Category Archives: TV-G[eek]

True Detective: Night Country S4 E6

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“Part Six”

The fourth season of True Detective came to its conclusion tonight on HBO Max with an extra long episode that wrapped up the storylines well and left some ambiguity in what happened with Navarro.

The show moved at a rapid pace throughout. They had a lot to cover.

The story of what happened to the frozen naked people was something else. I never would have guessed about what the answer was to the mystery. I am not sure if this felt like a cheat or a clever way to keep it unexpected.

Top notch performances tonight from Jodie Foster and Kali Reis as they were stranded together in the blizzard with Raymond Clark, who was able to provide us with some answers (sort of).

The case was a nice mixture of real world and supernatural as everything made sense, but the mysteriousness of the setting remained in tact.

Was that Navarro’s spirit or real live body visiting Danvers at the end? I know what I think, but we will never know for sure.

A really enjoyable season with a very strong finale. I was really pleased with True Detective: Night Country.

The X-Files S3 E13, E14

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“Syzygy”

“Grotesque”

Two great episodes in a row. One where we see Mulder and Scully being affected by the planets, amplifying some of their deeper seeded character traits and another where it sure seems as if Mulder has lost his mind and has become a copy cat killer.

In that second episode, “Grotesque,” we actually find out Special Agent Bill Patterson, someone Mulder knew when he was at the Investigative Support Unit at Quantico, was working the case. Performed by Kurtwood Smith, it turned out that Patterson, who had been chasing the killer for three years of his live, diving into the darkness of the killer’s mind, had become the copycat himself and he had requested Mulder be assigned this case as a way to stop him.

Kurtwood Smith was also the surprise killer, Cupid on Picket Fences, making it a specialty of Smith being a hidden murderer. Honestly though, this episode takes a look at mental illness and the darkness that these FBI profilers envelope themselves with in order to ‘get into the head’ of the serial killers.

Smith and Duchovny both gave excellent performances in this episode.

Meanwhile, the first of these episodes included the planets causing Scully and Mulder to be at each other’s throats the whole episode. At first it was pretty subtle, but as they continued to act unlike themselves, it became more obvious what was happening without them ever coming out and saying … hey, why are we acting like jerks?

This episode was meant to lean toward the humor that the show has been including every once in awhile, but most of this humor, with the exception of the bit about why Mulder always drives the car, was not the best of the series.

Hazbin Hotel

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I binged the Amazon Prime adult animated musical series last night and this morning. It was a real easy binge as the episodes are all around 25 minutes.

I started off with the pilot on YouTube. It was posted four years ago and has been very popular on YouTube. That pilot led to A24 and Prime and a big budget. Eight episodes of the series arrived on Prime.

Charlie Morningstar, daughter of Lucifer and princess of Hell, is hopeful and loving (and very musical) and organizing a hotel where she wants to help demons find redemption and go to Heaven, a way to prevent the overcrowding of Hell.

This is such a awesome series. It is absolutely not for kids. There are curse words, sexual situations and innuendo, and adult situations.

The characters are amazing. Charlie is the main protagonist and brings the heart to the show. She is vital to making this a real series. I think of her like Luffy from One Piece who is the center of the show and provides the heart. Charlie’s friend/love Vaggie has a secret background that may destroy their relationship. Angel Dust is the first resident of the hotel who is a porn actor. Alastor the “Radio Demon” was an overlord who comes to watch the events unwind at the hotel. Sir Pentious is a former villain whose pathetic life led him to the hotel. Husk is the straight shooting bartender. These characters are way deeper than I ever expected to be. I really love how these characters grow and their arcs are truly strong.

The music is so epic. Not only catchy and fun, but are used to inform the characters. These songs are way more engaging and fun than they have any right to be.

The animation is spectacular and remarkably unique. The colors and the character designs are exceptional.

Plus, the story of Hell and Heaven is brilliantly developed and you can not guess where things are going. The angels are just as horrible, if not more so, than the demon characters. And there is a definite question about what going to Heaven or going to Hell means.

