Category Archives: TV-G[eek]

The X-Files S2 E16, E17

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“Colony”

“End Game”

A two part episode that brought the mystery of the disappearance of Samantha Mulder back to the forefront, and gave us another of the recurring villains, an alien, shape shifting bounty hunter with blood that is dangerously corrosive to humans.

The use of Samantha Mulder was done extremely well in this episode, although to be honest the future use of the mystery of her disappearance becomes one of the most overused aspects of the series. I am not sure if the creators of the X-Files actually know what had happened to Samantha and they just wrote that she disappeared and decided they would answer it at some point, not knowing the truth.

We met Fox’s mother and father in the episodes and the father was definitely a questionable guy. He felt fairly withdrawn from his son (something we learn more about later in the series).

The confrontation between Skinner and X is the elevator during “End Game” gave us some real insights into both of these men, especially Skinner, who had been painted as a questionable agent, someone that could not be trusted. This showed that he may be more than what he had seemed before.

Mulder and Scully prove that they are better together than they are separately. I did feel like I have seen Scully kidnapped and in danger from the villains too much during this season. I did like how Scully came into the hospital at the end of the episode and basically saved Mulder’s life with her take charge attitude, not taking any crap from the doctor on duty.

This two-parter was really strong and was a solid pair of episodes in the mythology of the show.

Fargo S5 E8

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“Blanket”

Sheriff Roy Tillman is absolutely spiraling out of control. 

He is completely unhinged.

And the confrontations with Tillman and Dorothy were totally intense. I want more.

Poor Dorothy is so strong, but you can see the doubts and the anguish she is suffering. The fight scene between them was off the charts. I was so rooting for Dorothy.

Graves had set up the sheriff’s debate and that made Tillman look like a crazy man, which was just what Graves wanted. Of course, Graves wanted to negotiate with Tillman, but Tillman had his own negotiating technique in mind. He shot and killed him.

We also got confirmation that Tillman had killed Linda and buried her. 

It amazes me that there are two more episodes left. This made me feel as if it were a penultimate episode. This episode was so great. I really do love Dorothy and Tillman is one of the best villains you are going to find anywhere. 

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters

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“Axis Mundi”

Episode nine had the least shocking twist of the whole season. One that we all saw coming. Cate, who is lost in the Hollow Earth, was saved from a rampaging titan by a woman with a bow and arrow. The woman was, of course,  Dr. Keiko Miura, who we thought had died back in 1954 when she got pulled down by those bug-like creatures. 

Well, honestly, who really thought she was dead? 

We learned a lot about Shaw’s past in Hollow Earth and why he is so spry for a 90 year old guy. Wyatt Russell does a great job in these scenes.

The scenes between characters are the best scenes of this episode. The scene with Kentaro and his father were probably the best scene that Kentaro has had in the show. 

Kurt Russell’s Shaw and May found each other in Hollow Earth after last episode’s mess and they tried to find Cate. May seemed more worried about Cate than just a friend.

Everything is being set up here in this penultimate episode for the season finale next week. 

Picket Fences S4 E18

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“Three Weddings and a Meltdown”

It is official. I have decided that Jill Brock is one of my least favorite characters on Picket Fences. I am not sure how she has gotten away with all the things she has said or done over the last three and a half season, especially during season four, and still acts as pretentious as she does. 

Jimmy finally called her out about her behavior from a few episodes ago, but it was dropped immediately as Jill promptly made it about him. She then she took off her wedding ring and left him, telling people that she and Jimmy had split up. 

Of course, it was over before the end of the episode and they were back together, thanks to Jimmy’s words.

Douglas and nuMiriam apparently got back together as well. It happened off screen, I guess [EDIT: actually it looks like it happens in one of the next few episodes. It is explained below]. Max and Kenny were also back together. I’m not I remember that happening either.

Carter and Sue decided to get married and Max and Kenny and the Wambaughs joined in on the ceremony. 

Matthew was not here and we have no idea why. This is listed as the series finale on IMDB, but there are four more episodes on Prime. Not sure if they are just out of order or if there were more.

