Category Archives: TV-G[eek]

Dark Matter S1 E7

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“In the Fires of Dead Stars”

This was a great episode that has seemingly set the show up for a huge final two episodes.

Jason finally found his way back to his universe.

Jason 2 returned Ryan from The Box after the police started looking for him. Was this a different Ryan from a different universe?

Amanda had decided to stay in a universe instead of continuing on with Jason.

Jason tried to buy a gun, after seeing Jason 2 with his family in his home.

Jason 2 came into the gun shop right after Jason left and Jason 2 discovered that Jason was there.

Jason 2 had cracked open the cement covering the Box, leaving it open for Jason make his way through.

Jason 2 had a disagreement with his therapist version of Amanda, telling her that he wants to leave.

There is so much in this episode and it feels as if the next two will be insane. Episode eight is the penultimate episode of the first season.

The White Lotus S3 E1

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“Same Spirits, New Forms”

I wanted to have season one and two pf The White Lotus completed before season three kicked off, but I found out that the first episode had debuted last week and I was still in season two. So this week, I made it a goal to get through season two so I could follow along with season three as a weekly show.

I did complete the second season earlier this week so today I watched the first episode of season three.

The White Lotus for this season is set in Thailand and the exteriors and the surroundings are absolutely stunning. They have always looked great, but there is something both beautiful and mysterious about the set up for this season.

The opening of the season is as dramatic as always, with gunfire breaking up a young African-American’s one-on-one meditation session. We learn that he was at The White Lotus with his mother, but we do not have any ideas whom that is. However, I did have an idea whom that MIGHT be. I knew coming in that Natasha Rothwell would be resuming her role as Belinda Lindsay from season one, and so I could assume that this was her son. Maybe I am wrong, but I am fairly certain that is the case.

I do have more of a connection to this new group of characters in the first episode than I did in the season two introduction. That’s not to say that these characters aren’t rotten jerks, because clearly they are, but I have more of a connection to these. Why? I am not sure.

Actors in this season, along with Natasha Rothwell, include Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Parker Posey, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sarah Catherine Hook, Sam Nivola, Michelle Monaghan, Carrie Coon, Leslie Bibb, Aimee Lou Wood, Nicholas Duvernay, Lalisa Manobal, Tayme Thapthimthong, Lek Patravadi, Christian Friedel, Shalini Peiris, and Jon Gries.

New episodes are on MAX every Sunday night at 8 PM CST.

Invincible S3 E5

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“This Was Supposed to Be Easy”

Invincible and Eve form their own protection company. Invincible Inc., and they take the contract to protect the prison after there was an attempt to break out Paul.

Invincible takes on the dragon form of Mister Lu at the prison, and that does not go too well for him. The dragon is extremely formidable, but ends up disappearing when Mister Lu is killed by Machine Head.

This was all orchestrated by Titan, whose family was being threatened by Lu in order to get Titan to bust out Paul. Paul tried to recruit Invincible to help him out, with the idea that the Order is much better when Titan was in charge than when these other killers were. Mark did not buy that, but does inadvertently helped him.

Meanwhile, Mark and Eve decide to start to take things a little slower. They had considered getting their own place, but Mark eventually decided to stay at home with his mom and Oliver. Oliver had been sneaking out of the house to go see friends in the night to skateboard and Mark and his mom were worried.

This episode did feel like a step back, but it was still entertaining and it did cover an area that had not been addressed for awhile now.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #5

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February 23

“Crossroads”

This episode of Band of Brothers moved through time, showing us different moments in the life of Captain Winters, from his last command in the field in Holland to his promotion to Executive Officer (XO) of 2nd Battalion. This would mean that he was no longer in command of Easy Company.

We see his response to all the paperwork that his new position entailed and how he returned mentally to the front lines. This is juxtaposed with a memory of his final shots of his command when he shot a young German soldier. The moment when the young German, who was kneeling, smiled, only to have the smile leave his face in realization, was haunting and stuck with Winters moving forward.

Fredrick “Moose” Heyliger is the person that Winters suggested to take his place, but Moose is shot by a twitchy Army sentry. Moose does survive, but he does not return to Easy Company after his injuries. What a scene this was with the young Army sentry actually shooting someone on his side.

