Happy Labor Day to all!
I am currently watching the Showtime all day Twin Peaks: The Return marathon. We are into episode 11 on the way to the evening’s two part finale of the series. I have already had some pie, and anticipate having some more later tonight. I am very exciting about the finale, and I plan on writing up an article here with my thoughts over the whole 
series. However, I would be remiss if I did not mention last week’s episode, the 16th of the return. It was such a brilliant episode, giving us everything we wanted. The sequence leading to the return of Dale Cooper was such a perfect piece of story telling that I can’t imagine it possibly being better. Plus, the Audrey stuff at the end, the Richard Horne resolution, the gunfight at Rancho Rosa, the Diane revelation… it was possibly the best episode of TV of the year, and certainly of the series. Tonight cannot get here soon enough.
I made my way to the IMAX theater Friday night for the debut of the first two episodes of Marvel’s The Inhumans. The special showing in IMAX was meant to be a big deal. Unfortunately, much of the bad word of mouth must have done some damage as there were not very many people at my showing. I could see why. The show was extremely disappointing. The acting was wooden and dull. The dialogue was trash. The look of the show, with a few exceptions, was amateurish. It was not good television and certainly does not kick off the Inhumans on the right foot. Now, it wasn’t the worst thing I ever saw either, but with Marvel, the expectations were considerably higher. I did not enjoy Black Bolt. I thought his facial expressions did not fit the character and felt too jokey. Medusa’s hair? Ugh. Triton? Terrible. Crystal? Weak acting. What did I like? I enjoyed Karnak (possibly because he was played by Ken Leung of LOST fame) and I thought he was portrayed decently. Lockjaw was pretty good. I think this could be good if there are some serious overhauling done. Scott Buck is the showrunner and he also was in charge of Iron Fist. Iron Fist was the least loved Marvel anything … until this came along. I plan on watching Inhumans (Friday?) when it starts on ABC, but I certainly hope the quality picks up. At this point, it feels like a low quality sci-fi movie on SyFy Network.
Rick and Morty were back with their new episode, “Rest and Ricklaxation” last week. Rick and Morty were feeling as if they needed a break from their constant adventuring and so they headed off to a galactic spa of some sort and had their “toxins” removed, but their toxins turned out to be sentient and ready to take over their lives. Meanwhile, Morty was enjoying his new life without the toxins polluting him. It fell to Rick to try and make everything, and every one, united again.
This coming Tuesday is the debut of the latest season of American Horror Story: Cult. The series sees the return of Twisty from AHS: Freak Show. It is also rumored to be a satire of the political election of 2016.
Of course, Labor Day used to be synonymous with the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. I would watch many acts of the show and enjoy the call of “timpani” by Ed McMahon. The last few years without the telethon has just not felt right. We lost Jerry Lewis just recently, as the 91 year old comedian died. After so many years of raising money for those who needed his help, Lewis deserves to be considered a great humanitarian.
So excited for Twin Peaks finale tonight. Happy viewing!
Yes, The Tick is back. This time it is on Amazon Prime and it dropped the first six episodes of season one this past Friday… and it was AWESOME! I was unbelievably thrilled by the series. Being a big fan of the animated series from FOX Kids and the short lived live action series, I was very happy to see The Tick become one of the pilots that Amazon put up last year as a potential series. Fans would vote to see if they wanted to see the pilot move to full series. I knew the Tick fans would come through despite the pilot itself being a little less than expected. However, from episode two on, the Tick series was gold! So many great moments. It was laugh out loud funny. Peter Serafinowicz is perfectly cast as the Tick. His voice and innocent presence captures the character to a tee. Serafinowicz takes the best from Townsend Coleman and Patrick Warburton, the previous Ticks, and adds to the character. It is a singularly wonderful performance. Yet, the top performance of the show might just go to Arthur, played by Griffin Newman. Arthur is the driving force 
behind the plot, trying to prove that ancient villain, The Terror (the constant scene-chewer Jackie Earle Haley) is still alive and Newman fills the twitchy and neurotic Arthur with so much humanity that you can’t help but love him. And the episode six ends with the Terror yelling “Cliffhanger” after capturing Arthur. I can’t wait for more of this show. There are several of the meta jokes here. When the Tick design changed from the pilot to make him bluer and more flexible, Arthur said to the character of the Tick in episode two , “You look different” and the Tick responded, “Thank you.” Nothing further. I loved that joke. This show has become one of my favorites of the year.
