Category Archives: TV-G[eek]

Dexter: Original Sin S1 E7, E8

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“The Big Bad Body Problem”

“Business and Pleasure”

I just am not sure how I feel about this show.

Dexter: Original Sin came back with some new episodes on Prime, but they seem to be inconsistent. There are some solid scenes with good tension while there are too many scenes that felt in was in the wrong show. The tone just does not work throughout.

Dexter figured out that Captain Spencer was the kid killer and had kidnapped his own son. He did a classic “Batman Leap” to figure it out, too. A “Batman Leap” was something that my friends and I dubbed when you make a leap in logic that comes out of nowhere, like Batman would do on the old TV show (Glu Glutton’s Glue Factory…). There is no real logical way Dexter would think the Captain was the culprit.

Of course, he was right and I assume that the Captain is going to end up on Dexter’s table before the end of the season.

Deb’s storyline is one of those that do not seem to work very well for me. They took Deb’s boyfriend Gio and made him a total jerk after seeing nothing of this from him during the entire time. They just decided to make this guy an ass for reasons.

The flashbacks are another part of this show that does not work for me either. They put Dexter, his brother and mother in jeopardy in a ridiculous situation that, I supposed, is meant to show you where the Dark Passenger came from.

Harry and LaGuerta went to Tampa looking for leads for their serial killer, and Harry found something in a file. I am not sure what it was, but the character’s name was Brian. I wondered if that is going to be Dexter’s brother.

Episode eight was a little better and more consistent than seven, but so much of the show is questionable that I think it could be so much better with some better writing.

Paradise S1 E1. E2, E3

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“Wildcat is Down”

“Sinatra”

“The Architect of Social Well-Being”

I gave the new Hulu series Paradise a chance. It starred Sterling K. Brown, James Marsden and Julianne Nicholson. The first three episodes dropped on Hulu and Disney + earlier this week.

This political thriller/sci-fi show was very entertaining and was a very intriguing mystery.

It kicked off with an unexpected twist. One of the main actors is murdered within the first part of the movie. The narrative is told in both present day and flashbacks, which really helps to establish background of characters and helped to build characters.

Brown and Marsden had great onscreen chemistry. Their scenes together were some of the best of the show. The writing was solid, providing little details of what was going on as the episodes progressed. The reveal at the end of the first episode, that the world had come to an end but the President and the surviving people live in an underground cavern, dug into a mountain.

I liked the whodunnit style of this with the flashbacks giving us a chance to see important moments instead of just hearing about them. I enjoyed Sterling K. Brown’s scenes with his character’s father. Looking forward to the rest of this series being released on Hulu for the next five episodes.

The White Lotus S1 E1, E2

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“Arrivals”

“New Day”

I had heard a lot about The White Lotus, particularly around Emmy time, and when I saw that it was available on HBO Max, I thought it would be a good series to start. I did not know what to expect with it.

Then, it kicked off with a scene where a depressed man sat in an airport. From the scene, we are able to tell that his wife had died. At this point, I was engaged.

The show flipped back a week and we see things that are happening at this resort hotel called the White Lotus and a bunch of new arrivals are coming to the hotel on a boat.

There is a series of bizarre people and the show is very funny. I am curious to see how the dead body comes into play.

Cast is great. It included Steve Zahn, Connie Britton, Murray Bartlett, Jennifer Coolidge, Jake Lacy, Sydney Sweeney, Fred Hechinger, Natasha Rothwell, Jolene Purdy, and Brittany O’Grady.

The X-Files S8 E1, E2

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“Within”

“Without”

I started season eight of the X-Files today, with its first two episodes, “Within” and “Without.” I have been dreading the start of this season because I knew that this was the season with David Duchovny departure…sort of.

Mulder was abducted by aliens at the end of season seven. This season, I remember Mulder was gone, but he was still in many episodes, being tortured by the aliens. I think this was the show wanting to move on, but yet keep Mulder in the mind’s eye.

This is one reason I remember hating the character of John Doggett, played by Robert Patrick, because he was the replacement for Fox Mulder and I wanted Fox Mulder back. And with the character still being shown every once in awhile, I could not get over it. John Doggett suffered for it.

