Spoilers

“The Fleece Works its Magic Too Well”

The Sea of Monsters came to a conclusion with the second season of the Disney + show. Percy, Annabeth and Grover make their way back to camp in an attempt to stop Luke from burning the camp to the ground.

Of course, Percy wound up getting his ass kicked by Luke.

I am not sure how I felt about this final battle. It felt as if it had gaps in the story that just did not make sense or seemed to happen off screen. The ending of the whole thing felt a little anticlimactic.

I did like the use of Tyson saving Percy like a Deus ex machina. Percy really got brutally battered. I am not sure whether or not using the Fleece on the tree was a good thing. It brought back Thalia, but the end of that battle was lacking in my opinion.

I really enjoy Walker Scobell in this role. I think he does an admirable job as Percy Jackson. I enjoy the chemistry between the three main characters. Luke makes an interesting villain.

We got a new Zeus after the death of Lance Reddick. It was Courtney B. Vance, but he did not seem like Courtney B. Vance. I did not recognize him until I looked up the actor playing the role.

Honestly, I felt this episode was a touch of a letdown after a solid season. I am still anxious to see a season three, which is supposedly being filmed right now.

Spoilers

“I Go Down with the Ship”

The penultimate episode of Percy Jackson and the Olympians season 2 was fire as Percy and Clarisse went to reclaim the Golden Fleece and to save Annabeth, although the order of those events were up for debate.

Within this episode, we got a great Percy vs Luke battle, Annabeth and Clarisse flexing against some low level villains, and we get to hear Chronos’s voice as he continued with his machinations in his attempt to return.

I will say, Percy getting stabbed by Luke just as the elevator closed was dramatic, but, in the end, it was anticlimactic because Percy just used the Fleece. It took most of the dramatic tension out of it.

Percy’s mom made her return as they needed a ride. There was a funny interaction with her and a normal at a store. It was fun.

Clarisse had the fleece and headed back to the camp on Blackjack. There was a good moment between Clarisse and Percy as he gave her the Fleece that he had retrieved from the sarcophagus of Chronos.

Everything is pointing to a major showdown next episode.

Spoilers

“Nobody Gets the Fleece”

Big episode this week…

• Percy and Annabeth arrive on Polyphemus’s island.
• They find where Grover and Clarisse are being held
• Tyson is saved from drowning
• Luke showed up to island
• Tyson vs. Polyphemus
• Annabeth nearly gets killed by Polyphemus
• Grover discovered the truth Golden Fleece
• Percy has to give the Fleece to Luke to save Annabeth’s life (his great flaw from a couple of episodes ago)
• Tyson and Percy reunited in a big hug!
• Luke took off with an unconscious Annabeth and the Golden Fleece.
• Percy, Grover, Clarisse and Tyson prepared to pursue them on hippocampi, one of which was named Rainbow.

I kept expecting the episode to end during several of the cliffhangers, but it went through to a spot where our foursome prepared to ride the hippocampi and pursue Luke.

I do hope Percy is able to step to the forefront in the last couple of episodes of the series because it does seem like all of the supporting characters are having moments this season with Percy kind of being in the background.

Spoilers

“We Check In to C.C.’s Spa and Resort“

The fifth episode was a solid episode. Percy and Annabeth had to face Circe, the witch. However, I liked the way they confronted Circe. It was more psychological than physical.

We also got to see Polyphemus the cyclops for the first time as Clarisse met up with Grover and Polyphemus showed us that he was not the bumbling idiot that cyclopes are usually portrayed.

Percy and Annabeth having to sail past the sirens in order to make it past the Sea of Monsters, and Annabeth has to overcome their spell.

This was a lot of fun and worked well with the characters in the story. Tyson’s disappearance from last episode’s storm is still a mystery, but I will not buy that he is dead by seeing it off-screen.

It had a ton of great visuals. The sirens looked great. The cameo from Blackbeard was funny.

With Percy and Annabeth approaching the island, the confrontation with Polyphemus is clearly on the horizon (literally).