Twin Peaks is soon to be reaching its ending as last week we got episode 15, and we got what looked like a happy ending for Big Ed and Norma. I know, right. Who saw that coming? After all of these years, the chance to see these two original character with a chance to be happy really was a highlight form last week’s episode. We also saw Dougie watching TV when Sunset Boulevard came on the screen. When Dougie heard the name “Gordon Cole” mentioned in the film, something triggered in his subconscious and he stuck his fork into the wall socket. Could this electric shock be the final jolt to bring back Dale Cooper? I don’t know, but I sure hope so. There was also some tremendous scenes with the wonderful Log Lady. 
Margaret called Hawk and told him, “Hawk, I’m dying . . . You know about death—that it’s just a change, not an end. Hawk, it’s time. There’s some fear—some fear in letting go. Remember what I told you. I can’t say more over the phone, but you know what I mean. From our talks, when we were able to speak face to face. Watch for that one. The one I told you about. The one under the moon on Blue Pine Mountain. Hawk, my log is turning gold. The wind is moaning. I’m dying. Good night, Hawk.”. It was such a surreal and beautiful scene because the actress who played the Log Lady, the brilliant Catherine E. Coulson, who was a close personal friend of Twin Peaks director/writer David Lynch, was actually dying at the time of the shot. She was in bad shape with cancer, but she did come back to shoot these episodes for Lynch. RIP Margaret.
Chip Esten made a return of his own, this time to Whose Line is it Anyway. Chip, who currently stars on Nashville, spent several years as one of the rotating fourth seats on the improvisation show, really showing his worth in musical numbers. He had not been seen with the crew since the last days of Drew Carey’s Improviganza. Chip seemed to step right in beautifully, performing with Wayne Brady and Jeff Davis in a version of Greatest Hits. Unlike most “special guests” on Whose Line, Chip was a welcome return and I hope we don’t have to wait for another 5 years before we see him again.
SummerSlam was last Sunday night and it was a long and reasonably enjoyable show. However, the biggest match was the huge hoss fight that closed the show with Broick Lesnar retaining his Universal Championship against Braun Strowman, Roman Reigns and Samoa Joe. Braun Strowman looked like a star in this match and the crowd was firmly behind him despite him not being the face. At one point, Brock and Joe were on the floor and, from out of the frame, flew one of the announcer’s chairs. It had been thrown by Strowman and it was really funny. Strowman was a massive beast, but Lesnar was able to survive by giving an F5 to Reigns. On RAW the next night, they announced a one-on-one match between Strowman and Lesnar for the next PPV, Hell in a Cell.
On the SNL Weekend Update Summer Edition, we got another performance of Donald Trump from Emmy nominated Alec Baldwin. This skit was the cold open for the show and it made fun of the Arizona rally that was held this past Tuesday by President Trump. Baldwin came out with sunglasses on joking about how he had looked at the eclipse earlier this week (which the real Trump is photographed doing without any eye protection despite all the warnings.) It was great to see Baldwin again with his attempts to skewer the President of the US.
The Movie Trivia Schmoedown Ultimate Schmoedown Team Tournament has begun on Collider Video. The 16 team tournament will culminate with a new #1 contender for the Patriots, the team of “Little Evil” JTE and “The Insneider” Jeff Sneider in December. With round one starting, the first week saw a major upset as the team of fans known as Late to the Party knocked off tournament favorite Critically Acclaimed in a close and tense match. Other winners included Team Action over Deep Cuts, DC Movie News over Six Degrees and Team Trek defeating Cinema Blend. The remaining matches of round one will be completed and shown on YouTube next week.
How about with Twin Peaks? Last week was episode 14, leaving just 4 more hours of the Return left, and there were some huge things happening. The Twin Peaks Sheriff Department’s crew headed out to the forest where Andy wound up being brought to the giant’s White Lodge (the giant said his name was the Fireman). Andy got some vital info there and seemed to be more confident in his return. We also found out that Diane is actually the half sister of Janey E, who is married to Dougie (aka Agent Cooper). Whoa, small world. It feels like it is just a matter of time before Agent Cole and the others with the Blue Rose finally find our wayward Dougie Cooper. But the creepiest thing of the week was when Sarah Palmer removed her face, revealing the hand of the Mother of All Evil and a big smiling smile, and then proceeded to rip out a man’s throat. Now, the man was being very abusive toward her so no one shed a tear, but it certainly was more than what I expected. Sarah Palmer has been really weirder than usually lately and this could be the reason why. Things are heading quickly toward the finale.
