Category Archives: TV-G[eek]

X-Men ’97 S1 E10

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“Tolerance is Extinction, Pt. 3”

The third part of the season finale was brought to a close on Disney + in one of the most epic animated wars ever put to screen. A struggle with Bastian, with the mind of Magneto, and with the conflict within the Marvel Universe.

There is so much to see in this finale. A finale that ranged from Magneto and Charles inside Magneto’s head, to the momentary return of Phoenix, to cameos from Daredevil, Cloak and Dagger, Cap and Iron Man, Peter and MJ, Omega Red, Alpha Flight, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Red Guardian, Darkstar, and ending with Apocalypse.

The show did an amazing thing, telling this story of Bastian’s future and finding the threads of family within. It blended perfectly with Magneto’s story and the battle with Xavier for his own soul. Onslaught is surely in there somewhere, but I am not sure it is where the next step for this series lies.

Post credit scene with Apocalypse, grabbing something from the ashes of and saying the word “death?” I am not sure after first viewing what it was that was in Apocalypse’s hand, but it will clearly lead to Death in his Four Horsemen. Will it be Gambit?

A version of Bishop returned to meet Forge, telling him that the X-Men were not dead, but were instead lost in time and that they needed to find them. A crew of them in Ancient Egypt with En Sabah Nur and Scott and Jean in the far future with a young Nathan. But we did not see Storm. We did not see Wolverine. Where did they end up?

Phoenix messed up Mister Sinister something bad. Then Phoenix was gone, regulated to a feeling deep inside Jean Grey. I knew we were seeing Phoenix this season. Every opening credit included a scene with the Phoenix. It only made sense. Apocalypse has been on most of them as well.

This animated series truly has been one of the greatest things that Marvel Studios has put out, especially among the Disney + shows. It has to be considered right there with WandaVision and Loki as the upper echelon of projects on the streamer.

They do a sensational job of wrapping up the season’s story while building toward where the next season is heading. The Apocalypse material did not come at the cost of the Bastian/Magneto tale. It was masterful storytelling.

I know season two has already been written, so I cannot wait until this gorgeous series returns to my screen. It can not come too soon.

X-Men ’97 is masterful. An amazing ten episodes that brought the mutants to the forefront of Marvel where they belong.

Bodkin S1 E2

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“Who We Are”

Episode two of Netflix’s Bodkin was pretty decent as the show seems to be starting to grab some footing in both the mystery aspect and the characterization of the group.

The trouble between the investigative Dove and the more relationship-building Gilbert is an intriguing conflict with them. Both seem to have success and failure in their methods of going about their jobs, even if their overall goals are different. Dove is after the story, the answers to the mystery of what happened to the three boys who disappeared, but Gilbert is more about the path that the story takes and presenting it in a manner in which people can relate.

It does feel like the journalist vs. podcaster theme is in full effect. Meanwhile, Emmy is caught between both worlds.

The mystery at the center of the story feels slight at this point. They seem to be trying very hard to make it feel more compelling and I hope that there is more coming from it, but this series right now is more about the conflict between Dove and Gilbert than it is about this mystery.

There are also a few background details finding their way into the story, but none of that feels like it will have the needed kick to elevate the characters into more than the simplistic characters that they have started out as.

Still, I liked the second episode and I think there is enough here with the talented cast to keep watching the remaining five episodes on Netflix.

Them: The Scare S2 E7, E8

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“One of Us Is Gonna Die Tonight”

“The Box”

This is what American Horror Story: Delicate wished it could be.

I was very disappointed with AHS this year as the classic horror anthology series just failed in this season. However, Them: The Scare was everything that AHS was not.

I had not seen the first season of Them, so some of the things that happened in the finale seemed a little confusing. I could only guess (and then confirmed after the show was done) that the photo and the woman giving baby Dawn and Edmond away had some tie to the first season (she did) and that the weird creature at the end also tied it to the first season (yup, it was something called Da Tap Dance Man).

