You All Everybody
You All Everybody
Drive Shaft’s big hit, You All Everybody, debuted in its full in this episode as we get a Charlie-centric episode called “The Moth.”
We know that Charlie is a junkie, addicted to some form of drugs. He had given those drugs to Locke in the previous episode and he is starting to go through withdrawals and it was affecting his attitude. Charlie was feeling useless and confronted Jack about it. Problem was… that was the moment when an earthquake came, trapping Jack inside a cave. Charlie was able to get out. The group of survivors immediately went about trying to dig Jack out from the cave.
This had turned to be one of my favorite episodes of the early part of season one. I liked Charlie, knowing him as Pippen from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and I connected to Charlie’s story.
Charlie went to Locke and asked for his drugs back. Locke told him a story about a moth and how they had to struggle to escape from their cocoon. Locke said that the struggle was nature’s way of strengthening the moth. Locke told Charlie that he would let him ask for his drugs three times, this being the first, and on the third time, Locke would give them to him.
Back at the cave, Charlie returned and they had a a small hole dug through but no one was small enough to crawl through it. Charlie volunteered. He was able to crawl into the cave with Jack just before the tunnel collapsed again.
Inside the cave, Jack and Charlie engaged in some witty banter, a trademark of LOST. Jack had a separated shoulder that Charlie had to put back in place. Charlie spotted a moth and follows it out of the cave. Is this irony or part of the magic of the Island?
Charlie asked for his drugs back for the third time from Locke, who gives them back only to see Charlie toss them into the fire.
Charlie becomes one of those beloved characters on the Island (except for a stretch during season 2) and this is truly the start of that. Dominic Monagham was the biggest name celebrity on LOST when it started so the focus on Charlie makes a lot of sense.
We had side stories involving Sayid trying to triangulate the signal of the French woman, which seemed to work until someone hit him in the back of the head and destroyed his machine.
We also see more about Sawyer and his tendency to gain some form of retribution against those he believed caused him harm.
The first two episodes certainly took its time bringing the pair together. In fact, there was only a couple of scenes of Tyrone Johnson and Tandy Bowen on screen together. That is, unless you count them as kids.
Both Tyrone and Tandy have had difficult lives, each facing demons…some stemming from the accident while others coming from their own lives. I like how Tyrone’s family is the well-to-do ones, with his mother being very successful whereas Tandy’s family is a hot mess, coming from the accident that claimed the life of her father.
Speaking of that not so goodness, I found out this past week that Starz has decided to cancel Ash vs. Evil Dead. What an epic failure in my book. This show has been one of my absolute favorite shows this season, just catching up on Netflix. Season three has been so great that the news caught me completely off guard. I can’t imagine why Starz would make this decision, but it certainly makes my decision to cancel my Starz subscription immediately after the series finale next week an easy choice. Ash is involved in a huge battle with the Dark Ones in next week’s series finale and it looks tremendous. This week was awesome as well as we saw the end of Ruby and everything falling into place for the big knockdown. I have also watched American Gods on Styarz, but I will not be watching that one live on Starz any longer because it made a mistake that I just will not forgive it for.
I started and finished Netflix’s new series Lost in Space over the last few weeks and this was a great reboot and some damn fine science fiction. The interpersonal relationships in the Robinsons were a lot of fun and remarkably deep, and I loved the new Don West played by former General Hospital villain Diego, Ignacio Serricchio. Don was the rapscallion of the crew and he was hugely charismatic and funny. And I was so ready for someone to 
kill Dr. Smith, played with a ton of wicked gusto by Parker Posey. I was never a fan of the original series, but I found myself strangely tearing up when the robot first said the words, “Danger Will Robinson.” I am unsure the reason, but I was fully engaged in the series, which had a LOST flare to it as well. The 10-episodes featured several moments where it felt as if one of the main characters would be biting the dust. I have to say, after so many teases, I almost felt as if someone important should have died. It is worth a watch for sure.
I also finished the second season of Netflix’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. After the first few episodes, I was feeling as if this series might not be able to grip me as the original season had done, because it had too familiar feel to it. It desperately needed some adjusting and fortunately, that adjustment came in the being of Nathan Fillion, as Jacques Snicket. The set up of each episodes changed just a bit and the show was considerably better for it. In fact, I was extremely unhappy to come to the end of the 10th episode as the show left us on a desperate cliffhanger. Season three has been greenlit and will be a final season for the show which should allow a conclusion to the story and maybe even some kind of happy(?) ending for the Baudelaire orphans.
