Category Archives: TV-G[eek]

Picket Fences S3 E11, E12, E13

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Freezer Burn”

Another murder in Rome. This time, the victim has been shoved into a freezer, much like Ginny. Except Ginny’s was accidental and this was intentional.

The victim turned out to be a special masseuse who was giving sensual massages to the women of Rome. He kept a book that indicated which women he would give the “Squiggly.” The mind races.

Turned out that Ed Lawson, who was the main suspect because he had threatened the man, was married to the woman who killed the masseuse. She was in love with the man and mad because Ed had chased him off. She then whacked Ed in the back of the head and shoved him into the freezer too.

This was a great episode and I remember the moment it happened, and it was shocking.

“Frogman Returns”

The Frogman returned to Rome, signing and dancing about frogs, and his son, the same son who had shot Kenny in season one, sued for emancipation from his father.

The other story was really strong too. Matthew, in trying to move the car from the driveway, accidently hits Zack and injures him. Thankfully he did not injure him as badly as he could have. However, Jill arrived on the scene and hit Matthew in anger over the accident.

This unseated some deep feelings from Matthew, believing that Jill did not love him as much as she did Zack or Kimberly.

Justin Shenkarow, the young actor who played Matthew, did a tremendous job playing the anger and the pain of his belief his mother did not love him as much as his brother. He was not just mad, there were times when he portrayed the anger extremely well, with a glance or an expression. It was a very solid and, at times, subtle performance.

“Mr. Seed Goes to Town”

Family drama continues in the Brock house. When Lydia arrives asking for permission to use Jimmy’s sperm to become pregnant, she throws the entire Brock clan into chaos. And just like holidays in the Brock house, it always becomes about more than the overlying situation.

Judge Bone, who was tired of the weird cases he had to rule upon, decided to place Jimmy, Jill and Lydia under house arrest until they could come up with a answer without the court having to make the ruling.

So he put them all together and guaranteed fireworks. Deep hidden doubts and motives come crashing out from everyone, including Kimberly, Matthew and Zack. Zack actually had one of the more brutal moments when he wished that Lydia was dead. Zack and Matthew also had overheard Kimberly saying how she was intrigued with the idea of having a ‘real’ sibling, which made them feel terrible.

This type of episode has happened several times over the run of this series, from “Thanksgiving” to “Buried Alive.” There is always something more under the surface in Rome, Wisconsin.

Oh, and by the way, Ed Lawson is still in the freezer. I mean, he was the mayor. Has no one checked on him?

For All Mankind S1 E1, E2, E3

Posted on by

Spoilers

I was watching the Geek Buddies this weekend and they did a new segment on their show called “What We are Watching.” Vogel kicked off the segment talking about Apple TV +’s show For All Mankind. He raved about the episode, saying that he rewatched the whole series over Thanksgiving. He spoke about it being one of the best shows on TV. He was very outspoken about his love of this show.

It intrigued me. I had never considered watching For All Mankind, but I have really enjoyed all of the Apple TV + series that I have watched. Ted Lasso, The Silo, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Shrinking have set the bar high.

So I decided to start watching the series.

I watched episodes 1-3 to start. Vogel and the other Geek Buddies mentioned that the first couple of episodes of the season were a little slow, but I did not have any trouble enjoying them quite a bit.

The show felt like a giant What If…? show. This was ‘What If… the Soviet Union Beat the United States to the Moon?’. It was an interesting look at a point in history and how this minor change turned into high stress moments and a different world.

Joel Kinnaman was one of the lead actors of this ensemble and he is very compelling as Ed Baldwin, astronaut who wants to go to the moon.

Then the series added another twist and had the Soviets land a female on the moon, which sent Richard Nixon into a tizzy, wanting to have a US female astronaut as well.

They were working on building a Moonlab on the moon too which could lead to some serious issues in the future in the Cold War between the US and the USSR.

I am hooked with the series and I will be following this one along on a semi-regular basis.

Picket Fences S3 E10

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Away in the Manger”

This was the episode that was supposed to have been the crossover event with The X-Files. Apparently, David E. Kelley and X-Files creator Chris Carter had wanted to do a event involving cows and alien DNA. However, the fact was that Picket Fences was on CBS TV and The X-Files was on FOX TV and a crossover event at that time across two competing networks was just not going to work. So the great idea wound up being squashed.