Watching these two episodes, I had a much different reaction to John Doggett than I did when I first watched the show, back in the early 2000s. Here, I found him to be an interesting new character with a new dynamic with Scully. Scully as the believer (with Skinner in tow) and Doggett as the skeptic is a new feeling for the show.

The show bought in with the Alien Bounty Hunter once again, as the Alien Bounty Hunter was revealed to be on the ship that had Mulder.

These two episodes were really pretty good. It felt as if it took the story in a new direction while still circling back to the mythology behind the show’s first seven seasons. I know I liked them more today than I did in the past.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #2

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February #2

“Day of Days”

The second week of the Sunday Morning Sidewalk brought me back to HBO MAX for the second episode of the classic series, Band of Brothers. This episode followed the men of Easy Company on the jump out of the airplane and to the land of Normandy, France. The jump scattered the battalions across the area and they had to scurry around hostile territory in order to survive and complete their mission.

Lt. Winters is seemingly left in charge as the superior office is one of the missing in action. He spent some time in this episode gaining the trust and respect of his men, in particular one who seemed to be more interested in “killing Krauts” than following orders.

One of the more powerful moments of the episode was when Easy Company captured a group of German soldiers and it was discovered that one of them was born in Oregon. Malarkey discovered this piece of information and he bonded with the solider since he, too, was from Oregon. As he left the Germans, they were executed, including the born American. The look on Malarkey’s face told the story.

The realism of the battle scenes really stood out. The brutality and fear came through with every gunshot or grenade toss.

The end quote of the episode featured names of men who were awarded for their success and bravery.

“For destroying the German guns at Brécourt Manor the following awards were awarded

Bronze Stars

Walter Hendrix, Donald Malarkey, John Plesha, Joe Toye, Carwood Lipton, Cleveland Petty, Myron Ranney, “Popeye” Wynn

Silver Stars

“Buck” Compton, Bill Guarnere, Gerald Lorraine

The Distinguished Service Cross is awarded to

Lt. Richard Winters”

“Easy Company’s capture of the German Battery became a textbook case of an assault on a fixed position, and is still demonstrated at the United States Military Academy at West Point, today.”

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man S1 E1, E2

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“Amazing Fantasy”

“The Parker Luck”

There is no fictional character that means more to me than Peter Parker. I have spent my entire life loving Spider-Man. He has been an inspiration to me and my own core beliefs come from him. Every time I see a new Spider-Man project, I am both excited and a little nervous.

Nervous because there is always a chance that the project will be bad. I have gone through that a few times. And to be honest, seeing the initial images from Disney +’s new Spider-Man series, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, I was a little more nervous than usual.

However, after seeing the first two episodes of season one, my fears were alleviated. I loved these episodes. Even though the show did take some leeway with some things, YFNSM seemed to get the flavor, the tone of Spider-Man right.

One of the original issues I was afraid of was the animation style, but as the episode continued, it did not bother me at all. In fact, i think it worked very well with the character of Spider-Man.

I thought the show was funny and gave us a real good look at this Peter Parker, which is MCU-adjacent. While there are definitely connections to the MCU (Hey there, Left Hand Free), the differences are here too. It sure appears that Norman Osborn is going to be the Tony Stark figure in Peter’s life as the scene in Peter’s apartment with Aunt May was basically reenacted with Norman in Tony Stark’s place.

I love the balls this series is showing. I could tell immediately that there would be plenty of hatred on the internet because of certain “woke” items. I hate that term, by the way. When I first saw Harry in the first episode, I knew there would be some hate-spewers coming for this show. The gender swapping of Curt Connors will surely get some ignorant comments too. Fine. None of that bothered me.

Even the spider bite did not upset me. It certainly was different than any other version of Spider-Man, but that is not a bad thing. The spider was not from Oscorp in the original comics, yet the we’ve seen that happen in other Spider-Man versions.

The choice of Nico as Peter’s friend is intriguing. I have always enjoyed this character in the different comics. The football player is not Flash Thompson, but Lonnie Lincoln, who, by the way, we know from the comics as Tombstone. Amadeus Cho, a Shuri-like Wakandan also show up. The side cast is very eclectic. Great Dr. Strange cameo too.

