Category Archives: TV-G[eek]

What If…? S2 E6

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“What if… Kahhori Reshaped the World?”

Famously, DC character Harley Quinn made her actual first appearance in the Batman: The Animated Series TV show. Marvel Studios has taken that path with their all-new character Kahhori, a member of the Mohawk Nation, in this What If…? episode.

The creators tied Kahhori’s origin to the Tesseract, which in this universe, arrived on earth after the destruction of Asgard by Surtur during Ragnarok. 

The animation, which has been next level during this entire season of What If…?, is absolutely stunning in this episode and feels as if the animators took it even higher than they had up until this point. Everything here is just gorgeous to look at. The design of Kahhori and her people were outstanding. The fire in the background with the Spaniards was breath-taking. It truly was a beautifully constructed and drawn episode.

The story does feel rushed, but that is the format more than anything else. They have kept these What If…? episodes to a tight 30 minutes for the most part, but this is another one that could have done well with another 10 minutes or so.

The episode was practically all in a different language, which is quite the choice. Only the Watcher and Supreme Strange at the very end speak in English.

Speaking of, Supreme Strange does make an appearance at the very end of the episode, clearly there to set up for the finale. The Supreme Strange episode is listed as the 9th episode of the season, which followed the 1602 episode. Something is telling me that they may be a crossover between them much like last year’s Ultron was.

It will be interesting to see what role Kahhori will play in the MCU moving forward or if she is just a staple in the What If…? section. If she is successful, it can show that Marvel does not have to settle for the characters that are already made which would open up a whole new world of possibilities.

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?”

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

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

Percy Jackson and the Olympians S1 E3

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“We Visit the Garden Gnome Emporium”

I have always loved mythology, especially Green mythology so the new Percy Jackson series on Disney + has been right up my alley. We got one of my favorite Greek mythology monsters this week… Medusa.

It is a solid episode too as there are some growing pains with the friendship between Percy, Annabelle and Grover. The three of them do not trust each other and they are struggling to get along. 

The Oracle told Percy that someone he called a friend would betray him and would cause his quest to fail. Percy did not know what that was to mean, but he selected Grover and Annabelle because of that. He said he did not think that Annabelle would ever be his friend, which was brutal. 

Walker Scobell is a star in the making. He makes such a charismatic Percy Jackson. He is smooth and feels so real that you can’t help but like him. He has that Ryan Reynolds-like wit about him to as some of his under his breath remarks are very funny.

The trio came out with the truths that they had been keeping from each other and you can see how they changed from the beginning of the episode. 

Plus, we get a slight glimpse at Mt. Olympus… sort of. And it looks really clever.

Percy Jackson has been solid so far and with luck it will keep it up.

Blue Eye Samurai S1 E4

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“Peculiarities”

More excellent work in episode four.

Mizu comes face to face with Akemi in the brothel. She tried to poison her, but Mizu recognized her and captured her.

Mizu made a deal with the brothel head Madame Kaji for the information of Fowler. It led to a terrible scene with Kaji’s her protégé, Kinuyo.

The episode ended with Boss Hamata showing up with a massive army, ready to tear down Kaji’s brothel.

The show continues to be awesome. It is beautifully designed and animated. Mizu is a kick ass character that becomes deeper each show.

The X-Files S2 E9

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“Firewalker”

Mulder and Scully are out of a mission for the first time since Scully returned from her kidnapping and near death experience. 

This felt very much like the first season episode “Ice” just set in a different location.

That is not necessarily a bad thing since “Ice” is one of my favorite episodes from season one. Still, the repetition of the basic structure feels a little lazy.

However, there were some cool effects, including the bulging neck that are shown by those infected. It was really creepy.

“Firewalker” was watchable and it works as a monster-of-the-week episode that can bring Mulder and Scully back to the field.

Otherwise, at best, okay episode.

Fargo S5 E6

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“The Tender Trap”

Episode six of the new season of Fargo was missing something important.

Dorothy.

I do like a lot of these other characters, but the fact is that this whole season really revolves around Dorothy. With her hidden, other characters had to step up. We get some more rottenness from John Hamm’s Sheriff Roy Tillman. We see much more from Indira, including a pretty awesome interaction between her and Lorraine Lyon, as played by Jennifer Jason Leigh. An interaction that led Lorraine to offer Indira a job away from the police. I assume that she was impressed by the bad ass attitude that Indira arrived with.

