Welcome back to the Sunday review of the week that was in television.
Major going ons over at Screen Junkies this week. They have officially announced that their streaming service would be no more, and that they were moving their content over to YouTube, allowing more people to see their programming. And with this week’s Movie Fights, they gave us a massive event. Movie Fights Champion Dan Murrell took on #1 contender #Botanicus, Mike Carlson. Mike was known for his oddball choices and comedic timing, playing quite the opposite to the more business like Murrell. Dan was able to retain the title against Carlson in a fun match-up, but the night was just starting. Spencer Gilbert, the winner of the Showstopper, cashed in for his chance to win the title. And, after a controversial speed round, we have a new Movie Fights Champion! Gilbert defeated Murrell on the fifth question of the speed round. Controversy came in during the 4th round when the question, “Name the best movie with only six words in the title” came up and Spencer said Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. Whether “Episode V” should have been included in the title was a point of contention, but was eventually overruled by judge and host Andy Signore. I am sure that we have not heard the last of Dan Murrell as the chase to reclaim the title has begun.
Last Sunday, the WWE presented its ridiculously named PPV, Great Balls of Fire. Strangely though, the PPV was one of the best of the year, overcoming the silly name. Brock Lesnar vs. Samoa Joe was a brutal fight, Cesaro and Sheamus defeating the Hardy Boyz in an Iron Man match was a great match up, and Roman Reigns lost to Braun Strowman in an ambulance match and proceeded to try to murder Strowman by tossing him into the ambulance and backing it into a semi. In what felt like a double turn 
(though seeing RAW the next night, I don’t think it was), Braun was extracted from the ambulance with the jaws of life, but refused any medical attention and staggered away, leaving a trail of blood behind him. Braun was no where to be seen the next night on RAW, selling his injuries, but Roman was there ready to challenge Brock. However, Samoa Joe came out and insisted he was not done with this whole thing yet. Kurt Angle made a #1 contenders match for next week between Roman and Joe (and if you don’t think Braun is showing up there, then you haven’t been watching wrestling). The rest of RAW was pretty insignificant in comparison to this opening segment, which is a shame.
However, on WWE Network, they did debut the WWE 24 documentary on Kurt Angle. This was extremely well done, chronicling Kurt’s life, his Olympic victory with a broken freakin’ neck, his arrival in WWE, and his eventual departure. The doc went into Kurt’s substance abuse issues with alcohol and painkillers that stemmed from his multiple broken necks. The show ended with Kurt’s return to the WWE and his induction into the WWE Hall of Fame. There was a very nice moment shown between Angle and Vince McMahon, whom Angle described like a father figure. The WWE video was very powerful and they show themselves to be extremely solid with these kind of documentaries dealing with their talent.
However, all was not rosy this week in the WWE Universe as the well-liked program Talking Smack, an interview program the would air on Tuesday nights to discuss about things that happened on Smackdown Live, was cancelled. Fans seemed to enjoy the Talking Smack show, hosted by Renee Young and Daniel Bryan, because it was not scripted as closely as the main show, allowing wrestlers to come on and get themselves over with their speaking skills. We would see the performers noticeably more relaxed without the script, which brought about some excellent promos from some who we did not think had it in them. The Miz really started his resurgence when he verbally went after Bryan. Talking Smack will remain after Smackdown PPV’s so hopefully there will be a change in this decision. Or maybe we should have some more animated Camp WWE crap to fill up the hours on the network instead.
Twin Peaks last week brought us a great episode a week after the big WTF episode of #8. We started piecing some details together, as a plot might have actually been seen. *Big smiley face*. There were some really solid scenes involving Bobby Briggs and the discovery of a note left for him by his father, Major Briggs. We also had Agent Cole finding the headless body of Briggs. Bob/Evil Cooper also texted a message to Diane, making us all wonder about the wonderful Diane’s actual loyalties. Then we got the long awaited return of the missing Horne child…Johnny. Johnny? With no sign of Audrey yet, Johnny looked to have killed himself by ramming his head into a glass picture frame. As we move into the second half of the season, things seem to be picking up, which means, of course, David Lynch will throw us into some kind of alternate dimension tonight that will seem like it has nothing to do with the story. Ah, Twin Peaks!
This week on Preacher, Jesse finally realized that Tulip was not around and was more than just mad at him over their argument. She was in trouble. So he went ballistic with the voice of God to find her. There was a great fight with Jesse and Pat with the tune of Uptown Girl by Billy Joel playing away. This fight scene led to the discovery that Viktor, Tulip’s capture, was also her husband. BOOM. This week’s preacher also did what you never thought it would do … it made you feel bad for Hitler. Seriously, as the other members of Hell were kick the crap out of the Fuhrer, including Eugene by the way, I actually had some feels for him. Yes, I know what Hitler has done, but… I don’t know, it was just really well done. Oh, and the Killer of Saints is on his way. Preacher is delivering big time this year.
Oh, yes I know that there is a certain show returning tonight, but I do not watch Game of Thrones, so I won’t be discussing it in future columns. Sorry.
The Emmy nominations came out this week and there were several solid picks. EMMY AWARD NOMS can be found here. Stranger Things and SNL received a bunch of nominations, as did Feud: Joan and Bette. I hope Feud wins everything because it was truly some of the best TV of the year. I also hope Alec Baldwin wins for SNL just so we can get the Tweets the next day! SAD!
Happy viewing…especially for all of you who are going to be enjoying the return of Game of Thrones. Maybe one day I’ll binge it.
At Collider Video on YouTube this week, we had not only the Movie Trivia Schmoedown, massive event, The Collider Collison, headlined by the triple threat match betwen Mark Reilly, Dan Murrell and John Rocha, but also the team trivia matchup between old rivals Top Ten and team champions the Patriots. The Patriots defeated Top Ten rather soundly to successfully defend the team titles after an uncommonly poor performance by John Rocha. Rocha would return to the Collider Collision and, as the leader of the 4 Horsemen, would compete int he triple threat match. Unfortunately for the Outlaw, though he competed at a much higher level, he still fell to the hands of new Movie Trivia 
Champion, Dan Murrell. Murrell’s night was not yet over, however, as he was then challenged by Free-4-All winner Samm Levine, who was, by winning the Free-4-All allowed to challenge the champion any time he wanted. Murrell aggressively accepted the challenge and stepped up to the plate, defeating Levine as well, ending the night not only winning the title, but also successfully defending it. Murrell was not the only trivia competitor competing at the Collider Collision, though. The opening bout was a match between Rotten Tomatoes (Grae Drake and Matt Atchity) and The Nerd’s Watch (Ken Napzok and Rachel Cushings) for the #1 contendership for the team titles. It was a close encounter that was won by Rotten Tomatoes. Then, after trailing the whole match, 
Hector Navarro barely defeated Jeremy Johns to retain the Innergeekdom Championship when Johns could not come up with AC/DC’s Back in Black. Then, in the most contentious match of the night, Kristian “The Commissioner” Harloff defeated “The Insneider” Jeff Sneider of the Lion’s Den, despite that heelish faction’s constant complaints and criticisms. We also saw William “The Beast” Bibbiani betray John Rocha and his former stablemates in the 4 Horsemen, leaving the group for his own. The PPV-like event was hugely successful for the Movie Trivia Schmoedown, which consistently is one of the most entertaining programs on YouTube. Congratulations to Schmoedown head honcho Kristina Harloff on the exciting program.
Also online this week, I watched the four episodes of the new Netflix animated series, Castlevania, based on 
Preacher took the road trip to New Orleans this week in their continued search for God, who apparently loves jazz. Preacher also looked at the true origin of Arseface, through flashbacks, allowing us to see Eugene in his tragic moment. We also see Eugene in Hell, and that seemingly, his roommate, is Adolf Hitler. Season two of Preacher continues to be off the chart in awesomeness.
