Category Archives: TV-G[eek]

The X-Files S6 E18, E19

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“Milagro”

“The Unnatural”

Two straight X-Files episodes that were more well received by the rest of the world than by me.

Both “Milagro” and “The Unnatural” are attempts to create an episode that is different and original, and, while that is certainly true, I just did not like either one much.

My original reaction to “The Unnatural”, out of my memory, was that I enjoyed it. This rewatch was different. I found it kind of dull. I do love baseball and this episode was kind of a love letter to baseball.

I do have to say that the use of the N-word in the cold open was shocking. I can’t imagine that being used on TV, specifically the broadcast network, today.

In “Milagro” the main antagonist was played by John Hawkes. He is decent in the role, but the story was just so bizarre and weird with the manner in which the episode dealt with Scully.

I just did not get into either of these episodes. Both had positives about them, but they did not work for me.

Battlestar Galactica S2 E16

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“Sacrifice”

Intense episode. Dana Delany took a longue full of people hostage in an attempt to get Adama to give over the Cylon onboard the Galactica… aka Sharon.

I thought this was a solid episode but I was not sure some of the plans that were hatched by Lee, Kara and Adama made a whole lot of sense.

I still feel as if the relationship between Lee and Dee came out of nowhere and this did not feel as earned as it could have been. However, the killing of Billy was shocking and put a serious stake on the episode.

I was not a fan of Kara shooting Lee during “friendly fire.” Starbucks just has not been portrayed recently as the kick ass pilot that she had always been and this error really brought that home. Perhaps it will lead to some serious drama between the pair, but we’ll have to see.

The other thing that I disliked was when Dana Delany told Lee that she did not believe that he would kill the man he held at gunpoint and Lee eventually dropped his gun. Did I not just see Lee shoot an unarmed crimeboss in the previous episode? I believed he absolutely would blow this guy’s head off, but he surrendered his firearm immediately.

I do believe that Lee’s character has been written inconsistently during this season, and I hope they can get him back on track, since he should be one of the top characters on the show.

Bates Motel S4 E4

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“Lights of Winter”

I’m having a tough time falling asleep, so I figured to give Norman Bates a chance to help with the shut eye. Should have guessed that it would not be the best choice.

Norman and his friend at the mental institution Julian sneaked out in the night and went to a strip club. If you knew of Norman’s proclivity to turn into his mother and murder women when he is placed in sexual situations, you could guess this was not the best idea. Thankfully, no one got murdered.

Of course, that was probably only because Julian got into a scrape with the bouncers at the strip club. Norman was in full blackout and in the personal of Mother at the time.

This led to Norman tearfully accepting whatever help Dr. Edwards was able to give him, as he realized that he was not sure what was real or not.

Meanwhile, the relationship between Norma and Alex picked up as they attended the “Lights of Winter” in town. Norma had gone to Portland to visit Emma and my first thought was… who’s running the motel? If Norma is gone and Norman is locked up and Emma is in the hospital, who is left?

Anyway, there is a woman from the bank named Rebecca, who had been having some kind of relationship with Romero prior to his marrying Norma. Rebecca had ties to Bob Paris and believed that Romero had killed him. She told Romero that Bib had a safety deposit box full of laundered money that was there for the taking, if Bob’s killer would just have the key. Romero is too smart to incriminate himself, but after the Lights of Winter, Romero and Norma discovered the house had been ransacked (perhaps someone looking for the key).

Well, that’s enough for now. I’m going to try to shut my eyes again. Here’s hoping.

Bonus Action Vol. 2 E2

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“Battle at the Parade of Celebrants”

The second episode of the second volume of Bonus Action was the combat that was set up last week. The parade that Bric was so looking forward to was attacked and danger was placed upon the heroes.

This was so awesome.

Bar’b was unbelievable.

Everyone had a remarkably awesome moment. Marlon was excellent. Rory pulled a remarkable retribution moment with a Nat 20. Bric and his boulders…

So much fun.

Only Murders in the Building S4 E3

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“Two for the Road”

So, why is Zach Galifianakis such a dick?

The three actors who are intended to play Oliver, Charles and Mabel came to shadow our plucky podcasters and became involved in the investigation into the Westies.

Zach Galifianakis, Eugene Levy and Eva Longoria clearly were playing caricatures of themselves in this episode, but I have to say, they were easily my least favorite part of this entire season so far.

I have loved this season, but the three actors felt like something crammed into the story that just did not work. I will admit Eugene Levy’s partnering up with Charles to look into the patch-wearing Richard Hatch was the best of the three. Eva Longoria was way over-the-top and annoying. Galifianakis was downright disrespectful to Oliver and I found him to be the worst of the three.