We saw a cameo with Jimmy Fallon as Lt. George Rice. This was an episode that was directed by Tom Hanks, and he does a great job with the non-linear storytelling.

The White Lotus S2 E6, E7

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“Abductions”

“Arrivederci”

Season two of The White Lotus wrapped up with these final two episodes, and I feel kind of empty.

Madame Butterfly died at the end.

The reveal of who the body was in the water was heartbreaking and several of these stories turned out tragic.

I never would have guessed that Tanya would have been the one who drown. Even more so… the plot surrounding her death was crazy, but, seemingly, not just paranoia. The worst part of everything was Greg gets away with all of Tanya’s money, and we never see him again. The whole Tanya and the Gays story was a heavy part of these last two episodes and had such a tragic twist at the end that it hit me like a punch in the gut.

Tanya’s death was not the only story that I thought ended sadly. The whole storyline with our two prostitutes was terrible. Lucia turned out to be scamming poor, naive Albie to get money… in the end 50,000 Euros. Albie thought it was to get her out from under a crazy Italian man, but that guy was just part of the scam, as we see in the final moments of the show. I feel disappointed in myself because I had started to come around on Lucia and Mia after spending the first part of this season disliking them quite a bit. I should have stuck to my opinions, but the show played me good.

There was so much toxicity in the relationships of Ethan and Harper and Daphne and Cameron that I had soured on that story already. Watching these four being so horrid was my least favorite storyline. Did Ethan and Daphne have a sexual encounter on the island? Did Cameron and Harper do more than what Harper confessed to? My one favorite part was Ethan going to nearly murder Cameron in the water. I would never see that guy again if I were Ethan, but that was not the implication that I got. However, Ethan and Harper seem to have gotten past their troubles and are, apparently, happy once again.

These last two episodes were extremely well done, but they did not go out of their way to give us a happy ending. Maybe in the end it will turn out okay for Albie and Portia, who reconnected at the airport (even though Portia had no idea about Tanya’s fate… or at least, only suspected).

There was a lot of things left ambiguous, which does not bother me. I have a good idea what happened. I just would have liked something more positive than the scamming hookers being the big winners.

The first episode of season three of The White Lotus is out and I will get that one done before the next episode Sunday night.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man S1 E9, E10

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“Hero or Menace”

“If This Be My Destiny…”

The finale two episodes of the first season of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man are absolutely amazing!

In episode nine, we get a big showdown between Spidey and Scorpion, with Lonny smack dab in the middle. Lonny gets exposed to a gas that gives him super strength (and will eventually turn him into the Tombstone we know in the comics). Spidey and Lonny defeat Scorpion.

In episode ten, we have a big battle with Dr. Strange and the symbiote and we are shown that this battle is what would lead to the battle from the first episode at Peter’s school, and the spider that bit Peter was the spider that Norman had created with Spider-Man’s blood that they had collected. I loved that adjustment in the story. It made everything work for me.

The writing on this series has been excellent. It has developed more than just Peter Parker. I feel like they built the supporting characters around Peter so well, especially Lonny who could arguably be considered a co-lead character. They show us the beginning of several villains in the Spider-Man world, like Otto Octavius, Scorpion, Norman Osborn, Venom etc.

With Spider-Man’s actual suit debuting in episode nine, Spider-Man looked sensational. The animation of these episodes were so great with some amazing shots. I have not necessarily loved the animation prior, but this seemed to really be something special.

The voice acting did great all season long. Everything was excellent, especially Coleman Domingo, who was so epic. I would love to see Domingo play Norman Osborn in the MCU. The show has done a great job of slowly building Norman into who we expect he will become. And yet, it feels very justified.

I did not expect this series to be great because recent Spider-Man animation has been more directed toward very young children. This series was right up there with the best Spider-Man series and right there with X-Men ’97. I am happy that this series has a three season order so there are at least two more to go.

I love Spider-Man.

The White Lotus S2 E4, E5

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“In the Sandbox”

“That’s Amore”

It was two interesting episodes that seemingly flipped my opinions on some of the characters from the first three shows of season two.

This was the first time that I was interested in the two prostitutes who had been hanging around the White Lotus, Mia and Lucia, had been a distraction for much of the first three episodes, but, for some reason, I started to enjoy their presence in these two. Mia’s relationship with Albie felt sweet. I was a little uncertain because it felt like she might be taking advantage of him. Then Lucia’s accidental poisoning of the piano player led to her to gt a chance to play the piano.

