Category Archives: Marvel on Disney +

Agents of Shield S6 E2, E3, E4

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“Window of Opportunity”

“Fear and Loathing on the Planet of Kitson”

“Code Yellow”

Agents of Shield went more sci-fi last season and less superhero/superspy action, and they have maintained that in season six.

The Coulson-lookalike Sarge continued to be doing something strange with his new crew. They robbed a jewelry store to get some basic piezoelectric gems. May confronted them, physically beat the crap out of some of them, but could not stop them. She was taken aback coming face to face with Sarge.

Poor Fitz and Simmons never get a break. They wind up face to face on the planet of Kitson, after a fun episode in a casino. However, Fitz is snatched by Malachi, a bounty hunter looking for Fitz.

Enoch is one of my favorite characters of this season. The whole Chronicom bit makes him feel kind of like Mr. Spock, and Enoch’s relationship with Fitz is sweet.

Deke is back in episode four, using technology he stole from SHIELD to set up a company dealing with video games and virtual reality. It was good to see him back, though the character does feel a little shady.

There are some strange alien bird creatures that fly inside people. I believe this is part of what non-Coulson is doing here. One got inside Shield’s HQ and flew inside Keller. Yo Yo had to kill him to stop him from destroying the base with crystalline structures.

Sarge captured May at the end of episode four and he is taking her somewhere.

Lots of fun and mysteries in this season so far.

X-Men ’97 S2 E1, E2, E3

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“Days of Past Future”

“A Force to Be Reckoned With”

“Rise of Apocalypse, Part 1”

X-Men ’97’s second season’s first three episodes were dropped on Disney +.

Three episodes and they are each dealing with a different timeline. Episode one was in the future with Cyclops and Jean with the Askani and young Nate Grey. Episode two was in the 1997 timeline with Jubilee and Sunspot joining X-Force and facing off with X-Factor. Episode three was in the past in Ancient Egypt where En Sabah Nur was becoming the force that he would become.

They also seemed to be setting up En Sabah Nur and Rama-Tut, who is one of the forms of Kang the Conqueror. That feels really large of a story.

My favorite of these three episodes was number two, when they even went as far as redo the intro with the X-Force team in it. That was so epic, it got me fired up.

It was a lot of fun to have seen these extra characters, such as Strong Guy, Polaris, Quentin Quire, Archangel, Psylocke, and several others. Loved it.

There was so much going down on these episodes. It was dense in story and characterization. It was amazing how much they put into episodes that were around 30 minutes each. The animation is great and there are some beautiful shots in these episodes.

It looks like we have a weekly release of episodes moving forward and I think that would be helpful considering how much there was in each episode.

Agents of Shield S6 E1

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“Missing Pieces”

I started season six of the Agents of Shield today with the first episode of the season. “Missing Pieces” has several meanings as a title. That included:

  • Phil Coulson gone, died during the off year
  • Daisy and Jemma are in deep space in search of…
  • Fitz who was in suspended animation (or is he?)
  • Mack, who is the new director, is emotionally separate from Yo-Yo.

The show’s new season arc began with some individuals arriving in this dimension through some portal. We also get a new character named Sarge who arrived in a semi. This new character is being played by Clark Gregg, making everyone uncertain because of he is a lookalike of Coulson.

Jemma is pulling shenanigans in space when Daisy and the others wanted to head back to earth to regroup when they couldn’t find Fitz. Jemma had a clue come to her and she forced the others to go with her. Jemma has had a long history of doing things like this for Fitz.

I only had a chance to watch the first episode of that season, but I am looking forward to seeing more.

The Muppet Show S1 E7, E8

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Guest: Florence Henderson

Guest: Paul Williams

Florence Henderson of the Brady Bunch and singer/songwriter Paul Williams were the guest on the next two episodes of season one of the Muppet Show. Both of them are good guests that can sing, dance, act and comedy.

Florence sang Butterfly of Love and Happy Together. She does a nice job. She sang Happy Together along with the monsters and lizards. She had near zero Muppets in the first number, except for some butterflies at the very end.

