Category Archives: TV-G[eek]

Shrinking S2 E5

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“Honesty Era”

Shrinking is such a great show every week. They have multiple storylines working for all of the major characters and they all feel real and relatable. It also has some of the best written dialogue on TV. For example:

“Little baby chicken bitch.”

As I said. This was said by Paul’s ex-wife, who came to have a frank discussion with Paul and Harrison Ford and Kelly Bishop, Gilmore Girl actress, were brilliant together. But one would think that line would have been said in anger, but instead it was weaved in beautifully into an honest and real discussion between them. It was one of the best scenes of the season.

Connor also happened to break and tell Summer that he had slept with Alice, and the anger of the ginger came out. This secret led to Liz’s meltdown on Jimmy in another wonderfully written scene. Jimmy responds with such a deadpan way, with small little comments that show off how funny he truly is.

There are storylines for just about everyone in the cast and they all are well written and make perfect sense. The show does not feel stuffed because the writing deftly handles the stories and their aftereffects, and the actors are all so excellent and seem to have a grasp of who these people are that they can portray the writing with some much humor and heart.

Shrinking is one of the best shows on TV.

Battlestar Galactica S3 E4

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“Collaborators”

Tough episode as we deal with the fallout of everything that happened on New Caprica over the last year or so.

Characters have deep scars that have changed them drastically. Characters such as Kara are now filled with a desire or need for vengeance to try and fill the hole inside of them. A raw anger has taken over her as well as Col. Tigh.

Both of them wound up on a council of six aka The Circle that was set up by President Tom Zarek (Richard Hatch) to be the jury of those who collaborated with the Cylons.

Jammer was the first one we saw sent out the airlock, ending Dominic Zamprogna’s run on the show (and sent him to General Hospital). There was an absolute air of vengeance to the Circle that seemed to outweigh the justice they were searching for. Individuals seemed to be playing out their personal traumas on this jury, trying to find justice.

This made me think of PTSD, as these survivors of the Cylon control were acting on their own traumas and making decisions that they should never had been placed in charge of.

Zarek agreed to stand down as president, a position he inherited with Baltar’s absence. Zarek knew his presidency would not be supported by the military. He set it up so that Roslin would be appointed vice-president and then he would resign, effectively making her president once again.

Her first order of business was to issue a pardon to all humans who had worked with the Cylons in any capacity. It was a step in an attempt to begin to heal from the nightmare they all suffered. However, I get the distinct feeling that there will be some characters, including some of out beloved characters, who will not be anxious to move on.

The Penguin S1 E7

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“Top Hat”

The penultimate episode of The Penguin gave us some holy crap moments once again.

Flashback to when Oz was young, before his brothers died. We see what happened to them. Unbelievably, Oz locked them in a tunnel as the rain was coming in, and they drown. Oz does not actually murder them, but he does leave them to die, and all because he was jealous of the attention that his mother gave to them.

Sofia has taken Oz’s mother captive. His mother is as brutally vicious with her words as ever, although her oncoming dementia messes things up as well. Sofia feels sympathy for the woman, you can see, but her desire for revenge on Oz may be winning out.

Maroni arrives to kill Oz, but Oz and his crew stage a rebellion. Maroni ends up dying of a heart attack, making Oz mad that he couldn’t be the one to kill him. Oz plugs the dead body with several bullets after.

Sofia sends a bomb into the meeting with Oz. Oz thought it was his mother dead in the back of the car and uncovers the bomb. He takes off and climbs down the same tunnel where his brothers had drown. Oz left everyone who had his back to fend for themselves as the car exploded. Above all else, Oz is out to survive, screw anyone else.

Except for his mother, of course. I can’t see his mother making it through next week’s finale, but stranger things have happened, I guess. We are gearing up for the big Oz vs. Sofia showdown in next week’s finale. The Penguin has been exceptional crime TV so far.

Battlestar Galactica S3 E2, E3

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“Exodus- Part 1”

“Exodus-Part 2”

The storyline of New Caprica came to a dramatic close with the escape from the planet by the humans back on board Galactica. In sense, the status quo of the series had been reestablished with some new ideas moving forward.

The whole Starbuck/Kasey story ended with such a cruel blow to Kara. Discovering that Kasey was not her child was a tough shock for Kara, even though she was able to reunite the child with her real mother. Katee Sackoff did a tremendous job displaying the pain in her performance over the little girl.

Gaius and Number six now have the child, Hera. They gave her to Lucy Lawless and this apparently satisfied her. This arc has plenty of fuel in it yet as Sharon is going to be crushed when she finds out what Adama and Roslin had done. Sharon believed that Adama would not lie to her, but he certainly did. I would guess that this baby will drive much of the story for the third season.

