Category Archives: TV-G[eek]

Grotesquerie S1 E9

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“Episode 9”

An intense episode that, once again, really throws my understanding of what is going on into a confused state… and I loved that.

It felt as if Lois was on a crusade to put things to rest before she moved down to Florida. She saw Marshall and gave him divorce papers (and he was downright cruel at this point), she saw her daughter for one final slap, and she continued dream therapy.

It was here where things started to go weird once more. It was suggested that Lois’s dream, specifically about the Burnside family, which had no connection to her own life, was Lois seeing the future.

Of course, Megan was arriving at a murder scene exactly like the Burnside murder in reality. Right down to the mystery contents of the boiling pot on the stove, which feels as if it is a secret that we will be getting in the finale.

Reality? Hm, I wonder.

When Lois met Megan at the hotel, Lois had her cut her arm so she could see her blood. That was supposed to be how Lois proved to herself that this was real… and then the most surreal thing happened, with Megan’s abusive boyfriend showing up and attacking her. Lois held a gun on him but he did not stop. He tormented Lois about being the dream woman and that she knew she couldn’t kill him. He went so far as to put the barrel of the gun Lois held into his own mouth.

And then she shot him.

That was an awesome moment. A-hole got what he deserved. However, I worry for Lois.

Still, I am not convinced that everything here is real life. The background TVs kept talking about the fires that were spreading, much like the final sections of Lois’s dreams, and I feel there may be something “biblical” going down.

Grotesquerie S1 E8

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“Episode 8”

With the World Series kicking off tonight, I did not have the chance to watch both episodes of Grotesquerie tonight. So I decide just to watch episode 8 and I will catch up with number nine this weekend before the season finale next week.

We start into the new world time when Lois awakes from her coma and has to deal with this dream that she remembers everything about. Apparently, she also spoke to the doctor about everything in the dream, something that she does not remember doing.

It seems like everyone that Lois cast in a different role in her dream knows about it and seems to resent her for it. Lois does consistently say that she can’t be blamed for her subconscious, but I am not sure she believes it.

I’m not 100% sure things are as they seem yet. There is a dream-like state to this part of the story and I would not be surprised if the last two episodes make yet another switch.

Shrinking S2 E3

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“Psychological Something-ism” 

Shrinking continues to be one of the best shows on Apple TV +. This cast is just extremely strong with Jason Segal, Harrison Ford, Jessica Williams are fantastic. There are a bunch of exceptional secondary characters that worked great in this episode.

  • Jimmy and Brian’s friendship is explored as they reach a turning point.
  • Alice is still haunted by the idea of the man who killed her mom being in town.
  • Paul is looking for a new doctor and still worried about being a weight for Julie.
  • Gaby remains mad at Jimmy.
  • Grace gets out of jail… and goes back to her husband.
  • Thinking she was doing a good thing, Liz sold her part of the food truck to Sean’s father… and Sean was really mad.

We had a fun scene with Harrison Ford and Ted McGinley, which is an odd pairing, but it was really fun.

Shrinking has some of the best writing on television and the cast delivers this beautifully.

Agatha All Along E7

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“Death’s Hand in Mine”

God that was good.

This show has no right to be as epic as it is.

This episode is my favorite one so far. It is so expertly written that I was absolutely enthralled with every minute of it.

I was so glad when Lilia and Jennifer turned up alive and not dead in the mud. I celebrated their life although I held my breath as the implications of the episode looked to see one of their ends. Sadly, Lilia was falling at the end.

I love a good use of tarot cards and this was spectacular.

Patti LuPone gave us an amazing performance in this episode as Lilia bounced around time and we learned where every one of her blurts over the first six episodes came from and to what they referred. The lay out was so perfect that it all fell into a beautiful place, like a puzzle piece in a jigsaw puzzle.

The episode also confirmed the identity of Rio, as played by Audrey Plaza. She is Death, the corporal form of death. In the comics, they call her Lady Death and she has had affairs with Thanos and Deadpool. Here, they look to be dropping the Lady part and just calling her Death. Agatha saying that she liked the “bad boys” was hilarious.

Kathryn Hahn was hilarious throughout the episode, from her bickering with Billy to her smart remarks directed to the others in the coven.

The whole Disney costuming, from the Wicked Witch of the West (whom Agatha claimed was based on her…LOL) to Maleficent (with Billy’s cheekbones) were spot on.

I am really going to miss Lilia and the grand diva, Patti LuPone on this show. Agatha All Along has one more week with a double episode and this could legitimately find its way into the top five Marvel Disney + series of all time. Who would have thought that?

