Category Archives: Prime

Battlestar Galactica S2 E8

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“Final Cut”

Lucy Lawless brings a journalist aboard the Galactica with full access to everything to, as Adama put it, place a human face on the crew of the Galactica.

The shocking end of the episode was something that I never once considered. I love it when a series can surprise me.

The use of the camera provided the episode with that documentary style as Lawless, whose character was named D’Anna Biers, interviewed crew members and was constantly there sticking the camera into the faces of the people on Galactica.

It felt like what I expected. A cool concept where D’Anna Biers is won over at the end by the dedication and perseverance of the crews. And that is exactly what we see in the final cut… until we learn that Biers is a Cylon.

It was truly an unexpected reveal for me and it immediately elevated what was turning out to be an okay episode with a neat hook to something more.

The show also continued to show the faults of Col. Tigh, as he just does not seem to be mentally tough for any of this and that his decisions seem to not work with the position in which he finds himself.

I liked how the show returned to the Gideon incident from a few episodes ago. The whole firing on a crowd of people felt like it was dropped, but the show circled back to it and made it a major component for this episode.

Battlestar has not missed yet for me.

Bates Motel S3 E6, E7

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“Norma Louise”

“The Last Supper”

This was two really great episodes in a row.

So much happened after Norma stormed out of her house with a suitcase and a gun. Thankfully, the only person or thing that she shot was her cell phone.

She bought new clothes, she bought a new car and she had sex with her therapist. Spiraling.

It is always scary how she then turns on a dime, returns to her life and pushes everything down back inside.

We get a lot of development of Alex Romero too as he runs the gamut from finding out about his father using Alex’s dead mother’s name in a drug deal to being shot and then to kill the guy who was running against him for sheriff. I did not remember how much of a bad ass Romero was in my first watch of this show, but he straight up murdered fools during Bates Motel.

I have never seen such a “happy” family dinner, where nothing negative happened, that was as full of tension as this dinner was with Norma, Alex, Norman, Emma, Dylan and Caleb. I sat watching this just waiting for something to happen. It was a lovely moment, but the anxiety it built was off the charts. It was a great scene.

The scene with Norma and Caleb at the farm was so powerful. Norma coming back from her night out and dominating Norman and Dylan, demanding that they all head out to the farm to talk to Caleb. She was not taking any opposition from her kids and their shocked faces as they followed along was great.

It was also funny every time someone saw Norma’s new car. She definitely had buyer’s remorse over the car though.

Dylan is also one of the best characters on this show and he has turned his attention to Emma’s illness and trying to get her the lung transplant that she desperately needed. It is weird how Emma and Norman, who were dating, kind of stopped just out of the blue.

I believe season three has three more to go.

The Greatest American Hero S1 E5

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“Reseda Rose”

Something odd happened for a few episodes of the Greatest American Hero during the first season. Ralph Hinkley suddenly became Ralph Hanley. This was the first time one of Ralph’s students referred to him as Mr. Hanley.

This was done because President Ronald Reagan had been the victim of an unsuccessful assassination attempt by John Hinckley Jr. and the show’s producers clearly did not want their titular character to be connected in any way to that.

It was a very weird time during the series with the change of name, but it only lasted a few months (according to Wikipedia) before the show reverted the name back to Ralph Hinkley.

This was a fun episode where Ralph and Bill were checking on a list of ‘bad guys’ when Ralph’s student Rhonda arrived to look for help. Her mother had disappeared had was missing.

This seemingly unimportant piece tied right into a huge international incident with Russians and Ralph and Bill had to try to stop.

I still d not know why Ralph doesn’t wear some kind of mask. His face is right out there. The show could have said that the suit automatically projected some kind of facial protection. It would have prevented Ralph from always having to cover his face with his arms when someone was shooting at him.

There was also a potential story beat of Ralph not being a very good father, putting the super suit ahead of his son Kevin, which we did see this episode. It is not something the show really touched upon, probably because it is more serious of an issue than the comedic lean that the show had. Still, Kevin was pushed off to Pam most of the time. It is a good thing Pam is so understanding.

