Category Archives: TV-G[eek]

Shrinking S2 E10

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“Changing Patterns”

Okay, so perhaps this is not the season finale after all.

I really thought that this was the season finale. But when I pulled up the show on Apple TV +, I saw episode 11 listed for next Wednesday. So I guess this is not the final episode of the season. I do not know how many there are.

That does not bother me much because Shrinking is consistently one of the best written and entertaining shows on TV.

I had been wondering where this show was going as it seemed like most of the storylines were wrapped up over the last couple of episodes, but there were a couple that came raging back into the forefront.

In particular, the whole Louis/Alice friendship came back hard and heavy this week. Alice found out that Jimmy had told Louis to not see Alice again and that crushed her. Apparently, there are more legs to this as Alice told her father that he ruined another birthday.

Oh yeah, it was Alice’s 18 birthday. She was a little unfair in this situation in my opinion. I mean, Jimmy did find her a car just like his wife. Sure he can be blind in a lot of ways, but to say that he ruined the birthday felt a touch harsh.

There are some great development with all of the other characters too. Paul, Liz, Derek, Julie, and Gaby had solid arcs within this episode, but they all paled in comparison to the birthday escapades.

I wonder how many more episodes the season has for us?

Skeleton Crew S1 E3

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“Very Interesting, As An Astrogration Problem”

Crimson Jack?

Okay, this was another episode that was a lot of fun. Throwing these kids into a Star Wars universe was a great idea and bringing in Jude Law to be the scallywag “helping” them find their way back to the hidden planet of At Attin works on so many different levels.

Can Jude Law be trusted? As Jod Na Nawood, he was not the Jedi as Wim thought he was. His response of “I never said I was” is a masterful manipulation. I do like how the kids were not completely taken in by this guy. Sure Wim was full on hero worshipping him, but the others all had their doubts. I do like how they seemingly forced him to come with the truth. But did he? I’m not sure.

Loved the Kim owl-ish creature that Jod Na took the kids too as a way to try and find the coordinates of At Attin. Retrieving Sm-33 was great too, and this droid is one of my favorite parts of the show so far. His scenes with Jod were funny and revealing for both characters.

We got some back story on At Attin too, although, again, as with much of this show so far, what is believable and what is true?

Episode three was a lot of fun and I am looking forward to next week.

Creature Commandos

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“The Collywobbles”

“The Tourmaline Necklace”

The DCU is officially underway!

James Gunn’s DCU kicked off with an animated series on MAX based on one of the strangest properties in the DC Comics, The Creature Commandos.

That is a bizarre choice to kick off the DC Studios, aka the DCU. Still, DC animation has always been a strength and perhaps this will play into that well.

These two episodes, which both dropped on MAX were fine. They may not have been as awesome as I thought it could have been, but with a bunch of basically unfamiliar characters, the show was entertaining.

I think my favorite character so far is The Bride, and so I did think more of episode two, which looked at her history and her back story with Frankenstein (voiced by David Harbour). Of course, the backstory does twist the Bride of Frankenstein movie around a bit and it does take some chances with the story.

The feel of this was more like Invincible than it was any of the other DC animated projects. That may be about the blood, violence and sex (this is not a show for the kids). I thought that Invincible became too needy with the blood and went over the top with it. X-Men ’97 had some blood too, but I thought that was a much better use of it than Invincible. I may not have too many people agree with me, but I felt as if the blood in Invincible goes too far. Creature Commandos is not too bad, but feels as if it would be more like Invincible with blood.

Of course, at some point, G.I. Robot must kill some Nazis.

It did have a definite Suicide Squad feel to it, but I do think this has a lot of potential. The episodes were short, but packed quite a bit into them. I think the show has room to grow and I do believe that James Gunn is going to bring the goods.

Shrinking S2 E9

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“Full Grown Dude Face”

Another wonderfully charming episode of Shrinking. The writing on this in on par with some of the best writing on television.

