Dexter in NYC continued as he is able to capture himself the “Dark Passenger.” One of the things about Dexter that I love is how intelligent he is. He truly uses his brains to do his stalking of these serial killers.
I am very excited too about the next episode which seems to be a serial killer convention. Dexter took the invite that the Dark Passenger was given and he plans on attending in his place. I had heard about that episode before I started the series so I am excited to see what happens.
Det. Claudette Wallace is sniffing around Harrison, basically laying everything out in front of him in an interrogation, trying to get a confession. Harrison does a great job of keeping her at an arms-length.
I love the character of Blessing. The amount of friendship and joy that he brings to the canvas is really needed. I love his family and I also love how his wife isn’t a fool. She did a background check on Dexter (although that eventually helped Dexter find the Dark Passenger).
Angel Batista is on his way to New York as he is retiring from the police force in Miami. There will be some confrontation with Batista and Dexter at some point of the season, you would think.
Marvel Animation released it latest animated series on Disney + this morning, executive produced by Ryan Coogler.
The four episodes were told across the history of the world, showing a group called the War Dogs and their efforts to retrieve artifacts that had been stolen from Wakanda. What felt like separate stories actually came together in a clever way in the final episode, “The Last Panther.”
I was watching Fatman Beyond on YouTube when Marc Bernardin announced that he had written two of the episodes and that he was also a producer on the show. I have always been a fan of Marc Bernardin so it only helped my anticipation for the series.
Disney + dropped all four episodes on the same day.
The show included a trip to Crete, to the Trojan War and to China. The very end of the fourth episode connected the show to the greater MCU too, which was a really fun call back.
The episodes got better with each one. The show looked beautiful and the action was very dramatic and violent.
There were some characters that I had a harder time getting behind, especially in the earlier episodes. However, that was not as much of a problem for me as the show moved along.
I loved the use of Achilles in episode two and the use of the Iron Fist in episode three (which was probably my favorite one).
I like that some of the ideas of the show is that Wakanda is shown as not necessarily the heroic kingdom, a kingdom that only cares about staying isolated. There are some moments of showing this too. I like the shades of grey that the show provided.
This was a worthy addition to the Marvel animation cannon. It was a fun and quick watch.
I started the new Dexter series on Prime today. I was not sure whether or not I was going to watch this after watching the up and down quality of Dexter: Original Sin. Add that to the fact that I did not watch the last several years of Dexter and I did not know the back story of what happened and I was not sure if I wanted to donate the time needed.
However, I have heard some positive word of mouth about the series and Dexter: Original Sin did have some upside to it. I have the opening in the schedule as I just finished two Apple + series so I decided to give this new version of Dexter a shot.
I will say that I enjoyed the first two episodes of this as Dexter came out of his coma after being shot in the chest by his son. Dexter followed Harrison, his son, to New York to do what he could to help him.
There is another serial killer in New York using the moniker, Dark Passenger, which ticks Dexter off right away.
If there is one thing that I would say about this series is that it feels like New York is really small. Dexter made his way around the city easily, maybe too easily.
I liked the scene that saw David Zayas reprise his role as Angel Batista from the original show, facing off with Dexter after he had awakened from his coma. Batista suspected that Dexter was the Bay Harbor Butcher, but he had no evidence. Dexter was able to escape from the hospital before Batista returned to see him again.
There are two more episodes currently active on Prime (via Paramount + with Showtime) and released on Fridays.
I binged season five of What We Do in the Shadows today and it was a great season once again. This show is one of the most consistently funny shows on television.
This season had several running storylines that carried through most of the year. These included:
Guillermo’s slow transformation into a vampire after giving money to Derek to turn him. Little did Guillermo know how much of an insult that would be to his master.
A hex that had been cast over Nadja, causing terrible things to happen to her.
The Guide trying to fit in with the rest of the vampires.
Guillermo’s uncertainty over what he wanted to be.
My favorite episode of the season was “Local News”, which was an episode featuring a local news reporter covering the story of a water main break on the street of the vampires’ house. They interviewed Nandor and he believed he accidentally let slip that he had lived in the house for centuries. Believing that he had given away the truth that they were vampires, the group started going crazy. It was really funny and resolved wonderfully. It also crossed over with Guillermo going to see his mom to tell her about his life choice.
Another thing I really loved was the development of the character of Guillermo over the ten episodes. He was learning a lot about himself, to the point where he realized that he was not going to be able to become a vampire. His Van Helsing blood had been fighting off the vampirism all season, keeping him from fully turning.