So we have a connection between the first and second seasons, but the story of this season was all about family and the pain of being rejected and tossed away. The seventh episode does a tremendous job of laying out everything that we needed to know to understand what was happening and gave us a horrendous end for Athena Reeve (Pam Grier).

With the exception of the arrival of Da Tap Dance Man, there was plenty of satisfying moments in the finale. The confrontation between Dawn and Edmond was tense and powerful, showing how much love still existed between the twins, even if Dawn had forgotten about him. The scene of Edmond killing himself and giving himself over to the demon with the red hair was tough to watch. The shooting of McKinney was dramatic and pleasing to see the rotten racist get his comeuppance.

This was just so creepy. The imagery of the red-headed man will never allow me to look at Raggedy Andy the same way ever again.

There were several times that I found myself holding my breath from the tension of the situation. The performances were top notch and the tone was just so exceptional.

Them: The Scare was everything you would want in a horror anthology series, filled with thrills and anxiety and a story with themes of family, loss and rejection. I loved this show and I was happy I gave it a chance. Them: The Scare is on Amazon Prime.

The Jinx Part Two S2 E4

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“The Unluckiest Man in the World”

The trial had been going Bob Durst’s way at first.

Then came Emily Altman.

Emily and her husband Stewart were long time friends with Bob. When the prosecution put Emily on the witness stand, they were able to get her to place Bob in Los Angeles at the time of the murder of Susan Berman. That was something that had never happened before.

Because of that, Bob admitted to writing the “Cadaver note.”

I’m not kidding.

This is absolutely nuts.

Bob had sent years denying that he wrote that note, the one sent to the police alerting them to the death of Susan. The one with the misspelling of “Beverly” with an “E”. Now, he has changed his story and claimed that he had walked in and found the body and sent the anonymous note to police to avoid his own suspicion.

This changed the entire feel of the trial.

Emily had not intended on making thing bad for Bob. In fact, the show speculated that she may have thought she was trying to help him.

This episode ended with the shocking reveal that Bob had decided to testify on his own behalf. We get that next episode. Can’t wait!

Boy did this one take a turn. I love how the producers of the mini-series used Bob’s correspondence with friends and others to score the program. Bob’s voice was the key to the first season, and this second season uses his voice just as well. When Bob said that Emily was so stupid, it was an amazing moment.

Them: The Scare S2 E5, E6

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“Luke 8:17”

“Would You Like to Play a Game?”

Whoa. Some huge revelations dropped in these two episodes that made it a little clearer about what was going on… however, there are still some strange things going on.

I always thought Raggedy Andy was creepy.

Part of the intended confusion early in the show, the stuff that made me think that Edmond was only a copycat killer, was that he seemed like he had not killed before. I actually thought for a brief second last episode that these two stories going on we in different timelines, but I dismissed the idea quickly. Turns out, what we were seeing of Edmond was two years before the stuff with Dawn. Boom, mind blown.

Things go down hill quickly for Dawn Reeve. Edmond is her biological brother. She tries to save a little boy by taking him to the hospital and he dies in the back of her car. This little boy had told her that he was seeing a red-headed man who wanted to kill him. She is put on leave from her job because of this. The racist cops of the LAPD made things even worse, making sure that everything looked bad for her. McKinney is such an a-hole.

However, it is not as simple as Edmond is the killer. There is something supernatural going on too. How does that happen? Edmond hears voices. I do not think it is as simple as Edmond has mental illness. There is something deeper and darker going on.

The attack on Dawn’s son during his performance was frightening as could be, as was his breakdown in the classroom as he was seeing the red-headed man.

Wild speculation time: Does Dawn have something to do with these murders? I mean, more than just being connected to them or being Edmond’s sister? The missing time suggestion means something. What is it? Clearly, Dawn is not very stable at the moment and her life is falling down around her.

Deborah Ayorinde was outstanding in these two episodes. I am very conflicted by her character and I am not sure what this show is expecting me to think about everything. Is she just a victim? Or is there something more sinister going on?

Only two episodes remaining and there are a lot of questions with the show. Either way, this has really kicked into high gear, which was impressive because it was always very compelling already.

