Category Archives: TV-G[eek]

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #22

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Win or Lose

“Coach’s Kid”

“Blue”

The Sunday Morning Sidewalk starts its third series today. I have watched Band of Brothers and The Sandman so far and this week, the new show is on Disney + and is from Pixar. It is called Win or Lose.

This sets a precedent for Sunday Morning Sidewalk because this is the first time that I will be watching two episodes a week. I had looked at the run time on the episodes and they were all right in that 22 minute sweet spot, so I decided that I would do two a week.

I am very happy about that because the first episode was so good that I really wanted to watch a second one no matter the time.

The show’s concept is that every episode will center around a softball championship game and the lead up to it. Then, with each episode, we will see the perspective from a different character leading to the same point. First episode focuses on Laurie, the daughter of the coach of the Pickles, who is terrible at softball, but she desperately wants to do well. Second episode looks at the umpire of the game, a low self-imaged teacher named Mr. Brown.

I love this concept. What a wonderful idea for an 8-episode series and this show has some awesome Pixar magic throughout. In the first episode, Laurie has a little creature on her shoulder that was born from her self-doubt and who just kept growing as the week leading up to the championship game happened. Kind of an Inside Out-style creature that fed into Laurie’s doubts and anxiety.

Poor Mr. Brown. I related to this guy because it showed him as a teacher. The scene of the overbearing mother trying to prevent a punishment for her cheating daughter, well to say that I understand is an understatement. The magical armor that appears around Mr. Brown to deflect the slings and arrows of criticism and negative comments also keeps him isolated and lonely.

The animation is great. I mean, it is Pixar. That is kind of expected. I had no idea that this short little series on Disney + would be as poignant as it seems to be. I am excited to see who the next characters we focus on next week.

The X-Files S10 E1

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“My Struggle”

Debuting on January 24, 2016, a whole fourteen years after the end of season nine, The X-Files returned to FOX for a condensed six episode event season. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson reunited as Fox Mulder and Dana Scully for the series that kicked off with yet another massive government alien conspiracy.

As I stated last time, that blasted Cigarette Smoking Man is alive and showed up at the end of this episode, receiving news that the X-Files have been reopened.

Joel McHale appeared on the new show as Tad O’Malley, a right-wing conspiracy online host who pulled in Mulder and Scully to share with them the conspiracy that he believed he had uncovered.

There were hints dropped through the episode that gave us background behind the current state or lack thereof for the relationship between Mulder and Scully.

The biggest issue I had with the episode was the amount of monologues detailing information that the episode had. It was a gigantic exposition dump, which was meant to not only review much of what the show had already investigated, but also setting up the ideas for moving forward. Honestly, much of the episode felt similar to a path that the show had taken in a previous season.

Still, it is great to have Mulder and Scully back together. I still would like CSM to be dead, and stay dead, but what can I do. He does make a really compelling antagonist.

Duster s1 E5

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“Ravishing Light and Glory”

It is the Fourth of July on Duster and we have two separate storylines that are coming together well.

Jim has been fired for losing the Hughes car last week, so he go to see Saxton’s daughter Genesis. He discovered that her girlfriend is being forced into marriage by her criminal father for business purposes. Seeing a chance to get back into good graces of Saxton, Jim takes Genesis to help bust up the wedding.

Sadly, this comes at the cost of spending the 4th with Luna and giving David a chance to be the hero.

Meanwhile, Nina wants to go undercover inside Saxton’s organization as a Russian interpreter. She needs help to get an in with Saxton. When Jim tells her that he got canned, she decides that Jim’s father Wade is the way in.

The scene between Jim and Wade where Jim tells him his suspicions that Saxton had put the hit out on Joey is a good scene. Both men showed their level of pain at the potential betrayal, even if neither of them wanted to accept it.

There are scenes in Washington D.C., including a wild Richard Nixon appearance. There are a lot of things going on here and the last three episodes could be amazing.

