Seven episodes into this first season and so much has gone down.
The mysteries of the town are loading up. I feel like I need to start writing on the walls.
For a couple of episodes I wondered why they dropped the plot point of Victor digging the graves as he was doing at the end of episode 4. Boy, did they pay that one off.
Strange things going on. How can there be electricity in these houses without cords with wires in them? What a weird detail. Plus, does digging a giant hole in your basement lead to that answer?
I never guessed that Father Rudra Khatri would be killed this quickly in the series considering he seemed to be a vital role.
Sarah, Victor and Jade feel different from others in the town. They all have some kind of contact or delusions happening to them… way more than anyone else. Jade is such a douchebag so far though that I wish it were anyone else but him. However, I do believe that he is a vital piece to this puzzle.
Where do these monsters come from at night. They seem to be just normal people, who turn deadly. I was yelling at Kevin as he was letting the girl in to make out with. That dumb f**k deserved what he got, but, because of his stupidity, a bunch of others got killed as well. He did not deserve the good name of ‘Kevin.’
Then, as if Boyd does not have enough troubles, Parkinson’s Disease? Geez.
I am curious about who these people were that they wound up stuck in this town. I wonder if we will eventually get flashbacks to them prior getting trapped in this place.
This absolutely reminds me of an amalgam of LOST and The Walking Dead. From has been tense and scary as well as thoroughly riveting.
“No One’s Normal. It Just Looks That Way from Across the Street”
I finished the series this morning on the Sunday Morning Sidewalk, and it gave me all kinds of emotional feels.
What I was dreading came to pass. Floyd himself had spiked his Bloody Mary drink with the full bottle of the medication Amphezyne in it. This was not a murder, but a suicide.
The show does an admirable job of setting everything up. I believe that Floyd had been suffering from depression for some time. I believe that he has a difficult life and that his own self-image played a massive role in the end of his life.
I just have a hard time believing that Floyd would kill himself. I understand that depression is an insidious thing and that it can lead terrible situations. I just have a difficult time believing that Floyd would take that choice. He knew how important he was in Clark’s life, and he had told him that he was there for him…only to kill himself?
I told myself that it was going to be a tragic scene with Richard, who the episode had been setting up as our latest suspect. He had rode the bicycle to school for his first day and had a great day. He was so happy when he got home, and the new stuff that Carol had bought him went great as well. It was when he discovered the DTF St. Louis website on Floyd’s computer that led to a freak out.
Richard saw Floyd and Clark in their whitey-tighty underwear dance, making the assumption that they were having an affair. Richard could not comprehend the depth to that conversation between friends. I thought maybe Richard would have gone back and blasted Floyd and that is what broke the camel’s back. However, Richard just approached the window, made eye contact with Floyd and then turned away in disgust. Floyd pounded on the window and gave Richard the “I love you” ASL gesture, which Richard misinterpreted as “rock on.”
But Floyd did not know that Richard misunderstood him and I find it hard to accept that Floyd would kill himself with the issues between Richard unresolved.
Maybe that is what the series is saying. I learned to love the character of Floyd Smernitch over these seven episodes, with the heartfelt portrayal from David Harbour, that I can’t accept that the character would feel flawed enough that he couldn’t see the tragedy suicide would be. That I could only see the man whom is so caring and loving, but a man who was damaged beyond what he could possibly repair.
In the end, Clark was left very much alone, with his wife and kids gone, Floyd dead, and the affair with Carol, that had led to much of this, over. The final scene of Clark sitting alone on his swing set was heartbreaking.
Then, with Carol, most of the season was spent showing that she was an unlikeable character who appeared very selfish, only for the finale to completely switch that up. She went from being a prime suspect to just a loving mother who was trying to do her best for her family.
The episode is amazingly poignant, beautifully written and shot, with some fantastic acting. I don’t want to suggest that my difficulty accepting the result of the show meant that this was not exceptional TV. I found this episode thoroughly enthralling and deeply tragic. It is a sad end, but one that has all kinds of vitality. David Harbour absolutely deserved the Emmy Award that he received. The limited series received seven Emmy awards, including Best Supporting Actress for Linda Cardellini and Best Supporting Actor for Harbour.
