Category Archives: TV-G[eek]

What We Do in the Shadows Season Two

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I decided that, since the show What We Do in the Shadow had ten episodes each around 24 minutes, it would be a good idea to go ahead and binge these seasons instead of spreading it out. I will be finishing the X-Files soon and my goal is to run through this total series before school starts again.

So I started the season two this morning and went through it. I think the second season was tremendous, and I think I liked it even more than I did season one.

There were some awesome guest stars/cameos during the season. This included an amazing performance from Mark Hammil, plus Benedict Wong, Haley Joel Osment, Craig Robinson, Greta Lee, James Frain, and Lucy Punch.

Some of the fish out of water things that the show threw Laszlo, Nadja and Nandor into some of the oddest situations. They had to attend a “Superb Owl” party at a neighbor’s house which was actually a Super Bowl party. They had to figure out their own laundry after Guillermo left them. The email curse, which everyone knows is BS, caused them massive concern. Colin Robinson’ promotion which led to his great power.

The show brought us a zombie (Haley Joel Osment who is killed by Guillermo accidentally), witches, ghosts (in a very clever episode), Black Peter- a talking goat and, of course, other vampires. There were vampire slayers too, or at least, a group of vampire slayer-wannabees, who get crushed by a house of vampires.

The story of Guillermo being a descendent of Van Helsing is a major driving force of story this year, as is Guillermo’s desire to be appreciated by his master. We see how vital Guillermo is to this group, even if they still do not necessarily see it. Even when Guillermo saved them from the Vampire Council by killing all of them, all Nandor could think of what his laundry.

Mark Hamill’s appearance as Jim the Vampire was so great and led to a solo story for Laszlo, who ran away from Jim the Vampire and hid out in Pennsylvania as a bartender named Jackie Daytona. Laszlo is able to hide his identity by having a toothpick in his mouth. This was a hilarious episode and one of the standout episodes of the season.

This was a great way to watch this season and I will continue to pick days to binge the remainder of the seasons of this show over the next six weeks or so before school. I have seasons 3 – 6 remaining, each season (except 6) have ten episodes.

The X-Files S11 E3

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“Plus One”

Who knew that playing Hangman could be so dangerous?

“Plus One” was the second consecutive really strong episode of season 11 that did not feature the show’s overall mythology. However, it does, once again, touch upon the biggest event in Scully’s life, that being her desire to be a mother.

Our antagonists, Little Judy Poundstone and Little Chucky Poundstone, are twins with some kind of psychic connection that can show people their doppelganger, which would drive them to suicide. Little Judy Poundstone and Little Chucky Poundstone were both played by Karin Konoval.

If you are a long time X-Files fan, you know who Karin Konoval was. She played Madame Zelda from “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” and Mrs. Peacock from “Home.” Both of these characters were creepy or over-the-top. Playing these twins add to Konoval’s rogue’s gallery of X-Files characters.

I liked this episode not only for the creepy villains and the strange story, but for the interactions between Mulder and Scully, as their banter continued to provide insights to these two characters, despite already knowing them for decades.

David Duchovny’s song “Unsaid Undone” was in the cold open for this episode. It was from an album that he put out in 2016, something that I had never heard before.

The Bear S4 E3, E4

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“Scallop”

“Worms”

Two very solid episodes of The Bear are next in their season four on Hulu.

“Scallop” featured Carmy, dealing with a bunch of his own issues. There is a tremendous scene between Carmy and Marcus outside on a smoke break. Their dialogue between them was sharp and filled with evidence about how important they were to each other. Carmy is slowly straightening his life around by seeing the energy and effort given by the staff of the Bear.

Rob Reiner guest starred as Albert Schner, in the episode with Ebraheim, who had asked for his opinion as a mentor about the window for “The Beef” which had been doing great business as a window behind The Bear.