The Defenders debuted on Netflix this week and saw Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist team up to take on the Hand, in what really served as an ending to the previous story lines from their individual shows. The 8-episode season of The Defenders was an easy watch and went extremely quickly. By episode three, there was a tremendous fight in a high rise with all the Defenders and the show was underway. Sigourney Weaver was the main villain as one of the main “fingers” of the Hand and she was great. Elektra returned and was a bad ass in all of her scenes. The end of the series seemed to be setting up Daredevil season three for the classic “Born Again” story line. Jessica Jones was a series standout receiving most of the best lines of dialogue. Iron Fist, who was universally disliked after his own series was panned critically, was much improved here. Luke Cage is the moral center of the Defenders. The show was very strong and did a great job of tying stories up.
On Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Oliver did a whole segment on the potential dangers with North Korea. When President Trump claimed that North Korea would see “fire and fury”, the world became a more tense place. However, John Oliver knew what to do. He discovered that North Koreans loved accordion music and who better to play some music to soothe the nuclear beasts than EYG Hall of Famer Weird Al Yankovic, who then played The North Korea Polka, a song also known as “Please Don’t Nuke Us, North Korea.” And of course, the tensions have since gone down. Thanks for saving the world, Weird Al.
Last week we have Pickle Rick. This week we had Blackout Drunk Rick. Little did we know that when Rick goes blackout drunk, he sets up death traps that could destroy the galaxy. In the episode, the Vindicators returned to the show to call for assistance from Rick and Morty and Morty convinces Rick to go along on the adventure. However, the super team known as the Vindicators only called Rick and Morty because they had to and it was revealed that they had had another adventure and did not call them. The episode was thus entitled Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender. In the end, several members of the Vindicators fall to Rick’s death traps. Rick seems to be becoming more of the villain here and it is interesting to see how Morty reacts to his grandpa’s misbehavior.
This week saw two episodes of The Gong Show, one on Monday and one at its regular time on Thursday. I am finding it amazing how much I am enjoying this show. I did not expect to be downright giddy watching the Gong Show. However, there was controversy this week. On Monday’s episode, Tommy Maitland called for the proper sing-a-long and asked for Albert to come out and sing Shaving Cream like he does every week. However, the person he called Albert was NOT Albert! It was some imposter. I immediately took to Twitter calling this #AlbertGate. The real Albert was back on Thursday without any explanation for why some other chap was singing our proper sing-a-long. (Yes, the episode on Monday felt like the first one they had taped, so they had obviously replaced this guy with the new Albert, but that is not near as fun as wondering about a deep seeded conspiracy).
Manhunt: Unabomber continues to be tremendous. The show this week gave us a massive FBI plot to try and draw out the Unabomber by printing the serial bomber’s manifesto in the Washington Post and staking out and interviewing everyone who bought a newspaper at a certain newsstand in San Francisco. The idea is that the Unabomber would want a copy and it was believed that he made his base in SF. Imagine how much manpower this would have taken? Good news and bad news. The stakeout was a failure, but the Unabomber’s brother’s wife saw the published manifesto and recognized the writing style.
NXT Takeover Brooklyn III was on the WWE Network on Saturday and it delivered once again. I have never seen a Takeover special that has not been just tremendous in action and wrestling drama. Drew McIntyre defeated “Glorious” Bobby Roode to become the new NXT Champion. Adam Cole made his NXT 
debut by attacking McIntyre after the victory. NXT Women’s Champion Asuka continued her dominance by defeating and retaining her title against Ember Moon in the match of the night. The team of Sanity defeated the Authors of Pain to become the new NXT Tag Team Champions. Alistair Black defeated Hideo Itami one on one. Tonight is the WWE’s big SummerSlam, but it will have a challenge to stack up against NXT Takeover.
Whose Line is it Anyway continues wits run on Thursday nights on the CW. This past week the show had a game of Hollywood Director where Wayne, Colin and Ryan had to act out a scene and Heather Anne Campbell would be the director and give them notes on how to improve the scene. The final time, Heather Anne came on and said they should do the scene like Cabaret. And what followed was musical genius between the three of these amazing improv performers. Seriously, search this up if you have not seen it. It is comedy gold. And next week, Chip Esten returns!