I loved how, when Nandor finally discovered the truth, it led to another truth. Nandor never turned Guillermo into a vampire over the years because he knew that Guillermo did not have the stomach for the killing involved. Nandor really showed that he knew Guillermo well, but also cared for his familiar/bodyguard.
I also liked how the other vampires showed some concern for Guillermo, way more than they had ever done. I would go as far as to say that they all had accepted him as part of their lives. Laszlo, Nadja, Colin Robinson and even The Guide went out of their way to try and help Guillermo. That was way different than the first season.
Cameo of the season: Patton Oswalt. He became a major component in helping Nandor get past his hurt feelings, allowing him to save his friendship with Guillermo. And he did all this before being thrown to his death.
I am also a fan of how characters from previous episodes/seasons keep showing up. It gives the show a real flavor and world that has a lived in feel to it. The Baron, Derek, The Doll, Topher, Djinn etc.
Although I could see this change a bit, here is my current list of seasons in order of my favorites:
Season 1
Season 4
Season 5
Season 2
Season 3
I could see seasons 4 & 5 flipping places after more time to reflect. Season six has 11 episodes instead of 10 and it is the final season of the show.
I loved this series. I did not expect to feel this way about this series. A sci-fi/action/comedy featuring a robot that goes rogue and becomes a murderer. And yet, I found this to be fully entertaining and I was enthralled with the entire series.
I will say that the final episode left me feeling sad as Sec Unit left the others, departing for a new adventure. I did not expect that to happen. Sec Unit choosing to leave behind the humans who he had done so much to protect and who had rescued him from being melted in acid.
I wonder if the group would have let Sec Unit put on his armor and resume his role as their bodyguard if he would have made a different decision.
Sec Unit got on a transport ship, posing as a servant bot and said that he did not want anyone telling him what he could do, even his favorite humans, meaning Mensah.
Murderbot has apparently been renewed for a second season and showrunner Chris Weitz suggested that the second season would be adapting the next three books. I have not read any of them, but I do hope that the cast that I have enjoyed so much this season would be able to join Alexander Skarsgård for season two. At first I was not much of a fan of David Dastmalchian’s Gurathin, but he did grow on me after he stopped being such an opposition to Sec Unit.
Could we get more The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon next season? That was a real fun little show-within-a-show example and I love seeing Clark Gregg anytime I can.
Murderbot is on Apple TV + and is definitely worth it for any sci-fi fan.
I finished up the first season of Stick on Apple TV + tonight with the finale, entitled “Déjà Vu All Over Again.”
The episode featured the final day of the ReadySafe Invitational golf tourney with Santi right in the race to win. Last episode, we meet Santi’s father for the first time who showed up with all the right words for his son. We would find out that, unfortunately, little had changed.
I am going to say this about the season finale of Stick. It was extremely satisfying and I liked how things worked themselves out. However, the episode was really predictable. It followed my expectations really tightly. Yet, predictable is not always a bad thing. The episode worked narratively and the result was an enjoyable final show.
Owen Wilson is a charming and engaging actor and he does a fantastic job in this show. he had great chemistry with Peter Dager, who played Santi. Their relationship was very real and went through a lot of different stages during the ten episode season. I believed everything that happened and I felt badly for Pryce when Santi asked him to step aside so his father could caddy for him. It was clear that the choice would turn out poorly, but Pryce allowed the kid the chance to find out for himself. Then, Pryce came back and helped Santi reclaim his mindset, giving him a chance to make an unbelievable shot, even in defeat.
I wonder if this is a series that will continue into a second season. I am not sure where the story will go, unless the hints at the end of Pryce getting back into shape and rejoining the tour is where they will go. No matter what, this first season was excellent and definitely worth the watch.
The A & E documentary KISStory Part two is the story of the rock band Kiss, in the second part of their careers.
I still feel as if there are some things missing without Ace Frehley and Peter Criss’s actual involvement in the documentary. Any time Peter or Ace is heard in the doc, it is from archival footage or interviews and the doc started off with a message saying that they chose not to participate and they “do not endorse the views of this program.” That meant that this doc was from the POV of Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. I am truly curious how the story might differ.
This part of the doc started off with the band in some internal trouble, though they tried to force their way through it.
HOT TAKE: The Elder is my favorite Kiss album.
However, I may be the only one as the concept album seemed to be mentioned as one of the big mistakes of the group.
Peter Criss left the band, apparently after a concert where he was messing with the timing of the songs. That is one of the main functions of the drummer, and I could understand the feeling of betrayal that would bring up.
