Category Archives: TV-G[eek]

Sha Na Na S1 E6, E7

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I watched two more episodes of Sha Na Na on YouTube tonight and it has become apparent that the first season of this show had the same strength and weaknesses in them.

Strengths: The songs are great. Specifically, the songs the group does on the stage in front of the studio audience. Donny did a cool rendition of “Come and Go With Me” and led the singing in “Rock Around the Clock.” Johnny, whose voice is so heavenly, did “Teen Angel” and gives an epic sob in the middle. Then, one of the best street songs so far was “Breakin’ Up is Hard to Do” with Donny and Chico taking the main part of the song. This was one of the better choreographed songs so far. Great basketball pass at the end of the song from Santini too.

Weaknesses: Comedy. The comedy on the show just feels too forced. I hate the crowd noises they add because there are several times where it just intrudes on the song. In the comedy song bit “Along Came Jones” the can laughter and applause made it hard to hear the song. Pamela Myers’s acting in this song was atrocious (though she was a Tony-nominated actress). I do not think I have laughed once with the back stage skits from Kenneth Mars, Philip Roth or Jane Dulo. At least Avery Schreiber’s cab driver character has a few laughs.

Two comedians were the guest stars on these episodes with Charles Nelson Reilly and Phyllis Diller. Both had some good moments. I am a big fan of CNR, especially during his days on the Match Game, which he referenced in the episode.

I remember being a fan of Lennie Baker as a child. Being a chubby kid, I related to Lennie. I have to say though, watching him do his background dancing is always funny. Lennie has a tremendous voice though.

I have really enjoyed the musical parts of these shows so far, but the rest have been a bit of a trudge to get through. The music is absolutely the stand out from these talented musicians.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #37

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“Full Circle”

Our fifth series for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk ended today with the tenth and final episode of HBO’s Lovecraft Country.

I wonder what H.P. Lovecraft would have thought about this series?

I did not see the ending of this show coming. I was very surprised with the death of Atticus in that ceremony, and the victory at the end, bonding Christina from using magic… and all white people… was a cool end.

I especially liked the use of Ji-ah in the finale. I have been wondering the purpose of this character for much of the series and to have that pay off in such a meaningful way makes me feel positive.

Of course, we had the best scene of the series in this episode too. Atticus, Leti, Montrose, Ji-ah, Hippolyta, and Diana were in the car, driving to Ardham, when the song “Sh-Boom” comes on the radio. Diana starts to sing along with the song and, before too long, the entire carload was joining in. It was my favorite moment of the series, giving us a flash of innocence and joy before the final spell.

Couple of things: Ruby’s death off-screen was a bit of a waste, I think, just for the surprise twist of Christina being one step ahead. Then, I am not sure how I feel about Diana crushing Christina’s throat with her bionic arm at the very end.

There felt to be a bunch of dangling threads or things that happened over the course of the show that felt insignificant. Why did Hippolyta have to go on her adventure through time?

Lovecraft Country, for me, was very up and down. Some weeks the show was tremendous, but I do think it lacked a comprehensive vision of what story they wanted to tell. It had some real highs and some lows too, all capsulized in this final epsiode.

Next week, in honor of the month of Halloween, we start the sixth series in the Sunday Morning Sidewalk. It will be Netflix’s series, The Haunting of Hill House.

Gen V S2 E5

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“The Kids Are Not All Right”

Another rough Gen V episode as Marie, Emma, and Jordan went to try and break Cate out of Elmira after she was being punished for the plan from last episode. Their attempt was not successful, but they found more than they anticipated.

Annabeth. Marie’s missing sister.

Annabeth is a pawn for Cipher, and he is trying to turn Marie into the “salvation,” as he said. During their escape, Marie found Annabeth in a pool of blood, and she was able to use her powers to bring her back. That was a stunning moment and we’ll have to see where this goes from there.

Sister Sage made her appearance here, in a shocking flashback. She showed up with Cipher and they had sex in front of his burnt up father. What is Sister Sage’s plans and how will these affect the final season of the Boys. Is she going to be in Gen V season two more?

