Category Archives: TV-G[eek]

Squid Game Ep 5

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SPOILERS FOR SQUID GAME EP 5

“A Fair World“

As we wrapped up the Tug O’War cliffhanger from last episode, the fifth episode took a deeper look at the organ harvesting operation being run out of the Squid Game. We found out that the whole organ harvesting and subsequent selling of organs to the Chinese was outside of the typical part of the game. The villain in the black mask knew what was going on, but he turned his eyes away from that aspect. He wanted to keep the fairness of the game, which had been tainted by the use of the Doctor, giving him inside information on what was the next game. This is a warped view of what was going on, but that is what makes the villain a good villain.

We also go into the story of the detective Ha-Joon and his search for his brother. This took some serious twists in episode 5 as Ha-Joon found himself in the records room of the Squid Game and he discovered that his brother was not among the current players but had been a winner in 2016. This makes me wonder if my rampant speculation from a few episode write-ups ago is going to turn out to be correct. Is the Black Mass boss man his brother? When he was looking at the records, the camera specifically darkens out the picture of his brother from the upper corner of the sheet, and I feel as if the brother is definitely here somewhere. I am unaware of who else the big boss may be otherwise as the show has definitely spent time to conceal that identity.

Back in the dorm room, Gi-hun is really showing how much growth he has shown in the short time he has been in the Squid Game. He is taking care of Number 001, humorously interacting with Sae-byeok, and playing reverse psychology with Deok-su. That scene with Deok-su where Gi-hun carefully plants the seeds of mistrust in Deok-su’s head toward his other team mates, suggesting that they may want to attack Deok-su because he is the strongest in the game. It was a brilliant maneuver and kept Deok-su from launching another attack in the night.

The doctor in the show, who had been harvesting the organs in exchange for info, continued to be shown as not the best of the medical profession. He was becoming irritated with the other soldiers around him in “his” operating room and he started yelling at people. His behavior only escalated when he discovered that the soldiers did not know yet what the next game was going to be. This turned into a huge chase with the doctor trying to get away, only to find death at the end of the road. He was an obscene character and I was glad to see him eliminated.

We start to see what may be the eventual downturn in health of Number 001. He broke into a fever during the night and Gi-hun tried to help cool him down. He was laying down when the soldiers had come over to him to have him move, Gi-hun tried to protect him, but the soldier pulled the covers away to reveal that Number 001 had urinated over himself in the night. Teh sadness of the scene was terrible as Gi-hun flashed his expressive face. I am worried that Number 001 may not be long for the series.

I am watching this much quicker than I initially had intended. I was going to watch maybe one a day or one episode every few days. Now I am done with five on Saturday (going to watch one more tonight before the Dodgers start) and will have only three left. I guess that speaks to the brilliance of the series as well as anything does.

Squid Game Ep 4

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SPOILERS FOR SQUID GAME EP. 5

Are you freakin’ kidding me?

Not fair! Not fair!

I’m talking about the tug o’war at first even though it ended the episode because of how it ended the episode. It was the cruelest cliffhanger cutaway that I have seen in a long time. When Gi-hun’s team was losing their mojo in the life or death tug o’ war match, they tried a desperate ploy that did not work on ABC’s Battle of the Network Stars back in the early 1980s. They were going to take three steps forward and then try and catch the other team off balance. Except the show went to break just as they did it and ended for the episode. I literally jumped out of my seat and yelled at the screen.

The strategy laid out by Number 001 as a way for their smaller team to win the Tug O’ War was fantastic too and there was so much anxiety during the matches that it was palatable.

And if that was the only moment in this episode, it would have been great. However, there was an insane riot in the bunk beds room too.

Set up by shorting the group their food, the Squid Game boss wanted the participants to attack each other, eliminating the weakest among the remaining people.

The riot was utterly breathtaking. I sat and watched with a stunned silence as they reigned violence down upon each other.

This was the best episode so far for Number 001. He gave us the range of emotion from fear to confusion to confidence. Actor Yeong-su Oh ha been a highlight so far in the drama, but in this episode, he just soared into the atmosphere.

Again this episode had the participants shoring up their allies/groups. Gi-hun invited the pickpocket Sae-byeok to come to their side before the chaos erupted when the lights went out. After the riot ended, the group exchanged real names in order to build more trust with each other.

Our villains were getting together more as well, including the doctor who continued to be getting secret messages in his food, letting him know what the next game is. We found out why in episode 4. He is doing the organ harvesting on the dead bodies of the participants, so he had worked out a deal to keep him alive. So we know that the Squid Game deals with selling organs, presumably on the black market.

This was, by far, my favorite episode of the series so far. The constant uneasiness is just pervasive through the show, but there are some excellent characters that are proving to be worth rooting for. They have several villains too that are just pushing every button right.

And then they had the cruelest cliffhanger….

Squid Game Ep 3

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SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 3 OF SQUID GAME

“The Man with the Umbrella“

Squid Game continued on in episode three with some of our characters forming alliances, a couple of people going undercover or stealthy, and a rousing and unbelievably tense game of Honeycomb.

I really enjoyed the forming of the team with Gi-hun partnering up with Sang-woo, Ali Abdul and Number 001. I will say immediately that Gi-hun has taken a huge step in likeability for me. For the first few episodes, he was not a character that I cared much for despite being our protagonist. Maybe it is more like I saw this character as a rotten person and I did not want to like him. However, in this episode, that took a turn as he became more than just the whiny, money grubbing jerk that he was. Just the smile on his face as he was interacting with his teammates really went a long way to making this character appealing.