Paul Williams has a connection with the Muppets. He wrote the song “Rainbow Connection” which is the most iconic Kermit song (along with It’s Not Easy Being Green). This episode comes before that song so there is no “Rainbow Connection” on this episode. Williams does sing “Just an Old Fashioned Love Song”, a song that he wrote.

In episode seven, the main backstage storyline deals with Miss Piggy’s feeling toward Kermit. Of course, this is a major Muppet theme to today.

In episode eight, the backstage bit is Fozzie and Scooter preparing for doing the Telephone Poll Bit. I guess it should be Telephone POLE bit as it turned out to be a joke about the telephone being a Polish person.

We get an episode of Muppet Labs, but it was only Dr. Bunsen Honeydew with no sign of Beaker. I did not expect that Muppet Labs had episodes without Beaker.

There was a fun song performed by Rowlf called “Cottleston Pie” which was originally a poem written by A.A. Milne and was included in Winnie the Pooh. It was a song about a nonsensical poem used to explain the unexplainable.

The Muppet Show S1 E4, E5, E6

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Guest: Ruth Buzzi

Guest: Rita Moreno

Guest: Jim Nabors

Tonight, we came back to The Muppet Show for some more first season fun. Three celebrities on these shows included Ruth Buzzi, Rita Moreno and Jim Nabors. All three had songs including “Too Good to be True” (that Buzzi sung with Sweetums), “Fever” from Moreno and “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” (Nabors).

There are some weird things during these three episodes. One was Miss Piggy’s voice. I know they were not set on who was voicing her but it was weird during this first season to hear Piggy talk in her actual voice and then, the next scene, she spoke differently. Frank Oz was the long time Piggy voice performer, but there were sometimes that she was voiced by Richard Hunt.

Gopher showed up for the first time in episode 5, with an introduction. It was strange because he was in the first four episodes too. He kept using the joke about his uncle owning the theater, and using it to manipulate Kermit. Obviously, the original writing of these shows were not in the correct order.

Wayne and Wanda made their way into all three of these episodes. None of those numbers reached their conclusion.

Episode five featured a classic running joke with the backstage phone and Fozzie. The Muppet Show was notorious for their running jokes and this one was solid. Kermit even called it out so the audience understood the idea of a running joke (which they even had some people ran past).

There were a couple of acts that we see for the first time like Veterinarian’s Hospital and Marvin Suggs and his Muppetphones.

We got At the Dance in all of the episodes with the silly jokes. They deliver these lines with such a straight delivery that even some of the bad jokes turn out funny.

These Muppet Shows are great to revisit. The most iconic moment of these three episodes was the “Apache dance” routine that Rita Moreno did with her Muppet partner where she beat him up badly.

All seasons of the Muppet Show can be seen on Disney +.

The Muppet Show S1 E2, E3

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Guest: Connie Stevens

Disney + gives me an option to skip the intro, but it will never be done. The opening theme is one of the best and most entertaining themes of all time. It is just like X-Men ’97, I will always watch the theme song.

The second episode the series has another classic song that I loved, which was “Lydia, the Tattooed Lady” sung by Kermit. That was the opening act in the show.

There was a running gag with Fozzie kept overhearing Gonzo asking people about his “Teddy Bear,” which is old and ratty, and Fozzie believed that they were all referring to him.

Ernie and Bert made a guest appearance from Sesame Street so Bert could sing a song with guest Connie Stevens (“Some Enchanted Evening”). Connie had sung Teenager in Love earlier in the episode with the back-up group, The Mutations, (Not the Temptations).

There was a cool version of “Ain’t Misbehavin'” sung by Floyd. I have a feeling this was one of those acts included in the British show replacing commericals.

Guest: Joel Grey

Episode three would have been the first place I saw Joel Grey, Broadway legend and EYG Hall of Famer. Grey did two songs, a version of Willkommen from Cabaret and Razzle Dazzle from Chicago. Both were great performances.

Fozzie was involved in the running backstage story again, which was that Fozzie was working on his act of telling a joke over any topic mentioned. He was becoming annoying backstage, but he wound up nailing it onstage after Statler and Waldorf tossed out the topic “anemia.”

Rowlf portrayed Sherlock Holmes in a skit about a murder. It was a cute bit.