So as I was writing this, I did some research. According to IMDB: “The actual series finale was episode #18, “Three Weddings and a Meltdown”, a feel-good episode that offered happy endings all around. So how did four more episodes wind up showing after the series finale? CBS had canceled the show, and was eager to replace it with a higher-rated new series, so they officially ended its run on April 24 by airing the series finale, without having entered the previous episodes. There was a possibility that those episodes might have never been shown, once the show was canceled. But when summer arrived, CBS dug them up and broadcast them in June, probably thinking that brand new, unaired episodes of the acclaimed show get better ratings than the typical reruns that usually dominated TV in the summer time. But it’s clear from the various plots in those last four episodes that they were originally meant to be aired before the series finale, not after. Character arcs (such as Wambaugh’s troubled marriage, and Kenny & Maxine’s off & on romance) that were finally resolved in that series finale were suddenly unresolved again in these belated episodes. So, although episodes 19 – 22 are listed as the show’s last four episodes, episode 18 should really be listed as the final episode of the series, regardless of when it aired.“

That made more sense than the storylines that happened in episode 18.

The three weddings were cool. I loved Carter’s story arc. You would expect him to bail on the wedding, but he did not. And he was able to convince Kenny and Max to not give into their doubts and to go through with the wedding. 

It was a nice wrap up to the series, although it does kind of ruin the remaining four episodes of the series.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians S1 E4

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“I Plunge to My Death”

Okay, this was my favorite Percy Jackson episode so far.

And it ended so quickly. It seemed as if I had just started watching it and suddenly the episode was over. 

It was great too. The Mother of Monsters showed up with a creature of some kind, poisoned Percy, chased them through St. Louis and confronted Percy in the St. Louis Arch. 

Then the episode title shows the relevance. Percy plunged from the arch after trying to battle the monster. However, Poseidon whipped some water over to Percy and saved him. We then learned that Percy could breathe under water. 

Walker Scobell continues to be just excellent as the titular character, showing some real heroism and bravery in this episode, and hearing the words spoken to him from his father’s emissary was a real awesome moment.

Moonlighting S3 E11

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“Poltergeist III- DiPesto 0”

At the end of the last episode, The Straight Poop, they promised a new episode next week. It was a new episode, but it was an Agnes DiPesto episode. Worse yet, it was the one that started the Herbert Viola downward spiral.

Miss DiPesto is unhappy when she heard that Herbert was getting case work at the office. When she confronted Dave and Maddie, they dismissed her, saying they needed her in the office. 

A case came in that, Maddie and Dave, agreed to turn down a case. Miss DiPesto overheard this and decided to do the case on her own. Herbert saw this and felt threatened and horned his way into the case.

It is a haunted house story, with Agnes and Herbert trying to Scooby-Doo this adventure.

Again, this episode was fine, but it just is not Moonlighting when they focus the main story on anyone that is not Dave and Maddie.

Picket Fences S4 E17

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“Bye-Bye, Bey-Bey”

Some uncomfortable discussion going on in Rome on the episode “Bye-Bye, Bey-Bey” of Picket Fences. Turns out that Laurie Bey had given birth to the baby for her brother and his husband. Laurie announced this at the baby’s baptism that she was giving the baby to be raised by the gay couple.

This led to so much hatred and homophobia in Rome as this small town has so many hate groups and repressed angry people that it is amazing. 

So many of the comments made throughout the show, including by some of the main cast members, were disgusting and so very much language of the 1990s. In 2024, this sounded way out of touch.

Although they do not come out, during this episode, Jill feels very judgy when she is treating Laurie’s brother. During this rewatch, I have to say that I am not a big fan of Jill Brock. She is very judgmental and does not seem as liberal as I expected her to be. Especially after the episode 15 of this season, I have found myself really disliking the Jill Brock character.

The X-Files S2 E14 E15

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“Die Hard Die Verletzt”

“Fresh Bones”

Boy, what a double feature this was. Satan worshipers and Voodoo practitioners. Spooky.