However, next week is the finale of season two and I am not sure where this will go. There does not seem to be any kind of overarching storyline through the season. There was but it has been resolved a couple of episodes ago. And this episode felt like a wrap to a couple of more. At least, for the moment.

It was a great single episode with some excellent character work, as Jimmy as seemingly on fire this week, while dealing with Alice’s growing and becoming even more independent. We had some furthering of the search for a baby by Brian and Charlie.

I guess the theme of the episode is parenting, as everyone involved has some connection to being a parent and trying to understand the sacrifices and, sometimes, the outright lying, that goes with it.

Seeing Harrison Ford doing exercises that look to be twerking is a highlight for sure. There is not enough Harrison Ford this week even if every second he is on screen he absolutely dominates,

Skeleton Crew S1 E1, E2

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“This Could Be a Real Adventure”

“Way, Way Out Past the Barrier”

I usually do not do write ups on the Star Wars Disney + shows. The main reason is that I do not like that many of these shows. I do consider myself a Star Wars fan, but I have not been a fan of several of these shows, and a few I have not even watched (such as Ahsoka). However, the 1980s Goonies/Amblin feel this show provided made me intrigued.

Disney + dropped the first two episodes of this new series last night and I loved it. This was such a fun series and it absolutely captured that 1980s kid adventure movies.

In fact, one of the first things I noticed was the great music used. That music completely made me feel like we were watching an Amblin movie, but it also gave me the feel of Star Wars. The music was a wonderful blend between the two types of films.

I thought all of the kids did a great job. I was a big fan of Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers) as our main protagonist, and I enjoyed Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) a ton as well. The little elephant character, Neel (Robert Timothy Smith) was fun too. I liked him very much. He made a great companion to Wim.

Jude Law showed up at the last scene of the second episode, bringing an interesting storyline with him.

I loved the mystery circulating around the kids’ home planet, At Attin, a planet that it seemed that the rest of the Star Wars universe believed this planet was just a myth. What is this central mystery? It has me intrigued for sure.

I am excited about the Skeleton Crew. I can’t wait to continue watching this series next Tuesday.

The X-Files S7 E12

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“X-Cops”

Bad boys, bad boys… whatcha gonna do?

This X-Files episode was an extremely clever and creative one as it was a blend of X-Files and another of the big hits on FOX at the time, Cops.

Cops was a TV program that had cameras follow different law enforcement agents around and recorded their interactions with their cases. This X-Files episode crossed over with its fictional story of what we thought might be a werewolf, but turned into much more. It was a creature of some sort that was feeding on fear.

Some of the best and most classic episodes of the X-Files blended the bizarre, paranormal world with comedy. “Bad Blood,” “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space,” and “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” being top examples the show’s comedy. “X-Cops” expertly mixed its comedy in with this ultra serious and realistic situation.

I loved how Scully was reacting to the camera crew. Every time she made some comment or turned a different way, Gillian Anderson showed off her remarkable comedic timing. For example, Scully, doing an autopsy, turned directly to the camera and said “The FBI has nothing to hide,” a statement Skinner had told Scully on the phone when she called him to let him know about the cameras involved in this case.

The episode started with a disclaimer about a special episode of the X-Files and followed that with the Cops TV show theme song. The title included some shots of Mulder and Scully, which was done to prevent any audience members from being confused and thinking that Cops was on instead of the X-Files.

This is one of the best episodes of season 7 and should be included on any list of the best X-Files episodes ever.

The X-Files S7 E10 E11

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“Sein Und Zeit”

“Closure”

The X-Files investigates the JonBenét Ramsey case.

Ok, not exactly, but they may as well have.

Only, they tied it into Mulder’s missing sister and his own family tragedy.

I was surprised when this turned out to be a two part episode as some horrible images were shown, including a mass graveyard of children. This was a shocking moment that I did not expect in this series.

You see, at first, I felt very dismissive of this episode, in particular “Sein Und Zeit” because it felt as if the fictional case of this episode was such a take off of the Ramsey case that it seemed exploitive. Then when they tried to connect it to Mulder’s sister, it really took another step away from what I wanted.