The X-Files S9 E17, E18, E19, E20

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The final season of The X-Files in its original run was season nine. The show returned for two shortened seasons after that, but this was the final four episodes of The X-Files

“Release”

The show is clearly beginning to wrap things up for the original run and one of the dangling mysteries of the last few years was what had actually happened to Agent Doggett’s son. Well, this episode provided some closure to that story as we get the man who had killed him and the reason why the boy was killed. The only piece of the story that was left dangling was the fate of Brad Follmer, as played by Cary Elwes. We learn that Brad has been taking money from the mob and he wound up shooting the actual killer at the end. We never see Elwes again in the series so it is unclear what exactly happened to him.

“Sunshine Days”

Here’s the story, of a lovely lady, who was bringing up three very lovely girls…..

Yeah, this was a weird episode. Of course, Ben Linus was here. That always throws me off somewhat. Michael Emerson is an awesome actor, but he will always be Ben Linus to me. Then, the fascination with the Brady Bunch was a strange choice, right down to naming Emerson’s character Oliver Martin, in reference to Cousin Oliver.

The overall story of this episode was flat and I did not find it very compelling. I did like seeing Ben Linus again.

“The Truth Part 1 and Part 2”

This was the two part series finale, again of the original run of X-Files episodes and saw the return of David Duchovny as Fox Mulder. Duchovny had been gone the entire season and had agreed to return for this final wrap up.

The military had decided to put Mulder on trial for the murder of Knowle Rohrer, the “super soldier” who had been running around, surviving death several times over the last few seasons of the show. Of course, this was all part of the government conspiracy that the show had been investigating for the last nine seasons.

The military trial of Mulder was a sham, of course, as one of the men who sat in judgment was one of the aliens, The Toothpick Man (Alan Dale, also a LOST alum, playing Charles Widmore). These two episodes featured the return of multiple characters from the nine years, including  Marita Covarrubias (Laurie Holden), Gibson Praise (Jeff Gulka) and Jeffrey Spender (Chris Owens), all of whom testified in the trial. We also had a group of ghosts appear to Mulder in visions such as Alex Krycek (Nicholas Lea) and X (Steven Williams) as well as the Lone Gunmen.

Of course, the final return was that of the “Wise Man” who Mulder and Scully go to for answers at the end, and it turned out to be the Cigarette Smoking Man (William B. Davis) himself. Seeing that rotten bastard again did not make things great and neither did seeing him burned to death as I know he returned in the later seasons of the show. I have no idea how he survived this time, but seeing him alive really was a smack to the face.

They dropped a date: December 22, 2012, which is supposedly the date of the alien invasion.

I do not know what was to become of Doggett and Reyes as they drove off into the distance. Reyes has never won my favor in this series, but her final repose after testifying just about won me over. Another plot line that was never dealt with was the supposed feelings that Doggett had for Reyes. A few episodes again, there was a huge deal about how much they loved each other, but it was never mentioned again.

Deputy Director Alvin Kersh was also a bizarre character, as he seemed to be leading the trial against Mulder, going as far as suppressing evidence that proved Mulder innocent. Kersh looked to be fully opposed t Mulder, though he does help Mulder and Scully escape from captivity when Skinner and Doggett break him out. This is yet another character that is unclear of his motives and weakens the story.

Mulder and Scully end up together, snuggling on a bed somewhere, still holding out hope.

I am not sure how I feel about the conclusion of the show. This finale did not really wrap anything up and only served to leave plenty of things dangling or unanswered. Every question does not have to be answered in a finale for me, but it felt as if they brought up a major storyline in the last episode. I know it is dealt with in the future episodes, but we did not know that at the time.

Season ten only has six episodes to it and it will be next.

Poker Face S2 E8

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“The Sleazy Georgian”

I loved this episode. I loved it because it was different than any other Poker Face episode. It started out as always, showing the crime before Charlie gets involved. This crime is a money drop gone wrong, with Shauna from Yellowjackets involved with John Cho. It seemed as if the whole thing was going down in a bad way with a couple of dead bodies.

