Daredevil: Born Again S2 E6

Spoilers

“Requiem”

What a way to end an episode…

That final few moments of DD vs. Kingpin and the standoff with the AVTF and Karen outside was unbelievable. When that screen went to black, I was not ready for it.

I loved the appearance of Jessica Jones. We get the first appearance of her daughter. That was cool. I assume this is more comic accurate and that the father is Luke Cage, and we’ll learn about that later in the series. It seems that Jessica has been having issues with her powers since the birth of her daughter. They come and go. Not good for someone like Jessica Jones.

Karen is going darker with every episode. The conflict between Karen and Matt over Bullseye in this episode was one of the most intense ones in the series so far. It was a stunning moment of acting from Deborah Ann Woll. It makes me wonder if this is leading toward the death of Karen, who is one of those characters from the comics who has had an iconic death.

Daniel sets up B.B. to see if she is the leak. He gave her info that was fake, to see if she would release it. B.B. nearly does it, but she ends up deleting the message.

Matthew Lillard has some great scenes in this episode too, including one with the mayor. It feels as if there will be some big stuff with Mr. Charles moving forward.

The death of Vanessa devastated Fisk, and I was never sure what he was going to do. I did know that the doctor should not have come in to speak to Fisk. That giant Kingpin bearhug snapped the poor doctor’s back was brutal. Then the big Daredevil/Kingpin fight at the end of the episode was awesome.

There are two more episodes to go. I am not sure what else there can be. This season has been so great so far. I can not imaging where this is heading.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters S2 E8

Spoilers

“Separate Ways”

I’m not sure what happened this week, because I found myself behind behind Cate. I know… I really feel dirty.

I think what happened is that EVERYBODY ELSE IS SUDDENLY JUST AS STUPID AS SHE WAS.

I mean, why can’t they just talk about what is going on, share notes and be smart about it? They can’t everyone has their own hairbrained scheme to make things even worse than it was before. Lee has decided that calling Godzilla was the way to stop people from dying. That plan seems to have some holes in it. Kentaro is working secretly against Cate and Keiko by teaming up with Isabel. Isabel’s crew wants the egg. Titan X just wants to protect her baby… Godzilla is here to kick some ass (It is always great to see Godzilla). Does Godzilla figure out what is happening as they are flying away with an egg dangling from a helicopter?

When Cate is the voice of reason, you know shit is hitting the fan.

Everybody has their own motives, their own selfish choices, their own stupid ideas and no one is wanting to collaborate.

It makes me want to cheer for Titan X.

I love to see Godzilla, but some of the scenes of this show were so obviously green screen that it took me out of the moment.

I’m most disappointed that Shaw has caught the “I’m really Stupid” bug. I would like to think that he would listen to Keiko and believe in her. But I guess there was just too many years of brain cells depleting to make it make sense.

Go Titan X. Go Godzilla. Wipe out these dumb humans. Let’s start again.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #65

Spoilers

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

“The Squire”

The third episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms featured a shocking conclusion where Egg stops Aerion’s men from exacting revenge on Dunk. He does so by revealing that he was one of Aerion’s brothers, and thus a prince.

This came not too long after a fortune teller told Duncan that he would be a great success and that Egg would become king and be hated and die in flames. The prediction bothered Egg deeply, but Dunk dismissed it as a joke.

The secret of the identity of Egg was spoiled for me as I was doing my write-up for last week’s Sunday Morning Sidewalk, which sucks considering what a revelation it would have been. I do know that the name of the Targaryens is a major name when it came to Game of Thrones, but I do not know what the significance it holds. Making Egg one of the Targaryens ties this to the bigger show immediately.

Dunk’s glare towards Egg at the end of the episode told a story about what he was feeling. He had been brought to the tent by Egg only to find Aerion trying to break one of Tanselle’s fingers because he believed his family had been insulted by her most recent puppet shows. Dunk fought with Aerion, only being stopped by the guards.

