Category Archives: TV-G[eek]

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe S1 E6

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“Spoiler: Corn is Delicious”

Okay, I was not a fan of this one.

Cow universe? The whole cud thing got old really quickly. I kept waiting for there to be some kind of twist, but it never came. Kripke and Bert left the universe but they were stuck between universes.

This one just had no story at all. I suppose there was some progress on the relationship between Stuart and Denise as they seemed to enjoy the whole cud thing, and the licking of the salt lick was gross.

Raj showed up again. Here, he was someone ranting about the end of the universe.

We see the other Stuart again who arrives to convince our Stuart to leave the cow universe. Stuart and Denise head out too.

Just a poor episode that I was not a fan of.

Ted Lasso S4 E4

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“Greyhounds’ Day Off”

Cliques.

They can cause trouble with a team. You see it all over the place and this week’s Ted Lasso dealt with the coaching staff of the Lady Greyhounds of Richmond trying to stomp out the cliques that were threatening to derail their team before they even get started.

In Ted Lasso’s eclectic manner and undeniable folksy wisdom, he requires the team members to go to a pub trivia night.

Things go crazy. The team winds up in a bar brawl with another team of asre-hole men as they all get arrested.

Fairly predictable outcome in the trivia contest, but I do like how it worked out and the scenes of the team in jail celebrating was great.

Roy was on multiple dates in one night after Keeley told him that he needed to date at least ten women before she would consider them getting back together. However, it feels like Roy may be slipping away from her as he was into a bartender before falling to the ground with his knee. Then, Roy’s sister took him to the hospital where he met a doctor who irritated and infuriated him. You can see where this is going too.

One of my favorite parts of the episode was the use of Trent Crimm (James Lance) and Dr. Sharon Fieldstone (Sarah Niles) as a framing device around the episode. Both characters were favorites of mine and it was great seeing them again, as Trent was interviewing her for a podcast.

The whole Keeley/Rebecca story felt like a big nothing and I was not into it much at all.

Fun episode, but pretty generic for a Ted Lasso episode.

Lanterns S1 E2

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“Trust Fall”

Episode two of DC’s Lantern’s series stuck it out in the 2016 timeline, leaving last week’s shocking conclusion during 2026 for a later date.

Instead, the episode split Hal and John into different places. John is sent to retrieve the Lantern to charge the power ring, and Hal sticks around to go see Macon again.

Hal ends up getting shot as a warning and John gets nabbed and dragged away when we hear the term “Manhunters” for the first time.

I know enough about Lantern lore to say that this is not the Martian Manhunter, aka J’onn J’onzz, but not much more after that so I am curious to find out what this piece of DC history is all about.

The show brought out some awesome Green Lantern stuff this episode. First, as I mentioned, they showed us the power charging Lantern that Hal needed to recharge the power on his ring. It was stored in a cool pocket-dimension found in Hal Jordan’s house.

Second, we get to see the Green Lantern costumes. There were three of them hanging in Hal’s closet. Hal did not seem overly anxious to put it back on.

However, third, he did put it back on and he flew into space to a satellite of some kind where we meet, for the first time, Sinestro. Sinestro is Green Lantern’s arch enemy, and is being played by Ulrich Thomsen.

John Stewart could not fly when using the ring, but he was able to create a bird that followed him the whole episode, even when he did not have the ring on, even when he was unconscious after being snatched at Hal’s house. I get a feeling that the bird has a deeper meaning for down the road.

I am excited about the mysteries of the show, and I am wondering when we will be heading back to 2026. Next week looks to be a John Stewart-centric episode with more of his past coming to [Green Lantern’s] Light.

Silo S3 E8

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“Gray Goo”

I am not sure where the flashbacks go from here. With everything about the silos laid out, the rejection by Helen and Daniel of the offer by Stensen and Thurman feels like a conclusion. Maybe there is more here than what I can tell, but right now, I am not sure what that will be.

The drama inside the silo is picking up actively. Juliette has been arrested and placed in the same cell as Sims.

The episode gives us answers about what happened to Lukas and Kennedy on their attempt to go to Silo 17. Lukas was shot and Kennedy helped him to get to the silo.

Steve Zahn was back and he was spectacular in this episode. I have missed Jimmy and Zahn’s portrayal of this character and it is great that he was back. The information of his mother’s fate was painfully displayed across Zahn’s face and eyes.

