Category Archives: TV-G[eek]

Fargo S5 E4

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Insolubilia”

What an episode this was.

We start off with Gator leading a group of men, masked by the creepiest masks, into Dorothy’s house in an attempt to get her to return with them.

That did not go as they had planned.

This was like a real-life, more brutal Home Alone sequence as Dorothy had booby trapped her house and played with the home invaders like a cat playing with its prey.

Oh, and speaking of creepy, the Tiny Tim version of “I Got You, Babe” playing as the crew slowly moved through the traps was just goosebumps inducing.

That was… until Wayne stumbled into the situation. Poor, dumb Wayne needed to listen to his wife’s directions about sliding down the laundry chute, but he decided to try something else, which got him electrocuted.

It also caught the house on fire. It made the whole situation even more of a challenge as Dorothy had to try and get her unconscious husband out of the house and to safety.

That included dumping him into bushes from the roof. Oof!

We got to see more of Sheriff Roy Tillman and his own brutality. He is so manipulative and crooked, but able to easily work the system to his favor. He was remarkably intimidating and sinister through this episode, even making up details to service himself.

John Hamm is amazing as this sociopath. I believe everything that this guy does and says. He feels like a total lunatic in a position that allows him the power to do what he wants. 

Juno Temple is awesome as Dorothy as well. Her strength both physically and emotionally was on display not only with fighting off the home invasion, but also at the hospital with Deputy Witt Farr and her mother-in-law.

This really was an excellent episode that had me engaged from the first scene. 

Picket Fences S4 E2

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Reap the Whirlwind”

A tornado was on its way to Rome, Wisconsin and it sent the populace into a tizzy.

It was also the longest tornado I have ever seen. It was raining there for what felt like multiple days at a time. I’m just not sure this was the way weather worked.

Lots of storyline arcs taking place during the tornado.

  • Carter decided to take up quilting and meets a new woman.
  • Kenny is having sex with a hooker.
  • Maxine sets up a sting and catches said hooker.
  • There is a new Miriam Wambaugh.
  • Doug and nuMiriam had an anniversary party where Doug made a bunch of dumb jokes about her and their marriage.
  • Zack gets worried about Kimberly and rides his bicycle ten miles through the tornado to get to her.
  • nuMiriam leaves Doug after the tornado.
  • Carter was worried that his reputation was going to chase the new woman away- so he gives up on her and quilting.
  • Judge Bone talked Carter out of his stupidity.

Honestly, this episode was not a very good one. None of these storylines felt as if they had any sort of connection or throughline to them. So far, season 4 is not off to a great start.

Moonlighting S3 E1

Posted on by

Spoilers

“The Son Also Rises”

Season three started off with a message to the audience with Dave and Maddie sitting on her desk. It was a joke about how Moonlighting lost all those Emmys after receiving 16 nominations for season 2. It was a funny joke, but I remember watching those Emmys and being really mad about Moonlighting losing.

We get to meet David Addison’s father, David Addison. Who knew that our David was a junior?

He came to see David to tell him that he was going to get married. David Sr. wanted David Jr. to meet her.

Thing was that David Jr. had already met her. Four years before, he picked her up in a bar and slept with her.

This episode had a nice balance between seriousness and silliness from David Jr.

Paul Sorvino appeared as David Addison Sr. Brynn Thayer played the woman. Two solid castings for the show. We added to the family of our two main leads.

By the way… Maddie looked amazing.

Picket Fences S4 E1

Posted on by

Spoilers

“A Change of Season”

The first episode of the finale season of Picket Fences started with a solid episode with a lot of character development.

Carter’s house burned down, and he had to be carried out. Turned out that he took some pills. mixed with some wine that caused him to fall asleep while there was something on the stove.

We learn that he took the pills with the idea that he might die. He was not exactly suicidal here, but the concept was definitely there. Judge Bone offered to have Carter move in as a border in his big house.

We also had Kimberly decide that she did not want to become a lawyer and instead go into medicine. That created some conflict with Jill.