There was a lot of ringing this week as the gong was being smashed repeatedly on the Gong Show. Guest judges 
It was TV Sex Symbols vs. TV Variety on Battle of the Network Stars this week. The competition show is hosted by 
Okay, last week I talked about how episode seven of Twin Peaks started to look more like the Twin Peaks that I remembered and I had hoped that the narrative structure might get going after that. Then………….WTF? Twin Peaks: The Return episode 8 was the most trippy, surreal, confusing episode of television I think I have ever seen. It was the weirdest thing ever on TV, and the show is obviously unapologetic for it. It was a 
beautifully shot episode with EPIC visual imagery. From the point of Nine Inch Nails and their song to the end of the show, there has never been anything like it. Now, what exactly happened? Well, I do believe that we saw the origin of Killer Bob and a response to Bob from the Giant… and that response was Laura Palmer. It seems that Bob was created or unleashed or born in a nuclear test in New Mexico in 1945. Something like “fire walk with me” perhaps? Then, the 
frog/mosquito/bug that crawled into the woman’s mouth (Sarah Palmer, maybe?) was right out of a nightmare. The entire episode felt like someone’s recurring nightmare and shown in the most stylish way possible. Twin Peaks is off this week, so there will be no episode to confuse and confound us. I don’t know if that is a good thing. Twin Peaks has been one of the most bizarre returns you are ever going to see.
The next big return was one of my favorite shows from my childhood. ABC has brought back The Battle of the Network Stars as a part of their Summer Fun and Games series. I remember loving the Battle of the Network Stars as a youth, watching Howard Cosell call the athletic competition between stars from ABC, CBS and NBS. I always cheered for ABC. Now, however, there are actually way too many networks out there so the show has adjusted. It has put together the celebrities into categories. Episode one featured the TV Sitcoms vs. TV Kids. Admittedly, you did not get the A-list celebrities participating, but it was cool to see Tootie and Blair from Facts of Life reunite on the sitcom team. We also had a slightly off Tom Arnold, and Bronson Pinchot was here from Perfect Strangers. It was a lot of fun and nostalgic watching the dunk tank and the relay race and the obstacle course. The show ended with the classic tug of war as well. I loved it and I look forward to seeing more.
After the Battle of the Network Stars, I switched over to the Mist on Spike, but I have to say, I had a hard time getting into it and ABC was calling to me again. So I left The Mist and came back to The Gong Show. I enjoyed this again this week, but I have to wonder… will we have a Shaving Cream sing along each week as we had the bit this week as well? I might be okay with that as that was one of my favorite childhood song (thanks Dr. Demento). I still want to see the Unknown Comic make his triumphant return to the show. “Not Mike Myers” Tommy Maitland continued to host the show and we had a cool act win this week… Zombie ballet. The Gong Show and Battle of the Network Stars join the 100,000 Pyramid and Celebrity Family Feud as the Summer Fun and Games promotion for ABC. This is a clever way to reach people’s nostalgia and create programming on the down low for the summer months. Keep it up, ABC.
This upcoming week will see two big matches in the Movie Trivia Schmoedown. On July 4th, the team champions The Patriots will defend their titles against Top 10. Then, on Friday, they have their big Collider Collision event, featuring the Triple Threat championship match between champ Mark Reilly, and challengers Dan Murrell and “The Outlaw” John Rocha. There is also an Innergeekdom championship match with champ Hector Navarro defending against Jeremy Jahns. The Movie Trivia Schmoedown is always fun and when they present these WWE-like events, they are even more so. This past week, they had a big match with “Classy” Clarke Wolfe defeating “Baby Carrots” Mark Ellis in a battle of big-time competitors.
Finally, Twin Peaks felt like Twin Peaks. I had been becoming somewhat frustrated with the narrative of the new event series on Showtime… that it did not feel like Twin Peaks. Episode six had become the crux of that concern. Then, episode 7 came along and all of those fears were laid to rest. The story suddenly jumped into high gear, we got the humor back and we got evil Agent Cooper and Diane confrontation that was epic. And we got fantastic Laura Dern as the f-bomb dropping Diane. Though Agent Cooper has not yet snapped out of his Dougie persona, we get progression toward that as he was able to disarm the gun wielding midget that had attacked him. Pacing issues that plagued some early episodes were gone too as we zoomed through several transitions. It was great to finally be feeling like I am watching Twin Peaks, and I hope that they continue down this road.
Fargo came to an end with a remarkable finale. The third season of Fargo had been up and down for me, but the last few weeks of programming has been out of this world. The revenge of Nikki against the men of 
The Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, aka GLOW, debuted on Netflix this weekend and it was tremendous. 10 episodes of (approximately) 30 minutes made this a real easy binge and any fan of pro wrestling had to love the show, which treated the sport with remarkable amount of respect. The characters were great, and the show continued to be funnier with each episode. I will say that the finale, episode 10, is one of the best finales I have seen in a long time. You do not have to be a fan of professional wrestling to love this series because the characters are so well written that you find yourself cheering for them anyway. As a shout out, I had no idea that the character of “The Welfare Queen” Tamee was played by Kia Stevens, who was known in wrestling rings as Awesome Kong (or Karma in the WWE). It was also awesome to see cameos from John Morrison, Carlito, Brodius Clay, Alex Riley, Christopher Daniels among others. GLOW was an awesome and very easy binge.
The Mist debuted on Spike TV this week and it was creepy as hell. Based on the Stephen King story and the movie of the same name, The Mist brought some great horror moments back to television. A good chunk of the first episode was spent introducing characters (which is always a good idea). These shows will live and die on their characters. Of course, they also spent the first episode killing off some of these new characters, including the husband of AHS alum Frances Conroy.
Thursday also brought us the return of the Gong Show to ABC. I was a fan of the old 1970s version with Chuck Barris and the Unknown Comic, so i knew I wanted to give this reboot a try. I enjoyed the weirdness of the series and found it fascinating having the show hosted by Tommy Maitland. However, Tommy Maitland is not a real person. Tommy Maitland is being played by Mike Myers doing his very best Andy Kaufman/Tony Clifton gimmick. Myers will not admit to playing Tommy, keeping kayfabe alive. Even without the secret identity, The Gong Show is a fun time watching people joyfully make fools of themselves doing some unbelievable things. Panel judges give them a score out of ten, if they do not hit the gong instead. I also loved the group sing along with the classic dementia hit, Shaving Creme. I sure hope the Unknown Comic gets to make an appearance.
The Gong Show fits in with the rest of the ABC group of game shows with 100,000 Pyramid (this week featuring Nsync guys) and the Celebrity Family Feud. These programs are fun, full of energy and entertaining. They also should be cheap and easy to produce. ABC hit a great idea bringing these game shows back for the summer (although, the most successful- Match Game- has already had their episodes).
First of all, Showtime had a four episode documentary called “The Putin Interviews.” Filmmaker Oliver Stone spent the last three years having interviews with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. I have to say that most of these episodes felt pretty fluff. Putin comes off very charming and intelligent. I think some of what the Russian leader said was taken too much as truth. There was not enough of questioning or challenging what he said in a situation where, supposedly, there were no questions off limit. Episode four was a little different when the questions on Trump and the Russian hacks came up. Putin, who was cool as a cucumber throughout the previous three episodes, was twitchy and displayed body language that made you believe that he was not telling the truth. It was a distinct change in his tone. During that time, Stone, to his credit, did press Putin on much of what he said and did not let him just say what he wanted. It was probably the most compelling part of the series. However, there is no doubt to what my favorite moment was… and it was unbelievably surreal. Oliver Stone mentioned Stanley 
Kubrick’s classic “Dr. Strangelove” during their discussion of nuclear weapons and he asked Putin if he had seen the film. Putin responded with a no (or nyet). We then see a series of scenes of the two of them in a large room, watching the DVD of Dr. Strangelove, and it was amazing. Stone had that look on his face as if he were sharing something great with his friend, and Putin sat there with a humorless expression on his face. Truly, the most surreal moment of the entire thing. I can’t even wrap my head around it.