Then, Mulder’s mother, who had tried to contact him, committed suicide.

And the emotional power of the episode really took over.

David Duchovny brought some of the best work I have seen from him in a long time. The scene where Scully tells Mulder that his mother had a terrible disease and that she had committed suicide and not killed by some mysterious conspiracy was extremely powerful.

This was all building to answering the question about what happened to Samantha Mulder. As I am watching it, I did not believe that the show would give us a final truth. I saw on Wikipedia that Chris Carter believed that season 7 might have been the final season of the X-Files so I thought that maybe that elusive mystery would finally be revealed. The title “Closure” leads to the idea as well.

Cigarette Smoking Man showed up to see Scully, and I kept yelling at her to shoot him in the head. She didn’t.

As I continued to watch the episode, I started believing that the show might actually give an answer to the mystery. I did not grasp the idea of what in actuality happened. Samantha was apparently taken by “walk-ins” which was a concept told to Mulder by a psychic named Harold Pillar (Anthony Heald) who was also in search of his own missing son. A walk-in was a being made of starlight that would take children who suffered horrible fates.

That whole concept was strange, but the scene where the spirit of Samantha Mulder came to Fox Mulder and hugged him was quite beautiful and provided the character with some serious closure. He could accept that Samantha was gone and, as he said at the end of the episode, he said, “I’m fine. I’m free.”

I am still not sure how his mother played into this. What was her message? Did she know this was Samantha’s fate or what was going on. We saw Mulder’s mother’s spirit come to him and whisper something. I am just not sure that fit with what the show was telling us.

We also got the image of the little girl whose disappearance started this whole thing indicating that she too had become starlight and was, in fact, dead.

I am not sure I love the resolution of this seminal mystery, but I am happy that it is done. I am not sure that all of the different times when we learned bits about Samantha fit into this theory and it works best when you forget about some of those. The whole Samantha mystery was used multiple times over the seasons for episodes and I wonder how much they knew about what actually happened to Samantha.

No matter what, even if the resolution was not totally satisfactory, I am glad that it was addressed and that Mulder was given closure. It is good that this Samantha story ended here.

Battlestar Galactica S3 E13

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“The Woman King”

It always amazes me when Battlestar Galactica, a show from years ago, has an episode that is so relevant to the world we live in today.

Vaccines were part of the story today, as a group of people who did not believe in accepting medicine were picked up by Galactica and they were suffering from an illness of some kind. There was a group called Sagittarons whose religious beliefs went against the administration of medicines, specifically this vaccination that could prevent the disease.

The story also took a twist into prejudice as the doctor, Dr. Michael Robert, brought on to help the situation, played by well-known character actor Bruce Davison, was giving these Sagittarons something different, killing them instead of helping htem.

Helo was at the center of this story, as a woman named King approached him with info that Dr. Robert had killed her son. Helo had to work through his own issues and history in order to figure out what was going on. His passion and anger over the doctor’s choices shone through each scene he was in.

Donnelly Rhodes, who is recurring as Dr. Cottle, had a couple of amazing scenes, some of the best work he has given in this series so far. Col. Tigh continues to be the jerk that he is, though he did come through in the end.

This episode was really more about Hel than it was the Sagittarons and I think that part worked well. I found several good performances and liked this for the most part. It is probably not one of the stand out episodes of the series, but it has its place, and as I said earlier, it absolutely has relevance in today’s world.

The X-Files S7 E9

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“Signs and Wonders”

Another religious centered episode of The X-Files, this time focusing on snakes as a symbol of the Devil.

This was really creepy, with some frightening moments with these rattlesnakes. I can’t imagine how uneasy someone who worked on the show that had a fear of snakes must have felt during the filming of this episode.

Apparently, David Duchovny was one of those. According to Wikipedia, Duchovny was said to be “not within blocks” of the scene where Mulder is attacked by a bunch of snakes. Thank god for stunt people, I guess.