And there is no doubt that I love Number 001 and Ali (Number 199). These two characters are going to be heart-wrenching if and when they die.

Honeycomb was this episode’s game and I cannot imagine how horrendous it would be trying to do this detailed work, trying to cut out certain shapes from the honey cookie, with people being shot all around them and dead bodies bleeding out on the ground beside you. All of the peripheral events could not be help to make you more anxious and less careful, I would think.

We are also beginning to get a look at the inside of Squid Game thanks to our friendly neighborhood detective, Jun-ho. He was able to tail the vans to the ship that would take the participants back to the island. He was able to jump one of the “guards” and take his place. He found the going to be very challenging considering that he was not sure of the procedures of the game and his job. There were several points where it seemed as if he was going to be caught, but he was able to slip through and survive.

This show has a combination Hunger Games/LOST feel to it. LOST because of the island aspect, plus how most of these people had bad lives before arriving on the island. In LOST, we got flashbacks showing how rotten the lives of the survivors were and how they were not good people. The characters on LOST many times were not very likable in their past lives and we get to see a new side once they were on the island. This is very much like most of these characters in the Squid Game. There is also the mysterious organization behind the whole thing, much like the Dharma Initiative.

Only six more episodes to go. I had really not intended to watch these as closely together as I have, but they are engaging and easy to consume. I did go back to the Korean language with English subtitles this episode (which I will do for the remainder of the season). It is just so much more emotional to hear the real voices that matched the lips and the facial expressions coming from these actors.

A few more items:

  • What is up with the guy who got the message in his bread?
  • Sae-byeok is one bad ass character.
  • Our villain in the black mask is very mysterious. Wild speculation: Could he be Jun-ho’s missing brother?
  • Poor young kid under that square helmet. What is the story behind these “guards?” Are they as much of victims as the players?

There are a lot of questions being raised about exactly what is going on here and how something this large and intricate can be carried out. I am excited to see where this goes from here with six more episodes to go.

Squid Game Ep 2

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SPOILERS FOR SQUID GAME EPISODE 2

“Hell“

So, with episode two of Netflix’s Squid Game, I tried something different. Episode one I watched with the subtitles in the actual Korean language. For episode two, I tried the dubbed version. Typically, I do not like the dubbed versions of entertainment, but I wanted to see if this would be an exception.

It wasn’t.

The dubbed version was considerably less engaging than the Korean language/subtitle version and, because of that, I just did not enjoy episode two near as much as I did episode one. I also think it was a major error in choice for me because episode two turned out to be so different than the first episode with the majority of the group voting to leave the Squid Game and return to their own lives.

Did not see that happening.

But, it meant that there was more emotional depth going on as we see the different characters and the horrible lives that they were living prior to being recruited into the Squid Game. With the dubbed version, these emotional bits did not land near as well. The original Korean may not be understandable, but the real voices and the sound of the voices were so much more real… so much more tonally correct than these dubs that it feels more like acting going on. It felt more cartoony with the dub and that did not work with the story that was being told. Watching a review of the episode on Preview’d with Jay and Adam, the scenes they showed were just so much more thrilling or powerful with the original Korean language than what I watched.

Moving forward, I will be watching the subtitled version from now on.

This episode dove deeper into the back story of most of our main characters, giving us an idea of what their lives were like. Our main characters decided that they had to go back, and were given an opportunity to do so. At this point, there will be less of a feeling of this being something that was done to them and more of something that they chose to do to try and escape the hell that their lives had become.

A few moments that stood out:

  • The crushing of the hand. Whoa… brutal.
  • The inclusion of the detective following the Squid game pick up van brings anew wrinkle.
  • The pickpocket still being awake in the van after the gas at the very end of the show.
  • Gi-hun and his interaction with his ex-wife’s husband. Another one of those powerful moments undermined with the dub.

Looking forward to everyone coming back to the land of the multiple bunk beds and seeing what happens next to out ensemble cast.

Squid Game Ep1

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SPOILERS FOR SQUID GAME EPISODE 1

“Red Light, Green Light“

One of the cultural phenomenon in the world of pop culture over the last few months has been the 10-episode series, Squid Game, on Netflix. It seemed like the entire world was buzzing about this series. As I have said before, I have been having a difficult time to committing to watching new series, especially binging a series, lately. Especially because my time has been limited with school, the DailyView, the Dodgers and the regular movies that I am responsible to do.

However, I have had friends ask me about whether I have watched this yet, and so I was looking to plan out a time to get it done. It did not help matters that the episodes were mostly right around the hour in length. I considered a Thanksgiving binge, but I have decided that I would start this one tonight, but not worry about binging. I would do this one episode at a time when I could squeeze one in.

The first episode, entitled “Red Light, Green Light,” started in a black and white flashback with a group of kids playing a kids game called Squid Game. This was not a game that I was familiar with (I am not sure if this was made up for the show or if it were a real life game played in Korea), so I appreciated the outline of the rules. I assume this is going to come into play later in the series.

I guess I should say that I did watch this with the English subtitles on and without the dubbing. I am not a fan of dubbing English into the mouths of characters. I have heard that they do a good job with it, but it always is distracting for me so i would rather read the subtitles than put up with the dubbing. This series is, of course, made in Korea.

We get introduced to our main character, Gi-hun (Lee Jung-Jae), one of the kids we saw in the flashbacks, having much more success playing the kids game as a youth than he was having as an adult living life. He was just a slacker extraordinaire here, a divorcee, an absentee father, a gambler… as well as someone who would steal his mother’s ATM card to get money. Yes, he was getting the money to spend on his daughter (or so we think) but he was anything but likeable.