Twin Peaks. I have to say, as a lover of the original series and a definite Peaks Freak, I have been somewhat disappointed with the new series so far. I am ready for the whole “Dougie” stuff to come to an end. I understand that Agent Cooper needs to show some off-balance behavior after returning from 25 years in the White Lodge, but I am ready for him to “wake up,” as he was told by Mike. There also seems to be less of the art in this series, replaced by simple violence. The scene of the little boy being run down by the truck and the scene of the midget stabbing the woman to death seem out of place with the elegance of the rest of the series. Maybe it is because there are no brakes on David Lynch as there were on the original series, but those moments lose a lot of their power, I believe, with the gratuitous nature of their presentation. Understand, I am still on board with Twin Peaks and I have 
no intention of stopping my viewing of the show, but it just has not captured the same place in my heart as the first series did. I must say though the arrival of Diane was a welcome moment. I could use more narrative. It really feels like a series of individual scenes without any through line. Perhaps that will still come, but I would like it to come soon. I would also like more action in Twin Peaks itself.
Fargo is rushing toward its finale this coming week as we got an outstanding showdown between Varga and Nikki. Both of these great characters believe that they have the key to blackmail the other, but only one can come out on top. Nikki really showed herself as a player in these scenes, reminding me how much I have enjoyed the progression of this character during this season of Fargo. I also loved the interactions between Emmit and Gloria. These two actors, Ewan McGregor and Carrie Coon, provided such a powerful interrogation scene that dove deep into the characters. I felt for Emmit as he recollected his relationship with his brother. “30 years I’ve been killing him. That was just when he fell,” said Emmit as a summary of his relationship with Ray. Very powerful, indeed.
The season finale of American Gods is on tonight, and I have been able to see the episode already on Amazon Prime and it is spectacular. The first season has been amazing and we finally get the reveal tonight of the true name of Mr. Wednesday. He is Odin. And we also meet the goddess of spring, which has become mashed up with Easter. There are also a lot of Jesus characters wondering around. The remarkably creative idea that said that when someone believed in Jesus, a different version showed up, was tremendous. It also gave us a chance to see on old favorite in his second role of the week. LOST’s Daniel Faraday was played by Jeremy Davies, and Davies appeared in this episode as Jesus Prime. Davies also appeared this week on Twin Peaks. American Gods has been weird and wonderful and full of amazing performances. Gillian Anderson was back this week, once again commanding the screen with her presence.
ABC has returned to the summer of games, as we got the premiere of Celebrity Family Feud and the $100,000 Pyramid. There were a few other game shows on the summer schedule, but these are the two that interested me. I enjoyed watching Leslie Jones and her over the top behavior on the Pyramid. You could tell she really wanted to help the contestants win. Then, it was also great to see the Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin’s family on the Feud, despite them not winning the big money at the end. Teri was there and it brought me back to the old days with Steve. I miss him so much. There was a really nice story told by Bindi Irwin to host Steve Harvey about how much her father loved Harvey. It was very touching and you could see how much it meant to Steve.
However, what stuck out the most was a promo they ran during the Sunday night game shows. It revealed the return of the Battle of the Network Stars. I AM SO IN!!! I remember loving that old series back on ABC, where stars from the three networks would get together and compete in track and field like events. I always cheered for ABC. It looks as if this time, they won’t be going by network as much as by categories (e.g. TV Sitcoms, TV Kids, Primetime Soaps etc), which works for me. Series premieres on June 29th. I cannot wait.
However, we must first look farther back than the previous week. We must look back to 1966, to one of the shows that I loved to watch (albeit in reruns, as I am not old enough to have watched it live). Batman had taken the characters of Batman and Robin and recreated them for a new audience and created quite a stir. Some of my earliest memories were watching this show in the afternoons. I was a fan of Robin, and I remember making my mom make me a robin half mask that I could wear. I did not understand the series at that time, but later on I was able to see it with new eyes. Batman was a hilarious spoof of super heroes, with the over-the-top acting, cheesy dialogue and the bright colors. The show was amazingly entertaining. A big part of that reason was because of Adam West. Adam West embraced the role of Batman and was so perfect int he role because he understood and was in on the joke. This was a comedy, and Batman was the ultimate boy scout, a title that Superman would one day take instead. Batman was the goodest of the good, though he would hate the use of that incorrect grammatical term. His “Bat-leap” becoming a phrase that we used anytime someone made a leap of logic that was anything but logical. Glu Glutton’s Glue Factory? Of course! Adam West was how the world saw Batman for decades, until the darker shade of the Dark Knight arrived. Yet, there is an audience for the good old days, as there is a Batman ’66 comic and a limited release movie The Return of the Caped Crusaders, where Adam West voiced his greatest role once again. Adam West passed away this weekend and I want to thank him for the role that he played in shaping my love of the super hero genre and the goodness of the hero, a hero who would never toss away a bomb into a group of little duckies. RIP Adam West.
Netflix had a big week this week. First of all, I finished binging the fifth season of House of Cards. With the resignation of Frank Underwood and the swearing in of Claire Underwood, House of Cards continued to show us the worst of the politicians of the US. Now, the argument is that the show is not as enjoyable now because it is too close to reality, and I think that is a big part of it. Still, there is no denying that the show is top quality and Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright are at the top of their game. Will Claire pardon Frank or will she let him flap in the air? I guess we’ll have to wait to find out.
Secondly, I found a seven-part docuseries called The Keepers. This series told the true story of Sister Catherine, a nun who was murdered in 1969, and the circumstances around the case that had never been solved. The cold case was tremendously engaging, as we had two of Sister Cathy’s former students (Cathy worked as a high school teacher) who wanted to solve the case. The case took us through a ton of twists and turns including the Catholic church sex scandal, a mysterious man named Brother Bob, and laid the groundwork for several possible suspects. I kept hoping that this series would end with a big “gotcha” moment, much like The Jinx, but unfortunately, the mystery remains unsolved. There were some episodes, in particular episode 5, that were just creepy, scary and left you disturbed.
And thirdly, Netflix dropped the fifth season of Orange is the New Black this past Friday. If you remember, season four left off with the inmates of 
I rarely watch Smackdown on Tuesday nights. I watch RAW on Monday, but you would think that I would watch Smackdown instead. Many more of my favorite performers are on this show (Sami Zayn, AJ Styles, The New Day, etc), but I still watch RAW. However, I tuned in this past Tuesday for a specific match. The first time ever (in WWE at least) that Shinsuke Nakamura would take on Kevin Owens. That dream match made me watch Smackdown. Unfortunately, the match itself was a letdown. It only got about ten minutes of match time, they went to commercial a minute into the match and there just felt a lack of big match feel to it. Nakamura won cleanly, which is fine, but I would have loved to see a 20-30 minute classic between these two instead of what we got.
Twin Peaks continues to be the weirdest show on television. David Lynch unfiltered keeps getting stranger each week. Now, I must say that I have been very impressed with Kyle McLaughlin’s performance as Agent Cooper, but I am ready for Cooper to get back to his full functioning federal agent state. The whole Dougie thing has been okay, and funny at times, but it really has made me want to see Agent Cooper bust through the haze. There have been signs of this starting to happen, and I hope that tonight is the night that we actually get him back. I would also love a little more time spent in Twin Peaks itself.
Gotham had its season finale and it really kicked some ass. So much happened… from Gordon killing Fish Mooney in a Tetch virus induced rage to Mr. Freeze creating a Riddler ice sculpture (from the Riddler himself) to the first bad guys stopped by a dark and mysterious vigilante. We found a Tetch virus cure, killed Butch (only to discover that Butch’s real name was Cyrus Gold (hint…Solomon Grundy) and had Lee bolt from Gotham once again. Oh… and Ra’s Al Ghul. Season four has been, start to finish, easily the best season of the show so far. As Gotham gets closer and closer to the era of Batman, the future only looks brighter.