Spoilers

“Clarisse Blows Up Everything”

Into the Sea of Monsters… and what a cliffhanger.

Percy Jackson, Annabeth and Tyson were confronted by Clarisse and her crew of dead sailors from the Underworld. After a tense standoff, they decided to work together, with Clarisse taking the role of captain, since it is her quest.

Things do not go well for the quest as they have to face the choice of either Scylla and Charybdis in order to get past them and continue their search for the Golden Fleece.

Clarisse changes the plan in mid-execution, heading off to fight the monsters using her cool on board laser canons (that looked more like something on the Millennium Falcon).

The end of the episode saw the ship starting to tear apart and getting pulled into the vortex.

There are some good flashbacks to Annabeth’s past with Luke and where they met Grover.

There were some really strong special effects for this too. Very impressive for a Disney + show.

Spoilers

“We Board the Princess Andromeda”

The third episode of Percy Jackson’s second season dropped recently on Disney +, and it continues to be a fun ride, filled with a lot of Green mythological goodness.

Based on the Sea of Monsters book, this episode brings Percy face to face with Luke once again. The ship that Hermes sent Percy aboard last episode, turned out to be Luke’s very own vessel. Thanks a lot Lin-Manuel.

We got a return for Adam Copeland (formerly Edge in the WWE, now Cope in AEW) as Ares. Ares backed Clarisse, who decided to head after the Golden Fleece on her own. Ares provided her with a crew of undead seamen, who were in no rush to accept Clarisse as captain… that is… until they were. She gave a speech and turned all of their thoughts around. It felt a little weird.

The Great Prophecy has been weighing down Annabeth, but Percy has been letting her keep the secret. He told her he did not need to know. Of course, she ended up telling him that he could be the demi-god that destroys the age of the Gods.

Big news. This was a solid episode with the interactions between Percy and Luke and Annabeth.

Spoilers

“I Play Dodgeball with Cannibals”

“Demon Pigeons Attack”

The first two episodes of the second season of Percy Jackson and the Olympians dropped on Disney + this past week. Last season, Percy Jackson was a surprise show for me. I had only intended on watching the first episode or so but it was such a good time that I looked forward to it every week.

Now, season two is here with a two-episode premiere.

Following the basic structure of the book The Sea of Monsters (although there are some apparent differences from the book), season two kicked off with some solid drama. Percy and Annabelle made it back to camp, Percy brought along Tyson, a cyclops, he had met at his school (turns out to be another child of Poseidon), and they started on a quest for the Golden Fleece.

Grover is in trouble, connected to the location of the Fleece. The dreams between him and Percy were important.

New head of the camp, Tantalus, was a big jerk. He was played by Timothy Simons, who I recognized, but could not place. He has been in several things including Veep. It was nice to see Lin-Manuel Miranda back in episode two as Hermes.

The confrontation with Percy and Tantalus at the end of episode two was exciting and it will set up the story moving forward.

Glad this one is back before Walker Scobell is too much of an adult to play this role. He sure grew a ton from season one. Like the Stranger Things kids…

Spoilers

“Wish World”

It is May 24th, a date that has been of major significance in season two of Disney +’s Doctor Who. Exactly what the significance of that date is still a bit of a mystery (outside of it being the meta date that the finale was scheduled for on Disney +).

Last week, we saw a post credit scene where we see Mrs. Flood bigenerate into a second woman and it is revealed that she was The Rani, the last surviving Time-Lady.

And this episode started off with The Doctor and Belinda seemingly happily married in a world that felt unreal. There was a definite flavor of Doctor Who meets WandaVision in this episode.

Conrad returned as the man who was installed by Rani as the god-like being of Wish World. Still, even Conrad felt as if he were being manipulated by Rani.

As the Doctor slowly regained his memory, bizarre things were happening all over the place. We saw the return again of Ruby, who is always a welcome sight.

This episode was weird and wild, mostly setting up the big part two next week. They also mentioned Omega, who they said was the first time lord, one who created the Time Lords in the first place. This is a villain that apparently was around in 1972.

