Category Archives: TV-G[eek]

Picket Fences S4 E16

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“Dante’s Inferno”

This Picket Fences episode was quite the step up from the last one. 

It is also an episode that feels very current day and was filled with hatred. The way Chuck Dante, as played by Charles Rocket, is portrayed here made me think very much about some of the political discourse that happens regularly in our society today.

Admittedly, this episode was certainly pointed more toward Howard Stern than it was Donald Trump, as Chuck Dante was a thinly veiled caricature of the shock jock. Still, it felt very much like something that could happen today.

The influence Dante showed in this episode over his listeners was eerily similar. The anti-feminist hatred that the character spewed on his radio show felt much like some of the hatred that happens on the Internet on a regular basis. 

Wambaugh used the words of Dante to defend his client, a man who shot Maxine who had been appointed as the acting mayor while Laurie Bey was on maternity leave. The shooter was just as unlikable as Dante. As Wambaugh cross examined Dante, the defendant would snicker at some of the outrageous comments he made during his testimony.

Of course the jury found him no guilty which was horrendous. Judge Bone sent the shooter to a mental institution for observation. 

After the case, the people turned on Dante, which is something I wish would happen today to these people who try to use their words to rile up the influential of the country.

By the way, Jill Brock was back to her normal routine after her complete psychotic break last episode. She said things last episode that were really cruel and she said them for no reason. I guess we are meant to forget about that.

Fargo S5 E7

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“Linda”

Dorothy returned to Fargo this week as we discovered exactly what she was after. A woman named Linda.

Whereas last week’s episode was lacking Dorothy, this week we get a lot of her. In fact, we only get a little of the rest of the crew outside of her. We do see how the events have affected Wayne and his new attitude toward the car dealership. We see Gator in an attempt to kill Ole Munch, but who is several steps behind him.

And we have Dorothy nearly wrecking her car when she fell asleep at the wheel. After she wakes up, she finds a card for Camp Utopia, which turns out to be a place where Linda had created a refuge for abused women.

Dorothy tried to convince Linda to return and go against Sheriff Roy. Linda says she has to make her puppet first and tell her truth. This was weird and Dorothy did not want to do it at first. However, she finally just basically said screw it and she made a puppet. 

Then, we got the backstory of Dorothy (called Nadine at that time) and how she came to be with Sheriff Roy. It was told with puppets and it was awesome. It did remind me of scenes from The Boys and from Gen V where puppets or animated characters narrated flashbacks. Still, this was beautifully done.

However, this was all apparently a dream as Dorothy had actually crashed her car when she fell asleep and dreamt this whole section. The nurse told her that they were happy that she came to and her husband was here. In walked Roy.

This was a great episode as we learned a lot of truths about Dorothy and her past and we get a chance to see how lowlife Roy Tillman truly was. 

Three more episodes for this season, which has been a lot of fun.

Moonlighting S3 E8

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“It’s a Wonderful Job”

Moonlighting had some great Christmas episodes. We are up to the “It’s A Wonderful Job” episode from season three, which, of course, is a parody of the all-time Christmas classic “It’s A Wonderful Life.”

Everything is set up to have Maddie alone in a bar after making a public wish that she had never kept the agency open. She is approached by her guardian angel, Albert, who goes ahead and shows her what her life would be like had she closed down Blue Moon instead of keeping it open.

Miss DiPesto was a cruel, cold businesswoman running a greeting card company. David married Cheryl Tiegs. Maddie would be fated to kill herself in a car crash.

There are some really good scenes with Cybill Shepherd, especially the scene on the roof of the building with Albert. She was very subtle with her facial expressions, but you could see them change depending on each situation.

Along with Cheryl Tiegs, there were some fun cameos. In particular, Lionel Stander, who played Max on Hart to Hart, an earlier detective show on ABC. Stander was playing Max here as Blue Moon had become Hart Investigations in this alternate future. We also saw Charles Rocket once again as David’s brother Richie. This is the first time in awhile since we saw Jack Blessing as Mr. MacGillicudy, one of the staff workers at Blue Moon.