There were some gross and scary imagery included in this episode. There was an insane scene featuring actress Tracy Middendorf who was pregnant and giving birth to snakes. Ugh.

This was another episode that I do not remember from season seven. There have been several of those so far and I wonder why I do not remember these. I must have watched them as I was big into X-Files by this point. One would think that some of the imagery of this episode would be difficult to forget.

I am not a fan of snakes so this one would not be an episode that I would revisit.

Battlestar Galactica S3 E9, E10, E11, E12

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“The Passage”

“The Eye of Jupiter”

“Rapture”

“Taking a Break from All your Worries”

Thanksgiving evening, I did a run of Battlestar Galactica season three.

Episodes 9-12 were really great. It dealt with a bunch of things, including the temple discovered on the planet that Galactica was getting food from. The temple where the Eye of Jupiter would be found.

Huge steps in the relationship of Kara and Lee. Both of their marriages are falling apart and it is unclear how they feel about it. Kara and Lee are not very good people, even if they are heroic in their military roles.

Sharon found out about her daughter, Hera being alive and took some desperate attempts to get her back.

James Callis was brilliant in episode 12 as Gaius found himself back on board Galactica and had Adama, Roslin and others went out of their way to find what they could. It was a disturbing set of scenes as they tortured Gaius to find out what he knew. This show has been very much shades of grey through the entire series. I was actually feeling sorry for Baltar during this episode. It wasn’t that long ago that I decided to accept him as a villain.

Sounds as if the trial of Gaius Baltar is our next step in this story, and I am here for it.

I want to know more about Hera. She came over to Galactica because she was sick and Caprica helped Sharon get her out of the Cylon base ship. We have not heard anything else about that since though and I am curious.

This is one of the best sci-fi shows I have ever seen. It is compelling and totally unpredictable.

Silo S2 E3

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“Solo”

The best parts of this episode came from the interactions between Juliette and Solo. Solo is the person locked in the vault that we met last week. He told her that if Juliette tried to open the vault again, he would kill her.

However, we discover that Solo is not quite confident in his mental acuity. He was not sure if Juliette was real, so he put some soup out for her. When she gulped it down, Solo realized that she really was real.

Steve Zahn played the off-balanced survivor and he did a great job of spending most of the episode acting with his voice (and perhaps every once in awhile with his eyes).

Discovering the secrets of this other silo, Juliette wanted to get back to her own silo (Silo 18), to warn others of the dangers that brought this silo (Silo 17) down. She was stifled on how to make that happen since her own suit was torn to shreds.

This led to Solo exiting his vault when he feared that Juliette was going to not return. I am not sure where this goes, but Solo feels a little cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs to me.

The stuff happening back in the original silo was not as compelling for me. We get a bunch of trouble from a group planning a potential rebellion. We get questions about Juliette’s actual choice about wanting to leave. The Mayor continues with his machinations. Judge Meadow who is starting to figure out how she can leave the silo and The Mayor seemingly helping her (though I don’t trust him one bit).

Shrinking S2 E8

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“Last Drink”

A wonderful episode of Shrinking this week.

It started off with a flashback to prior to the car crash and gave us all the feelings about Jimmy’s marriage and the events leading up to the accident. (We also got to see a bunch of weird outfits and hats meant to make these people look younger).

We finally returned to the moment at the restaurant when Jimmy saw Alice, Brian and Louis together. It rocked Jimmy’s world and sent him into a spiral.

We also got a chunk of work on the relationship between Liz and Derek, and Derek went to confront the guy who kissed Liz. Derek worked on his own feelings and was able to see how some of this was his own fault. The fact that it appeared as if Liz and Derek were going to get past the kiss was really great. I did not want an extended fight between them and this gave us a chance to look at these important characters a little deeper.

Jimmy going to see Louis to tell him that he forgave him was undercut a bit by telling him that he never wanted to see him again, that he needed to be out of his life and to not see his daughter again. That did not feel as healthy as it could have been and it does not feel as if that story is done. I have some very frightening thoughts about what this could lead to.