Bonus Action Vol. 2 E8

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“The Roads Diverge”

The saga of the Fey Wild continues with the group of heroes still split apart trying to find their way to the ruins, encountering conflict along the path.

Marlon got to the ruins first, and was forced into hiding in a tree shadow because of an exhaustion. In truth, Ja-Ron Young, the player whose character is Marlon, had real life interfere this week and had to leave early. I actually blurted out when the shadow engulfed the player and he disappeared in a cool editing trick.

A honest exchange between Bric and Victor was also a highlight of the week, as Bric spoke to Victor about his own guilt over being the reason that dragons have returned. Victor continues to be the conscience of the group and spoke, as only Victor could, to Bric.

This was not the most successful the group has been, most likely because they were split apart. DM David said that next week’s episode is the penultimate episode of the season, so things will pick up significantly moving forward. However, I have really enjoyed the character bits over the last few episodes as much as the combat.

Only Murders in the Building S4 E9

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“Escape from Planet Klongo”

After a down week for me last week, Only Murders in the Building had its penultimate episode of season four with an episode that included all of the best things that Only Murders does.

“Escape from Planet Klongo” gave us the following:

  • One of the classic Oliver and Charles arguments – this time over a Bachelor Party .
  • We got another murder- Glen Stubbins (this is the second… maybe even the third time Paul Rudd has been murdered on this show).
  • Only one major cameo – Ron Howard! Ron Howard was sensational here with Martin Short. Ron-Ron. Hilarious.
  • Project Ronkonkoma became the key point for the mystery. A movie directed by Ron Howard and one that Sazz’s protege messed up badly.
  • W.A.N.S: Whiskey, A-List Celebrities, Naughty Secret!
  • A wonderful interaction with Oliver and Charles that showed their friendship.
  • Charles and Oliver wind up as background actors as aliens- in mo-cap suits
  • A script discovered about Only Murders in the Building-The Movie, by Sazz Pataki.

And most importantly, we had a reveal. We discovered who the killer was thanks to a flashback from Ron Howard. It was Marshall, the writer of the movie. He also killed Glen Stubbins with a pillow, and he wound up alone in the apartment with Mabel.

Everything makes a lot of sense for Marshall, especially with how they showed us what happened with Sazz on Project Ronkonkoma. Sazz was writing a script that Marshall wanted to write. Then, Glen replaced him on the movie and he must have been the actual intended victim when the group of Olivers were shot a few weeks ago.

The cameras in the place must have been planted to figure out what Oliver, Charles and Mabel were like as characters. I’m not sure about the whole plot holes bit or the text messages, but I’m sure that will fall into place next week in the finale.

The limited use of cameos is in stark opposition from last week which was cameo overload. And… who knew that when you are around Ron Howard, you should never mention the fishin’ hole (from Andy Griffith). What could have happened at the fishin’ hole?

One more episode which should include a wedding (if they pull it off).

Great episode.

The Penguin S1 E4, E5

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“Cent’anni”

“Homecoming”

Episode four was my favorite episode of the series so far. We saw the backstory of Sofia, how she was taken to Arkham and the horrors that were unleashed on her there.

Legit, some of the scene at Arkham were horrendous… electric shock treatments… to someone who was innocent of the charge of being “The Hangman.” Sent there by her very own father’s manipulations. Her whole family, except her brother, turned on her, keeping her in the asylum for ten years.

It really made Sofia relatable… someone the audience could root for… before she went totally crazy. Sofia gassed her entire family (except the one little girl). She tortured Johnny Viti. When he swore to help her, she brought him to a meeting and promptly shot him in the head when he tried to disagree with her.

Sofia then told the members of the meeting that she was setting up a new family. That the Falcone family was dead and that she was taking the name Gigante. She found Salvatore Maroni, who escaped from prison after one of Oz’s men tried to assassinate him. She formed an alliance with him with the intention of killing Oz and running the new family in the right way.

Cristin Milioti is absolutely brilliant. She had so many scenes that illuminated the power of her performance as she was developing into a massive villain right before our eyes… and one that we were cheering for.

Victor was assigned to protect Oz’s mother Francis. Oz was worried because he was not having quite the successes that he was hoping for, and he sent Victor to protect his mother. Deirdre O’Connell is great in this episode as Penguin’s mother. She has some great scenes with Victor and a tour de force scene with Oz later in the episode. The performance of a woman slowly succumbing to dementia is truly powerful and sad at the same time.

The Penguin’s disposal of Nadia and her son in a blaze of flame was shocking and showed how horrible Oz was too. He may be the protagonist, but he is not a hero.