However, while all the references to Picket Fences were removed from the X-Files episode (Mulder and Scully were reportedly supposed to go to Rome, Wisconsin), there were still references left in this Picket Fences episode. Carter Pike mentioned about weird things going on in Delta Glen, Wisconsin (the city where the X-Files episode was set) such as alien DNA, cows, a plane crash, and a doctor named Larsen (which are all involved in the X-Files episode).

How cool that could have been, this episode has cows giving birth to human babies. You certainly would think that Mulder would be intrigued by that.

As with all Picket Fences episodes, this main plot was used to deconstruct main characters of the show. This one was used to help look at Kimberly’s belief that there is no God as well as continuing to confuse the young Brock boys. Poor Zack has no idea what religion he is or which one he wants to partake in.

Former mayor Rachel Harris returned for this episode. She had really disappeared since losing the mayor’s office back in season two, but she popped up here as the owner of the cow and the mother of the baby boy that cow gave birth to.

Fargo S5 E3

Posted on by

Spoilers

“The Paradox of Intermediate Transactions”

This episode of Fargo was okay, but it felt like a step back from the two episode debut of the new season.

This episode had several moments, such as Roy Tillman, thinking about the missing Dorothy. Dorothy heading to the gun shop to try and pick up some home defenses, while her husband Wayne looked on shockingly. Gator having a spirited confrontation with Deputy Farr.

It felt like it was setting up the next big thing, which feels like it is coming next issue as Gator and his team are using Halloween to take another crack at Dorothy.

It did feel a little lacking this episode, but some of the character development was good in this episode.

There was a weird flashback 500 years before too. Not sure what that was for.

The X-Files S2 E1

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Little Green Men”

The second season of The X-Files started with a solid episode involving the mythology of the series. The X-Files has been shut down at the FBI and Mulder and Scully have been reassigned. Mulder is doing brain-numbing stake-out, listening to tapes.

Mulder is starting to doubt what he had seen. Mulder losing his faith is a theme that has happened a couple of times over the series’ run.

Mulder gets pointed to a outpost where contact has been made from space. There is a frightened Puerto Rican man, Jorge. Jorge runs out during a storm and is killed.

Scully has to try and find where Mulder is, while avoiding the people watching his apartment.

There is a tense scene where we get a glimpse at the first extraterrestrial on the series.

Mulder showed off some awesome combat driving too as he and Scully tried escaping from a military outfit arriving to get rid of the evidence at the site.

It was a cool episode but I want the X-Files at the FBI back.

Moonlighting S2 E15

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Witness for the Execution”

I remember not being that big of a fan of this episode when it first aired back in the 1980s. It lacked all the bombastic chases scenes and comedy that I had come to expect from an episode of Moonlighting. I was much younger then and, after watching it this morning, I have a much different opinion on “Witness for the Execution.”

A ninety-year old man arrived at the Blue Moon Detective Agency to hire someone to come and witness his own murder. He told Dave and Maddie that he had set up a man to come and shut off his oxygen and he needed an observer to tell the police that it was a murder.

Dave and Maddie argued over the case, of course. Dave said he understood what the man wanted and Maddie said that the company would not take the case and if David wanted to do this, he was on his own.

When David showed up to tell the man that he had changed his mind, he discovered that the man was already dead. David tried to turn the machines back on, thus making it look as if he had been the person who had killed him.

This led to a tense meeting in the parking garage between David and Maddie where David told her that he was leaving, going underground. They shared an unexpected kiss. making the situation even more awkward.

Maddie was able to figure out the truth of the murder in the best piece of observation that she had ever had during the series.

The scene where David told Maddie about the events of what happened was some of the best acting that we have gotten out of Bruce Willis during the series’ run.

Admittedly, there were a few questions I had about the plot that had to happen in order to set this meeting up, especially why David took off in the first place. He believed that he had accidentally killed the man, but that seemed an odd thought considering the situation. However, everything with the case was really secondary and used as a trigger to get to the kiss. Moonlighting was, once again, the relationship between David and Maddie above everything else.

Picket Fences S3 E6, E7, E8, E9

Posted on by

Spoilers

The running storyline of the season has been the struggle of race relations and the first of these three episodes is part of that, but then the next two do not include it. The last two go back to the Brian Latham case.

“Elective Conducts”

The Rome mayoral campaign dominates the episode, and Jill faces more controversy as Zack writes a report that included racial stereotypes. When Zack is confronted by a group of black students in the rest room, Zack peed on them in self-defense. It was shocking.