I was wrong about the crew believing that Sharon betrayed them. Sam found the map that Ellen had stolen (instead of burning) and that led him to the proper culprit. However, having Saul poison her seemed to be a rough choice, and pretty cruel for him to do it. I never liked the character of Ellen but this felt like a harsh end for her. Where does Saul go from here?

There should be plenty of fallout among the survivors.

Shrinking S2 E4

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“Made You Look”

Shrinking is such a good show.

Harrison Ford is outstanding every episode, and this one where he is concerned that he maybe losing a step because of the Parkinson’s Disease is even more excellent than normal. There were some of the best lines of the series in this episode. One, in particular, made me laugh out loud. It was:

“What, you want me to pull my pants down and make my ass clap?“

Just imagine that line in the typical, gruff Harrison Ford voice.

Later in the episode Jimmy tells him that they should be working together, like Batman and Robin. He said that Harrison could be Batman, because he already talks like him.

Funny stuff.

I am a little concerned that I look at him and I see Harrison Ford and not the character he is playing, which, for the record, is Dr. Paul Rhoades.

There are several sub plots that are slowly brewing that show promise. These include Sean’s father issues, Gaby and a second Derek, Alice-Connor-Summer triangle, Brian and Charlie’s conversation about adopting a baby, and the recurring Louis Winston- aka the drunk driver who killed Tia.

Shrinking is on Apple + released weekly.

Grotesquerie S1 E10

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“I Think I’m Dead”

What?

This is a season finale. Yet was it a satisfying resolution to the first season story? Absolutely not. I have to say that the ending of this season is just disappointing and a disjointed mess.

The ending does not give us any answers. It does not even hint at them. The first half of the episode was going along with Marshall, and he winds up at a strange anti-woke, anti-women meeting where there were some nastiness implied. What was any of this about? Is it indicating that this group has something to do with the Grotesquerie murders? All the male characters of the show appeared in this meeting, including some of the most important ones. Still, it was anything but clear.

The episode started to get interesting when Lois was in the mental institution and was claiming that she believed that she had died and that this was the Otherworld. Or maybe she was still in the coma. These were some intriguing ideas that I may have bought into, because I stated after last week’s penultimate episode, I really felt as if the world was imaginary. However, this idea was tossed aside quickly and does not seem to be explored any further after Megan arrived to see Lois.

Megan took Lois to another crime scene where a bunch of people were killed, including Charlie the doctor. Lois says she knows who this is, and left to go to her old office and wait for the evidence to be bagged up.

And that was the end of the season.

Really?

This show was so very odd and bounced around potential concepts, changing gears midseason dramatically. This show never felt right since that massive switch. I was willing to give it a chance, but it all still feels too surreal.

I do not mind having mysteries unsolved, as long as I think that those mysteries make sense. These do not. This was a weak ending to a show that had some solid moments and a strong performance from Niecy Nash-Betts.

Battlestar Galactica S3 E1

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“Occupation/Precipice”

I had an hour to fill prior to the World Series game three this past Monday night so I thought I would kick off season three of Battlestar Galactica. However, there was a flaw in my plan. I was unaware that the season three premiere episode of Battlestar was a two hour event. So I had to pause watching the episode a little over an hour in. The week was so busy with school, Halloween, and other things that I was only able to return to the episode this morning.

Man, what a start to season three.

So much has changed. Battlestar Galactica has taken the status quo from the first two seasons and absolutely ground it beneath its heel. The Cylons took over New Caprica and the situation was unbelievably tense for the remaining humans who chose to settle on the planet.

One year later and everything is upside down.

Some general thoughts

  • I hate Dean Stockwell’s Cylon character. He is such a monster.
  • The resistance of humans, led by Saul, is just about as monstrous as the Cylons. The use of suicide bombers is very questionable.
  • The whole Starbuck is a prisoner would have been enough… and then they tossed in a cute little girl that was supposed to be Starbuck’s daughter.
  • I feel like my hatred for Gaius Baltar has subsided as we see the tortured soul that he has become. He is absolutely a traitor, but he is so pitiful that he is hard to hate right now.
  • Ellen’s betrayal at the end of the episode is horrible, even if she thinks she is doing the right thing, protecting Saul.
  • I can already guess that Ellen’s betrayal will be blamed on Sharon instead.
  • Not sure how Roslin will survive the mass execution at the end of the show. I can’t believe that is how she will go out.

It is amazing how they have reimagined the series and this feels like a truly momentous step for a show that was successful before.

Agatha All Along S1 E8, E9

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“Follow Me My Friend/To Glory at the End”

“Maiden Mother Crone”

I’m not crying. You’re crying.

Wow, what a finale. Two long episodes of Agatha All Along that brought some serious emotion and dropped all the answers.