Again, I found Herbert Viola’s presence in this episode to be fine. I am curious to see when my abject hatred of this character starts because so far I think he has been used very well.

This is a strong episode to follow the best episode they ever had with Atomic Shakespeare. The third season was on fire at this point. Although the kiss at the end of the episode with David and Maddie was confusing, since it felt as if something had changed, but they do not reference it again.

Picket Fences S4 E11, E12, E13, E14, E15

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“Bloodlines”

“Snow Exit”

“My Romance”

“The Z Files”

“Bottled”

I watched a run of the fourth season episodes of Picket Fences this afternoon. They were all fairly low on the overall list of Picket Fences as a group of characters were acting out of character and there was plenty of mean-spiritedness.

The best of these five episodes was “Snow Exit” when a blizzard crippled the city and Mayor Bey had to give birth at the police station. By the way, this was the last time we saw her, She had asked Kenny to help be her Lamaze partner and he had to tromp through the blizzard to get to her. Then she named her child Michael. You know… Michael Bey. Is that a joke or is Michael Bay the son of Marlee Matlin? 

One of this episode’s problems is that everyone had a storyline, but there was no through line. They were all separate. Henry Bone had a heart attack. Max got stuck with Jack Black, who was dressed as a cat. Jill got stuck at a bar with Lydia singing. Nothing was sensible.

Henry and Doug seemed to bury the hatchet with their fight over the Pope, but that changed a few episodes later. 

In another episode, Carter nearly gets run over by a bus, gets electrocuted and is dead for 3 minutes before being revived. It led to an after death moment for him, and caused a major upheaval in his relationship.

The first episode was called “Bloodlines’ and it was actually not bad. Matthew saw a classmate who had killed himself with a shotgun and the sight messed with his head. So Jimmy took him on a trip to chase the Cocaine Bear. Well, it may not have been the Cocaine Bear, but it was a giant bear that was roaming freely around the county. That bear, by the way, left the county and there was never any resolution to that storyline. Matt did some nice acting in that episode. Of course, he then spent time kissing the young girl who Zack liked.

The worst of all of these episode was the old Brock party episode in “Bottled.” Jill thought she was going through menopause and she spent the whole episode being cruel and totally out of control. Even after she discovered that she was not going through the change, she was just as cruel and as crazy, saying such horrendous things as you could imagine to Jimmy and her kids. It was totally inexcusable and there was no reason given for her behavior. If I did not know better, I’d say these people all hate each other. This went well beyond family squabbling or saying unhappy truths to work through issues. This was just obscene.

Matthew had the best joke, saying that they always make up at five minutes to 11, which was a breaking of the fourth wall type joke as that was the time the show aired. Of course, there was no resolution of the arguments or anything but apologies that felt empty. This was not the Jill Brock that I have watched for three seasons + before this.

Henry was also going crazy as he was being totally rude to Douglas, who began to take his rudeness to heart. They came to an understand, sort of, but I got the implication that Wambaugh was not a forgiving as he usually was.

By the way, Zack was allowed to invite four people to his birthday party and he chose Wambaugh, Henry Bone, Maxine and Kenny. Why did he not pick Mayor Bey? Weren’t they so close that she got caught as the Dancing Bandit coming back to see Zack on his last birthday?

I did not mention about the Z Files, where Zack used an internet site to create a dirty picture of his teacher and then he gave it to his friend Kevin who put it on the internet. 

Honestly, this Brock family probably all grew up to become serial killers or master criminals. 

It is a good thing that this is in the middle of the final season of Picket Fences because if this show continued to rape these characters as it has been doing, I’d be ready to stop watching. As of now, I have only seven more episodes left so no sense in stopping now. 

Sad fact is this is just not the same series as it was in the first three seasons.