Starting next week, the next show for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk will be Amazon Prime’s Carrie.
So much happened. We started the episode “Firewall” with Ultron in control of Vision’s body and trapping him and the other AIs in the same “prison” that Vision had stored Ultron for all these years. Turnabout…
We ended with Ultron and Jocasta together, readying to turn the world’s humans into something more.
We had a sensational showdown between Vision and Paladin with Thomas’s life in the balance. In Madripoor of all places. When we went to Madripoor, I really thought that maybe the Power Broker was actually going to be involved. That did not happen though.
By the way, I am now even more certain that the person who originally hired Paladin to reclaim Vision was Jim Hammond, the original Human Torch.
We had a shocking appearance by a character that we haven’t seen since Iron Man in 2008. Raza, as played by Faran Tahir, a man connected to the Ten Rings, arrived in Madripoor in hopes of collecting the Vision body. At first, I thought he was the guy who hired Paladin, but it turned out he had not. It was an amazing cameo from out of nowhere.
FRIDAY is out of the house, unhappy when Vision dropped the firewall allowing Ultron to escape into the weird matrix stuff. She went into it too, and I am not sure exactly her part in this.
Jocasta, with Ultron at her side, sent a miniscule bot into the eye of Lisa, transforming her into a synthezoid being. Vision stopped her, but I am not sure that he will be able to save her.
The whole Jocasta/Ultron pairing is extremely unsettling and it makes me very scared for what the future of the series will hold. James Spader is, once again, spectacular and had tremendous chemistry with T’Nia Miller.
The first episode this week was shot in such an astonishingly creative way, that I truly enjoyed the journey they were putting us in. The whole Ultron/Vision conversation on the prison phones was amazing writing.
I was completely enveloped by these two episodes. Where as last week, I liked the VisionQuest episodes (especially E4), these two were just a brilliant work.
Next week there is only one episode, but it is over an hour in length. I have loved the length of these episodes and the manner in which Disney + has released them.
Emotions are on high as the new arrivals have to choose where they live in a process called Choosing Ceremony.
Jade, who finally awoke, thought this whole town was a set-up by Toby as a complex “escape room” type situation. He was acting extremely obnoxious about everything since he did not believe the story of the town to be true. When he was shown Toby’s body, he finally came around to the reality of the situation.
Meanwhile, the Matthews family chose to live in Town… except for Julie, who throws a huge curveball and states that she wants to live at Colony House. The surprise move upset her family, but the rules were once picked, you do not change.
Speaking of rules, we learn about the Box, which was constructed by Sheriff Boyd to punish those whose choices lead to the death of someone in the community. They had never had to use the Box before, but Frank’s negligence led to the death of his wife and daughter, and he was to go into the Box that night.
Boyd was having a deep, moral question if the Box was a fair thing to do. He even tried to get Frank to leave, to go to a cabin on the outskirts of town with a totem. Frank refused to do so and he wound up in the Box and is killed by the monsters.
I am very curious about what these nightly creatures are and where they come from. I am hoping that this is a mystery that the show will delve into with more detail as the seasons move on. I do not just want to accept it as a way of life in the town.
Why can no one leave the town? That is another fascinating mystery that I hope the creators of From have an answer to and it is not just a plot element to make the show work.
I have a soft spot for mysterious small town/location with some kind of enigmatic strangeness. Twin Peaks, Eerie, Indiana, LOST, Picket Fences, Widow’s Bay… and now you can add one more to the list.
From.
I have heard about this show for quite awhile now. It starred Harold Perrineau, who was, of course, on LOST as Michael Dawson, and the show had that eerie, weird feel immediately.
In these premiere two episodes, we get introduced to the fact that no one can be out past dark because of some kind of creatures that are all kinds of bad news. The little girl in the cold open of episode one paid the price for opening that window. A bloody, bloody price.