We get some good scenes with Sam and his parents. We discover that Sam’s mental illness predated the Compound V.

Cipher is a shockingly evil character that has some dark secret waiting for us. When he plunged that knife into his own hand in front of Andre’s dad, it was an unbelievable moment. He is absolutely someone I want to see come down.

Peacemaker S2 E7

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“Like a Keith in the Night”

The penultimate episode of season 2 of Peacemaker was amazing!

Wow, what a great episode. There was so much emotion and drama.

Major points:

  • White Dragon was not a racist! What? Then, Vigilante killed him in front of Chris. Hearing Auggie Smith talking so calmly and fairly, even after hearing the details of his own son’s death was unexpected.
  • Keith getting pummeled by the whole group.
  • Chris’s cry of anguish as his friends were trying to stop Keith was heartbreaking. I’m worried about Chris and his mental health.
  • Ads and Jusomaster playing Earth X brand of Scrabble (Scrobble) was a hoot. Watching Judomaster murder the mob of people who were pursuing Ads in the swimming pool … well, that was a little uncomfortable. I guess they were all Nazis.
  • Economics may have been the heart of the show early on but… he ain’t any more. He has not done well in Earth X.
  • With Harcourt preparing to shoot Keith in the head, but failing, I expect Keith back in the finale.
  • Peacemaker surrendered the dimensional portal to Rick Flagg Sr. While protecting his friends. Chris is arrested and taken away. Ads stopping Vigilante from doing anything to stop it showed her leadership.

Next week is the finale. I can’t wait. It has been a tremendous season and I can’t express how much John Cena has kicked ass in this role. That emotional outburst over Keith’s injured body was something I never thought he was capable of doing. This has been an exceptional season.

Only Murders in the Building S5 E6

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“Flatbush”

Meryl Streep returned to the Arconia after a tragedy saw her apartment burn down. While she was processing the loss of her things, she jumped right into the case of who killed Lester.

Last episode, it seemed as if Lester’s wife Lorraine and Nicky’s wife Sofia were working together, giving us a new pair of suspects. However, this episode also basically cleared them as Oliver and Loretta followed them.

The episode was a trip down memory lane for Oliver, who had grown up in Brooklyn. It was some wonderful work as he strolled through past flashbacks of him as a child. It led him to the stage in an old theater where he had learned his love of the theater. These scenes between Meryl Streep and Martin Short are fantastic and help give us even more understanding of them as characters.

Meanwhile, it was good to see Donna (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) involved more with the group. She was going to pick up the finger for testing, only to find that the finger was gone. It had been stolen. We find out that all the footage had been tampered with and that the company that ran the security was owned by Bash Steed, one of the billionaires (Christoph Waltz).

Waltz had been catfishing Charles as a “Priscilla” and digging for details of the investigation. He ended with a text saying, “You’re such a smartypants. Now I need to come hunt you down.”

Mabel and THE made up as this felt like a rushed storyline. Maybe there will be more to it as the season moves along.

I am excited to get back to the billionaires who have not been seen or mentioned much since they pulled the fast one over Charles, Oliver and Mabel.

Sha Na Na S1 E3, E4, E5

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Grease for Peace!

I am back with the next three episodes of season one of Sha Na Na. This was one of my favorite shows as a kid and I always looked forward to seeing the next episode.

I just have to say, some of the negatives stand out more for me now than it did when I was a kid. The comedy is downright bad. Very few of these bits were funny at all. The only ones that seemed okay were the ones in the car with one of the members of the band and Ginger. The can laughter made it all the more obvious that it wasn’t funny.

The exception was the bits during episode 5 with Milton Berle. He brought in members of Sha Na Na and would makes jokes with them. These bits felt fairly improv-like and you can see the members of Sha Na Na trying to keep from laughing. Some did better than others. Johnny was working that gum over hard during his moment with Berle.

