Category Archives: TV-G[eek]

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #23

Posted on by

June 29

Spoilers

“Raspberry”

“Pickle”

This week we have two episodes of Win or Lose featured the mother-daughter duo of Vanessa and Rochelle. We get two completely different perspectives of Vanessa.

In the eyes of her daughter Rochelle, her mother seems to be self-indulgent person who is only ever on her phone, paying more attention to her followers than she is to her daughter. Because of that, Rochelle had to adopt a much more parent identity than she should have.

However, Vanessa had a much more difficult and responsible life than Rochelle ever expected. It truly gives us the look at a character in two completely different ways.

I really enjoyed how this story came full circle over the two episodes. The show took the story first from Rochelle’s POV and wound up with her in a certain location and then we saw Vanessa’s POV of the same time frame and how they ended up together at the end. It was an outstanding way to show how even two people who love each other can see and react to different things in a different manner, as well as not see the struggles of the other person. In Rochelle’s episode, she saw her mom as very superficial way and Vanessa saw Rochelle in an idolized manner. Both were only partial what they were like.

This series so far has been just tremendously well written and entertaining. It has laughs and the depth of characterization is surprisingly great. We are halfway through the series so far with episodes 5 & 6 next week.

Squid Game Season 3

Posted on by

Spoilers

Squid Game Season Three dropped on Netflix yesterday and I was able to binge it on Saturday and what an emotionally ragged trip this show took us on over the last six episodes of the acclaimed Korean series.

If we are really being truthful, season three of Squid Game really should be considered the second part of season two, as season two left us with a huge cliffhanger and very little to nothing resolved. Season Two Part 2 or Season Three is really semantics, so who cares that much?

Season two had spent a lot of time building the characters participating in the Squid Game up, so we had connections to them and that we cared about them (or despised them, as the case may be). I guess we should have known that they were building up these characters in order to rip our hearts out in the last season… because that is exactly what happened.

Honestly, there were a few characters that I believed would survive this season because I couldn’t believe that the show would be that cold hearted. Unfortunately, the show could be that cold hearted because practically every character that I thought “no way do they kill them off” got killed off.

Seong Gi-hun (played by Lee Jung-jae) was the one I was sure would survive, but the show had a fate for him planned out. He was truly our hero of the show and he showed what an honorable man he actually was. His efforts to save the baby, as well as others along the way, made him the show’s breakout character.

Geum-ja was another character that I thought for sure the show would not kill off, and then she hanged herself, after stabbing her own son to prevent him from killing Kim Jun-hee moments after she had given birth. That round of hide and seek was just horrific and filled with tension and anguish. Hyun-ju was another who I was sure had a great chance of being safe, but she did not make it out of the hide and seek, despite the fact that she found the exit before anyone else. She returned to get Geum-ja and Kim Jun-hee, whom had been together the whole game, only to get killed from behind by Myung-gi, right in front of Jun-hee and his daughter.

The jump rope section was also just rough and showed the worst in the players of this game. In fact, the worst of them kept making it through and the characters that I cared about kept getting killed off. I felt satisfied by the end with the deaths of those rotten players though.

However, the VIPs arrived to watch the games and they all had zero accountability at all. Man, I really wanted those VIPs to pay some kind of price for their cavalier attitude toward the games and their downright cruelty and wickedness. Nope, they see the ending of the games when Seong Gi-hun threw himself off the large pillar to save the baby and the VIPs are just never seen again. I really wanted someone to burst into the room and blast them all with some automatic weapon.

Who would guess that Cate Blanchett would be involved in the recruiting for more Squid Games in the world? She made a cameo as an American recruiter playing ddakji with some guy in an alleyway.

The last ten-fifteen minutes was spent wrapping stories up, giving us some ideas on what the few surviving characters were doing, specifically those secondary characters, such as Seong Gi-hun’s daughter.

This was a rough final season as so many of the characters that we had bonded with are killed rapidly. As I said, I really wanted more of a final ending that does not make me think that the Squid Games could be brought back or continue on as the show outright implied. The VIPs needed some kind of comeuppance for me to feel completely satisfied. The sacrifice made by Seong Gi-hun was beautiful and packed an emotional wallop.

A powerhouse of a series.

Ironheart E1, E2, E3

Posted on by

SPOILERS

Riri Williams returned from her appearance in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever to her own Disney + series. Six episodes total, three debuting this week and then concluding next week.

I find that a strange release schedule. After watching the first three episodes, I think this was interesting enough to spread the release out more than two weeks.

Riri winds up in a heist crew to make money after she was expelled from MIT. The crew was led by Parker Robbins, aka The Hood (Anthony Ramos). The Hood has a magical cape that gives him a variety of powers. Anthony Ramos is awesome and brought some serious chops to the show. He was especially great in episode three.

Where did he get this magical cape/hood? In the comics, this is tied to Mephisto, but will he actually make his long awaited appearance in the MCU? It seemed for sure that Mephisto was involved in WandaVision, but never arrived. There have been rumors that Mephisto would be showing up in this series, but, again with all the rumors during WandaVision, I’ll need to see Mephisto before I believe it. Mephisto was named dropped in Agatha All Along so I guess we’ll see.