Indira also dropped Dorothy’s file on Lorraine’s desk, a file we see later contained some horrible images of abuse that she suffered at the hands of Roy.

Lorraine came with a ton of vengeance when she discovered that Roy halted the bank sale she had been working on. She planned on “stealing an election” and she crushed Vivian Dugger’s life, leaving him penniless and even affecting his children.

As I said, things are ramping up for the next several episodes before the finale.

Picket Fences S4 E9

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“Witness the Prosecution”

Season four of Picket Fences has been a disappointment so far, but this episode, although it truly stretches the level of believability, is a much better one. It does harken back to an earlier season where shocking things would happen in a courtroom in Rome, Wisconsin.

Say, for example, the Pope would testify in a murder case.

This was definitely a wild episode with some solid work going on, There are plenty of problems with it though. The whole set up for the last minute visit of Pope John Paul II to Rome to visit small town America did not feel accurate. I can’t believe the Pope would do something this spontaneous. 

Secondly, the whole Maxine lusting after the Pope because he was ‘unattainable’ was repulsive and the character did not deserve such a character trait. Maxine has not been treated very fairly in this season of shows.

Another character that has been terribly inconsistent is Douglas Wambaugh. It is as if the writers write him depending on the episode. Some weeks he is a good man with a heart of gold and other weeks he is a slimy lawyer who will do whatever is good for his case. Wambaugh has not been written well during season four either.

I did like the idea that the only witness to a murder was the Pope and that they needed his testimony for a conviction. Admittedly, I do not think that the Pope would ever be in a courtroom testifying, but I do like the premise. And if anyone could get him in the witness stand, it would be Judge Bone.

It was used to put forth the thoughts of the Catholic Church toward homosexuality. That was the topic of the week.

Overall, I liked this episode, but in reflection, it had its share of flaws that a better written episode from season 2 or 3 would not have.

What If…? S2 E5

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“What If… Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper?”

This is a sequel to the Captain Carter episode and the finale of season one and I was thoroughly entertained by it.

This episode was a combination of the Winter Soldier and Black Widow movies. There was an awesome pairing of Captain Carter and Black Widow, the characters. Hayley Atwell and Lake Bell have some great chemistry.

We have the Peggy Carter-Steve Rogers love story at the heart of this episode as well, just told in a different perspective. 

Since this is What If…?, I had some serious anxiety during the action scenes that one of these characters were going to die and I did not want that. It says something about the stakes of your episode when I was legitimately nervous that the characters were in danger.

The scenes in the Russian fake town were creepy as could be, and were filled with some of the best action sequences of the series so far. The choreography is exceptional. As it has all season so far, the animation is spectacular. 

Rachel Weisz returned to voice Melina is a cool thing too. 

The very ending of the episode messed with the mind as well as even the Watcher was surprised by what he saw. Peggy Carter fell through a portal and showed up in the Marvel 1602 universe with Scarlet Witch standing before her. That was a really exciting pre-credit tease.

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”

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

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

Blue Eye Samurai S1 E3

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“A Fixed Number of Paths”

Boy, when Ringo said he was useful, he was damn sure not lying.

Ringo was the MVP of this episode for sure. He not only protected Mizu, treated her wounds, but also saved both Mizu and Taigen from an arrow attack from Heiji’s men.

This was a great episode. As Mizu and Taigen (sorta) working together, Mizu accepted an invitation for tea with Heiji Shindo. Taigen was sure it was a trap, and he wasn’t completely wrong.

The voice cast of this series is sensational. Maya Erskine does the voice of Mizu, but we also have Randall Park, George Takei, Kenneth Branagh, Brenda Song, Masi Oka, Darren Barnet, and Eric Bauza.

Akemi is also out and doing what she can to find Taigen. Seki has some ideas about what she should be doing, but she does not necessarily like the plan he has set up. She takes things into her own hands.

This has been amazing so far. The choreography of the animation in the fight sequences are excellent. I love the animation. And the characterization of these characters are wonderful. I am enjoying this series so much.

What If …? S2 E4

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

What If…? takes a step back to give some background on an event from last season. There were reports that indicated that one of the episodes from season one had been removed and potentially sent to season two. It was the episode featuring Gamora, the Gamora from the Guardians of the Multiverse episodes.

This episode kicked off with the Watcher reminding us of the Guardians of the Multiverse and saying how Gamora was a member that we had not been introduced to prior, and that her story began in someone else’s.