Sheriff Paul has found the killer of Orla Kent. It was her boyfriend to keep her quiet about the smuggling from critical supply.

Everything is building toward the end of the season. I am not sure what the flashback story is going to be moving forward, but the present day story is on fire.

Boston Legal S1 E13, E14, E15, E16, E17

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I wrapped up season one of Boston Legal on Hulu this afternoon with some great episodes.

These episodes included:

  • “It Girls and Beyond”
  • “‘Til We Meet Again”
  • “Tortured Souls”
  • “Let Sales Ring”
  • “Death Be Not Proud”

Some amazing guest stars started to show up, as a couple of the regulars from the first half of the season were starting to be phased out. Some guest stars included Betty White, Carl Reiner, Courtney B. Vance, Chi McBride, Shelley Long, Kerry Washington, and Freddie Prinze Jr (resuming his role as Donny Crane).

“Death Be Not Proud” sent Alan to Texas to try and prevent an execution of a man with an IQ of 80, whose confession may have been coerced, and might be innocent. It was a powerful episode with an end sequence that was very difficult to watch. I think that was clearly the intention of the scene, even though we mostly focused on Alan and Kerry Washington’s character Chelina.

Bernard Ferrion returned from earlier in the season and Katherine (Betty White) took him under her wing, especially after Alan rejected him once again. I know this is leading to a big story in season two.

One of the funniest running gags in any episode was how uncomfortable Brad was with the word “lesbian,” and how the others around the Crane, Poole and Schmidt offices wouldn’t let him off the hook.

The idea of Denny Crane having Mad Cow Disease happened in these episodes. It would be Denny’s fall back stance against the potential Alzheimer’s that he had.

Alan continued to have terrible behavior in a lot of instances, while trying to do what he thought was right. Even though the others at Crane, Poole and Schmidt had troubles with Alan, it seemed as if they still took advantage of Alan and what he would be willing to do to get things done. Shirley actually went to Alan to co-chair a case where she did not want to do the closing because she did not want to go to the level she thought she would need to go. She knew Alan could do so, despite it being a case of police brutality/torture that Alan did not want to be a part of. There is a lot of hypocrisy when dealing with Alan.

Lori, who in these episodes had really seen her screen time diminish, had reached the end of the road with Denny’s constant sexual harassment. She told Shirley that she wanted to formally charge Denny with it.

I do believe that there is an episode that is missing from the season one list. I am not sure what is going on, but I am going to go investigate what has happened.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #83

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“Hand to Mouth”

Jimmy made his first contact with Larry in this episode that saw everything else on the edge for the informant.

Jimmy’s father showed up to see him and flashed his old badge for some favors from the guards, unwittingly blowing his cover. One guard in particular, Mr. Carter, who blackmailed Jimmy for 10 grand or else he would tell everyone that Jimmy was here as a snitch.

Jimmy was summoned to the in prison Italian Mafia Don, and he waded through that issue too. Oh, it was the real life Mafia head Vincent “the Chin” Gigante played by Tony Amendola. He wants Jimmy to play boccie with him.

The main course of this week’s episode was the dialogue between Jimmy and Larry. There was a scene between them that absolutely was frightening. Both Taron Egerton and Paul Walter Hauser were tremendous in their roles and in this moment. The tension built by the face of Hauser and his chilling words was amazing.

It had an impact on Jimmy too. When Jimmy told Agent McCauley about Carter, she told him they would get him out of prison. He should go into isolation until they could get the paperwork done. McCauley was having doubts about the case, afraid that Larry was just a sad and sick serial confessor, or that they would never be able to get the goods on him.

When asked what would happen to Larry if Jimmy went into isolation, McCauley answered that the judge could find the confession coerced and let him out into the world.

Jimmy had already seen the evil in Larry, convinced he was guilty. Jimmy insisted that he would stay and get the info. It was an unselfish turn for the drug dealer, because he knew allowing Larry out would be way worse than anything else.

I’m in on this show, and I am excited to see what is going to come down next. I didn’t realize that Jimmy’s father was being played by Ray Liotta, and that this was his final role before his death.

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe S1 E5

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“Spoiler: Bert Gets Married”

Following up my favorite episode of this show this week, we got a strange one with a tribe of people who share everything, all the time, and a completely peaceful.