Thankfully, that means Gi-hun has quite a road to travel to find improvement in his character during this show.

The set up for the game is excellent. The whole face slapping was a funny moment, not knowing how sinister it would eventually become. The chance at changing the pattern of his life was just too much of a temptation to ignore. It was obvious right away that Gi-hun had wound up in above his head. I did enjoy the way the show began to introduce the secondary characters that will be involved in the games.

Then, with the dark version of Red Light, Green Light, we see how brutal the games were going to be. I was not quite ready for the bloody and tense children’s game. The giant girl robot was creepy and the execution of those who were caught moving was frightening. When the whole group freaked out at the start, you have to wonder what they were all thinking. I loved how into it Number 001 was too.

I enjoyed the first episode and I will be trying to find time in the schedule to watch more this weekend.

What If…? S1 E9

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SPOILERS FOR THE SEASON FINALE OF WHAT IF…? EPISODE 9

“What If… The Watcher Broke his Oath?”

The finale for season one What If…? was just fantastic.

Little had we known that the whole season was building toward an epic battle where a bunch of the main characters from the preceding episodes are brought together as the Guardians of the Multiverse.

The recruitment of the characters started off the show as the Watcher bounced around to select the team members. Star-Lord T’Challa, Captain Carter (who was in a Captain America: Winter Soldier style fight with Batroc the Leaper at the time), Wakandan leader Killmonger, Party Thor, Strange Supreme, and the Champion of Sakaar and Destroyer of Thanos, Gamora.

Wait… what?

This is obviously the original tenth episode that was on the schedule and wound up, supposedly, moved to the second season. It was blamed on COVID-19, but who really knows. No matter what, Gamora was still involved here. Even more… Iron Man was here and did not die! Huzzah! Of course, he was also not invited along.

The Guardians of the Multiverse met at a interdimensional bar where they worked on plans and ate Chinese food. We got some initial group dynamic at this point of the story.

When Ultron found the Guardians, they started to battle and it was just glorious. The action was expertly choreographed and beautifully animated.

When they wound up on the earth from last episode, they run into Black Widow and the action took another step up. Including this little effort….

I loved everything about this action. From the multiple Mjolnirs to the use of zombies including zombie Wanda Maximoff and dueling shields off Ultron’s head, there was a ton of creativity and wonderfully laid out. We get the pay off to the Arnim Zola virus from last episode and a betrayal by Killmonger, looking for the infinity stones himself.

The end was savage by Strange Supreme and The Watcher.

The Watcher dropping off Black Widow, who did not want to go back to her dead world, on the earth where the OG Avengers had been murdered by Hank Pym was just such an emotionally satisfying moment for the character of Black Widow that it was really lovely.

Post credit scene too indicated a potential happy ending for Peggy Carter with the discovery of the Hydra Stomper on the boat where Captain carter was fighting Batroc. Was this meant to echo the end of Endgane or Winter Soldier?

Here is the season’s final list of favorites.

  1. What If… The Watcher Broke His Oath?”

2. What If… Doctor Strange Lost his Heart instead of his Hands?

3. What If… T’Challa became a Star-Lord?

4. What If… Ultron Won?

5. What If…Zombies?

6. What If… Thor was an Only Child?

7. What If… Captain Carter were the First Avenger?

8. What If… The World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes

9. What If… Killmonger Had Rescued Tony Stark?

What If…? has been a great show. It was very unexpected because we all thought it was an anthology series with episodes ending in cliffhangers that MAY be revisited in future seasons. Nope. Wrong. This was a interconnected story with several stories introducing the characters that would be appearing together in the finale. The last three episodes started to bring Ultron into focus as the series’ Big Bad and redefined how we looked at What If…? The artistry of the animation was special every episode. For the first true animated series from Marvel Studios was a rousing success. I look forward to season two.

Coming next in November is Hawkeye.

What If…? S1 Ep8

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SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 8 OF WHAT IF…?

“What If… Ultron had Won?”

An anthology series it is no longer.

What If…? which has apparently been giving us stand alone episodes for the last seven weeks, all of the episodes being left off on a cliffhanger. Many people speculated that these stories would be picked up again with part twos in season two, but now it looks as if the episodes that have come prior are building up to a finale where they all come together to face the ultimate villain, Ultron, with the Infinity Stones.

One of the most important things we learned this episode was that Black Widow loved Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Hawkeye makes a Raiders joke here and it was really funny. Hawkeye and Black Widow were a major part of this episode as they seem to be the surviving Avengers on a planet where Ultron has launched the nuclear missiles crashing the earth into an apocalyptic world.

Plus, there was one of those epically beautiful pieces of art as Hawkeye lunged himself into the pile of Ultron bots to shoot them with an explosive arrow and sacrifice himself so Black Widow and Arnim Zola could escape. Hawkeye had said he was tired of fighting, part because his family must have been killed in the nuclear attack.

So beautiful. It was reminiscent of the Valkyries fighting Hela in Asgard in Thor: Ragnarok and Captain America standing as the last man standing against Thanos and his army, just prior to the return of all the heroes.

Of course, before this, the Watcher, who is becoming more and more desperate, is watching Black Widow and Hawkeye are searching for the way to solve the Ultron problem. It was awesome how panicky Watcher has become as he was truly worried about Ultron. He had no idea what was coming to him. The Ultron vs. Watcher fight was an epic one. It showed how powerful Watcher is, but also it showed how unbelievably dangerous Ultron had become.

