Category Archives: Prime

Battlestar Galactica S1 E7

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“Six Degrees of Separation”

I want to like Dr. Baltar. I really do.

However, he just seems to be so complaisant in the Cylons’ plans, maybe not on purpose, that I just find him to be so irritating. I keep wondering why he just does not come right out and tell the truth to Adama or President Roslin about what was going on. Everything would be solved if he just did not keep things to himself.

Of course, he is really only thinking with his penis.

I am not sure how any of these humans are going to survive these Cylons. They are just so far ahead of the humans that I can imagine how survival is on the table at all.

It was very funny when Number Six showed up beside Baltar and he did not realize that everyone else could see her too. That was a well done scene.

I don’t understand why he is doing what he is doing. Baltar is a mystery to me as it seems as if he is just a pawn and, maybe that is okay with him.

By the way, I love Dr. Cottle, as played by Donnelly Rhodes, who I know as Dutch from Soap. His doctor character here is unlike most doctors. I supposed sci-fi doctors are all a little different.

Bates Motel S2 E7

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“Presumed Innocent”

I feel so bad for Norma Bates.

I mean, all she is trying to do is protect her son. Trying desperately to give him a chance at a normal life. She is going about it all wrong, of course, but her motivations are pure.

She does not know what her choices will lead to, and I wonder if she did know, would she do things differently?

Norman is starting to understand that his blackouts are a problem and that something happens to him during those times. The confrontation between him and Norma over the blackouts this episode was tense and spoke more to Norman than anything else.

More trouble is coming for Norman too as they identified his DNA in the semen found in Miss Watson on the night of her murder.

Dylan is in lots of trouble too as he is stuck in the war between rival weed dealers. Again, Dylan is just trying to get by and make things the best he can, but wild factors just keep popping up. Actually, Norma and Dylan are a lot more alike than either of them would care to admit.

Bates Motel S2 E6

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“Plunge”

Oh, things are getting tough on Bates Motel.

Norman is losing control of himself more and more as the series moves along. He screamed at Cody when she encouraged Emma to jump off the cliff into the water and she nearly drowned. He shoved Cody’s father away as he had Cody in a headlock and he fell down the steps and looked to have broken his neck.

And when Norma was telling him about how George had come over to help her prepare for her meeting with the mayor about a spot on the city council, Norman was just working over the scarf in his hands. Go back and watch that scene. Norman was tensely folding and gripping that scarf with every word Norma said.

Norma caused Norman to be banned from getting a driver’s license when she told the examiner that Norman had been experiencing blackouts.

Everything seems to be collapsing within Norman and pushing him to a violent response.

NOTE: I just realized that it is funny, but the TV around EYG has been very alliterative lately. I am watching Bates Motel, Battlestar Galactica, The Boys, and The Bear. Only The X-Files falls outside of the B’s.

Battlestar Galactica S1 E6

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“Litmus”

It has been awhile since my last Battlestar Galactica episode so it was awesome to dive back into the sci-fi series. Especially with an impactful episode as “Litmus.”

A suicide bomber, who was a Cylon agent who was a copy of Aaron Doral, made it on board Galactica and set off the bomb, killing three and injuring many others. This set off a flurry of events including releasing the information to the public that Cylons can now look human.

It also targeted the relationship between Chief Tyrol and Boomer, as it came front and center. Boomer is a Cylon sleeper agent, though that has yet to be revealed to the crew of Galactica. The tense break-up that this situation led to was a powerhouse scene in the show.

It was fun seeing Dominic Zamprogna as Jammer this episode. I am not sure if he has been there before, but I noticed him for the first time here. Zamprogna has been a long time cast member of General Hospital as Dante Falconeri.

The episode had set up a tribunal to investigate the bombing, but Adama brought it to a close when he started sensing that it was becoming a witch hunt, which President Roslin had warned him about. Adama just ending the tribunal is a major point of this episode and may have an impact over the span of this series.

