Category Archives: TV-G[eek]

Poker Face S2 E4

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“The Taste of Human Blood”

Killer alligator!!!

I am not a fan. So this week’s Poker Face hit me in a different manner.

The best line of the episode was “This is Florida.” 100% accurate.

Charlie finds herself at a cop convention where a jealous officer, Fran (Gaby Hoffmann), who was tired of losing the cop of the year award to Gator Joe (Kumail Nanjiani), wanted to embarrass him at the awards. Unfortunately, her attempt led to his death.

So to cover up the inadvertent murder, Fran gave Daisy, Gator Joe’s pet alligator, meth and had her eat her owner up.

Like I said… killer alligator.

Of course, Charlie was able to help the, technically, innocent gator from the trigger happy cops at the convention who kept claiming that Daisy had to die because she had the taste of human blood.

Weird episode. Fit right in with Florida.

The Studio S1 E9

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“Cinemacon”

The Studio is on its way to Cinemacon to present a high stakes presentation for their slate of movies coming in that year. Matt and crew were extremely confident that the movies they had for Continental were amazing and that they were going to dominate Cinemacon.

So Matt threw an “Old-School” Hollywood party.

Mistake #1.

It was a dream of his to throw a party like this… it represented to him that he had made it. However, a miscommunication with his mushroom dealer lead to him having chocolates with a massive amount of ‘shrooms in them.

This sent the entire party into chaos just as Matt found out that Amazon was in negotiations to purchase Continental Studios out from under them.

Bryan Cranston reprised his role as studio CEO Griffin Mill, who was totally stoned after eating way too many drugs.

As always, there are plenty of cameos in The Studio. In this one, Dave Franco is here in full party-boy motif while Zoë Kravitz unsuspectingly consumed too many of the spiked chocolates. Rhea Perlman was here too as Matt’s mother.

Watching the crew run around the hotel, avoiding the entertainment reporters (such as Matt Belloni) while trying to keep their people from ruining the presentation was hilarious.

The episode ended with a TO BE CONTINUED message, which will lead to the finale(?) next week entitled “The Presentation.” This has been hectic and chaotic and really funny.

Andor S2 E10, E11, E12

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I wondered how this series would close, considering it is basically a prequel to the movie Rogue One. Little did I know that there was a twist coming.

At the very end of the show, we see Bix on the planet Mina-Rau holding a baby.

This piece of information was such a shock as it recontextualizes the entire Bix/Cassian story and their final meeting is given an entirely new perspective.

While this gives hope for the legacy of Andor, it adds even more to the tragic nature of Rogue One. Not only does Cassian Andor die during the film, he dies without the knowledge that he was a father.

I am pleased that Bix did not get killed off in this series, because there were definitely questions about why she had never appeared in Rogue One. Her survival and subsequent mothering of this baby was an exceptional end for the series as our characters head off towards Rogue One.

The death of Luthen was not unexpected, but that it came in episode 10 was a bit of a surprise. Taking his own life as a way of preventing the Empire from torturing him for information seemed to be the exact manner in which he would die, even though it took more than his own knife to get the final job done. Stellan Skarsgård has been outstanding from day one as the mastermind/puppet master of the rebellion.

Cassian Andor is one of my favorite Star Wars characters and I wish there was more to his story. Andor showed how good a Star Wars TV show could be and how it could be directed to adults as well.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #17

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“The Doll’s House”

This felt like a heavy set-up episode for the next arc of the show. Very little Morpheus and a lot of info on other characters, such as Rose Walker, the Vortex.

We also get more on the Corinthian as he is wooed by a group of “collectors” for a convention of sorts.

Matthew is sent to observe and report on Rose and her family. Her brother Jed is missing and they can not even find him in the Dreaming.

Another piece of info dropped here was the still missing entities: Gault the shapeshifter, The Corinthian and the supposedly reliable Fiddler’s Green.

Stephen Fry showed up to aid Rose in an alleyway, as she was about to be mugged. As we learned, though, she did not really need his help.