Of course, this is all Uatu’s fault. After Ultron destroyed his universe and had created “peace,” The Watcher was talking about Ultron and his devastation when the robot heard him. Not since Supreme Strange in episode 4 had anyone heard the Watcher doing his narration, but Ultron does. And the show does this amazing job of revealing that Ultron could hear him.

One of the most controversial moments of the episode that most likely caused the fan boys to flip out. Thanos, with five infinity stones, arrived on earth and was promptly sliced in half with Ultron’s mind stone. It took all of two seconds and was probably easier than it should have been. It did go out of the way to show how powerful this version of Ultron, fused into the body of Vision as he wanted to do in Age of Ultron, was. I am sure that this was done to expediate the story of Ultron getting the Infinity Stoners, but it did kind of do Thanos dirty.

By the way… how many times has Tony Stark been killed in What If…? this season? Episode 3, Episode 5, Episode 6, and now in Episode 8.

Back to the way the article began, What If…? is no longer an anthology series. We know that because The Watcher, after escaping from the grasp of Ultron, showed up inside the crystal prison where the sinister Strange Supreme has been existing since episode four, and Watcher asked Strange for his help. Looks like the Avengers of the Multiverse truly will be coming next week in the finale.

This was a wonderful penultimate episode for this season that I really enjoyed. Here is where it falls in the list of episodes for season one:

1A. What If… Doctor Strange Lost his Heart instead of his Hands?

1B. What If… T’Challa became a Star-Lord?

3. What If… Ultron had Won?

4. What If…Zombies?

5. What If… Thor was an Only Child?

6. What If… Captain Carter were the First Avenger?

7. What If… The World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?

8. What If… Killmonger Had Rescued Tony Stark?

What If…? S1 Ep7

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Spoilers for the 7th episode of What If…?

“What If… Thor was an Only Child?”

The seventh episode of Marvel’s What If…? on Disney + took a twist this week after four straight episodes of darkness and tragic endings. We had the Avengers murdered by Hank Pym, a universe destroyed because Dr. Strange lost his love, Zombies, and then Killmonger killing Stark, Rhodey and Black Panther. Each of the last four weeks end with what could be apocalyptic events.

Bucking that trend, this weeks episode was a ton of fun and had a party atmosphere. It was like those high school/college party movies where the party members made a gigantic mess and had to clean things up before the parents return home, except this was Frigga, the mother of Thor.

Thor is the ultimate party god, taking his friends around to different planets in the universe to have a huge blow out, leaving the planets in shambles behind them.

There are a ton of cameos and Easter eggs in this week’s show. There are the Guardians of the Galaxy, Yondu, Skrulls, Howard the Duck, all of the Asgardians, The Grandmaster, Korg, members of the Sovereign, Skurge, Valkyrie, Miek, Surtur, and Loki as a Frost Giant.

The episode also featured one of the best super hero slugfests you are going to see as Thor and Captain Marvel participated in the slobberknockers of slobberknockers. It literally spanned the globe (with some really funny visual gags of the country’s names listed on the ground). Thor vs. Captain Marvel is worth the episode alone.

Even though this was a fun and lighter episode than what we have been used to over the run of the series, this still had an ending that may lead to darkness. The tag at the end saw Thor standing as a group of Ultron robots appear out of a portal, with one Ultron leading the way. This Ultron had the Infinity stones and had the face of Vision. It even caught the Watcher off guard as he had just told us that this was going to lead to a happy ending. Yeah, right. We knew better than that.

Only two more episodes remain and it is looking as if some of the characters that have appeared in episodes of the series may be coming back together for the finale. Not sure how that is going to happen, but, like Uatu, I’ll be watching.

Updated list of favorite episode.

1A. What If… Doctor Strange Lost his Heart instead of his Hands?

1B. What If… T’Challa became a Star-Lord?