The Boys S4 E5

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“Beware the Jabberwock, My Son”

I never thought a chicken flying through someone’s chest would be as scary as it was.

And monstrous, flying sheep tearing people apart?

Sheep that are able to tear apart a Compound V-riddled bull?

Okay. The Boys ending with “Old MacDonald” over the closing credits.

This show is something else.

Stuck in with the crazy killer animals hopped up on V, you had a beautiful send off with Hughie’s dad (after he butchered a bunch of innocents, of course), the return of Giancarlo Esposito, Butcher being Butcher (which means horrendous betrayal and lies, I guess), and Frenchie’s guilt driving him to a new level.

The Boys is crazy.

Oh, and I forgot about Homelander and his new way of manipulating Ryan. One way that really seems to be working. Again, Antony Starr deserves an Emmy nomination (if not win) for his performance. This year has seen even a deeper psychological depth to Homelander than we have seen previously. He continues to be one of the most frightening things on this show.

Has Butcher finally taken it too far? His obsession has turned him into a MFer with a heart of gold to a monster. He would be happy to see Starlight and Kimiko fall to this virus as well as any other supe.

I am afraid for A-Train. His redemption arc this year has been awesome, but does he stand a chance?

I also loved the shade tossed at the MCU with the Vaught movie announcements. That was funny.

Bates Motel S2 E5

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“The Escape Artist”

Norman is such a nice guy. He is so easy to root for in this show that it is almost really sad that you know where he is going to wind up. It is easy to forget about his psychotic tendencies when he is played with such charm and warmth by Freddie Highmore.

This show does a great job of creating Norman Bates as a character that you can enjoy and root for while still seeing how he winds up with his mother stuffed in a rocking chair in his attic.

I’ve mentioned this before, but this show has also done a sensational job of creating an ensemble around Norman filled with three-dimensional characters that enrich Bates Motel wonderfully.

There was a tremendous scene between Norma and Romero in this episode. I know where this will eventually go and this episode is the first time we see some sparks, albeit slight ones, between these characters. Romero is such a bad ass and that little chink in his armor came with a slight smile.

Dylan is another tremendous character this show introduced us to as Norman’s brother, who despite everything cares for him, and who is also a bad ass.

Norma lecturing Norman about spending time with Cody when she is constantly involved with the wrong people is the height of hypocrisy. Norma clearly knows that when Romero tells her about the councilman Lee Birman died in a car crash, her new ally Nick Ford had something to do with it. I mean, he specifically told Norma not to worry about Lee Birman. He couldn’t have been more ominous if he had tried.

Then, both Norman and Emma had sex in this episode. Both with different people, of course. Personally, I like Cody much more than the post smoker Emma slept with.

Battlestar Galactica S1 E4, E5

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“Acts of Contrition”

“You Can’t Go Home Again”

This is a two-part adventure featuring Starbuck that was really epic.

I will state that I had some problems with the first part of the episode knowing what time frame was going on at certain times. As we started with Starbuck in a Viper and spinning out of control, and, as far as I remembered, that was not where we left off with episode three.

Then, they bounced around, kind of like Starbuck was seeing her life flash before her eyes. At least, that is how I took it, though it did not make for easy viewing. Again, I was not sure what was present day and what wasn’t.

However, that did not last for long and once I was able to get my bearing for the episode, this turned into an incredible fight for survival.

Watching Starbuck find that Cylon vessel and figure out how to fly it back to Galactica was exceptional. I do wonder how she wrote her name on the wings of the ship to avoid getting shot by the fleet. I loved how she just kind of flew rings around Apollo while he was mistakenly attempting to destroy the Cylon ship she was piloting.

We learned a lot about our main characters during this attempted rescue mission including Adama. Starbuck confessed her passing of Zach when he should have failed to Adama. Still, you could see how important she was to him and to Apollo as they were willing to put it all at risk to save her.

There was an advancement of Helo on Caprica too as a pair of Cylon machines get into a firefight with him. After this, he cannot find Sharon. This is a still evolving story bit.