With an injection of Kripke into the society, that does not last long.

Kripke immediately started warping things by showing the kind hearted people the idea of “mine.” It does not take long for the natural selfishness to come out, especially when Kripke made a Communist comment.

Meanwhile, Bert met a woman who asked him to share sex that night, but it turned out that they sleep with someone different every night. Bert introduced her to the concept of monogamy, and asked her to marry him, even though she does not understand the term.

Stuart realized that the machine was broken and he went in search of a message from the mysterious overlord that had been sending them messages. He found it at the bottom of a pile of bear poop.

Red quartz is what they needed to fix the machine, and there was only one bit around… on a necklace around the neck of the man who was jealous of Bert’s new relationship.

This episode continued what I think one of the biggest problems of this show is… it felt rushed. There is so much that can be discovered in these universes but are just brushed across most of the time. These episodes should be 45 minutes at least, but they are sticking with the half-hour focus, and there are just too many big ideas.

In the end, it all turned out to be just there and this episode did not blow my socks off. I am not a big fan of Kripke and I think they could have left that character off and still not have issues filling the time. There was no Big Bang Theory cameo this week and that was definitely missing.

Ted Lasso S4 E3

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“Richmond’s Got Talent”

The injury bug strikes the strikers for Ted Lasso’s new Richmond Women’s team. Well, one is an injury and one is a pregnancy, so I shouldn’t qualify it as an injury. But the strikers are out, so this leads to an open tryout.

The open tryout did not bring the football version of Susan Boyle. There is an option though and it was one that Coach Alice mentioned. She once coached a striker that was one of the best she’d seen, but who had quit to go to law school. Her name was Gemma and she had had enough of Alice’s demeanor toward her back then and did not want to hear anything from her now.

Gemma couldn’t deny the Lasso charm though, and it seemed as if Ted had reignited the passion for the sport inside her, and she came to join the team. Of course, she came on the day of the historic first game. She also wound up scoring a late goal after being inserted into the game near the end.

This was not only Gemma’s story though as Keeley was having a hard time getting the kit delivered for the first game, a young mother Lizzie was one who stood out at the open tryouts and was able to make the team, and Rebecca kept standing up her boyfriend at a restaurant.

I do like the new cast of the football team that we are starting to get. There are some intriguing characters that are more than just the one note that it appeared they were previously.

It was nice to see the much more presentable Coach Beard this week, no longer looking like a caveman in a Richmond outift.

This has been a decent season so far, even if I do not think it has matched the original three seasons in overall quality as of yet.

Boston Legal S1 E10, E11, E12

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“Hired Guns”

“Schmidt Happens”

“From Whence We Came”

One of my favorite quotes from Boston Legal happened in episode 11. It is a thought have many times in the restroom…

“I keep an extremely clean penis“

Alan Shore is in response to a woman who had entered the men’s restroom and had introduced herself, while Alan was at the urinal. He extended a hand to shake and she said that he is going to wash that.

Hence, the clean penis comment from Alan.

That woman was Shirley Schmidt, named partner in Crane, Poole & Schmidt, played brilliantly by Candice Bergen. Shirley Schmidt becomes one of my absolute favorite characters on this show over the next four and a half years. This was her first appearance and Candice Bergen immediately was placed as a powerhouse, keeping Denny Crane off balance.

In “Head Games,” Alan winds up getting held at gunpoint by a disgruntled father who had recently lost his children because of Alan. Yes, the father would take his children without permission to Peru over Christmas. The mother asked for help from Alan. I mean… it is kidnapping.

This whole situation led to another classic moment of the series. Denny Crane using his rifle to shoot the father. Denny had the gun in his desk and had Tara open the door when he yelled “Pull!” As Denny said, he was a Marine, “trained as a sniper… or was it a pilot?”

We also get the debut in episode 11 of Bernard Ferrion, a small man who killed his mother by hitting her on the head with a skillet. Alan was able to free Bernard on a technicality, and then gave him a kindly speech about being good. Then next episode, Bernard is back after killing his neighbor with a skillet as well. Alan was disappointed, and sent Bernard to Tara.

Bernard is a surprisingly complex character for the short arc that he appeared. You could tell how lonely he was, and how he had a kind heart, despite being, as Alan called him, evil.