Spider-Man has had some awesome animated series in the past with the 1990s Spider-Man and Spectacular Spider-Man, but it also had some shows that felt way too childish. I was concerned this would fall into that category like Ultimate Spider-Man. After the first two episodes, I feel as if those fears have been put to rest. It may not be in the same range as those first two I mentioned, but I think this has some real room to grow.

The X-Files S7 E19, E20, E21, E22

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“Hollywood A.D.”

“Fight Club”

“Je Souhaite”

“Requiem”

And with this, season 7 of The X-Files comes to a close. Perhaps one of the most inconsistent seasons of the show, with some real highs and some real lows.

The first three episodes on the list were all based in humor. One that really worked well, one that was so-so and one that was maybe the worst episode of the series.

“Hollywood A.D.” was ridiculous in all the best ways. Mulder and Scully being followed by a movie producer, who was full of puns and jokes, and a movie with Gary Shandling and Tea Leoni. This was written and directed by David Duchovny and had enough wink-winks to make the episode work.

“Je Souhaite” was the middle ground episode as it featured a Genie granting wishes. Honestly I got a lot of Twilight Zone vibes from this episode, which ended like the Disney movie Aladdin did. I found this silly too, but the humor worked more than it did not.

“Fight Club,” on the other hand, is one of the worst episodes I have ever seen of the X-Files, rivaling “First Person Shooter”. Kathy Griffin played two characters who were doppelgangers of each other and in love with a man who also had a doppelganger. Oh, and pro wrestler Rob Van Dam appeared. This was one where the humor did not work and the story was so stupid and incoherent that it seemed as if everyone was just going through the motions.

Then in “Requiem,” the season ended with the show going back to its roots, quite literally, as the show returned to the Oregon town that appeared in season one episode one. It also returned actors who had appeared in that episode. Returning as well was Smoking Man, Krychek, and Marita Covarrubias and Krychek apparently murdered a wheelchair-bound Smoking Man by pushing him down the stairs. It sure looked like he was dead this time, but I know he did not die here. Besides, it would not have been satisfying having Krychek be the one to knock off the a-hole.

Mulder then gets abducted by aliens in full view of Skinner, setting up Mulder’s absence moving forward. Scully tells Skinner that she was pregnant, even though she does not understand how (I mean, she knows how… but she was supposed to have been unable to become pregnant after her abduction).

“Requiem” set up the series with some real cliffhangers that allowed the series to continue into the 8th season. Many times during the 7th season, it really felt like it was going to be the final season and that the creative juices were gone. Part of that may have been the end of the conspiracy and wrapping things up, like Samantha Mulder’s disappearance, as they did.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #1

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January 26

Episode One: “Currahee“

Starting a stroll down the Sunday Morning Sidewalk here at EYG. The idea is to pick out a season of TV, ideally a short season, perhaps a show that only had one season, and watch an episode every Sunday morning.

While there are a ton of series that could have been our first series, I chose a series that has been on my to-watch list for quite awhile. It is over at HBO MAX, and it is Tom Hanks and Stephen Spielberg produced 2002 mini series, Band of Brothers.

I was not sure exactly what this first episode held for me. I have historically not been a huge fan of war movies, which was why I had not watched this before now.

When the episode began, it felt like a documentary style show, partially because of the initial interviews with members of the Easy Company of the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division and I was suddenly confused. I saw the episode underway and I thought, “Could this be actual footage?” It took me a few moments to figure out that this was not real footage, which speaks very highly of the show itself.

It was more than just a reenactment too. This was a show written from interviews and journals of the men involved in the company and it seemed as if accuracy was a major goal of this series.

If I had any question, the moment David Schwimmer walked onto screen, I knew what was going on. Schwimmer was playing a captain who pushed the men in their training, but turned out to be a lackluster field leader. It became so bad that men under his command staged a rebellion to draw attention to their concerns.

The acting is on par with some of the best acting you are going to see on any size screen. The first episode truly showed the skills of Damian Lewis, as Richard D. Winters.