Another storyline was Marlee Matlin, new series regular, trying to make changes at the police station, including uniform changes that Jimmy balked at.

Maxine dyed her hair blonde (I remember always hating it, by the way) and that led to a deeper conflict with Kenny. They split up as a couple.

There is no major storylines going here, but there were a lot of little things that will play into the fourth season.

Honestly, my memory of the fourth season was that it was a step back from the first three seasons, but we’ll see how it goes.

The X-Files S2 E3 & E4

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Blood”

“Sleepless”

Two good episodes of The X-Files followed one of the best one.

Both were dealing with victims who were seeing things, whether it was because of a pesticide being secretly sprayed on a small town or because of a secret sleep experiment to create soldiers who never slept.

We meet a couple of important characters to the X-Files mythology. First, there was a meeting between Mulder and his new ‘friend’ inside the FBI, X. We get to see what X looks like, though we know very little about him. And as we saw at the end of the second episode, Cigarette Smoking Man does not know who X is at this point either.

The second character is FBI Agent Alex Krycek. He is introduced as another agent who partnered up with Mulder and said that he wanted to believe. He is shown as a potential new ally, but we learn that he is one of CSM’s flunkies.

The Lone Gunmen make their return in Blood, to spew some of their paranoid ideas. They are in a short moment but they were memorable.

For All Mankind S1 E5

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Into the Abyss”

Apollo 15 landed on the moon in search of ice. A last minute change of landing location placed the crew in jeopardy, but lead to a huge success.

Molly Cobb became the first American woman to step on the moon. Meanwhile, her husband Wayne is struggling through the anxiety of the uncertainty of not knowing what might happen to Molly. He confessed to having a terrible dream of Molly dying in a pit. It was something that he then painted, trying to get the anxiety out.

Meanwhile, Molly and Ed were preparing to lower her into Shackleton Crater to search for ice. The amount of oxygen available has been depleting, making everything very nervous.

I kept waiting for something horrible to happen to Molly. With all the dreams and paintings about her death, I was scared that she was not long for the show.

For All Mankind did a great job of creating that tension in the situation and kept me off balance as a viewer.

The end of the episode saw Apollo 15 take off from the surface of the moon and then we got a two year time jump.

Picket Fences S3 E18, E19, E20, E21, E22

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Without Money”

“Final Judgment”

Picket Fences episodes E18 and E19 were kind of a two-parter focusing on euthanasia and the law against the practice.

Jill aided one of her patient’s death by turning up his morpheme. He was dying from cancer and was suffering and in pain. The patient’s family asked Jill to help him die.

This led to Jill being placed on trial. Courtney B. Vance came to town to prosecute her. He wanted to make a message out of her in the town of Rome.

The chunk of the episode featured the trial and an argument over euthanasia. The biggest argument was that the law of euthanasia was irrelevant because it was against the law and Jill admitted to breaking it.

Shockingly enough, Jill was found guilty. The next episode turned out to be the case against the law of euthanasia.

This was very well done and poor Jill is once again potentially facing jail time.

“Saint Zack”

Zack’s hands started bleeding while he was praying at church and looking at the crucifix. The blood made Rev. Henry Novotny think that Zack was a stigmatic.

The episode went into serious questions about religion, especially for Jimmy. Jimmy’s anger ended up with him declaring that Jesus was a fake.

Other students in the school started treating Zack like a saint, including asking him to heal a leukemia patient. Zack also gets hit in the head by a thrown stone.

Adam Wylie does a solid job in this episode, but there was a lot of pretentiousness in the show.

James Cromwell and Marlee Matlin make appearances in this one.

“Upbringings”

James Coburn makes a guest starring appearance as Jimmy’s big time lawyer father who comes to give Jimmy his law practice. Jimmy flips out.

The latest family episode, where the tangential family members come to the Brock family and fight, involves Jimmy and his father’s relationship.

The kids even made a comment at the family table about relatives coming over and leading to fights.