Ace Frehley was gone too, not long after Peter, leaving Kiss struggling with new musicians and characters from the band. They no longer had the Catman or the Spaceman in the group.
The doc showed the historic moment on MTV where KISS, for the first time, revealed themselves without the make-up and followed the band as it became another 1980s hair band.
The MTV Unplugged series was the first place where Peter and Ace returned for some songs, giving the idea that there could be a reunion at some point. The reunion tour was huge business and seemed to be a success at the start. However, the same demons that had pulled them apart in the late 70s apparently remained at this time. It was portrayed that Peter was upset over money and the perceived secondary status in the band behind Gene and Paul. I wish I had his official POV to see how accurate that was. Ace appeared to not be one who could handle the fame at the level KISS had reached.
I found myself with so much more respect for guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer, who were in the band and were removed when Ace and Peter returned. That felt tough, but they were total professionals. Tommy was even brought back in to help Peter and Ace get back to their levels of performance, and he wound up doing much of the tour manager duties.
It was a tough section involving the drummer who had replaced Peter in Kiss came up. Eric Carr came into the group and wound up dying form cancer. Paul and Gene told the story of Eric begging them to play on the song “God Gave Rock ‘N Roll To You” for the video, a song they recorded for the Bill & Ted Bogus Journey film. Paul’s description of Eric playing on that video was heartbreaking.
Both weeks of this doc ended really quickly, as it felt like something was being cut off.
I enjoyed this as I was always a fan of KISS, especially when I was younger. I was never an obsessed fan and I would be curious to hear what a deep fan thought of this documentary.
With this two-part doc series done, next week we start with a new show for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk. I think the series that will be next is the HBO show, Lovecraft Country.
Murderbot is my new favorite program on Apple TV +.
I watched three episodes and I really wanted to keep watching, but I needed to pause and move along. There are two episodes left in this season and I will finish it off later this week or this weekend.
All the secrets are out. Sec Unit’s past came out as he was hooked up to Gurathin as they were operating on his leg. Gurathin had been shot in the leg by Leebeebee. Leebeebee was holding the crew hostage until she got what she wanted. As soon as Sec Unit returned with Mensah (after a scene where Mensah cut open Sec Unit’s spine to retrieve some wiring to fix their ship… it was tense for sure), Sec Unit blew Leebeebee’s head off.
That made the others a bit touchy, to say the least.
I still find the inner dialogue from Sec Unit to be hilarious. He provides questions that he does not understand from human behavior and, more often than not, he was right.
Everyone is still very much on edge with Sec Unit as they are unsure about his motives. When they all joined in to fight the other sec unit that arrived (after the two giant monsters had sex on top of the hopper, leaving an egg sac… weird, I know), it was clear that they were not going to be helpful in any way. Sec Unit had to fight despite them.
This is a fast watch and I really enjoy this show.
So I wanted to catch up on Stick, which is on Apple TV + and has episodes dropping on Wednesdays. I do believe the final episode of the season is this week, so I had five episodes to run through in order to get caught up.
Stick is such a great show and it is a easy watch as the episodes run around 30 minutes. It is also very well-written and compelling in a sport that does not truly entice me much.
Much like the F1: The Movie and auto racing, a film/show can be entertaining and engaging if it is intelligent and well-written, acted and smartly plotted out even if I am not a fan of the sport involved. I am not a fan of golf, but Stick is far more than just about golf.
The story of Pryce trying to help Santi to become the best he could be in the world of golf took a lot of turns, some that very not necessarily positive, but everything worked well.
That is, until Santi’s father showed up at the end of episode nine. That feels like one more major hurdle for the characters to overcome.
Some other cool highlights of the five episodes include:
The truth with Zero and Pryce’s deal coming out rocked Santi’s world. We knew that was going to happen when it first happened.
Santi and Zero have sex. This was surprising… especially with Santi looking for advice from Pryce. I really thought Pryce was going to respond differently and I liked the uncommon response he had.
Timothy Olyphant is always a welcome actor in any show I am watching.
Mitts and Elena’s relationship comes around. I like them together.
We get more with Pryce and his dead son. The dream of Pryce with his son, Jett, was really hard to watch.
The whole scam to try and get Santi into a pro PGA tournament was strange, but cool.
There was a lot of enjoyment in these episodes and I have grown to like these characters.
Season four of the FX show What We Do in the Shadows was next up. I liked season three, but it felt like a step down from the previous two seasons. What would season four be like?