Since it is on my mind, let’s start with last week’s Twin Peaks. I really enjoyed episode 13 as we got to see the two Coopers really stand out. First, Dougie seems to be making everyone’s lives better when he comes in contact with them. He is like a beacon of light while Mr. C (or Doppelcooper or Bob or whatever you want to call him) is the dark opposite. The arm wrestling scene with Mr. C against the leader of that gang was one of the best arm wrestling scenes I have ever seen. Plus, Mr. C gives One Punch Man a run for his money. I am seeing an eventual face off between Dougie and Mr. C in the future of this series, which has only 5 more episodes to go.
The one thing that EVERYONE was talking about last week… Pickle Rick! Yes, it was the episode of Rick and Morty where Rick turns himself into a pickle to avoid going to family therapy and winds up on a Pickle Rick adventure. This was hilarious, but, honestly, the internet might have taken this too far. Yeah, I know… what are the odds of that?
Then, this week, on Amazon Prime I discovered a real gem of a series. A six episode series called Comrade Detective. This was a series that was brought to Amazon by Channing Tatum. It was supposedly a recently discovered buddy cop series from during the Cold War era Romania dubbed into English. In truth, the series was shot in Romanian recently and then dubbed into English. The series is a wonderfully funny satire on Communism and Capitalism and the Cold War era mindset of the countries. Tatum voiced our main character Gregor and Joseph Gordon-Levitt did the dubbed over voice of Iosef as the pair investigated the murder of former police officer Nikita. Florin Piersic Jr and Corneliu Ulici played the detective pair in the Romania version and who we see acting as Tatum and Gordon-Levitt voice the characters. It is very funny and well worth your time for a six episode binge.
Manhunt: Unabomber was tremendous this week as well as we had a tense and dramatic one-on-one confrontation between Fitz and Ted Kaczynski. Kaczynski told Fitz that he planned on challenging the legality of the search warrants that were used to find all the evidence against him from the cabin in the woods. If he could get that search warrant thrown out, all of the evidence would be “fruits of a poison tree” and would be inadmissible. The confrontation is beautifully played by Sam Worthington and Paul Bettany. This series has been constantly good so far, and does not lose momentum when flashing between time frames. Watching Fitz figure out information about the Unabomber by the linguistics language that he used was gripping as can be.
Meanwhile, the more episodes in, the less interested I am in the American Ripper documentary that is trying to make a case for H.H. Holmes as Jack the Ripper. Each week, they bring up info that does not fit their case and they dismiss it as if it were nothing, only to grab hold of inconclusive evidence or rampant speculation. They looked at handwriting samples this week, comparing some of Holmes writing to the Dear Boss letter. The expert showed them several examples that did not match at all, but they seemed to focus only on the few examples that were called inconclusive. They are preparing to look for potential victims at the bottom of a river that might have been encased in concrete, so this is interesting at least. But it does not make the case for Holmes as the Ripper.
I was so disappointed this week because there was no Gong Show. ABC showed a Princess Diana special this week instead of the Gong Show (or Battle of the Network Stars, btw) and I could not believe how much I missed the proper sing-a-long. Good news though, the episode of the Gong Show is to be shown tomorrow night. Jack Black and Jennifer Aniston are scheduled as judges.
On the Movie Trivia Schmoedown this week, the team titles were on the line as the champions, The Patriots, defended against Team MODOK (formerly known as Rotten Tomatoes.) This was an extremely entertaining match with the Patriots pulling out a victory in sudden death. This was the fourth time the Patriots have successfully defended the titles since they won them and they are beginning to look as if they are one of, if not the, most dominant teams ever. They were also very lucky as Matt Atchity was playing Boris Badenov and, while staying in character, this cost him a point in the speed round and looked to have rattled Atchity. The rule that the person must answer in two seconds during that speed round is unfair to anyone who hasn’t done it before or who is trying to be entertaining as Atchity was. Five seconds seems like a fast enough time. But, it’s not my game. I just love watching it. The Patriots next title match will be at the Schmoedown Spectacular in December.
Last night was also the finale episode of Orphan Black. I have not been watching Orphan Black for the last season and a half, and I have not yet seen the finale, but I do want to see it. Tatiana Maslany is truly a genius when it comes to this show. She can play countless characters and you, as the audience, consistently forget that it is her playing them. Truly Maslany gave one of the best performances on any television show in history.