Bodkin S1 E1

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“One True Mystery”

“People will listen to it?“

This was the question throughout the entire first episode of Bodkin, a series from Netflix featuring Will Forte as a podcaster and Siobhán Cullen as an investigative journalist whose editor insisted on her accompanying Forte on his podcast to get her out of the way.

IMDB says, “A group of podcasters set out to investigate the mysterious disappearance of three strangers in an idyllic Irish town. But when they start to pull the strings, they find a story much bigger and stranger than they could have imagined.”

Bodkin is a dark comedy/thriller dealing with the disappearance of some people in the small Irish town of Bodkin. By the end of the first episode, I was intrigued enough to continue with this.

I definitely liked the actors. Both Siobhán Cullen and Will Forte were great and Robyn Cara as Forte’s investigator on his podcast was good too. The Irish people of the town were very quirky and mysterious.

I did not find anything downright funny, but oddball worked as a descriptor. The curiosity of what exactly was going on when Cullen’s character Dove was struck by a car was definitely interesting.

With some open spots on the schedule for TV shows, I think the seven-episode series on Netflix will work nicely.

Them: The Scare S2 E3, E4

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“The Man with the Red Hair”

“Happy Birthday, Sweet Boy”

This series on Amazon Prime has been so very tense so far, and I am not sure exactly what is going on. I was thinking that Edmond was not the bone breaking killer, but just a warped and mentally sick individual, but the end of episode four seems to show us that my thought was inaccurate. Or was it? Still not sure. That is good writing at this point.

McKinney comes into more view than he had before with his inclusion in a hate group that Detective Reeve comes across and is caught observing. This was a tense moment and helps solidify my hatred of the character of McKinney. When he picked up Detective Reeve’s son and drove him home, it was such a anxiety-ridden moment because you just did not know what he was capable of doing in the moment.

Pam Greer came to play in episode four as she had a real shock to drop on Dawn. This is the first moment of the season where it made sense why they cast an actor the quality of Pam Greer in this role.

Edmond was totally creepy in both of these episodes as it seems as he is escalating things terribly. However, it still does feel as if this is not something that he has done multiple times and that makes me wonder if he is simply copying the serial killer or if this just lets us into the mind of Edmond. Either way, Edmond is completely unhinged.

This has been exceptional so far and it does such a top notch job of creating tension and suspense in the viewers. I am on the edge of my seat every episode and I had not planned on watching a second episode today, but after episode three, I needed to see more.

Halfway through the season and this has really elevated the material.

The X-Files S4 E20

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“Small Potatoes”

Some of my favorite X-Files episodes are the ones that lean toward the comedic. Jose Chung’s From Outer Space, Humbug, Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose, and War of Coprophages are so awesome to watch and David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson work extremely well within them.

So Small Potatoes goes on that list of great episodes.

Shape shifting Eddie Van Blundht is our villain of the episode as he fathered five children with tails with five different women. Thing was, the women did not know they were have sex with anyone except their husbands. One of the women thought she had sex with Luke Skywalker.

One of the best parts of this is that Mulder does not have a theory for a good chunk of the episode. Usually he comes up with his idea of what was going on immediately, sometimes even before the case started. They are quite a bit into the story and Mulder even admits that he does not have a theory of what was happening.

The show did seem to go out of the way to make Eddie a relatable character despite the fact that he is basically a rapist. Eddie was played by Darin Morgan, the former X-Files writer who penned Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose and Jose Chung’s from Outer Space. In fact, Vince Gilligan, who wrote this episode, said they wrote the character of Eddie specifically for Morgan.

One of the best scenes of the episode was at the end when Eddie had taken Mulder’s place and him going through Mulder’s office and trying to seduce Scully. This entire stretch of time when we see Mulder’s life and career through Eddie’s eyes deconstructed the Mulder character and provided a different aspect of it. It was just fantastic writing and showed our favorite conspiracy theorist in an entirely new light.

Doctor Who S14 E2

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“The Devil’s Chord”

I knew Paul and John saved music, but I never thought it was quite so literally.