When it came to the mayor’s race, Carter stepped up and became a true challenger in the election. So much so that, when Jill realized that she had no chance, Jill decided to drop out and support him instead.

Ed Lawson wound up winning the election in a 12 vote difference. Ed Lawson is Donald Trump decades before Donald Trump. It is actually a bizarre correlation.

“Rebels with Causes”

This is the crossover episode with David E. Kelley’s other TV show at the time, Chicago Hope. It guest starred Mandy Patinkin as Dr. Jeffrey Geiger, his character from the show.

Douglas Wambaugh collapses as he prepared for the trip to the Supreme Court. Jill believed he had a heart attack, but wanted to take him to Chicago to see a specialist. She then came into major conflict with Dr. Geiger, whose manner and attitudes rubbed her the wrong way.

Turned out that Doug had M.S. and not a heart attack.

There was also a conflict between Jimmy and Kimberly because Kimberly wanted to date Kenny. Jimmy flipped out over the possibility, and, like all things with Picket Fences, there is much deeper truths behind it. Everything here dated back to Jimmy’s infidelity.

One of my favorite moments was very meta in this episode when Jill commented that more people went to the other hospital (meaning the TV show ER which was also set in Chicago).

“May it Please the Court”

Douglas Wambaugh and John Littleton go to Washington to argue the Latham case.

This was an amazing acting episode from both Fyvush Finkel and Don Cheadle. Their passion showed through the great writing of the episode.

The Supreme Court justices are portrayed wonderfully by the group of the actors cast in these roles.

The second storyline going on in this episode was involving Carter. Carter had made an agreement to have a surrogate give birth to his child. When the surrogate decided she could not go through with it, she wanted to abort the baby. Kelly Connell gives a serious performance from a character that is usually used as a joke.

“For Whom the Wind Blows”

The Brian Latham case comes to a close here.

Maxine, Kenny, and John start to believe that Brian Latham was actually innocent. They convinced Judge Bone that he was innocent and that the father was the killer. Bone took to the court to sentence Latham, except, instead, he threw out the conviction stating that the evidence was not enough to convict. He overturned the conviction and set Latham free.

All of this came from Maxine’s hunch that the father had gone to confession to confess that he actually killed his daughter. Father Barrett would not break the seal of confession, but Max could tell from his expression that there was more to this story. Bone went to Father Barrett and asked him whether or not, in his opinion, Brian Latham was guilty. When Father Barrett said that he thought Latham was not guilty, he was implying to Bone what he knew.

The group went after the father, pushing hard for his wife to testify against him, offering immunity.

Then the mother tells the truth on the stand… she had killed the daughter in a fit of rage and the father had just helped cover it up.

Judge Bone had to, once again, skirt the rules as he said the immunity agreement was gone because the mother had committed fraud. In the end, the police got it done, if not with questionable methods.

Jimmy during this whole time started to have doubts if he could handle the position of sheriff any longer. He saw the fire in the eyes of John, Max and Kenny and Jimmy started to believe that he was in the way.

The Brian Latham storyline came to a close here with another shocking twist that Picket Fences was known for.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters S1 E4

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Parallels and Interiors”

The week that Godzilla Minus One was released in the theaters, what was, in my opinion, the worst episode of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters was dropped on Apple TV.

The episode focused on the lost crew in Alaska, facing off with an ice Titan that consumes heat/fire. It had a LOST feel with flashbacks back to when Kentaro and May met. It paralleled the dangers that they were facing after May got her legs wet in Alaska as they hid from the Titan.

Some of the scenes out in the snow were laughable. When Kentaro went off in his own direction and started to hallucinate, the show just felt as if it went off the rails.

I did like how Shaw, Kentaro, May and Cate were brought to Monarch at the very end of the episode, so I am hoping that next week’s episode picks things up.

The series’ Titans do look great, as did this undefined one.

Picket Fences S3 E5

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Cold Spell”

The final day of the November Picket Fences DailyView Rewatch arrived. I watched today’s episode early this morning before I went to school and now I am doing the final write-up of November. I will continue watching Picket Fences episodes as I am currently in the third season, but it may not necessarily be every day. For the rest of the watch, if I have a day where I have a lot of things scheduled, I will not compel myself to watch an episode. I will absolutely continue to finish up season three and then go through season four of this series. I do love Picket Fences.

This was a tough episode because it started a trend. Ginny was found in her home, dead and inside a freezer. She had been dead for three weeks, according to Carter. It was a shocking death when I first saw the episode back in the 1990s and it was a reminder of how sad it was when one of the original cast was sent off in this manner.