Aerion was shown earlier as a dishonorable man as he apparently intentionally injured his jousting opponent’s, Ser Humfrey Hardyng, horse. Egg had witnessed the event, knowing that Aerion was his brother.

Egg had requested earlier that day to be Duncan’s squire permanently after the tournament. Here’s to wonder what the fate of that request will now be.

The Pitt S2 E15

Spoilers

“9:00 PM”

Who knew that what I really needed was Santos and Mel doing karaoke?

The ending episode of season two was filled with moments that brought such humanity to the show.

Noah Wylie is an amazing actor. His performance as Robby was sensational. He goes through the wringer during this episode as many of his co-workers and friends face him down with the concerns that he is considering ending his life. At the end, it felt like a moment shared with the little baby that had been abandoned in the beginning of the season was more helpful to Robby than anything else. He spoke to the baby about all the things she will see in her life and you could tell he was also talking about himself. I know Noah Wylie is the star of this show, but that does not mean that he is free from consequences of his potential actions.

 “I got a good feeling you’re going to be just fine.” Robby said this to the baby, but was he actually talking to himself?

Babies were an important fixture of this episode as Robby and Abbot were able to team up (with a whole room full of personnel) to save a woman and her unborn baby when she was seizing from pre-eclampsia (a blood pressure disorder that can occur around 20 weeks of pregnancy). She was doing a Wild Birth, a birth without medical treatment or with the help of doctors. That sounded insane to me, but I googled it an it was a thing. The show certainly showed how these consequences could have had a tragic result.

Langdon and Robby had their conversation, but it was not what I had envisioned. I had hoped to see Robby come and tell Langdon that he respected what he has accomplished, but instead, Langdon turned it back on Robby, telling him that he needed help. It was probably a more honest interaction than the happy resolution I had in my head.

The Pitt is a fabulous show and the second season was every bit as great as the first season. There are plenty of questions going into their third season including the fate of Dr. Al-Hashimi, who Robby insisted tell the admins about her seizures.

That emergency c-section was rough to watch.

The mid-credit scene of the karaoke was life-affirming as was the ending sequence with some great fireworks. It was the 4th of July remember.

Bring on season three.

Invincible S4 E7

Spoilers

“Don’t Do Anything Rash”

We got a massive battle in space between the Viltrumites and Mark, Nolan and the rest. I mean… brutal and bloody.

Grand Regent Thragg seems to be unstoppable. He crashed through Mark, Nolan, Oliver… and decapitated Thaedus.

However, the biggest and most vicious maneuver of the whole thing was when Mark, Nolan and Thaedus flew through the planet of Viltrum, completely destroying it. Seriously, that was a horrific choice, even though the planet did not have much of a population remaining (and most of them are flying around space and fighting Alan and the others).

Thragg and the remaining Viltrumites disappeared after Thragg left Nolan, Mark and Oliver floating in space desperately imjured.

I really thought Nolan was dead from this. Why were the other Viltrumites seemingly easier to kill than Mark and Nolan? Is it just because they were the “red shirts?”

Apparently, it looks like Thragg and the Viltrumites are on their way to earth.

That’s not good.

Amazing episode this week.

The Boys S5 E3

Spoilers

“Every One of You Sons of Bitches”

The Boys final season has been really brutal and all of the lies are coming back to haunt people.

Maverick was the son of Translucent and he joined up with Butcher’s gang as he believed that Homelander was the one who killed his father. Butcher’s group let him believe this even though they knew that Hughie was the one who killed Translucent.

We find out why Soldier Boy did not die from the virus. The first generation of V1 was in Soldier Boy’s blood. The compound was highly dangerous, only working five times.

This leads to Homelander to search for V1 so he could be immortal like his father.

Ryan returned with anger of his own. Homelander beat the crap out of him at the end of the episode. Butcher had tried to convince Ryan to throw the virus in Homelander’s face, killing him. Of course, it would also kill Ryan. Thankfully, Butcher’s insane plan was broken when Dr. Sameer Shah discovered another truth that Butcher killed Victoria instead of Homelander. Shah destroyed the virus that had been made.