The finale is just so masterful, and I sure hope there are plans to continue to season two. This was a real treat.

The X-Files S3 E12

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“War of the Coprophages”

Cockroaches.

This is a great X-Files episode that involves what appears to be killer cockroaches. It is written by the same X-Files writer that penned “Humbug” and “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” which meant that this episode had a humorous tone that worked so well with so many X-Files episodes.

One of the best parts of the first half of the episode was how Mulder would call Scully with a potential death from killer cockroaches and she would de-‘bug’ it over the phone. The interaction between the two agents on the phone was really hilarious. The writing is so very clever and popped off the screen.

I found the episodes of The X-Files that used humor to be some of my favorite of the series. This is almost a self-parody and it showed how people can become engrossed with hysteria and how that can affect their choices. This episode was inspired by H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds.

The resolution of the episode was somewhat lacking as we do not really find out anything that was going on, plot wise, which, in itself could be a parody of X-Files episodes. There is an implication that cockroaches had some tie to aliens, but it is only rampant speculation. There was also some hints that these insects had been part of a government conspiracy, but that is debunked immediately.

Scully’s snarky responses toward the character of Dr. Berenbaum, who was working for the Department of Agriculture studying cockroaches to develop more effective methods of pest control. Scully’s snark was directed at her first name, which turned out to be Bambi. Her snark felt almost like jealousy.

This had some great lines and felt like a successful episode even if nothing mysterious was really going on.

The X-Files S3 E11

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“Revelations”

A young boy appears to be a stigmata, attracting a man who is killing fake stigmatics. Mulder and Scully are on the case to try and protect the boy from the evil force. However, in this episode, because of the religious implications of the case, Scully was the believer, the one with faith, and Mulder was the skeptic, the naysayer. It felt weird.

The little boy was from the Air Bud movies, actor Kevin Zegers. He is effective in the episode opposite Gillian Anderson, who does some excellent work. David Duchovny though just did not feel right. Mulder believes in everything, but having him so anti-religion felt against the character. Not that he had to believe in God, but how he was so dismissive to everything was so unlike Mulder that it was jarring.

And when Scully came up with the answer where Kevin had been taken, Mulder did not go with her. I found that to be hypocritical of him, since she has followed him through how many potentially hairbrained ideas before. I wanted him to go with her, even if he did not believe she was right. That would have shown that he believed in her. 

I did like how Mulder’s refusal to believe in the religious moments of the episode led to Scully having a crisis of faith and ending up in a confessional. 

Our evil killer was played by the excellent Kenneth Walsh, who was Windham Earle from season two of Twin Peaks. He was Simon Gates in this episode and he was creepy and eerie with his religious zealot persona. 

Some of the events that happened in the episode were shaky. Some coincidental things that could have been tightened up more, but overall, I enjoyed the episode and I liked the focus on Scully’s personal beliefs.

The X-Files S3 E8, E9, E10

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“Oubliette”

“Nisei”

“731”

X-Files season three has been rocking.

“Oubliette” was a stand alone “monster-of-the-week” episode that had a more human ‘monster’ than typical. The supernatural aspect was a strange, empathic connection between the current victim of the ‘monster’ and a previous victim from years before.

A young girl named Amy was abducted by photography assistant Carl Wade. At the same time across town, waitress Lucy was going through the same pain/injuries as Amy.

Lucy had been kidnapped by Carl Wade when she was younger and spent five years in a black pit as his captive. She survived, but the experience was scarring for her entire life.

The other two episodes returned to the government conspiracy/aliens mythology that the show had made so popular. It added layers of mystery to Scully’s abduction as well as laid out a plausible explanation of what was going on. 

There was a fun, meta moment on the show as Mulder had purchased a video for $29.95 of a reported alien autopsy. Scully made a snide remark about the alien autopsy that was aired on FOX around the same time criticizing it as “even hokier than the one they aired on the Fox network.” FOX, which was the network that aired the X-Files, had shown a TV special, Alien Autopsy (Fact or Fiction) in 1995 that was eventually shown to be a hoax.