Paul Williams came to Rome playing Ginny’s brother, who was struggling to understand why it took the people of Rome three weeks to realize that Ginny was missing. He never got a good answer to that question but, as Jill said, “Rome does well with funerals” and Ginny’s service was fully attended. Paul Williams sang a version of his classic song, Rainbow Connection in honor of Ginny.

Ed Lawson continued campaigning for mayor as an election was coming up. Carter declared his own candidacy for mayor, to a series of giggles from the crowd. Jill had decided to run last episode to become a duly elected mayor and not just the temporary mayor that she had been.

The other main story featured a Wiccan family whose daughter painted a pentagram on the school walls to protect herself from the fear of the black kids. Littleton was front and center for this, leading the way in trying to get the young girl removed from her mother’s care.

I find it fascinating that Rome, Wisconsin has Wiccan, Christian Scientists, Jews, Mormons and many other religions floating around, but they are shaken by the African Americans coming into the school. If there was any place that should fit in, Rome seems to be it.

Picket Fences S3 E4

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Enemy Lines”

After trying to stop the bused Green Bay kids from coming to Rome, Wisconsin, Jill Brock, as one of the co-mayors, had to face the consequences of her actions as Judge Nance, played by Paul Winfield, marched into her office and placed her under arrest for contempt of a federal order.

He placed Jill in a jail cell and made noise that she was going to be the one that he made an example out of.

Nance took the time to come and see Jill and the pair of them spent most of the episode engaging verbally with each other. Both gave some great performances in the small jail cell. We learned about the motive of Nance, who had clearly had something driving him to be as desperate as he had been.

Meanwhile, John was struggling with the new normal of Rome, a town that suddenly felt less welcoming than it had before for the D.A. He even tried to get taken off the case heading to the Supreme Court, but Judge Bone would not recuse him.

Kimberly and one of the new black girls from Green Bay got into it as well. I remember these two becoming friends, but their start was extremely shaky. Kimberly was nervous and the other girl, named Aisha, picked up on it immediately, which led to a fight between them.

This was a decent episode, but honestly, some of the discussion between Nance and Jill felt forced. It was the typical Picket Fences fight that had its origins in other traumas. Here it turned out that Nance was dying of liver cancer and he was trying to fix race relations before he died. I’m also not certain that the inclusion of the story about his son made sense when they were including it. Winfield delivered it well, but I’m not sure it worked.

Moonlighting S2 E14

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Every Daughter’s Father is a Virgin”

We get to meet Maddie’s parents in this episode, but the episode is not the happy reunion on might expect.

Turns out that Maddie’s father, Alexander Hayes, has been having an affair. Maddie’s mother, Virginia, confided in Maddie that she suspected the affair. Maddie was upset and decided that she would follow her father and prove that he was not cheating. However, David talked her out of it by offering to do the job instead.

We had a whole sequence set to “Poppa was a Rolling Stone” by The Temptations where David followed Mr. Hayes around Los Angeles, ending up at a hotel where Hayes had a room where his mistress was.

Finding out the truth, David told Maddie, who immediately wanted to tell her mother. David and Maddie once again engaged in a verbal joust about lying.

In the end, Maddie did not tell her mother, but confronted her father in a rageful manner.

Cybill Shepherd was excellent in this episode. She was given a pretty meaty role in this episode and she excelled at it. Bruce Willis really showed David’s concern for his partner and that he was actually good at following a mark.

Robert Webber and Eva Marie Saint played Maddie’s parents and hit every note pitch perfectly. That is why you cast this quality of actors in these roles.

The tone of this episode was much more serious than many of the Moonlighting episodes, though it was bookended by silliness, kicking off the episode with David and Maddie addressing the audience once again (with David wearing a McMahon headband???). They read letters from viewers all wondering when they were going to kiss.

The end of the episode included a major 4th wall breaking as David spoke directly to the camera.

This was an episode that showed that Moonlighting could go in a different direction than what they had done prior.

Picket Fences S3 E3

Posted on by

Spoilers

“The Bus Stops Here”

Racial tensions take over Rome as a federal order came down that 400 black students from Green Bay would be bussed into Rome schools.

The parents of Rome got together, fully recognizing their prejudice, but trying to find a way to stop the kids from being brought in.

Paul Winfield played Federal court judge Harold Nance, who made the order. There were some epic scenes between him and Judge Henry Bone. Winfield and Ray Walston bring similar massive personas that take up the whole room.