I struggled through this episode as I was not connected to much of the story. I did find it fascinating as Rose strolled confidently up to Morpheus in the Dreaming to ask him about her brother’s whereabouts. I am sure things will pick up again as we move toward the final 4 episodes of this show.

Doctor Who S2 E6

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“The Interstellar Song Contest”

We are just a week away from the May 24, 2025 date that has been causing trouble for The Doctor and Belinda this entire season. In the latest episode of the show, we learn (from a hologram of Graham Norton, of all things) that May 24, 2025 is the day that the earth is destroyed.

We saw a side to the Doctor that we have never seen before. Ice inside his heart… causing him to be vindictive toward Kid, our antagonist of this episode whose plan would see the deaths of 3 trillion people across the universe. While one could understand the anger directed toward such a terrorist, hearing those vicious words of violence and vengeance come out of the Doctor’s mouth was difficult to hear.

It shook Belinda as she heard him make his threats. It scared her and it scared the Doctor too.

There are some really fun moments in this episode, including a creative use of a confetti canon as well as two extraordinary skilled men in Gary and Mike.

Hey there Mrs. Flood, what’s up……????? Um, are you Bi-generating? Are there two of you now? “The definite article, you might say.” I guess she is coming for The Doctor now.

Was that Susan? The Doctor’s long missing, long mentioned granddaughter? Will she play a role in what is to come? I expect so.

We are heading into the two-part finale coming up of season two. I will say this every week, but I absolutely love Ncuti Gatwa as The Doctor.

Poker Face S2 E2, E3

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“Last Looks”

“Whack-A-Mole”

I finished the next two episodes of Poker Face that were available on Peacock tonight. The next episode is released on Thursday.

I commented in the last write-up that I was hoping the running gag of the mafia hitmen chasing after Charlie was not going to be a long time storyline because it felt as if it was going to get old very quickly. Thankfully, that situation came true.

In the second of the two episodes, the whole mafia angle got wrapped up and resolved via a bit of a messy story featuring Rhea Perlman as one of the mafia heads who had placed the contract on Charlie’s head.

This episode also featured a list of guest stars, including Simon Helberg, John Mulaney, Chris Bauer, and Richard Kind.

Then, episode two featured Katie Holmes and the one and only Giancarlo Esposito. Esposito played a funeral parlor owner who had let a film crew film in his parlor. He wound up killing Katie Holmes (who played his disgruntled wife) and cremated her.

Charlie was able figure things out, but wound up being prepped for the crematorium herself.

That episode ended in a very tragic manner for Giancarlo Esposito.

I love the fact that Charlie is no longer on the run from the mob because it did not feel like something that I was going to enjoy. Now with that out of the way, I feel as if Poker Face can really take off this season.

Poker Face S2 E1

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“The Game is a Foot”

Peacock’s hit comedy/mystery show Poker Face starring Natasha Lyonne returned to the streamer recently with all new episodes. The first episode had guest star Cynthia Erivo appearing in five, count them, five different roles as she played quintuplets.

The whole story actually confused me for quite a while. I must have not paid enough attention at the very beginning when the crime was being set up because I struggled to understand what was happening. I got it eventually, and that helped the story.

It was a real convoluted tryst as one of the quintuplets killed and tried to replace the one of the quintuplets that had been long lost. The long lost quintuplet was getting the full inheritance and it was a big scam.

Charlie Cale (Lyonne) met up with one and stuck her lie-detecting nose into the situation, confused by what was going on. She did not understand why the lies were coming.

Natasha Lyonne is excellent in this role and she makes the show a lot of fun.

Of course, Charlie is on the run from the mob from the end of the first season and she apparently is being pursued by a pair of hitmen who are worse shots than the Stormtroopers in Star Wars. The running joke of these buffoons shooting at Charlie as she runs away happened several times at the beginning and the end of the episode. It was funny at first, but I hope that is not a continual joke over the season.

There are two more episodes available currently and then regular episodes drop on Thursdays.

The Last of Us S2 E5

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“Feel Her Love”

Another strong episode of the video game adaptation on MAX. The Last of Us gave us the brutality of Ellie as well as seeing the group who were called the Scars and how horrendous they are.

