Category Archives: TV-G[eek]

A Murder at the End of the World E3

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“Chapter Three: Survivors”

I watched the third episode of the FX limited series A Murder at the End of the World on Hulu tonight. It continues to be engaging and mysterious.

Another murder happened in this episode, of one of the guests who had told Darby that he had information to share with her. Rohan had confirmed that he had been the man in the mask on the tape, but before he had a chance to tell the next piece of information, the sounds of Rohan being attacked crossed the phone.

This all happened after Andy told her that he wanted Darby to leave the site. He told her that the police had declared that Bill’s death was not a murder, but an overdose. Andy told Darby that she was grieving and needed to rest. He asked for her ring back.

Yes, he is a little suss with his statements. I certainly hope he does not turn out to be the killer, because that feels too obvious. Had they started it off like a Monk/Columbo show where we knew the killer, but just try and see our heroes find out how they did it, it would be one thing. But this started off as a mystery and the host being the killer is just too much of a trope.

There are just 4 more episodes of the limited series remaining. I am excited about finishing this up soon.

A Murder at the End of the World E1, E2

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“Chapter One: Homme Fatal”

“Chapter Two: The Silver Doe”

I was looking for something new to watch. I didn’t want to dive into more from Moonlighting or The X-Files, as I have done several of both of those series this weekend. Picket Fences is done. Fargo has one more episode. I have not been too enthralled with For All Mankind as of yet. I finished Murder House. I wanted something new.

I will be doing a Twin Peaks rewatch at some point, but this did not feel like the right time. There are several other great shows I love such as Monk, Castle but those are both multiple season runs and I am only in season 2 of a bunch of the X-Files. Having something that has an end in sight is always welcome.

So I went looking for other options, and eventually I worked around to Hulu. Hulu was being kind of wonky tonight (I think because of the frigid cold we have here right now), but I still came across A Murder at the End of the World.

I had seen this before and the concept intrigued me and I am always a fan of a good murder mystery. It is also only seven episodes, which is great. It feels like one of those shoes like Echo, The Body or Fall of the House of Usher that can be a quick, palate cleanser in-between the longer commitment of the multi-season re-watches.

I started the series hoping that it would be able to catch my attention. I will say it started a little slow, but my the end of episode one, everybody had arrived at the setting and the characters were introduced and the murder was in place. At that point, I was all in.

The basic plot is something that we have seen before. A group of people are invited to an isolated location and somebody is murdered. This trope is very common, but I did like the way this series set up the trope and tied it to our main protagonist’s background. 

Emma Corrin felt very familiar to me, but I did not recognize anything on her IMDB page (that I had watched, I mean… I recognized shows. I just never watched The Crown or Pennyworth). I enjoyed her portrayal of Darby Hart, an amateur sleuth/true crime writer who had been called the Gen Z Sherlock Holmes. She wound up being invited to a retreat with some of the big brains of the world and her former friend/love Bill Farrah (Harris Dickinson) was also in attendance, as one of the world’s aforementioned artists.

At the end of the first episode, Bill dies in front of Darby. It is believed that he O.D.’d, but Darby did not believe it. She knew something more was going on, and she sneaked into the crime scene to see what she could find.

The story is told with flashbacks back to Darby’s younger years, not only during the time she and Bill were in pursuit of the Silver Dove Killer, a serial killer obsessed with silver jewelry, but also to younger years yet, when Darby was with her policeman father, including at crime scenes he was investigating. Her observations helped him with his cases.

There are some interesting characters in the show, but there has not yet been too much development of any of the other invitees to the retreat. They have been touched on, but the depth is still to come, I expect.

There was a disturbing glance at a person in a mask on the video in Bill’s room when he died. It was a scary image and it was one that I did not expect.

The first two episodes were really good and, with only five more to go, it should not take too long to find out who the guilty party is. I hope it delivers in the long run.

The X-Files S2 E21, E22, E23

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“Calusari”

“F. Emasculata”

“Soft Light”

The X-Files were on quite a positive run as it neared the end of season two. These were three solid episodes that all had a different feel to them. Episodes 22 & 23 were both involving the government and their sneaky, sneaky tricks. 