The X-Files mythology is one of the problems of the show, especially as the seasons moved on. The mysteries felt too big, and as more and more was piled on, it got to the point that anything that they would do to reveal the truth would never be able to be sufficient. So while each episode on its own were highly entertaining and exciting, when looked at as a whole, I am not sure that everything worked together. ”Nisei” and “731” were great episodes with some excellent action, but did it work with other mythological episodes in the past or future of the series? I’m not so sure.

True Detective: Night Country S4 E5

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“Part Five”

I had forgotten that True Detective: Night Country was releasing its penultimate episode on Friday night instead of its typical Sunday night because of the inevitable competition of the Super Bowl. I did not think of it until tonight as I was watching American Nightmare on Netflix. After that was over, I pulled up Max and loaded up episode 5.

What an episode.

The confrontation at Danvers’ home between Hank Prior, Danvers, Otis and Peter was just shocking. Watching Peter put a bullet into his father’s head to protect Danvers after his father had shot and killed Otis was an unbelievable scene. 

The scene between Peter and Danvers at the police station was compelling as hell and really set up what was to come.

It was a tough episode for Peter, ending with one of the most tragic things that he had to do. He could not stand there and watch his father execute Danvers and so his hand was forced.

Hank did confess that he did not kill Annie, but he did move the body. I guess you can scratch him off the suspects list. With Navarro and Danvers on their way to the cave where Annie was killed, I expect all kinds of drama coming next week in the finale.

By the way, the Tsalal deaths have been deemed an accident by way of an avalanche by the medical examiners in Anchorage. This, of course, is fairly coincidental as Pete had just found evidence linking Silver Sky Mining with Tsalal. Silver Sky Mining’s exec Kate McKittrick is clearly crooked and had ordered Hank to make sure Otis could not take Liz and Navarro to the caves.

Something is in those caves and the reveal next week could be epic.

American Nightmare

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Unbelievable.

I have had this three episode true crime documentary on my list at Netflix for a few weeks now and I found a time to binge it tonight. What an unbelievable story. Shocking and outrageous in many ways.

Honestly, even the manner the show presented the story messed with the emotions and the comprehension of the audience. What actually happened? It laid out the story in a definite manner that was meant to have audience members draw their own conclusions… and then they flipped the script.

In 2015, Denise Huskins was the victim of a home invasion that led to her kidnapping. Her boyfriend Aaron Quinn reported the abduction the next day, claiming that he had been instructed that the kidnappers were watching him on a camera and that they would hurt Denise if he called the police.

The Vallejo Police investigated but the story of the kidnapping was so out there that they switched gears and began to believe that Aaron was responsible for Denise’s disappearance.

Then, she returned.

At this point, the police began thinking that this is a real-life case based on the Ben Affleck movie Gone Girl, and that this kidnapping was a hoax.

Except, it wasn’t.

This was amazingly compelling. The first episode focused on Aaron’s story and how the police were looking at the case. the POV of law enforcement was a major theme throughout all three episodes. I was shocked when Denise came strolling to her father’s house at the end of the first episode.

Episode two dealt with her story and the horrors that she went through. Again, her story was so wild that it was difficult to believe and it was much easier for the police to believe that a hoax was a much more likely scenario.

I really liked this doc because it had quite a bit of finality to it. A lot of these true crime docs that I have seen have an air of uncertainty to them, perhaps a mystery that is still unsolved. This may have had some unanswered questions (in particular, the kidnapper had told Denise that he had intended to kidnap Aaron’s ex instead of her), but there was a very definitive result which I truly appreciated.

It is a resounding accusation against police forces in the area that did not believe the stories of the women victims and instead, chose to relate it to a fictionalized movie. It also showed that there were police officers who took their jobs seriously and were dedicated to finding the truth, in particular Misty Carausu, a police officer with the Dublin Police Department in Dublin, California, who found the kidnapper, found goggles and a strand of long blonde hair that she eventually tied to Denise. It was the efforts of Misty Carausu that led to the arrest and conviction of the kidnapper/rapist, Matthew Muller.