Season 8 of the Walking Dead came to a close ending the weakest season of the series’ run. The finale had the same feel as the confrontation between Rick and Negan had a distinct anticlimactic feel to it. I did enjoy the betrayal from Eugene with the exploding bullets, but I saw it coming a mile away. As soon as he handed Negan that gun to “test” it was obvious what Eugene had decided to do. And then the let’s imprison Negan storyline was not exactly the monumental final battle we thought we might get. I am not against keeping Negan alive, but the manner in which it was done felt like disrespect to Glenn and the other victims of Negan. We also saw Morgan leave to head to Fear the Walking Dead, which had its season premiere immediately after the Walking Dead finale.
Roseanne on ABC has had a pretty good couple of weeks worth of episodes including the return of Big Bang Theory star Johnny Galecki as David. There still seems to be some weirdness among the actors as some of their lines feel as if they are being delivered woodenly. It is as if they have forgotten how to act. I cringe much of the time when John Goodman and Laurie Metcalf are on screen and they should be the two best actors on the cast. Still, the writing has improved, story wise at least and the characters are coming into their own.
The WWE Network featured Wrestlemania 34, which was a solid show. The last hour or hour and a half was a bit lackluster. After the debut of Ronda Rousey with Kurt Angle vs. HHH and Stephanie, the rest of the card disappointed. However, the clear winner of match of the weekend went to NXT Takeover with Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa. That may be the Match of the Year leader at this point. Following these events, the WWE also had the nights after Wrestlemania, where a bunch of NXT stars debuted on the main roster (as well as Bobby Lashley returning) and then the following week they had the Superstar Shakeup, which moved performers between RAW and Smackdown. WWE has some momentum right now as they are preparing to have their next major show live from Saudi Arabia on Friday morning.
Agents of SHIELD is full blown crazy as the agents are trying desperately to prevent the future from happening that lead to the destruction of the earth. The young villain Ruby tried to combine herself with gravitonium but it only led to her death by the hands of Yo-Yo. Yo-Yo believes that she may have stopped the future, but it looks as if there may be more coming. Still, the scene where Ruby accidentally crushed the head of the young Strucker was another one of those unexpectedly disturbing SHIELD scenes.
HBO premiered the documentary on professional wrestler Andre the Giant last week and the documentary featured much about the life of the Eight Wonder of the World. It featured interviews with Andre as well as some important people in his life. We saw old footage from his early days, heard details about the life of Andre and focused on his Wrestlemania 3 match with Hulk Hogan. The end of the line for Andre the Giant turned out to be a sad one as he died alone in a hotel room in France. The people interviewed clearly had a strong love of the Giant, speaking of him in glowing and kind terms.
Designated Survivor has been picking up pace while finding ways to connect the fictional world of Tom Kirkman to today’s world. Recently, Kirkman has been having therapy sessions about the death of his wife and now those tapes are being leaked to the media, bringing into question the suitability of the President to carry out his office. Designated Survivor has been strong the last few weeks, and it looks as if next week will feature a bit of a betrayal of its own. It looks as if we have the fortunate luck to have Michael J. Fox on the cast of this show for the remainder of the season. Fox is a lawyer who is trying to determine whether or not President Kirkman is able to keep his job and avoid having the 25th Amendment enacted.
Scandal came to an end this week with a whimper. Instead of sending Olivia Pope and President Fitz to Vermont to live happily ever after and to give the happy ending to the Gladiators, Shonda killed off the last good character on the show, David Rosen, by Cyrus’s hand, and allowed Cyrus to escape with nothing more than a resignation of the VP role. It also brought Papa Pope out to speak to the Congressional hearing admitting to leading B613 and basically bragging about how a black man was making all the decisions the past thirty years. I guess that was not info that should come out because they offered up a scapegoat, Jake, as the leader of B613. I guess the theme of this show was that if you were a good person, your life was worthless and if you were a killing lowlife, you have a chance to life happily ever after. I was very unhappy with the end of the series that had never recovered from the kidnapping of Olivia Pope a few years ago. Even with the ending scene where some young black girls walk through the portraits of former presidents and stop at one of Olivia Pope (not sure if that was to mean that Olivia would become President in the future or what) and looked at it with inspiration, that felt flat since we knew all the horrid things that Olivia did in her time in Washington. Major disappointment.