The X-Files S2 E12

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“Aubrey”

I thought that I was done with X-Files episodes that I had not seen. Then I started watching “Aubrey” and I realized quickly that I was not done with unseen X-Files shows.

The show kicked off right away with John Locke! My ever favorite LOST star, Terry O’Quinn, was playing a police detective involved in the case that Mulder and Scully would be involved in.

A female detective stumbled into the desert and digs up the bones of a missing FBI agent from the 40s. This leads to a look at a serial killer from the time and how it connected to three murders from the present.

I did like the story. It was inventive and the answer was a surprise. It had that same X-Files feel to it, but it was unlike other episodes.

What If…? S2 E9

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“What If… Strange Supreme Intervened?”

Well, here we are. The finale of season two of What If…?, and it has been a glorious season. Several of these episodes truly took a leap from season one. I shouldn’t say that I disliked season one, because I liked it enough. It just does not stand out. It’s fine.

That is why season two has been so great. Because it went beyond what was before and improved everything: storytelling, animation, characterization… all of it.

The 1602 episode was the highlight of a fantastic season and its placement just before the finale raised the stakes for the finale. 

The finale turned out to be a step back from the best episodes of the season, but was a lot of crazy fun. 

Strange Supreme returned to his goal of saving his universe, especially Christine, and he tried to fool Captain Carter into helping him by retrieving Kahhori, who had slipped from his grasp. However, together Captain Carter and Kahhori fought against the Doctor.

Most of the episode was taken up by the two powerhouses battling the demonic doctor with their powers. Peggy seemingly kept acquiring even more power, through other MCU weapons that she obtained through the episode.

What was the most fun about the episode was the Cabin in the Woods type situation that happened. Supreme Strange had been collecting and imprisoning powerful forces from the multiverse. In order to distract Strange, Peggy freed them all, leading to a wild brawl among all of these Easter eggs. 

While this was a lot of fun, I kind of wanted more because the season had been so good. I’m not calling this a bad episode. It just did not quite reach the level of so many of the other episodes of the year. 

Though the final shot of the Watcher and Captain Carter standing in front of the Tree of Life from Loki season 2 finale presents a lot of possibilities for the third season, which has been confirmed by Marvel.

Final Episode Order:

E8  ”What If… the Avengers Assembled in 1602?”

E3  ”What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?”

E1  “What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?”

E5  ”What If… Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper”

E9  ”What If… Strange Supreme Intervened?“

E6  ”What If…Kahhori Reshaped the World?”

E7  ”What If…Hela Found the Ten Rings?”

E2  “What If… Peter Quill Fought Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?”

E4  ”What If… Iron Man Crashed into the Gamemaster?”

Moonlighting S3 E7

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“Atomic Shakespeare”

One of my favorite hours of television of all-time is next up for Moonlighting. It is the iconic “Atomic Shakespeare” episode that saw David and Maddie taking the place of Petruchio and Katharina, respectfully. It was a show that understood that it did not matter the setting or the format of the show as long as there was David and Maddie.

The show was written in iambic pentameter, honoring the Shakespeare play of The Taming of the Shrew, in which it was based. 

The episode went full throttle into the Shakespeare of it all in dialogue, costuming and sets. Yet, it maintained the certain flair that made this Moonlighting.

Bruce Willis performed “Good Lovin'” after his “wedding” to a bound and gagged Katharina as the entire church sang along. The wedding itself is hilarious, especially the grunts of Cybill Shepherd at the antics of he soon-to-be husband. 

Petruchio, for his part, wore his Rayban sunglasses (so did his horse, btw) and showed himself to be the one man that could handle his Kate. The ending in the town square when Petruchio speaks about how he and Kate were partners and how much better it was than keeping her under his thumb was a fantastic end to the show. It was a great message and gave Kate some strength after being forced to marry him.

This was clever, funny as can be, and still gave us the flavor of David and Maddie, advancing their characters, without even having it be their characters. 

