Category Archives: TV-G[eek]

The X-Files S8 E18, E19, E20

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“Vienen”

“Alone”

“Essence”

With just a handful of episodes remaining in season 8 of The X-Files, I wanted to get them churned out. I have been doing this re-watch of the X-Files since September of 2023 and I am down to one more episode for this season, leaving just season 9, 10, & 11.

My memory of season 8 during its original run was that I did not like it much, but I have to say that this season was better than I had remembered. I have made this speculation before, but it seems obvious that my original thought on this season was the lack of Mulder and what seemed like a replacement in John Doggett. John Doggett has won me over during this re-watch as I was not angry at Mulder not being there.

Of these three episodes, they all had that old X-Files feel to them. With “Vienen” featuring the final appearance of the Black Oil and the ultimate firing of Mulder by Deputy Director Kersh, the whole alien conspiracy felt like it was back, even though it was different and no longer being directed by CSM.

“Alone” was a pretty decent monster-of-the-week tale that had Mulder truly put his trust in Doggett, in a life and death moment. It was a stress-inducing episode where I was reminded of Dr. Curt Connors, aka The Lizard, from Amazing Spider-Man. Oh, those pesky scientists.

“Essence” is a part one of the season finale where we focus in on those people trying to get to Scully’s baby. It reclaimed the old days of the conspiracy as we learn about a baby/alien cloning program and how Billy Miles is like the unstoppable Terminator (ironic since Robert Patrick is on the other end of that). This one was pulling in the old guard too as, of all people, Alex Krychek showed up to help out the good guys team. I still would have loved to see someone put a bullet in Krychek’s head, but I guess he did help things out.

I hope to finish off season 8 either tomorrow or some time early next week. Season 9 has 20 episodes. Season 10 has six episodes and season 11 has 10 episodes, meaning that I am down to 37 episodes remaining in this re-watch of the X-Files. As I said, it has been going since September 2023 so we will be done with this under two years.

What We Do In The Shadows S1 E5, E6

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“Animal Control”

“Baron’s Night Out”

Watched a couple of episodes of What We Do In the Shadows season one this morning. One that I think was very strong and another that was kind of weak.

Episode five was entitled “Animal Control” and it had two main stories. Laszlo had changed into a bat and was knocked unconscious by his neighbors. They called Animal Control and Laszlo is placed in a cage. The second story included Nadja and her old love Jeff, who had been resurrected multiple times.

Episode six, “Baron’s Night Out,” was about the Baron wanting to see the sights of New York. It ends with the drugged out Baron accidentally getting burned to death by the sun.

While there were some funny bits in “Animal Control” I did not find it to be much more than a fluff episode. I enjoyed “Baron’s Night Out” considerably more. I was thinking about the sun being the way the Baron died, but I did not expect it right at the end. When he was playing with the rays of sunlight cracking through the roof.

There are four more episodes in the first season.

The X-Files S8 E17

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“Empedocles”

This episode featured Monica Reyes, investigating a case that she believed had some connection to John Doggett’s son’s death. She brought Mulder into the fray, causing more tension in the relationship of Doggett and Mulder.

I am not looking forward to season nine because of the increased use of Reyes. After just a couple of appearances, she does not appeal to me too much.

A big reason that Reyes bothers me, I think, is that she’s not Scully. There are a couple of scenes between Mulder and Scully in this episode and they are so charming and fun that it really hurts the remainder of the episode when they are not together. Scully spends the episode in the hospital from pregnancy issues. Their banter over the “Pizza Guy” was excellent.

Robert Patrick does a great job with Doggett and his anger and grief. You can feel his conflict within the skepticism he holds about the supernatural aspects.

I did like the advancement between Mulder and Doggett.

Season 8 has just four more episodes left.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #11

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“Sleep of the Just”

Sunday Morning Sidewalk started a new series this week, The Sandman, from Netflix. Based on a classic DC Comics comic book from Neil Gaiman, The Sandman was a show that I had always intended to watch, but just never got around to doing. It has eleven episodes on Netflix so it will be our new Sunday Morning Sidewalk into early June.

At least, that is the current schedule. I do hope that the remainder of The Sandman is an improvement over this first episode, because I was not very impressed with it.

Before I go into the negatives, the show looked absolutely amazing. The visuals were stunning and it was clear that this show did not skimp on a budget for it.

However, there was so much exposition that I had a difficult time keeping my focus on the story the show was telling. It bounced around at first and did not establish the feel well. Then, the story moved on to Charles Dance, a well known character actor playing a man named Roderick Burgess, who was able to capture Morpheus in some contraption. He then holds him for ten years.

The problem with this was that Burgess’s motivation was very muddy. Did he want his deceased son back from the dead or did he want immortality and wealth? It seemed as if he wanted all of that in order to free Morpheus. Poor Morpheus had to lay inside this glass container naked for such a long time. Get the man a blanket at least.