Speaking of scandals, this time a real life variety, former FBI Director James Comey was making the rounds on the talk shows this week to promote his new book that seems to be causing President Trump a lot of tweet-storms. Comey had a one-on-one interview on ABC with George Stephanopoulos, appeared with Stephen Colbert on the Late Show and the View on ABC. He was also with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC this week (and I may have missed a few appearances). I must say though that Comey came off as intelligent, well-spoken, honest, and thoughtful. Prior to these interviews, I did not have near the positive thought of Comey as I did after seeing these.
Gotham may have finally answered the question about who exactly is the Joker, as suspect number one, Jerome, was killed on the show. Prior to his death, Jerome had sent some of his special Laugh-X gas to his twin brother, Jeremiah Valeska, who has become the Clown Prince of Crime. This twist is just one more way to show you that Gotham is really more about the villains than the heroes. The villains, from Riddler to Penguin, from Joker to Catwoman, from Grundy to Leigh, are the most interesting characters on the show. This week, Ra’s Al Ghoul made his return form the dead to reclaim his Death’s Head from Barbara.
I got a chance to see the most recent episode of Riverdale this week after missing several episodes in a row. It did not seem as if I missed much, outside of the departure of Betty’s new brother. This week’s episode seemingly saw the return of the Black Hood, who killed a girl, Midge, during the show’s play. Of course, it was not just any old play. It was Carrie the Musical. And the entire show was a musical. I guess the Black Hood, who had sent a message to the kids to replace Cheryl Blossom in the lead role, wanted to kill those who were bad singers. If that was the case, everyone on Riverdale is in danger. This was not the best TV musical episode ever… by far. I think that still goes to Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Once More With Feeling. It was a weird episode to return to, but the eerie murder at the end was pure Riverdale.
As the Movie Trivia Schmoedown has some of its roots in the world of the WWE, the Free4All would be like the Royal Rumble, which is always one of my favorite events of the year. The unpredictability of whom is coming next always makes for exciting television. While this year’s competition may not have had an amazing moment as the XX5XX moment from last year, there was some great displays of movie trivia knowledge and a ton of fun entrances and surprises.
One of my favorite moments in the first video was when “Little Evil” JTE, team champion, was eliminated and Bibbiani, Drew McWeeny and Matt Atchity reacted with relief and excitement for having finally defeated JTE. Bibbiani said, “This is what it is like to beat JTE.”
There were 48 competitors this year, up 13 from last year, but there were still some famous names missing from the event. JTE’s partner Jeff Sneider, the Innergeekdom champion Jason Inman and former champion Dan Murrell were missing. Yes, Dan Murrell was retired, but I know there were people online that were hoping to see Dan make a special return for the Fee4All. This gave the Schmoedown a license to swerve us all. In Shawn Michaels-in-Montreal-playing-Bret-Hart’s-music stature, they played Dan’s music and even announced him as #47, but in truth, it was a returning Team Action member Andrew Ghai. You could almost hear the sigh of relief from the rest of the group when it was revealed that it was NOT Murrell coming through the curtain.
There was no controversy in the Free4All, but there was a moment where I thought there should have been. There were tons of “Jane Fonda” jokes at the expense of John Rocha. If you do not know about this, in a team match vs. the Patriots, Rocha changed an answer at the last minute, scribbling Jane Fonda illegibly on the white board. This led to a huge controversy. Well, here, RB3 wrote down the answer Tippi Hedren and you clearly cannot read the last name. He was given this point, and I think he should not have been. They took away points from others who only wrote the first name and, to be fair, you cannot make out Hedren here.
There were some awesome entrances as always in the Movie Trivia Schmoedown. I already touched on Bibbiani’s Baby Driver entrance, but some of the others included the returning “Miss Movies” Brianne Chandler and her Buffy the Vampire Slayer entrance. Other great entrances included :
Rachel “The Crusher” Cushing…crushing the competiton (notice Bibbiani selling her motion in the background)
Mark “Baby Carrots” Ellis, who they said had arrived at the studio directly from the airplane a half hour prior
And the t-shirt hocking “The Wildman” Josh Macuga of the Wildberries, whose gimmick is that they are hard drinkers. The Wildberries have become one of the more popular teams int he Schmoedown and this kind of antics are why. A little help in this pose from Mark Ellis and Roxie Striar, as well as Macuga’s Wildberries teammate Eliot Newberry.