Note: I have changed my mind about the listing of these Doctor Who episodes. I have decided from now on, I will call them Season 14. This is now S14 E2.

I really enjoyed this episode. It was over-the-top, yes, but I am one of those people who love music and I can understand the power of it. This was a love letter to music in all its forms.

Maestro was an amazing villain, and as a child of Toymaker, and the performance of Jinkx Monsoon in the role was exceptional. Monsoon brought a sinister tone to this character, which by all rights, could have been a joke. Maestro was a mixture of Ethel Merman and Freddy Krueger and Jinkx Monsoon played it with a perfect flair and monstrosity.

The use of the Beatles as an important cog in this machine was a stroke of genius. Having Paul and John come together at the end to play the missing note to banish Maestro was poetry.

“There’s Always a Twist at the End” served as an awesome wrap up to the episode and a fourth wall break that was unexpected. Ncuti Gatwa does an amazing job this episode spanning the emotions of the Doctor, as he made reference to the split of his soul from the specials this past year.

I also loved the warning Maestro gives at the end of the episode, when it is tied back to the warning the Toymaker gave in the special. Something big is coming and I am here for it.

Doctor Who S1 E2

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“Space Babies”

The new Doctor Who has arrived, for the first time, on Disney +.

I was not sure what to call it for the season number, but it was listed as season 1 on Disney + so I decided that is what I would call this.

I have not watched much Doctor Who over the years, but I enjoyed the specials on Disney + last year and I find the new Doctor, the 15th Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa to be a lot of fun. That meant that I would give this series a try.

Ncuti Gatwa has a very comedic presence to him and it worked very well with this episode. How many times does he say “Space Babies?”

I also enjoyed Millie Gibson, who is playing Ruby Sunday, the Doctor’s companion. I thought she was very charming.

I wonder if long time fans of Doctor Who will not appreciate the humorous tone as much as I did. Again, I have not seen much Doctor Who over the years, so it did not bother me at all.

I did like this episode and I plan on watching the next episode some time tomorrow.

Them: The Scare S2 E2

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“The Devil Himself Visited This Place”

Episode two of this anthology series really picked up the tension. LA during this time frame was rife with racial tension and this episode truly showed the way that the Rodney King problem made things unbearable in the city.

But this is not just racial tension that is amping up the anxiety of Them: The Scare. Part of it is that we have a serial killer of some sort, breaking people’s bones in terrible manners. We have Edmond who is a truly bizarre character and may or may not be tied to what is going on. When Dawn’s son started seeing reflections in the TV, especially of his own face contorted, this show got me.

Dawn’s partner and her chief (played by Wayne Knight) are just such rotten people that it is amazing that Dawn is able to keep herself under control. The isolation she must feel on the force with all of these closeted (not so much) racists. When her partner told her that his first girlfriend was black, I couldn’t believe it.

Edmond’s strange behavior at the very end of the episode is setting this story up to be frightening and fearful. I love it.

Great performances and some absolutely moody situations make this a tough watch.

The X-Files S4 E19

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“Synchrony”

The X-Files goes deep into the realm of science fiction, even further down that road than they normally go, as they tell a story involving time travel.

An old man (Michael Fairman) comes back from the future to attempt to stop the creation of a chemical compound that is used as a rapid freezing agent. In the future, this agent helped create the possibility of time travel.

I liked this episode, despite a few plot holes that appear in the episode. Michael Fairman would appear on General Hospital and it was cool seeing him in this episode (no pun intended).

There were a couple of disturbing scenes of people bursting into flames which were well done for the mid-nineties.

The secondary characters are not quite as interesting ad they should be. They are fine and that makes the show a fine watch, but perhaps not as awesome as it could have been.

X-Men ’97 S1 E9

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“Tolerance is Extinction, Pt. 2”

If the second part of a trilogy is always the darkest one, then “Tolerance is Extinction, Pt. 2” hits the mark.

What an amazing episode, filled with so much X-Men action that it left me breathless and anxious to see the conclusion to this epic encounter next week in the season finale.