Let’s start with episode 8. Holy crap… what a powerful episode. We discover so much and we get a massive showdown between Agatha and Rio. Billy flying in in his Wiccan outfit was so epic.

This entire time, I was never sure about what was going to happen, and that is a great thing. That confrontation ending with Agatha’s death, sacrificing herself for Billy (though she would later deny it).

Billy returned to William’s room and figured out that the Witches’ Road was created from his mind. This was a theory that I had heard, and it really was clear going back into William’s room.

Then, episode nine, Kathryn Hahn was just astounding. Her performance as a witch who would lose her child to death was heartbreaking. Seeing the origin of “The Ballad of the Witches’ Road” was fun. We also meet Nicholas, Agatha’s son, and we learn that she did not trade him for the Darkholde, as the rumors indicated. It seemed as if Nicholas had something wrong with him and was going to die in childbirth, bit Rio gave her some time because of their relationship.

I’m not sure how I feel about Agatha the ghost at the very end, but I did like Billy and ghost Agatha heading off to search for Tommy.

It was great to see Jenn pull herself out of the ground just outside of Westview with her powers back. Agatha being the witch who bind her made sense. It was nice one of the coven survived.

This was one of my absolutely favorite Marvel series on Disney +. I do not think it reaches WandaVision or Loki levels but it very well may be #3. What an entertaining and well written and acted show.

Bonus Action Vol. 2 E9

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“The Paths Converge”

The penultimate episode of Bonus Action brought one of the greatest moments of the entire series run, where Josh (and clearly hints from Amanda) outsmarted David the DM. Josh’s character Todd was charmed and was being compelled to kill his friend Marlon. However, Todd, who was a barbarian, could not be charmed when in a rage. This is somewhere around the 1 hour nine minute mark. It is one of the most enjoyable moments that I can remember.

It is an awesome episode as well, but that Todd moment is a highlight.

Only Murders in the Building S4 E10

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“My Best Friend’s Wedding”

Season four of Only Murders in the Building came to a conclusion last night on Hulu as episode 10 dropped. We had seen the killer last week, so this week was what and how it happened.

The killer was revealed to be Sazz’s protégé, Rex Bailey, who is now going by the name Marshall, the writer on the movie. However, we learn officially that he stole Sazz’s script for the Only Murders movie and that he wound up killing Sazz when she discovered that he had done that.

I kind of assumed that Sazz would wind up being the actual target instead of Charles when he said a few episodes ago that if Sazz died because of him and the podcast, he would never forgive himself. So I was fairly confident that Charles was not the real target. Even when they made it look like the killer was stalking the who crew with those text messages of “I’m Watching you” I had a feeling that Sazz was the true target.

Those text messages and the cameras that had been planted was not referred to in the finale, and I feel like that is a plot hole. It may not be a major thing, but it does bother me a bit. That is, unless this is another hint for a future story. If so, that would be awesome!

They figured out how Marshall made it from Dudenoff’s apartment to Charles’s apartment to get rid of Sazz’s body. As a former stunt man, he climbed out the window and went around the ledge to Charles’s place and he discovered that Sazz was not yet dead, and he watched her die. Cold.

The scene of Oliver and Charles going on the ledge from Fish’s place to get into Dudenoff’s apartment to save Mabel was fantastic! The chemistry between Steve Martin and Martin Short is really felt here. The merengue part was laugh out loud funny.

It was also funny how Charles and Oliver started talking about how they always get another murder right when they solve the case they were working on, and Oliver immediately thought that Loretta was in danger and would be the next victim. I actually thought that was a possibility too and when they started breaking the fourth wall, in sense, making a joke about the new victim, I thought that was cool.

That told me that Loretta was going to be okay. So when we found out that she was heading with her show to New Zealand, Meryl Streep’s absences in the future of the series is explained. They keep Oliver with Charles and Mabel too.

The wedding was very nice. Very romantic. Of course, we do get anther body eventually. Lester the doorman was dead in the fountain in the Arconia. Ready to go for season five.

I do love this show. Charles, Oliver and Mabel are awesome characters and they work so well together. I am very pleased that there is a fifth season on its way in the future.

The Penguin S1 E6

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“Gold Summit”

The Penguin has been a top notch crime show since it debuted last month on Max. Episode six continued that trend of solid work.

Colin Farrell is doing some of his best work of his career as Oz Cobb, the lowlife manipulator who is behind so much of the problems on the Gotham streets. He is pushing his new drug Bliss, even after people who were selling it wound up being killed.

The vengeance of Sofia Gigante is in full effect. The scenes of Sofia with Penguin’s girlfriend Eve Karlo were tense and you never know what was going to be the result of the face off. I really thought that Eve was not going to make it out of the scene alive.