This was an amazing documentary series, shocking and a powerful watch. I am very pleased that I decided to watch this compelling story.

Moonlighting S4 E8 E9

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“Los Dos Dipestos”

“Here’s Living with You, Kid”

Back to back Miss Dipesto/Herbert Viola episodes? Wow. David (only in Los Dos Dipestos)and Maddie (not at all, actually) appeared in a combined 2 minutes (maybe) in these two episodes. 

This show did no favors for Allyce Beasley and Curtis Armstrong are clearly professionals and had to step up when Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd were unavailable for whatever reasons they were unavailable. Still, the show was all Dave and Maddie and when the supporting characters tried to be the leads, it never worked the way it was intended.

And… that does not mean that these two episodes were bad. In fact, they both had some charm to them. It was just that they were playing Dave and Maddie, but they were not Dave and Maddie. I would say that I enjoyed these two episodes considerably more now than I did back when they were on ABC and I was hoping for Dave and Maddie to show up.

The first episode we met Agnes’s mother, played by Imogene Coca- which, by the way, is perfect casting. Imogene Coca was wonderful as Agnes’s mom and the relationship with Viola was furthered. It just was not Dave and Maddie. Any time either Agnes or Bert broke the fourth wall, it just felt wrong.

Then, the next episode had some dream sequences including several scenes with Bert and Agnes in Casablanca. Again, the show had its moments, but you could feel the absence of the stars. 

This re-watch has helped me come to terms with my hatred for the character of Herbert Viola. I am sure a lot of my vitriol came from missing Dave and Maddie and directing that anger at him. Not at Agnes, who had been on the show since the beginning and I had bonded with. I also did not, and still do not, love the way Herbert is written. Making him such a blowhard and so obnoxious so often just made it even worse when it was not Dave and Maddie. Bruce Willis can be obnoxious and still be full of charm, but Curtis Armstrong could not pull it off like Willis. 

Both of these episodes were okay. They were probably really good by comparison to other shows. It just did not feel like Moonlighting.

The X-Files S3 E7

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“The Walk”

There were quite a few episodes of the X-Files from season one, during this rewatch, that I had not seen before. However, those had come to an end during season two so it was a surprise when episode 7 of season three was an episode that I did not remember seeing before.

“The Walk” featured a whole bunch of stuff, from astral travel to villains with both legs and arms amputated.

The episode included a revenge plot by that soldier with the arms and legs gone that led him to killing family members of the people he blamed for his pain. It was a dark episode, especially when we saw him bury a general’s son alive with his astral form.

The episode was decent. The actor playing the villain was okay, but perhaps not to the level of some of the other scary villains in the rogue’s gallery of the X-Files. Though it did feel kind of odd having Mulder try to intimidate him while the man was in bed. 

It was a satisfying watch, one which I did not remember from before.

The X-Files S3 E6

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“2Shy”

This was an X-Files horror episode at its finest.

I seemed to like this more than some of the other online critics that I have seen. I thought this villain, Virgil Incanto, was very scary and rather creepy. His “fat-sucking vampire” character was pretty horrific.

Is he too much like a little brother to Eugene Tooms? Maybe. There are definitely similarities to the characters, but as a monster-of-the-week on the X-Files, I found Incanto to be very successful.

I liked how it was Scully, along with one of Incanto’s intended victims, who brought him down. Especially after the local detective Alan Cross dropped some “old fashion” values on Scully, implying that he did not think that women should be in this position. Cross wound up dead in the bathtub and Scully stood tall at the end. I would have preferred her to be a little more responsible for the monster’s capture than his intended victim, who shot him with Scully’s gun that she just left on the floor.

Still, I was fully engaged with the story and I was happy that they did capture the villain at the end and he just did not slither off to continue his spree of fat-sucking.

True Detective: Night Country S4 E4

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“Part Four”

Night Country continues to be a creepy and, at times, devastating look at both mental illness and the effects of isolation and the lack of daylight.