This episode finished with a long overdue confrontation with Carmy and Claire. I would be lying if I did not say that I was yelling at the screen about this scene, waiting for Carmy to just apologize. While it did not feel resolved, I think it is the first baby steps in getting these two back together. Splitting them apart was the start of Carmy’s downward spiral and getting them back together is so needed.

Then in “Worms,” we focus in on Sydney and her decision between staying at the Bear or moving over to Shapiro’s. She has been split over this choice dating back to the last season and she is reaching the point where she is needing to decide.

She goes over to her cousin’s place. Her cousin was played by Danielle Deadwyler, who had had some of the top performances over the last few years. If you have not seen her in Till, do yourself a favor, get some tissues, and watch it.

Sydney winds up watching her cousin’s daughter, TJ. TJ and Sydney have a really nice episode bonding and talking over their own troubles. Sydney tries to use an analogy to get TJ’s opinion about where she wanted to work. She pretended to talk about sleep overs, but, we find out in the end, TJ knew it was about a job.

Sydney called Shapiro and started to talk about paperwork, making us think that she was ready to make the choice to leave the Bear.

These episodes are just nice, calmer character episodes, keeping the craziness to a limit. I like the way this season is going so far, but I expect fireworks coming up soon.

The X-Files S11 E2

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“This”

“This” was an excellent episode the X-Files.

Bringing back Langley of the Lone Gunmen in a creative and original way really started the episode with a cool mystery that led to a wild conclusion and a typical X-Files ending.

The hardest part to accept, however, was when Mulder and Scully were at Arlington Cemetery at the graves of the Lone Gunmen and made their Batman Leaps to figure out what the message was. The clues with the presidents and their death dates was bizarre and practically impossible to figure out. Mulder and Scully figured it out in just a few minutes. Adam West and Burt Ward would be proud.

Seeing Mulder and Scully really work together to survive and to get through the mystery was awesome. They truly are a great pairing and the chemistry was still alive after all of these years. And Scully kicked some serious ass in this episode.

Tying this mystery to the death of Langley gave Mulder a way to honor his old friends who had died back in season nine while Mulder was in hiding. It also brought back the idea of Deep Throat, whose gravestone contained another surprise.

The comment about how the FBI was not in the good graces of the Executive branch during this time was a direct reference to Trump and his troubles with the agency.

This monster-of-the-week entry was considerably more entertaining than the bizarre season eleven opener. It still played up the mistrust between Scully and Mulder with Skinner, something that this show has built on not only the last few episodes, but across the run of the series.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #24

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“Steal”

“Mixed Signals“

The next two episodes of Win or Lose are this week’s Sunday Morning Sidewalk and we have two more bangers.

The show has been playing with perspective of the same week between a win by the softball team The Pickles and the championship game. We actually got the first flashes of the championship game with the “Mixed Signals” episode.

“Steal” followed Ira, the little brother of Taylor, who was anything but excited about softball. He just wanted to spend time with his older sister playing video games. His imagination was in full throttle as he pictured himself as a hero, saving the world from a comet. However, a new boyfriend for Taylor interrupted Ira’s life, and he wound up meeting and joining with The Bleacher Creatures (Brian, Rinna and Chicken-Kevin)

The Bleacher Creatures get Ira to help them steal candy from the concession stand by being the distraction. Ira’s imagination makes the Bleacher Creature appear to be the heroes of the story, even though they were anything but.

Ira was taken to the party where the Brian was involved with holding Rochelle, trying to get her keys to the concession stand. Ira goes to the championship game with his sister and leaves a note of apology for his part in stealing the snacks, but Brian showed up and apologized to him.

Meanwhile, in “Mixed Signals” we get a focus on Yuwen, the loud mouthed pitcher of the Pickles who used the obnoxious attitude as a front to hide the insecure and lonely kid on the inside. The show illustrates this with “Little Yuwen,” a paper craft diorama character.

Through a series of youthful taunts and barbs, Yuwen shouts out that he liked Taylor and she agreed to go out with him on a date. They get along great at first, and Yuwen shared his insecurities with Taylor. This was such a sweet scene of young love.