It was pretty clear that there was some con going on, but I thought that it might have been a con gone wrong and that John Cho, who was playing a man named Guy, had actually bit the big one.

However, we go to Charlie meeting Guy in a hotel bar at breakfast time, just like Shauna did. In every other Poker Face episodes ever, this would be before the crime we see in the cold open, but this time, it was after. Guy was trying to set up Charlie for the con, and, of course, failing miserably because of her lie detector skill.

Guy introduced Charlie to his crew and they all kind of bonded… to a point where they wanted to have Charlie join them in a con. She wanted to think about it.

When she came back the next day, she had discovered that Shauna (Ok, not Shauna… Melanie Lynskey, who plays Shauna is playing Regina in this episode) had killed herself after the con.

In an attempt to get the money Regina had lost (which came from an orphan fund) back, Charlie agreed to join the con.

At this point, the show flipped things around again and I really liked the results. I have to say, I really thought this was Guy trying to prove that he could get away with lying to Charlie. That was not it.

I love the fact that Charlie is shown to be smarter than anyone else, even if she does not seem to be. She has so much common sense and does not just rely on her ability to tell when someone is lying. She set up a con to con the con, and got him in the end. The character of Charlie is also so original and unlikely looking of a protagonist who gets by with her smarts. I love how she is really not your typical hero.

This was a lot of fun and I thought the fact that they broke the format even more than ever before was an awesome thing.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #21

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“Dream of a Thousand Cats”; “Calliope”

The second round of Sunday Morning Sidewalk came to an end this morning with the final episode of season one on Netflix. It looks like there will be a second season of the show, despite the word of cancellations over the issues Neil Gaiman has had. Either way, the Sunday Morning Sidewalk comes to the end.

Last week’s episode sure felt like a finale, and when I saw this episode, it makes it even more so. This week, there are two separate stories in the hour of the show that are completely separate from almost everything that happened in that first season.

It started out with an animated section called “Dream of a Thousand Cats” and it brings all the cats in a certain area to come and hear the message of a Siamese cat whose story tells of different time of cats and humans.

The animation was great and it really kind of reminded me of a couple of comic books that I have purchased the last couple of year. One was called Feral and the other Animal Pound. Both of these comics are told from the POV of animals, in many cases specifically cats, in their voices.

“Calliope” is the second part of the episode and it is live action. It has a minor connection to the season as they mentioned how Morpheus had been captured, connecting it to the way that Calliope, a muse, was bonded to humans. Specially humans who are trying to write books.

I wonder if these were also based on a comic issue because it does feel as if it could have been one of those filler issues that turn out so good.

With this episode, The Sandman ends and requires that there will be a new Sunday Morning Sidewalk show next week. So far, we have done HBO’s Band of Brothers and Netflix’s The Sandman. Starting next Sunday, I will be doing Pixar’s Win or Lose on Disney +. These episodes are shorter, so I am doing two episodes a week.

The X-Files S9 E12, E13, E14, E15, E16

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I watched a series of X-Files episodes during the ninth season this afternoon. I’m hoping to wrap up the rewatch of the X-Files this summer, and this was a big step in that direction.

“Underneath”

I found this episode was similar to many other episodes this season. I realized this watching this episode. This season, Doggett, Reyes and Scully rarely actually investigated an X-Files. The cases that they were investigating coincidentally become X-Files, but they were not brought in because of their expertise in the X-Files. This episode did have a neat story about a serial killer who had a different personality.

“Improbable”

And as soon as I was coming up with my theory about cases not being X-Files, episode 13 had Scully come into the X-Files office and Monica laid out the case on the overhead projector just like Mulder used to do. Burt Reynolds guest starred in this episode as, I guess, God. I found this to be a silly episode involving some numerology. This serial killer was killing people based on this numerology, though that was never really explained.