Who knew that Mork & Mindy was a Netflix Documentary?

And a cool invisible fight with Maverick taking on the very visible Hughie. Poor Maverick gets killed.

The Boys are struggling through the season so far. Homelander is getting crazier by the episode. Soldier Boy and Firecracker had sex. Annie took off after Hughie nearly died.

Lots of big things happen as the show has five remaining episodes.

Daredevil: Born Again S2 E5

Spoilers

“The Grand Design”

Daredevil: Born Again S2 E5 is a rough one. Vanessa survived the initial injury at the hands of Bullseye last episode, but eventually succumbs at the end of the episode. The episode played like a “life-flashing-before-here eyes” for Vanessa as she flashed back to the art gallery and the night she met Wilson Fisk.

The episode had a bunch of flashbacks because this is the long awaited episode that saw the return of Foggy Nelson, albeit in flashback only. I know there were a lot of people who were in the “Foggy faked his own death” camp, but this sure feels like an end to those wishes. I do have to say that I am not sure what the purpose of the flashback was for Foggy, outside of getting Foggy back on screen. Foggy’s acquaintance from his youth who they got off the charges he was facing was a strange situation too. I feel like this guy is coming back in the story at some point.

We also got some appearances from Wesley from the original series during these flashbacks. Of course, Karen killed Wesley back during that original run on Netflix.

Daredevil and Bullseye are on the run from the AVTF after the confrontation at the gym. Bullseye seemed ready to die and tried to get Matt to leave him behind, but Matt was not having any of it. When he brought Bullseye into the hideout where Karen was staying, she gave Matt a look like she was ready to rip his throat out before she killed Bullseye. This might be a spot where the relationship between Matt and Karen is tested.

Daredevil dropped a hint about a “nurse” he knew that could help Bullseye. Could this be an allusion to Night Nurse aka Claire?

Speaking of being tested, what will Wilson Fisk do now that Vanessa is gone. When the doctor walked in to talk to Fisk, I joked that he was going to be killed if Vanessa did not make it. I am now worried about that doctor.

The doctor is just one step. The Kingpin is going to bring the fire to New York City. This is going to lead to the arrival of Jessica Jones, I bet.

I was also very worried that BB was in the trunk of that car that Buck and Daniel drove to Albany. I was concerned for Daniel too, as Buck seemed to be preparing to kill him as the leak. I have heard the online speculation that Daniel might be the MCU’s Rose, and I wondered if this was going to be proven untrue today.

This was a great episode highlighting Vincent D’Onofrio’s performance as Wilson Fisk when Vanessa came to for a short time. He is absolutely stunning as this character and having what has been Wilson’s heart ripped away from him. He deserves an Emmy nomination for this work.

Amazing episode that was tricky, but it hit every beat.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters S2 E7

Spoilers

“String Theory”

I have been down on Monarch: Legacy of Monsters over the last few episodes. I absolutely can’t stand Cate as a character and her consistent dumb actions just make me want to stop watching the show.

I have been close to just dumping this show form the watch list.

This episodes was much better, mainly because it focused on Lee, with both Kurt Russell and Wyatt Russell playing Lee in the same scene against each other. While there are some holes in the concepts (which I tried to push out of my head), the performances from the father/son duo was fabulous. In particular, Wyatt Russell was extraordinary with the situation that he found himself stuck in.

The scenes got even more intense when young Lee learned that he was talking to himself as an older man. The conflict within Lee’s face over the idea that he could just step forward and have a life with Keiko was written across it.

This was strange, because I felt the stakes in these scenes because I was never sure if something would have happened to change history. I really thought something could have happened, and that was a nice change for the past events. They have always been the best scenes of this show, but there was always the idea that nothing was going to happen to out main three. That was not this.

