Category Archives: TV-G[eek]
Hazbin Hotel S2 E3 E4
Spoilers
“Behind Closed Doors”
“It’s a Deal”
Charlie has trouble with the media after she foolhardily invited Vox to film a redemption at her hotel to try and make up for the trouble she had last episode.
Things did not go well for her.
These two episodes work well together as a desperate attempt from Charlie to fix the misinformation present that made her hotel look bad.
Hazbin Hotel focused fully in Hell this week and continued to set things up for the season’s story. I feel as if everything will be coming together over the next few episodes (especially since we are technically halfway through the season right now).
The songs are, once again, fantastic and highly entertaining. The lyrics are exceptional in each song, both funny and as clever as you can be. The animation is awesome as well.
Hazbin Hotel has been great so far, and it feels as if everything is working its way together.
Sunday Morning Sidewalk #42
Spoilers
“The Bent-Neck Lady”
This week’s focus is on Nell and the visions she would have seeing the Bent-Neck Lady.
In what I thought was a fun bit of casting, Nell was seeing a therapist named Dr. Montague and he was played by Russ Tamblyn. What makes that fun was that Russ Tamblyn played Dr. Lawrence Jacoby on Twin Peaks. Jacoby was a quirky and oddball psychiatrist involved with Laura Palmer, a tragic death of a young woman. Very much like the death of Nell in The Haunting of Hill House.
The episode saw the events that lead up to Nell returning to Hill House the night that she died. It made sense with the way the last episode ended with Luke blurting out that Nell did not kill herself.
The last part of Nell’s life was filled with torment. I can’t imagine what sleep paralysis would be like. It sounded horrific and made things all the worse as we see how she suffered during it. Of course, the show implied that it was not just a simple case of sleep paralysis and that it had to do with the visions that she would see.
We see how Nell and her husband Arthur met and his tragic death. Those years for Nell seemed to be so wonderful that seeing him drop dead from the aneurism was tough.
That was not the toughest scene of the episode though.
The ending, where we see the identity of the Bent-Neck Lady revealed as Nell’s future self after she hanged herself from the spiral staircase on the night she returned to Hill House, was unbelievably anguish-filled. Watching Nell see all of these moments of her life, but as the bent-neck lady was something that I did not expect.
Now that we have seen Nell’s tragic final day at Hill House, one wonders where the show goes from here. There are still plenty of feelings of guilt and grief to deal with as this entire family does not seem to deal with what happened to them at hill House.
We flash back to the kids era and we see their father bringing them to a hotel and then going back “for mom” he tells them. That night is clearly something that we need to see more of moving forward.
How will everyone continue to deal with the loss of Nell? Luke, in particular, is a character that I am intrigued to see moving ahead. I want to see more of their father too, as he played some major role that we have yet to see.
This show has picked up big time. Last week’s episode was my favorite of the series so far… that is until this week. I think this was a near perfect horror episode with an amazing payoff to a mystery that we have been wondering, while still leaving plenty of questions to be answered.
FYC: Best Actress Predictions
Untraveled: Day 1 Madrid to Cordoba
Jay and Adam, the boys from pReview’d, one of my favorite reaction channels on YouTube, have created a travel show. Produced and edited by Michael Millard, Jay and Adam narrate the show from their studio. They showed off their chemistry as they walked around Spain, this episode specifically in Cordoba.
The area is beautiful and Jay and Adam are hilarious. There are seven total episodes of Untraveled dropping on Tuesdays, and I look forward to the next episode.
Bonus Action Vol. 3 E5
Sha Na Na S1 E11 & E12
You see the contrast between episodes here amazingly well.
Episode 11 featured the Lennon Sisters and episode 12 featured Zsa Zsa Gabor.
In episode 11, there was a limited amount of comedy bits, with the main one being what seemed to be similar to the Muppet Show’s At the Dance skit where members of Sha Na Na danced with the Lennon Sisters and the camera followed them to each couple to tell a bad joke. That was a decent little use of the comedy (though that laugh track is still just obnoxious).