Oz’s monologue to all of the other criminals at the end of the episode was also very suspenseful. It was obvious that Oz is someone who can talk people into doing things, even if it may be BS.

Victor had a tough episode as he killed Squid, who was trying to strong arm him into getting him in with the drug trade. You could see how the effects of his choices were weighing on Victor.

This may not have been as great as the previous few episodes, but it was still very entertaining.

The X-Files S7 E4

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“Millennium”

This episode had a couple major things. One of them was this served as closure for the TV series Millennium, a FOX show also created by Chris Carter. Millennium had been on FOX for three years, but had been canceled. Since it was canceled after the final episode had been recorded, which left the show on a cliffhanger, this crossover helped put that series to bed.

Lance Henriksen starred as Frank Black, a former FBI profiler, in both this episode and the series, Millennium. I watched a few episodes of that series, but I never got into as much as I did the X-Files.

The other major event here was a kiss between Mulder and Scully. This was done at New Year’s Eve as they watched Dick Clark reporting on the ball drop at New York Times Square for the year 2000, which was, of course, the turn of the Millennium.

This had a story of zombies and it felt a bit off for the show. The zombies here were reanimated corpses of former FBI agents, and there were moments that were creepy. However, I just felt this was too unlike an X-Files episode. It was a Monster-of-the-week episode, but these zombies were too up in your face for the X-Files.

I’m am glad those fans of Millennium got to say goodbye to Frank Black and his daughter Jordan.

Bates Motel S5 E1

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“Dark Paradise”

The final season of Bates Motel got underway with a bit of a time jump. I just talked about time jumps in the Battlestar Galactica season 2 finale write up. This is another year jump.

Norman is running his hotel with ghost Norma hanging around making him breakfast. Ghost Norma is quite the helpful hand… baking, laundry, killing hitmen and helping to dispose of the body. Not sure how the physics of any of that happens.

The funniest moment in the show was when Ghost Norma grabbed Norman by the ear and dragged him up to the house to show him the body of the man she killed. All I could picture was Norman with his head tilted to the side, with no one actually pulling on his ear, but he acting as if someone was. If only someone could have seen that.

Dylan and Emma had a baby girl. Awwwww…. I did not remember that from the first time I saw this series and I thought that was great. Of course, Caleb showed up looking for some kind of connection. This story was very nicely handled and showed some emotion. Its funny that a teenage rapist who got his sister pregnant is not the worst one in the family.

One would think that after having a baby, Dylan might have reached out to his mother or brother…even once maybe. Didn’t Emma have a good relationship with both of them. Keeping them isolated does feel a bit convoluted, though I understand they would be building toward something.

Romero is beating the hell out of that punching bag in prison. He had parole denied and he apparently hired the guy that tried to kill Norman. I think Romero is meant to be seen as the bad guy, but I still feel like I understand his rage toward Norman.

They introduced a new female potential victim for Norman. Maybe she will be okay since she reminds Norman of Norma. Or maybe not. Females do not have a good track record around Norman.

Nine episodes remaining for this rewatch. I really have enjoyed revisiting this show. Freddie Highmore and Vera Farmiga have been on the top of their game every week.

Battlestar Galactica S2 E20

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“Lay Down Your Burdens- Part 2”

Part two of this season finale was rocking. And so much happened, effectively resetting the series for season three and beyond.

Legitimately, there was so much here. The election happened and President Roslin rigged it. As shocking as that was, she wound up getting caught and she decided to make things right, which made Gaius Baltar president of the colonies.

That led to a settlement on New Caprica.

Number six exploded the nuclear bomb that was smuggled on to Cloud Nine, destroying everything.

Starbuck returned from Caprica with the soldiers she had gone to retrieve. That whole thing was strange and I thought for awhile that Starbuck had been replaced with a Cylon and that this was not her. There were some hints that seemed out of character for her, but the end of the episode seemed to not support that theory. I still think something weird is going on because that return from Caprica was so anticlimactic.

Dean Stockwell (two of them actually) turned out to be a Cylon and sent out the air vent (I assume. It was a presidential order).

Then we had a time jump of a year. Shows like this doing a time jump is always complicated, but so many of our characters received a serious reboot during this year. I wonder if season three will include flashbacks to this time frame. Certainly, we will see the conflict between Starbuck and Apollo that seemed to have damaged their relationship and maybe even Apollo and Dualla’s relationship too.

The Cylons arrive at the end of the episode, taking control of New Caprica, after Baltar surrendered to them. The army of Cylon robots marched through the streets as the scattered crew, including Starbuck, swore to keep fighting.

We get a glimpse of the baby given birth by Sharon that had been “killed.” The half human, half Cylon baby seemed to be very happy.