Episode one does a great job of setting up what we are going to be seeing and provide us with an accurate view of the situation these men were in.

Next-February 2nd. Episode Two: “Days of Days“

The X-Files S7 E17, E18

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“All Things”

“Brand X”

As we move on through season seven of the X-Files, there were two episodes in a row that I watched tonight that I did not remember from the show’s original run, and that were both overall pretty weak.

“All Things” was written and directed by Gillian Anderson herself and, while I was hoping to love her episode, this was not very good. It was a weird, fantasy-like episode with Scully facing a love from her past and some Buddhist philosophy. I found this one pretty boring and I did not find much to it.

“Brand X” was a cigarette company killing people by accident. Some gross scenes with tobacco beetles were kind of interesting, and Mulder got exposed to the dangers of second hand smoke, quite literally. I don’t know why Skinner broke into that apartment without some kind of mask on. I mean, he knew that Mulder had been infected and that this was transmitted via the smoke. Seemed logical to wear a mask as protection.

Neither episode stood out. Both of them showed that season seven, while it had some highlights, was reaching a creative plateau for the show.

Four remaining episodes of season seven.

Battlestar Galactica S4 E19-E21

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“Daybreak Part One, Two & Three”

As I finished the last write up for Battlestar Galactica S4 E13-18, I had planned on watching the three-part finale as a big movie. I was starting to figure out how long it would take and when I could fit it into my schedule when I realized that I had the time tonight. So I turned to Amazon Prime and continued with the final three episodes of Battlestar Galactica.

I must say I feel as if the show came to an end in quite a lovely way.

The big battle at the Cylon colony was an incredible firefight, and, as I expected, it turned into a “opera house” type situation. I liked the way that resolved itself, putting the people involved in the proper places.

I did find the flashback sections of these episodes to be perhaps more than was needed. It did add some good background to some of the characters, especially Gaius and his father, but some felt superfluous.

The whole Galen Tyrol discovery of Cally’s murder by Tory was shocking , but it was just the way Galen had been portrayed over the series. Hotheaded, angry and reactive, Galen snapped Tory’s neck, which messed up the entire deal between Adama and Cavil. I’m not sure Cavil taking his own life made sense in this situation, but it did bring a resolution to the conflict.

I figured most of the final episode would be falling action, wrapping up the stories and giving us closure for the characters. Laura Roslin’s death was sad and yet beautiful. I was afraid that Adama would do something drastic since he had said that he “couldn’t live without her” earlier this season.

Kara’s return was revealed that she was an angel of some sort, and her just disappearance after a goodbye with Lee was really melancholic. I liked that they did not go into a great detail to explain what was going on with her and this made all the sense in the world.

I am not sure how I feel about the prologue at the end with Head Gaius and Head Six walking around in present day on this new earth. I had guessed that they were in the past of a planet when they arrived, but not sure why these “head” characters were in the present day timeline.

Overall, I was satisfied with the conclusion of the show. It was a fantastic sci-fi show with a lot of faith built into it. I did like how it presented us with the conclusions for the characters, even if some of them were not very happy (Adama, Lee etc.) There may be a question or two that the finale opens that may not make a lot of sense (giving up technology is one…), but there is nothing that ruins the show for me.

Battlestar Galactica S4 E13-E18

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“The Oath”

“Blood on the Scales”

“No Exit”

“Deadlock”

“Someone to Watch Over Me”

“Islanded in a Stream of Stars”

I watched six episodes in the final season of Battlestar Galactica today, completely enthralled by the experience. This has been such a journey, with some of the best characters on TV and an almost impossible storyline to predict.

Admiral Adama has been so up and down over this stretch of time. So much of his shakiness has been because of his drinking. I do not think the show has intended to dive into his drinking, but it is clear that the alcohol has been a problem. It turns Adama into someone that is so different, so angry. He is usually a balanced individual, but when he is drinking, he is anything but.

Of course, he had to survive the coup attempt by Tom Zarek and Gaeta. I gasped when Zarek ordered the assassination of the Council, and it being carried out. It seemed like an impossible situation, but Lee, Kara and the others fought brutally to stop the coup and prevent Gaeta from executing Adama. It was close, but they succeeded. The scene at the end of that episode with a firing squad executing Gaeta and Zarek was rough.

