Tag Archives: fiction

Other Mommy

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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.

1.2 stars

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #89

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DTF St. Louis

“The Go Getter”

The theme of this episode: Floyd was wonderful.

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.

Ted Lasso S4 E9

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“Mae Rides the Bus”

I had a bad feeling about this.

The show then went ahead and did it.

Mae.

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.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #86

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Black Bird

“You Promised”

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.

Ted Lasso S4 E6

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“Don’t Jump Around Much Anymore“

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.

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe S1 E7

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“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.

Ted Lasso S4 E5

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“Riches of Embarrassment”

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?

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #84

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Black Bird

“WhatsHerName“

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.

Silo S3 E9

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“Farewell”

Holy Shit.

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.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #83

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“Hand to Mouth”

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.

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe S1 E5

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“Spoiler: Bert Gets Married”

Following up my favorite episode of this show this week, we got a strange one with a tribe of people who share everything, all the time, and a completely peaceful.

With an injection of Kripke into the society, that does not last long.

Kripke immediately started warping things by showing the kind hearted people the idea of “mine.” It does not take long for the natural selfishness to come out, especially when Kripke made a Communist comment.

Meanwhile, Bert met a woman who asked him to share sex that night, but it turned out that they sleep with someone different every night. Bert introduced her to the concept of monogamy, and asked her to marry him, even though she does not understand the term.

Stuart realized that the machine was broken and he went in search of a message from the mysterious overlord that had been sending them messages. He found it at the bottom of a pile of bear poop.

Red quartz is what they needed to fix the machine, and there was only one bit around… on a necklace around the neck of the man who was jealous of Bert’s new relationship.

This episode continued what I think one of the biggest problems of this show is… it felt rushed. There is so much that can be discovered in these universes but are just brushed across most of the time. These episodes should be 45 minutes at least, but they are sticking with the half-hour focus, and there are just too many big ideas.

In the end, it all turned out to be just there and this episode did not blow my socks off. I am not a big fan of Kripke and I think they could have left that character off and still not have issues filling the time. There was no Big Bang Theory cameo this week and that was definitely missing.

Ted Lasso S4 E3

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“Richmond’s Got Talent”

The injury bug strikes the strikers for Ted Lasso’s new Richmond Women’s team. Well, one is an injury and one is a pregnancy, so I shouldn’t qualify it as an injury. But the strikers are out, so this leads to an open tryout.

The open tryout did not bring the football version of Susan Boyle. There is an option though and it was one that Coach Alice mentioned. She once coached a striker that was one of the best she’d seen, but who had quit to go to law school. Her name was Gemma and she had had enough of Alice’s demeanor toward her back then and did not want to hear anything from her now.

Gemma couldn’t deny the Lasso charm though, and it seemed as if Ted had reignited the passion for the sport inside her, and she came to join the team. Of course, she came on the day of the historic first game. She also wound up scoring a late goal after being inserted into the game near the end.

This was not only Gemma’s story though as Keeley was having a hard time getting the kit delivered for the first game, a young mother Lizzie was one who stood out at the open tryouts and was able to make the team, and Rebecca kept standing up her boyfriend at a restaurant.

I do like the new cast of the football team that we are starting to get. There are some intriguing characters that are more than just the one note that it appeared they were previously.

It was nice to see the much more presentable Coach Beard this week, no longer looking like a caveman in a Richmond outift.

This has been a decent season so far, even if I do not think it has matched the original three seasons in overall quality as of yet.

Rick and Morty S9 E10

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“Field of Dreams”

I am now caught up on the Rick and Morty series, finishing up with the episode 10 that debuted on HBO Max today, but had been shown on Comedy Central earlier in the summer.

The new episode started off as an enjoyable story of Morty going through the multiverse and attending other Morty’s funeral. Morty is discovered as he was watching the funeral by a family that was grieving “Mort,” the kid who was so much more successful and loved by his family.

Morty started spending time with this family, thinking that they were better than the family he had. Morty found out that this Smith family was extremely crazed and chasing after him to replace their Mort.

Morty went to this universe’s Rick, who had stopped drinking, had gotten married, and was living a happy life as a college professor. This was when the episode took a darker turn that I was not a real fan of.

As Rick was trying to help find a way to get Morty home, I knew what was going to happen. I knew that Rick was going to need to go back to drinking to get the work done. Watching Rick throw away his life, his sobriety, his wife to the bottle was so sad and too predictable. I wanted this Rick to not transform into yet another drunken Rick.