Also in episode 11, they did multiple songs including Rockin’ Robin, Runaround Sue, Tonight You Belong to Me (with the Lennon Sisters on the stage), The Great Pretender and a tribute to Elvis (interestingly, they never used the word Presley. I wonder if it was a rights thing.) in that tribute they did three songs, Heartbreak Hotel, Love Me Tender and Hound Dog.
Honestly, episode 11 may have been my favorite one so far.
Then, episode 12 was an over-reliance on the comedy bits. Way too many of them because none of them were funny. Plus, the songs were limited to Sha-Boom and 16 Candles. They did a comedy bit featuring The Lion Sleeps Tonight with Sha Na Na dressed up as cannibals.
Episode 12 may have been my least favorite so far.
When the show focused on the music, it was outstanding. When they pushed the comedy, especially without the guys in the band, it flopped. The comedy bit with The Lion Sleeps Tonight was just too long and, again, not funny.
They have so many great singers in Sha Na Na, I want them to play more music and I believe it worked much better when the special guest star(s) were musical too. I have nothing against Zsa Zsa, but her bits were just not as entertaining as the Lennon Sisters singing.
Sunday Morning Sidewalk #41
Spoilers
“The Twin Thing”
This week is Luke’s episode.
That is what I figured since each episode so far has focused on one of the Crain children. I did not know that Luke and Nellie were actually twins.
Luke has been in the background a lot so far. We knew about him being in recovery for an addiction and stealing from his siblings, but that is about it.
I have to say, this was the first time I thought of Steve as a dick. But watching him at the dinner when Luke brought Joey to his brother’s.
I wasn’t sure of the time frame until we get the scene between Luke and Steve when Luke was stealing his brother’s camera.
I have found Luke to be my favorite character of the show so far. The final line of the episode gave me chills as Luke, because of a twin thing, says that it wasn’t suicide. He could feel it.
It was also very spooky with the bowler hat man following Luke into adulthood, and outside of Hill House. Is it a wonder that Luke became an addict? The scene where the bowler hat man came right up to Luke and it turned into Nellie’s face, leading into the car’s headlights was just amazing. The fact that Luke was so cold and that his legs and arms were stiffening up told us how connected he was to his sister.
I really liked this episode and I felt the most connection to Luke of all of the children so far. His scenes in the Hill House were some of the creepiest of the series so far, with that one where Luke was under the bed being right up there.
I am anxious to see what the show will give us now that Luke knows his twin committed suicide (or did she?).
Hazbin Hotel S2 E1 & E2
Spoilers
“New Pentious”
“Storyteller”
I finally got around to seeing the first two episodes of the second season of Hazbin Hotel. The animated series on Amazon Prime was a big surprise with the quality and entertainment. I am been looking forward to the second season of the show for awhile.
The first episode was good, but I loved the second episode with Sir Pentious in heaven. This did a great job of following up the story of Sir Pentious’ redemption.
The music is just banger after banger. They have done such tremendous job with music. The lyrics are so clever and work so well together.
These episodes did a great job of setting up conflict moving along for the rest of the season. The show will be releasing two episodes every week and has a total of 8 episodes in season two. That means that the show will be over very quickly (three more weeks).
The animation continues to be spectacular and the character design is awesome. This is a highly entertaining series that is fun.
IT: Welcome to Derry S1 E2
Spoilers
“The Thing in the Dark”
We have not seen the Pennywise clown version as of yet, and that is pretty cool. We definitely see the shape-shifting clown in other forms… and those forms are absolutely gross and frightening. The fang-filled vagina of Ronnie’s mother…. and the pickle jar with pieces of Lilly’s father. Man, those were rough.
The show is looking at the racism of the time more than the IT movies did. The racism in Derry was definitely in the movies, but this feels like a new level of focus on it. It has a feel much like Watchmen and Lovecraft Country. The smartest characters of the show seem to be the people of color.
We are introduced to a couple new kids in the show after the slaughter at the theater last week. Poor Lilly was facing her own struggles and the sheriff trying to get her to change her story about that night in order to get Ronnie’s father as the killer. Lilly kept saying that she did not see her father that night. The sheriff manipulates her to give him something he can use to arrest him.