Tanya, whom I already like, was able to get out of her depression over Greg’s leaving when she came across a group of gay men who invited her into their circle. I’m still not sure about the overall positiveness of this though. The end of episode five made me wonder. Still, it was nice to see Tanya apparently happy for a bit at least.

I was rooting for Portia, but her hooking up with Jack felt beneath her, and I was not sure I liked that storyline piece.

This was also the first time that I got into the story with Dominic and his father Bert. There was a scene between the two of them at dinner that brought this troubled relationship to light, making me understand these two way more than discussions of The Godfather ever did.

Aubrey Plaza’s Harper, who had been my favorite character up until these episodes, found a condom wrapper in the apartment and became extremely unhappy with Ethan. This entire arc has done nothing but make me dislike Harper and make me feel sorry for Ethan. It feels at this point that Ethan is way better than any of the people he is with, whether it be Harper or his best friend, Cameron, who is just a creep.

I do think that the show has begun to hint at who the bodies are going to be and we had a couple of characters go out to the water in moments of melancholy and close their eyes. It was both Dominic and Harper at different points during these episodes. I do not know if this is meant to be red herrings, but these two are easily the most depressed characters on the canvas right now, even lower than Tanya.

Two more episodes to go before I start season three.

Paradise S1 E6

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“You Asked For Miracles”

I love Die Hard so much.

Using it as flavor for this episode was such a great idea.

Paradise is such an incredible show. I never expected this being as amazing as it is.

Xavier is leading the charge against Sinatra. He has everything planned out perfectly, knowing what she would do at each step. It led to a dramatic showdown at the episode’s end between them, and something that Xavier did not see coming.

His wife is alive?

Xavier also does not know that his daughter Presley is not safe and secure. She is in the custody of Jane. Presley did not know that Jane was someone not to trust.

Xavier has all the guns. Things are really coming together.

Yippee Ki-Yay, Mfer.

White Lotus S2 E2, E3

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“Italian Dream”

“Bull Elephants”

I just discovered that White Lotus season three has begun over on MAX, with episodes dropping on Sundays. Apparently episode 1 of season three is out and the next one will arrive this Sunday night. I had just started season two recently and so I would like to set a goal to finish season two and watch the first episode of season three before Sunday night so I can caught be caught up with the series.

So today I watched episodes 2 & 3 of season two.

I am not incredibly connected to any of these characters yet, outside of Aubrey Plaza. She is in a wild situation with her new husband and his best friend. They are seemingly dancing around each other and the tension is palatable. Between the two husbands, Ethan and Cameron, Ethan is so much more likable and he seems a much better person than anyone else on the show.

I feel for Tanya too. Her husband Greg definitely has something going on. He has been getting phone calls, speaking to someone he tells he loves. He’s plotting something. It seems like his potential illness that was going to kill him is gone. He indicated that Tanya helped him get better. I wonder if the show is trying to make him look like a bad guy and it will be a swerve, or is he after Tanya’s money?

Again, I have not seen any progression toward the scene we got in the first episode with all the dead bodies in the water. It was late in season one when things started to happen in that area as well.

The X-Files S8 E5

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“Invocation”

This was my least favorite episode of the eighth season so far, but it was not bad, and was almost saved by the ending.

Seven year old boy Billy Underwood was snatched from a park and was missing for ten years. Strangely enough, Billy returned but had seemingly not aged one day.

The craziness of the case involved Scully and Doggett, but it felt as if Doggett had taken a step back into the asshole that he had been shown as in the early episodes of this season after apparently taking steps forward in the last couple.

The returned boy would not speak and was creeping out his father and brother. His mother was not bothered at all. The first half of the episode did not feel as if it matched up with the conclusion, but I did like the conclusion.

The kidnappers from ten years ago were discovered and arrested but Doggett discovered a grave with the skeletal remains of Billy Underwood from the time when he originally disappeared.

I don’t know if this was supposed to be a spirit of some kind returned to help his brother, who wound up kidnapped by the same men, or what. There was a scene of a knife being stabbed in Billy’s brother’s bed that does not make sense in the eventual narrative. It sure seemed as if the show was setting up the returned Billy as some sort of malevolent force.