Macuga had made his presence felt throughout the Free4All as you could hear him shouting from the crowd many times prior to his entrance. His loud brashness fits with the character, but did, at times, appear to irritate some of the competitors. His ultimate interruption was when his teammate was announced, Josh pulled a little drunken race across stage, yelling Wildberries.
In the end, Miss Movies won the competition, outlasting Bibbiani and rookie Ethan Erwin (who was very impressive as well, lasting 15 rounds). The Free4All chose that once all competitors had been introduced, the high score at that table would be the winner, which was kind of odd. I don’t know if they chose to do that because of how long the day would have already been, but it took away some of the drama. If the winner would have had to eliminate each opponent until there was only one left, that would have really cemented the suspense. Not taking anything away from Brianne’s win because she certainly earned it. Last season, Brianne stepped aside from the Schmoedown citing personal issues. Although I never officially heard her state for certain why she did that, there were some rumors of depression being the cause. If that is the case, she should be commended all the more for returning and winning the whole thing. With her win, Miss Movies has earned an automatic title shot at whatever title she chooses.
There were some fun returns to the Schmoedown as well. Besides Andrew Ghai, Mark Reilly came out of retirement for one night only and joined the game. 
Tom Dagino’s alter ego Finstock, pulling a page out of Mick Foley, also made a return to the Schmoedown after being suspended for over a year.
One of my favorite YouTube shows has been Movie Fights and this past Thursday, the show re-rebooted themselves. They changed the format back to three fighters from the two that they had been doing recently. They also brought back the main thing that the internet wanted to complain about… CHAIRS!!!! Yes, the fighters could sit down this week.
I was truly surprised this weekend as I was doing the Great Easter Binge-a-Thon and going to Netflix and I saw that season two of A Series of Unfortunate Events dropped. I could not believe it! On a weekend packed full of viewing, I could not binge another show. I have been able to watch three episodes so far and I have to say that I am finding it irritating. I do enjoy Neil Patrick Harris’s over-the-top performance as Count Olaf, but it is becoming annoying at some of these rotten adult characters. There were so many characters that I hated in the first two episodes that I almost wanted to stop watching. Not only are there cruel adults, but the constant stupidity shown as NOBODY ever recognizes Olaf… that needs to change up a bit or else the show is in danger of becoming too formulaic. I do like the addition of Nathan Fillion to the cast though and the Quagmire triples too.
The other show on Netflix is Santa Clarita Diet. I finished the last half of those episodes today and I really loved them. I think that series is brilliant and it features perhaps the best husband and wife relationship on television. The show is laugh out loud funny and clever. Timothy Olyphant is a hoot and a half as Joel. I think his dialogue is one of the highlights of the show. I also think Liv Hewson is tremendous as the daughter Abby and has a really sweet chemistry with neighbor and friend Eric. Plus, Nathan Fillion returned as a severed head as a huge scene stealer. This one is great if you have not seen it, please do it.
Ash vs. the Evil Dead continues to be one of the best shows on television. This week’s episode saw a monumental battle between Kelly and Ruby where Kelly wound up dead on the floor. Then, Kelly is used as a vessel for one of the demon buddies of Ruby. All the while, Ash was dealing with a dual headed creature from through the rift found in the basement of the Ashy Slashy Hardware Store.
The Movie Trivia Schmoedown this week showed us the matches that they recorded live on their special Live Schmoedown. First on Tuesday, we saw the Reel Rejects lose to the Wildberries. Then on Friday, we got the “Outlaw” John Rocha defeat “Little Evil” JTE. Rocha was very strong in his match and showed that he was not yet done. At the end of the match, Rocha insinuated that he would be reforming the 4 Horsemen.
Oh, I also watched the debut of Roseanne this week and I was pretty disappointed with it. I just did not think that it was that funny. I always enjoyed the show back in the day, so I was disappointed with the reboot. I do plan on giving it a few more episodes to see if they can capture the old magic, but the acting seemed off, even for those great stars John Goodman and Oscar nominated Laurie Metcalf.