We get the driving force behind the use of the military in this show. We learn that the military is in search of a weapon they can use in the Cold War. It is a weapon that can create fear in any man. It is clearly Pennywise that they are searching for.
There are a lot of really great scenes in this episode, including one in a jail cell involving a Russian gun. IT: Welcome to Derry has been very good so far, with amazing visuals and a group of intriguing characters.
FYC: Best Actor Predictions
Only Murders in the Building S5 E10
Spoilers
“The House Always…”
Another season of Only Murders in the Building wrapped up with a finale that revealed the killer of the beloved doorman Lester and tied all the loose ends up neatly.
It turned out that Mayor Beau Tillman, played by Keegan-Michael Key, killed Lester, and it was his finger that had been severed and placed in Oliver’s shrimp. The billionaires knew about the whole thing too. They were in the game to find the finger and that person would receive the casino contract from the city.
After they were arrested, it seemed as if the building was saved, though I am not 100% sure how that happened.
I do love this show and there were so many wonderful moments in this finale as they were capturing the Mayor. Charles shimmying up the pole and sliding down like a stripper (instead of a fireman) was a hoot.
Introducing the “New mob” to the “Old Mob” was another fun thing. That group of men was ridiculously funny.
The show also set up the next mystery for season six as we hear a new podcast from Cinda Canning (Tina Fey) and she seems to have be killed… just outside the Arconia, disappointing everyone that she was not “in the building.” A final twitch of the body brought her hand just inside the gate… allowing the trio to investigate the new case.
Love this show. I can’t wait for the next season. This finale was much better than the penultimate episode.
Bonus Action Vol. 3 Ep4
IT: Welcome to Derry S1 E1
Spoilers
“The Pilot”
I loved IT. I loved the original TV show miniseries starring Tim Curry and the 2017 movie. The second part of the movie was not as strong, but I am a fan of Pennywise the Dancing Clown.
So when I heard that there was a series in the works for HBO Max set in Derry in prior years when Pennywise would terrorize the children of Derry, I was all in.
While we did not see Pennywise in this first episode, it was anything but lacking. In fact, I found it shocking and, somewhat, upsetting.
They set up a group of kids, much like the “losers” from the film, and gave them a mission. Find Matty, the boy who we meet at the beginning who wound up with a weird family in an attempt to leave Derry.
These kids included Teddy, Phil, Lilly, Phil’s little sister Susie and Veronica. They were trying to solve the mystery of Matty’s disappearance after Lilly heard him speaking to her out of her pipes in her bathtub.
Shockingly, Lilly and Veronica were the only two to survive the encounter at the end of the episode. I couldn’t believe it because it sure seemed as of Teddy and Phil were being set up as the main characters of this show. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and I was sure something would happen to save them, even after seeing their blood splatter and Teddy actually being slammed face first into the projector room glass.
I am sad that they are gone, because I really liked them. I saw an interview with director Andy Muschietti who said they wanted to show that no one was safe in this setting. He did that for sure.
We’ll see where this goes from here. I thought this pilot episode was really good and it definitely defied what I expected to see.
Sunday Morning Sidewalk #40
Spoilers
“Touch”
This week as a good episode. The show focused in on Theo, both as a young girl and an adult, dealing with her ability to see visions when she touched someone.
Her mother called it being “sensitive,” but it was clearly a skill that Theo was not happy about. This is the reason behind the gloves Theo would wear.
We see a plot line involving a little girl named Kelsey who came to see Theo professionally. She spoke about “Mr. Smiley” and she seemed to be so close to Theo that Theo had trouble even reading her. This was a hard plot point as it turned out that Mr. Smiley was Kelsey’s foster father and Theo was able to get him arrested. It was a painful set of scenes.
Not quite as powerful or painful as when Theo went to see the body of Nell. Theo gave a pain-filled cry after she laid her hands on the body.
I am still placing characters, but I think this was the best week yet of knowing who was who. McKenna Grace, who played young Theo, did an exceptional job this episode.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 