It was cool to see Adrian Monk himself, Tony Shalhoub, in the 23rd episode as the man with the murderous shadow. Shalhoub is always great in whatever role he takes on and the final shot of him in a chair, controlled by the government (X himself) as a tear rolls down his cheek is an amazingly terrifying image.

The 21st episode featured a cool concept that took the old possession angle in a different manner. The idea that the little kid was a twin who had his twin die in the womb, and that the dead twin spirit was killing people was a really awesome twist. 

How many times have Mulder and/or Scully think they have been exposed to some kind of virus/disease/illness? It happened yet again in “F. Emasculata” when Scully could have been exposed to a deadly contagion. She avoided this one (again) but you would think that her luck would run out one of these days.

I did find the showdown on the infected prisoner, who had the little boy captive, and Mulder was intense and solidly written, even though his eventual death was pretty obvious.

Moonlighting S3 E13, E14, E15

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“Maddie’s Turn to Cry”

“I am Curious…Maddie”

“To Heiress Human”

Season three of Moonlighting wrapped up with the final three episodes. Episodes 13 & 14 both started off with creative recaps that seemed to make fun of itself for having too many repeats and not enough new episodes. It doesn’t play as well now since I am watching these back to back and there have been no repeats in-between. 

The second episode of these, “I am Curious… Maddie,” is the episode where Dave and Maddie finally do the deed. The will-they-won’t-they dance finally becomes a they-will. After several episodes with Mark Harmon as a roadblock, Dave and Maddie hit the sheets together.

The only problem with that is I disliked how this came to be. I remember not being a fan of the way this worked out when I first saw it back in the 80s. It was so dark. There was so much anger and spite that it did not feel right. I know it was designed that way because Dave and Maddie are always arguing so why not translate that into their first sexual encounter? It just felt like they were way too aggressive, too angry and not showing how they truly felt. 

I would have liked it more had they had their encounter in the episode “Maddie’s Turn to Cry” when Maddie came over to David’s apartment. This is when it should have happened so it was more about two people actually finding themselves instead of such a mean-spirited, almost violent way.

It almost made me feel bad for Mark Harmon. His character of Sam Crawford was such a good guy who seemed to be hurt badly by the relationship between Dave and Maddie.

Cybill Shepherd is clearly pregnant too. You can see how she was wearing clothes that were large and flowing, and using handbags to block her belly. The pregnancy had been part of the problem with getting new episodes out, along with the feud on set with the stars.

Honestly, the breaking of the fourth wall in these episodes felt very off considering the different tone of the episodes.

Season four of Moonlighting goes off the rail. I am curious to see what I think of this next season on rewatch. 

The X-Files S2 E19, E20

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“Død Kalm” 

“Humbug”

Season two of The X-Files moves along with one of my favorite episodes and one that was decent. 

First up, Mulder and Scully age rapidly upon a ghost ship. They investigated the ship when crew members were found from the ship, ageing well past their times.

Mulder and Scully are at their best in isolation, places where the outside world is kept at bay. Here, it allowed Mulder and Scully to have some interactions that they might not have had in other instances. 

Problem with the episode was that the old age makeup did not look great. Mulder, in particular, did not look like an old man, more like a guy with a lot of latex on his face.

“Død Kalm” was okay, and the strength of the episode was definitely the relationship between our ever favorite FBI agents.

The next episode was “Humbug” which was one of my favs from the series. It was the time Mulder and Scully investigated murders at the freak show.

This was a great episode that really, for the first time, took a more humorous tone with the case. The writing of the dialogue was spot on in this episode. Mulder was as funny here as he has been yet, and shows what the show could be. Apparently, according to Wikipedia, the episode was written by Darin Morgan, who had helped his brother Glen on other scripts for the show and earned himself a full time job. He wrote some classic X-Files episodes including “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” and “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose,” both of which I love and can’t wait to get to during this rewatch.

The thing is that the show does not sacrifice the tension and horror with the comedy. It shows that The X-Files is capable of blending the tones together into something very satisfying and extremely clever.

It was fun to see Michael J. Anderson (who played The Man from Another Place on Twin Peaks) guest starring as Mr. Nutt. Another guest star was Vincent Schiavelli, who was once married to Miss DePesto herself, Allyce Beasley, and they appeared together on an episode of Moonlighting.