Wayne and Wanda made their debut as a singing group, doing Stormy Weather. Wayne and Wanda would start their regular act where something horrible that wrecked their act here. Wayne and Wanda made a cameo appearance in the Connie Stevens episode but did not sing.

Love the Muppet Show and I am excited about continuing this rewatch.

The Muppet Show S1 E1

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Guest: Juliet Prowse

One of the goals for the summer is to finish the rewatch of the Agents of Shield, which I am preparing to start season six. However, I could use a couple of new shows to rewatch for the site, and I decided that Disney + would have yet another great show that would fit that need perfectly.

The Muppet Show.

There are few shows that will trigger the nostalgia for me like the Muppet Show. I remember being in 2nd grade and going home to watch the first Muppet Show. I did not know anyone except Kermit, but I grew to love the cast of characters.

This episode had a couple of classic songs: “Mah Nà Mah Nà” and “Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear”– both of which are personal favorites from the show. “Mah Nà Mah Nà” in particular is a song that will get stuck in my head very easily.

The Muppet Choir’s rendition of “Temptation” was a lot of fun too as we basically see Miss Piggy groping Kermit.

Juliet Prowse did a beautiful dance routine to “Solace” alongside six Green Gazelles.

Gonzo tried to eat a rubber tire, Statler and Waldorf were their cranky old selves, and Scooter’s dog Muppy tried to manipulate Kermit into changing the name of the show to the Muppy Show.

This rewatch is going to be a lot of fun.

Agents of Shield S5 E13-E21

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“Principia,” “The Devil Complex,” “Rise and Shine,” “Inside Voices,” “The Honeymoon,” “All Roads Lead…,” “Option Two,” “The One Who Will Save Us All,” “The Force of Gravity,” “The End”

I have set a goal that I wanted to get through the rewatch of Agents of Shield this summer break, and so I sat down to finish off season today with a binge of the last 10 episodes.

A wild season that started off in the future with the earth destroyed, supposedly by Quake, the Destroyer of worlds, revealed the answer to all of that. It wasn’t Daisy that would shake the world apart, it would be Graviton.

I really loved the use of this secondary villain who has the power to be more than secondary. Graviton could control gravity and he was always cool in the comics. In Agents of Shield, I liked how they took General Talbot and made him into a decent variation of Graviton.

Talbot was always a fringe character that was an ally/enemy for Shield during the shows entire run, and they did a great job of using the Gravitonium, which was a season one storyline, and circle it back into a major item in season five.

This season was set up to be the final season of the show, as you could tell with the ay they left Coulson behind in Tahiti to spend his last few days/weeks with May. I never believed that he would die from this when I first saw the show, expecting the whole time to see him survive again. It really set up some powerfully emotional moments surrounding Coulson.

Fitz’s death at the end was powerful, but I knew the solution to it this time through. Having Fitz in suspended animation somewhere out in space was a clever way to write in a death scene without losing the actor.

The team really felt splintered through the year, with them all suffering PTSD of some sort from their trip to the future. Por Yo Yo was the epitome of this as she was anguishing over what her future self had told her, and she did some desperate things in an effort to prevent that future.

The show did make some references to Thanos in the MCU timeline, but it did not have any dustings happen. I would have liked this to have happened to help illustrate it more. This is the start of where Agents of Shield separated from the MCU main timeline, I believe. The movies did not ever mention the show, but the show did mention things that happened in the movies at times.

On to season 6, which is a shorter season of 13 episodes.

Agents of Shield S5 E8. E9, E10, E11, E12

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“The Last Day”

“Best Laid Plans”

“Past Life”

“All the Comforts of Home”

“The Real Deal”

The Agents of Shield finished up their adventure in the future with some major battling, found Robin, the little girl (now older woman) who could see the future, killed the Kree, including Kasius and Sinara and had Flint create a monolith so they could return to their own time.

Very busy.

I was not 100% in love with the future stuff, but it did provide us with some major storyline bits including:

  • Yo Yo meeting herself (without arms) and she revealed about Coulson’s sickness.
  • Deke, who seemed to sacrifice himself, arrived back in the present with Shield- and had a surprising familial connection.
  • The Lighthouse is one awesome HQ.