I enjoyed this two-part episode even if Starbuck’s ability to fix and pilot the Cylon ship is stretching reality. I just took it as she made herself some great dice rolls (as in D&D). Perhaps some natural 20s.

Or is there more to it?

The Boys S4 E4

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“Wisdom of the Ages”

Holy crap.

This episode was unbelievably brutal and full of shocking moments of violence and character developing beats.

I literally gasped multiple times in the episode. Each event worst than the last.

Homelander: butchering the people from the lab in the most tauntingly evil way possible. Burning Frank. Burning Marty’s penis off. Bloodbath with the rest.

Starlight: Violent attack on Firecracker because FC revealed her abortion.

Butcher: Has little parasites swimming around inside his body, assuming from the Compound V he tried to inject to save himself.

Hughie: His father nearing death, Hughie decided to try to save him with Compound V. Hughie’s mom does it.

Sage: Had The Deep give her a frontal lobotomy so she did not have to be herself for a couple of hours before her brain regenerated. This was a horrible scene that I could barely stand to watch.

Kimiko: With Hughie, fought off the Shining Light Liberation Army. Hughie sliced one of the Shining Lighters in the throat as it spurted all over him.

Frenchie: Confessed to Colin that he had killed Colin’s family. Colin flipped out and beat Frenchie badly.

It felt like every minute, something new and horrifying was happening. I feel as if my descriptions barely did this show’s scenes justice. They were truly horrendous.

So much happened. It was so bleak. It is half way through the season and they are definitely in dark times.

Battlestar Galactica S1 E2, E3

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“Water”

“Bastille Day”

With just a few episodes in, I can see why Battlestar Galactica was such a classic and beloved science fiction series. These two episodes are very strong.

Whoever stole the detonators and blew up the water containers is a neat little mystery. I, of course, have some ideas, but the fact that I am not 100% sure makes this even more enjoyable.

Then, I was shocked to see Richard Hatch walk into a scene as one of the prisoners that was being held. Richard Hatch was the original Apollo on the 1978 Battlestar Galactica series on ABC and seeing him as this terrorist was cool. Even better was putting him face to face with this new series’ version of Apollo, Lee Adama, played by Jamie Bamber.

That third episode, with the basic idea of a prison break with hostages, was well done and it built a lot of suspense as the episode progressed.

Hatch, as Tom Zarek, was a fascinating character and provided a real antagonist outside of the Cylon threat. He was solidly stuck in the grey area as his philosophy seemed to include good things, but he was taking bad steps to reach them. It was compelling.

However, I am already tired of Gaius Baltar and the image of Cylon Number Six that he sees and tells him what to do. I want him revealed sooner rather than later.

The show has been fantastic so far. I am looking forward to continuing on.

Bates Motel S2 E4

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“Check Out”

Norman is starting to show more of his dark side… going as far as to speak as if he were Norma in an tense confrontation with her brother, Caleb.

The whole Norma-Caleb-Dylan mess has threatened to push Norman from his tentative mental balance. We know where the character of Norman Bates ends up, but this Norman has become such a favorite that it is harder to see his ultimate downfall.

It is a credit to Freddie Highmore to be able to take one of the most well known movie murderers and make him a developed and complex character.

And Norma is just an amazing character too. For someone who just winds up in a wheelchair in the attic, Vera Farmiga has filled her with such a delicate and complicated life. Norma and Norman are complex characters that could have easily been just echoes of what the big screen counterparts were like, but they are rich, fully developed and entertaining.

I ache for Norma-Dylan and their relationship. I can understand the anger that Dylan feels but I want them to put it aside and bond as mother-son. Watching him storm away and Norma painfully watching is a tough scene.

Bates Motel also is willing to develop a secondary character such as Emma, and give her a storyline separate from the Bates clan (at least at the moment). Then, there is Alex Romero as well making his way through the dangers from the town. These characters are as great as a anyone on the show and that was not expected.