These kind of comedic episodes are some of my favorites of the entire series because they are done so well and yet does not rob the show of its signature style.

American Horror Story: Murder House S1 E9-E12

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I had been doing a rewatch of the first season of American Horror Story: Murder House, usually once every Sunday. I made it through episode 8, but so many other shows popped up that I kind of let AHS: Murder House slide. 

Now, with the Picket Fences rewatch finished, Monarch, Echo and Fargo (almost) ending, I decided to wrap up the first season in the Murder House. 

I remember the first time watching this show, the shocks were absolutely flying. I never saw the hanging of Ben coming. The deaths of the members of the Harmon family were all amazing, and is something that you can do in an anthology series, since you do not have to revisit the characters in a subsequent season (although, Constance, I believe, comes back in a later season with the baby she took from the house- as the Anti-Christ. That is a season I may have to watch for the first time).

The group of characters are all given pretty decent ends, even the ghosts that are trapped inside the house. It was a strangely satisfying and, dare I say, happy ending for the Harmons, considering that they all died tragically in the house. The ending of the show with them celebrating Christmas was a strange conclusion.

It was fun watching the spirits inside the house chase off the new couple that tried to buy the house. 

I glad to have finished off the first season. It was one of my favorites of the seasons that I have seen. 

Moonlighting S3 E12

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“Sam and Dave”

The soap opera Moonlighting continued with the episode “Sam and Dave” where Addison officially met Sam, Maddie’s ‘friend’ who was at her door last episode. Of course, Sam is played by Mark Harmon. 

I really don’t like the way this story progressed. It was just too dark for this show. Even the manner in which the show is being shot during these episodes make the mood much more dark. This episode drew a very negative comparison between David and Sam. It went out of the way to make Dave look bad and to made Sam look super-dooper. 

I was under the impression that David was an active drinker. I find it tough to believe he got as drunk as he did at the end of the show. 

Herbert Viola took another step to become the character I hate most on any show. He is such an annoying character and his treatment of Agnes is mean. I hated the ‘advice’ that David gave to Viola when Bert came to talk to him about women. 

The episode ended with a “To Be Continued” and it was clear that the show was moving along with this style.

Fargo S5 E9

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“The Useless Hand”

I was not sure how, after last week’s thriller of an episode, the show intended on having two more episodes. Last week absolutely felt like the penultimate episode. I guess I should not question Fargo. This was an amazing episode leading into what is surely going to be a devastating finale.

I have not been as interested in the character of Ole Munch for most of the season, and yet, it just a few minutes of screen time, I have a much more positive view of him than I have had all season long. He has also succeeded in making me feel sympathy for Gator, something I never thought could happen. When Roy basically cast his son Gator aside as being worthless, and Gator sadly asked for his dad, this was heartbreaking and you really see what a victim Gator is of his selfish and cruel father.

Dorothy is one of my favorite characters on TV right now. She is such a survivor and does whatever she needed to do to get by. The phone conversation between her and Lorraine was powerful, and gave Dorothy that extra bolt that she needed, with the line “No Daughter of mine…“. Maybe I missed it, but I would love to know how Dorothy became as competent in these tactics of war and violence as she has. How did she become “The Tiger,” as she was referred to by Old Munch at the episode’s end. I do wonder though, after being so tactful, why did Dorothy leave her gun just out in the open as she climbed down into “the Grave?” That felt like a real error that I did not expect Dorothy to make and she was very fortunate that Old Munch happened by when he did.

Sheriff Roy Tillman continues to just do whatever he wants and is ready to lead his men and followers into a firefight with the FBI. The scene where, on horseback, Roy rode up to the FBI to let them know, in no uncertain terms, that he would not be standing down or cooperating with any search warrant was intense as hell. It is pretty clear that the series writer and creator Noah Hawley is using Roy Tillman as a stand-in for a more famous figure in the world today. The call to arms Roy sent out over the live stream was reminiscent of things we have seen in our current political world. 