Episode 15 visited a small town that had a group of parents who were Satan worshipers and terrible things were happening and being covered up by the group. There was another teacher in the school, Mrs. Paddock, who was the true antagonist of the episode. She was a creepy

In Fresh Bones, there also a creepy semi-villain named Pierre Bauvais, who was an imprisoned refugee from Haiti. As well as him, there was a kid running around named Chester Bonaparte who Mulder and Scully discovered at the end of the episode had died weeks earlier. The real villain of this piece was Colonel Wharton, the head of the compound.

Both of these episodes had similar structure to them and both featured Mulder and Scully in real bad situations that looked as if they were doomed, only to sneak by with their lives intact.

Mulder and Scully are lucky to be alive after both of these episodes, neither of which they were able to capture the guilty party. Honestly, neither of them are very good field agents. They are much better in the lab or the profiling area. 

Moonlighting S3 E10

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“The Straight Poop”

Rona Barrett shows up at the Blue Moon Detective Agency to do what only she could do… find out why there is no new episode again.

This was a clever episode that took the rumors and speculation about the on set feud between Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis and poked fun at the random release schedule of episodes. They use this set up to create a clip show of the best moments from the first two and a half seasons of Moonlighting.

Clip shows are a normal thing that happens during seasons when a show needs some extra time, and there was no show that needed time more than Moonlighting. Using Rona Barrett as the transition between the clips is a stroke of genius.

There were some fun cameos in the episode as well, including Pierce Brosnan as Remington Steele, a Moonlighting-type of detective show that was airing on NBC. They also interviewed Peter Bogdanovich, the director who worked with Cybill Shepherd on several of his movies which led to an affair between them and a several year relationship. The show joked about their relationship and how he took up with Maddie after the relationship with the other model went away. 

They added bloopers at the end over the credits which are always fun.

Moonlighting caught a lot of criticism from the public and the media for the amount of weeks where they did not have a new episode ready to go. There were several reasons behind it, but this is a funny and neat way to address it as well as remind everybody why they loved the show in the first place.  

The X-Files S2 E13

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“Irresistible”

This was a disturbing and scary episode of the X-Files, and it really didn’t have anything to do with aliens or the paranormal. What it had to do with was a frightening man who had a terrible fetish that led him to do atrocious things.

The man started by digging up bodies in the cemetery and defiling them, cutting hair and puling out fingernails. That was disturbing enough without needing to go into it further. Mulder and Scully was called in because the police officer believed that aliens may have been invovled, but Mulder shot that down quickly.

However, Scully was having reactions to the case, having flashbacks to her recent abduction and it was affecting what she did. It showed her own PTSD over the incident that she has clearly not gotten over as of yet.

Nick Chinlund was cast as the ‘monster’ this episode and he was remarkably chilling. His tone and normal feel made him all the more sinister. 

The local police detective involved in this case was a well known face to police show enthusiasts. Bruce Weitz played Sgt. Michael “Mick” Belker for years prior to this on the NBC show Hill Street Blues. He had won a Best Supporting Actor Emmy for the role, and he provided a nice foil for Agent Mulder. It was cool to see a local cop not turn the stink-eye to Mulder for once. It was a different kind of case, but Weitz was very supportive of Mulder, including being a believer at the beginning.

It was cool to see Mulder and how efficient he could be as an agent with his profile skills that was not paranormal related. You could see why Agent Mulder had been regarded as highly as he was at the bureau prior to his involvement with the X-Files.

I do like how Scully was able to fight back before Mulder arrived. I would have liked for her to have been able to subdue the suspect before Mulder came to the rescue, but I guess her fighting back was enough. I do not want Scully to be seen as a victim.

However, the scene at the very end when Scully broke down in tears with Mulder was a very strong scene too. It showed how important the characters were to each other.

Very good episode. Different from other X-Files episodes and that keeps the viewers unsure about what is next.

Picket Fences S4 E16

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“Dante’s Inferno”

This Picket Fences episode was quite the step up from the last one. 

It is also an episode that feels very current day and was filled with hatred. The way Chuck Dante, as played by Charles Rocket, is portrayed here made me think very much about some of the political discourse that happens regularly in our society today.