They get in a fight over Yuwen’s jealousy of Tom, who was asking for tutoring help from Taylor. The carefully constructed relationship of trust and care crumbled away quickly.

For the first time, we got a glimpse at things happening in the championship game as Rochelle is a no show and Taylor takes over as catcher. Yuwen let his anger get the better of him and refused to throw any pitch that Taylor called, leading to the go ahead run to score. Taylor stormed off in the middle of the game.

We have two more episodes for next week to complete this first season. I can’t wait to see where this championship game goes and how someone else’s POV of the situation may change.

The Bear S4 E1, E2

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“Groundhog Day”

“Soubise”

The Bear is back with a literal ticking clock.

The review is out. It was not a good one and the backlash hit the crew of the Bear in many different ways.

Uncle Jimmy and Computer came with an ultimatum about the restaurant. A clock plugged into the wall with a time that, when it reaches zero, the restaurant must be closed.

The first couple of episodes the characters feel like they are grieving over a loss, but still have hope for something to turn around.

Carmy, in particular, seems to have made a decision. He has looked on the inside and realized how much of an ass he was last season and has taken steps to draw himself back. I think he finally realized that he cannot exist in that chaos, something that Sydney calls him on in the nicest possible way.

Season three was easily my least favorite season of The Bear there was. It took some trips that I just did not enjoy much and watching Carmy self-destruct was not an enjoyable experience. Even after saying that though, the show had its moments and I am looking forward to the next season.

Season four kicked off feeling strong, even if nothing much really happened. These first two episodes helped show me why I enjoyed Carmy so much and pictured him as less of the screaming loon as I remember form season three. His apology to Sugar for not yet coming to meet the baby was the perfect realization for him.

It feels hopeful, while still having that looming failure hanging over everyone’s heads. We’ll see how things go.

Duster S1 E8

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“66 Reno Split”

Okay, the finale of season one of Duster rocked really hard.

It was probably the best episode of the season as everything came to a close and they set up some unbelievably compelling storylines for a season two.

Major points this episode:

  • We find out what happened to Joey. (Hint he was not killed by Saxton)
  • I did not see Saxton’s death coming but his sacrifice for his son fit well for this character
  • I did not realize that Corbin Bernsen was playing Jimmy’s dad. He had some tense scenes with Genesis.
  • Good seeing Billy get his, especially after his brutality with Jimmy and Nina.
  • The Agent Grant-Nina showdown was intense too. Thanks to Awan for his awesome timing.
  • Jimmy is just a hero. He drove his car right into the hornet’s nest to try and save Nina.
  • Of course, he had his dad set up to shoot Genesis as a way to get Saxton to change his plans. That was the old 66 Reno Split.
  • Izzy tells Jimmy that she had cancer to convince him not to leave town. She told him that Luna would need him.
  • Turned out that the mysterious Xavier is Joey, Jimmy’s brother who is not dead (Saxton helped him get away).
  • The Nixon tape found its way into other hands. It had Nixon preparing to sow racial divide.
  • Jimmy and Nina are teaming up again to try and find Joey/Xavier.

This was a really fun episode and a great end to the season. I hope we get to continue on. Josh Holloway is a tremendously charismatic actor and his presence in every scene is perfect.

Poker Face S2 E11

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“Night of the Iguana”

The penultimate episode of season two is the first part of a two part episode bringing a hitman to a wedding to murder the groom.

The episode brought several characters back to the canvas including Beatrix Hasp, the former crime lord who is in protective custody. She is played by Rhea Perlman. Another return character was Luca Clark of the FBI, who is a recurring character on the show played by Simon Helberg.

The Iguana is the hitman. He is shown murdering a man and taking his place at the wedding, literally with his mask he made out of the dead man. It was creepy. The Iguana is a ghost. Nobody knows who he is or what he looked like. I liked the Iguana. He was a scary individual.