This is one of my favorite episodes of TV ever, right up there with “The Constant” of LOST and the pilot of Twin Peaks. The risks the show took with this episode were great, but this provided a remarkable result.

And Cybill Shepherd was meant for this time, because she absolutely rocked those dresses. They could not have been comfortable, but she was unbelievably gorgeous in them.

I did not want to put it at the top of my Moonlighting episode list until I saw it again, to see if it held up. After finishing the episode, I can safely say that this is the best episode of Moonlighting ever made and that it holds up beautifully.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters S1 E8

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“Birthright”

Things went really wrong with the 2015 crew as we discover what Shaw’s plan was. He was going to close up the passageways from the Titans’ world to protect the humans and the Titans from each other.

Unfortunately, both May, Lee and Cate looked to fall into the pit to their deaths. Well, it clearly was not to their deaths. I don’t think that cliffhanger was shocking in any way. In fact, I think we will absolutely find that Keiko is still alive. It is obvious that when she got pulled to her death (or so we thought) way back in the first episode, she was just going to be living in the Hollow earth. My guess is that is the reason that Shaw has a long life and Keiko will be the same.

We barely get any monsters on this monster show. We got one at the very end. It’s like that seemingly each week. 

Only a few more weeks for this show. It has been an okay ride so far. I hope it picks up a bit as we approach the finale.

Moonlighting S3 E6

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“Big Man on Mulberry Street”

This was where I was introduced to Billy Joel’s hit “Big Man on Mulberry Street” in yet another classic Moonlighting dream sequence.

I love Billy Joel and I enjoy many of his songs. I would not be lying if I said that every time I hear this song, I think of the huge dance routine with Bruce Willis on this episode. 

Bruce Willis showed off his moves in this dance routine, and the director really highlighted his strengths while using the other experienced dancers to make the routine look great. Bruce may not be a great dancer, but they made him look like a million bucks.

Then, there was a story involving David’s ex-wife and the obsession that it created in the mind of Maddie. Who was this woman? What happened? Why had she never heard about this before? It took this relationship to yet another level as it all built to later in the season.

The episode did start off oddly as Maddie was meeting for breakfast with a client waiting for David to show up with the photos they had been hired to take. David slinked in, hungover and without the photos.

This, of course, led to an argument between David and Maddie, and, to be honest, most of the time I am with David when he is arguing with Maddie, but there was no excuse this time and his laissez faire attitude really felt like it was inappropriate. It was as if David could not accept that he was fully in the wrong and that what he had done was a betrayal.

This whole story aspect just went away completely when David had received a phone call telling him that his former brother-in-law had died. Meaning that there was, at one time, a Mrs. Addison.

There were several really strong monologues in the episode delivered by our two leads and it took a deeper look at the individual characters and the budding relationship with Maddie and David.

What If…? S2 E8

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“What If… the Avengers Assembled in 1602?”

This season of What If…? has just been off the charts good. Every episode is just excellent, and then they come up with something that just transcends the rest of the season. ”What If… the Avengers Assembled in 1602″ has taken that spot at the very top of the list this season and might be threatening season 1’s Dr. Strange episode as the best of the series.

We had seen Captain Carter pulled into the universe of 1602 by Scarlet Witch at the end of episode five, leaving it on a cliffhanger. We pick up here with Peggy trapped in 1602 but trying to save the universe from being destroyed.

There are some blue rift that appears in the sky that sucks characters way, and Hela, the queen, gets pulled away. Captain Carter could not save her and Thor blames her. 

Captain Carter runs from the new king, escaping from the castle. She stops to speak with the Watcher, whom she can hear narrating. She then perfectly describes, in layman’s terms, an incursion using a bubble gum analogy. Incursions are going to be important in the upcomng Multiverse saga, or at least that is what it seems.

We meet many of our favorite characters in new roles during this as we see Loki as a pretentious actor, Steve Rogers as a Robin Hood type character with Scott Lang and Bucky Barnes with him. Wanda Maximoff is the witch of the king. Nick Fury and Happy Hogan are with the king’s men. Bruce Banner is the man in the iron mask. Tony Stark as the mad scientist. Each one feels a perfect mix.