Just got done watching the 60 Minutes interview with Stormy Daniels, the adult film star who claimed to have had sex with Donald Trump in 2006. I am sure that everyone was watching it, as Trump seems to equal ratings. She came off as intelligent and well spoken, but she had made several comments over the years denying the potential affair. That is problematic for her credibility. To be fair, she seemed to have an answer for all of the times she lied and the explanation of how a man approached her and made barely veiled threats to her in a parking ramp sounded very creepy. I thought 60 Minutes/CNN anchor Anderson Cooper was very fair with his questioning and he laid out the story well. Who knows if this becomes one of the biggest stories of 2018 or if it just slips into the forget it file.
It was a busy weekend so I did not get to binge the whole season, but I watched the premiere of the second season of Santa Clarita Diet on Netflix and absolutely loved it. I was laughing the entire time, unless of course when I was covering my mouth. The blood continued to fly freely and when Shelia came out of the basement and attacked the Serbian guy who had vomited for Abby (yes, that is what I said) and started eating him, it was laugh out loud funny. I am excited to see the remaining nine episodes.
The X-Files season 11 came to an end this week with an awesome episode that I really hope is the series’s final episode. Gillian Anderson has stated that this was her last time playing Dana Scully and, if that is the case, then this is a beautiful send off. The story centered around the contagion conspiracy and Mulder and Scully’s son William. Of course, we learned earlier this year that William was not Mulder’s son, but was an experiment produced by the Smoking Man. There was an emotional end as we saw William shot and killed (though not for good) by Smoking Man (who thought he was shooting Mulder), Mulder found out the truth from Scully about William, Fox shot and HOPEFULLY killed Smoking Man and Scully told Mulder that she was pregnant. Oh, and Skinner got run over by a car. In the end, this was an exceptional end for the series.
On the Walking Dead, we saw a great conflict between a grieving Rick and Negan. Rick was able to get his hands on Lucille and he used Glenn’s lighter to set the barbed wire bat on fire and used it on some Walkers. He was unable to actually use it on Negan, but he drove Negan away in such a state that he wound up unconscious and in a car with a potentially vengeful Janis. There was also the arrival of a new survivor named Georgie who offered the Hilltop food in exchange for records. She also provided information to Maggie that may help them rebuild their community. I liked this character quite a bit since this was quite the departure from other characters on the show.
Ash vs. the Evil Dead is tremendous. Ash’s battle with the little child who has a small chainsaw on his hand just like Ash was all kinds of amazing. Who this kid really is has yet to be revealed but he has some connection to Ruby and seems to be some kind of demon. His use of the headless dead body to hid inside while crawling and sticking his head from out of the top and “bottom” of the body was something I never thought I would ever see, Legitimately the most original disturbing thing I have seen. And then, Ash with the bowling balls… I may never look at bowling balls the same way again.
Agents of SHIELD pulled off what was an absolutely BRILLIANT twist during the Friday’s episode. The breach between dimensions has been around in the lighthouse for several episodes and we know that the breach had been allowing our agents’ worst fears into our dimension. They had been setting this up with flashes to past villains of the series for weeks. So when we see Fitz from the Framework knockout Deke, we knew that it was just another fear. We even saw two Fitzes. Only… it was not a fear, it was the real Fitz having some sort of break. Although even after he realized he was the problem, Fitz realized that he was doing what had to be done. And before we knew it, he had operated on Daisy and removed her inhibitor. I had never once considered that this was anything but a fear and the writers of Agents of SHIELD should be commended for setting up this brilliant twist so perfectly.
Gotham had a big week as well as we saw Lee shoot Sofia in the head to save Jim, who had already been shot several times by the crimelord. Or maybe she was just doing it as revenge for the hand from last week. Penguin and The Riddler seem to be past their previous issues and are back to buddies. Grundy remembers he is Butch and promises that he will find his way back. Bruce and Selina had a nice little interaction. Bullock is on the road to forgiving Jim, but slowly. Riddler rescued Penguin’s kid friend.
This is March and so there are a lot of college basketball games going on as the NCAA March Madness Tournament is underway. Biggest surprise of the first round was the defeat of a number one seed by a number 16 seed for the first time ever. UMBC defeated #1 Virginia 74-54 in arguably the greatest upset in NCAA Tournament history. There were other upsets already as well as Texas A & M beat #2 North Carolina, #7 Nevada beat #2 Cincinnati, #13 Buffalo beat #4 Arizona, #11 Loyola defeated #3 Tennessee, #11 Syracuse defeated #3 Michigan State, #13 Marshall defeated #4 Wichita State. These upsets are what make the NCAA Tournament so much fun to watch.