Then there was another son, Alex, who was ignored and verbally abused by Burgess. Alex accidentally killed his father and then he held on to Morpheus for an undetermined amount of time. The world suffered from some kind of sleep sickness, but the show really did not go into any specifics on that.

Oh, Boyd Holbrook is here too, as some kind of figure that opposes Morpheus. IMDB tells me his name is The Corinthian. I was not a Sandman comics reader so I do not know whom that was. He seemed to be a potential future antagonist. Not sure why.

The story of this episode was a mess and I was very disappointed in the show. The main story of the Burgess family did not grasp my attention and did not seem to be a worth story to kick off this series with. Again, I do not know if this is a vital comic storyline adapted or if this was completely new for the series, but I did not enjoy it much.

I do hope this gets better as it moves along or else I might have to looking into the possibility of adjusting the Sunday Morning Sidewalk schedule.

The Studio S1 E3

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“The Note”

The third episode of the behind the scenes, meta show, The Studio, was hilarious. This is yet another huge success for Apple TV.

This episode had Matt, in his role as the head of the studio, needing to give a note on a new film directed by Ron Howard. Matt is afraid to do so because he had done something stupid years before after viewing A Beautiful Mind with Howard at a friends and family viewing party.

The note was that they needed to cut a sequence at the end of Howard’s movie that was dragging down the film, a sequence that everyone who saw it, hated. However, no one could face up with Ron Howard and tell him. Apparently, it was a sequence in honor of his dead cousin.

Ron Howard, who appeared last season on Only Murders in the Building as himself in a fabulous cameo, is awesome here and Anthony Mackie guest stars as himself, the star of the aforementioned film.

Kathryn Hahn is here quite a bit too and you can never go wrong with more Kathryn Hahn.

This pull-back-the -curtain series has been really fun so far and I have enjoyed them tremendously.

Daredevil: Born Again S1 E7

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So the latest episode of Daredevil: Born Again dropped on Disney + and, for the first time during this series, I am of mixed minds on an episode.

There was a final confrontation between Daredevil and Muse. We confirmed what we all expected back when we saw the kid in the book signing for Heather Glenn, the kid who approached her and hoped to have her work him into her client list. That kid, Bastian, turned out to be Muse, and he was coming to Heather with terrible plans for her.

Matt discovered Muse’s connection to Heather and Daredevil rushed to her aid, arriving just in time. Daredevil and Muse engaged in a fight in Heather’s office, but before it went too far, Heather recovered the gun that Muse had brought with him and shot him multiple times, killing him.

While the confrontation was tense and suspenseful, and the fight was cool and brutal as always, the death of Muse felt like a missed opportunity. It seemed as if this death was rushed and that there was so much more that could have been mined out of that character that I can’t deny that I felt disappointed at the resolution.

Kingpin’s manipulations of the situation to make his Anti-Vigilante Task Force look better to the people of New York.

This did feel like it went too fast. This could have been spread out over several episodes and, while it was a great battle and anxious moments, it seemed as if it could have been more.

The X-Files S8 E16

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“Three Words”

Mulder is back.

However, not on the X-Files. Deputy Director Kersh continued his crusade against Mulder by not reinstating him to the X-Files, leaving Agent Doggett assigned to the section.

Mulder does not trust Doggett. He has no reason to. This episode tried to give Mulder a reason to.

Doggett showed his strength as an agent and his level headedness even in spite of Mulder’s paranoid response to him. He just wants to do what is right. He clearly respects Scully and wants to protect her and the unborn baby. He wants the truth, but he is more skeptical than Scully ever was.

It was nice seeing Mulder reunited with the Lone Gunmen. It was a sweet scene that was very funny… highlighted by the hug between Mulder and Frohike.

This was a good return for Mulder and an interesting set up. I understand Mulder’s doubt of Doggett. I mean, Mulder was never one to trust easily. Outside of Scully and Skinner, Mulder did not trust anyone in the FBI and few others outside of it.

This definitely leads to Mulder being ousted from the FBI which would lead to the end of the original series.

The White Lotus S3 E7

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“Killer Instinct”

The penultimate episode of season three of The White Lotus aired tonight on MAX and it set up several major storylines for a potential explosive finale.

Greg/Gary offered Belinda $100,000 to basically forget everything she knows about him and about Tanya. She was not happy about the offer and there is a whole tension built by the show. I feel this has been my favorite storyline consistently the whole season.

Rick was able to confront the big bad from his past. Meanwhile, Frank is distracting the wife, drinking whiskey after ten years of sobriety. Though it feels like Rick took a step toward getting past his childhood trauma, I have a sense that something tragic is about to happen in this story. I felt bad for Frank.