Poor Emmett in Fargo has taken a turn for the worse. He has began to unravel after his killing of his brother last week. This week, we got a time jump of three months, after a brutal and violent conflict with the assassins Yuri and Golem who attacked the prison bus and a team up of Nikki Swango and season one deaf baddie, Mr. Wrench. Last week I said how unhappy I would be if Nikki were to meet such a sad fate, being executed on this prison bus. Well, those concerns left quickly as the battle in the woods between these two factions was just amazing. Body parts strewn around and the decapitation of Golem with the chain that bound Mr Wrench and Nikki together was off the charts. Fargo started the year weaker, but it has really been great the last 3-4 weeks.
Whose Line is it Anyway is a great way to spend some time on Monday nights. This past week, we saw the Bella Twins, Nikki and Brie from the WWE as the special guest stars on the show featuring the fourth seat filled by Jeff Davis. We also got a Hoedown, a special treat that we have not gotten as much on the CW version of the show. The Bella Twins did sound effects, which never fails to entertain, and then Colin put on perhaps the most terrifying mask ever seen on “Questions” before.
Netflix dropped the new season of House of Cards on Tuesday of this past week. I was able to binge the first ten episodes of season 5. I hope to be able to finish that in the upcoming week. I love Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright, but I have to say that there was just something about this season that has been underwhelming. I’m not sure I can actually put a finger on the reason behind it, but it could be that real life has become too much like House of Cards for me to really get into the fictionalized corruption of the series. The world of President Donald Trump compares way too closely to the world of President Frank Underwood.
Then, there are several other facts that have me questioning the season. It took too long to determine the result of the 2016 election. Republican candidate Will Conway has gone from a serious threat to a nearly incompetent puppet. The story with Frank and his personal trainer “friend” and Claire and her “boyfriend” bothered me. Then there is the weird sensation of cheering for Frank Underwood. Underwood has done some horrendous things, including murder, but he is so charming and entertaining that you can’t help but cheer for him. The reporter Tom 
However, Gotham was tremendous this past Monday in its penultimate episode of the season. Gordon buried alive by Leslie. Leslie and Gordon taking the Tetch Virus. The return of Bruce Wayne, though brainwashed. The return of Fish Mooney, to snatch Penguin from the clutches of The Riddler. And in one of the biggest WTF moments, Gordon failing to prevent the release of the Tetch Virus in Gotham. What does this mean for Gotham, its residents and the newly murdered Court of Owls? I don’t know but my jaw hit the ground when that bomb went off and was not stopped by Gordon. Can’t wait to see what they have in store for us on Monday.
Whose Line is it Anyway returned on Monday night with more improvisational fun. Monday’s episode included regulars Ryan Stiles, Wayne Brady, Colin Mochrie and host Aisha Tyler, as well as “fourth seater” Ann Campbell. Tony Hawk arrived as their celebrity guest star. As always, Whose Line brought some great laughter as these performers are ridiculously entertaining and clever. The WWE’s Bella Twins are scheduled as the special guest stars this week as Whose Line revs up for a lot of summer fun.
Fargo continues to improve every week. This week, we had some serious issues with Nikki, as she was arrested for the murder of Ray and finds herself in a bus wreck, being stalked to be killed. I am really hoping some miracle is able to save Nikki because I have grown to like her a lot. I also love Gloria and her battle with bureaucracy and the pairing of Gloria and fellow oddball cop Winnie. And the character of Sy was heartbreaking in this episode. When he collapses in his wife’s arms and said: “The world. The world is wrong. It looks like my world, but everything’s different,” that was painful and hard to watch.
American Gods was outstanding last week too. We had our first confrontation between Shadow and Mr. Wednesday and the new gods, including Mr. World (played by Crispin Glover). But the standout was easily Gillian Anderson, who as the god Media, appeared as both David Bowie (in his blue suit) and as Marilyn Monroe. This was after her debut in the series looking like I Love Lucy. The confrontation with the new gods really brought the level of drama to a whole new level. You have got to feel for poor Shadow, who has also just had to react to his back from the dead (or is she?) wife.
As of this moment, I have seen the first four episodes of Twin Peaks: The Return. These episodes have been tremendously Lynchian. David Lynch has a distinct flare about what he does and this new Twin Peaks is apologetically David Lynch. It’s weird, wild and bizarre. The first two episodes, which I saw last Sunday, were really dark and weird. They were extremely violent and, even shocking at times. The next two episodes were made available after that, and will be shown on Showtime tonight. These next two episodes 
are more like the old Twin Peaks. The oddball humor was back (Agent Cooper as “Mr. Jackpot”) and we saw David Lynch as Gordon Cole. We also saw the late great Miguel Ferrer as Albert. David Duchovny returned as Denise Bryson. Meanwhile, Agent Cooper is finally out of the White Lodge, but it seems like the experience has caused some confusion for him. The doppelganger is also here and in prison, being interviewed by Cole and Albert in a seriously creepy scene. The new Twin Peaks is doing a good job of combining the new with the nostalgic (We saw Bobby Briggs). I think the show is really going to take off soon.
General Hospital had its annual Nurses’ Ball this past week. For years, the storyline nurses of GH get together and perform a one night talent show to raise money for AIDS/HIV research. Lucy Coe is always the emcee and they have had some really fun musical numbers over the years. This year’s Nurses’ Ball felt a little too manufactured, but they had some decent musical acts. Valentin Cassadine sang Billy Joel’s “So It Goes.” Ned Quartermaine and Olivia performed “Faith” by George Michael and Dillion Quartermaine did a David Bowie sone, “Modern Love.” The show ended with “Hallelujah” sung by the nurses.
More musical news… Lip Sync Battle had a great episode this week as the four boys from Stranger Things competed. Normally, the format of the show is two celebrities performing two songs, but this time we had four celebs doing one song each. 
Fargo pulled out a serious surprise this week as, after a confrontation between brothers, Ray wound up dead, bleeding out from a glass wound to the neck, caused, accidentally, by his brother Emmett. It was a seriously dramatic moment for the series, which as truly picked up over the last few weeks. I had begun to feel for Ray and I was getting behind him as the main hero of the story, despite basically being behind some of the early episode shenanigans. His death was tough to watch and Emmett’s reaction was very well done. Ewan McGregor is bringing some great work here.
I watched the premiere episode of “I’m Dying Up Here,” the new stand-up comic show that follows a group of comedians during the late 70’s in the comedy clubs. Now, I was not blown away by this, but I have to say, I was watching it Sunday morning while I was still a little tired so I dozed through much of it. It also had a surprise death (this one being death by bus—one of LOST’s favorite techniques). The series is produced by Jim Carrey, so it will be interesting to see where this goes from here. The atmosphere was perfectly rendered.
American Gods was all flashback this week, showing us how Shadow’s dead wife, 
Gotham continues to have an exceptionally excellent season three as we are in full race to head to the showdown with the Court of Owls. This episode brought us back with The Judge, as well as saw a tentative truce between Riddler and Penguin. The off beat relationship between Oswald and Edward is one of the season’s biggest successes, so I was glad to see them working together once again, no matter how temporary it would be. We are also moving closer to the creation of one Dark Knight in the world of Gotham as Bruce Wayne is being “trained” by the mysterious man who may (or may not) be Ra’s al Ghul.
I caught back up with the last three episodes of Speechless on ABC this week. The show is charming and really shows one of the most supportive families on TV. The DiMeo clan have all kinds of negative qualities about them, but they really love one another. The first season has shown some great growth for these characters, and dealt with the disability of JJ in a real and non-cliched manner. Ray is a breakout character and Maya is the tornado mother that we all wish we had. That mother that would have your back no matter what. Minnie Driver is brilliant here and I hope she gets recognized for the season. Micah Fowler, as JJ DiMeo, is exceptional as the young boy with cerebral pulsey. He emotes as much as any of the actors in the show and he has great chemistry with Kenneth. This is an enjoyable half hour show with more heart than you would expect.