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters S1 E10

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“Beyond Logic”

So this was the season finale. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters has been up and down for me all season long. Some of the moments were really good and other parts were not very good. That is a good example of this episode.

It was really predictable about what was going to happen, especially after Lee Shaw had to play Doc Brown trying to fix the wires in Back to the Future. As he was trying to fix the plug, he did it and then he stood around for several minutes while Godzilla and the flying titan fought. That led to him being left behind in Hollow Earth. Saw that coming.

However, Godzilla and the flying titan were awesome, though it did not have much time. 

Another week and Kentaro had some good scenes. He was the weakest character for most of the series, but last episode and this one, he really stepped up. And his mother had a great scene with his father too.

This show could have been consistently awesome every week, but it was not. It had its moments, but the writing did not feel as strong as it could have been. Since we just saw the Godzilla Minus One film that had a compelling story of the humans, this was just not at a level it needed to be.

Echo

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Everybody thought this series was going to be an utter mess. They said that Disney was dropping the episodes all in one day because they just wanted to get it done with and past it. Echo was supposed to be a waste of time.

This turned out to be an excellent five episode show. 

I was not a fan of the character of Echo in the Hawkeye series. She was probably the weakest point of that series and felt almost added in.

This show does a sensational job of taking some of the Maya scenes from the Hawkeye and blending them into the series, particularly the first episode. The tone of these scenes felt completely different and worked in the surrounding sections.

I liked the progression of Maya and her character. She was cold at the beginning and as she slowly accepted her Choctaw Nation generations. Alaqua Cox did a fabulous job as Maya Lopez, unable to speak, but still using facial features and body language to provide an understanding of the character.

The supporting characters in this show are very interesting and are some of the best written characters. Maya’s childhood friend Bonnie, her grandparents Skully (played by the wonderful Graham Greene) and Chula, her cousin Biscuits and his dog Billy Jack, her friend Henry and, of course, her ‘uncle’ Wilson Fisk.

Vincent D’Onofrio returned to form as Kingpin. He is always so great as this character. Lots of people hated his Wilson Fisk from the Hawkeye series, but I did not mind it. It was not as good as his appearances in the Daredevil Netflix series, but characters can be different. Here, he is closer to the way he was in that Netflix series. The connection of Kingpin and Maya was a major piece of the show.

The Echo series took a lot of criticism for dropping the shows all at once, but this feels as if the show was designed to be binged and it works that way.

This also makes the Netflix Daredevil series MCU cannon, which has been questionable over the years. They go right into the Wilson Fisk backstory with his father (how he bludgeoned him to death with a hammer). Oh and the first episode fight with Daredevil was spectacular.

I will say that I feel as if the final episode was a little rushed. I did like how the Maya-Fisk relationship ends up resolving. I’m not sure if I liked how the ‘Echo gives the others power too to fight’ because it seemed to be kind of add.

However, for the five episode series, I think Echo is an excellent series and was better than I thought it was going to be.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians S1 E5

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“A God Buys Us Cheeseburgers”

As a fan of the WWE, I was looking forward to seeing Adam Copeland, a former WWE wrestler under the name of Edge, appear on tonight’s Percy Jackson episode on Disney +. Copeland was playing God of War Ares on the show. He did a great job providing Ares with some quirky traits.

However, Percy and Annabeth went on a side adventure to recover Ares’s shield as the God of War kept Grover as insurance. 

Grover showed he was smarter than Ares as he was able to suss out (at least, according to the cliffhanger) who it was that stole the master bolt. I guess that Grover will let us in on the secret next week.

Percy and Annabeth are really bonding, much more than either of them expected. 

They found themselves in an amusement park created by Hephaestus. There was a trap that Percy had to trigger in order to get the shield, but Annabeth would not give up on him and talked Hephaestus into freeing Percy.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians has been a consistently good show every week, with a cast of charming and engaging young actors and some fun appearances by Olympians. It looked like the previews for next week has Lin-Manuel Miranda showing up as Hermes.

The quest continues in Vegas!

The X-Files S2 E18

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“Fearful Symmetry”

Invisible elephants? Invisible tiger?

Mulder and Scully investigate a zoo where some weird things are going on. Mulder believes that the animals of the zoo are being abducted by aliens and artificially inseminated, having the babies taken for some reason.