Lots of mysterious rules that we are told and see in action right off the bat. Not very many answers. Just how I like it.
Harold Perrineau is Sheriff Boyd Stevens and he has been clearly going through this for some time now. We see him trying to help people immediately.
There is a family driving into the town in their RV, after being redirected by a tree that was blocking the road. Apparently, once you are in this area, you do not leave. Again, reminded me of LOST with the people who could never leave the island.
The family is involved in a wreck with their RV, putting them all in danger. Little boy gets impaled in the leg by a table leg. That means he can’t be moved and darkness was coming.
There is a loaded cast and it will take some time for me to be able to identify which character is which. However, the show did a good job of showing me Boyd, his son Ellis, the Matthews family, and Donna. Donna’s story about her sister was tragic. The rest of the group will be people I am sure I will get to know over the next four seasons.
From is now on Netflix, while it is also on MGM + on Prime.
It has been a great year for horror. I spoke about it in a review just a few weeks ago after watching Resident Evil.
Then came Other Mommy.
They can’t all be winners.
Other Mommy was a huge disappointment because the initial trailer for this movie was so good. How could a trailer be so intense, creepy and disturbing while the movie it is from is dull, stupid and downright pathetic.
According to IMDB, “Bela, an 8-year-old girl living in a home with marital problems, confronts a sinister entity which comes out of her closet. The presence, whom she calls “Other Mommy,” becomes increasingly threatening to her and her family.”
Jessica Chastain committed to the role, but I was underwhelmed by the performance. It was funny at times, and that is not what the film wanted.
I will say that the young debuting actor Arabella Olivia Clark as Bela did a good job. She handled a lot of the heavy lifting in the story as she had most of the story on her shoulders.
The problem is the story itself was lacking in too many ways. There is no specific plot involved. What is Other Mommy’s motive? Not really sure. There are moments when the tone of the film is all over the place. It felt like they tried to infuse some humor into the story that just never worked and only served to pull me out of the film.
The biggest problem of Other Mommy is that, outside of the great jump scare that they showed in the trailer, this movie was just not scary. It was nowhere near as creepy or intense for almost the entire run time of the film. The trailer made me think this would be a tense and anxious film. Nope. I actually laughed at several of the scenes that were supposed to be scary.
I thought the acting was fine, but there are just too many problems with the film to add to the list of great 2026 horror films.
I mean, the character of Floyd, as brilliantly played by David Harbour, is one of the best character/people on TV. Everything about him was awesome, personality wise.
That all came through during the interrogation between Clark and Detective Plumb and Homer, after Plumb discovered that Carol had lied about the Go Getter drink.
The way Clark spoke about Floyd was as loving as you could and the descriptions of the way Floyd handled his life, from his step-son to a chance encounter, was so above board that one wonders why anyone would want him dead.
This episode revealed that Floyd was not a closeted gay. He had misinterpreted a picture on the DTF St. Louis site as a woman (didn’t have his spectacles on) when it was a picture of David Bowie, and his chance encounter with a man. Floyd lets him kiss him in the parking lot to avoid hurting the man’s feelings, even though he was not into him in that way.
This episode spent a chunk of time setting up Carol as the obvious suspect in the murder. Since it is episode three, I think she is also a red herring. We saw Carol riding one of the recumbent bikes like Clark does, plus she spent a bunch of time trying to get Clark to help her get life insurance for Floyd.
There is no doubt after this episode that Clark did not kill Floyd. The key that the police showed him clammed him up. I think it probably leads to some life insurance that would point the finger at Carol, and Clark was trying to protect her. I have a suspicion that he believes she killed Floyd.
Their sex life encounters… weird.
By the way, the gymnastics routine from Floyd on the hostile architecture was epic. Floyd was really out of breath after it. Is that a clue?
I am intrigued with this case, and I really want to know what happened to the wonderful Floyd.
The juxtaposition of the excitement of the Richmond Lady Greyhounds winning their match in comeback fashion and earning the promotion against the sudden and shocking death of Mae Green.