Haley Joel Osment was our victim this week. He also turned out to be the son of Beatrix Hasp.

Now, here was the twist that made things not work for me. It turned out that everything the Iguana was doing was trying to find his way to Beatrix. He set up Charlie so she would go see Beatrix. The whole thing at the end kind of wasted what the concept was.

Next week, the episode continues. Maybe they will do something to make it make more sense.

The X-Files S10 E5, E6 & S11 E1

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I wrapped up season 10 and then I had to start season because of the cliffhanger they left us with.

“Babylon”

Homeland meets Californication.

The X-Files had a Muslim terrorist angle that did not put a very positive face on it. It had a definite feel of islamophobia to it as the terrorist organization they were pursuing was Muslim.

It seemed as if the episode was as interested in introducing mirror images of Mulder and Scully. We meet Agent Miller (Robbie Amell) and Agent Einstein (Lauren Ambrose). They were younger examples of Mulder and Scully. Miller was a believer in the paranormal and the weird aspects of the world and Einstein was a scientist who was a skeptic. She was even a red head.

At first it felt like they were just a joke, but they actually turn into characters that would play an important role in the next episode.

The bizarre hallucinations Mulder underwent (thanks to a placebo, apparently) were strange and included the Lone Gunmen (RIP).

“My Struggle II”

Why will they not just shoot him in the head?

I was just screaming at the TV again when Cigarette Smoking Man showed up, not dead again, and plotting to expose the world to a deadly alien virus. Mulder had a gun on him again and just refuses to shoot him in the head. Why won’t he shoot him in the head? Everything can be over if he would just shoot him in the head… several times. Empty the gun.

We get an apocalyptic episode where the world is going to hell and Scully and Einstein race against time to try and find the cure for the virus. Meanwhile, Mulder is confronting CSM and NOT SHOOTING HIM IN THE HEAD!!!!

This episode did feel like a mess and wound up leaving on an insane cliffhanger. It was advertised as “This is the End” and it sure felt like it.

The show did bring back Monica Reyes and put her with CSM, which allowed me to freely hate her instead of trying to like her as I did in season 8 and 9.

“My Struggle III”

Nevermind.

Oh, that ending to season 10…. well, that was just a possible vision that Scully was having. Wink wink.

I wonder how much of the dislike for season 10 episode 6 there was in the world led to this changing of mythology in season 11.

I do not think that the revelation at the end of the episode would change the negative thoughts though as it was revealed that William was not Mulder’s son, but that he was artificially inseminated by CSM and that he was the father of Scully’s baby. Not sure why anyone would think that would be a well received idea.

It was hinted that William was the one sending these visions to Scully, which make little sense, but it definitely kicks off the storyline of finding William for season 11.

Oh, and Skinner won’t shoot CSM in the head either. Why don’t they just SHOOT HIM IN THE HEAD? They have the opportunity to d it. Who would blame them. He is believed to be dead anyway. JUST DO IT!!!!

Oh and Jeffrey Spender is back this episode, but looking a lot better than he did the last time we saw him. Did it cost too much for the make up?

Ironheart E4, E5, E6

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I had heard the rumors. I had heard the speculation. I knew of the comic story. I still did not believe it. After four years, since WandaVision, I had kind of given up the idea that we would ever see him. Then, episode six of Ironheart came about and…

Mephisto CONFIRMED!

Sacha Baron Cohen had been rumored to be playing Marvel’s big devil, but that was just something I never truly took for certain. Even when all the signs were pointing to it being true, I had trouble believing it. Then, there he was, standing in front of Anthony Ramos, giving him his magical hood, just part of the deal.

I loved Sacha Baron Cohen as Mephisto. he was creepy and played it perfectly. They did avoid the red skin, which I kind of wanted, but will probably be in his future.