Once again, we get a Steve Rogers-Peggy Carter reunion that is both sweet and eventually tragic, as it seems as if it always is destined to be. 

The voice acting includes Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Mark Ruffalo, Elizabeth Olson, Jon Favreau, Hayley Atwell, Samuel L. Jackson, Paul Rudd, Sebastian Stan, Benedict Cumberbatch along the regular voice actors covering Tony and Cap, Mick Wingert and Josh Keaton respectfully. You can tell they do a special job on this episode, bringing an amazing chemistry to the characters. It is just so joyous.

The action in this episode is just sensational and as clever as you are going to get. The writing is brilliant. The dialogue from Loki during the first scene was some of the funniest of the series. How many Shakespeare references are you going to have in a Marvel series? Poor Yorick, indeed!

Something that I have noticed in What If…? this season is that, in comparison, there is more hope in these alternate realities. Last season, characters died. Universes were destroyed. There was a dread in most every episode. Yet this year, no universes have died. A minimum amount of characters have died. Tony Stark has shown up several times and has not died yet, and it became a joke last year that Stark was killed off multiple times. 

Using the 1602 concept, from the classic Marvel book by Neil Gaiman, is an excellent idea. This is so well planned out and it feels as if everything is working so perfectly. With Supreme Strange showing up at the end to talk with Peggy, (and a TO BE CONTINUED popping up on screen) will connect Captain Carter to Kahhori from episode 6 in some kind of finale. 

Just a remarkable episode of TV.

Up to Date Running Order:

E8  ”What If… the Avengers Assembled in 1602?”

E3  ”What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?”

E1  “What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?”

E5  ”What If… Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper”

E6  ”What If…Kahhori Reshaped the World?”

E7  ”What If…Hela Found the Ten Rings?”

E2  “What If… Peter Quill Fought Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?”

E4  ”What If… Iron Man Crashed into the Gamemaster?”

The X-Files S2 E10 E11

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“Red Museum”

“Excelsis Dei”

“Red Museum” was the episode that Chris Carter and David E. Kelley discussed a being a crossover with the CBS drama Picket Fences. Since The X-Files and Picket Fences were on different networks, the networks nixed the idea.

It turned into a different story, involving growth hormones. There is also a vegan religious group that gets targeted as suspects because of their oddness. This was another sheriff on the X-Files that was a big jerk.

The killer of Deep Throat, Crew Cut Man, was killed off screen in this episode, as he had arrived to try and help cover up what was going on with the tests that were being run.

In “Excelsis Dei” Mulder and Scully head to a private nursing home to investigate the claims of a nurse that she was raped by an invisible spirit. 

It was weird because in this episode, Mulder was really poo-pooing the idea of an invisible rapist at first and Scully was all in and trying to speculate possible ideas. It really felt backwards from a normal X-Files episode.

This episode winds up fairly unsatisfyingly and the whole bathroom filling with water thing made very little sense and seemed to be more laughable.

Moonlighting S3 E5

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“All Creatures Great… and Not So Great.”

Religion spurs and argument once again between David and Maddie and a priest comes to ask for their help in finding a woman who he had been speaking to in the confessional… whom he had fallen in love with.

This did feel like a second (if not first) season episode as there was no breaking of the fourth wall and the relationship between David and Maddie were the key to the episode.

I really liked the writing of this episode as it was a clever twist at the end and led to a classic fight at the end with a lightning strike from the heavens.

And this was the best way to use Herbert Viola, whom I mentioned last time how much I hate that character. He was a secondary character involved in a B story with Agnes. That was the way he should have stayed because that is what he was meant for. 