The episode is much stronger with the time that Oliver, Charles and Mabel are together. The beginning with the murder board and Detective Williams and the ending scene when the three were having a housewarming for Mabel’s squatting in the apartment that the sniper had shot from were both considerably more entertaining than them with the actors.

One has to wonder though… why Perfect Strangers?

There were a bunch of clues dropped this episode and several red herrings that played out, including Kumail Nanjiani, who we meet as Christmas all the time dude.

This was my least favorite of the episodes so far in season four, but it was just because those first two were so excellent for me. I am fully engaged in the mystery of who shot Sazz and how it related to Charles.

Only Murders in the Building airs on Hulu.

Battlestar Galactica S2 E15

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“Scar”

A Battlestar Galactica Starbuck-centric episode is always great. Starbuck is simply been put through the wringer for this entire series and she has been slipping into the bottle more. Her guilt over Anders and being unable to get a rescue mission back to Caprica, as well as her guilt over the deaths of other pilots have pushed her into being very brittle.

Scar is that Cylon Raider ship that has been targeting and killing pilots in a manner unlike other Cylons. Scar is known as the “Ace of aces” and a master of sneak attacks.

The show featured the conflict between Starbuck and Kat, as the two women showed their anger with one another over just about everything.

Katee Sackhoff was exceptional in the episode, being able to play up the myriad of flaws displayed by Starbuck and still be a dominant force on Galactica.

The show told the story out of order, as it flashed from the confrontation of Starbuck and Kat with Scar, back to the time before they headed out.

There are some great action scenes in the episode too.

The X-Files S6 E17

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“Trevor”

This was yet another X-Files episode that I swear I have never seen before today. I am surprised how many of those types of episodes happened during the first six seasons, which was a time where I was an extremely big X-Files fan.

“Trevor” is a monster-of-the-week story dealing with an escaped convict who, because of a tornado, developed the power to walk through objects. Wilson “Pinker” Rawls is the convict who was in pursuit of what seemed to be missing money he had during a robbery prior to his incarceration, but the story turned out to be something much more personal.

It is revealed about halfway through the episode that Pinker was, in truth, looking for an old girlfriend named June who kept a secret from him. The secret was that she had given birth to his son, a boy named Trevor.

I saw a quote from the director of this episode, Rob Bowman, who indicated that, yes Pinker was a terrible killer, but the main antagonist of this episode was June, because she had hidden the fact from him that she had given birth and that he just wanted to be with his son. I do not think there is a bigger bunch of hooey than that. It felt as if the show tried to make Pinker the victim at the end and, when June hit him with a car, killing him, that she had done the wrong thing. Even Mulder made a comment that maybe Picker just wanted another chance.

What a load of crock. Seriously, this guy had been leaving a path of dead bodies in his wake as he was searching for June and Trevor. He would have killed Scully if she hadn’t gotten away, inside a phone booth. Mulder had discovered that, although he could walk through objects, he could not pass through things that was an insulator to electricity, glass, rubber etc.

This switch at the end trying to place Pinker in a positive light dragged the episode down several pegs for me. I did enjoy what was here prior to that, but the show just did not build any sympathy from me for this murderer.

The Greatest American Hero S2 E3

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“Don’t Mess Around with Jim”

Did Tony flunk?

I ask because at the beginning of this episode of The Greatest American Hero, Ralph was getting after Tony to meet him at his house an hour after school let out in order for them to work together so Tony would not flunk. Tony wasn’t excited about the extra work, but he eventually agreed to Ralph’s pressure (Sure felt like blackmail to me). However, Ralph was kidnapped in the school parking lot after school and taken away.

And there was not one mention of Tony after that.

I really expected that there would be some kind of tag at the end with this dangling plot point, but there was not. So I can only assume that Tony was going to flunk.

The episode was pretty good in-between the fate of Tony. The man who had Ralph (and Bill) kidnapped was a man who had just faked his own death. A man who was big enough of a figure in the world whose funeral would be aired on live TV. This man had his will taken and needed Ralph and Bill to help him reclaim it.

The truth was mixed though. The man knew about the suit from the “little green guys” and his friend was able to tell Ralph how to use the suit’s telekinesis.

Turned out, the man who had faked his own death, at one time, had a suit of his own from the aliens. He apparently abused the power and the aliens took it away from him.

The idea that Ralph was not the first to be approached by the aliens is a fascinating idea and helped to build the world even more.

This episode was really solid and shows that this show had spent time doing more than just breaking cases. This episode was a development for both Ralph and Bill. This was the third really good episode in season two.