Tonight is the night. On Showtime, Twin Peaks makes it triumphant return in a two hour debut. The 18 episode mini-series picks up where the classic ABC series left off 26 years ago. I am so excited for Twin Peaks that, despite having to miss American Gods and the last two hours of WWE Payback PPV, I will be front and center for the revival. I can’t wait for that damn good coffee and pie, the return of Agent Dale Cooper and the rest of the massive cast. It is happening again.
Meanwhile, we had several season finales last week, each bringing something interesting to the table. First, last Sunday, Once Upon A Time came to a conclusion for the season in what should have really been a series finale. With Jennifer Morrison leaving, the series came to what could only be defined as a happily-ever-after ending after they defeated the Black Fairy and prevented Rumple and Belle’s son from killing Emma. Then, we had a strange time jump where everything seemed to become bizarrely familiar. A little girl came to a door (room 815 by the way, hello LOST!!!) and knocked on it. A grown up Henry answered only to have the little girl claim to be his daughter and that he needed to come with her to help save his family. This, of course, hearkens back to the series premiere when Henry literally did the exact same thing with his mother Emma. OUAT has been renewed for season 7, but the ending to season 6 really felt like a perfect ending. I hope they do not spoil what could have been a magnificent way to go out for the sake of one more season.
Agents of SHIELD came to an end as Ghost Rider jumped over to Coulson so he could finish off AIDA once and for all. Apparently, Coulson made some kind of deal with the devil to temporarily house the Spirit of Vengeance. What that deal is, we do not know. But Agents of SHIELD was not done yet with the questions that they left us pondering. As the team was made to look as if they had attacked Talbot, they were fugitives. But they had done enough running so they waited together to be arrested. Mack had returned safely from the Framework after his daughter, sadly, disappeared. Robbie Reyes returned to some alternate dimension (by opening up with his chain what looked like a sling ring pathway from Doctor Strange). Then, after they were taken by some mysterious group who were (clearly) not he police, Coulson ended up somewhere in space. Is this setting up S.W.O.R.D.? Or will they have something to do with Avengers: Infinity War? Who knows. All I know for sure is that Agents of SHIELD once again brought the goods for a season finale.
Scandal also had a season finale this week, but I feel considerably less positive about this one. The truth behind the Frankie Vargas murder was once again revealed and once more was changed. Now it was in the hands of Frankie’s wife Luna Vargas, who was manipulated into doing it by Cyrus. Yep. That is right. We came back to the beginning again. So, what happened? Why, Olivia and Jake went to Luna with the evidence and forced her to take some pills that would kill her and make it look like she had a heart attack, of course. Wait…what? Olivia forced Luna to kill herself? That is right. Then, Olivia and Cyrus had a meeting confirming that the two of them know what the other was responsible for and neither seemed to upset. The white hat is officially gone. Lots happened here from Mellie’s inauguration to the return of Olivia’s mother (tick tock). The attempt to make Eli and crazy Maya heroic is just sickening. But, instead of making them the heroes, the show has made Olivia just like them. She is power hungry and willing to do anything. She has reformed B16 and has taken the reigns for herself. I do not know where the white hat wearing gladiator went, but I miss her. This Olivia… well, I wish she would go off with Fitz and drive him to drink. Or maybe the entire Pop clan could head off to go fishing off the coast of some third world country and grab control there. Scandal is in desperate need of some heroes again.
Designated Survivor came to a more happy ending with President Kirkman showing the Scandal crew that you can still be a good person and run the country (at least for now). The mole inside the White House was captured and President Kirkman addressed a joint session of Congress for the first time since the bomb that made him the Commander in Chief went off. It was a nice way to bookend the season, but I was becoming somewhat frustrated with the inability of the FBI to catch anyone in connection to the conspiracy. Thankfully, they finally did, although the main villain behind the conspiracy escaped and now has all the state secrets ready to do some dastardly plan next season. This series really could use Jack Bauer to arrive and do some work. I do love President Kirkman, despite how unlikely someone like him could be a president. It has a good message for the country that is tired of all the divisiveness.
Saturday Night Live also came to the season finale, hosted by “The Rock” Dwayne Johnson. The Rock continued to show how much talent he has as he went from skit to skit and just knocked it out of the park. He also had a joke in the opening monologue about him running for president in 2020 and he brought out Tom Hanks as his running mate. The best part of the bit was that it was a joke… or was it? It played like a bit, but it had a realness to it. SNL also featured Alec Baldwin in the cold open performing “Hallelujah” as Donald Trump. Baldwin was joined by all of the people who played parts of Trump’s administration, including Kate McKinnon as Kellyanne Conway and Scarlett Johannson as Ivanka. Look close and you may see the Russian flag lapel pin on Baldwin. Subtle. Word is that Baldwin will be hanging up his platinum wig after this season and, if that is true, this is a fitting send off.
Saturday night saw the next NXT Takeover: Chicago special on the WWE Network. These shows never fail to bring the goodness and really raise the bar to a level that the pay per view the next night could not possibly reach. On the Takeover show, there was a possible Match of the Year candidate as Pete Dunne defeated Tyler Bate for the WWE United Kingdom Championship. This match was just epic and went back and forth, completely engulfing 
the arena with emotion. Tyler Bate pulled out the fastest airplane spin I have ever seen and the WWE brought Jim Ross out to do commentary on the match, making it feel that much more special. We also saw an amazing ladder match where the Authors of Pain defeated DIY, and then we saw DIY member Tommaso Ciampa turn on his partner and close friend Johnny Gargano in a brutal beat down post match. This was made even worse after Gargano took a brutal ladder shot to the face for his friend, shoving Ciampa out of the way of the blow. The event was wonderful from top to bottom and, again, set the bar really high for Payback.
I will also say that I was pretty engrossed with this week’s Fargo. I have not been as enamored with Fargo season three as much as I have been in the past, but this week got me. I am really starting to get into the story and I want Varga and his men to pay for their crimes. I am also finally starting to feel for Emmett and Nikki. Hopefully, Fargo, which I have loved over the last two seasons, will be able to continue this momentum with me and really pick up the pace for the remainder of the season.
Leading the pack for renewals included Agents of SHIELD, Scandal (renewed for a final season 7), Once Upon A Time (though without Jennifer Morrison), Designated Survivor, Flash, Supergirl, Supernatural, American Gods, Big Bang Theory, Lucifer, Arrow among others. While the other end of the spectrum saw the cancellation of such shows as American Crime, Dr. Ken, Last Man Standing, Secrets and Lies, Blacklist, Powerless among others.
Speaking of Once Upon a Time, this past week saw the huge musical episode of the long running series, and I loved it. In my mind it was so much better than the much ballyhooed Flash musical episode that it was not even comparable. While Flash had a couple of good songs, OUAT had a great song almost every time. The song by Captain Hook, “Revenge is Gonna Mine” is just really awesome. Each song had a different style and the actors from the show did an admirable job singing. Sure the Evil Queen had the weakest of the singing voices here, but her song was tailored to her strengths. Plus, it ended with a beautiful Captain Hook-Emma wedding just moments before the new curse is enacted. This was one of the best episodes of Once Upon a Time that they have had for years.
American Gods. Whoa. This show has become one of the best on television in a very short period of time. When Shadow playing checkers is one of the most tumultuous moments of the show, you know you are on to something. Cloris Leachman was perfect as Zorya Vechernyaya. Gilligan Anderson as Media, appearing to Shadow through a television screen as Lucy Ricardo was a truly surreal moment for Shadow and for all of the viewers. Slavic god of the dead, night and chaos, Czernobog was creepy as hell as played by Peter Stormare (with that blood dripping off the hammer) and we started the episode with Mr. Nancy, played by Orlando Jones, aboard a slave ship, talking the slaves into a violent revolt. And doing it in the most outlandish suit possible. This has been one fo the standout shows on Starz in awhile.