Admittedly, this episode was certainly pointed more toward Howard Stern than it was Donald Trump, as Chuck Dante was a thinly veiled caricature of the shock jock. Still, it felt very much like something that could happen today.

The influence Dante showed in this episode over his listeners was eerily similar. The anti-feminist hatred that the character spewed on his radio show felt much like some of the hatred that happens on the Internet on a regular basis. 

Wambaugh used the words of Dante to defend his client, a man who shot Maxine who had been appointed as the acting mayor while Laurie Bey was on maternity leave. The shooter was just as unlikable as Dante. As Wambaugh cross examined Dante, the defendant would snicker at some of the outrageous comments he made during his testimony.

Of course the jury found him no guilty which was horrendous. Judge Bone sent the shooter to a mental institution for observation. 

After the case, the people turned on Dante, which is something I wish would happen today to these people who try to use their words to rile up the influential of the country.

By the way, Jill Brock was back to her normal routine after her complete psychotic break last episode. She said things last episode that were really cruel and she said them for no reason. I guess we are meant to forget about that.

Fargo S5 E7

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“Linda”

Dorothy returned to Fargo this week as we discovered exactly what she was after. A woman named Linda.

Whereas last week’s episode was lacking Dorothy, this week we get a lot of her. In fact, we only get a little of the rest of the crew outside of her. We do see how the events have affected Wayne and his new attitude toward the car dealership. We see Gator in an attempt to kill Ole Munch, but who is several steps behind him.

And we have Dorothy nearly wrecking her car when she fell asleep at the wheel. After she wakes up, she finds a card for Camp Utopia, which turns out to be a place where Linda had created a refuge for abused women.

Dorothy tried to convince Linda to return and go against Sheriff Roy. Linda says she has to make her puppet first and tell her truth. This was weird and Dorothy did not want to do it at first. However, she finally just basically said screw it and she made a puppet. 

Then, we got the backstory of Dorothy (called Nadine at that time) and how she came to be with Sheriff Roy. It was told with puppets and it was awesome. It did remind me of scenes from The Boys and from Gen V where puppets or animated characters narrated flashbacks. Still, this was beautifully done.

However, this was all apparently a dream as Dorothy had actually crashed her car when she fell asleep and dreamt this whole section. The nurse told her that they were happy that she came to and her husband was here. In walked Roy.

This was a great episode as we learned a lot of truths about Dorothy and her past and we get a chance to see how lowlife Roy Tillman truly was. 

Three more episodes for this season, which has been a lot of fun.

Moonlighting S3 E8

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“It’s a Wonderful Job”

Moonlighting had some great Christmas episodes. We are up to the “It’s A Wonderful Job” episode from season three, which, of course, is a parody of the all-time Christmas classic “It’s A Wonderful Life.”

Everything is set up to have Maddie alone in a bar after making a public wish that she had never kept the agency open. She is approached by her guardian angel, Albert, who goes ahead and shows her what her life would be like had she closed down Blue Moon instead of keeping it open.

Miss DiPesto was a cruel, cold businesswoman running a greeting card company. David married Cheryl Tiegs. Maddie would be fated to kill herself in a car crash.

There are some really good scenes with Cybill Shepherd, especially the scene on the roof of the building with Albert. She was very subtle with her facial expressions, but you could see them change depending on each situation.

Along with Cheryl Tiegs, there were some fun cameos. In particular, Lionel Stander, who played Max on Hart to Hart, an earlier detective show on ABC. Stander was playing Max here as Blue Moon had become Hart Investigations in this alternate future. We also saw Charles Rocket once again as David’s brother Richie. This is the first time in awhile since we saw Jack Blessing as Mr. MacGillicudy, one of the staff workers at Blue Moon.

Again, I found Herbert Viola’s presence in this episode to be fine. I am curious to see when my abject hatred of this character starts because so far I think he has been used very well.

This is a strong episode to follow the best episode they ever had with Atomic Shakespeare. The third season was on fire at this point. Although the kiss at the end of the episode with David and Maddie was confusing, since it felt as if something had changed, but they do not reference it again.