How many times over these episodes did Adama remove his Admiral medals? I do not think this was a strong season for Adama overall.

Galactica is falling apart, and the pain it is causing Adama is adding to his own stress. Adding some Cylon living goop to fix the cracks in the structures was not helping matters and only caused more strife among the people on the ship.

Ellen returned. After she had been poisoned by Sol on Caprica, she was reborn in a Cylon resurrection chamber. She was one of the Final Five, and we learned that they were the five that created the current Cylons. Her arrival became a huge point of contention for Sol. Sam was shot in the head during the battle and wound up hooked up to machines, much like the Hybrid was.

Sol and Caprica lost their baby. He was going to name him Liam. It was a real painful moment and only went to highlight how vital Hera was to the Cylons. Boomer wound up manipulating Tyrol into helping her escape from the brig and she ends up taking Hera and escaping Galactica upon a viper, pretending to be Athena. Not before fracking Helo (still pretending to be Athena) with Athena tied up in the very room watching it happen. The possible retrieval of Hera feels like a major part of the final three episodes.

Kara struggled with her discovery from earth of her own dead body. She had no idea how it happened or what was going on. She was not a Cylon as all the models had been revealed (I guess except for Daniel, the mysterious Number 7). She had some connection to a song that her father used to play on the piano for her as a girl, the same song that Hera had written the notes to and that played to trigger the Final Five. How this song works in this story is still a huge question.

Oh, and what a dick move by Baltar to reveal to everybody that Kara had found her own body on earth. He claimed it was proof of life after death. Kara slapped him for revealing the truth as he did, but that seemed out of character. I expected Kara to give him a full on right cross. I had been finding more positives about Baltar over this stretch of episodes, but this made me remember what a jerk he was.

I really liked the alliance formed with the Cylons and the humans, and I also liked how there were plenty of people who found this to be against what they believed.

Adama’s decision to finally abandon ship and give Galactica a goodbye was long overdue as the ship had been dying for much of this season. The moment of Adama and Tigh accepting the loss together was a powerful way to end episode 18.

The final three episodes of the series are a three-part run, and I plan on watching them all together at some time this week. It is entitled “Daybreak” and I can honestly say that I have no real idea how it will conclude, which is awesome. I assume there will be some variation of the vision with Hera playing out at the new Cylon colony, and I have to guess that Cavil will get his comeuppance. I do hope we discover exactly what is going on with Starbuck, and what it means when the Hybrid and Sam referred to her as the “Harbinger of Death.” I do not want Laura to die from her cancer and I would love a happy ending for her and Adama. I do not think that is going to happen, unfortunately.

Battlestar Galactica S4 E10, E11, E12

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“Revelations”

“Sometimes a Great Notion”

“A Disquiet Follows My Soul”

So much is happening.

In Revelations, there is a tense showdown between the Cylons and the Humans. D’anna wants the four of the five Cylons brought to them and Lee wants the Cylons to release their hostages.

The four were revealed to everyone and it led to some major frustration for Adama.

Starbuck, on a tip from Tyrol and Anders, figured out that a specific Viper had a destination programmed into it and she guessed that it was to earth.

The Galactica and the Cylons, in an alliance, found earth only to discover that it was a nuclear wasteland.

In Sometimes a Great Notion, the crew explored the ruined earth.

They discovered that the 13 Tribe was a tribe of Cylons.

Starbuck recovered her own corpse in her own ship, crashed on the earth. What does that mean? What does that make Kara who is living right now? She burned her corpse.

Roslin and Adama both wound up in a downward spiral from the failure of earth. Adama boozing it up and Roslin rejecting her medical care.

Adama, drunk and angry, stormed to Tigh’s room and tried to get him to kill him. It was a tense scene that felt out of place. Adama has been fairly inconsistent during this time. Not sure how this worked.

Dualla goes out and has a great date night with Lee and then kills herself with a gunshot to the head. Wha????

Then we find out that Ellen Tigh was the fifth Cylon. That revelation was fairly flat for me.