I read on Wikipedia that this also set up an arc for John, who apparently had lost a son to a murder as well, which makes sense why he was so obsessed with this case. However, I missed it during the episode. A psychic had mentioned something about someone in the room having gone through this, but I did not think it was Doggett and I do not remember it ever being touched on the rest of the episode.

I found this uneven and shaky as an episode, but not one that I hated. It is a definite “mid” episode, though if the upcoming Doggett arc takes off, maybe this would require some readjusted thought.

Dark Matter S1 E6

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“Superposition”

Jason 2 is becoming more manipulative with every second. He accidentally gives his son ice cream with nuts in it, not aware that the boy has an allergy to them. This started some questioning by Daniela about what was going on.

Then, man the Box is a perfect way to get rid of bodies. Imagine, you could just drop a body off in some nearby dimension and no one would ever know. Jason 2 does that very thing, albeit not a dead body, when he tricked Ryan into going with him into the Box only to strand him in an alternate universe.

Jason and Amanda are starting to feel the stress of their continued failures at finding Jason’s actual universe. They’re coming across so many that are just a little different and they were feeling it. They are also growing closer to one another, bringing even more stress into the situation.

Jason 2 sealed up the Box at the end of the episode, seemingly finishing his plan. However, I get the implication that Jason 2 may not be as happy in this universe than he thought he would be.

I am not sure what will happen next, but I do think the doubts that have creeped into Daniela’s mind will continue to grow as Jason 2 increases his efforts.

Dexter: Original Sin S1 E10

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“Code Blues”

I have been up and down with this new prequel version of Dexter during its run on Amazon Prime. Leading up to the tenth episode, I had mixed emotions for this show. The tone had been all over the place and there were times when it felt as if the show wanted to be more comedic than it should have been.

Thankfully, I feel as if the finale of the season delivered a reasonably solid episode, in particular in connection with the kidnapping of Nicky. However, the show left a giant dangling plot in Dexter’s serial killer brother unresolved and feeling like a huge time bomb ready to go off. Will that ever be dealt with? Will there be another season of this version of Dexter? I’m not sure the answers to any of those questions, but looking just at this finale, I thought it was pretty good. (I guess Dexter deals with Brian in season one of the original series, which I did not remember.)

It did not hurt that most of the flashbacks were over and were just used to further the backstory of Brian, which was better than the stuff with Dexter’s birth mom.

The material with Captain Spencer was much better. I have to say that I was critical about the manner in which Dexter allowed Spencer to escape his table last episode. I thought that was an unnecessary risk. Of course, it worked out well, and Dexter was able to save Nicky from a watery grave after Spencer tried to drown the boy. Dexter was able to do it without revealing his identity to Nicky too. Win-Win.

He also was able to catch Spencer and kill him on the boat. Lots of blood involved there, which had to be a problematic plot hole.

Having Dexter, Harry and Deb dancing at the end of the episode was a fun way to show how positive everyone was feeling, even though a darkness lurked around a corner in Brian.

Overall, Dexter: original Sin finished strong, but perhaps not strong enough for me to dismiss the erratic tone taken by the series through the first two-thirds of the season. Some moments were very strong and engaging while other moments just did not work. All of the recasts were big hits though and the show definitely ended on a high note.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #4

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February 16

“Replacements”

“Replacements” details the events for Easy Company undergoing Operation Market Garden in Holland, which was a failure. The high-risk operation saw Easy Company retreat from the fight with the Krauts and showed how dangerous this situation could be.

It also featured a group of replacements to the company and how they were accepted (or hazed as the case may be) into a group of men who had been together for going on two years.

We had a return from David Schwimmer’s Captain Sobel, now as the newly appointed Regimental S-4. His facial expressions told more than any lines of dialogue could have from this returning character.

The story was told from the perspective of Sgt. Denver “Bull” Randleman. He gets wounded by some tank shrapnel and winds up spending the night in a barn with Germans all around him. He received help from a Dutch farmer and his daughter in a tense moment. Bull had to fight a German soldier hand-to-hand to keep his presence hidden.