The best response this week about President Trump’s threats of “fire and fury” toward North Korea came from Stephen Colbert. After showing the clip, the camera came back to an empty stage. Colbert slowly peaked up at the camera and told Trump to “shut up” and that Kim Jong-Un was crazy. Colbert showed the fear many Americans felt perfectly and helped to balance that out with humor.
Good evening everyone. I only have about an hour and half to get this done before Twin Peaks starts. This week, the 13th episode of the Showtime series will be shown at 7 PM Central time. I assume this will be the same going forward fro the remaining six episodes of the event series. It should be plenty of time to finish up this column, but I do have to stay focused. By the way, I am ready to make my random prediction that Twin Peaks: The Return is going to end with Amanda Seyfried’s character in the last scene, wrapped in plastic. I believe that they will be ending this series with the same image that they began the original series, except with it being Laura Palmer wrapped in plastic. I have no knowledge of anything but if that happens, remember where you heard it first.
I caught up on Preacher this week, seeing the previous two week’s episodes. We got the introduction to a new villain last week in Herr Starr. Herr Starr is involved in the white suited people intending to protect the lineage of Jesus. We see how much of a horrible man Herr Starr is despite being an agent for Christianity. The way he became the final combatant for the job was to shoot the other applicant instead of the target (for target practice). I do like the introduction of this character and I am looking forward to seeing him interact with our main cast. However, I was not a fan of the sub plot of this episode where Tulip was having some kind of PTSD from her interaction with the Saint of Killers. That felt pretty forced considering what we have seen of Tulip of the first season and half of the show.
Tuesday we got a great match on Smackdown, with major implications for SummerSlam. John Cena and Shinsuke Nakamura faced each other with the winner being declared the #1 contender for Jinder Mahal’s WWE Championship. In what would have to be considered a bit of an upset, Nakamura defeated Cena cleanly after delivering a devastating back suplex and the 
I saw the debut of the new Discovery true crime series, Manhunt: Unabomber. The series is an eight episode show presented in a scripted format, much like the People vs. OJ from last year. The show included double time lines, following the pre-investigation by the FBI and the attempt to then get a confession from Unabomber Ted Kaczynski. Paul Bettany played the bomber in the show. It does a good job of showing how profiling helped catch him, despite the initial belief that the Unabomber was an uneducated airport employee. I enjoyed the first two part night and look forward to fining out more about the series as it progresses.
And we also continued to find out more about how H.H. Holmes is Jack the Ripper. American Ripper has yet to show me much of anything outside of some weird coincidences between the two serial killers. There did appear to be some close ties with the way Holmes killed to the final death of the Ripper. Still, much of the show feels like a stretch to me. True crime seems to be everywhere these days, and as long as they continue to be interesting, I think that is as good as any other genre to see.
USA Network debuted its new summer event series called The Sinner, starring Jessica Biel. The show introduces us to Cora Tannetti, a young mother whose marriage seems to be strong. Cora, however, has something going on. At the beach, she sees a young couple kissing passionately and she takes a knife and brutally stabs the man multiple times in the neck and face, killing him. The show gives us no reason or motive for the attack and it devastates her family. However, Detective Harry Ambrose, played by Bill Pullman, wants to know what the motive was. The show really grabs you with that brutal, violent attack and makes you engaged with the mystery at the center of the show.
I just love the Gong Show. It has become one of my favorite hours of television of the week. This week we had four different acts receive a perfect 30 from the judges, which makes up for the lack of any good acts from the week before. I look forward to the proper sing-a-long all week long, something I never expected when I first realized that they would be singing Shaving Cream each week. I would miss it terribly if they didn’t sing it one week (thanks Albert!). We also had Megan Fox this week! Plus Andy Samburg. Not sure how many more weeks The Gong Show will be around, but I will be enjoying each and every one ABC gives me.
Whose Line is it Anyway moved to Thursday, so I had to flip back and forth between it and the Battle of the Network Stars. I prefer that to Mondays though since there are way too many shows on Mondays to watch. This week we had Ralph Macchio of Karate Kid fame make a guest star appearance on the improv show. Interestingly enough, this week also saw the announcement of a new Karate Kid series, starring Macchio, on YouTube Red.