Yes, I basically ignored the Cate scenes, especially after she fell into the well and was perfectly fine.

I do think that this show has bought itself at least another episode of my viewership. We’ll see how long it lasts.

Agents of Shield S4 E7-E11

Spoilers

I jumped back into Agents of Shield last night and watched five episodes of the fourth season.

“Deals with our Devils”

Episode seven: Coulson, Fitz and Robbie are stuck between dimensions after last episode’s explosion. They can see and hear the others, but they could not interact with them.

May is desperate to save them, and she thinks the answer is inside the Darkhold and she gave it to Radcliffe. The idea of having Aida read the Darkhold in order to save Coulson and Fitz came up.

Meanwhile, the Ghost Rider spirit possesses Mack and he heads out to extract some vengeance. Robbie makes yet a second deal with Ghost Rider if he comes back to him. He would swear to keep working with the Rider to find vengeance. It agreed.

Aida ended the episode creating an artificial brain.

“The Laws of Inferno Dynamics”

This brought the mini-season arc of Ghost Rider to an end, as Robbie and the Rider are trapped in the other dimension with Robbie’s uncle Morrow.

Aida was in the heart of the attempt to stop Morrow’s bomb, and because of her action, she was allowed to remain active by Mace.

Daisy is seen by the press, but Mace stepped up and cleared her name. He reinstated her as an Agent of Shield.

However, we discover that Aida has replaced May with a LMD, and she is holding may prisoner.

“Broken Promises”

This kicked off the LMD story arc for season four for the next seven episodes.

Aida turned on Fitz and the Shield agents when they came to reprogram her brain to rid it of any remnants of the Darkhold.

Aida attacks the Shield base in search of the Darkhold. She gets her hands on it, but she gets beheaded by Mack.

Mack and Yo-Yo are fabulous this episode as they are going on about robots and how they are always turning on humans in the movies. Their banter about robot movies was my favorite part of this episode. When Mack cuts Aida’s head off , he says “Roll credits.”

We discover that Radcliffe had been working to get his hands on the Darkhold this whole time. He is quite the rat bastard.

Senator Nadeer’s brother is revealed to be Inhuman and she ends up shooting him in the gut. She has the Watchdog dispose of the body and they dump it in the water. We see a new cocoon form around him.

“The Patriot”

We get the background on Mace and the truth behind him. Turns out, Mace is not Inhuman. Instead, he has been taking a shot that gives him temporary super strength. He always has one of his men nearby with a briefcase containing the shots for any emergency situation.

However, he gets caught in the woods, with Coulson and Mack, by some rogue Hydra agents hired by the Watchdogs. His shots are destroyed and his secret comes out.

They are saved by Daisy and May (the LMD). Coulson convinces Mace to stay as the face of Shield, doing the political stuff, while Coulson takes the head of operations.

“Wake Up”

May is trying to escape, but we find out that she is not actually escaping. She is in the Framework and she is repeating everything in her “attempt to escape.” The Framework will become one of the major arcs this season in Agents of Shield.

There is a Senate hearing that does not go well.

The May LMD realized that she was the leak that caused Coulson and Yo-Yo to get caught breaking into the Senator’s office. She confronted Radcliffe and realized that her programming prevented her from telling the truth to Coulson or from hitting him.

Radcliffe is captured by Shield at this point, but Fitz figured out that this Radcliffe is also an LMD.

We learn of some tragic back story for Mack, whose daughter died days after she was born. mack and Yo-Yo grow closer.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #64

Spoilers

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

“Hard Salt Beef”

We get more with Dunk and Egg as the second episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms continued. Dunk has started to see his friend and mentor Arlan in a different light as he spoke of his life and no one remembered him.

Dunk approached the Targaryen princes Baelor, Maekar, and Aerion, who have arrived for the tournament, and asked if they would vouch for him. Baelor did remember Arlan and agreed to vouch for Duncan.

Dunk went to buy new armor, which led him to sell his horse Sweetfoot. Dunk did show some ability with handling horses as he calmed one down that had been upset by its rider.