Battlestar Galactica S2 E19

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“Lay Down Your Burdens- Part 1”

Part one of the season two finale kicked off a rescue mission led by Starbuck back to Caprica. It also featured some presidential debates between President Roslin and Vice President Gaius Baltar.

By an accidental jump, one of the Raptors heading for Caprica came across a planetary body that had potential for settlement, which gave Baltar a topic to help his struggling campaign.

The Raptor that jumped into the mountain… whoa, tough thing. The old teleportation fear of teleporting into solid objects. Nightcrawler always talked about that and here Battlestar Galactica had it happen.

Starbuck reunited with Anders in a moment of happiness, only to be interrupted by Cylon forces attacking. It seemed as if the whole crew was trapped by explosions.

I have to say I was surprised that Sharon was involved with Starbuck’s crew considering the anger she had over the baby last episode. I kept waiting for her to turn on the humans, but she did not seem willing to do that.

Part II is coming up as the final episode of the second season.

Greatest American Hero S2 E5

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“Classical Gas”

It has been a long time since I have done one of the episodes of The Greatest American Hero. So long in fact it was no longer on Amazon Prime, where I had watched the first season plus. Fortunately, the show is now on Peacock, which I do have a subscription for so I continued with the fifth episode of the second season. Unfortunately, “Classical Gas” was perhaps my least favorite episode of the rewatch so far.

There were so many cliches and tropes swirling around this episode that just made it a tough one to sit through. How about the kids that Ralph teaches becoming a band? How many bands are formed on TV shows- from the Brady Bunch to Joanie and Chachi.

Secondly, Ralph finds himself jealous of Pam spending time with MASH’s Col. Flagg and his atrocious toupee. Edward Winter, who played Flagg, is a music exec. in this episode who happens to be crooked, but also trying to make a play for Pam. And, of course, Ralph was jealous and used the suit to spy on them.

The main antagonist of the show was named Hydra and he had apparently planned an escape from a German prison by having someone have plastic surgery to make him look identical and they flipped spots. Plastic surgery? Please.

Up to this point, Greatest American Hero has been better than I remembered and was an underrated series. This episode was a real flopper.

The X-Files S7 E3

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“Hungry”

This X-Files episode tells the story through the POV of the monster-of-the-week. Apparently both David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson had movies to film and they had to film their scenes ahead of time.

So the episode focused on the character of Rob Roberts, played by Chad Donella. We discover early on that he is the monster, eating people’s brains, and we see him through most of the episode.

LOST’s Jacob, Mark Pellegrino, also guest starred as Derwood Spinks, a dirtbag employee of the fast food restaurant where Rob worked.

This was an interesting episode with a noted bit of humor going through the episode. It is a light episode, but a fun watch. It is not going to find its way onto any best of lists of the X-Files episodes, but it is watchable.

Bates Motel S4 E9, E10

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“Forever”

“Norman”

In my mind, I thought I remembered that the whole gas thing was an accident. I misremembered that because, seeing episode nine again, it was painfully clear that Norman had intended for them both to have died in that room. Had it not been for Romero, they both would be dead.

I will forever remember Alex desperately trying to give Norma CPR and holding her corpse, sobbing uncontrollably. It was a horrific punctuation to this relationship that, in very short order, became one of my favorite relationships in the history of TV.

Norman really goes crazy in the season finale as he kept waiting for Norma to tell him the plan and eventually digs her up out of her grave. We know that Norman from Psycho did dig up his mother’s corpse, although it sounded as if his relationship with his mother was considerably different than the TV show. In Psycho II, Norman says he poisoned his mother when he was young. I know that Bates Motel Norman may not be exactly the same version of Norman Bates from Psycho. Perhaps he is a multiversal variant.

The cruelty of Norman not telling Dylan about his mother was unbelievable. Yes, there were some strange coincidences with Dylan, so he remains unaware of the death. They felt a little too on the nose, but I know it works for the story.

When Norman glued Norma’s eyes open… I mean… how creepy was that. Was that Vera Farmiga being the dead body because, if so, she was brilliant.

When I originally watched this show, I really thought that these episodes ended the series, but there is a whole fifth season to go. This felt like a good wrap up for the series, at least for Norman and Norma, but there are 10 more episodes to go. The side characters all need more of a wrap up, but I could see this having been the end of Bates Motel.

Not sure I liked the Christmas lights popping on at the end of the episode though.

Bates Motel S4 E8

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“Unfaithful”

Norman’s presence back home causes strife for Norma, who is scared to tell him about Romero.

Norman is trying to establish his own place by going to see Romero and telling him that he can start divorce proceedings. Romero was not happy about it, and he told Norma that she was going to have to take care of it. Norma said that she was not giving him up.