He meant Tony Stark. The episode takes place after the events of Avengers 1, when Tony took the nuke through the portal and he did not find his way back to New York. Instead, he ended up on Sakaar to face off with the Grandmaster, voiced once again with an over-the-top flair by Jeff Goldblum. 

This episode is meant to be in the Mad Max style, and it does a lot with the concept of racing that can’t help but make people think of NASCAR or Mario Cart.

Special affirmations should go to Mick Wingert, who voices Tony Stark, replacing Robert Downey Jr. in the MCU, which cannot help but be a huge task. He does a wonderful job of sounding like RDJ, but not just being an imitation. 

Overall, this episode was a little messier for me than the others from season two. It did have some good humor in it, but the races were too hectic for my tastes. I have been a huge Mad Max fan so I can see this one being a little lesser in my view.

Up to Date Running Order:

E3  ”What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?”

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

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

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

The X-Files S2 E8

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“One Breath”

Scully is back!

She shows up in a Washington hospital and no one is sure how she got there. However, she is in a coma and looks to be slipping away.

Her mother and her sister are there, and Mulder knew that she had a living will, stating that she did not want to be kept alive through extreme measures. 

Mulder is desperate, revealing what lengths he would go to in order to find out the truth about who did this to Scully.

Mulder actually had a gun pointed at the head of “Cancer Man.” They started referring to him as Cancer Man, but shifted to Cigarette Smoking Man after awhile. I believe that is because of the guy who, later this season, could give people cancer. CSM is a better name for him anyway.

I wanted Mulder to pull that trigger so badly. I remember seeing it the first time back when it aired and I was so rooting for him to plug him in the head. 

David Duchovny was outstanding in this episode, his desperation and panic was palpable. He knew what he was doing did not seem to be successful at all and his depression was obvious.

We also started working towards Skinner as an ally as we head a story from him about his past in Vietnam and saw him refuse to accept Mulder’s resignation. 

We get more of a glimpse at X too who brutally murdered a man that Mulder had been chasing. A man who had stolen a blood sample of Scully. In true X-Files fashion, we never learn anything about this guy.

It is great that Mulder and Scully are able to reunite on the show after Gillian Anderson’s pregnancy.

Blue Eye Samurai S1 E2

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“A Unexpected Element”

Second episode was another banger. There is so much action and excitement in each of these first two episodes that I can believe how great this show has been perceived by the public.

Mizu was heading to a town to find a boat so she could pursue Shindo to his island fortress. Ringo had followed her there and, despite her attempts to shoo him away, he continued to follow her, making himself useful.

Taigen heads after Mizu in an attempt to reclaim his honor. He would find her at the end of the episode.

Prior to that, Mizu was confronted by The Four Fangs. She killed three of them, with the one survivor being a man named Chiaki who had come for a sword from Master Eiji. He was an assassin and Mizu had made a sword for him that was broken.

Back in the present, Mizu is able to kill Chiaki, but it nearly ended her. When Taigen approached Mizu, she told him to come on, but passed out. He moved forward, the show implying that he was going deal a killing blow.

Again, animation is gorgeous and the fight choreography is laid out wonderfully, especially with the fight on the cliff with the Four Fangs. That fight was remarkably clever and designed well.

This has been a great start to this season .

Blue Eye Samurai S1 E1

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“Hammerscale”

I decided last night to give the first episode of Blue Eye Samurai a chance on Netflix. I have heard a lot of positive word of mouth about this series and, after watching the first episode, I have to agree. This is a spectacular animated series.

Beautifully animated. Dramatically presented. Its share of animated violence and blood. Blue Eye Samurai is a classic revenge tale engulfing our main protagonist, who has a major secret to hide.

Not only is the samurai tainted by blue eyes, Blue Eye Samurai (aka Mizu) is in truth a woman masquerading as a man.

We see a good chunk of her back story, where she learned to fight and how she constructed her sword. Plus, there was a major series of sword fights, beautifully animated and constructed.

This is an adult animation as there are blood splatters, language and plenty of nudity and sexual encounters.

There are eight episodes of this show on Netflix and I cannot wait to continue seeing this show. I have heard that Netflix has approved a second season, so I am happy that I am jumping on Blue Eye Samurai when I am.

Picket Fences S4 E8

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“This Little Piggy”

The season four episodes of Picket Fences have been consistently lower on my list than the first three seasons. ”This Little Piggy” is a little better than most of the season four episodes so far, but it is still far from the heights this show reached in its first three seasons.