Picket Fences S4 E11, E12, E13, E14, E15

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“Bloodlines”

“Snow Exit”

“My Romance”

“The Z Files”

“Bottled”

I watched a run of the fourth season episodes of Picket Fences this afternoon. They were all fairly low on the overall list of Picket Fences as a group of characters were acting out of character and there was plenty of mean-spiritedness.

The best of these five episodes was “Snow Exit” when a blizzard crippled the city and Mayor Bey had to give birth at the police station. By the way, this was the last time we saw her, She had asked Kenny to help be her Lamaze partner and he had to tromp through the blizzard to get to her. Then she named her child Michael. You know… Michael Bey. Is that a joke or is Michael Bay the son of Marlee Matlin? 

One of this episode’s problems is that everyone had a storyline, but there was no through line. They were all separate. Henry Bone had a heart attack. Max got stuck with Jack Black, who was dressed as a cat. Jill got stuck at a bar with Lydia singing. Nothing was sensible.

Henry and Doug seemed to bury the hatchet with their fight over the Pope, but that changed a few episodes later. 

In another episode, Carter nearly gets run over by a bus, gets electrocuted and is dead for 3 minutes before being revived. It led to an after death moment for him, and caused a major upheaval in his relationship.

The first episode was called “Bloodlines’ and it was actually not bad. Matthew saw a classmate who had killed himself with a shotgun and the sight messed with his head. So Jimmy took him on a trip to chase the Cocaine Bear. Well, it may not have been the Cocaine Bear, but it was a giant bear that was roaming freely around the county. That bear, by the way, left the county and there was never any resolution to that storyline. Matt did some nice acting in that episode. Of course, he then spent time kissing the young girl who Zack liked.

The worst of all of these episode was the old Brock party episode in “Bottled.” Jill thought she was going through menopause and she spent the whole episode being cruel and totally out of control. Even after she discovered that she was not going through the change, she was just as cruel and as crazy, saying such horrendous things as you could imagine to Jimmy and her kids. It was totally inexcusable and there was no reason given for her behavior. If I did not know better, I’d say these people all hate each other. This went well beyond family squabbling or saying unhappy truths to work through issues. This was just obscene.

Matthew had the best joke, saying that they always make up at five minutes to 11, which was a breaking of the fourth wall type joke as that was the time the show aired. Of course, there was no resolution of the arguments or anything but apologies that felt empty. This was not the Jill Brock that I have watched for three seasons + before this.

Henry was also going crazy as he was being totally rude to Douglas, who began to take his rudeness to heart. They came to an understand, sort of, but I got the implication that Wambaugh was not a forgiving as he usually was.

By the way, Zack was allowed to invite four people to his birthday party and he chose Wambaugh, Henry Bone, Maxine and Kenny. Why did he not pick Mayor Bey? Weren’t they so close that she got caught as the Dancing Bandit coming back to see Zack on his last birthday?

I did not mention about the Z Files, where Zack used an internet site to create a dirty picture of his teacher and then he gave it to his friend Kevin who put it on the internet. 

Honestly, this Brock family probably all grew up to become serial killers or master criminals. 

It is a good thing that this is in the middle of the final season of Picket Fences because if this show continued to rape these characters as it has been doing, I’d be ready to stop watching. As of now, I have only seven more episodes left so no sense in stopping now. 

Sad fact is this is just not the same series as it was in the first three seasons.

The X-Files S2 E12

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“Aubrey”

I thought that I was done with X-Files episodes that I had not seen. Then I started watching “Aubrey” and I realized quickly that I was not done with unseen X-Files shows.

The show kicked off right away with John Locke! My ever favorite LOST star, Terry O’Quinn, was playing a police detective involved in the case that Mulder and Scully would be involved in.

A female detective stumbled into the desert and digs up the bones of a missing FBI agent from the 40s. This leads to a look at a serial killer from the time and how it connected to three murders from the present.

I did like the story. It was inventive and the answer was a surprise. It had that same X-Files feel to it, but it was unlike other episodes.