Now, the show, technically, never uttered the words that Mae was dead, but it was not difficult to tell with the painfully emotional moments and body language of both Rebecca, who was told initially, and Ted, who was told by Rebecca. We did not hear the words, but seeing Ted’s head slouch was obvious.
It was a serious gut punch in an episode that was such a joyous celebration.
We also got Keeley discovering that she was pregnant and her own health issues kept her from attending the game. However, Roy’s sweetness helping her stay calm during the televised game, not even knowing that Keeley was pregnant. He thought she had fainted at the previous game because of high blood pressure.
After the wonderful victory, Keeley whispered the truth in Roy’s ear and he responded with such a happiness that you hoped he would. It was another wonderful moment in an episode that was determined to make you feel anguish at the end.
It was revealed that it was not Rupert trying to buy shares of Richmond from under Rebecca, but instead was eccentric billionaire and sports entrepreneur Zelda Southport, played by Tracey Ullman. This was not a surprise as Zelda has been a questionable person all season long.
Then, the progression of the character of Coach Alice has been tremendous this season as she has taken some serious steps in becoming the coach that she could be.
However, the penultimate episode ended with a crushing feel and sets up some real questions for next week.
The finale of Black Bird on Apple TV + was satisfying. It was also sad. I had been cautious to look at any reports about the case, since this is based on a true story of Jimmy Keene and Larry Hall, so I would not know how it turned out. This episode saw Larry draw a map and carve a little bird for each of the girls that he murdered. He sent the map to his brother. I was not sure the reasoning behind that, but Jimmy was able to get a look at the map.
Sadly, the map was not specific enough for Jimmy to get any details outside of a general location and, in the end, none of the girl’s bodies had been recovered.
The final scene between Jimmy and Larry was powerful, as Taron Egerton and Paul Walter Hauser just knocked this scene out of the park. Jimmy tried to convince Larry to let the parents of the victims know where their daughters were buried and Larry did not understand why he would do that. You could see Jimmy slowly reaching the point of breaking from the horrors that Larry was laying out in front of him.
Watching Larry’s face as his evil continued to shine out was a frightening occurrence and showed what kind of actor Paul Walter Hauser could be.
In a fictional tale, ,they would have found the graves of the victims, but, with the true story, those remain a mystery.
I am very pleased with the way Jimmy Keene’s life played out both on screen and in real life. The show added “boxed text” at the end to give us some falling action for this story, including what happened to Jimmy, to his father, Larry and Larry’s brother Gary.
The strength of this series was absolutely the performances of its two lead stars, both who had been nominated for Emmy Awards with Hauser winning Best Supporting Actor in a Limited Series.
Next week, we start a new series for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk. I decided to watch another limited series that won some Emmys, this time on HBO Max entitled DFT St. Louis featuring Jason Bateman, Linda Cardellini, and David Harbour.
Be careful when “Jump Around” comes on… especially when you have a bad knee.
Roy went down at a New Year’s Eve party as the House of Pain hit played. He and Jamie Tartt, who was back guest starring, joined in the dance and Roy’s knee let out. It led to Keeley to meet Roy’s new doctor girlfriend, which was crushing to her.
Then a supremely doped up Roy ends up telling the doctor that he loves….Keeley. Roy did not realize he was talking to the doctor… and Keeley heard him, but only up to the point where he said “I love you”. Of course she thought Roy was meaning the doctor. It was an old misunderstanding trope of sitcoms, but there is a reason why it has been used as often as it has. It worked here too.
It did feel weird that we got a New Year’s Eve episode in September, but I forgive that too because it was a solid character episode. We had important moments for not only Roy & Keeley, but also Ted & Ted’s ex-wife, Michelle, Beard, Jamie, and Rebecca and Matthijs. Then, Alice seemed to take some huge steps, but then took giant leaps backward.
Oh, and Tracy Ulman’s character is amazingly weird and downright psychotic.