I have to say that one of the things I really love about this show is how they use all of their secondary and tertiary characters are characters we have seen in previous episodes. Ed from the jury episode was back. So was a couple of the teachers from previous stories. It felt like a real little town with faces that we are familiar with. Cool.

The ending scene with the National Guard coming in to confront the Rome police department who was deployed to prevent the students from getting off the bus. The moment was tense, but Jimmy ordered his deputies to back down and the black kids walked into the school.

In a side story, the murder trial appeal winds up heading to the Supreme Court. Seeing Wambaugh and Littleton hugging in celebration was a hoot.

Bonus Action Vol. 1 E7

Posted on by

Spoilers

“The Z Knights vs. The B Team”

The big battle over the Arcfire did not go very well at all.

In an epic encounter, our party battled through the combat doing what they could. The main antagonist was challenging and targeting Victor took our young hero down.

It felt tough for others in the group. Bric tried something desperate at the end that could have backfired, but Rory came up HUGE with a major Nat. 20 roll when he needed it.

I am avoiding too many details, because you should really watch the episode yourselves.

Picket Fences S3 E1 & E2

Posted on by

Spoilers

E1: “Survival of the Fittest”

E2: “Systematic Abuse”

I kicked off the third season of Picket Fences with the first two episodes. They start it off with a murder case over a sixteen year old girl named Susan. A drifter named Brian Latham had tried to pick up the girl and is arrested for the crime.

When they could not find the girl, Kenny, who had found a cross among Brian’s things, went in to see Brian and asked him to help direct the police to a place where the body might be. Kenny asked him to help, Catholic to Catholic. Brian told Kenny that he could check a pond.

Susan was in the pond, wrapped in a tarp. Wambaugh tried to get the body thrown out as fruits of a poison tree, but Judge Bone, in a surprise ruling, decided to allow the evidence anyway.

Episode two focused on the trial itself, with Littleton and Wambaugh battling in court. The show does a great job of showing the trial, with all of the testimony.

It felt clear that Brian Latham was the guilty party. There was nothing that led us to doubt that. Until the final scene that is. When Brian had been found guilty, he spoke to Kenny and told him, Catholic to Catholic, that he did not kill Susan.

What a cliffhanger. There was no question that he was the guilty party. The show went to great lengths to show that. The glances that Brian made when Wambaugh was coaching him on his testimony seemed obvious that he was understanding what he had to do.

And then… like a bomb… everything we knew about the case was flipped on its side. There was some top line writing involved here.

There was one laughable moment. The trial was being broadcast over local TV and they showed a group of boys in what looked like a locker room including Matthew watching the trial. They were arguing about what they thought of the case. This was silly. No group of 5ht graders (I think that was what Matthew was) are going to have a TV tuned in to a trial in the locker room. That scene pulled me out of the story.

Otherwise, this was a great couple of episodes that kicked off a major story for the third season.

The X-Files S1 E23, E24

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Roland”

Roland is a decent episode that feels like several of the other episodes of season one.

This is yet another episode from this first season that I have not seen before. I am not sure why there were so many episodes in this first season that I missed. I am also curious when I start into season two if there will be fewer episodes that I have not seen already.

The most standout aspect of this episode was the performance by Željko Ivanek as Roland. His performance as the intellectually disable janitor Roland, who was separated from his identical twin when he was young. His brother was in an accident and died, though they were keeping his brain alive. This was a way that he was able to control Roland and get him to finish his work and kill his enemies.

Interesting, and okay.

“The Erlenmeyer Flask”

And then there was this one.

Whoa, this was so much better than Roland.

The X-Files mythology went into high gear as we see the death of Deep Throat. The way the mysterious governmental agents systematically destroy the evidence and manipulate the situation can become very frustrating. You see Mulder and Scully come so close and yet everything is pulled away.

The whole episode is centered around the use of extraterrestrial bacteria, bacteria that does not exist anywhere in nature. This episode gave a lot to Scully, who normally does not get to see the evidence outside of Mulder’s testimony. When she pulled out the original source of the bacteria, it makes it more difficult to believe that she could still be a skeptic.

At the end of the episode Mulder tells Scully that Skinner had told him that the X-Files was being shut down and they were being reassigned. Mulder dedicated himself to keep searching for the truth.

The season one episodes were a little more inconsistent than I remember about the rest of the series. It may have been a season to see how to make this series, what worked and what did not. There were some outstanding episodes here too.