“Scary Monsters”

I think this was my favorite of the run of episodes, although there were plenty of weirdness and silliness here too. A boy who can project some kind of images, making people believe they were seeing or feeling things that they were not. Agent Leyla Harrison returned from an episode from a previous season trying to recruit Scully first and then Doggett and Reyes to look at a case that she claimed was an X-File. Scully’s end of the case was particularly enjoyable as she was given the comedic aspects of the episode, including an autopsy that she wound up performing on a cat. There were a bunch of allusions made by Agent Harrison to previous X-Files episodes, which were fun little tidbits.

“Jump the Shark”

This felt like a final wrap up of the Lone Gunmen spin-off series that lasted 13-episodes on FOX. The show brought back former Man in Black, Morris Fletcher, played by Michael McKeon, from episode “Dreamland” from season six. This led to the Lone Gunmen sacrificing their lives to prevent a release of a virus. I remember being shocked and angry when the Lone Gunmen died in this episode.

I do hate the term “Jump the Shark” which this episode was named after. The term is based after a Happy Days episode where the Fonz legitimately jumped a shark on water skis. The term has come to mean when a TV show has peaked and is in decline. The reason I hated the term was that people started to use it any time that they did not like something that was on a show. It was one of the first comments that would lead to such a negative discourse on the internet.

If this would be the end of the Lone Gunman, there should have been more Scully in the episode. She only had a small bit at the funeral at the end. She said how important they were to her, and I would have liked to have seen more of that during this episode.

“William”

This episode was directed by David Duchovny and dealt with the baby of Scully, William. There was a burnt man who was captured and Doggett believed that this was Mulder. The show made it seem like this burnt man was Mulder, but Scully never believed that was the truth. It turned out that it was Jeffrey Spender, Mulder’s half-brother and the son of Cigarette Smoking Man who was supposedly killed by CSM. That was a good twist. It was all about getting to William and make him human. That was a bizarre storyline element that did not make much sense.

However, I do think that the idea that Scully put William up for adoption to keep him safe from the aliens and anyone else makes a lot of sense and it put a period on the William story for now. I know William returns later in the newer seasons, but this worked well for this season.

The X-Files S9 E11

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“Audrey Pauley”

This was a strange episode.

Monica gets involved in a car crash where a drunk driver hit her and she is taken t the hospital. There it appears that she is brain dead, though her body is still functioning. John refuses to accept the evidence before his eyes, despite the fact that everyone, including Scully, does not believe him. Monica is actually in a deserted hospital and she can only see a few other people there.

One of the people in the mysterious hospital was named Audrey and she was able to be in both the mysterious hospital and the real world. Turned out that she somehow created the mysterious hospital (along with a tiny dollhouse type of hospital) in her mind, I guess. The form this takes is not overly clear, nor how or why she was able to do this.

Another issue was the doctor, played by Jack Blessing, who was known as Mr. MacGillicuddy on Moonlighting, was poisoning patients and putting them into these brain dead situations to… I don’t know… help them die after that? MacGillicuddy’s motives were not explored too deeply. However, he did kill off a nurse who saw him give a shot that was not on the charts, and, eventually, Audrey. I don’t know why MacGillicuddy took such a dark turn after Moonlighting went off the air. Heck, if I remember Moonlighting, I think MacGillicuddy died in the last episode. Maybe he was in this mysterious hospital then.

I’m kidding of course. There is just so much unexplained, even for an X-Files episode, that I had some trouble buying it. It also does not help that Monica is one of my least favorite characters on the show. I was impressed with Robert Patrick’s performance. He brought some solid work grieving the woman that he loved.

Admittedly, the love Doggett felt for Monica seemed to be fast tracked here. I got some implication that they had feelings for one another, but nothing to this extent until this episode. Still, I can let that slide. I do have an issue with Doggett not telling Scully what he thought was happening. He said once that Scully would think he was crazy… but he should know by now that Scully always listened to crazy theories and never outright dismissed them. You would think that John would know that by now.

Overall, there were some interesting ideas here, and some solid to great performances. There are just too many things lacking in my opinion for this to be anything but a mid episode.

Duster S1 E4

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“Criminalus Velocitus Super-Sonicus”

Duster kicked off the episode with Jim picturing himself in a Looney Tunes cartoon, specifically the Road Runner cartoons.