He also had asked Tanselle to paint a new coat of arms on his shield, though he was not sure what to have on it. After some thoughts and suggestions from Egg, he settled on an oak tree with a shooting star above it.

Dunk and Egg participated in a tug-of-war with Lyonel, who was taking it fairly lightly. They did wind up winning.

I am still amazed at the size of the actor playing Dunk. He towers over everyone in the town and one would wonder why people do not look up to the character more, figuratively.

At the end, Dunk is able to place Arlan in proper position in his mind, and swears that he will be Arlan’s legacy.

Invincible S4 E6

Spoiler

“You Look Horrible”

After Mark got his guts ripped out of him last episode by Conquest, he has to take some time to heal. Two months? Sure, why not. Mark is unconscious for two months and Nolan and Oliver are left to pour liquid protein into his mouth.

The episode served as a series of bonding moments for Nolan and Oliver as they get past their personal issues and spent time training, hunting and eating some really gross looking food (that apparently Oliver loved!).

Nolan buried Conquest out of respect. In one of the post credits scenes, the show went back to the grave and lingered on it with dramatic music and I waited for the fight to come out of the grave. However, the music went silent and there was no reveal of anything. I really do not want Conquest to come back and so I am not sure if this was meant to foreshadow his return or to show that he is not coming back. Please let it be the latter.

The Viltrumites brought the war to Talescria where the Coalition was based. Things were looking bad until Mark, Nolan and Oliver arrived to switch the momentum. The war at the end of the episode was amazing.

Alan was the MVP of this episode as he was all over the episode.

The Pitt S2 E14

Spoilers

“8:00 PM”

It is the penultimate episode of The Pitt and Robby is having an existential crisis and his buddy Duke saw it and called him out. Dana seemed to be able to sense what Robby was feeling. He comment about being afraid that she wasn’t going to see him any more.

Robby is clearly losing his patience. His chewing out of a couple of paramedics over their failure for gender bias in cardiac care was anything but kind hearted. Of course, they deserved the cut down.

Going back to Robby and Duke, Robby actually admits that he was feeling as if he did not want to keep going. This stripped away the question about whether or not Robby was feeling suicidal and places our concerns over what is going to happen to Robby. Noah Wylie is the star of the show, but does that guarantee that he will be safe.

The Langdon scene with the man with the spinal injury was absolutely suspenseful and tense. Langdon had every pressure in the world in this scene and he crushes it. I hope that this is something that can get Robby to give Langdon his flowers. That scene with this victim was my favorite moment of the episode.

My least favorite… the tug of war rope imbedded in the man’s hand. Ugh… HATE IT! I loved that character, but every time they showed his hand with the rope in it… I had to grimace.

If that was not enough… Dr. Al-Hashimi brought Robby in to a room asking his opinion on a case, which turned out to be her… and we find out that she has a seizure disorder paired with viral meningitis and altered mental status. How is this going to affect things?

One more week of an amazing season.

The Boys S5 E1, E2

Spoilers

“Fifteen Inches of Sheer Dynamite”

“Teenage Kix”

The Boys are back on Amazon Prime for their final season, and all the crap is hitting the fan.

Homelander is in charge of everything. He is the top boss, the ultimate ruler. He’s ordering the president around, making him get drinks.

Yet, Homelander is not happy. Everyone is leaving him (in his own, warped mind).

Butcher is every bit as horrible of a person as Homelander. He has been pursuing the virus full scale and has gotten to a point where he had a usable version.

Kimiko (who talks now), Butcher, Starlight entered one of Vaught’s concentration camps to rescue Hughie, Frenchie and Mother’s Milk, despite knowing it was Homelander’s trap. The prison camp break was shocking. MM strangled the living penis man with his own penis. Who would ever guess that I would write that sentence.