Some of the episode’s arcs were heartbreaking while other arcs help move the characters forward. The scenes between Ted and Michelle were really sweet. I was afraid they were going to do some alcohol related sex between them, but they stuck with the friendship and Ted feels able to ask someone out on a date.
Rebecca and Matthijs made up in time for midnight as Matthijs arrived at the hospital where Rebecca was hanging out with Jamie after bringing Roy here for his knee. It was a nice resolution, but there was not really much of a story this way. Still, with the other flops of relationships, it was nice to have someone happy.
“Spoiler: Dexy’s Midnight Runners Get a Royalty Payment”
I have not been much of a fan of the last couple of weeks of Stuart Fails to Save the Universe. It had felt lacking of any real story beats and, despite the enjoyable cast, I was not pleased with what they had given us. The episodes felt too short to have any sort of a developed story.
Then episode seven was dropped on HBO Max and I was back in, full bear.
In this episode, the crew wind up in a universe where everyone has telepathy, which is a great hook for some funny comedy bits. It also has one of the best defenses to the power ever imagined… singing Come On Eileen in your head.
Also, one of the funniest lines came from Bert wondering why Kripke’s mind has a lisp.
But the episode had more than that. It had a sudden twist as Stuart and the group run into another Stuart and the group with their own machine. Then a military version of the group showed up. Suddenly, the mystery of the show was slapping us in the face.
I loved this idea that there may be countless Stuarts jumping around the multiverse, all trying to figure out what is happening.
Who started this whole thing going? Why did alternate Stuart come to see Big Bang Stuart only to do the same thing again?
I’m intrigued and excited. There are only three more episodes of the show, and I hope that means that we get some of the mysteries answered. However, since the show has been renewed for a season two, I’m worried that it will be spread out over the years.
Bernadette made a memorable appearance in the Telepathy universe as a tap dance instructor with a bunch of foul-minded little kids.
A fabulous episode of Ted Lasso with a return to form for Ted and the others.
And some Ted Lasso quotes to add to it…
My favorite… “There’s a reason the rearview mirror is smaller than the windshield.” That was a classic Ted Lasso-ism.
I do hate what the show is doing with Keeley and Roy. Having Roy find another woman after Keeley insisted he go on a series of dates is just too cruel. I don’t know if this is leading to a Keeley-Rebecca pairing, but I still want Roy-Keeley to be together. I hope that is the endgame of this relationship section.
Ted and Beard realized that they have a “coach problem,” as Alice’s negativity is isolating her and making her an outcast among the team. There is a definite story here that is unresolved and I am here for it. I was shocked when Ted told Alice that he was suspending her for a game so she could figure out what was going on with her. He made a reference to Nate without mentioning his name.
Ted Lasso’s positivity is just off the charts and he does a whole halftime speech on embarrassment that is just so great that it carried the entire episode.
However, drunk Rebecca is right up there too.
The match against Chelsea was well done and Richmond’s defeat felt right. They fought back to tie after being down 2-0 at half when Ted’s inspirational message on embarrassment brought them out of the tizzy. However, the sudden defeat did feel like it was right for the overall narrative of the show.
This was an episode that reminded me of how much I wish I was like Ted Lasso. He is such an awesome model to inspire to.
Oh, and Beard is hilarious. What was up with that play?
What a great hour of television episode four of Black Bird was. There were two or three times when it literally gave me chills. Paul Walter Hauser was outstanding as Larry, reflecting back upon his childhood with Jimmy.
Both men had terrible childhoods, even though Jimmy’s started out looking great. Playing catch with his father in the park, looking forward to a great life, even to the NFL. It would not be.
The dialogue of this episode was outstanding and did so much of the heavy lifting for these two characters. Hauser’s delivery was spot on and I totally bought him as a unbalanced serial killer. However, there were so many moments where you almost related to or wanted to like Larry. Every time it got too close to feeling for him, Hauser would deliver a line that shocked you right back into the knowledge that this guy is a vicious killer.