3. What If…Zombies?

4. What If… Thor was an Only Child?

5. What If… Captain Carter were the First Avenger?

6. What If… The World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?

7. What If… Killmonger Had Rescued Tony Stark?

Emmy Winners

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Outstanding Drama Series

The Boys

Bridgerton

The Crown

The Mandalorian

Lovecraft Country

Pose

The Handmaid’s Tale

This Is Us

Outstanding Comedy Series

Black-ish

Cobra Kai

Pen15

Emily in Paris

Hacks

Ted Lasso

The Flight Attendant

The Kominsky Method

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series

Regé-Jean Page, Bridgerton

Sterling K. Brown, This Is Us

Billy Porter, Pose

Jonathan Majors, Lovecraft Country

Matthew Rhys, Perry Mason

Josh O’Connor, The Crown

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series

Emma Corrin, The Crown

Olivia Colman, The Crown

Uzo Aduba, In Treatment

Elisabeth Moss, The Handmaid’s Tale

Jurnee Smollett, Lovecraft Country

Mj Rodriguez, Pose

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series

Michael K. Williams, Lovecraft Country

Bradley Whitford, The Handmaid’s Tale

Max Minghella, The Handmaid’s Tale

O-T Fagbenle, The Handmaid’s Tale

John Lithgow, Perry Mason

Tobias Menzies, The Crown

Giancarlo Esposito, The Mandalorian

Chris Sullivan, This Is Us

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series

Gillian Anderson, The Crown

Helena Bonham Carter, The Crown

Emerald Fennell, The Crown

Ann Dowd, The Handmaid’s Tale

Yvonne Strahovski, The Handmaid’s Tale

Samira Wiley, The Handmaid’s Tale

Madeline Brewer, The Handmaid’s Tale

Aunjanue Ellis, Lovecraft Country

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series

Jason Sudeikis, Ted Lasso

Anthony Anderson, Black-ish

Michael Douglas, The Kominsky Method

William H. Macy, Shameless

Kenan Thompson, Kenan

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series

Aidy Bryant, Shrill

Jean Smart, Hacks

Allison Janney, Mom

Kaley Cuoco, The Flight Attendant

Tracee Ellis Ross, Black-ish

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series

Bowen Yang, Saturday Night Live

Kenan Thompson, Saturday Night Live

Brett Goldstein, Ted Lasso

Brendan Hunt, Ted Lasso

Nick Mohammed, Ted Lasso

Jeremy Swift, Ted Lasso

Paul Reiser, The Kominsky Method

Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Hacks

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series

Kate McKinnon, Saturday Night Live

Cecily Strong, Saturday Night Live

Aidy Bryant, Saturday Night Live

Rosie Perez, The Flight Attendant

Hannah Einbinder, Hacks

Hannah Waddingham, Ted Lasso

Juno Temple, Ted Lasso

Outstanding Limited Series

Mare of Easttown

I May Destroy You

WandaVision

The Queen’s Gambit

The Underground Railroad

Outstanding Television Movie

Uncle Frank

Sylvie’s Love

Oslo

Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia

Dolly Parton’s Christmas on The Square

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie

Paul Bettany, WandaVision

Hugh Grant, The Undoing

Ewan McGregor, Halston

Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton

Leslie Odom Jr., Hamilton

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie

Kate Winslet, Mare of Easttown

Michaela Coel, I May Destroy You

Anya Taylor-Joy, The Queen’s Gambit

Elizabeth Olsen, WandaVision

Cynthia Erivo, Genius: Aretha

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie

Jean Smart, Mare of Easttown

Julianne Nicholson, Mare of Easttown

Kathryn Hahn, WandaVision

Phillipa Soo, Hamilton

Renee Elise Goldsberry, Hamilton

Moses Ingram, The Queen’s Gambit

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie

Daveed Diggs, Hamilton

Jonathan Groff, Hamilton

Anthony Ramos, Hamilton

Thomas Brodie-Sangster, The Queen’s Gambit

Evan Peters, Mare of Easttown

Paapa Essiedu, I May Destroy You

Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series

Courtney B. Vance, Lovecraft Country

Charles Dance, The Crown

Don Cheadle, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

Timothy Olyphant, The Mandalorian

Carl Weathers, The Mandalorian

Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series

Alexis Bledel, The Handmaid’s Tale

Mckenna Grace, The Handmaid’s Tale

Claire Foy, The Crown

Phylicia Rashad, This Is Us

Sophie Okonedo, Ratched

Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series

Chris Rock, Saturday Night Live

Dave Chappelle, Saturday Night Live

Daniel Kaluuya, Saturday Night Live

Dan Levy, Saturday Night Live

Morgan Freeman, The Kominsky Method

Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series

Maya Rudolph, Saturday Night Live

Kristen Wiig, Saturday Night Live

Issa Rae, A Black Lady Sketch Show

Jane Adams, Hacks

Bernadette Peters, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist

Yvette Nicole Brown, A Black Lady Sketch Show

Outstanding Variety Sketch Series

A Black Lady Sketch Show

Saturday Night Live

Outstanding Variety Talk Series

Conan

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah

Jimmy Kimmel Live

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Outstanding Competition Program

The Amazing Race

Nailed It!

RuPaul’s Drag Race

Top Chef

The Voice

Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program

RuPaul, RuPaul’s Drag Race

Bobby Berk, Karamo Brown, Tan France, Antoni Porowski and Jonathan Van Ness, Queer Eye

Nicole Byer, Nailed It!

Padma Lakshmi, Tom Colicchio, and Gail Simmons, Top Chef

Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, Daymond John, and Kevin O’Leary, Shark Tank

Outstanding Variety Special (Live)

  • “Stephen Colbert’s Election Night 2020: Democracy’s Last Stand Building Back America Great Again Better 2020”
  • “Celebrating America – An Inauguration Night Special”
  • “The 63rd Annual Grammy Awards”
  • “The Oscars”
  • “The Pepsi Super Bowl LV Halftime Show Starring The Weeknd”

Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded)

  • “Hamilton”
  • “Bo Burnham: Inside”
  • “David Byrne’s American Utopia”
  • “8:46” – Dave Chappelle
  • “Friends: The Reunion”
  • “A West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote”

What If…? S1 Ep 6

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Spoilers for What If…? Episode 6

“What If…Killmonger Rescued Tony Stark?”

I have to say, it was tough watching Black Panther, voiced by Chadwick Boseman, die in this episode. He wasn’t here long, but I was surprised how much watching the animated version of him die would affect me.

This week’s What If…? is a take on the character of Killmonger, voiced by Michael B. Jordan. Killmonger is considered one of the MCU’s most complicated and developed villains. His one appearance in the Black Panther movie set him up as one of the classics. Here, Killmonger takes a different path. He saves Tony Stark from being kidnapped and ending up in a cave in Afghanistan. Because of that, we no longer had an Iron Man.

However, it did not mean that Killmonger was now a heroic figure. In fact, the son of the Prince N’Jobu was as brutal as he was in Black Panther. Here he wound up killing T’Challa, Rhodey, and, eventually, Tony Stark, all in a plan to find himself in Wakanda in a position of power. He still had the intention of spreading the power of Wakanda across the planet, freeing the oppressed brothers, it just took a different path.