Dominique Thorne is really great as Riri. The show is giving us an intriguing relationship between Riri and her AI N.A.T.A.L.I.E., based on her best friend who died in a violent shootout along with Riri’s step dad, Gary. There are questions about the AI but I really enjoyed this dynamic between these actresses. Lyric Ross played Natalie.

Alden Ehrenreich was great too as Joe McGillicuddy, who is revealed in episode three as being the son of Obadiah Stane, aka Iron Monger from the first MCU movie, Iron Man. I liked this little twist (and it was funny to have Stane’s ashes in a Ziplock bag in Joe’s kitchen).

These episodes were quite long, in comparison to some other MCU Disney + shows. Episode three was 50+ minutes long. I like that a lot more than those short 30-35 minute shows.

I liked what I saw so far. I expect next week to bring the goods even more as each episode got a little bit better this week. Episode three was definitely the strongest so far.

Duster S1 E6

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Встречают по одёжке (Meet by the Clothes)”

Duster has started each episode with the old flashforward cold open, setting up something that will eventually happen in the episode. Some have been more interesting than others. This one was excellent.

Bringing up “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” set the tone for the scene extremely well and highlighted the characterization of Jim and Nina perfectly.

The scene where Jim, Nina, Ezra, Royce and Billy meet with the Russians was a tense scene. It really showed the cleverness of both Nina and Jimmy. Jimmy stepping in to cover for Royce who was having a reaction to his heart medication and the vodka was utter genius. Josh Holloway does a sensational job delivering the improvisation to the Russians in a huge spot.

The firefight afterwards was also cool, although it may not have been as improbable as they made it out in the first scene.

I am not sure there will be enough time for all the dangling stories that are available making me think that several of these plot holes will not be finished in season one.

The X-Files S10 E3

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster”

My memory was that I was not a fan of this episode when I saw it for the first time in 2016. However, this rewatch was a totally different opinion. I found this to be extremely funny and very cleverly done.

This worked much like the previous comedic episodes such as “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” and “Bad Blood.” Mulder, doubting his beliefs in the previous monsters, was hilarious in his depressive responses to the different monsters he had investigated as an X-File.

Rhys Darby does a fantastic job as Guy Mann, the horned lizard who had been bitten by a man and finds himself transformed into a man. The episode made it look like Guy Mann was the monster killing people, but, instead, it was Kumail Nanjiani.

There were a ton of easter eggs too. My favorite line was from Scully who said, after Mulder chastised her for approaching a dangerous suspect without backup, “You forget… I’m immortal.” This was a great reference back to “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” when Clyde Bruckman, who was a psychic who could see how someone dies, told Scully that she did not die. Scully also alluded to her dog Queequeg, who died in the episode “Quagmire.” Also from “Quagmire,” the stoner characters returned, played by Tyler Labine and Nicole Parker-Smith.

This episode is a parody of the “monsters-of-the-week” style of X-Files episode that have been peppered through the first nine seasons. This falls right in with the classic comedic episodes that this show has shown is capable of providing.

The X-Files S10 E2

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Founder’s Mutation”

This episode had some undercurrents that struck hard for Mulder and Scully. The investigation they were working brought them both to picture moments with their son, William, that they were unable to experience, and each of the daydream ended with a tragic circumstance that seeded the questions that they had about their son.

The scenes with David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson and the young boy playing William were very sad and poignant. Moments where normal parents have with their child that were denied to Mulder and Scully.

These scenes helped to give us hope that at some point our heroes will be reunited with their son. We know that William was sent away by Scully to protect him and we could see the pain that the decision brought to both of them, even though they understood that she did what she had to do.

The episode also brought us a pair of telepaths, Kyle and Molly, were were siblings that had been separated. The reunion between them became dangerous as Kyle popped the eyeballs of the doctor responsible for the separation. Mental powers are the most dangerous ones around and their exhibit of their abilities proved that they were formidable. Honestly, though seeing Mulder thrown across the floor was kind of humorous and not the greatest stunt I have ever seen.

The connection between Mulder and Scully was strong and this episode did a great job of showing that connection.

Poker Face S2 E9

Posted on by

Spoilers

“A New Lease on Death”

Awkwafina gets killed this week in Poker Face and Charlie has got to figure out what happened.

With Charlie’s truth detector, she is quite the handful for the criminals or con people of the world. In this case, we have Alia Shawkat, playing con woman Kate, who is trying to get married to Awkwafina’s grandma to get her hands on a rent controlled apartment in New York. Kate was definitely sinister, but even her slimy tactics were no match for Charlie.

Charlie setting up a trap for Kate to capture her on film being the heartless monster that she was. I love when Charlie out smarts the villain. This was a perfect example of her being ahead of everybody.

Charlie is also very kind and is a people person. She makes friends very easily, even if it does seem that death will follow her around.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #22

Posted on by

Spoilers

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

Posted on by

Spoilers

“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

Posted on by

Spoilers

“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

Posted on by

Spoilers

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

Posted on by

Spoilers

“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

Posted on by

Spoilers

“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.