Jesse made his way to Seattle (apparently with Tommy, though we haven’t seen him yet) and came in clutch as Ellie was about to be ripped apart by the Stalkers, the intelligent infected. Ellie and Dina were making their way to the hospital, and their trip through the big warehouse led them to these smart infected. Dina was able to lock herself inside a cage and Ellie was nearly killed, but Jesse arrived at the perfect time.

Of course, Jesse was pissed at them for leaving Jackson, and they had to run to escape the Wolves. They ran into the forest where they came across the Scars, also know as the Seraphites. They watched them hang a man and disembowel him, as Ellie and Dina had come across earlier. Dina gets an arrow in her leg and Jesse takes her while Ellie distracts the Seraphites.

Ellie winds up in the hospital and she comes across Nora, who had been the one to hold Ellie down while Abby killed Joel. Ellie chased Nora through the hospital and into an elevator shaft. They wound up in a basement area where Ellie sees a group of people connected to the plants, breathing spores. Nora was infected from the spores but Nora realizes that Ellie is the rumored girl who was immune.

Nora asked Ellie if she knew what Joel had done and then proceeded to tell her the things he had done. Ellie said that she knew.

Ellie took it even further as she was beating Nora with a weapon, trying to get her to tell her where Abby was.

The episode ends with Ellie waking up and Joel walking in to see how she was. HUH?

That was an unexpected moment. I always thought that Joel would be back in some kind of flashback sooner rather than later, but this was the weirdest placement for such a moment. There are a bunch of questions from this show and I can’t wait to see what the answers are.

The X-Files S9 E6

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“Trust No 1”

Hey, it’s John Locke!

I do not think I will ever be able to see Terry O’Quinn in a project without connecting him to LOST. So when he appeared in The X-Files as the Shadow Man, it hit me differently than it was intended.

The whole story was about Mulder with Shadow Man trying to convince Scully to bring Mulder back. He claimed that he would give Mulder, and only Mulder, the names of the super soldiers, but, of course, that was never going to happen. The episode title is Trust No 1. That was not just Mulder’s email.

Doggett and Monica were pushed to the side for this episode as Scully came to the forefront of the show. I did find her emails with Mulder to be strange considering we have not had much language such as this between them.

I do think that there were some interesting ideas here, specifically how Shadow Man knows everything that he does. The concept of electronic surveillance should have been the basis behind this.

We do learn about something that can destroy the super soldiers cause poor Locke gets got here sort of randomly.

The episode felt like it was strange, but it is always great to have Gillian Anderson to the head of the show.

Andor S2 E7, E8, E9

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If I am being truthful, I have only liked Andor some over the last season and a half. I recognized how solid the show was and how great the characters and the acting was, but it just never quite fully grabbed my attention as I viewed it.

That all changed with episodes seven, eight and nine.

In particular episode eight, I have never been as enthralled and engaged in this show as I was with these episodes.

The slaughter at Ghorman was as thrilling and tragic of an episode of television as I have seen in quite a while. Placing all of the characters that we have been connected to over the show’s run created such a dynamic that snatched the attention and caused me to worry about all of them.

The slaughter on Ghorman led to so many things, including the end of the story for Syril and the origin of K2SO.

The speech and subsequent escape from the Senate by Mon Mothra was just as intense, seeing Mon and Cass running through the hallways in an attempt to avoid capture was great.

I do believe that episode 8 is one of the best episode of TV this year so far. It will probably be what this show will be remembered for when the show is done.

How can Andor be so good when other Star Wars TV shows are just not nearly as well done?

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #16

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“The Sound of Her Wings”

This was an interesting episode that could be seen as two parts surrounding a common theme. That theme is Death and the preparation for it.

The first half is Morpheus following his sister, Death around while she approached those who were about or pass to the other side. He sees Death interacting with the humans that she was meeting and how she made them feel comfortable with the unhappy news.

After Death leaves, we move back to 1389 where we see Morpheus and Death once again at a pub. They overhear a man making a boast that he would never die. Death decided to grant his wish and Morpheus talks to the man, Hob Gadling, telling him he would return to this pub in 100 years to speak to him again.