There was also a cool scene where Private Webster gave a Dutch child a chocolate bar. The child had been with his father in an air raid shelter and came out when the Americans went past. The father had said the boy had never had chocolate before and the joy on the boy’s face after tasting the chocolate was a wonderful bit of life included within the horrors surrounding everything.

Horrors such as the Dutch people, who were greeting Easy Company as “liberators,” taking women and cutting their hair and drawing swastikas on their faces. These were women who had slept with German soldiers and were now facing consequences from an angry mob. This was a disturbing scene and you could tell that the soldiers were bothered by it as well.

This show does a really good job of these smaller moments tucked inside the overall dramatics and violence of the war scenes.

Invincible S3 E4

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“You Were My Hero”

Episode four of the third season of Invincible was really good, if not split into two distinct parts.

I want to get this out of the way first. When this episode started to use a narrator, like a voice over guy for movie trailers, I HATED THAT! That was the worst. I thought the second half of the show was going to be absolutely brutal because of this horrid technique.

However, as soon as Alan found Battle Beast, the second half picked up dramatically. I am not a fan of Omni Man, but seeing how he has a soft spot for Alan was a cool thing and watching them battle against two Viltrumites was fun.

I really enjoyed the first part of the episode where Mark was taken into the future to confront the king who had enslaved earth. I was sure that the king was going to turn out to be Nolan, Mark’s father, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was the Immortal instead.

Then, with the Immortal basically crazy, the struggle Mark had to face with whether or not to do what the Immortal wanted, to kill him, was a major character beat. It reminded me somewhat of Superman in Man of Steel when he broke Zod’s neck. Mark had no real choice and had to do it (although ripping off Immortal’s head was a little more drastic than breaking his neck).

I hope the beginning of the episode does not turn out to be just a throw away bit in this series, because I liked this and Mark was battling inside on his choice. I wonder if this will be forgotten considering it led to Mark and Eve having sex for the first time.

With the exception of the voice over guy, this was my favorite episode of Invincible in awhile. I hope it isn’t just forgotten (as there were some intriguing things mentioned in the future that could be hints about what is coming).

Cobra Kai S6 E11-15

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The final five episodes of the final season of Cobra Kai dropped on Netflix, bringing the series to a satisfying conclusion.

The tragic ending to episode 10 did not really play a piece in these final episodes very much. But the Sekai Taikai coming back to the Valley to complete the tournament was weird, yet worked.

There were a lot of great character moments in this last five episodes where we saw more of the development of these characters than what we saw in the first ten episodes. Moments between Johnny and Creese, Sam and Tori, Tori and Robbie, Dmitri and Hawk, and Johnny and Daniel.

Highlights included Johnny and Carmen’s wedding, both of the final matches in the Sekai Taikai with Tori and Miguel, the return to Cobra Kai, the moment when Daniel LaRusso walked out in Cobra Kai gear, the boat explosion, all the callbacks to the previous seasons and the Karate Kid movies.

My least favorite part of these episodes were the part in Korea with Kim Da-eun and her grandfather. This was a big thing is episode 11, but meant nothing after that.

Mixed: When the tie happened in the Sekai Taikai and it was announced that the tie breaker would be a battle of the two sensei. I literally laughed loudly at the silliness of that twist. Yes, the results in episode 15 turned out epically, but the very idea is just stupid and made no sense.

I thought there was so much more emotion in this block of episodes than previous ones that it was such a strong conclusion to the series. I did like how, in the end, it circled back to having Johnny front and center. This show did start off with Johnny as the main character and Daniel as a supporting character, which changed as the seasons progressed. The turn back to the Cobra Kai roots worked really well and made a lot of sense.

Even more, I was please that they did not make Johnny do the crane kick in that final battle to win the match. I really thought that is where they were going with that match, but the way they did it was so much better and felt far less forced than the crane kick would have felt.

We do not learn anything more about Miyagi’s past, and I actually think that worked well too. That felt like a side story that did not matter in the long run. Once they dealt with it in this episode, Daniel was able to accept the unknown and move on.

So after six seasons Cobra Kai had some really cheesy moments and some that were so far over the top, but it formed together with some excellent storytelling and character development. It also introduced us to a group of characters that we truly liked watching and provided a wonderful conclusion. I wondered if season five should have been the series conclusion, but after seeing these last five episodes, I am glad that they took it one more season.