Battlestar Galactica S1 E1

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“33”

Starting the actual series with season one of Battlestar Galactica, there was a real tense episode where the survivors only have 33 minutes after they executed a jump away from the Cylons before the would fins them and try to attack again.

I can’t imagine what that would be like for the people on these vessels. Almost immediately after an escape, you would need to prep for another escape.

The Galactica crew had to stay awake in order to execute their plan in 33 minutes. The show had them awake for 132 hours, which is insane.

It led to a difficult decision that had to be made by Adama and President Roslin. One ship was being tracked by the Cylons and, through a twist of fate, they were able to discover the truth. They had to destroy the vessel despite how many lives might be on board.

It was a tough choice and it highlighted the pains of war and the loss of bystanders very well.

This episode shows what a dark and gritty show Battlestar Galactica would be and as an opening episode in the first season, it really laid the groundwork for what would follow.

Bates Motel S2 E3

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“Caleb”

And with that, we understand why Norma has always had a bad relationship with Dylan despite him being her first born son.

The end of this episode dropped a major bomb as Norma revealed to Norman and Dylan, who were in the middle of a physical fight (that Norman was totally kicking his butt, by the way), that Caleb, her brother, was Dylan’s father.

Dylan had met with Caleb and befriended him and Caleb gave him a story about his own father, acting like that was why Norma had such a problem with him. When Dylan went to bat for him with Norma, she told him that Caleb had raped her for years, but Dylan did not believe it. This is what led to Norman and Dylan’s fight and Norma’s confession.

The rest of the episode had some building blocks for upcoming stories, but this was the biggest fire of the episode.

Clearly, Dylan is a memory of the rapes for Norma, which is the reason why she had treated him so differently than she treated Norman.

The Boys S4 E1, E2, E3

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“Department of Dirty Tricks”

“Life Among the Septics”

“We’ll Keep the Red Flag Flying Here”

Season four of The Boys dropped on Amazon Prime today with the first three episodes. I had only planned on watching the first one, but, unsurprisingly, I cruised through all three available. The show has not missed a step.

Homelander is probably the most complex, intriguing and fascinating antagonist on TV today. Antony Starr is at both times heart-breaking and terrifying as the lead super hero in Vaught’s world. His performance is tremendous ever minute he is on screen. Homelander is hateable, but there is something about him that makes you almost feel for him.

His relationship with his son, Ryan, causes such confusion for him because he does not know what it means to be a father and the things that he believes are important simply are not. You can see that Ryan is slowly coming to the realization to what his father is really like. I do not get the feeling that Ryan is going to be corrupted like I thought at the end of season three with his little smile when Homelander blew that protester’s head off.

Hughie has an interesting arc to kick off this season dealing with his father’s stroke and the return of his absentee mother. Again, this is something very relatable and human in a world of craziness and super powers. Hughie has always been the heart of the show and he continues to carry that mantel.

Mother’s Milk, on the other hand, is not handling the mantel of leadership very well. First of all, I had to look up on Google if the show had recast the role because when I first saw MM in episode one this season, he did not look anything like the actor I remembered. I found an article online asking if he had been recast, so obviously I was not the only person thinking that. However, Laz Alonso is back, just without the beard and thinner. He really does look differently. He is also struggling with the lead role with the Boys.

I’m not quite sure that I have been enjoying the arc of Frenchie and Kimiko so far. I am not sure where this came from and it feels as if it were tossed in just this season.

The new characters are something else. I swear that Firecracker is Marjorie Taylor Greene. A right wing conspiracy theorist spreading lies across the internet. And then there is Sister Sage, the smartest woman (excuse me, person) on earth. She is a real manipulator who I would keep an eye on.

This show is not hiding its politics at all. The metaphors of Homelander and the Seven being the right wing/MAGA of this country is not hidden very well. It might be a bit too obvious.

This show continues to be one of the best one on TV. I can’t wait to see where it goes from here.