This week, Navarro’s sister, diagnosed with several mental illnesses, leaves the clinic and walks into the water, drowning herself. To say that Navarro does not respond positively to the news is an understatement. She flies off the handle at the clinic and then picks a fight with a group of men who leave her bloodied and battered.

Meanwhile, things aren’t great for Danvers. Her step-daughter leaves, Danvers spends Christmas Eve alone and drunk.

Navarro is seeing some horrors and she is afraid that the mental illness ran through her family. Ghosts are everywhere here apparently.

The supernatural element of this show has really started kicking into high gear. When Otis Heiss said that they were in the “night country” now, it really felt like something creepy.

And I really feel for Navarro.

The show has been firing on all cylinders for me and, with just two episodes left, I’m excited to see the mystery of the Tsalal murder solved.

Death and Other Details S1 E3

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“Troublesome”

I watched the third episode of Death and Other Details on Hulu tonight titled “Troublesome.” I have to say that I have not quite been absorbed by the series so far.

I really do enjoy Mandy Patinkin in the lead role as Rufus. He is awesome and he certainly carries himself like a star. 

However, I have struggled getting to know the rest of the characters involved in the story. Most of them have not been characters that I have been engaged with and I am having a difficult time knowing who they are.

I don’t know if I needed more introductions to these people or if I did not give the show enough attention, but it has been okay for me at best.

There is a new detective on board, Agent Hilde Eriksen, whom I find kind of intriguing. I like ho she has played off Rufus so far and I hope things will continue to improve over the next several episodes.

Moonlighting S4 E3, E4, E5, E6, E7

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“Take a Left at the Altar”

“A Tale of Two Cities”

“Cool Hand Dave Part I”

“Cool Hand Dave Part II”

“Father Knows Last”

A Sunday afternoon spent with the fourth season of Moonlighting is an enjoyable thing. Even with the fourth season being quite a step down, including much of the time where Dave and Maddie were separated between two cities.

Cybill Shepherd’s pregnancy caused some of these issues, but there were other problems that led to this season.

In retrospect, the fourth season was better than I remembered but so many of the things that happened that just did not work for Moonlighting. A lot of it was fine for any other network show, but for Moonlighting, it was just not the same.

This is a stretch of time when Bert Viola became practically unbearable. Prior to these episodes, he had been okay. During this time, he was obnoxious, taking over for Dave in the office, and being overbearing. I think part of my dislike of the character came from Dave’s reaction to him. He was snarling at Bert, rolling his eyes and wishing him leave. That made me think Bert wasn’t worth the time.

There was only one case during this time and it included Terry O’Quinn (John Locke from LOST). It was a typical Moonlighting case, but the chemistry with Dave and Bert during the chase scene just was not the same without Maddie.

The biggest issue with these episodes is that there is such an undercurrent of meanness to it. These characters who we love so much have such an anger and a bitterness to them that it just feels wrong.

In the Cool Hand Dave two part episode, Dave winds up in prison in one of the most convoluted manners possible. There is no way that it could have possibly worked this way, but there was a really fun musical number during it and Bob the Goon (Tracey Walter) from Batman ’89 was Dave’s cellmate.

In the end, these episodes are not great in comparison to the past seasons of Moonlighting, but watchable over all.

The X-Files S3 E5

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“The List”

The X-Files meets The Green Mile.

Or maybe Marv from Sin City.

Any depiction of the electric chair is somewhat disturbing for me so this episode started off with me on edge. When the prisoner stated that he had a list of those he wanted to exact his revenge upon, returning from the beyond to kill them all, well, the show made it really creepy.

Yet, it turned out to be strangely satisfying despite being unresolved for Mulder and Scully.

J.T. Walsh had a sufficiently rotten turn as Warden Brodeur, a character that clearly had little redeeming qualities. His final fate, in a cool action sequence for the show, was worthwhile.

Written and directed by series creator Chris Carter, this episode is a solid stand-alone, monster-of-the-week episode that definitely had its place among the X-Files oeuvre.