You do have to respect how they passed around singing responsibilities on the show. In these three episodes, only Santini did not have a lead vocal or a duet. Duke of Earl and Silhouette was performed by Denny. Party Doll and Itsy Bitsy teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini was done by Chico. Whole Lotta Shakin’ was led by Screamin’ Scott. Screamin’ Scott and Jocko combined for Poison Ivy. Bower sang with Ethel Merman with Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better. Lenny sang Too Chubby to Boogie. Dirty Dan sang Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow. Johnny sang the last song of episode five, though I did not recognize the title. The whole group had a part in The Name Game.

Admittedly, some of the background dancing gets too hectic at times and it gives the audience too many things to try and focus on. However, episode five gave us something different as this was the first time that we got to see shots of the live audience and their responses to the stage songs. I liked that variation on what they had done prior.

The dancing was okay during Carol Lawrence’s dance of The One, from the Broadway musical A Chorus Line. The whole group of Sha Na Na provided chorus line dancing.

Episode five was my favorite of these episodes as it felt like they did some different things and the Milton Berle comedy worked so much more than some of the other episode comedy bits.

Gen V S1 E1-E4

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I am finally getting caught up with most of the TV shows and that meant that I got to Amazon Prime’s Gen V.

The spin-off of The Boys had a surprisingly good season one and this new season leads right into some of the major events going on in that series.

First of all, we had to deal with the real life loss of actor Chance Perdomo, who played Andre in season one, was killed in a motorcycle accident in 2024. Andre was a major character among the ensemble of Gen V so decisions had to be made. The show decided against recasting the role and decided instead to kill the character off-screen. While it was an uncomfortable idea, the death of Andre provided motivation for several of the characters to move forward.

We have a new Dean of Godolkin University and he is the new big bad of season two. Cypher is very mysterious and manipulative.

I do love how the group is kind of getting back together, even after the horrible things that they have done to each other. It sure looked like, after episode one, that Jordan had killed Cate. I am glad Cate survived as the entire event has led to a tentative reunion between Cate, Marie, Jordan, and Emma.

Gen V continues to have the same kind of shocking moments that are typical on The Boys, and the characters from The Boys are referenced constantly Starlight even made a cameo in one of the episodes, trying to recruit Marie to help her out. She mentioned one of the mysteries of the season, which was Odessa. It appeared as if Odessa was Marie, but that has all been questionable.

Episodes will release every Wednesday, so I will be watching them when I can. This kick off has been very enjoyable so far and I am deeply invested in the mysteries of the show. I am curious to see how this show will eventually play into the final season of The Boys.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #36

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“Rewind 1921”

After a short respite on a Friday morning last week, we are back on Sunday morning, BABY!

I went to SiouxperCon last week in South Dakota, which meant that I had to miss a Sunday morning. Instead, I did the Sunday Morning Sidewalk #35 on a Friday morning.

Back on Sunday, I watched the penultimate episode of Lovecraft Country, “Rewind 1921.”

Time travel is always tough, but this trip back to the Tulsa race massacre of 1921 was impeccably done. It brought us back around to a scene from the first episode that featured Jackie Robinson and made it make sense with what our current story is.

Atticus, Leti and Montrose travel through the portal to 1921, thanks to the returning Hippolyta, in search of the Book of Names, in order to save Diana. What they find is horror and loss in a brutal manner as the Tulsa race massacre was in full nightmare.

Montrose, especially, had to go through his own personal anguish, as they witnessed his father beating him with a switch. Montrose went to see the death of a boy that he had had feelings for and, all the while, Montrose knew that he could not do anything to change what happened.

To find out that it was Atticus all along who showed up and saved Montrose and George (aka Jackie Robinson) was one of those wild time travel things that brings everything full circle.

It was an emotional, powerful, painful episode looking back at how these characters were affected by this tragic event in American history.

Leti went through it as well, as she found the Book of Names as the house burned down around her, including Dora’s grandmother, who had given her the book just before horrifically burning to death in front of her.

The episode ended with our heroes clearly affected, but back in their own timeline.