The first episode brought a major tragedy. Homelander broke the neck of A-Train. A-Train showed up to help Starlight and the others escape by distracting Homelander. I hated A-Train for the longest time, but just when I really started to like the guy, he gets murdered.

Homelander unfreezes Soldier Boy and talks him into helping. He sent Soldier Boy after Butcher, and the confrontation led to Soldier Boy being exposed to the virus and apparently dying. Of course, at the end of episode two, Soldier Boy, in a body bag, sat up, indicating that the virus did not kill him. It sure looked like it did.

There is so much going on in the first two episodes (Ashley is vice-president and has a second head growing out of her head, giving her psychic powers, among other things). Starlight and Hughie are suffering from depression over the past year. Butcher is just off the deep end. Frenchie and Kimiko are hot and heavy. And Homelander… he is completely crazed… barely dealing with the world around him. He is obviously a metaphor for some of the current world events going on, and it is not even subtle at this point.

I have no idea where this season is heading, but I have to believe that Homelander is finally going to get his. How that is going to happen is anyone’s guess. The Boys is one of the best superhero shows on TV and literally anything could happen.

Shrinking S3 E11

Spoilers

 “And That’s Our Time”

The third season of Shrinking ended on Apple TV + today with a sweet and sentimental episode dealing with Jimmy and his loneliness.

Everybody was leaving him. Alice is off to college. Paul had left and moved to Connecticut after he and Jimmy had a falling out. Sean moved out of the boathouse. Derek and Liz prepared to go to on vacation to Spain. Brian and Charlie are going to Tennessee.

Gaby found the ring that Derrick had bought, and she was angry that he bought the ring and planned to propose without discussing it. So, after getting advice, Gaby turned the tables and proposed to Derrick. Derrick accepted. I did enjoy the story of Gaby and Derrick.

The ending of the episode, with a discussion between Paul and Jimmy, was very emotional. But Paul had something up his sleeve because he had set up the breakfast to be for Jimmy and Sofi.

This finale had a definite final feel to it. Everything had an all-wrapped-up feel and I see that next season we may get new stories. The arc involving Jimmy’s grief over his wife’s death feels done. Jimmy being able to move forward is long overdue.

I am anxious about Harrison Ford’s Paul and his story with Parkinson’s (F Parkinson’s!) I saw an article saying that next season the cast is back with all new stories. That sounds great.

Yet, I think season three may have been the best season of the show to this point. I found this to be remarkably funny and some of the best writing on TV. I can’t wait until Shrinking returns.

Daredevil: Born Again S2 E4

Spoilers

“Gloves Off”

Wow, what an episode.

We get so much Bullseye in this episode and a huge shock at the end.

Wilson Fisk’s big boxing match is up next, and I know I do not want to be the opponent facing him. The giant monster can pound away.

It does seem as if the whole thing is a plan to try and lure Daredevil and/or Bullseye out. And in that case, it did work. Just not exactly how Fisk had planned.

He had sent Vanessa away. Off to see the Governor. She did so and seemingly swayed her over to their side. However, she made it back for the conclusion of the fight, watching Wilson pummel some poor schmuck ( who was like 30-2 record wise) into oblivion.

Bullseye shows up, killing members of the AVTF members with knives and all kinds of other projectiles, marching his way toward the Fisks. He threw a crystal figure of Fisk in NYC, which was shattered and one of the pieces went into Vanessa’s skull. The imagery of the red blood pouring from her skull across her white dress as she laid on the boxing ring mat was unbelievable.

If Vanessa is dead, I don’t know what Wilson Fisk is going to do. he is barely stable as is and losing her would absolutely send him over the edge.

He’s going to blame Daredevil as well, as DD deflected a bullet that was going to kill Bullseye when Fisk picked up the gun that Venessa had and measured an already injured Bullseye. This led to Bullseye escaping from the boxing venue before anyone could catch him.

Even if Vanessa survived, Fisk is going to even more unhinged. I have a feeling that this is where we get Jessica Jones from very soon.

Things are going to be wild from now on.