Obviously, the man did not buy the comment at first. Morpheus expected the man to beg for death after awhile. Every year, fate had found Hob in a different circumstance, but always happy to be alive.

The episode showed Morpheus learning lessons from both opposite characters. Both Death and Hob helped create a fascinating episode and all the mini-stories they encountered were well done.

This feels like a middle episode before the next big struggle, which seems to be Morpheus’s other siblings, Desire and Despair, the twins. Still, I like a good transition episode and this is certainly that.

Doctor Who S2 E5

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“The Story and the Engine”

I think this season of Doctor Who has been just exceptional. Every episode has been enjoyable and had its own brand of originality and creativity. This week, The Doctor goes to Africa for a story about stories.

Based inside a barber shop, the story was incredibly clever. The use of the barber shop to tell stories that then powered the barber shop was excellent. So was the antagonist who was intense and worked wonderfully off the Doctor.

The format of the storytelling was amazing, with the story that was being told being animated by the window of the barber shop. It was such an impressive piece of storytelling.

There was a wonderful story told by the Doctor during this episode that gave us some more background on Belinda and her career as a nurse. It was a lovely story about how she put her own wishes aside to help a sick woman in her hospital.

I don’t care what anyone says, I have loved these episodes on Disney +. I will be sad when the Doctor regenerates.

The Studio S1 E8

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“The Golden Globes”

I did not love this episode of The Studio because I am not a fan of our main protagonist acting the way he did. When the character becomes so crazy, it was not that funny for me. It was more pathetic.

It was fun to see the background of the Golden Globes and it felt very realistic with the way some of the creators would act.

I did feel badly for Matt. It is a shame how everyone made such a big deal out of being thanked, but he went out of his mind. I preferred the Matt at the very end, even though he was depressed over the lack of a thank you.

Zoë Kravitz and Adam Scott were the main cameos of this episode. Kravitz was the director of the movie that came from Matt’s studio which was up for the Golden Globe.

Of course, I want to thank Sal Saperstein.

The Last of Us S2 E4

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“Day One”

So I got to watch The Last of Us on MAX last night, but I had to wait until the Dodgers/Braves game ended, and I did not have time to do the write up.

This was a heavy Ellie/Dina story with them trying to navigate the city of Seattle. They are in search of Abby for revenge, but they have yet to find her.

Ellie and Dina had some big things happen.

  • They get together and make love. Dina told Ellie about her real feelings.
  • They get caught in a building with a bunch of infected and try to run.
  • Just before Dina gets bitten, Ellie stuck her arm in the way and takes the bite.
  • Ellie confesses to Dina that she was immune to the infected.
  • We meet Isaac, who killed his whole FEDRA unit.

Isaac is played by Jeffrey Wright, who is an awesome actor. His scenes with the naked guy he was torturing was intense. I am looking forward to seeing what this guy’s story is going to be.

  • Dina tells Ellie that she was pregnant.
  • Ellie finds a guitar and plays “Take on Me.” She sings to Dina. I really liked that scene.

These Wolves look to be a real problem.

The Studio S1 E7

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“Casting”

Oh, Yeah!

Who would have thought that the announcement of Ice Cube voicing the Kool-Aid Man would turn into a major race problem?

Only those on The Studio, as they, once again, turn the situation upside down and parody discussions that really happen in Hollywood.

Matt (Seth Rogen) is just trying to cast his movie, but when black tropes and stereotypes threaten to crush his film, things spiral out of control ridiculously as only The Studio can do it.

Watching Matt, Sal and Patty spin out over every perceived racial slight and their attempts to overcorrect them was hilarious. Kathryn Hahn, especially, was at the top of her game in this episode.

Meanwhile, the show does something sneaky as it takes the race argument out of the final moments and replaces it with a comment on AI, something Matt had okayed earlier in the episode to replace some special effects artists in order to keep the film on budget and release schedule… stuff that was messed up because of the massive recasting that was going on because of race.

Genius.

This show has been exceptional and only seems to be getting stronger with each passing episode on Apple TV +. If you are not watching The Studio and you have any interest in the way films are developed, you are missing some excellent stuff.