Bates Motel S4 E3

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“Til Death Do You Part”

Every episode that sees Norma and Romero getting closer reminds me of how much I loved them as a couple and how I wanted to root for them, despite the fact that I knew this was doomed from the start.

Their relationship feels as if it has been built since day one. While it may seem as if it were tossed together in one moment, the truth is that they have had interactions with each other since the first season and this all makes sense.

Norman is totally frightening as he is dealing with his anger at Norma for putting him in the psychiatric home. His ability to manipulate is being shown, and it is still up in the air if anyone around there believes him. Dr. Edwards seems to be very low-key and calm when dealing with Norman, but even he gave a look at the end when Norman was accusing his mother of murder that made me wonder where he was going to fall on it.

It was good to have Dylan return to lend an ear for Norma and to face off with Chick. His time with Emma has been great, but he belongs in the Bates craziness too.

Tension is building this season and I can’t wait to see what is going to happen once again.

Bonus Action Vol. 2 Ep.1

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“A Spring’s Awakening”

Bonus Action returned to officially kickoff their second volume of D & D role-playing action with the wonderful cast of characters and a remarkably creative DM.

One of last year’s top surprises was the arrival of Bonus Action from the Preview’d guys, Adam lash and Jay Schmidt. They had decided to film their group’s gaming as a YouTube series and I found it to be very fun.

The cast returned this season with DM (Or as he says, friendly neighborhood campaign manager) David Armstrong as well as Jay and Adam (playing Bric and Victor respectively), Amanda Nicholas as Barb’E, Ja-Ron Young as Marlon, Josh Hurley as Todd, and Jason Spina as Rory. This only works because of these talented individuals with their acting, improv and interpersonal skills. They all have a total grasp on their characters and it makes it a total rush watching them play into the amazingly constructed and described world of Wild Country.

This episode kicked off with an unexpected one-on-one with David and Amanda, in a flashback for Barb’E, and it was tremendous, emotional and thrilling.

The rest of the episode was set up and character development, both important and silly in many manners. Making Todd’s 4th Wall Breaking a part of canon is truly a hoot.

I will say that the cliffhanger at the very end was fairly shaky. How could you?

This was a ton of fun and next week’s combat at the parade (or is it Pear-Raid?) will be something special. Glad this is back.

Only Murders in the Building S4 E2

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“Gates of Heaven”

Two episodes in and I am completely enthralled with this new season of Only Murders in the Building.

Steve Martin may be doing some of his best work of his long and illustrious career as Charles went through the episode trying to wrap his mind around the fact that he might have been the target of the murder attempt that claimed the life of his friend and stunt double, Sazz. Martin’s performance was beautiful as he spoke to the delusion he was seeing of Sazz. This was both sad as could be and relatable in a situation that just was crazy.

While Charles was breaking our hearts in his apartment (and kind of reuniting with escaped killer Jan), Oliver and Mabel went to investigate the Westies, people who could be the shooter in apartments across from Charles’ place, in the west end of the Arconia. These were some weirdos, led by Richard Kind’s “Stink Eye Joe” aka Vince Fish and his moving pink-eye. We also met a family who invite Oliver and Mabel to join them in a card game called Oh Hell. Some of the things that happen with the Westies are truly crazy and are either meant to throw us off or to highlight how crazy things are in this part of the Arconia. We certainly see that they know something more than they let us know.

We do not meet the Westie that Charles dubbed Christmas Guy, played by Kumail Nanjiani. Apparently, his apartment is decorated for Christmas year round. Oh, and by the way, when Oliver and Mabel were in the apartment where they believe that the shooter took the shot, Oliver found some tinsel. That clue may be too on the nose to be anything but a red herring, but you never can tell with this show.

I thought this was tremendous, with Steve Martin and Jane Lynch were amazing. I found the documentary that was the only time Sazz’s own face was on the screen packed a powerful wallop. Steve Martin’s moments at the beginning of the episode when he had Sazz’s ashes all over his hands and he did not know how to wash them off respectfully was both funny and crushing at the same time. His plan of washing off the ashes and catching the water in a bucket, putting the water in a Mason jar and allowing the water to evaporate to leave the ashes was never going to work, but it displayed the tremendous shock that Charles was suffering from.

I love the start of this season and I am thoroughly enjoying each episode so far. Only Murders in the Building airs on Hulu.

Battlestar Galactica S2 E14

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“Black Market”

The black market of goods aboard the fleet is given some light in this episode that focuses on Lee and his recent struggles since the ejection of the blackbird.