I loved this season.
The end of season three sent the crew off in different directions. Nadja and Guillermo went to England so Nadja could be on the major vampire council. Nandor was off on his world trip. Laszlo stayed behind to raise baby Colin Robinson, who had come out of the torso of the dead body of Colin Robinson.
The first episode of the season wrapped these arcs up immediately, bringing them all back to the house, which is in a terrible condition.
Several great season-long storylines including:
Colin Robinson growing as a baby to a teen and so on.
The house and the damages to it.
The Vampire Nightclub- Nadja’s.
Nandor’s marriage and his Djinn (yes, he found a Djinn)
Guillermo’s continued involvement with the crew and his wish to be relevant.
My favorite story of the year was Colin Robinson as the baby and his growth, much like baby Groot from the Guardians movies. Laszlo took on a parent role for the baby, even though he was a terrible father. Guillermo stepped in several times to make sure that the baby did not die. Colin singing and dancing on the stage at Nadja’s club, his continued anger, his pounding holes in the basement walls with a hammer… all these things contributed to a wonderful arc for Colin. Or perhaps it was more of an arc for Laszlo, since Colin Robinson wound up exactly where he was when this whole thing started.
When Colin walked out in the finale looking exactly like he always did, it was a shocking moment. He did not remember anything from the past year. What was the most amazing things was the way this clearly affected Laszlo, who, though he remained quiet about it, was very melancholic over the loss of the boy who he had been raising (however poorly) over the last year. It was a subtle and deep moment for Laszlo that truly gave me some emotional investment.
My favorite episode was the surreal “Go Flip Yourself” episode that plays like it is a home renovation show with twins Bran and Toby Daltry. Toby is immediately eaten by Nadja, but the rest was as if the episode was on that show. It had a great payoff too as Brian Daltry, who led the whole renovation (as it was) turned out to be Simon the Devious and the entire Go Flip Yourself renovation show was set up as a scam to get his hands on Laszlo’s witch-skin hat again.
“Private School” was another awesome episode as they tried to get Young Colin into a private school. Nadja constantly hypnotizing the school headmaster to change their story was some comedic gold.
Other highlights included a face off with the Jersey Devil, Guillermo in a vampire fight club where he winds up fighting Nandor, Guillermo coming out as gay to his family in the most wild way possible, Guillermo’s boyfriend Freddie who Nandor developed a crush on and used one of his wishes from the Djinn to turn his wife, Marwa, into a duplicate of Freddie in every way. Then, having Freddie and Marwa-Freddie get together and cheat on Guillermo was horrible.
The finale feels as if season five may finally be the season of Guillermo as he took a bagful of money (that he had embezzled from the club) to Derek, the former vampire hunter club kid who was now a vampire, and asked him to turn him into a vampire. Is it finally going to happen? I do hope Guillermo gets what he wants because he has been such an MVP for the vampire house and he is always getting stomped upon.
Okay, I watched the next episode of the new drama on Apple TV + called Smoke with Taron Egerton. Last episode dropped a big bomb at the end of the show and I kind of expected more from this episode than what I got. Maybe something to explain why I saw what I saw, but that really did not happen.
We got more into the character of Detective Calderone and more about Freddy and his interview to be a manager.
A car got firebombed… seemingly by Dave?
Honestly, this was a slow burn (excuse the pun) episode that did not appeal too much to me. There was something with Michelle going to testify against her mother’s release from prison. It seemed as if the mother is the one who set the fire that Michelle had been caught in as a child. I’m not sure if we had known that before.
I was hoping for more from this show, but I do like the character development going on and I hope the big reveal last episode gets some more attention moving forward.
Sec Unit, played by Alexander Skarsgård, gives me Dexter feels. As he is narrating the show with his inner monologue, it gave me distinct “Dark Passenger” ideas as many of the internal dialogue revealed the true thoughts of the rogue unit.
I am glad that the fact that Sec Unit was rogue was revealed and did not continue to be a cover up. He revealed it in a heroic manner by trying to kill itself before he was taken over by the implant that was inserted into his head by another Sec Unit. Having the crew help remove the implant was a cool trick and surprised Sec Unit.
I hope they give Sec Unit another name soon, because I don’t like typing “Sec Unit” all the time.
It was hilarious when Ratthi tested Sec Bot’s knowledge of Sanctuary Moon to see if Sec Unit had been using the show to transmit secret messages as Gurathin believed. It was a very geeky solution.