I have a feeling that next week’s finale is not going to provide the satisfactory conclusion I hope as I had heard the show left off on a cliffhanger and it has never been renewed. I hope it is a cliffhanger that is designed to create something new and not one to continue this story moving forward.

Peacemaker S2 E6

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“Ignorance is Chris”

So the truth of the other world is finally revealed and the answer was just what I thought it was… although they take it another step .

Seeing that swastika on the American flag where the stars were supposed to be was a rough visual. Earth X? Some form of it? James Gunn is a wild man.

Harcourt noticed the fact immediately. As soon as Adebayo, Harcourt, Adrian and Economos arrived in the alternate earth, Harcourt spotted that there were no people of color.

It was a popular theory that had been going around the internet over the last several weeks, but it makes perfect sense. White Dragon, Chris father, a racist scumbag in the DCU, is still racist scumbag, but now… so is everyone.

The reveal of the truth was really well done and I am seriously concerned for Adebayo. Running from a mob of racists chasing her (including Keith) is shocking. It takes a big swing and sets things up for the final couple of episodes.

Economos spilling the beans to Chris’s father was very funny. Seeing Adrian go face to face with himself was also a hoot. I liked how the alternate earth Vigilante is a member of the Sons of Liberty, and now, you’ve got to reexamine everything we had thought about this world before.

Biggest surprise this episode though is easily… Lex Luthor! Rick Flag Sr. going to Luthor to make a deal to help him find the dimensional portal. I was thinking it was going to be Chris’s father, not dead, in the DCU, but when Nicholas Hoult sat down in his orange prison jumpsuit, I literally shouted out loud. I did not expect Superman’s arch enemy to make an appearance on Peacemaker.

There was a great scene between Chris and Harcourt too, as they try to figure out their relationship. Of course, there is only a limited time as this earth’s Emilia showed up demanding that Harcourt was arrested.

This has been great and now that we got this twist, I can’t wait to see where it goes next.

Marvel Zombies E1-4

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I was not excited to see the new animated series from Marvel, Marvel Zombies. I do not hate zombie movies, and the Marvel Zombies in comics is not something that I have seen a lot of. I knew I would be watching eventually, but I was not counting down the days to watch it. In fact, i had forgotten it was on last night.

I can’t tell you how much I loved this four episode series. It felt like one giant movie and the story turned out beautifully.

Kamala Khan, Yelena, Kate Bishop, Ironheart, Shang Chi, Red Guardian, Jimmy Woo and Blade (as an agent of Khonshu) are some of the characters that we spend some time with, but there are a ton of Marvel characters that make appearances here, from Namor to Scarlet Witch to Baron Zemo. It was a fantastic use of the deep roster of characters that Marvel Studios can have.

We do include our What If Zombies cast as Spider-Man, Scott Lang (head with the Dr. Strange cloak) and Black Panther join us as well as we get a resolution of Zombie Thanos which was actually really strong and a great honor to T’Challa.

This is amazingly brutal and violent. There is blood all over the place. There are some epic zombie kills among these Marvel heroes.

I love the twists and the turns. The story is amazing. The ending was supremely awesome… and just as twisted as the story. I love the ambiguity of the end.

Iman Vellani is the lead protagonist and she does an exceptional job as Kamala Khan. She was such a perfect casting for Ms. Marvel.

I loved this. It was well worth the time.

Only Murders in the Building S5 E5

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“Tongue Tied”

Only Murders in the Building continued to build the mystery surrounding the murder of the doorman at the Arconia, and we focused on another aspect this week. Last week it was more about the CEO billionaires, where as we returned to the part including Téa Leoni’s Sofia Caccimelio.

Charles, Oliver and Mabel tried to find info from the employees of the Arconia, which turned out to be just as eccentric as they could be.

Charles is taking testosterone and it is affecting him in hilarious ways. Oliver is considering moving out of the Arconia, and this upset Mabel when she discovered it.

The L.E.S.T.E.R. robot got thrown out of the window, landing in the exact spot where Lester the Doorman was found dead. This came after Oliver tried to bring the staff and the residents together in a building meeting. That was never going to work because… NO SNACKS????