Betty White arrived as Alan’s new assistant, Catherine Piper. White had played this role on The Practice and had come in contact with Alan then. Seeing her resume this role was an awesome thing.

The arrival of Shirley put a charge into this show and gave the show a foil to Denny that was every bit as formidable as he was. Certainly, she was more capable of standing up to Denny than Paul was. All Shirley had to do was whisper those two little words… “Denny Crane” and Denny would shiver.

Rick and Morty S9 E10

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“Field of Dreams”

I am now caught up on the Rick and Morty series, finishing up with the episode 10 that debuted on HBO Max today, but had been shown on Comedy Central earlier in the summer.

The new episode started off as an enjoyable story of Morty going through the multiverse and attending other Morty’s funeral. Morty is discovered as he was watching the funeral by a family that was grieving “Mort,” the kid who was so much more successful and loved by his family.

Morty started spending time with this family, thinking that they were better than the family he had. Morty found out that this Smith family was extremely crazed and chasing after him to replace their Mort.

Morty went to this universe’s Rick, who had stopped drinking, had gotten married, and was living a happy life as a college professor. This was when the episode took a darker turn that I was not a real fan of.

As Rick was trying to help find a way to get Morty home, I knew what was going to happen. I knew that Rick was going to need to go back to drinking to get the work done. Watching Rick throw away his life, his sobriety, his wife to the bottle was so sad and too predictable. I wanted this Rick to not transform into yet another drunken Rick.

Of course the ending was anything but predictable as the whole family is butchered in their final confrontation. This allowed Morty to get back to his regular universe with a happier feeling toward these people.

The whole motorcycle scene at the end of the episode was odd.

Overall, this was an up and down episode for me, and with different shades of dark, it did not do well for me.

There is a season 10 in works right now with a rumored release during the summer of 2027.

Lanterns S1 E1

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“Pilot”

The first episode of DC Studio’s latest TV show premiered on HBO Max this Sunday night. Lanterns started off with Hal Jordan training John Stewart as his replacement.

We start the story in 2016, with a gruff Hal Jordan being very tough on his trainee, John Stewart.

The show ended in 2026 with Hal Jordan dead on the bleachers of a football field.

There had been rumors about Hal Jordan dying at the end of the pilot, but with the 2016 story going on, this is how we will get a full season of Hal alive and John moving forward.

Of course, there will be some story in 2026 too since the dead body of Hal nor John had the Lantern ring. Where is it? Who took it? Who killed Hal? These points I expect will correspond to the storyline from 2016.

I do like shows that play with the manner in which the narrative is presented. Of course, LOST is the immediate show to come to mind, and former LOST writer Damon Lindelof is a writer and executive producer on the show. That always could hook me.

I have enjoyed Green Lantern as a character, despite not collecting his comic title. I think the way this show has been set up, kind of a True Detective-style show, with this mystery of what is going on in this little town in Nebraska where Hal Jordan originally received the ring was some solid writing.

I found Kyle Chandler to be excellent as an older, grumpier Hal Jordan, who was training his replacement John Stewart despite not wanting to have a replacement. Aaron Pierre as John Stewart, was good, but I do not think he had the amount of material by comparison yet. Pierre is a solid actor and I think he will get better as the series goes on.

I am invested in the mystery that has been set up and the ending with Hal’s death only served to increase the interest I have in this series. I expect to be watching this every Sunday night until October.

Boston Legal S1 E7, E8, E9

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“Questionable Characters”

“Loose Lips”

“A Greater Good”

I watched episodes 7, 8, & 9 of Boston Legal tonight. They fell around the Christmas holiday as there were some background mentions of Christmas, including a crossdressing mall Santa that had been fired.

There were several questionable lawyering tactics used by the lawyers at Crane, Poole & Schmidt. And it was not just Alan Shore. In fact, it seemed that most of the lawyers on the show were influenced by Alan’s iffy choices. Some examples:

  • Lori pretended to be a therapist to meet with a client who verbally made threats to murder his wife to his therapist.
  • Denny went ahead and outed a whistleblower on the stand after Paul Lewiston specifically told Alan not to do it.
  • Tara approached another attorney on a case and pretended to be a flight attendant to get info on the case.
  • Brad, very jealous of Alan, made a wager on a case with Alan and then tried to manipulate the outcome by getting a unfavorable judge assigned to it.
  • Even Paul Lewiston turned a blind eye on Lori’s trouble which led to the wife, fearful for her life, shoot and kill her husband, who used the therapist to get out the bad thoughts only and had no intention of ever following through with it.