The arrival of Leebeebee (Anna Konkle) is someone whom I absolutely do not trust. There are just too many side-eyes given by this character for me to believe that she was just o the “laundry” of the other survey team. There is more to this character than we know yet.
These episodes, at least four and five, have been ending with a great cliffhanger that make me want to continue on in the binge. I am trying to keep from watching the final five episodes of the first season, as I have some of the other shows that I want to get in too.
I am loving Murderbot so far. I think Alexander Skarsgård has been sensational so far and I do love the relationship between the Sec Bot and Ayda Mensah. Mensah is one of my favorite characters on the show so far. She is such a great person and a leader who will not just choose the easy choice, even if Sec Bot thinks it is a mistake.
This has been awesome so far and I can’t wait to see Murderbot continue.
Episodes three and four of Apple TV’s new series, Stick, starring Owen Wilson were really great. I have to say though I am a little disappointed with Pryce and his weaknesses that are coming through. He does feel manipulative in his involvement with Santi and he is clearly also a problem with betting. These will both come back to haunt him later in the season, I am sure.
I do like the first few steps between Mitts and Elena. The whole “Mitts is trapped beneath the bed” part of episode three was fun and was a good way to learn about who these characters are.
We learned specifically what happened to Pryce’s son as Mitts told Elena about it after she had made an off-hand comment about Pryce not knowing about kids because he doesn’t have any. The little boy died at 4 from cancer, which is way too horrible to even think about. Elena immediately made the connection between the loss of his son and the meltdown Pryce had on the golf course that ruined his career. I had inferred this as well, but knowing the details make it even more painful and allow us to understand where Pryce is coming from.
We are introduced to Zero, played by Lilli Kay. I had seen her on the IMDB page and I did not know who she was, but she has been added as a “love interest” for Santi. Not sure I loved this character at this point, as she was portrayed as a far left idealist with big words for the society around them.
I did not think that the deal made by Zero and Pryce was a good idea. It will absolutely explode on them later in the season. Why they don’t just stick to the truth? It is such a better choice.
Stick has been solid so far and I am looking forward to see these seeds that the show is planting grow as the season progresses.
Week twenty-six of the Sunday Morning Sidewalk takes a bit of a turn as we start our first documentary series, a two-part show originally on A & E (which I watched on Disney +) featuring the EYG Hall of Fame rock band known as KISS.
The first episode of the series was about an hour and a half and outlined the early days of the band and their struggle to rise to the top of the record business, all the while struggling with their personal turmoil and behavior.
The doc heavily featured new interviews from Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, but only had archival footage or interviews with band members Peter Criss and Ace Frehley. There was a disclaimer that appeared in the documentary stating that Ace and Peter refused to participate in KISStory and did not agree with the presentation. That really triggered my curiosity. I knew that there had been issues between the band for years, especially with Ace and Peter, and I wanted to know why they refused to participate. Online, what I could find was that Ace and Peter refused because the amount of money offered was insultingly low and that they wanted final editing rights. I don’t know where that came from. Apparently, Peter Criss also refused to allow the song “Beth” to be used in the doc so that was in my head the entire time they were discussing the success of that song and how it helped propel the group upwards.
Peter and Ace were shown to have their own problems, specifically with alcohol and drugs, but I do not think it was done to the exclusion of the others. Gene spoke of his own issues, trying to put his ego aside while Paul spoke about plenty of his own troubles, including his anxiety over a birth defect he had with his ear. It did not feel like the doc piled on Ace and Peter. They definitely included how important they were to the band. Heck, even Gene and Paul admitted that the band’s sound did not come into focus until Ace came in to audition.
The feelings of the band were being made clear as they became more successful and started doing things like “KISS Meets the Phantom” or going more disco with “I Was Made for Loving You.” They addressed how some fans felt as if the group sold out as the success came fast. You could tell from the way Paul and Gene spoke about it that they felt much the same way, but they could not refuse it.
The clips from the Tom Snyder interview where Ace was clearly drunk were amazing. The looks on the faces of Gene and Paul were unmistakable and were painful to watch. The anger in their eyes was so obvious that anyone should have been able to see it.
The first episode ended with Ace’s announcement that he wanted to do solo work, and the band was definitely falling apart.
I truly would wish to have had more than just Paul and Gene’s voices in the doc, reflecting back on the history of this band. Peter and Ace’s absence 100% put a cloud over the documentary, even if it felt as if the doc did a good job of being balanced despite of their absence.
Next week will be part two of KISStory for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk and we’ll see where the band went from there.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 