Another fun episode with so much potential.

Bates Motel S3 E5

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“The Deal”

Vera Farmiga is a fantastic actor and she endues Norma Bates with the ferocity of a force of nature. That was on display in a scene with Romero as she confessed to him about the flash drive she had been given by Annika. She was also stone cold with her bargaining with the criminal Bob Paris.

And to say that she did not react well to the news from Dylan that Caleb had been staying up at his farm would be a drastic understatement.

As Dylan and Norman were telling Norma about Caleb’s presence, I was really hoping that Norma would take the news well.

Of course, I knew that was not going to happen.

Norma Bates is anything but rational when she is upset. The ending of the episode, with Norma packing her bags, grabbing the gun and leaving in her car was powerful and scary.

At lest she did not seem to strike out to Dylan, whose whole thing has been trying to find the family that he had been desperate to have, and who had been making so much progress with Norma. Her anger seemed directed more at Caleb and the memory than at Dylan.

I do not remember what happened as the result of this, but things certainly do not look to be going well.

Battlestar Galactica S2 E6 & E7

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“Home, Part One & Part Two”

Commander Adama was tired of the divisiveness and decided the best choice was to reunite the fleet that had splintered apart when President Roslin and Apollo escaped in an attempt to find earth.

I loved these two episodes because the story took a new path. It showed how people can bring each other together instead of tearing each other apart. Seeing Adama go to Kobol to find the fleet was great, as was his confrontation with Sharon, the lookalike Cylon to the Sharon who had shot him.

The Sharon storyline is awesome too because you think the whole time that she was being manipulated by Meier and that she was going to take that bait, but instead, she turned on Meier and showed Adama that she was more than just another machine. I did not see that coming and I really like the way the show has written this character. For the first time, I see Sharon as not just a Cylon antagonist, but an intelligent being who makes her own choices.

The relationships are all wonderfully played here including Apollo-Starbuck, Adama-Roslin, Sharon/Helo, Sharon/Chief, and Adama/Starbuck.

I still have no idea of what to make of Baltar and his mysterious vision. She was not from a Cylon chip that was in his head, so what exactly is she? Baltar sounds as if he has a plan for the baby that Sharon is carrying, or at least that it will work into one inside his head. What is Baltar’s motive? I really do not know.

The episode felt like a reboot of the show’s goals, specifically focusing on the characters. I’m pleased that everyone is back together.

Batman: Caped Crusader S1 E6-10

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I finished up the remaining five episodes of the new animated Amazon Prime series, Batman: Caped Crusader, and don’t listen to the angry mob of online haters, this was great.

You get a few race and gender swaps and people get angry. That is sad. These 10 episodes are still really great no matter how ‘woke’ you claim it is.

We get several villains that we do not usually get in the first stretch of Batman. There was no Riddler. No Joker (until the very final scene). No Killer Croc. No Bane. No Scarecrow.

Instead, we got Gentleman Ghost and a couple of characters who I did not recognize. One was Onomatopoeia and the other was Wednesday Adams. Um… actually, it was a character named Nocturne, who I had never heard of before, but she sure looked like Wednesday Adams.

Then the season long running storyline with Harvey Dent led to the acid-in-the-face origin of Two-Face, but the end of the two episode season finale led to a surprising and tragic end for Harvey Dent. I liked the way that storyline wrapped up. It was more than just what we usually expect from a Two-Face story.

Marc Bernardin wrote the Gentleman Ghost episode. Bernardin who co-hosts the podcast Fatman Beyond with Kevin Smith has done a lot of television writing over the years, including animation. The Gentleman Ghost episode was excellent and one of the better ones of the season.

While this does not reach the level of Batman: The Animated Series, Batman: Caped Crusader was a lot of fun and seemed to get better with each episode. I look forward to seeing the next season.

Batman: Caped Crusader S1 E2, E3, E4, E5

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I jumped into the new season of Batman: Caped Crusader after starting with episode one last night. This morning I went through the first half of the new season on Amazon Prime. So far, I have liked this more with every episode.