This episode did feel like it was here just for set-up, and not its own penultimate episode of the second season. I am looking forward to seeing how this wraps up, especially since the rumors are that Ncuti Gatwa will not be back for another season.

Spoilers

“The Interstellar Song Contest”

We are just a week away from the May 24, 2025 date that has been causing trouble for The Doctor and Belinda this entire season. In the latest episode of the show, we learn (from a hologram of Graham Norton, of all things) that May 24, 2025 is the day that the earth is destroyed.

We saw a side to the Doctor that we have never seen before. Ice inside his heart… causing him to be vindictive toward Kid, our antagonist of this episode whose plan would see the deaths of 3 trillion people across the universe. While one could understand the anger directed toward such a terrorist, hearing those vicious words of violence and vengeance come out of the Doctor’s mouth was difficult to hear.

It shook Belinda as she heard him make his threats. It scared her and it scared the Doctor too.

There are some really fun moments in this episode, including a creative use of a confetti canon as well as two extraordinary skilled men in Gary and Mike.

Hey there Mrs. Flood, what’s up……????? Um, are you Bi-generating? Are there two of you now? “The definite article, you might say.” I guess she is coming for The Doctor now.

Was that Susan? The Doctor’s long missing, long mentioned granddaughter? Will she play a role in what is to come? I expect so.

We are heading into the two-part finale coming up of season two. I will say this every week, but I absolutely love Ncuti Gatwa as The Doctor.

Spoilers

“The Story and the Engine”

I think this season of Doctor Who has been just exceptional. Every episode has been enjoyable and had its own brand of originality and creativity. This week, The Doctor goes to Africa for a story about stories.

Based inside a barber shop, the story was incredibly clever. The use of the barber shop to tell stories that then powered the barber shop was excellent. So was the antagonist who was intense and worked wonderfully off the Doctor.

The format of the storytelling was amazing, with the story that was being told being animated by the window of the barber shop. It was such an impressive piece of storytelling.

There was a wonderful story told by the Doctor during this episode that gave us some more background on Belinda and her career as a nurse. It was a lovely story about how she put her own wishes aside to help a sick woman in her hospital.

I don’t care what anyone says, I have loved these episodes on Disney +. I will be sad when the Doctor regenerates.

“There’s No Going Back”

One more May the 4th watch. I watched the third and final episode of Light and Magic, the second season documentary detailing ILM’s history.

They talked about the work on Revenge of the Sith and then moved on to Pirates of the Caribbean. We see a couple of Oscar winning moments for ILM.

The creation of Davy Jones was one of the more intriguing parts of this documentary.

They looked at some of the competition that was springing up in the movie industry.

It was a fine conclusion to the second season, but honestly, there was not anything that really stood out as excellent in this episode. There was just a lot of interesting moments and images.

Spoilers

Andor season one has been the best Star Wars show on Disney + yet. Some might argue for the Mandalorian, but for depth and story, Andor took the prize.

Andor returned to Disney + for the long-awaited second season debuted with three episodes this past Tuesday night. I was unable to fit it into my schedule until this Sunday morning.

It was worth the wait.

It started one year after the end of last season and we see Cassian stealing a Tie-fighter. He was to meet for a drop off, but that turned into an immediate cluster as the rebels he met could not get along or agree on anything. Cassian was clearly just biding his time with these idiots.

On Mina-Rau, things are much worse, including a near rape. This was not something one would expect in the Star Wars Universe, but I could see it as a part of Andor. I loved the Skeleton Crew earlier this year, but that was clearly Star Wars for the young. Andor is Star Wars for the adult.

That does not mean that there is not humor to go around. There are some very funny things that happen, one of the major ones being a dinner date with Eedy Karn and her son Syril, who wants to introduce her to Dedra Meero. Dedra is a force and her scene with Eedy was epic.

The third episode ended with some tragedy.

Andor continues to be one of the best Star Wars shows around.