When the secret came out (sort of, though. Norma told Norman that she ‘liked’ Alex), Norman did not take it well. He has so much jealousy directed toward them that you can see his anger was clearly coming through.

The dinner with Norma, Alex and Norman was remarkably tense. The blow up between Norman and Norma was rough to watch.

All it did was reaffirm how much I love the relationship between Romero and Norma. He was in such control during Norman’s rampage and all he thought of was Norma’s safety.

They also teased what’s coming up. A little foreshadowing with the heater repair guy.

Grotesquerie S1 E7

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“Unplugged”

WTF?

I mean… WTF?

This episode started off with Lois being just a totally vicious bitch toward her daughter and her new fiancé, Travis Kelce. She was so cruel that I found myself hating her so much. Then she pulled the plug on Marshall. Then we found out that Father Charlie was Grotesquerie and that Sister Megan was his accomplice. Megan got into a massive fight with Lois, where she stabbed her multiple times.

Then things changed.

Lois is in the coma. Marshall is alive and in the Lois role from the beginning. Lois had been the one having the affair. Sister Megan was the police chief. Marshall decided to pull the plug on Lois. Travis Kelce wanted to say goodbye, but Marshall wanted no part of that, keeping him from the room. When they pulled the plug, Lois floated up and seemed to get her heartbeat back.

What the hell is going on?

Is this show implying that Lois has been in the coma the whole time and the first six episodes were all in her head? I think that is what is going on here.

Does that mean that everything prior to Lois waking up from her coma in this episode means nothing?

That is a massive sized twist if that is the case. It is also extremely confusing in this episode. Where does this story go from here? Is this a totally different story than the one we have been watching?

Only one episode released this week, but it was nearly an hour long, and it was totally insane. I am not sure what happened or where it goes from here. There are three more episodes remaining.

Shrinking S2 E1, E2

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“Jimmying”

“I Love Pain”

Season one of Shrinking on Apple + was one of the great unexpected treasures on streaming. Jason Segal, Harrison Ford, Jessica Williams, Christa Miller, Ted McGinley. Luke Tennie and Lukita Maxwell are a great cast that brought these stories of grief, loss and recovery to life.

The first two episodes of season two dropped on Apple + this week.

“Do you know what sucks about your baby carrots? They make you think they’re Cheetos”- Paul (Harrison Ford). I laughed out loud at this line. This is a perfect example of some of the great writing on this series. The dialogue is special and they are delivered by amazing actors.

I have to say specifically that the writing for Harrison Ford is unbelievably amazing in this show, and this episode is a prime example of that.

Episode one had a shocking surprise cameo at the end as Brett Goldstein (Roy Kent from Ted Lasso) showed up at Jimmy’s office. His name was Louis and he was the drunk driver that was involved in the car crash that killed Jimmy’s wife, Tia. This was just as Jimmy was getting past the loss, but dealing with his own worries over his patient Grace who pushed her husband off a cliff.

These first two episodes reminded me just how awesome this series was. It is so well written and acted that it is both deeply poignant and outrageously funny. I am happy that it is back again.

Agatha All Along E6

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“Familiar By Thy Side”

After last week’s big reveal at the episode’s end, I figured this week would be the back story of Billy Maximoff. And I was right.

I loved this episode. We went back and discovered how Wanda’s mind reading son wound up in a teenager’s body.

I had heard this speculation before. How the car accident that was reported earlier in the series, and was the back drop to the credits when Joe Locke’s name was up, would be tied to Billy’s resurrection (or rebirth?).

That car crash they shot was spectacular.

The crash came because Billy Kaplan’s parents, from Eastview, were distracted by the Anomaly created by Wanda was disappearing. I felt bad for the Kaplans but their son was gone. When he died in that car crash, Bill Maximoff took over the body. This is a decent origin for the Teen in the MCU considering how messy Wiccan’s Marvel Comics origin is.

We also get a special guest star… everyone’s favorite… Ralph Boner! Ralph Boner was the albatross around the neck of WandaVision. When he turned out to NOT be Pietro Maximoff from the X-Men universe, that was universally hated. However, we all still love Evan Peters and having him back is always welcomed. Ralph’s appearance was a little inconsistent here. I wish they had chosen a tone and stuck with it instead of trying to do both the fearful/intense tone and the funny/silly tone. Still, it was great to see him.

The discussion between Agatha and Billy at the end was really some great writing. Interestingly, no Aubrey Plaza. Where was she? I also hope the others in the coven are not gone for good. I know they are involved in other aspects, but I hope it is not just in flashbacks.

Three more episodes. One next week and then two on Halloween eve.