After an encounter with Sofia in her van, Charles lost his cell phone with all of the info on the case. They rushed to follow Sofia, who arrived at the end of the episode at the home of Lorraine, Lester’s widow in a wild twist.

Da’Vine Joy Randolph was back with a little more to do, and I loved her inclusion. It was weird that the twist last week with the billionaires was never mentioned this week, but it was still a fun show.

{Sunday} Friday Morning Sidewalk

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“Jig-A-Bobo”

Yes, I know it is not Sunday. I am going to the SiouxperCon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota this weekend and I will not have access to HBO Max Sunday morning. I did not know what I wanted to do about that. I considered skipping a week and just resuming next Sunday, but instead, I decided to make this one time exception and make it a Friday Morning Sidewalk instead. So this Friday Morning Sidewalk is episode 8 of Lovecraft Country.

In “Jig-A-Bobo”, Lovecraft Country tackled the grief and loss brought about by the real world murder of Emmet Till, lovingly nicknamed Bobo. The show had revealed that Till was best friends with Diana, and his brutal murder struck her hard.

However, in Lovecraft Country style, the grief takes on a whole different manner, supernaturally speaking.

Diana is pursued by some demons that looked like Topsys, the character from Uncle Tom’s Cabin… and they were spooky as hell. Jada Harris does a remarkable job showing Diana’s grief and her fear, both transgressing through.

Then, the ending sequence where the police get their comeuppance is so awesome. The protection spell Atticus and Montrose cast came into being in a different way than any of them anticipated. That monster that just ripped through the cops was utterly crazy. When that one cop went flying through the air, it was damn satisfying.

I’m not sure what the scene where Christina hires someone to attack her just like Emmet Till was meant to show. It really felt like a major weak spot in an otherwise strong episode.

I do like Ruby’s development through this episode. Her face off with Leti, who has her own little interaction with Christina this episode that made her invulnerable, felt like it was way overdue.

The arrival of Ji-ah seemed to be unimportant too. Not sure why she arrived and I am not sure why that was important. Leti’s anger felt misplaced.

Only two more episodes remaining. I hope everyone has a great Sunday morning on a Friday day!

Peacemaker S2 E5

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“Back to the Suture”

What a great episode of Peacemaker. This was my favorite episode of the season so far.

So much awesomeness happened in this episode. This included:

  • Harcourt takes down Chris to save him from being shot.
  • She had sent a message to Chris (secret word) which meant stay away. He ignored it.
  • Rick Flag Sr. shows exactly what his plans for Peacemaker are.
  • Flag Sr. beats the crap out of Chris in an interrogation room. He would have killed him had Economos not posted that Chris had been arrested.
  • I really thought Eagly was killed by that massive gun.
  • How many times does James Gunn have to kill off Michael Rooker?
  • The death of Rooker’s character, Red St. Wild, was about as brutal as I have ever seen.
  • Plus, Eagly dropping that finger at Chris’s feet… with Chris saying “I’m going to pretend that you found that.” LOL
  • Great performance again from John Cena. His depression is a real thing.
  • With Chris going to the alternate universe, I have a feeling that he’s going to find out things aren’t as rosy as he thinks.
  • Harcourt, Economos, Adebayo and Adrian’s plan on following Chris and bringing him back is destined for trouble.
  • The dialogue between Judomaster and Fleury was fantastic. I have grown to like Tim Meadows much more than I did with his first appearance.
  • The whole Prime Eagle thing was weird. I actually rolled my eyes at that. That reveal was the weakest part of the episode, even with the awesome brutal death of St. Wild.

Such a great episode. Even the weaker Eagly storyline, episode 5 was amazing and completely entertaining.

Only Murders in the Building S5 E4

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“Dirty Birds”

This is a great show. What an awesome episode.

The arrival of the three billionaire into the main story was handled so brilliantly. Oliver, Charles and Mabel dropped a promo for the upcoming podcast season hinting at the billionaires were involved in the crime they were investigating.