All of the episodes of What If…? have left off on a cliffhanger, a place where they could continue the story, if they so choose, but none of the other five episodes felt as incomplete as this one did. While the other episodes had potential cliffhangers, they also served as episodes that could stand on their own without taking it any further. This episode felt a bit empty with where it left off. I wanted more.

There is still some beautiful animation in this episode with some wonderful imagery. It is something that What If…? is becoming known for. Yet this episode felt as if it were missing something. Maybe it was the fact that it had the most non-MCU returning actors doing voices (no Tony Stark, no Obidiah Stane, no Pepper Pots, no Shuri) of any episode so far. The Tony Stark voice, done by Mick Wingert, was solid, but the others distracted me.

Episode rank so far…

1A. What If… Doctor Strange Lost his Heart instead of his Hands?

1B. What If… T’Challa became a Star-Lord?

3. What If…Zombies?

4. What If… Captain Carter were the First Avenger?

5. What If… The World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?

6. What If… Killmonger Had Rescued Tony Stark?

Three more episodes to go.

What If…? S1 Ep5

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SPOILERS FOR WHAT IF…? EPISODE 5

“What If… Zombies?”

I never thought that I would ever see Marvel Zombies in anything outside of the comic book page. However, Marvel Studio’s animated series, What If…? has made what seemed impossible not only possible, but definitive.

Episode 5 was yet another great episode from this special series, entitled simply “What If…Zombies?” I had really wondered what point that they would use in the MCU to send the world into a Zombie Apocalypse. They chose a perfect place to do it. As Hope Van Dyne is trying to save her mother Janet from the Quantum Realm, he had no idea that Janet had been infected with the Zombie curse and that by having Hank Pym bring her back to the MCU, it would lead to the end of the civilization as we knew it. I loved this way of bringing in the zombies.

It was also an awesome way to connect Bruce Banner into the story, by picking it up when he crashed back to earth into the Sanctum Sanctorum in Infinity War. It kept the Hulk out of the story at first, since he was still having his Thanos-induced freak out. However, we do discover that not even the Dark Order were immune to the zombie curse.

One of the cool aspects of this episode was seeing the different Marvel heroes, from Iron Man to Hawkeye to Captain America as Zombies. It was cool as well to see the ragtag group that had been brought together as the few survivors of the world. Hope, Spider-Man, Happy Hogan, Bucky Barnes, Agent Sharon Carter, and … Kurt (from Ant Man).

The use of Vision and Wanda was just as heartbreaking as it always seems to be for these two. Even in the zombie universe, Vision is destined to die. How many times have we seen our favorite android destroyed. Twice in Infinity War, once in WandaVision, and now here. Having Vision keeping zombified Wanda in check as he tried to find a cure was truly a sad fate for both of them. For God sakes, he was feeding her humans (including pieces of T’Challa. Chadwick Boseman once again handling the voice. I wonder how many more times we will be blessed with his voice in this series).

And…. Wanda vs. the Hulk? ‘Nuff said.

I want to comment on some of the criticism I saw on Twitter after the episode, the same silly gripes that have been in the MCU from the beginning. I saw people complaining how the zombies episode had too much humor in it and that some people were unhappy that it was not as dark as it could be. First of all, the story has the characters of Spider-Man and Scott Lange in it, and Scott Lange happens to be a head in a jar. I’m sorry, but with those characters, you are going to have humor. If you did not have humor, you would not be servicing those characters properly.

In fact, as a huge Spider-Man fan, I know that Peter Parker has been using humor to keep the insanity of the world outside of him since the very beginning. Without his humor masking his fear, he would not be able to continue on in the face of the terrible events he has gone through. It is a coping mechanism and Spidey has been doing it forever. I do not want to see a down trodden and depressed Spider-Man. The fact that Spidey is on the internet doing rules for surviving the Zombie Apocalypse is such a great character beat and is right out of Zombieland, which is a zombie movie that showed that you can have humor and still have a fearsome setting.

In fact, the episode specifically addresses this in one of the best scenes around. Spidey talks about how his Aunt May said to him that he had to keep smiling or else he may as well be gone. Plus, he mentioned Uncle Ben, something that the MCU has skirted around from the start of the web slinger.

Spider-Man was the absolute heart of this episode and it gave us the most beautifully accurate Spidey we have seen in the MCU yet. So everything was not doom and gloom. Who cares? We had a philosophy on life that is great advice and can be placed into context for any situation, not just the zombie apocalypse.

Tom Holland was unable to provide the voice of Peter Parker. The rumor was that his Sony contract would not allow it, which was sad. However, we got Hudson Thames doing a excellent job as the Web Head. The rest of the cast were back including Paul Bettany, Paul Rudd, Sebastian Stan, Danai Gurira, Jon Favreau, Mark Ruffalo, Evangeline Lilly and David Dastmalchian.

This was a great episode of What If…? As of this moment (and it might be fluid) the order of my favorite episodes are #1. T’Challa is Star-Lord #2, Dr. Strange loses his heart, #3 Zombies, #4. Captain Carter, and #5. Avengers are murdered. Honestly, I could see the top three moving around quite a bit. There has not been a clunker of an episode yet.

Oh… and that cliffhanger! WTF!!!

What If…? s1 ep4

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Spoilers for episode four of What If…?

“What If… Doctor Strange lost his Heart Instead of his Hands?“

Whoa. Dark.