Magneto is back and he’s done with Xavier’s message. He recreated Asteroid M and recruited both Rogue and Sunspot to his side. Both of their defections made total sense to these characters, but that did not make it any less impactful to see them turn their backs on the X-Men.

Blue and Gold teams? Yes, please. That was right out of the comics and I loved it. Having Forge, Cable, Nightcrawler still here despite not being “original” members really worked.

The showdown with Jean and Sinister was just epic, as was the inclusion of Cable into that mix. I wonder if this is all leading to Jean’s return as Phoenix? I have noticed that nearly every week, the Phoenix has made an appearance on the opening credits/theme.

This show pulls no punches and is as brutal as you could possibly expect. Seeing Wolverine’s bloody claws (even though the length of them was a bit awkward) stabbed through Magneto was unbelievable, as was Magnus’ response. Who would have guessed that we would see Magneto rip the adamantium from Wolverine on an animated TV program? This is not our kids’ X-Men.

Morph smash? Excellent “cameo” from our shapeshifter.

I also love how the X-Men did not just fall into line with Xavier. The anger they had for their leader and his choices was clear, even if they knew what they had to do in the end. Scott walking past Charles and ignoring his extended hand was a powerful image.

Bastion is still involved, even though the main thrust has moved toward Magneto. Bastion still feels as if something major will happen with him before this war comes to a close. Seeing him crying over his mother was unexpected, but very humanizing.

This animated program had no right to be as brilliant as it turned out to be. X-Men ’97 has surpassed the original program and might take its place as one of, if not the, greatest animated program ever. We will see how the conclusion of this series is next Wednesday.

Them: The Scare S2 E1

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“Are You Scared?”

I have been looking for another series to watch now that several of the others that I have been working on are concluded. I had seen a trailer for Them at the theater and it looked interesting. I do like some horror anthology, so I gave episode one a watch tonight.

I found this very unnerving and scary in all the best ways.

I did not watch the first season of Them, but if I enjoy this show, since it is an anthology, perhaps I can go back to it.

The show was set in the early nineties in Los Angeles around the time of the Rodney King trouble so there are racial tensions beneath the surface of this first episode. While not coming right out with it, the show definitely hints at the racial aspects.

According to IMDB, “LAPD Homicide Detective Dawn Reeve investigates a gruesome murder in a foster home. It already feels like she’s bringing her case home with her. Meanwhile, Edmund Gaines, a struggling actor, pursues a new role – and a new friend.“

Deborah Ayorinde played Dawn Reeve and Luke James played Edmund Gaines. Both actors do a tremendous job of reacting to what is around them. James is absolutely creepy as the struggling actor who may have more involvement than we expect. Ayorinde has secrets in her life that are coloring her perceptions of what is happening in this case and I expect these to affect everything moving forward.

There were some very difficult moments in watching this. I have never been a huge body horror fan, and this has some imagery that is frightening. I am very much curious about where this is heading though and it should be a scary ride. Looks like there are a total of 8 episodes on Amazon Prime.

The X-Files S4 E18

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“Max”

The second part of this story which began in last episode’s “Tempus Fugit” was a very solid conclusion to a decent start. “Max” takes some time to continue to determine what happened to the flight that the character of Max Fenig, who had some kind of object on the flight with him that was a direct reason why the plane crashed and killed the entire passengers.

The object was radioactive and the show hinted around with it being some kind of alien technology. The scenes where Mulder faced off with the man who shot Agent Pendrell were tense scenes, especially when the UFO arrived.

I am not sure that this story needed to be told in two episodes. I think if you took the best parts of this, you could have made one exceptional episode instead of two mildly decent ones.

I do like the fact that the show finally go back around to starting to deal with Scully’s cancer, as her nose did start to bleed during her attempt to save the shot Pendrell. I also appreciated Skinner’s direct reference to her health as he noticed the blood on the tissue that Scully held in her hand. There were several episodes since the diagnosis that did not deal with the cancer even in the slightest and they felt as if they could have been placed at any point in continuity. Bringing it back should help show us motives for all of the main characters involved moving forward, whether the episodes are mythological based or monster-of-the-weeks.