Paul was beginning to have some more issues, such as not sleeping well and having some memory lapses, so he went to the doctor. That was a real healthy choice instead of just ignoring it. Turned out that the doctor recommended that Paul give up drinking, signaling that giving up alcohol would help with a temporary fix on some of those problems.

I think this might have been my favorite episode of the second season so far. It had those tough issues and the wonderfully funny writing that did not overpower the drama, but only helped to serve it more.

Battlestar Galactica S3 E9

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“Unfinished Business”

The perfect example of a toxic relationship is explored as we do a deep dive into the strange relationship between Lee and Kara.

Both Lee and Kara are married to others, but neither seem to be able to keep from each other. However, it felt that the anger and violence overtook them as we saw flashbacks to detail specifics of their past and how they ended up where they were.

I have to say, there was a time once where I felt as if Lee and Kara was the rooting couple, the one that you wanted to see together. That is no longer as they both seem beset on a self-destructive path. Nothing symbolized that better than some brutal boxing.

Admiral Adama stepped into the ring as well, calling out Chief Tyrol, whom he was having troubles with too. This felt like an addition to the storyline, and we see some flashbacks that gave some understanding where this animosity came from.

This whole episode, while expertly written and acted, was extremely uncomfortable and difficult to watch. It truly made me not like either the character of Lee or Kara. It did make me think about Dave and Maddie from Moonlighting with their first time having sex, how violent it was and how angry they seemed. That is not the kind of relationship that I want to support.

Both Kara and Lee are damaged people with a selfish side to them, and they have or will hurt the people who love them and it will be difficult to watch. You can feel it.

Battlestar Galactica S3 E8

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“Hero”

Carl Lumbly guest starred in this episode and he brought an old secret for Adama to light. Lumbly, who played Isaiah Bradley in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and the upcoming Captain America: Brave New World, was a soldier that had to do a black ops that turned sour. He was captured by the Cylons after getting shot down past the Armistice Line.

Three years after that, Lumbly, whose character was named Lt. Daniel “Bulldog” Novacek, escaped from the Cylons and was able to return to Adama’s new ship, Galactica.

Honestly, the story of this episode really felt like it came out of left field. The whole Adama did these bad things to “Bulldog” which led to the actual attack of the Cylons on the colonies. While Edward James Olmos is a great performer, this felt very forced to me. This thing just dropped into the story, with Saul Tigh knowing everything too, just did not seem to make a lot of sense. If you have a secret this big, shouldn’t it have been mentioned or hinted at somewhere in a previous episode. This just came out of nowhere and it did not feel right.

It led to the reunion between Adama and Tigh though, which was a nice thing. Lumbly is always great and he does a solid job too.

And then Roslin giving him a medal. Odd.

I am not sure this is going to be referenced ever again. I don’t think that is a bad thing.

The X-Files S7 E8

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“The Amazing Maleeni”

Magic. Sleight of hand. Misdirection. Everything that goes into a good magician and a interesting antagonist for Mulder and Scully.

The case for our agents this week did not include any supernatural/paranormal events (unless you count someone turning their head 360 degrees around). Still, I found this one to be extremely entertaining as I was trying to figure things out as it went along. A case that could actually have been solved without the inclusion of the paranormal.

Interestingly enough, this was another episode that I did not remember anything about from the first time airing. That only helped with the idea that I could try and figure things out as we went. I thought the overall writing was pretty good as I usually can see through things like this fairly quickly, and this one kept me guessing.

I could see where some X-Files fans might not be a fan of this episode because of the lack of the typical X-Files mystery, but I had a lot of fun with it. I also enjoyed watching Mulder and Scully matching wits with the two magicians. The writing keeps them a step behind, but allows them to not look dumb while doing it.

Real life magician Ricky Jay played The Amazing Maleeni in the episode and he does a solid job. Sure some of the story may be convoluted, but it all just worked for me.

I might not want a lot of episodes like this one, but I found the tone and style of this one to be a welcome diversion from what we were used to in this show.