The flashbacks were very effective, especially the ones with Larry. I was not as much of a fan of Jimmy’s flashbacks, especially with the time where his mother’s new boyfriend broke Jimmy’s ribs. The actor they cast for that young Jimmy just did not feel like someone who would grow into Taron Egerton. That pulled me out of that scene which does a lot to inform us on the man Jimmy would become and how he would think of women.
This dialogue-heavy episode followed on opening where there was a prison riot that was exceptionally violent. Larry had told Jimmy that it was “Riot Quiet” around the prison, foreshadowing the events of the violence. The riot led to Larry being placed in charge of the clean-up crew in the cafeteria section of the prison, where the main part of the riot took place. Larry showed his capabilities of cleaning, showing how knowledgeable he was in the area. He clearly knew how to remove blood stains and the such.
Again, every time you thought maybe Larry wasn’t as horrible as you thought, suddenly he was saying something or making a gesture that reminded you how evil this guy was.
Two more episodes of this compelling drama and I am anxious to find out what happens. I am trying to ignore my inclinations to look up the true story and see how things played out in real life. I am curious, but I am dedicating myself to no spoilers.
I knew something was going to happen, but I did not expect there to be a mushroom cloud.
And now I wonder… did the people behind the creation of the silos… know the bomb was going to be dropped. I even considered myself… did they set off the explosion themselves? Otherwise, it sure feels like a ton of coincidence happening here.
The penultimate episode of season three was explosive in many ways besides the huge nuclear bomb that goes off at the end.
How does Bernard survive this time? Could it be that we finally saw the end of the road for Tim Robbins? Bernard, who turned himself in as part of the plan, is sent out of the silo to clean, without a suit. We see his nose start to bleed and he slumped next to the tree. I have no idea how he could have survived. I have a feeling Bernard is now gone.
Bernard’s cleaning was meant to be a distraction as bombs were going off in the silo in an attempt to pinch off the poison. We left the episode as Camille was running out of the cafeteria in an attempt to prevent the revolt.
I wondered last week what was next for Daniel and Helen. I did not know they were together and then Helen was pregnant. When the bomb went off, Daniel was pulled into silo 1 and Helen was taken into silo 17. Could Helen give birth to a baby that is a descendent of someone we know?
The Algorithm is being set up to being a real person and not a machine. I think there is a good chance that that voice is Daniel… though I have no idea how that would happen.
This was a great episode and it sets up next week’s season 3 finale beautifully.
Jimmy made his first contact with Larry in this episode that saw everything else on the edge for the informant.
Jimmy’s father showed up to see him and flashed his old badge for some favors from the guards, unwittingly blowing his cover. One guard in particular, Mr. Carter, who blackmailed Jimmy for 10 grand or else he would tell everyone that Jimmy was here as a snitch.
Jimmy was summoned to the in prison Italian Mafia Don, and he waded through that issue too. Oh, it was the real life Mafia head Vincent “the Chin” Gigante played by Tony Amendola. He wants Jimmy to play boccie with him.
The main course of this week’s episode was the dialogue between Jimmy and Larry. There was a scene between them that absolutely was frightening. Both Taron Egerton and Paul Walter Hauser were tremendous in their roles and in this moment. The tension built by the face of Hauser and his chilling words was amazing.
It had an impact on Jimmy too. When Jimmy told Agent McCauley about Carter, she told him they would get him out of prison. He should go into isolation until they could get the paperwork done. McCauley was having doubts about the case, afraid that Larry was just a sad and sick serial confessor, or that they would never be able to get the goods on him.
When asked what would happen to Larry if Jimmy went into isolation, McCauley answered that the judge could find the confession coerced and let him out into the world.
Jimmy had already seen the evil in Larry, convinced he was guilty. Jimmy insisted that he would stay and get the info. It was an unselfish turn for the drug dealer, because he knew allowing Larry out would be way worse than anything else.
I’m in on this show, and I am excited to see what is going to come down next. I didn’t realize that Jimmy’s father was being played by Ray Liotta, and that this was his final role before his death.