I really thought we were finally done with Papa Pope on Scandal. He was on the way out of town to retire to a happy life of fishing by himself. I don’t know how that can happen since he assassinated the President-Elect of the United States, but I guess forgiveness is tantamount on Scandal. Unfortunately, the return of his crazy ass wife as the REAL big bad of the season (you know… not Peus after all) forced the weak stars of the show call Eli back for his help. Ugh. The rest of the show was fun with a cool little bit with David dealing with a head in a box, trying to identify who the mysterious woman he was involved with truly was.
Riverdale ended with a bang, literally as Archie’s dad, Fred, wound up bleeding out on the floor of Pop’s in Archie’s arms after taking a bullet from an intended robber. It was a dramatic moment after an episode full of finality. Jughead was given a Southside Serpents jacket by the Serpents, as a way of saying that they have his back- especially since J.P. did not name names to get out of his charges. Archie had to punch through the ice on a frozen river to save suicidal Cheryl, who had fallen through the ice. Archie and Veronica had sex, and Jughead and Betty said that they loved each other. Betty gave a very cliched speech at the formal dance that was definitely the weak part of the show. We discovered about Betty’s secret brother that had been given up for adoption. Is he J.P’s son?
Fargo has continued to be a decent show that is not a match for the last two seasons. I have enjoyed the work of Ewan McGregor though, playing the brothers Stussy. This episode though was intriguing with the “Peter and the Wolf” soundtrack playing behind with narration by Billy Bob Thornton. However, I must say, Fargo had the most revolting puke scene and I just hate puke scenes. I did not feel well the rest of the morning after watching that. However, I have really enjoyed the story with Chief Gloria Burgle (especially how none of the sensors seem to pick her up, including the automatic faucets in the restroom. Burgle seems to be starting to focus in on the appropriate areas in her murder investigation.
Guess who showed back up on Agents of SHIELD right at the very end of this episode? Yep, that is Robbie Reyes, aka The Ghost Rider. Looks like Ghost Rider has returned to help the agents end the threat of Aida, who has gained not only a new human body, but also a variety of powers that might just make her unstoppable. And with Fitz basically telling her that there would never be anywhere in his heart for anyone except for Simmons, Aida did not take that well.
We saw the debut of the Neil Gaimann adapted series American Gods on Starz. The show was very entertaining, extremely brutal and bloody. You couldn’t help but become engaged in this story as we see Shadow Moon in prison, preparing for his release. Unfortunately, bad news preceded the release as he found out that his wife died in a car crash. 
This bit of bad news led to an early release and caused Shadow a lot of problems trying to get back for the funeral. Along the way, he ran into the mysterious Mr. Wednesday, who offers him a job. Mr. Wednesday is played wonderfully by Ian McShane. I am looking forward to follow this show on Starz.
The biggest reveal last week confirms the long held belief that if your hair turns grey overnight, you are definitely going to/or have murdered one of your children. Riverdale, in an obvious homage to Twin Peaks’ Leland Palmer, revealed that Jason Blossom’s killer was no other than his father Clifford Blossom. We still have not had a complete reason for the patriarch of the Blossom clan to have shot his son in the head, but there should be some further details in this week’s finale of Riverdale. We did find out that the Blossoms and the Coopers had an unexpected connection. They were related. The fact that Jason and Polly were truly cousins may have played in with dear old dad’s decision. Plus, please be careful of those #Maplesyruplandgrabs. (Thanks Sasha and Roth).
On YouTube this week at Collider, we had a special week of TV Talk. Collider TV Talk, which has aired taped on Monday nights, went live each day all week long. The show started at 10 AM PST and was hosted by Josh Macuga. David Griffin was also on each episode as was the lovely 
Scandal brought its season long conspiracy crashing down this week with the bullet to the head of villainous Theodore Peus. The show has truly gone out of its way to make a hero out of Pappa Pope, Eli Pope, that I find that pretty sickening. He did assassinate Frankie Vargas. The whole “We’re gonna send you Olivia’s head in a box” just never felt like sufficient motivation to scare Rowan and make him into such a wussy. And I am so tired of his constant sermonizing. In a season where things started so high, I found myself grimacing more than smiling at Scandal recently.
Much more satisfying was Agents of SHIELD as the main crew (or at least most of them) escaped from the Framework this week back to the real world. I say most of them because Mack decided that he was staying in the Framework when he realized that his daughter would not be waiting for him in the real world. It was a bittersweet moment for the agent and a strong performance from Henry Simmons. We also had a great Coulson-May moment as this pair were able to reunite in both worlds. In the Framework, Coulson is shot and comments on how it feels familiar. Of course, in true Agents of SHIELD fashion, not everything is perfect, as Aida also found herself back in the real world in a non-robot body and TELEPORTED away from the group with Fitz. Teleported??? What? Rumors circulated this week that Agents of SHIELD will be renewed for a fifth season, and, if that s true, it is welcome news because this is consistently one of Marvel’s best shows.
Fargo had a different style of episode this week as Gloria Burgle headed to Los Angeles to continue to investigate the strange backstory of her “step”-father who had been murdered. He apparently was, at one time, a sci-fi writer named Thaddeus Mobley. Though I do like Gloria a lot, and I enjoyed this episode (especially with its weird animated breaks), I have been somewhat disappointed with Fargo so far in season three. This episode had no purpose to it, as we know who killed Gloria’s step father and none of this background info seems to have any reason to be included. Now, maybe I am wrong and it will fold back into the story, but this felt like a real wasted opportunity. And why was Ray Wise there? I hope Fargo picks up as the season continues.
We officially bid farewell to Tracy Quartermaine on General Hospital and we did see her reunite with Luke Spencer in a coffee house somewhere in Europe (Amsterdam, perhaps). We did not hear anything from Luke, but the show played up the fate aspect as their meeting was completely coincidental. It makes me kind of happy to think that Luke and Tracy are together and having adventures somewhere in the world.
Tonight is the Once Upon a Time musical episode. I hope it will be better than the Flash one from earlier this year. I plan on watching. There still has never been a musical episode of TV better than “Once More With Feeling”, the classic episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I still listen to that soundtrack on my phone.
I have been a big fan of General Hospital for most of my life. I started watching the show back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. My mom watched the show and I started becoming engaged with it as well. One of my earliest memories of the show was when Luke Spencer interrupted Scott Baldwin and Laura Webber’s wedding ceremony and Luke wound up falling off a yacht. Good times.
This week, there was a big General Hospital moment as the show had a special episode this past Friday featuring Tracy Quartermaine. Tracy’s portrayer, Jane Elliot, has announced that she is retiring from acting and the show has given her a final storyline to say goodbye to this classic diva. Tracy was placed on trial for her deeds during a delusion she had after being struck on the head by a placard falling off the Quartermaine family crypt. Local mob boss Sonny Cornithos was the judge and the 
lawyers were the aforementioned Scott Baldwin and the ever awesome Diane. The show was brilliantly written, including extremely clever dialogue and nods to past history, as well as showing scenes from the past 30 years of Tracy Quartermaine’s history on the show. Most notably, the scene where her father Edward was having a heart attack and Tracy withheld his heart medication until he signed the will giving her the share of Quartermaine fortune. It was a tremendous scene made all the better by seeing the amazing Elliot react to her younger self, showing the monumental regret of a moment that defined the character ever since. Jane Elliot’s final appearance on General Hospital is scheduled for next Thursday, May 4th and the speculation is former on screen co-star Anthony Geary (Luke Spencer) is reprising his role for a short cameo to help send Ms. Quartermaine off canvas.