Timothy slips deeper into his depression and drug use and his thoughts of killing himself and his family are filling his head. I’m nervous about what Timothy might do.

I still find little engagement with the three blondes, even though now Laurie hooked up with Aleksei. The whole three blondes and the Russians story has gone nowhere for me.

One more week to go. I hope things wrap up well.

Justice for Tonya!

What We Do In the Shadows S1 E4

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“Manhattan Night Club”

Nandor, Laszlo, Nadja, Colin and Guillermo head to a Manhattan night club in order to try and secure an alliance with other vampires in their continued effort to gain control of the land.

This was another very funny episode that reminded me of an episode of The Tick.

I know that is strange, but in the animated Tick show, episode “Tick vs. Tick,” the Tick goes to a superhero club and fights with another hero using the same name. What especially reminded me of that episode was the “Sidekick Lounge” which is where Arthur went. He found a group of sad sack sidekicks that had been regulated to the lounge.

In “Manhattan Night Club,” Guillermo went to the “Familiar Lounge,” in search of a bathroom, where he met a group of sad sack familiars. I could see the similarities to that Tick episode.

Things do not work out for our group though as the whole escapade was a trap in order for the head vampire, Simon the Devious (played by Nick Kroll), to get his hands on Laszlo’s hat.

Yes, his hat.

That hat was not just any hat. It was cursed. Laszlo refused to accept it, despite the overwhelming evidence supporting the cursed theory. I mean, after Simon stole the hat, he accidentally blew the club up.

Definitely cursed.

The X-Files S8 E14, E15

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“This is Not Happening”

“Deadalive”

These two episodes played as a two-parter that would lead to the return of Fox Mulder to the land of the living, literally.

Mulder was abducted by aliens at the end of the seventh season. David Duchovny had decided that he wanted to move on from The X-Files and a contract dispute with FOX resulted in Mulder being written out of the show.

However, everything was settled and Duchovny agreed to be in 11 episodes of season 8. These two episodes were the way they brought the character back from the abduction.

It was a rush of emotions as Mulder was missing, discovered dead, buried for three months before being exhumed and placed on life support. Eventually, the removal of life support is what brought Mulder back fully.

Does any of this make any sense? Not really. The story was all over the place, including the rebirth (?) of former X-Files character Billy Miles, who was abducted at the same time as Mulder was. How did Mulder survive being buried alive for three months? Or was he buried dead? No autopsy? No embalming? If you examine this plot too closely, there are a lot of nagging issues.

Having Duchovny back makes you happily ignore those problems. The final scene with Mulder and Scully was exceptional and worth the wait. Mulder joking about not knowing Scully was awesome and right in Mulder’s character.

The Leftovers S1 E3

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“Two Boats and A Helicopter”

This episode of The Leftovers was different than the first two and focused on a different character, to outstanding results.

Christopher Eccleston appeared as Reverend Matt Jamison, whose church was facing financial struggles. In fact, it was up for sale by the bank after foreclosure. The bank had allowed him to continue with his church but once there was a buyer, he would need to get out.

Of course, this episode’s conflict began when there was a buyer.

The bank allowed Matt a chance to beat the price, in cash, of the other buyer, but he had a deadline of the next day at the end of business hours.

We see the perspective of Matt through the episode as he desperately tried to find the $135,000 he was going to need. He wound up with $20,000 given to him by Kevin Garvey Sr, the former police chief that had been buried in the Garveys’ backyard.

He took that money and went to a casino, playing roulette three times, winning each. He made $160,000.

That was when the real troubles began. Another patron of the casino tried to rob him, but Matt fought back violently. Then, Matt stopped to help a member of the Guilty Remnant who had been hit in the face with a rock by a passing by vehicle. Before he could finish the call to 9-1-1, the vehicle returned and hit Matt in the face with a rock as well.

Matt had a series of prophetic dreams and memories of the past. When he awoke, he rushed back to his car and took the money to the bank. He came to find out that he had been in the hospital for three days and the church had been sold… to the Guilty Remnant.

This was an excellent episode with a stellar performance from Eccleston. The roulette wheel sequence was tense and filled with suspense. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen as the wheel went around. I picked out the guy who attacked Matt… saw that one coming, but Matt’s response was brutal and unexpected. His kindness nailed him though when he stopped to help those people. I knew something was going tohappen.

At the end, all I could think of was his housekeeper, who he hadn’t paid for three weeks, and who he asked to watch over his comatose wife on Monday when he went to the casino. He left her there for three days and we never found out what happened with her.

This was very different from the first two episodes and shows an effective style of storytelling.

The Studio S1 E1, E2

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“The Promotion”

“The Oner”

The new Apple TV + comedy from Seth Rogan is called The Studio. Seth Rogan played Matt Remick, the newly appointed head of Continental Studios, is hopeful to be able to keep movies relevant and alive.