Finally, in “A Disquiet Follows My Soul,” more craziness with Adama and Roslin. They end up in bed together at the end of the episode. Hopefully a good Frack will straighten these two up because they are really needed to get back into their roles.

Tom Zarek is back to his machinations and he is teaming up with the angry and vengeful Gaeta. This was after Gaeta had a bitter throwdown with Kara, with neither of them holding back.

Tyrol’s son has a kidney problem and Tyrol rushed him to the doctor. This was where he learned that the little boy was not his son. Cally was unsure who the father was and, after the wedding, it was not Tyrol. I’m not sure why that was done, unless it was just to screw with Tyrol more.

Turns out the father was Hot Dog and Tyrol beat him up at Baltar’s speech that was so much negative and darkness.

Darkness is a good description for these last two episodes.

The Greatest American Hero S2 E7

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“The Lost Diablo”

It has been awhile since I watched an episode of The Greatest American Hero. The second season has been up and down, with some really good episodes and some episodes that I could leave. Episode seven is right in the middle.

Ralph, Bill and Pan took the kids on camping trip. However, Bill has a different idea. He had a map for a hidden treasure called the Lost Diablo and he wanted help gathering it up.

There were some silly moments in this episode, including a group of thieves setting themselves up to steal the claim out from under them.

Some of the action inside the cave where the gold was hidden was fairly dumb. There was one bobby trap and the mine was constantly threatening to collapse.

I was a little sad because I always like my heroes to be heroes and when the entire band of bad guys got crushed in the mine collapsing, I really wanted Ralph to be able to save them. Instead, he just left with Bill saying that none of them could have survived.

Not sure what this episode was really about, but it was okay, but not in the upper list of the show.

The X-Files S7 E16

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“Chimera”

We had an episode of The X-Files where Mulder and Scully spent no time together and we actually involved in different cases. Scully’s was just a stakeout that the show returned to for a few scenes, so I would assume that Gillian Anderson had something going on that required a limited film schedule at this point.

However, Scully did provide some great comedic moments in the episode with the boredom and the lewdness of what she had to watch. Mulder, on the other hand, was facing a different type of evil in a neighborhood where one would not expect it.

I did not remember much about this episode but I had things figured out fairly soon into it. At least, pieces at a time. This worked a fairly common thread for The X-Files and the pattern of the episode followed a consistent beat. Those local law enforcement agents always have some secret going on.

There were a lot of things left unanswered (of course, this is the X-Files), but the result of the case still worked well. I would have liked to know how this transformation took place or where it came from…something like that.

Nothing too bad on the episode. It is watchable. It just will. most likely, not stand out in my memory as many other X-Files episodes have done.

Battlestar Galactica S4 E7, E8, E9

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“Guess What’s Coming to Dinner?”

“Sine Qua Non”

“The Hub”

Big things happening in the world of Battlestar Galactica. Everything is amping up for this series’ push to its finale.

  • Lee Adama gets himself appointed interim president after Roslin disappears on the Cylon baseship.
  • Admiral Adama resigns as head of Galactica in order to search for Roslin. Appointed Sol Tigh, one of the Final Five Cylons, in his place.
  • The Hybrid jumped the ship multiple times, on its way to the Hub. The Galactica crew planned on capturing Number 3 (D’anna) and destroying the Hub.
  • They do succeed and destroy the Hub, meaning that there would be no more Cylon resurrections.
  • Baltar is severely wounded and Roslin thinks about letting him die for his punishment. Baltar’s drugged out mind confessed his sins from the start. Roslin saves him.
  • D’anna refuses to give out the names of the Final Five to Roslin. It is her only bargaining chip and she wants to be safe.
  • Roslin is reunited with Adama at the end of The Hub episode and tells him that she loves him. He says “About time.”

Three very impactful episodes. Still not sure how things are going to go. It sure seems as if both sides are ready and willing to stab each other in the back, but the uneasy alliance could lead to a positive result.

Still wondering whom that fifth Cylon is. When D’anna told Roslin that she was one of the five, she did it as a joke, but I am not unsure that it was. Who knows at this point. The number of potential choices are not large and I would think that it is not Starbuck, at this point.