Meanwhile, Alan is just trying to do the right things for his clients, albeit by some methods that should not be done. Paul actually recommended a couple of times for other lawyers to approach Alan because he knew of ways to get things done.

Jon Bernthal appeared as a friend of Lori’s who wound up getting shot in the shoulder when he tried to hold up a convenience store. They were able to convince a judge that Bernthal had the right to not allow the doctors to take the bullet out. The bullet was the only evidence they had against him. Tara got info from Alan about a doctor (working as a vet) who could take out the bullet without giving it over to the police.

These three episodes were all good, but maybe not as awesome as some of the others. Next episode looked like a banger.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #82

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Black Bird

“We are Coming, Father Abraham”

Episode two of Black Bird on Apple TV + is the next step on the Sunday Morning Sidewalk.

The thing that sticks out to me most in this episode is the manner in which they tell this story in different time frames, and how they all kind of come together by the end of episode two. There were flashbacks back to Greg Kinnear investigating as Brian Miller, tying to get Larry Hall, played by Paul Walter Hauser, to confess to the killing. By the end of the episode, Larry is in jail and staring across to James Keene, played by Taron Egerton, in another cell.

Interestingly enough, my guess is that we will not have any more flashback sections of the story since it was used just to show how this all was set up. I might be wrong on that, but that is the way it feels.

The whole confession scene with Larry was haunting. Paul Walter Hauser does an amazing job here as he is able to maintain the slight uncertainty about this character. I can see why the people in Larry’s life believed in him.

Things are ready to move forward hard now.

Muppet Show S2 E13, E14, E15

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Guest Star: Rudolf Nureyev

Guest Star: Elton John

Guest Star: Lou Rawls

Three guest stars who could handle the entertainment section of the show. While Rudolf Nureyev may not have been the singer in comparison, he did do some great dance routine. As I have said before, the Muppet Show would use some classic culture or high brow stuff. In this episode alone, they had a couple of ballet routines and jokes about Shakespeare.

However, you can also tell when they have a huge musician on. Elton John did four songs. This would have been my introduction to Crocodile Rock. Elton John also did Benny and the Jets and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and sang Don’t Go Breaking My Heart with Miss Piggy.

Elton John worked out great since he was basically a Muppet himself. He displayed such a wardrobe on this episode.

Sam the Eagle was very active in the first two episodes as he was so excited about Rudolf Nureyev bringing culture to the show only to be disappointed by him (I mean… Swine Lake? Can you blame Sam?). Sam also was not sure about Elton John’s attire.

The Elton John episode included a running gag with the Swedish Chef and a chicken. Chef was chasing the chicken with a hatchet. Then, the tables turned and Chef was being chased by the chicken.

I did not recognize many of the song done by Lou Rawls, but his jazz scat with the Electric Mayhem was truly epic. He did have a remarkable voice.

In that third episode, Fozzie was going to do an act on roller skates. It was a running joke throughout as he rolled uncontrollably around backstage.

Silo S3 E7

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“Radio”

Lukas and Kennedy went out of the silo and attempted to go to Silo 17. They did not make it. However, the surprise was that they were apparently shot. At the end of the episode, it sounded as if Lukas and Kennedy survived and reported that he had the kids that he went to retrieve. That still makes me question the entire thing. It sure sounded like bullets (probably from drones) when Lukas and Kennedy lost contact.

Because of this apparent failure of this mission, there was an attempt to blow up judicial in a way to try and stop the poison gas. Juliette struggled with the decision as she realized that whatever plan she decided upon would lead to death for hundreds of people.

Everything got called off when we discovered that Lukas and Kennedy were not dead (or so we think).

There was some big developments between Sims and Camille as they had a huge conflict about Sims’s actions. Camille is feeling the pressures of leading the IT. The Algorithm seemed to be manipulating her too.

Then we see the creation of the silos from the flashback time. We discovered that billionaire Per Stensen is behind the construction of the silos in Georgia.

Things are getting wilder as the the season is on its way to a conclusion.