Blue Eye Samurai S1 E5, E6, E7, E8

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“The Tale of the Ronin and the Bride”

“All Evil Dreams and Angry Words”

“Nothing Broken”

“The Great Fire of 1657”

I finished season one of Blue Eye Samurai today with the final four episodes. This is such a great show, with amazing animation, perfectly executed fight choreography, and some of the best character work around. It is absolutely a high bar for the next season to reach.

Specifically, episode five was an amazing format, with the story being told with a narrated puppet theater. It was one of the most imaginative style choices that seemed to fit perfectly with the tone and style of the show.

Everything led to a huge confrontation between Mizu and Fowler as the city burnt down around them. I am not sure if I loved the way the cliffhanger unfurled, but I am willing to let season two play out to see what happens. I think I would have preferred for Mizu to have killed Fowler instead of trying to use him.

Plus, with Mizu and Fowler on a boat to London, does that mean that our cast of supporting characters Ringo, Taigen, and Akemi are going to be sidelined in season two?

It was a sad end for George Takei’s character Seki, shot to death retreating from the fire. His was a character that showed his true allegiances through the year… and it was to Akemi.

This was such a joy to watch and I am very glad that I took the suggestion from a couple of the YouTube content makers, saying that this was one of the best shows of 2023. It certainly was epic.

Picket Fences S4 E10

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“Dem Bones”

The discovery of a skeleton in the woods in Rome leads to the investigation of a fifty year murder case and the reigniting of hatred between Neo-Nazis and Jewish people.

Right in the middle of the hate was Douglas Wambaugh, defending the 70 year old Jew accused of the murder of a cruel German man who had tormented him. But Doug was not the only Wambaugh involved. His son David arrived in Rome as the prosecuting attorney in the case. Wambaugh vs. Wambaugh in front of Judge Bones. It did not stop them from pulling the old joke of Bone saying “Wambaugh” and both Douglas and David saying “What?”

The horrors of the Holocaust are the undercurrent for everything happening in the episode, but it also deals with the relationship between father and son and how the father’s own self-doubt. 

This is the closest any 4th season episode ha come to matching some of the first three seasons. Douglas Wambaugh has been incredibly inconsistent this season, but this feels to be the closest he has come to being the man I remembered.

What If…? S2 E7

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“What if…Hela Found the Ten Rings”

Oscar winner Cate Blanchett is voicing a character in an animated TV show.

That is an amazing thing. It speaks to the MCU that there are so many of the actors who are willing to come back and provide lines for this project. Idris Elba was also back for just a few lines in this episode. It was really cool.

Of course, they did not get everybody back for their characters. Odin was in this episode and it was not Sir Anthony Hopkins, and Wenwu was not voiced by Tony Leung. Oh well.

Blending Hela and Wenwu (from the Shang Chi movies) was an interesting trick. Taking the whole Thor-banished-to-earth-until-worthy bit and making it work for Hela was a neat addition to the story. The set-up was strong and the execution was really solid too.

I found Hela’s character arc to be a very done one, reminding me of the Loki arc, and, of course, you give a strong character arc to one of the best actors working today, you get some great storytelling. Plus, Cate Blanchett has experience in the voice over world, which does have its benefits in performances.

It sounds like a skipping record, but I’ll say it again. The animation of this season of What If…? has been stellar. I love the parallels drawn between scenes from the MCU movies and what we see animated in What If..?.  For example, the scene where Hela cannot budge the crown was very similar to the scene when Thor could not move Mjolnir in the first Thor movie. These echoes are throughout the series and show the cleverness of the writers and creative personnel working on What If…?.

There are only two more episodes to go on this daily release of season two. I have loved watching these episodes in this manner and I hope there will be other opportunities to follow this in future times.

Up to Date Running Order:

E3  ”What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?”

E1  “What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?”

E5  ”What If… Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper”

E6  ”What If…Kahhori Reshaped the World?”

E7  ”What If…Hela Found the Ten Rings?”

E2  “What If… Peter Quill Fought Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?”

E4  ”What If… Iron Man Crashed into the Gamemaster?”