On TV Fights Live this past week, Matt Knost was one of the fighters and he argued that Rick and Morty was the best animated series since 2010. I thought he had done an excellent job of fighting that series and I decided to look and see what it was like. I discovered that both season 1 and 2 were available for streaming on Hulu, so I began to binge. Wow! I am so glad that I did. Rick and Morty quickly became one of the most entertaining, shocking and dark animated series that I had ever seen. I binged through all of the original two seasons and the first episode of season three and now I am eagerly anticipating the rest of the third season. Thank you, Mr. Knost.
We also had some finale this week. Starting off with the series finale of Bates Motel. Once again, the creative forces behind this reimagining of the Psycho film did a tremendous job of winding up the series. Although I must admit, I was pretty disappointed that Alex Romero wound up being killed by Norman in the first act of the finale. One of the best part of the series to me had been the sweet love story between Romero and Norma Bates. So when Norman killed his mother in the finale of season 4, I had anticipated the showdown between these two. However, it was not to be. I will say that my favorite overall character on Bates Motel was Dylan (I loved the scenes where he and Norma were hashing out their troubled relationship) and having him be the one to finally stop Norman was satisfying. I am glad they ended up with Norman dying at the end and not just locked away.
The other finale of the week was Feud: Bette and Joan on FX. This was as much of an emotional roller coaster as Bates Motel was, if not moreso, since this told the true story of the end of the life of Joan Crawford. The epic brilliance of Jessica Lange as Joan Crawford can not be overstated. I found myself crying over this woman who slowly slipped away into her own 
delusions. Susan Sarandon was every bit as amazing here as Lange. Sarandon’s portrayal of Bette Davis really brought life to the great actress. Feud was as good as television can get and everyone involved in this amazing series deserves kudos.
Gotham returned to FOX Monday night after being off the air for quite a while with an episode that brought us the origin of the Riddler. Edward Nigma has been on screen for the entire series, but we finally get him in the green suit and calling himself the Riddler. We also see how young Bruce Wayne continuously is moving closer to the role that will define his future life. Bruce has been kidnapped by the Court of Owls and replaced by the clone of him from Arkham. And where does Bruce find himself at the end of the episode? Sure looks like it is the Himalayas. Is the Batman training far behind?
Riverdale is ramping up toward its final two episodes with this week’s arrival of Molly Ringwald in her appearance as Archie’s mom. We also found out that FP, Jughead’s father and member of the Southside Serpents, is being framed for the murder of Jason Blossom. We know he is being framed because the gun that was used to kill Jason (which was the same gun that the pedophilia music teacher Miss Grundy had in her car) was found at FP’s house. However, before it was found by the police, Archie and Veronica had searched FP’s place and had found nothing. We also found out that Mr. Blossom no longer had red hair, and that he wears wigs. Apparently, his hair turned white overnight. Hm… is that another toss back to Twin Peaks? Leland Palmer’s hair turned white over night as well (and he turned out to be the killer). Is this foreshadowing or just another red herring? It seems that (according to next week’s preview) that we find out who killed Jason Blossom next week in the penultimate episode of Riverdale. Can’t wait.
The Avengers assembled (or should we call them the Gladiators) on this week’s edition of Scandal as all of the main characters of our show (Olivia, Fitz, Mellie, Cyrus, Jake, David, and eventually Papa Pope) banded together during an orchestrated lockdown to try and come up with a strategy to stop the season’s villains. Peus had instructed Mellie that Jake would not longer be her vice-president and that she would appoint him VP instead. Plus she would have Ms. Ruland as the Chief of Staff. This brought the group together to share a strategy. I really enjoyed seeing this group come together and realize that they had the power of the presidency behind them. The worst part of this episode? Easily the rant from Rowan. Papa Pope’s crazed rant about everybody in the room was as ridiculous as them including him in this meeting in the first place. It is far past time that this character be sent off forever, ideally with a bullet between the eyes. Either way, the decision of the group to fight the shadowy organization was welcome and inspirational.
Designated Survivor was very enjoyable this week as well as the show pushes forward with its conspiracy story and the attempt for President Kirkman to name a replacement Vice-President. However, there were a couple of problems. First, it was advertised that the “mole” inside the White House would be revealed this week and, when it was, I had to look up who the character was. I did not remember him at all. That is not a strong choice when they promoted it as a big reveal. And, worst of all, there was the most awkward and obvious product placement ever right in the middle of a scene with Maggie Q. The Ford Fusion car got a huge close up, including showing how the car 
can be started via a cell phone. Went they zoomed in on Maggie Q starting the car with her phone, and then jumped inside the car to show it starting, I was sure something was going to happen like it was going to blow up. Nope. Just showing you the wonderful features of a Ford Fusion. It was simply a cringeworthy moment, worst than just about anything you would see in any feature movie. Even the blatant product placement in the Transformers movies weren’t as painful as this was. It simply felt like the show went to commercial sooner than you expected.
Last week saw the ending of the first season of 24 Legacy. I found it to be reasonably entertaining, and I did appreciate the few episodes than the normal 24. 24 Legacy had 12 episodes and ended with a satisfactory conclusion. Stand out performer of this final show was clearly Jimmy Smits as Senator John Donovan and his crooked father Henry played by Gerald McRaney. This pair brought the drama to 24. I should also throw out a shout out to our new special agent, Eric Carter, who survived a throwdown with the one and only Tony Almeida. There were times that I thought 24 Legacy was taking a stupid path, but on the whole, the story was done well and I would be up for a second go around with this crew.
This coming week will see the series finale of Bates Motel and the season finale of the anthology series Feud: Bette and Joan. Both of these shows have been spectacular. Bates Motel does not get enough credit and I cannot wait to see how the show wraps itself up. Alex Romero kidnapped Norman from right out of the police station so I am expecting some serious fireworks. And Jessica 
Lange has been brilliant as Joan Crawford this season on Feud. There is just no way that she should not win the Emmy for this role. And Susan Sarandon has been no slouch either. Getting lost among the two divas is Alfred Molina who has also been just tremendous. We have found out that season two of Feud is a go, with the title being Feud: Charles and Diana.
We also got an important debut this week as Fargo returned with its first episode. Just as the past seasons, we get to meet a crew of oddball characters who are being placed in terrible situations. We meet the brothers, Ray and Emmit Stussy, played by Ewan McGregor. They are in an argument over a stamp and things escalate to ridiculous levels. Fargo has shown itself to be a darkly comedic romp through the (usually) snow covered landscape of the northern Midwest, and, with the murder of one of the characters by falling air conditioner, this season looks to be no exception. And are there more aliens coming?
On Scandal, the show has done what I was desperately hoping that it would not. It has reunited Olivia and Fitz. Ugh. Seriously, I just want those two to go off somewhere and never come back (Vermont, perhaps.) Meanwhile, despite all of the attempts to stop it, Mellie Grant was named the President of the United States by the Electoral College, apparently with the fix in. Our two villains of the season, Peus and Ruland, are really cartoon characters and I almost laughed when the blonde haired woman started bashing the brains out of Elizabeth North with a golf club. Mellie did all she could to salvage that scene with her normally excellent acting, but there was only so much she could do. The first half to two-thirds of this season had been great, but I feel like it has slipped into poor patterns.
Big news in the world of Movie Trivia Schmoedown as we have a brand new Movie Trivia Schmoedown Champion. “Yodi” Mark Reilly defeated “The Outlaw” John Rocha in a championship match on Collider Video’s You Tube channel this past Friday. Rocha failed to answer the final question that would have given him the win (much like when Dan Murrell lost to Rocha) and the title went back to Reilly. Reilly became the first two-time Schmoedown singles champion. Commissioner Kristian Harloff announced Reilly would defend against Murrell at the next biog event, The Collider Collision in July, however, there has been some speculation that Rocha would be added to that match to make it a triple threat match.