Batman is well done. He feels as if he is new to the world of crime fighting and the responses to him from the Gotham PD and the people of the city reflect that. The only nitpick I have on the character of the Batman is when he calls Alfred, “Pennyworth.” I know that is his last name, but it feels too distant for Batman to call his longtime butler and mentor by his surname. That’s a minor gripe, but I do notice it every time he has said it so far.

The show has taken its own takes on Batman’s rogue’s gallery so far, making some interesting changes. Of course, the female Penguin must have shaken some tailfeathers of the internet, as did the changing of skin color for Jim and Barbara Gordon). Neither of those changes meant anything to me as none of those changes made any real differences to the characters.

Other villains used in episodes two-five included:

Clayface. He was a top notch actor whose face prevented him from getting the roles he wanted and he underwent a experimental treatment which turned his skin into the malleable skin we know. I will admit not knowing as much about Clayface as some of the other Bat-villains, but I did like the use of the actor in the role. It made sense to me.

Catwoman. Selina Kyle felt as if she were the least adjusted villain of the series so far. She was a down-on-her-luck high society woman who took to crime to make her money. Her father had been convicted of some kind of tax evasion leaving her penniless. The Batman-Catwoman chemistry was still there and Selina’s outfit was very comic accurate.

Firebug. Another character that I do not know as well as some other Bat-villains, and he was used as bait by Bullock and Flass, both crooked cops, to try and capture the Batman. Bullock shooting Firebug who then fell to his death out the window to keep Firebug from talking really set the crooked cop up as one of the big bads of the series.

Harley Quinn. Harley was really adjusted quite a bit, taking her origin with the Joker out of the picture and playing her as a therapist who was brainwashing her patients into doing her bidding. Her bidding all had a positive outcome, like having people donate to charity or so on. She was not the crazy Harley that we have been used to over the years. She id definitely different than the Harley Quinn on the HBO Max series or in the DC movies. That is not a bad thing. I liked the new look at this character, but she did do the old “falling to her death” trope that we have seen in so many Disney movies. No way Harley is dead.

One of my favorite scenes was in the Harley Quinn episode as we saw one of her patients in the road dressed up like King Tut. King Tut was a villain on the Batman TV show from the sixties played by Victor Buono. This animated version was not a villain, but a victim of Harley Quinn but it was still cool to see him.

Interestingly enough, there has been no sign of the Joker so far in the series. I am curious to see if that will continue as the show focuses in on other Bat-villains. Batman certainly has the number of villains to make this work.

Batman: Caped Crusader S1 E1

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“In Treacherous Waters”

A brand new Batman animated series dropped its ten episode season one on Amazon Prime today, and I was able to watch episode one, “In Treacherous Waters,” to kick off the new show.

This first episode, which featured the new Penguin, a female named Oswalda Cobblepot, gender-switched for the animated program. She is voiced by Minnie Driver.

The new series definitely has the same flavor of the original Batman: The Animated Series, one of the greatest cartoons of all-time. Bruce Timm is back with an involvement in this new series, so that tone similarity makes sense.

Hamish Linklater is the voice of Batman/Bruce Wayne and the style of the voice is clearly in honor of the late great, EYG Hall of Famer, Kevin Conroy. Diedrich Bader, who has done a ton of voice over acting, is Harvey Dent, Eric Morgan Stuart is Commissioner Gordon, Krystal Joy Brown is Barbara Gordon, and Jason Watkins was Alfred Pennyworth. There are several other voices to come in the remainder of the episodes.

The style on this series again reflects the original series and looks really cool. However, the story itself was, at best, okay. I did like the first episode, but that is all I have seen so far and I would say that the level of animated TV shows from this past year (X-Men ’97, What If…? etc.) rates much higher than this so far. Of course, I have only seen one episode so far and I will definitely be checking out the remaining 9 episodes of this first season as soon as I can.

Of course, the gender-swapped Penguin will probably be an issue for some, but that does not bother me in the slightest. Minnie Driver is a talented actor and works well for the character. I am sure there will be voices out there who are angry at this change who will scream to the heavens about the impropriety of making Oswald Cobblepot a female. I am sorry for your pain.