Yes, they had a family dinner scene that leads to major problems. One wonders where Douglas Wambaugh’s wife was every time he comes over to the Brock’s for dinner.

“The Son of Rome”

Violence comes to Rome once again as a teenager attempts to find money for his gambling debts by holding up Father Gary Barrett in his own confessional. The teen ends up shooting Gary with an Uzi.

This was a tough episode. I remember when it originally aired because I never thought that the show would kill off Father Barrett and I expected him to come out of his state. When he did not, it was quite the shock.

It also provided Henry Bone with some real meaty material as his friend, a man who helped him through the suicide of his son, was brain dead. Judge Bone had a terrible blow up on the bench when Barrett’s assaulter came before him.

This was the first time that we ever saw a case be sent to a different court, but clearly Henry was not impartial and had some deep seeded feelings about the situation.

Wambaugh sings a very emotional song at the end at the special spring pageant that Mayor Bey refused to cancel, despite the shock of everyone over the shooting of the priest.

Moonlighting S2 E18 E19

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Funeral for a Door Nail”

“Camille”

These last two episodes wrapped up season two of Moonlighting. E18 was a typical Moonlighting episode with the twists and funny chase scene. E19 featured Whoopi Goldberg, Judd Nelson and a lot of “Devil With the Blue Dress.”

Both of these episodes included a technique that was used quite a bit during the entire series, and especially in these two: Breaking the Fourth Wall.

Moonlighting became very famous for breaking the fourth wall. It is a technique where the actors speak directly to the camera or act as if they know they are in a TV show. The show had been weaving a few of these nuggets throughout the first couple of seasons.

The thing is, these final two episodes really dove into the concept. During “Funeral for a Door Nail,” there were multiple fourth wall breaks written into the dialogue, including a clever shake of the camera when David asked the audience a question.

Then “Camille” took it to an even greater extreme when they had their chase scene through the backlot of the film company and a weird conclusion that saw everybody putting the props away because it was the final episode of the season and it was time for the summer. They did not even bother to end the storyline with Whoopi Goldberg and Judd Nelson.

While I do love the Breaking of the Fourth Wall, I do think that the writers of the show did take it too far a few times. Every time it happened in “Funeral for a Door Nail,” I laughed and enjoyed it, it felt as if they were overdoing the technique. And the end of “Camille” was just way too much, turning the episode into a strange slapstick adventure with everything including Billy Barty.

The use of the fourth wall break became something that the series became over reliant on. I remember loving every time it would happen when I watched the show on ABC, but now, on my rewatch, it does feel as if it has been over used. Less is more, in this case. The real reason Moonlighting was as successful as it became was because of David and Maddie and their relationship, or lack there of. The will-they-won’t-they struggle of these two is what kept bringing the fans back, but it did seem that the writers continued to expand on some of the things that were novel to the show, but secondary. And I believe season three (although it also contains the best episode of Moonlighting ever with “Atomic Shakespeare”) continues down the path of mistakes in choices. I wonder how much the noted feud between Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd had to do with it.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters S1 E5

Posted on by

Spoilers

“The Way Out”

This week’s Monarch picked up the pace from last week’s episode that, for me, was relatively disappointing. I found this week’s episode considerably better than last week.

After being released by Monarch, Cate, Kentaro and May head to San Francisco to go to Hiroshi Randa’s San Fran office. Unfortunately, it was in the heart of the location of Godzilla’s rampage on G-Day and the government was patrolling the area shooting looters.

Cate was having terrible flashbacks to the days surrounding G-Day and her PTSD was devastating her. We got flashbacks to her life just before, during and after G-Day. These moments helped carve out an explanation of this character that may have been missing up until this point.

She also told her mother the truth about Hiroshi’s other family in Japan, making an awkward situation even more so.

Shaw was kept at Monarch. He mentioned that he had not told the kids anything, making us feel that something else is going on. There was a question raised to why Shaw was not as old looking as he should have. The character maintained a level of mystery, and I love Kurt Russell being it.