Tragedy on Agents of SHIELD as we continue to discover that, even though our heroes are alive in the alternate reality of the Framework, they can still die as we saw the death of the Patriot, Jeffrey Mace. Mace died a very heroic death, holding up a building long enough for the children inside to escape, but the collapsing ceiling finally did hm in. Agents of SHIELD continues to bend reality in the Framework (Hello! Welcome back, Trip!) but the fates of these characters are seriously in doubt. Could there be another loss inside the virtual reality world?
I finished binging 13 Reasons Why this week. The thirteenth episode of this show was as uncomfortable as I have been watching a fictional story in a long time. It was brutal. The scene where we see Hannah slitting her wrists in the bathtub was so realistic and emotionally powerful that I had to turn away. With this being juxtapositioned opposite Clay confronting the counselor (which was tear-inducing in itself), the episode was unbelievable. There were some nitpicks that I had with the series, but, overall, I think this was about as effective of a series on these topics as you are going to find.
Then, Netflix dropped the new Mystery Science Theater 3000 series this past Friday. Fourteen episodes following in the original MST3K footsteps of focusing on old time bad films, providing a riff over top. I found out about this from the RiffTrax guys at their performance of Samurai Cop this week and I was happy to get a chance to see it. Now, since each episode is an hour and a half and has 14 episodes, it is not an easy binge. I have seen the first four episodes and they were entertaining. New star Jonah Ray embraces everything that MST3K did and our villains, Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt, are really charming. I hope to see the remainder of these episodes as I go.
The Movie Trivia Schmoedown had a huge event this past week on YouTube as well. It was called the Free4All and it was based loosely on the WWE’s Royal Rumble. The two-part video was hosted by Schmoe Kristian Harloff and John Campea. The show featured five competitors at a time answering movie trivia questions. After five questions, the player or players with the lowest score was eliminated, only to be replaced by new competitors. The rounds continued until 35 different players entered the fray. Competitors included such notable players as Dan Murrell, reigning Schmoedown Champion John Rocca, Mark “Baby Carrots” Ellis, “The Beast” William Bibbiani among many others. The best moment of the show was when Marc Andreyko was able to eliminate Murrell, Rocca, Bibbiani and Drew 
McWeeney all in one round in the biggest shock of the show. In the end, the player who drew number 34, “The Inglorious One” Samm Levine was able to win the Free4All. Levine, an actor who did appear in Inglorious Basterds, now has the opportunity to go after any title of his choosing. In the post show interview, Levine indicated that he would be going after the winner of John Rocca and Mark Reilly championship match up scheduled for next week. The Free4All was a tremendous show and shows just how creative the Collider show has become.
Saturday Night Live went live in all time zones across the United States this past Saturday for the first time ever. Tonight Show host and former SNL alum Jimmy Fallon hosted the show and it saw the return of Alec Baldwin as Donald Trump and Melissa McCarthy as Sean Spicer.
Scandal had a “what if” episode this week. What If was once a Marvel Comic where the Watcher would look into a parallel universe and tell the story of something that happened differently than it did in the real Marvel Universe. The same thing happened on Scandal (except for the Watcher thing). We saw what would happen if Olivia had not fixed the election for Fitz. Scandal has always had some kind of weird fixation on Olivia and Fitz, despite the fact that they are the WORST couple ever on television, so, of course, at the end of this What If episode, these two enablers wound up together. This felt like a filler episode that really wasn’t worth the time.
Bates Motel had a great moment this week as former Sheriff Alex Romero arrived back at the Bates Motel with his intention of getting revenge on Norman. Unfortunately for him, he did not find Norman there, since Norman had been arrested for the murder of several people in town. Of course, he did find Chick, who was typing his book in the cellar, in the room that Norman had constructed for his mother’s dead body. As Chick spoke romantically about the fate of Norma, Alex put a bullet in his head. That was a fantastic moment of TV for the week and setting up the ultimate showdown between Alex and Norman.
Agents of SHIELD continued its awesome new story arc inside the Framework. We met the Patriot, a part of the resistance, and we saw how evil this Doctor “Leo” aka Fitz really was as he gunned down Agnes despite Simmons’s insistence that he would never do it. Rumors are floating around that Agents of SHIELD will receive a fifth season despite talk of cancellation all year long. Hopefully that is the case since this show has been consistently awesome all year long.
Even more awesome- Feud: Bette and Joan. The FX show from Ryan Murphy is exceptionally excellent every week. Susan Sarandon has been great as Bette Davis, but Jessica Lange is absolutely brilliant each week as she loses herself into the role of Joan Crawford each episode. Lange becomes Joan Crawford and brings such humanity to the role that you understand and relate to Crawford no matter what rotten thing she may be doing. This is the best I have ever seen Lange, even better than her amazing roles on American Horror Story. Feud: Bette and Joan is magic and if you are not watching it, you are truly missing something special.
Speaking of suicide, last week’s season finale of the Walking Dead featured the suicide of Sasha, but for a completely different reason than Hannah. Sasha had been placed in a coffin by Negan and she took the poison that had been given to her by Eugene. She made sure that she was a zombie by the time that coffin was opened up, shocking the crap out of Negan. But that was not the only shock Negan had coming as Shiva from the Kingdom made its presence known, causing Negan to yell out, “They’ve got a tiger!” Plus, we had the garbage allies turn traitor against Rick and his forces. The finale had its ups and downs, but everything is set up for the next season to be full fledged war.
WWE RAW and Smackdown had the fallout from Sunday’s Wrestlemania. The return of the Hardy Boyz being probably the biggest moment from the PPV. We also saw the main roster debuts of The Revival, Shinsuke Nakamura, “The Perfect 10” Tye Dillinger. The crowds were, once again, the best part of the shows as they are just completely active and chant whatever they wanted. Some find that annoying, but, to me, the live crowd makes the action all the better. Then, Vince McMahon showed up and told the live crowd on RAW that next week they were going to have a “Superstar Shakeup.” That is not a draft, folks, but I am guessing it will be similar. Since that, the WWE has announced that the Superstar Shakeup will run over both RAW and Smackdown.
Agents of SHIELD returned this past Tuesday and introduced us to the weird world of the Framework. Daisy was known as Skye and sleeping with Grant, who was alive, working for Hydra, but leading the resistance against them. May was one of the top agents of Hydra. Coulson was a college professor who turned in the troublesome Inhumans. Fitz was Hydra’s evil Doctor. Simmons was dead and in a mass grave. When Simmons climbed out of said grave, you knew things were picking up. And we found out that Madame Hydra was here as well…and she was Aida. Welcome back, Agents of SHIELD, I have missed you.
However, the biggest super hero of the week had to be Huck from Scandal, who apparently can not die. With three bullets in his chest and locked in a trunk of a car that has been submerged in a lake, Huck is able to get free and not drown. Now, I am glad that Huck survived his ordeal, because he was always one of my favorite characters (at least in the first couple of seasons before they turned him into a psychotic killer), but his survival stretched credibility a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong way. I’m also not overly fond of what they did with Quinn.
Jessica Lange really stood out this past week on Feud: Bette and Joan. You could feel every bit of emotion of Lange’s Joan Crawford as she prepared for Oscar night and her plan to make sure that Bette Davis was not going to walk away with Best Actress. This episode was must see and really should be Jessica Lange’s Emmy reel. And, the great dame was breathtaking as the silver Oscar. Feud continues to be one of the most amazing shows on television, continuing FX’s run of brilliant shows.
Bates Motel presented the interaction between Norman Bates and his brother Dylan and it was as twisted as you can imagine. Norman showed that he really did love his brother despite the craziness that is his alter ego, Mother. And the scene where Norman, afraid that the police was coming to search his house, took the body of Norma and buried it in the woods was as chilling as you could imagine. Bates Motel is flying towards the finale as Norman called in to confess to the police about the murder of Sam Loomis. Anything is possible with Bates Motel.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 