Battlestar Galactica S2 E5

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“The Farm”

We got to focus heavily on Starbuck on Caprica. Kara is shot during a fire fight and is taken to a hospital. We do not know what was going on, but Kara was immediately suspicious of the situation. The doctor named Simon came to see her and save her, telling her that Anders, whom Kara had just slept with, had been killed. This was questionable for the viewers since that would have happened off screen and it felt like a scene that would not just be thrown away.

And viewers would be right when we discover that Kara had been taken captive by the Cylons in this ‘hospital’ with the intent on implanting her with a baby, using her like a breeding animal. When Simon was giving her the pelvic exam, he was acting quite sus. He did the old ‘namedrop’ trope where he used the name Starbuck and Kara had not told him that, which meant that he was actually a Cylon.

Katee Sackoff is awesome again. He powerhouse performance, both emotionally and physically, shows how epic this character was.

Meanwhile on Galactica, Adama returned to the command and continued to be stubborn and oppositional. President Roslin sent a message to the fleet that she would lead them to earth and any member of the fleet who wanted to go, they would be jumping. Adama denied this “religious crap” but it turned out that nearly 1/3 of the fleet jumped with Roslin.

The Farm was a sci-fi type trope that has been used before but this was very impressive with the set up. The implications of this reach well past just in our basic story. There are some major current world ideas that feel like this fits with.

The Greatest American Hero S1 E4

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“Saturday on Sunset Boulevard”

I enjoyed this episode of the Greatest American Hero more than some of the other episodes so far in season one. The story with Bill Maxwell failing the lie detector test for the FBI because he couldn’t talk about the suit and Ralph was a neat idea.

This gave the character of Bill Maxwell a little bit of development as he has to face the government that he loves so much. There was some subtle acting from Robert Culp in this episode. He typically played Maxwell in a very bombastic manner, but there were some moments here that were really well done.

I also enjoyed the use of the students’ from Ralph’s class in the story even though it is very improbable. The use of Tony in particular with Ralph was a nice character moment in the show.

This episode kept the super hero antics from Ralph t a minimum and I think that worked very well too.

Bates Motel S3 E3, E4

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“Persuasion”

“Unbreak-Able”

Catching up with a couple of episodes of Bates Motel. Lots of drama in these two episodes as the storylines of season three started to take off.

Annika showed up alive, for at least a few moments and gave Norma a hard drive protected by a password before she died from a gunshot wound.

The body floating in the water at the end of the last episode turned out to be someone Annika knew, a friend, tied to Bob Parris. This Parris fellow seems to be the next big bad of the show.

Norman and Norma are growing apart as they simply have ceased to trust each other. Norma is just not sure what Norman is capable of doing and the idea that his mother does not trust him is driving Norman even further down the crazy train. Norman is becoming jealous of the relationship that has been developing between Norma and Dylan.

The whole Caleb secret is about to blow up in Dylan’s face as Norman discovered that Caleb is staying at Dylan’s farm and the fourth episode ended with Norman racing off to tell Mother. Dylan is just trying to figure out what to do and he is afraid that when Norma finds out the truth, everything that they had built would be ruined. Max Thierot was very solid with his performance in this episode.

Battlestar Galactica S2 E4

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“Resistance”

Problems galore aboard the Galactica as Tigh had declared martial law last episode. This was never going to turn out well for everyone.

Tigh is just showing how lacking he is in so many ways. Drinking, weak-willed, constantly just wishing that Adama was there are ways this guy showed us. He has a wife nagging him all over the place. He has been a nightmare, with ever choice he made seemed wrong.

The president and Apollo run an escape from Galactica and show up with Richard Hatch. Their escape came at a terrible time as Adama does wake up just after they were gone and unable to be found.

We get Starbuck back on Caprica and they run into a group of humans that are fighting the Cylons on the planet.

The storyline on Boomer comes to a dramatic ending too with a serious wrap. Made me feel bad for Cylon Boomer.