Animal rights take front and center on the show as Kimberly gets mixed up with a group who wanted to end the yearly pig wrestling that went on at the Rome fair. The group started having their protests escalate from words to actions, including an exploding pig balloon filled with feces during a city council meeting to the planting of a smoke bomb to cause more chaos.

Kimberly was involved with the leader of the group and she wound up volunteering to set the smoke bomb, which nearly got her shot and did get her arrested. 

The whole animal rights bit in the episode was heavy-handed at times, using a video of horrendous treatment of these animals. It got Zack to swear off meat. That whole part of the story only got me thinking one thing… when Zack was weakening with his resolve and was opening the fridge, seeing a plate of fried chicken… all I could think was, “Why is that plate of fried chicken in that fridge uncovered? That’s dangerous, isn’t it?”

There was another story on the show of a patient of Dr. Joey who had terrible cancer and it brought up pain for her watching him struggle through the treatments. This felt odd and was one of the key issues with this season. In previous seasons, this patient would have been a character we had seen before, even if it was a background character. The recurring aspect of the show made the town feel like a real town. I had less connection to the old guy because I just met him and his daughter. 

Overall, better than most of the shows so far in season four, but still a huge step down from most of the first three seasons.

What If…? S2 E3

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“What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?”

What a delight.

‘Twas the morning before Christmas

And I couldn’t sleep

So I popped on What If…?

Season two just for keep.

The Avengers were tussling

With a purple freak,

Inside Avengers Tower

Things looked really bleak.

The Watcher took us back

Before things got too charred

And we realized the show

Was a nod to Die Hard.

With Happy and Darcy,

And Maria Hill, too

While Justin Hammer dances

As he is wont to do.

From a purple “Hulk” Hogan

Whose punches are stiff,

Merry Christmas to all

From the world of What If…?

This was an unbelievably fun episode that filled me with joy… and not just Christmas joy. Die Hard is one of my all-time favorite movies, so seeing Marvel put an Avengers-spin on it was so epic. 

And then, the actual writing of the episode was so good. Christmas puns and tropes scattered throughout and great use of two secondary characters in Happy and Darcy that we all love. There was some great comedy in this episode and the use of the actual Avengers was just perfect as well. Was this the first What If…? episode that included Tony Stark where Stark did not die?

This was the first episode this season that did not feel as if it had a rush to finish. I thought the pacing of this was spectacular. 

And the return of Justin Hammer, voiced by the one and only Sam Rockwell, as a stand in for Hans Gruber, was inspired. Sam Rockwell sounded as if he was having a blast with the character. You could hear the lilt in his voice. The fact that Marvel is able to get these huge stars to come back and voice their characters in this animated series never fails to blow my mind. Sure there are some who are voice actors (hiya Lake Bell), but the fact is this episode had Mark Ruffalo back for like two lines of dialogue. Jon Favreau, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Kat Dennings, Cobie Smulders were all here for this episode.

And that Happy Hulk Hogan fight with the Iron Man suits/robots in the hallway was amazing. The oil splatter, replacing blood, as the purple hulk rampaged through the suits was some special visual storytelling. There were plenty of visual jokes/bits that helped tell this story. 

Legitimately, this is probably my second favorite What If…? episode of the entire series, only behind the S1 E4 Supreme Strange episode, and that is just barely ahead of this.

Merry Christmas to all…

Up to Date Running Order:

E3  ”What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?”

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

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

Moonlighting S3 E4

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“Yours, Very Deadly”

This episode was the first of the episodes that lead to one of the downfalls of the series. It was the debut of Curtis Armstrong as Herbert Viola.

While Herbert Viola was not as obnoxious in this episode as he will become, he is one of my most hated characters in all of TV. He was brought on as a love interest for Miss DiPesto but he becomes such an obnoxious, unlikable character that is thrust upon us that I could never get into him.

Meanwhile, this episode had Miss DiPesto committing a lot of sexual harassments in the workplace, pinning Herbert down and kissing, groping him. Until, that is, he stands up and does not run from her advances and that upsets her. This is not how you start a relationship.

The case this week is an interesting one with a wife writing letters to another man she did not know, until things start to get dark. She hires Dave and Maddie to find the man and get him to stop writing.

As with all Moonlighting cases, things are not as they look. It is cool though that Dave and Maddie seem to be doing better in solving the cases and not just stumble into the answers. 

This had some fun but it is all a portend for bad days ahead. Thanks a lot, Mr. Viola.