The first two episodes were hilarious. Apple TV + has had some of the best comedic shows of recent times (Shrinking, Ted Lasso) and it seems as if they have had another great one.

The show is filled with a bunch of “inside baseball” references in movie making and it works with Seth Rogan’s bumbling, almost slapstick, behavior.

My personal favorite of these two episodes was The Oner, which showed a film set trying to get a complicated “oner” scene shot, fighting against time to shoot it as the sun went down. The only trouble is that Matt was constantly in the wrong place at the wrong time, causing delays and conflict. Of course, the whole episode itself was shot as a oner.

The show also starred Catherine O’Hara, Ike Barinholtz, Kathryn Hahn, and Chase Sui Wonders. The first two episodes featured guest appearances from Steve Buscemi, Bryan Cranston, Paul Dano, Martin Scorsese, Charlize Theron, Greta Lee, Sarah Polley, Peter Berg, and David Krumholtz.

I am curious how this show would play to those who are not into the meta world of filmmaking, yet I found it extremely funny and clever work.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #10

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“Points”

Episode ten of the Band of Brothers brought the season to an end.

This episode dealt with the end of the war in Germany, dealing with the Easy Company having to handle the fact that they were still active without any enemies to fight.

There are some lovely spots that they recorded this episode at in Austria, creating a beauty that has not been seen much during the gritty, violent series.

This episode did feel like a lot of falling actions. It had a couple of powerful moments, in particular surrounding the shooting of Sergeant Grant.

Episode nine felt like the real emotional conclusion to this series as the trip to the concentration camp showed what they were fighting for.

This made sense as a concluding episode because of the situation. I did like the ending voice over from Winters that gave us the insights on the surviving members and the words from the real men that these characters were based on. This was so much better than the boxed text that sometimes pops on the screen at the end of films based on true events. This was much more active and kinetic.

This brings the first arc of Sunday Morning Sidewalk to an end. Next week, post #11 will start off with a new series. Starting next week on April 6, I will begin the watch of the Netflix series The Sandman, which has eleven episodes and will run into June.

Daredevil: Born Again S1 E5, E6

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“With Intent”

“Excessive Force”

Two episodes released tonight on Disney +. A definite treat.

The first episode felt like it was such a separate episode, something that did not fit into the rest of the season. And it was great. A bank robbery is something we have seen before, but with Matt Murdock in the bank, the robbers are going to have a bad day.

Yusuf Khan is the assistant bank manager who just turned down Matt Murdock’s loan. Of course, he can not stop talking about his daughter Kamala. He even name dropped Ms. Marvel. It seems as if no Marvel super hero can get loans. Not just poor Sam Wilson.

I actually shivered when Matt, in the red mask, breaks the leg of the main bank robber. It was a painful blow.

I actually loved this episode even though there was no Daredevil. We got a lot of Matt Murdock using his powers in clever ways to save the day in a hugely subtle way.

The second episode really played the two sides of the same coin as both Matt and Wilson Fisk head back to the old days, Matt donning the Daredevil costume and Fisk beating poor Adam into oblivion.

We also get more with Muse. We learn about his victims and how his art is using the blood of his victims mixed with the paint. He faced off with Daredevil over the body of Hector’s niece, who was about to become Muse’s next victim.

Another cool cameo… Swordsman. Jacques “Jack” Duquesne himself makes an appearance to discuss items with Fisk at a fund raiser.

Two great episodes. I want more from Muse.

The X-Files S8 E13

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“Per Manum”

The episode focused in on Scully’s pregnancy and a potential conspiracy surrounding the deaths of other pregnant women. The episode was quite tense and does a really great job of keeping the storyline uncertain. The X-Files is exceptional at keeping the story hazy, where you are never quite sure what has happened. The truth continues to be an elusive thing.

Scully has kept her pregnancy a secret from everyone except for Skinner, which I guess I did not realize. I felt for John Doggett, being kept in the dark even though he has been nothing but honorable during his time with the X-Files. I guess you could say that Scully’s distrust goes deep, and understandably so.

We got a series of flashbacks too to scenes between Scully and Mulder, when he let her know that he had discovered Scully’s ova, but doctors had told him they were not viable. A second opinion gave Scully hope and she asked Mulder to be the father. These flashbacks were new scenes film with David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson and were strong scenes showing how connected these characters were.

The episode featured the debut of recurring character Knowle Rohrer, played by Adam Baldwin. Rohrer is an agent that Doggett knew, but who has potential ties to the CIA. His motivations were certainly up for question and his physical appearance felt close to Krychek, which was slightly disturbing for me.

This did have an old school feel to it and brought that classic X-Files episode.