They dropped it as an attempt to get the attention of Jay Pflug (Logan Lerman).

They had no idea what was going to happen.

All three of the billionaires, Jay, Sebastian “Bash” Steed and Camila White, showed up at Oliver’s apartment for a 7 PM dinner party (that Oliver, Charles and Mabel were not expecting). They broke apart into three separate conversations (which were all hilarious… especially Christoph Waltz).

The billionaires had the final twist to the OMitB crew as they sign a new podcast deal with a podcast group that… are owned by the billionaires. The contract that they signed says they can not do a podcast that hurts the owners of the company. An example of playing chess while Oliver, Charles and Mabel ae playing identifying the bird sounds game.

I love how the story is starting off this season. I laughed out loud multiple times. I had a smile on my face for the whole episode. Christoph Waltz chopping parsley was absolutely hilarious. And Regis!!!!

Sha Na Na S2 E0, E1, E2

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I was on Twitter/X a few days ago and I came across a Tweet by Jon “Bowzer” Bausman stating that the full episodes of the Sha Na Na TV series was going to be available on YouTube soon. I was excited to hear this as this was a big part of my childhood. I loved Sha Na Na and they turned out to be my first ever concert at Five Flags Center in Dubuque.

I have spent years watching musical clips from the show on YouTube and the news about the full episodes was great. I figured I could make this one of my rewatches here at EYG.

I went to YouTube and searched for Sha Na Na series and I found a playlist from pattyoc01, who had been one of the prolific posters of the Sha Na Na clips over the years. The playlist had all of the episodes on it.

I have a feeling this may not have been what Jon Bausman meant when he posted his tweet. I have a suspicion that a more clean and professional version may be coming in the future. However, I was excited to start the rewatch so I dove into the pilot (listed as episode 0) and the first two episodes of the series.

Sha Na Na consisted of the following group members on the show: Bowzer, Johnny, Screamin’ Scott, Santini, Denny, Lennie, Donny, Dirty Dan, Chico, and Jocko.

The musical numbers are far and away the best part of these first three episodes. The comedy on the show was, at best, iffy. Some of it was groan-inducing. I saw another tweet from Bausman stating that he knew the humor of the first season was not the beat, but he felt the following seasons got more clever.

I was always focused on whether they were lip synching the music. I know that they had done, at least for the stage songs, live singing with the instrumental and the back up singing being pre-taped. You could usually tell from the powerhouse vocals of Johnny Contardo. Some of the street songs or comedy sketch bits (such as the Monster Mash bit in the pilot) were clearly being lip synched. It was obvious that Bernadette Peters was not singing live in episode two either. It was not a major issue, but I am more impressed when they let their vocals come through.

A great example of this was in the third episode where five of the group’s best singers, Johnny, Bowzer, Donny, Lennie and Santini sang an a cappella doo wop version of “I Wonder Why.” This was an amazing performance with these five really blending their voices into a fantastic harmony.

Other songs performed in this first three episodes included Blue Moon, Teenager in Love, Yakkety Yak, Tell Laura I Love Her, Rama Lama Ding Dong, Personality, Little Darlin’, and Runaway.

Along with Bernadette Peters in episode two, Rita Moreno and Frank Gorshin guest starred in the other two episodes however whatever Gorshin did seemed to be cut from the episode on YouTube. This is another reason why I think this may not be the collection that Bausman was referring to in his tweet.

I have to say that this is a bizarre series as the show constantly tells you as an audience member that Sha Na Na is terrible. The show puts down their music, their intelligence and everything else. You would think that they shouldn’t be downgrading their stars, even if it is nothing more than a running joke. It is clear that these ten men are remarkably talented (although they may not have been the greatest dancers ever to grace the screen).

Seeing this show once again gives me a huge feeling of nostalgia. I forgot this show when compiling my Top 100 TV Shows list that I am currently counting down with the Daily Countdown on EYG. This should have probably had a spot on that list.

For the first three episodes… Goodnight sweetheart, well it’s time to go…