Truth be told, the whole Apollo arch feels sloppy. Much of what was going on, things that seemed to be a huge problem for Lee felt like it just showed up now and did not seem to fit in to what I knew of the character. There were a bunch of things in this episode like that. One in particular is Lee who had been taking up with a prostitute on Cloud Nine, a prostitute who had a child. I was not sure where this was supposed to have come from and it was jarring when she was there.

It was the same thing about the flashbacks to Lee’s former girlfriend prior to the Cylon attack. I knew little to nothing about this woman and, because of that, I had little to no emotional connection to her.

I also was not sure about the relationship between Apollo and Dee. This did not seem like much of a relationship before. It always felt as if Apollo was more with Starbuck, and Dee was with Billy. Maybe I missed something important, but it just felt lacking.

The stare down with Apollo and black market head Phelan was intense and ended surprisingly. I kind of liked that, even if it felt like it went against Apollo’s character. At least that felt like a choice he made to make things better.

Overall, this was not a strong episode and felt as if it lacked the narrative that this show is used to presenting.

Bates Motel S4 E2

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“Goodnight Mother”

I really love the relationship that developed in this series between Norma Bates and Alex Romero. Alex, who is anything but an angel, goes to such lengths to help Norma.

Freddie Highmore is exceptional. You can see how he is slipping deeper into his own insanity with every scene. Despite what we know of the eventual fate of Norman Bates, you can’t help but hope he makes it through.

That said, Norman’s mental break this episode was absolutely frightening. You could tell that Norman really believed that Norma was the person who had killed all the other women, even though none of that made any sense. It just fueled his rage and Highmore was compelling the whole time.

The show then juxtaposed Norman’s story of downward spiral with the new hope given to Emma after the lung transplant. The scene of Emma taking her first breaths in the hospital was just as powerful and engaging as the scenes of Norman and Norma.

With all her flaws and lack of trust, Norma Bates truly loves Norman, which makes everything that goes down here even more tragic. Bates Motel succeeds dramatically at making Norma Bates a deeply three-dimensional character and the fact that she winds up dead and in an attic is even more tragic. It provided even more layers to the film Psycho than it had before.

The X-Files S6 E16

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“Alpha”

It has been about a year since I started this X-Files rewatch and we have enjoyed some really great episodes. When The X-Files is doing well, few shows can match it. Sadly, there have been several clunkers during this time frame as well, which included the current episode, “Alpha.”

There were some ideas in the episode that could have worked well. It just felt run-of-the-mill and as if the execution of the overall story was just underwhelming.

Several concepts that did not work, that could have worked better with a different script, included the weird “love” angle between Mulder and the canine expert  Karin Berquist. While the character of Berquist was quirky and different, her motives were messy and convoluted. Another concept that did not work was the villain and his entire plan, as it were. Dr. Ian Detweiler was initially shown to be the man who captured and imported the dangerous dog, which we first seen locked in a cage on a boat. Later we find out that Detwiler is the dog himself and can shapeshift. How this happened was never discussed and none of this made any sense.

Worse yet was the finale, the final confrontation between Berquist and Detwiler, which was simply laughable. The cliche of a werewolf being impaled on a fence spike is used here in just the most painfully obvious manner.

I didn’t understand why any of this was happening and nothing made sense. It felt as if the entire story between Mulder and Berquist was just constructed so Mulder could get his “I Want to Believe” poster back after his own one burned in the fire set by CSM at the end of season five. Somehow, Berquist had the same poster and somehow, someone sent it to Mulder to have… for no apparent reason.

Season six has had some highs, but it has had its shares of lows too. “Alpha” is clearly one of the lows.

Bonus Action Vol. 2 Ep 0

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I was excited about the news of the return of Bonus Action. However, I was really hoping it would be played on another night than Monday. Simply put, my schedule is bad on Mondays for watching and hour and a half + show on YouTube. So I made the conscious decision that I would be watching this new season on Tuesday nights.

So I watched the first new Bonus Action and it turned out to be a lot of discussion on what is to come in Vol. 2 as well as what the individual players wanted their characters to go through or to face.

There was also a bit of a shock for me. I learned that there were some holiday specials with the group. I had no idea. Checking on YouTube, the holiday specials included “Midnight on Ever Clear” which was almost two-and-a-half hours long, and “Smackdown on the Solstice.” Each of these two featured three of the players in what is listed as “Odd Jobs.” I am going to try to find some time to watch these two videos, but 2 1/2 hours is a huge time commitment at this point. It would have been much easier for me around Christmas… or this whole summer break.

Either way, these characters are a ton of fun and I am pleased to rejoin their campaign, apparently around six months later from the conclusion of Vol. 1.