One of those shows was Twin Peaks. With last week’s show and this week’s show, there was some really great TV. Just a short while ago, we saw Audrey Horne! After 12 episodes, the Twin Peaks Freaks have been getting anxious about the appearance of the Queen. There has been a ton of speculation that Audrey was Richard’s mother and that she may have had Richard after being sexually assaulted by Evil Coop… but none of that fit with tonight. Tonight, Audrey was yelling at her husband, some guy we find out is named Charlie, whom she has some kind of contract with. And she wanted this Charlie to help her find Billy. Billy is someone she loves. And he was to call Tina. It’s kind of funny that we have waited so long for Audrey to arrive only for her to be involved with a whole bunch of people that we have no idea who they are. David Lynch messing with us again?
But there is more than Audrey. Last week we had advancement with the Dougie situation, where he looks to be out of trouble with the gangsters at the casino (including Jim Belushi). Something weird is going on with Sarah Palmer as she seemed to have been triggered by turkey jerky. Ben Horne presented Sheriff Frank Truman with the key that had arrived in the mail that once was the key to Agent Cooper’s room. We saw some progress on the Blue Rose case. Dr. Jacoby continues to hock golden shovels and Nadine is still listening. We found some Bobby Briggs family drama with Shelly and their daughter Becky.
Another event I missed last week was the latest PPV from the WWE, Battleground. This was a Smackdown Live event and I have to congratulate one of my favorite teams, The New Day, in winning the Smackdown Tag Team Championship in a very enjoyable match verses the Usos. In the match, Xavier Woods was fantastic. Many times, Woods has been made to look like the weakest link of the New Day, but he brought his “A Game” in this match. The other surprise on the PPV was that the Punjabi Prison Match between WWE Champion Jinder Mahal and Randy Orton, which has never been very good, turned out to be a very good championship match. The Great Khali made an appearance to help Jinder with the win.
Returning tonight on Cartoon Network is Rick and Morty. First they will broadcast the season three premiere which was originally shown earlier this year, and then we will get season three, episode two. The third season has been highly anticipated by the fans of the series for a couple of years. It has been pushed back to make sure it is done properly. Rick and Morty is one of the funniest animated shows on television and it is good to have it back.
Lots of fun on ABC this week. We had a $150,000 winner on Pyramid. The Gong Show continued to be silly fun, and we kept singing “Shaving Cream” as a proper sign-a-long. Celebrity Family Feud brought us Louie Anderson, a former Family Feud host back to the show with his mother, who said it was her lifelong dream to be on the Feud. The Battle of the Network Stars found us concerned over Erik Estrada getting his hair wet. The summer fun on ABC has been wonderful.
Last week’s Battle of the Network Stars had some interesting moments– especially when dealing with Josh Henderson from Dallas, who had to be taken away in an ambulance after the running relay. It was Team Prime a Time Soaps vs. Team ABC stars and Henderson was the anchor, but he was just able to hold off the challenge of Roseanne’s Michael Fishman. After the race, Henderson went down and was having trouble catching his breath. He wound up going to get an IV. However, he was able to return later an win the relay race in the show’s biggest “thrill of victory” moment so far. However, ABC Stars wound up winning the tug of war and upset the younger and favored Soap stars.
Last week was San Diego Comic Con and they dropped a lot of news about upcoming television shows. At the Marvel TV panel, they not only dropped a new Defenders trailer, but they showed lucky attendees of their panel the first episode. They also showed footage from the upcoming Punisher show on Netflix. There was a new Inhumans trailer, a trailer for Gifted, and confirmation of a season two for Iron Fist. As well as the Marvel news, we got a brand new trailer for season two of Stranger Things which looked to focus a great deal on Will and his odd connection to the Upside-Down. The eighth season of the Walking Dead gave us a trailer that ended with a sleeping, older, grey-bearded Rick with a cane beside his bed. Mysterious!
Twin Peaks episode ten continued its slow progress toward a plot that you may understand. Dougie (Agent Cooper) went to the doctor, who commented on how much weight Dougie had lost. Janey noticed it too and got herself turned on. This led to a night of sex with the couple. How will that affect the still confused Agent Cooper? We saw the Log Lady return once again, this time with a cryptic message…. “Laura Palmer is the one.”
The Gong Show brought out David Arquette as a surprise performer, though he would not be judged. This also prevented the former WCW World Champion from being ganged. The Gong a Show has become a personal favorite of mine and I look forward to the weekly proper sing-a-long, Shaving Cream. I doubted this, thinking the repetitive nature of the song would get dull, but I sing along ever week.
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.
The Emmy nominations came out this week and there were several solid picks. 
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.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 