The X-Files had a bloody and gory one shot episode this past week with two “vampire”-like characters who were harvesting organs that they would eat to keep them younger. It was a dark episode but still darkly funny. The episode focused on how Agent Mulder was getting older and struggling to adjust to his new glasses. The main villains was an old time actress obsessed with her beauty and the crazy doctor who came up with the procedure. There is one more (I believe) X-Files episode for season 11 and, with Gillian Anderson talking about being done with the show after this season, it could be the final X-Files episode ever.
Ash vs. Evil Dead has been tremendous this season. Ash is just funny as can be and today’s episode featured some interaction between Ash and his father (Lee Majors) who returned as a ghost this week (after returning as a creature last week). The connection between Ash and his father was wonderful and they bonded over the idea of Ash’s daughter. They also found the missing pages of the book of evil in the basement of Ashy Slashy’s Hardware Store. This is consistently the funniest show on TV right now.
The Walking Dead had a knock down battle between Rick and Negan tonight and we actually got a flaming Lucille bat in action. Rick really showed his anger and bitterness toward his opposition, despite Carl’s last wishes was for them to stop their fighting. Negan was worse for the ware, but was able to get away from the angry father. Still, he wound up unconscious in a car with Jadis. Negan knows now that Simon killed all the garbage people against his wishes so he must know he is in deep trouble.
How to Get Away With Murder had its season finale this past week with the storyline of Laurel’s baby coming to an end. Laurel’s father went to jail. They called ICE on Simon. Connor is getting back into school. Laurel gets her baby back. The Supreme And the cliffhanger brought us a character named Gabriel Maddox, who may be the long-believed dead son of one of our female characters (Annalise? Bonnie?) Frank seems to know who this Gabriel kid is a he is applying to college. Another storyline cliffhanger is we do not know whether or not Laurel has murdered her mother, who has disappeared. Lots to digest from HTGAWM for the summer.
Scandal continues to pretend like the fans should not remember that Olivia Pope was a sociopathic killer earlier this year, power mad and crazed. Now she is fighting the #metoo movement and trying to keep Cyrus from pulling his machinations against President Millie. Every time she says that she must stop Cyrus because he hijacked Air Force Two, I wonder if she forgot that she had a plane blown up killing a world leader and his innocent daughter. I am sorry, but Olivia Pope has gone too far and there is no retribution for her. Now, Charlie has been framed for the the hacking of Air Force Two and that sends Quinn running to Olivia. Yuck.
Jessica Jones Season two dropped on Netflix. The first thing I saw was a tweet from John Campea, an online personality/critic, who said that it was horrible. I was sad that Campea did not like the show, but what upset me more was seeing one particular response to John’s tweet that immediately attacked him and his own online show. It is so sad that we cannot be allowed to express our opinions on Twitter without having some Troll come along and make it into an attack. I did not agree with John’s comment but he has every right to express it without being attacked for it. It is the worst part of the Internet and I wish those people who feel the need to protect what they like by downgrading other people would just go away.
Having said that, I could not disagree with John more. I found Jessica Jones season two to be extremely engaging and entertaining and full of emotional depth and powerful moments. Yes, it is not your typical super hero show, but that is a good thing. Everything that happened continued to develop the character of Jessica Jones or the character of Trish Walker or another one of the excellent side characters. The use of Jessica’s mother as an antagonist turned the second half of the season into a real conflict between mother and daughter and the final episode with Trish shooting Jessica’s mom was both shocking and heartbreaking. The relationship between Jessica and Trish has been forever tainted. And Trish is seemingly much closer to becoming Hellcat than ever before. And the cameo from Kilgrave was awesome.
