the Butterfly he had had sex with, the team, specifically John Economos (Steve Agee), had to change the name on the car registration. He switches it to Auggie Smith, Peacemaker’s father. The comedy in this is just hilarious, but it also leads to a huge reveal in the episode. And that is that Auggie Smith, Peacemaker’s father, holds the mantel of the White Dragon, a white supremacist with a crew ready to follow him along. So when he was brought to jail because the team’s frame job, he was shown to be more powerful than we imagined.

This is going to be a major storyline this season, clearly. It is another way to take the humor of the series and turn it on its ear, making a much more serious situation.

We have one more episode to go this week before we have to wait until next Thursday to see the next one. Peacemaker has been tremendous so far and James Gunn is clearly having a blast.

SPOILERS FOR PEACEMAKER E1

“Chapter 1: A Whole New Whirled”

James Gunn is at it again and he may have found a character that works perfectly for his brand of humor and storytelling. John Cena has always embraced the cheese and he has found a role that allows him to do so with a wild abandon. Peacemaker debuted with the first three episodes dropped on HBO Max with a new episode every week to follow.

To begin with, the opening credits are absolutely off the charts. A dance routine with the whole cast involved, especially with John Cena leading the way. It was truly a James Gunn master stroke to kick off the series. I wonder if it will be the opening credits for every episode and if that joke will get old? Either way, it was fantastic at this moment.

And They introduced what is sure to become the most popular character on the show, if not in the entire DC Universe, Peacemaker’s erstwhile sidekick, Eagley. The scene where Peacemaker, aka Chris Smith, returned from his near death in The Suicide Squad and five years in prison to his father’s house where Eagley was at and the eagle hugged him was maybe one of the best moments in super hero shows ever.

I was under the impression that this series was intended to be a prequel to The Suicide Squad, but perhaps that was done just to make people think that he could have died in the movie.

Peacemaker gets approached by a group of people who were working for Amanda Waller in the film, and who were involved in the revolt to help stop Starro, against Waller’s wishes. Amanda Waller, still played by the exquisite Viola Davis, has planted a mole on the team to keep an eye on everyone, a mole who just happened to be her daughter, played by Danielle Brooks from Orange is the New Black.

Another part of the team was Harcourt, played by Jennifer Holland, and she is there to handle the situations. She showed that she was very capable of dealing with threats during a scene in the bar. Peacemaker wanted to talk with her, but Harcourt was anything but interested.

Instead, Peacemaker picked up another woman at the bar, which led to a rousing night of sex, singing and knife fighting.

The scene where John Cena sang along in his tighty-whiteys with the song by The Quireboys called “I Don’t Love You Anymore.” Apparently, this was shot on day one of filming and it is completely off the wall.

So was the vicious fight that followed this dance/singing scene. It was so brutal that Peacemaker barely survived.

Another standout is Robert Patrick appearing as Auggie Smith, Peacemaker’s mean, racist, cruel father. You can see where Chris gained some of his attitude from, but Auggie did not seem to care much for his son, calling him terrible names and wondering how his own semen could create someone like Chris. Auggie has a bigger role to play here as he was referenced by the government workers too.

This was a great pilot episode and I am really looking forward to continuing this as we go. And I love Eagley!.