The action centers around a gorilla named Sophie, who could communicate via sign language and was scared of the light.

This was quite a tragic episode with a lot of animal death and discussion of mistreatment. 

Not sure why the animals were invisible. Overall the episode was below average.

Picket Fences S4 E20, E21, E22

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“Forget Selma”

“To Forgive is Divine”

“Liver Let Die”

These three episodes were, in continuity, supposed to be shown before episode 18, “3 Weddings and a Meltdown,” and the fact that they were shown after it did affect the enjoyment of the episodes, especially episode 22, which dealt with a potential cancer scare for Jimmy, but since we know in episode 18, we know Jimmy is fine, it removed any level of question about the diagnosis.

In “Forget Selma,” we saw how Douglas and nuMiriam Wambaugh reunited, and it was one of the worst episodes of the series. It started decent, with Douglas being very jealous over nuMiriam and her new “bridge” partner, a retired stock broker played by Efrem Zimbalist Jr. 

Unfortunately, this fell hard in the second and third acts. The whole showdown at nuMiriam’s house was just ridiculous. It felt like a scene out of a conclusion of Moonlighting but without the witty comments of Dave and Maddie.

The second of these episodes included a rape of an Amish woman, and the subsequent case that led to. The Amish Council of Elders had decided that she would not press charges or testify against her rapist because their religion insisted on forgiveness.

There were a bunch of familiar faces in this episode. Kelli Williams, one of the stars of David E. Kelley’s courtroom drama The Practice, was the victimized Amish girl Hannah and Alyson Hannigan (Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) was another victim of the rapist. 

The final release order show was the aforementioned cancer scare for Jimmy. This was a very effective episode which would have been so much more if I did not know that Jimmy made it through. It also made the split between Jimmy and Jill in the finale (E18) make even less sense than it did at the time. After surviving this cancer scare, how does crazy Jill continue to do what she does in the finale?

Crazy Jill storyline is easily the worst storyline in the entire run of the show as it took the character and warped her into something was unrecognizable. 

Episode 22 was one of the best ones of the fourth season. 

However, Maxine was missing in all of these episodes so it still made no sense when she and Kenny started out the finale in bed together.

Season four was definitely missing a lot and was far lower than the first three seasons. Still, Picket Fences is one of my favorite shows of all time and I am very pleased that I got a chance to do this rewatch for EYG. 

Picket Fences S4 E19

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“Winner Takes All”

The crazy Jill storyline continued this episode. She becomes a basketball coach and drives the children to the point where they hire Wambaugh to sue their parents to stay away from the games.

As a former coach, this episode pushed a lot of buttons for me. The know-it-all parents are a major issue in youth sports competition and there is a problem that you see all over the place.

It is kind of weird watching this episode after the finale from episode 18. 

There was a sub-story where Matthew got involved in gambling. Kenny stepped up big time in this side story.

Best part of the episode was the end song, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” performed by Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwoʻole. 

I also enjoyed the story told by Dr. Joey about her own past with her mother and figure staking. Amy Aquino delivered that monologue extremely well.

The worse part of the crazy Jill story is that there is no real reason behind it. It just shows her own character.

Moonlighting S3 E11

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“Blonde on Blonde”

The soap opera section of Moonlighting started with this episode. 

It also revealed another one of my least favorite TV characters of all time. Sam Crawford, played by Mark Harmon. When Mark Harmon suddenly was standing in Maddie’s doorway, blocking David from finally telling Maddie how he felt, he cemented his place among the most despised characters around.

Mark Harmon was a top notch actor and was playing a character who, by all accounts, was a wonderful person, but he the definition of wrong-place-wrong-time.

This also started, in my mind, the eventual downfall of Moonlighting. When the show turned from a romantic comedy investigating cases with Dave and Maddie verbally sparring into this example where they were separated, not working together and focused more on the darker side of their relationship, is when the show started a downturn. Sure the ratings would be high for these episodes and Mark Harmon had created quite a buzz with his shocking appearance, but they started to lose something that made the show what it was.

You saw the elevation of Herbert Viola to sidekick status instead of DiPesto love interest and that was another misstep.