Then, everything went to crap on the Movie Trivia Schmoedown this week. This was Championship week and the first match of the week was strong and might have been surprising, but it had nothing on what happened in the team match on Friday. Samm Levine defeated Rachel Cushing in the title match, retaining his championship. Most people thought “The Crusher” Cushing was taking that title, but Levine proved he should not be underestimated. However, in the team match where the Patriots took on Top Ten, controversy reared its ugly head. In the third round, the betting round, Jeff Sneider spun Westerns on the wheel. Westerns is a well-known strength of Top 10, in particular John “The Outlaw” Rocha. The question 
was asked and John wrote something down and then, at the last second, erased it and scribbled something else down. The Patriots missed the question and lost a point. Top Ten wagered 3 points. Patriot member JTE said that Rocha did not write anything down. Rocha said he could say it. When told he had to write it and say it, he said that he had written it down in the corner and the answer was “Jane Fonda”. That was right and, after some thought, Kristian Harloff awarded Top Ten the three points. The Patriots immediately challenged the ruling and then, apparently, all hell broke loose. What happened when the dust settled, the question was thrown out and the Patriots were allowed to re-spin. Top 10 then lost 3 points while the Patriots gained three points changing the score to a 10 point deficient instead of being tied. Top 10 had lost the fire and was quickly KO’d in the next round. This is extremely unfortunate for the Movie Trivia Schmoedown. One side said that Rocha should have written the name down so it could be read, but the other side said that he said the answer without hearing it so the writing was not as important. The biggest issue most people have had is the re-spin being rewarded for unspecified reasons- perhaps because the Patriots, in particular Sneider, campaigned for it. It was a hot mess that was not going to have an effective resolution no matter what way it went. Harloff knew that he was going to face a tough weekend on social media because of this. And it makes the upcoming live Schmoedown one-on-one match up this Thursday March 15th with Rocha vs. JTE all the more compelling.
Gotham showed us a delusion in Bruce Wayne’s head of the future where we see a version of what looks to be the Dark Knight. The problem? This was the whiniest Bruce Wayne has been in a long time. I have never been one of the haters on Bruce Wayne on this series, but I could see the reasons behind it in this episode. The stuff with the Penguin and Jerome was more interesting and the story with Poison Ivy was also more interesting. I am a little concerned that Gotham is coming back down from the heights it reached during the Professor Pyg storyline, but I will continue to hope.
Scandal pulled the most obvious twist in their most recent episode where “terrorists” take over Air Force 2 and turn it back toward Washington. With V-P Cyrus Bean on board, Cyrus made it sound as if Jake was at fault, but I knew the entire time that this had Cyrus’s stink all over it. And sure enough, the show went there. Despite the fact that it made no sense and that the Air Force was literally seconds away from shooting the plane from the sky, Scandal wants us to believe that this was a plot from Cyrus to undermine Jake’s position as Chief of Staff. The episode was tense and exciting, but the whole time I was just hoping that they did not go in the way that they were obviously setting up. Meanwhile, of course, they had Olivia go see her mother to try and continue to redeem Olivia from her season long courtship with evil. Scandal’s final season has been an extremely disappointing one with more baits-and-switches than engaging drama.
Oh, someone died on How to Get Away with Murder. Honestly, this show is more deadly than Murder, She Wrote. This time, there is a car crash at the end and we do not know who is being wheeled away on a stretcher. However, the gunshot wound to the head does not kill Simon, who recovered this week. We also see some flashbacks to the day before Wes died and we find out that Laurel’s mother tipped off her father about it and that lead to Wes’s murder.
The Oscars ran their broadcast late into the evening on Sunday. The Shape of Water was best picture. Guillermo del Toro won best director. Frances McDormand won bets actress and Gary Oldman won best actor. The best bit of the night was when host Jimmy Kimmell took a group of celebrities including Mark Hammil, Gal Gadot, del Toro, Armie Hammer, Margot Robbie and crashed a showing of A Wrinkle in Time next door to where the Oscar’s broadcast was going on. They brought “treats” to the fans as a thank you for being fans.
Agents of SHIELD reached their 100th episode Friday night with its typical brilliance. The team finally found out that Agent Coulson is dying and what happened when he was possessed by Ghost Rider. The show was very emotional and felt like it was going to be a goodbye for Coulson, but he was able to survive for now, thanks to help from Deathlok- a returning Mike Peterson. Then, at the episode’s end, we were treated to a great surprise. The wedding of Fitz and Simmons. And that was not all. We also learned that Deke was the grandson of FitzSimmons. Mind blown!
Well, it happened last week. Carl died on The Walking Dead. The episode was full of emotion and drama as they showed both Carl and his slow decent into death (although he did end it on his own terms by his own hand) and balanced it out with Carol, Ezekiel and Morgan killing all the Saviors left at the Kingdom. Everyone did a remarkable job on this episode and hopefully The Walking Dead, which has been desperately inconsistent this season, can build on this momentum and give us good story without just killing off characters that we love. Only Rick, Carol, Daryl and Morgan remain as originals (and Morgan is leaving the show to go to Fear the Walking Dead at the end of this season).
Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder had a crossover pair of episodes this past Thursday. Olivia Pope seemed to be back to her other self, dropping the evil harpy that she had become. Olivia helped Annalise get her case to the Supreme Court and Annalise won the argument. Of course, Olivia and Annalise spent much of the time fighting with each other over which one is the real one in charge. These two alpha females were never going to get along right away. Then, I have to say, the fact that Michaela cheated on Asher with Marcus felt so forced that it was a real bring down.
Ash vs. the Evil Dead continues to be the most outrageous show on television as the second episode of the season was available early today on Amazon Prime. In an attempt to get rid of all of Ash’s off-springs, that meant that it required a trip to the sperm bank. Only Ash Williams can make this cringe-inducing potential scene into something unbelievably funny and epic. The first two episodes this season have been amazing and I cannot wait to see it next week.
Designated Survivor returned this week with a strange episode. After the midseason finale, President Kirkman’s wife died in a car wreck. The show picked up several months later, skipping over some of the biggest moments. Kirkman was still reeling from the loss, and we got some scenes in flashbacks. I’m not sure the presentation of the drama was used in the most effective manner. It almost felt like the show just wanted to get past the tragedy and get back to the White House story.
Starting with the return of The Tick to Amazon Prime. The second half of season one dropped on Friday on the streaming service and made for a quick and extremely funny binge. The Tick left off with the presumed dead Terror having kidnapped Arthur, leaving the Tick aimless and scared for is sidekick. The season jumps right back into that and we get all kinds of weird and wondrous stuff such as Midnight, the talking dog with star and stripes sunglasses, Danger Boat which has fallen in love with Arthur (including a remarkably awkward shower scene), the giant, naked walking man actually tying into the overall series arch, the first utterance of “spoon” from the Tick, and the Tick asking Arthur the age old question, “Am I a yeti?” The Tick is absurdist fun and a deconstruction of the super hero genre, while also propping it up in what has to be considered a love letter to the genre. The cast is magnificent and the binge flies by easily. Treat yourself to a big. blue slice of justice with the Tick!
And if that wasn’t enough evil fighting for you, Ash vs. the Evil Dead returned this weekend as well on Starz. Ash seems to be happy and opening up a hardware store in his hometown, but little does he know that evil was coming back with a vengeance. We meet a new character, introduced to us as Ash’s unknown daughter. I just recently binged seasons one and two of this horror/comedy show and I am so happy I did. Ash vs. the Evil Dead is a complete hoot and Bruce Campbell is a master of the cheese needed to carry off this series.
Match Game looks to be done for another season. Alec Baldwin does an amazing job hosting this show, despite the gignormous shoes of Gene Rayburn that he had to step into. This final pair of episodes saw one of the most shockingly funny answers of the year, sending Alec down to the ground in front of the contestants in shock. I am always amazed at how raucous this show has been and I will miss laughing at it every week. Perhaps it has been moved somewhere else but I know that Designated Survivor will be returning to the Match Game time slot. I am sure Match Game will return in the future.
Tonight, The Walking Dead will return from its winter break to end the story of Carl, who, when last we saw him, had revealed to his father that he had been bitten by a Walker. We all know what that means… Carl is doomed. One of the few remaining original cast members, Carl has not always been the most popular character. However, it seemed that with his fate sealed, the thoughts of Carl may have turned. The first half of season 8 of The Walking Dead has been very lackluster, with only a couple of really stand out episodes. Let’s hope that the death of Carl will be able to kick start this once brilliant series back to prominence.
General Hospital had its 14,000 episode this past Friday. That is quite an achievement and, while I do not get the chance to see GH much any more, I made sure to pull this episode up on Hulu. Thing was that there was not much more to it than a regular episode. There was some interesting drama involving Sonny and his father Mike, who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. There was also some unintentionally funny parts where Sonny apparently mispronounces the disease every time he says it.
The Winter Olympics came to a conclusion after a couple of weeks of entertaining action in South Korea. And while the US Female Ice Skating team flopped like few other US teams have done before, the US Curling team brought back gold. No, really…USA Curling. Funny enough, the US Curling team was actually rewarded with the Gold medals for the Wonen’s curling. The mix up was fixed and the US team did receive their proper gold medals.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 