The X-Files S2 E2

Posted on by

Spoilers

“The Host”

This is one of the top X-Files episodes of all time, one that I generally refer to as Flukeman. When I saw the whitish arm reach out of the water, I immediately said, “Oh, this is the Flukeman” episode.

Flukeman was one of the creepiest, monsters-of-the-week creatures that the series has ever had. It was also one of the most straightforward resolutions the show had. gotten. That fell into the storyline as a “friend” inside the FBI contacted Mulder and indicated that success of the case was important. Mainly because it needed to show that the X-Files was necessary. This new character would become known as “X” and turned into a sort of replacement for Deep Throat, whose time on the series came to an end at the end of season one.

We get the first, however minor, moment of Skinner seeming to be not the face of corruption at the FBI. When he said to Mulder that everyone has a boss to answer to, we get a glimpse into the fact that Skinner might be more than what he seemed. In hindsight, we know that Skinner is never truly trusted fully, but he does make his way into the ally category eventually.

This was one of the best episodes so far and I even have a Flukeman action figure.

For All Mankind S1 E4

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Prime Crew”

For All Mankind is back up tonight as I watched episode 4.

After the tragic events at the end of last episode, NASA struggled to continue the female program. Under questions about potentially pulling the plug on it, Deke goes against orders to announce the four women who were now astronauts. Then, he removed Gordy from the Apollo 15 flight and replaced him with Molly Cobb.

Shockingly, I just discovered that Molly Cobb was played by Sonya Walger, a name that I recognized. Watching her in this episode, I knew she was familiar, but could not place her. Once I saw the name, I was able to place her. She played Penny on LOST! I love her and I was really a fan of the character here too.

NASA put the females on the fast track, even as Nixon was preparing to kill the program to focus on the Moon base.

The episode focused in on the reactions of the different characters in the show. Not only in the astronauts but also with their families and wives.

The film ends with the astronauts heading to the moon.

Picket Fences S3 E15, E16, E17

Posted on by

Spoilers

“When in Rome”

Paranoia and hysteria engulf Rome, Wisconsin in one of the most uncomfortable episodes of Picket Fences.

Adam Wood came to Rome. Adam Wood had spent 16 years in prison for child molestation. By law, he had to announce himself to his new neighbors, which just happened to be the Brock household.

The town rallied against the man. Fear of what could happen with the children of the community sent the people of Rome into a tizzy. While completely understandable, it put the people of Rome’s prejudices front and center. It made some normally good people look unfair and bloodthirsty.

This show is not afraid to make their main characters show their warts and their own dark sides. It is quite amazing.

To throw yet another twist, Adam Wood was revealed, after his own suicide on the steps of the court house, to be the son of Judge Bone. Ray Walston gives a wonderful performance as a grieving father, shamed of his response to his son.

By the way, Ed Lawson is still in the freezer.

“Heroes and Villains”

The Dancing Bandit returned to Rome to wish Zack a happy birthday. The FBI was able to capture her. Marlee Matlin comes back to the show to reclaim the role of Laurie Bey, and she went to trial for the bank robbery she committed in season one.

Marlee Matlin brought a remarkable charm and charisma to this character. She was a trigger for a fight between the Brocks, of course, because this is Picket Fences.

Jane Kaczmarek appeared as the prosecutor for the federal government who, for some reason, wanted to try the case in Rome. She had some of the best moments of the episode, reacting to Wambaugh and looking perplexed when so many of the past things from Rome popped up during the trial (cows giving birth to humans, anyone?).

Though the jury found her not guilty, Judge Bone threw that verdict out and assigned Laurie 3000 hours of community service, meaning Marlee Matlin would be sticking around the town.

Oh, and Ed Lawson is still in the freezer.

“Changing of the Guard”

Hey! They finally pulled Ed Lawson out of the freezer!

Laurie Bey started her community service when Jimmy asked her to help find Ed Lawson, thinking that he had run off with his wife after murdering George the massage guy. They had no idea that Ed’s wife Marsha had killed both men.