Of course the ending was anything but predictable as the whole family is butchered in their final confrontation. This allowed Morty to get back to his regular universe with a happier feeling toward these people.

The whole motorcycle scene at the end of the episode was odd.

Overall, this was an up and down episode for me, and with different shades of dark, it did not do well for me.

There is a season 10 in works right now with a rumored release during the summer of 2027.

Rick and Morty S9 E1-E8

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I started the ninth season of Rick and Morty on HBO Max today and watched the first eight episodes. I discovered that the Rick and Morty show was shown originally on Adult Swim earlier this summer and then it debuted on HBO Max, releasing every episode weekly. I was confused at first as I saw episode 9 and 10 listed on Wikipedia as having been released already, but it was not available yet on HBO Max. I see that the last two episodes will be released over the next two Mondays, so we will finish as we go.

The last few seasons of Rick and Morty have been lesser than I was used to. They weren’t bad, but there were more episodes that I did not love as much as some of the earlier seasons.

However, I thought that the season nine episodes were just awesome.

The first episode kicked off with the return of Evil Morty, and Morty discovered that Rick was running adventures with Evil Morty. Rick was able to trick Evil Morty into destroying the Omega blueprints in all universes. It set off a war between them and Evil Morty gets arrested by the time police after he tried to time travel.

In “Ricks Days, Seven Nights” Rick went on vacation in a dimension and he wiped his own memory. He does it every year and goes to a planet under the name Ted. Ted decides to stay, and he has to fight against himself trying to get Ted to remember. This was so clever and creative… I loved it.

“Rick Fu Hustle” is next up and while Rick and Morty are trying to keep themselves from having their hearts exploded from a Kung Fu master’s special punch, Jerry is having sex with his robot pool cleaner. Not kidding.

The season seems to have a running storyline where Rick is trying to stop drinking after he has had several bad events, including locking himself out of the lab in the garage. He also lost his always filled flask of vodka from a world of pigs. There was another incident where Rick’s head is decapitated from his body, and the two parts of Rick get into a war with the other. While Rick’s head was separated, he saw how good he felt without the alcohol. Morty had the head and Summer had the body and they tried to reunite.

My least favorite of this season was “MortGully: The Last Rickforest” which saw Rick and Morty on a planet trying to find some special sap from a tree. The tree was alive and called the Warden, who sentenced Rick and Morty to be single celled organisms. The episode was the two of them trying to evolve enough to escape the Warden’s trap. It was funny, but it really went a long way for the joke, which was replayed multiple times.

There was also a wild story with Jerry consuming a bunch of space worms which made him more confident, but caused him to eventually vomit up a massive amount of worms.

I have liked this season more than the previous couple, but there does not seem to be much of a thorough line for the overall story arc. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but I would like a little more connection.

Two more episodes to go.

Daily Read- Starhenge Book One: The Dragon and the Boar #6

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Written, illustrated and cover art by Liam Sharp.

The final issue of the first book of Liam Sharp’s mini-series, Starhenge brings us the fate of Arthur, what happened to Merlin, and where Taliesin, Amber Weaver, and Daryl wind up.

As Book One ended with a distinct cliffhanger, I am happy that I am ready to move into Book Two, number one of which I have already purchased from Image Comics. A Kiss for Atticus is the subtitle for the four issue limited series. I had picked up the first issue before knowing anything about the series and I am very pleased that I did so, because otherwise, I would not have gone back to read Book One.

Once again, the book played with the format of comics, as we get another heavily narrative story of King Arthur and how he was killed by Gwynn. Merlin fleeing into the woods, transforming into an Elk as he lost him mind.

The discovery at the end of the book that Merlin was still alive and how he was discovered by Amber and Daryl… and having Merlin call Amber “Grandma” was a shock.

I loved the section of Amber’s narration where she was describing how her “…comic would piss people off.” It was such a meta moment and then she took it even further with the lines, “It would be a convoluted mess of info dumps, footnotes, and sidebars, drawn in random artsy styles, and designed to confuse even the most ardent Morrison fan” is an amazing understanding of the comic that Sharp was creating. Amber’s narration has been an absolute highlight of this book for me.

There is a lot of set up through the Book One, but it never felt like it was only world building. It felt as if the characterization was there and this creates a mood that will only expand as the next Book is released. I feel better knowing that there is a Book Two starting. Had I read this back in the released date of the original series, I am sure I would wonder if I was ever going to get more.

More there is…

Excellent work from Liam Sharp and I look forward to jumping back into this world ASAP.