The show also name dropped Dormammu as a way to try and swerve the people way from the idea of Mephisto. Riri went to try and get some help from… Zelma Stanton, who in the comics was a librarian who went to Dr. Strange with a mind maggot and she stayed as his apprentice for a time. She also became a teacher at Strange Academy.

These three episodes were really solid in my opinion. I do think the Alden Ehrenreich character, Zeke Stane, felt a little forced, but I do like Alden as an actor so I am able to let it be.

The very end of the sixth episode leads us to believe that Riri has made a deal with the devil himself as it looked as if Natalie was alive once again. It left this series off on a gigantic cliffhanger that kept me off-guard. Are there more planned with Ironheart or Mephisto? There has to be.

I thought this was a good show that I enjoyed. I was really engaged, especially with the arrival of Mephisto. It feels significant moving forward. Perhaps with the rumored supernatural phase that Marvel may be preparing for after Secret Wars.

X-Files S10 E4

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“Home Again”

The fourth episode of the short tenth season was very eventful, especially for Scully. Scully’s mother died and opened up a whole bunch of questions for Scully, many of which led to Scully wondering about her son, William, whom she had given away at the end of season 9 to protect him.

Gillian Anderson was powerful with er performance in this episode as he was dealing with the loss of her mother and the fresh memories of her loss of William.

The case that they were working on prior to Scully receiving the phone call about her mother was one that did not work as well for me. These scenes were just not as powerful as the ones that Scully was directly involved with. It was meant to give Scully some more questions about William and served that purpose, but did not have the kind of meat that the Scully scenes had.

I know that the series goes into the William storyline much more moving forward and episodes like these show how crushing it was for Scully. Mulder is always quiet and supportive, but you can tell from his facials that he is every bit as in pain as Scully is.

Duster S1 E7

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“K-129”

Duster has taken a wild swing into the world of political thriller, connecting the story they have been telling to, of all things, the Watergate tapes.

Howard Hughes made a guest star appearance and told Jim that Joey was killed by the CIA. Is that the truth or just the ramblings of a crazy man?

Sgt Groomes awakened and gave his info on Jim to Billy, all the while then ousting Nina from her Russian interpreter role. Billy snatched Nina at the end of the episode, which technically saved her from Agent Chad who had received orders to take Nina out.

Luna stowed away in the duster with Jim and Saxton, who were delivering the case (that contained the “smoking gun” tape of Nixon) to Hughes. When she was discovered, she dropped the fact that she was the daughter of the protestor that Saxton had been having so much trouble with, but Saxton did seem to be willing to listen to the little girl argue the case for the protest and for women’s rights.

Who, by the way, is Xavier?

There were a ton of storylines coming together and setting up for net episode’s finale of season one.

Poker Face S2 E10

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“The Big Pump”

Episode 10 of the second season of Poker Face was probably my least favorite of the season so far.

It featured the story of a man Rodney (Jason Ritter) who wanted to get “pumped up” for a class reunion and tried to get the owner of a local gym, Brick (Method Man) to get him some of the “good stuff” that he was selling to the other gym members who were making more progress than he was.

When the man, who worked as a health inspector, discovered that the “good stuff” was mother’s breast milk, he was angry and ready to report him. Rodney and Brick fought and Brick accidentally hit him in the throat with a weight. He set it up to look like Rodney had been lifting weights without a spotter and had a terrible gym accident.

Here comes Charlie.

Charlie and her new friend Alex (Patti Harrison) began to have doubts about the story being told by Brick and, even though Charlie wanted to turn over a new leaf and start to mind her own business, she couldn’t help herself.

I just did not find this episode very engaging. I did laugh as Charlie had been locked in the sauna by Brick because she was trying to get a message to Alex via smartwatch by doing a sequence of exercises that included heel raises, arm circles, lunges and push-ups. This was meant to spell HALP.

I found this to be a bit of a step back for Poker Face, although a crime solving partner was new for Charlie. There are two more episodes of season 2.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #23

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June 29

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“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

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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.