Category Archives: TV-G[eek]

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.

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.