When Laurie wanted to go see the Lawson house, they finally found the freezer with a lock on it. Freezers in Rome have now claimed three victims.

When Marsha returned from her trip, she put on an act that she did not know what had happened. Wambaugh was front and center in her defense. However, when she told him that she had killed both men and wanted to get through the trial without testifying so she could avoid perjury because she had book and movie deals waiting for her story, Wambaugh had a crisis of faith in himself and his job.

This case was used to look at the character of Douglas Wambaugh and it gave us dimensions that we may not have seen before. He has always been portrayed as a shyster, a character as he always said. This looked at the toll taken by defense attorneys and how difficult it could be to put guilty defendants back on the street. This is a theme David E. Kelley has used in several series, including The Practice and Boston Legal.

Meanwhile, Laurie Bey was asked to be the mayor of Rome, a job with a short life span. In not even three full seasons, we have had multiple mayors including Bill Pugen, Howard Buss, Rachel Harris, Jill Brock (and the guy who was a temporary co-mayor with her), and Ed Lawson. Three of them are dead now.

Moonlighting S2 E16

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Sleep Talkin’ Guy”

I’m not a big fan of this episode. It did the cardinal sin. For most of the episode, it split David and Maddie apart.

It has actually been happening a few times lately, but this one of my least favorites from the last year of shows. David and Maddie had some scenes together, and they were great, but there was just too much separate without it being necessary.

The episode made David look bad. Made him look like a jerk. An opportunist taking advantage of a situation for nothing more than monetary gains and sticking it to Maddie.

I found much of this episode put David in a corner, a corner that did not fit his character.

A prostitute has a regular guy who talks in his sleep and just happens to talk about some of the criminal activity that he is involved in. The prostitute went to Blue Moon and came across David. She told him about the fact and he dismissed her. When he saw that the crime was done, he decided to try and cash in on it. He paid her to let him know when the sleep talkin’ guy would say something else.

David became really successful and apparently very much in demand.

The whole end to the episode was a mess as it ended up in a bar fight and Maddie, discovering the truth, punches David too.

Did not like this one and it is even lower for me than the Miss DiPesto episode. At least that one kept the characters the way they were supposed to be.

Picket Fences S3 E14

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Close Encounters”

It’s Valentine’s Day and the heart is playing tricks on those from Rome, Wisconsin.

Carter pronounces a singer dead, but she comes back to life.

Aisha senses that Littleton was attracted to her… and he was, but could not act on it.

Max and Kenny have sex, and they fight over what it meant.

Unfortunately, none of these stories really worked well for me. I found the Carter and the singer to be the best one, but Carter said that he was not attracted to her and I found that totally incorrect.

Max and Kenny is the only one of the couples who are trying to keep it going, but they were also the ones that were the worst to each other.

Loretta Devine guest starred as Marla Melrose and she was very charming and fun. Carter had to be out of his mind to reject her.

Bonus Action Vol. 1 E8

Posted on by

Spoilers

“A Homecoming Most Good”

Bonus Action’s first season ended tonight with a fantastic finale filled with some great character moments and some fun action.

This group of players worked so well together, and brought the emotion and humor throughout the eight episodes plus.

Tonight’s highlights:

  • Clearly, the final justice for Victor. Delivered beautifully by Adam.
  • Marlon hitting that 18 early on the jump on the volcano.
  • Speaking of Marlon, finally getting that pocket picked…
  • Bric’s pain and anguish over his perceived failure, his self-doubt felt real and his scene with Alistair was excellent.
  • Adam and Jay having their own moment with their characters.
  • David’s work weekly has been sensation, with his voices and descriptions.
  • Paying off Jay’s use of Flame last week with …dragons?
  • The Star Wars-like celebration at the end.
  • Just everything about Rory.
  • Bar’B and Todd adding so much color to the campaign.
  • The map/board once again showing that extra step that made this so enjoyable. Cool volcano.

This is such a fun show with an amazing group of players and characters. Jay teased something with Bonus Action later in the week. Excellent.