The first surprise was in the credits. I was under the impression that Benedict Cumberbatch was not reprising the role of Doctor Stephen Strange for What If…? yet there his name was. The fact that Marvel Studios have gotten as many of the original actors to come and do the voices for this animated series speaks highly of what these people think of their characters and of the studio itself.

This Doctor Strange episode got really dark, really fast. As in the other episodes of What If…?, something different happens in the familiar story to send the tale into a new path. In this moment, the car crash that was meant to take away Strange’s hands cost him his love, Christine, voiced by Rachel McAdams. Her repeated deaths in the opening act of the show was tough to watch.

What stood out in this episode was the beautiful animation and the imagery that they used to create the story. The direction of this was amazing. I spent the whole show looking at these wonderful shots that truly stood out.

The Watcher gets a little more screen time this week as Doctor Strange being able to sense the presence of the omniscient observer. It gave Jeffrey Wright, who voices the Watcher, something more to do than just see what was happening. Of course, he does not interfere in what is happening. It is not time yet for him to get involved. For those of us who are aware of Uatu the Watcher, we know it is just a matter of time before he does break his sacred oath and get involved in the events. It is inevitable. I think you will see Wright’s Watcher at some point in the live action MCU and not just the What If…? corner of it.

This episode takes the trope of the “evil twin” and put a spin on it. The Doctor Strange vs. Doctor Strange battle in the show was very well done. The whole episode dove into the darkness and did not spare anything. Seeing Doctor Strange absorbing the power of all those monstrous creatures, including what looked to be the same tentacled creature from episode 1 that fought Captain Carter, was trippy.

The music was epic as well. In particular when the two Stranges are fighting each other, the music was just tremendous. It was the perfect fit for the episode.

When I think back on the comic What If? that I read as a youth, the stories always seemed to end with a dark twist. There were never a bunch of happy endings. The fourth episode is the first that has really embraced that form of storytelling. The ending of the story was downright sad and the show transmitted those feeling magnificently. This was the most artistic of the episodes so far and brought the darkest of the multiverse to light.

What If…? s1 ep3

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SPOILERS FOR EPISODE THREE OF WHAT IF…?

“What If… The World Lost its Mightiest Heroes”

Above all else, this What If…? episode reminded me how much I miss Agent Phil Coulson. It was great hearing Clark Gregg reprise his role as the biggest fanboy SHIELD agent around during the events of this story.

Somebody is out to put an end to the Avenger Initiative before it ever gets a chance to start. Who is it? We get a mystery in episode three dealing with the murders of several of the OG Avengers.

This was my least favorite of the three episodes so far because it felt too constricted. In a story that could have been widespread and sprawling, this one felt too constricted, hurt by the half hour time frame. That’s not to say that this was a bad episode, far from it. It just was the weakest of the three so far, IMO.

This takes place during the week in the MCU where we got Iron Man 2, Thor and The Incredible Hulk, those three movies happening basically at the same moments. Except the films take a turn and each of the main heroes end up dead. Iron Man, apparently at the hands of Black Widow and Thor by Hawkeye’s arrow.

Thor’s death brought the warriors of Asgard to earth looking to seek vengeance for his death. Led by Loki, the Asgardian forces faced off with SHIELD. Meanwhile, Agent Fury was desperately trying to figure out who was inside SHIELD and killing off these “assets.” Fury strikes a deal with Loki to give them a little time to figure out the truth.

Black Widow was voiced in this episode by Lake Bell, who has been doing the voice of Poison Ivy in the Harley Quinn series. She does a solid job as our Russian assassin. Though it appeared that Widow had been the one to kill Tony Stark, she is given permission by Fury to keep investigating. One of the coolest part of What If…? is the way some scenes are echoes in the show from the MCU. In this case, we see Black Widow in the back of a SHIELD truck, surrounded by guards as she is being transported to a secure location. This imagery echoed the famous elevator scene from Captain America: The Winter Soldier, although this time with Natasha at the center.

You almost expect her to ask if anyone wants to get out.

Natasha figures the mystery out, but is killed before she can reveal the true answer. She is able to leave a voice mail message for Fury saying that it was “all about Hope” which, at first sounded like she said Hulk.

This was where the episode felt the most rushed. The conclusion featuring our villain, Hank Pym, angry over the death of his daughter Hope (who was working with SHIELD?) and we get a chance to see the way he is able to have killed these other heroes. The design on Hank Pym was cool, making him look very insane from grief.

After Pym’s capture, Loki decides that Midgard would be a nice planet to rule and he takes over the world. Does it pretty easy too. Every episode of What If…? so far feels as if it could be setting up for a continuation of the story. Here we get Fury discovering Captain America and welcoming Carol Danvers back to earth. Is this the formation of a new team of Avengers?

I guess only the Watcher knows for sure.

Good episode that felt too crunched. I just love Coulson.

What If…? s1 e2

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SPOILERS FOR WHAT IF…? Episode Two

“What If… T’Challa Became a Star-Lord?”

I was fine watching this episode until the dedication came on screen at the end of the show. That was when the waterworks came. It said, “Dedicated to our friend, our inspiration, and our hero” and that was all it took. Knowing that Chadwick Boseman gave his final appearance, final performance within this animated series is tough. He was such an amazing actor and he was the perfect casting for T’Challa, helping to bring the character to the forefront of the cultural zeitgeist. “Wakanda Forever” a phase that became a rallying cry in the real world, not just in the fictional one. Chadwick Boseman was truly something special.

And this episode of What If…? displays that joyous Zen for life that radiated from Boseman. This episode was amazing, featuring a ton of awesome characters all effected by the aura of T’Challa, just as we all were.