Once back, things got wild as the team learned of Coulson’s impending death, and they got made that he did not tell them about it. Deke was taking in all of the wonders of the earth he had never seen…including Zema. Fitz and Simmons gets married.

The Fitz and Simmons wedding led to a major reveal… that Deke is their grandchild, though no one is aware.

Deathlok came back for back up to close a dimensional riff in a lower level of the Lighthouse. It was manifesting fears from a “Fear Dimension” that was trying to kill them.

General Hale is a horrendous character. She was a clear antagonist for our team, but it does get a little old to have the generals always being the antagonists. Plus, her daughter is a weird assassin of some sort who cut off Yo Yo’s arms.

The whole earth gets blown up plotline is still active and unsolved as of yet, but I know that the series does deal with that story before the end of season 5.

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.

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.

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.

Agents of Shield S4 E13, E14, E15

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“BOOM”

“The Man Behind the Shield”

“Self Control”

In season four, Agents of Shield was divided into three separate story arcs. The first arc was the “ghost Rider” arc, which incorporated the first 8 episodes. The next 7, which included these final three episodes, were under the “LMD” arc.

This arc was not my most favorite of the Agents of Shield show. Still, it was quite an enjoyable three episodes to end off this storyline and it lead perfectly into the next arc “Agents of Hydra”, which sees the Agents of Shield living their lives in the Framework, an AI-type world where their minds are inside this fake world.

The final of this arc was extremely suspenseful, especially as Simmons discovered that Fitz had also been replaced with an LMD. Not only Fitz, but Coulson, Mace and Mack were already LMDs and in the Framework. Watching Simmons stab LMD Fitz was so rough. Iain De Caestecker was great in this scene.

The scenes with Daisy and Simmons was very tense as well. This highlighted the strength of Elizabeth Henstridge as a performer.

Quake continues to be such a kick ass character. She is so great that you have to keep putting her in jeopardy to try and give some stakes for her.

Ada is becoming a sinister enemy who is programmed to protect the Framework. She killed Radcliffe and put his mind into the Framework, believing she could protect both the Framework and Radcliffe that way. Perfect thoughts from an android.

The Framework story goes into full gear next episode.

Punisher: One Last Kill

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I love the Marvel Special Presentations.

After eight episodes of Daredevil, we get a special presentation featuring a character who was notably absent from Daredevil: Born Again season two: Frank Castle aka Punisher.

Jon Bernthal is an amazing actor and his take on Frank Castle is both heartbreaking and beautiful.

The special presentation shows us how much Frank Castle is still suffering the PTSD from his family’s death. It got to a point where he was sitting by his daughter’s tombstone with a gun pointed at his head. It was really heavy and hard to watch.

Frank’s outburst is horrific. He is so full of pain.

The show transitioned into a Judge Dredd/John Wick/The Raid type of violence with some of the most brutal scenes we have seen in the MCU.

The opening scene really put us into the mindset for this show as a punk killed a puppy. No better way to get yourself ready for some retribution.

Then, in the building, Frank jumps into the action, killing people, still on fire from the flames. They then ran through a series of brutality, while still doing what he could to save people.

And in the end, Frank made the choice to come back and help the people of the neighborhood instead of pursuing Ma Gnucci (played by Judith Light).

There were some remarkable shots in this special including a shot of Frank falling backwards off a roof that was just tremendous.

And it ended with Frank back in the Skull outfit, ready to keep doing damage.

Frank Castle will return in Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Agents of Shield S4 E12

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“Hot Potato Soup”

We get a full family reunion of the Koenigs, Billy, Sam, Thurston and LT. They were whom Coulson trusted the Darkhold to in an attempt to keep it hidden.

Of course, Billy gets captured and Radcliffe heads into Billy’s mind to discover where it was hidden.

Patton Oswalt played three of the Koenig siblings… all except LT who was a sister.

The Darkhold winds up in Radcliffe’s possession at the end and the Shield agents finally figure out that May is also an LMD.

Radcliffe and Nadeer want the Darkhold to get rid of all the Inhumans.