Great show.

The Greatest American Hero S1 E3

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“Here’s Looking at You, Kid”

Perhaps the title of this episode should have been “Here’s Looking Through You, Kid” instead because Ralph discovered a new power of the suit, invisibility. And, of course, he struggled controlling it.

Maxwell had Ralph trying to do telekinesis when Ralph disappeared. They then spent the rest of the episode with Ralph fading in and out of visual in the most inopportune times.

The Greatest American Hero’s strength as a show is the comedic moments between Ralph and Bill and this episode was very solid, from the fading in and out, to Ralph taking a bus so he did not have to fly. William Katt and Robert Culp really work as a wonderful team together.

There is a case that Bill is working on, but it is truly unimportant. It just provided Ralph and bill with bad guys to fight while the suit causes troubles.

We meet Pam’s parents in from Minnesota for the episode. June Lockhart was Pam’s mother and Bob Hastings was her father.

It was a fun episode that took a different power of the suit to mess around with.

Battlestar Galactica S2 E3

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“Fragged”

Adama is still in bad shape, and they had to go back in for more surgery. I liked this since they now have an actual doctor working on him. The emergency surgery performed last episode was not done by a full-fledged doctor. Now that Dr. Butch is there, he should be able to help.

The drama on Kobol was off the charts this episode. I do not know why Crashdown was such a jerk about everything, completely unwilling to listen to anyone else. I understand that it is a military concept of following orders, but this was anything but a typical setting.

I also wondered why Baltar’s comment about being the Vice-President did not carry more weight than it seemed to carry.

Tigh is struggling with the command of Galactica and takes some big swings at the end. Dissolving the Quorum of Twelve because of their demands and insistence for President Roslin’s release and then declaring martial law to the reporters… whoa, that does not seem to be good choices. I am curious how far Adama would have taken the same situation. Tigh is still sneaking those swigs of alcohol as well.

Richard hatch was back, but he felt fairly minor here. President Roslin admitted to her breast cancer in front of the pre-dissolved Quorum of Twelve, who seemed to buy into her as the religious leader to take them to earth.

No sign of Starbuck. I wonder how she is meant to return to Galactica?

The Boys S4 E8

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“Assassination Run”

They filmed this season over a year ago, and yet it feels as topical as ever. Perhaps even too topical.

Season five finale was brutal throughout as The Boys set the table for the final season, season six, with a massive cliffhanger and Homelander standing tall.

So many things happened, so let me touch on a couple.

The Frenchie/Kimiko scene near the end was just one of the most beautiful scenes of the series but I was holding my breath the entire time because I was afraid of the portents that this scene may hint at. I do not want to see Frenchie or Kimiko die and I was afraid that was what was going to happen before the end of the episode. I was grateful when they survived, although separated by Gen V’s Kate.

The Annie/Hughie relationship was tortured by the shape-shifting shooter, but seems to have survived as well. I had honestly forgotten that Annie was being held captive and so when she proposed to Hughie at the beginning and he ran off to get his mother’s ring, I was happy. Then I remembered and it was sad again. However, Annie’s line about shifting syphilis was both funny and hopeful for out first couple.

Ryan is being torn apart by every side as everyone has their own agenda for him and it is starting to really hurt the boy. When he was told all about Homelander’s evil, he realized that they just wanted him as a weapon against his father.

No sign of A-Train this episode. I am glad he survived. I am sure that he has a role to play in the conclusion of the series next season.

Sister Sage’s return was epic. She has been behind the scenes of everything, setting up the events to drop as they did. What , then, is ‘phase two?’

Butcher’s tentacle powers are horrific, and seeing them rip Neuman in literally two pieces was shocking. I did not expect that to happen and it solidifies Butcher as just slightly less crazy than Homelander. I think that is the idea setting him up as a person who would do absolutely anything to kill Homelander. I have never been a fan of the character of Butcher as a hero. He is, at best, an anti-hero and probably more of another antagonist.

I believe season two of Gen V will come first, but this season really sets up some major events for the finale of the series in season six. Can’t wait.