No… really.

Jim was worried that he was being pursued by an assassin, and it translated perfectly into the world of Looney Tunes.

Meanwhile, Nina and Awan head into Navajo country, something that would hit close to home for Awan.

Duster also seems to have a thing for special items. Last week it was Elvis’s blue suede shoes. This week it is Howard Hughes’s car.

That car ends up being a huge piece in a confrontation between Jim and the assassin sent after him as Jim continues to show his creativity and his charm in dealing with people.

Of course, he has lost Hughes’s car and now has to go back to his boss with only an explanation.

Poker Face S2 E7

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“One Last Job”

I felt bad for Charlie here. She met a man who was the manager of a  SuperSave big-box store (played by Corey Hawkins), but he ends up being the dead body.

This episode took a bunch of film genres and crammed them together. It was a rom-com, a heist movie, an action/adventure and maybe some thriller.

There were also a bunch of allusions from movies in this episode. They referred to the “Die Hard is a Christmas movie” argument, a couple different things from Mission: Impossible, Weekend at Bernie’s, and even It’s a Wonderful Life.

This episode felt a tad rushed, as Charlie gets our bad guy (though not a real bad guy… more of a guy who got in over his head) quickly. Everything was just so fun, and helped us understand that, no matter how much we would like it to be, real life is not like the movies.

Even though it felt rushed, I enjoyed this episode very much. It once again played with the format. Last week and this week’s both were directed by Alan Arkin and he seems to have a cool idea for this show.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #20

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“Lost Hearts”

I may be wrong, but I believe this episode of The Sandman was designed as the season finale, and the eleventh episode was a surprise. “Lost Hearts” brought to an end the storyline of the Corinthian and and the Vortex, Rose Walker.

I have to say, the conclusion of these arcs and what felt like a season finale was extremely satisfying. I was very pleased with the end for Rose Walker, as she was able to live after Unity came to her and had her give away the Vortex. It seemed as if Unity was fated to be the Vortex but it happened during Morpheus’s imprisonment and so it passed along to offspring. This was a solid way to save a character that we had come to connect with over the last several episodes.

The Corinthian did go out with little fanfare. Gilbert’s return was great as he came to talk with Rose and Morpheus. The reveal that Fiddler’s Green was a place seemed to make perfect sense.

The tense showdown with Morpheus and Desire hinted at what could have been part of the future of the series, as did the final tag with Lucifer and Lord Azazel in Hell. Lord Azazel sure looked like a group of Venom symbiotes inside a body frame. It was not the best depiction of that character.

My favorite scene was Morpheus recreating Gault as a dream instead of a nightmare and how he now looked upon Lucienne in a different light. I have been critical of the character of Morpheus this season because it felt as if he was anything but the hero of this story. I like the fact that it seemed as if he had some growth too.

One more episode of the Netflix show remaining.

The X-Files S9 E10

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“Providence”

This is the second part of the previous episode that focused on the mysterious group who was after Scully’s son, William.

The whole William storyline is the same type of weirdness that the X-Files has done over the years. I am not sure exactly what is accurate and what is just a red herring. It reminds me very much like the mystery behind Mulder’s sister, Samantha. You were never quite sure what was the truth and what was misdirection.

We do learn that Toothpick Man is a super soldier and his inner influence within the FBI makes him the new Cigarette Smoking Man. Again, I think of old CSM every time Toothpick Man shows up.

Agent Doggett is like a cat. He has to be on his sixth or seventh life by now. He just keeps coming back after near death time and again. Monica is by his side, but I still just could not care less about her at all.

Of course, Mulder is much like that too. He was dead, and now he is believed to be not dead. Cult leader Josepho told Scully that he would let her see William again when she confirmed Mulder’s death. He asked for her to bring him the head of Fox Mulder. How’d that turn out for ya, buddy? His threats felt fairly empty, especially after he and all the cult members wound up burned to death by the ship as it took off. William survived though, speaking even more to the destiny of this boy.