At first glance, having T’Challa become Star-Lord seemed a bit random. I wondered because the name Star-Lord came from Peter Quill’s mother’s letter to him, how was it even going to work? It was a detail not discussed, but it is such a minor quibble that it really did not matter.

This episode was different than last week’s. Last week we met Captain Carter but she basically followed the same storyline of Captain America: The First Avenger, just with Peggy in the place of Steve. There were little differences but it was basically the same. This week, we start off with the familiar and from there go in an all new direction.

T’Challa in the Ravagers was great to start with and making him an intergalactic celebrity, something that Quill always wanted, was an even better twist. Making Korath the Pursuer, voiced again by the wonderful Djimon Hounsou, a huge Star-Lord fanboy is funny on a lot of levels. Adding Korath into the Ravagers was cool, but not as cool as the addition of The Mad Titan, Thanos!

Hearing Josh Brolin return to try and explain why his original plan of destroying half the universe had merit only to be rebuffed by his Ravager teammates as it ‘still sounding like gynecide’ was an epic running joke. We meet Nebula, who is so different because of the change in Thanos that it is a bit unsettling. Karen Gillan resumed her role as Nebula. Interestingly enough, we never see Gamora, who in this universe, I assume, is living happily on her home planet which was never destroyed by Thanos. We see Drax the Destroyer (not Dave Bautista, unfortunately) too a much happier version.

Much like the Guardians movie, the crew heads to Knowhere to meet up with Benicio Del Toro’s The Collector, but they had a different mission. The Ravagers had become a force of good, taking from the rich and giving to the poor, much like T’Challa’s earth hero, Robin Leach (errr… Hood, this was a funny joke) and they were after a new MacGuffin. On Knowhere we still meet up with Cosmo, Howard the Duck (Seth Green) and show off the power of The Collector. I assume that there are a bunch of Easter Eggs found in those cages (can’t wait for Erik Voss and the New Rockstars to show me what is there). The Collector is an Elder of the Universe and he showed off his power here.

Of course, Yondu plays a huge part in the story, just as he does in the original GotG. Michael Rooker returned to his role and voiced the Ravager who, in this case, raises T’Challa. However, T’Challa’s natural goodness affected Yondu considerably more. Yondu had ‘outsourced’ the abduction of Peter Quill to the other Ravagers, who wound up taking T’Challa by mistake because all humans look the same. LOL

It is amazing how many huge named stars came to work on What If…? for one line or so. Danai Gurira, Carrie Coon, and Kurt Russell are here with cameos basically. Goes to show the power of Marvel.

What a great episode this was. RIP Chadwick Boseman.

What If…? s1 ep.1

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SPOILERS FOR EPISODE ONE OF WHAT IF…?

“What If…Captain Carter were the First Avenger?”

The first animated series from Marvel Studios debuted this morning on Disney + with What If…?, a look at possible alternate timelines had one thing changed. Based on the classic Marvel Comics book What If?, this series has so many potential stories that they can tell that it could be so much fun. I know I loved the What If comic as a youth. It was always one of my favorite ones and adapting it into an animated series gives them an unlimited amount of storytelling avenues.

The episode kicks off with the voice of Jeffrey Wright as our narrator. As in the comic, the narrator of What If…? is Uatu the Watcher. He is a powerful being of the universe whose job is to watch the events unfold without interfering. If you are a comic fan, you know that Uatu did not always live up to that mantra.

Kicking off the series is a twist on the events from Captain America: The First Avenger. The difference is a small one. Peggy Carter, voiced by the always epic Hayley Atwell, decided to stay in the lower area instead of going to the observing room. That triggered a variation of the timeline (thanks to Loki the series, we all understand that) that led to Peggy going into the container instead of Steve Rogers.

The rest of the episode featured Peggy, calling herself Captain Carter, battling Hydra during World War II. Howard Stark gets his hands on the Tesseract and builds Steve Rogers a suit of armor, called Hydra Stomper, allowing him to fight by the side of Captain Carter.

While we did not get Chris Evans returning to voice Steve Rogers, most of the remaining characters had original actors who created their roles in the MCU are doing the voice acting. This episode alone we had Sebastian Stan, Stanley Tucci, Toby Jones, Neal McDonough, Dominic Cooper, Jeremy Renner and Samuel L. Jackson. It is awesome that so many of the originals made it back to voice their characters. Someone like Stanley Tucci came in for what turned out to be like one or two lines in the show.

The animation is special. It is beautifully designed and flowed so easily during the fight scenes that you never think about it being animated. I will say that the characters’ eyes feel slightly off. I heard Animation Writer/EP Michael Vogel from The Geek Buddies describing the reason for the expressions on the faces being odd. He said that usually in animation if you are looking for the best expression, you would make the eyes or the facial features larger. Since the animation in What If is meant to show these characters are they would be in a movie, there is just so much that can be done. It made a lot of sense when Michael explained it and it helped with the one aspect of the animation that I did not find perfect.

The first episode set up the possibility of revisiting this character. I know there have been rumors floating around that we might see Agent Carter in live action some day, perhaps in The Multiverse of Madness. I wonder if this Peggy Carter who made the one decision that changed the timeline was the woman in the background in the Loki premiere.

Marvel Fans Spot Possible Peggy Carter Appearance In Loki Show - The Direct

What If…? is going to be a ten-episode series, and it sounded as if it has been renewed for season two. Now that the multiverse as been opened up, anything can happen. This series has been a great way to kick it off.