Battlestar Galactica mini-series

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Tonight I started the next TV program to add to the watchlist. I have been doing rewatches of The X-Files and Bates Motel, but it felt as if I needed another one. However, this was not a rewatch as I have never seen any of the episodes of Battlestar Galactica.

I used to watch the original series back in the 1970s with Richard Hatch, Dirk Benedict (Face from the A-Team) and Loren Greene, but it was never one of my favorites. So when there was a new version of the series starting on Syfy, I was not interested. I have heard tremendous praise for the series from lots of different sources, so when I was looking for a new series around the time that I finished up with Man from Atlantis, Battlestar cam eon my radar.

The thing is… I discovered that there was a mini-series that aired prior to the series and, when I found it on Amazon Prime, I saw that it was over 3 hours long. That was preventative to starting it and it was going to require a certain spot to watch this lengthy of a show.

I was able to find the time tonight to watch this show (which was presented originally in two parts, but just in one full episodes on Prime).

What an amazing three hours it was.

This mini-series took time to present a group of characters, a few of whom I recognized names (Starbuck. Apollo. Both names from the 70s show). I was aware of Katee Sackhoff was playing Starbuck as one of the standout characters of the series. Even I, who did not watch the show but was aware of its cultural place, knew that. I recognized the actor Edward James Olmos who was playing the role that Loren Greene had originated. Other than that, the cast was full of actors whom I did not know.

The cast was excellent and I started learning these characters. The show does a decent job of providing enough development to know who these people are and why I should care about them. Such as Mary McDonnell, who played Laura Roslin, who becomes the President after the Cylon attack of earth killed everyone ahead of her in progression. It was Battlestar’s own Designated Survivor moment. Giving this important character cancer before she had to step into this leadership role was quite ballsy of the show and connected the audience to her immediately.

The show was a war show, which was also something that I was not expecting. I knew that it would be sci-fi, but I did not know how much of a war show this would actually be.

The special effects were tremendous throughout the show, specifically with the moment at the end when the Galactica was holding off the Cylons so the civilians to ‘jump’ was amazingly shot. The final moment when Starbuck used her own ship to push Apollo into the Galactica before it jumped as well was exceptional.

Making the Cylons look like humans for this series is a stroke of genius. Not that the design of the robotic Cylons was bad, but this gives you more than just unexpressive robots to be antagonists. It was a wonderful decision for whomever made it.

This was a tense, exciting, anxiety-filled adventure with some new characters that I really liked out of the gate. I am excited to learn more about these people as this series moves along.

Battlestar Galactica has four seasons of around 74 episodes and I will be adding this to the watchlist starting this summer. It was a great start with this mini-series.

Bates Motel S2 E2

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“Shadow of a Doubt”

Lots of things going down on Bates Motel as the second season gets underway.

  • Norma is concerned over Norman’s blackouts and she finds a pearl necklace in his room.
  • Norman is trying to help Bradley get away with the murder she committed.
  • Speaking of which, the murder Bradley committed, Gil, whom killed her father, started fireworks between the two weed families in the area.
  • Norma and Norman try out for local musical at the theater in town. Norma knocks her song out of the park.
  • Romero arrests a suspect for Miss Watson’s murder, based on a seaman sample.
  • Romero presses charges without much evidence.
  • Norman can’t get away from Norma to drive Bradley to the bus station. He called Dylan to help. Dylan will make it look like she committed suicide.

Then, the episode was coming to an end in what seemed to be a happy moment. The word about Miss Watson’s accused killer got out and everyone was happy (especially Norma who believed that Norman had killed her during one of his blackouts). Dylan had returned and gave Norman the good news about Bradley getting on the bus and gave him a handwritten note from her to Norman. There was happy music playing in the background. It felt like the episode was going to end on a happy note for once.

I should know Bates Motel wouldn’t let that happen.

Norma’s brother arrived in the town, looking for the Bates Motel. At the end of season one, we discovered that Norma had been sexually assaulted by him through her teenage years. Things aren’t looking good for this guy.