Tag Archives: reviews

EYG Comic Cavalcade #199

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April 19

It is Wrestlemania Sunday, but I am going to try to squeeze out the 199th episode of EYG Comic Cavalcade. I am excited to celebrate the big 200th post next week.

This week, we had a bunch of solid comics. Some fun new books. The continuation of storylines such as Death Spiral. Boobies! And an unexpected comic book of the week.

Comic of the Week

Nightwing #137

While Nightwing is a consistently solid book, the Comic of the Week has been those new, hot books. However, this week, the Comic of the Week was picked because of the story. This whole story going into the history of Bludhaven, plays right into the doubts and concerns of Dick Grayson and the relationship between Nightwing and Batman. Oh, yeah, Batman is here too.

One of the best Nightwing books since Tom Taylor departed.

Books this Week:

The Hab #1. Written by Joshua Dysart with art by David Lapham, Jacob Phillips & Bill Sienkiewicz. Cover art was done by Charlie Adlard (Gold Medalist). The newest Bad Idea book is one of the hottest books of the week. This idea definitely feels like an awesome amalgam of Hulu TV’s show Paradise or Apple TV’s sci-fi show, Silo. Bad Idea has been very strong over the last year and this one seems to be every bit as exciting.

Mad Magazine #49. Mad Magazine came out this week, one issue away from 50. This issue featured Mad’s typical comedic bits surrounding and involving Late Night TV shows. They did satire about the Late Show, The Daily Show, The Tonight Show, Letterman, as well as some classic older late night programs. There is also a wonderfully funny and poignant letter to Stephen Colbert for his final episode of The late Show with Stephen Colbert, which will be ending in May.

The Monster and the Wolf #3. “Chapter 3: Silence” Written, drawn, and cover art (Cover A: Silver Medalist). I picked up all four main covers of this issue. And this issue was completely done in visual storytelling No words. The fight between Wolfman and Frankenstein’s Monster is done beautifully by Mark Spears.

Jessica Jones: Alias-Red Band #2. Written by Sam Humphries with art done by Geraldo Borges. The cover art was done by David Mack. Who knew that the team-up between Jessica Jones and Typhoid Mary would make the most engaging pair in comics. Admittedly it did not look like the partnership was going to last into the third issue. I love Jessica Jones and it seems like I love books lead by this character.

Venom #257. Written by Charles Soule and art by Javier Pina. Cover art was done by Giuseppe Camuncoli & Frank Martin. The whole Torment and Carnage team-up only lasted an issue. Now, the Carnage symbiote has found a new host… Peter Parker? Are you kidding me? Talk about the Odd Couple. The penultimate issue of the Death Spiral story is another banger.

X-Men United #2. “Open Wounds” Written by Eve L. Ewing and art was done by Tiago Palma. Cover art was done by Stefano Caselli & Federico Blee. The new combination of the X-Men teams at a new Graymatter Lane school. Cyclops is not a fan of the idea. And this issue sees Captain America checking things out too.

Ice Cream Man #45. “The Window in the Back of the Apartment” Written by W. Maxwell Prince with art by Martin Morazzo. Cover art was done by Martin Morazzo & Chris O’Halloran. One of my favorite books of the week. It has been awhile since we had an Ice Cream Man issue and this one is a homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window. However, it is anything but a copy. There are surprises in this story that I did not expect,and that is awesome.

Nectar #2. Written by Jeremy Robinson with art by Annapaola Martello. Cover art was done by Chris Shehan. The dangerous butterflies return to continue to spread whatever virus that is across Misery Island. And what does the dancing mean? This story has been awesome so far from Vault Comics.

Redcoat #17. Written by Geoff Johns and art by Bryan Hitch. Cover art was done by Bryan Hitch and Brad Anderson. Simon Pure and Albert Einstein are unsure about how much they can trust Benedict Arnold. Benedict sounds like a changed man, but can they really believe him? Redcoat continues to be one of the best Ghost Machine books every month.

Ordained: The Machine #0. Written by Robert Venditti and art by Trevor Hairsine. Cover art by Jorge Fornes. The Machine is here. We get some background on the big character from The Ordained book. This #0 has been pushed back and it was one of those kind of books that you wondered if they’d ever be released. It has been and it is a great addition to the Ordained story.

Narco #2. Written by Doug Wagner and art by Daniel Hillyard. Cover art was done by Daniel Hillyard & Dave Stewart (Bronze Medalist). Marcus wakes up from one of his attacks with the girl he had feeling for, laying dead beside him. Narco has been one of the best new books from Image and the story is progressing nicely.

Dead Teenagers #2. Written by Jude Ellison S. Doyle and art done by Caitlin Yarsky. Cover art was done by Naomi Franq. The new Oni Press series has been a fascinating story so far. I have to honest that I am not sure what is actually happening in this series. These characters seem to die and then resurrect. I am curious where it is taking us. I will be there with it.

Planet of the Apes Versus Fantastic Four #3. Written by Josh Trujillo and art by Andrea Di Vito. Cover art was done by Greg Land & Rachelle Rosenberg. Who knew that a combination of the Planet of the Apes and the Fantastic Four would work this well? The Red Ghost and Doctor Doom join in with the troubles.

G.I. Joe #21. Written by Joshua Williamson with art and cover art by Tom Reilly. We get the debut of one of the most iconic G.I. Joe characters of all time. Joining in with Scarlett making her return, we get Storm Shadow. This is also a nearly zero word issue as the imagery of the story takes its place.

Imperial Guardians #2. Written by Dan Abnett with pencils by Marcelo Ferreira. Cover art was done by Sean Izaakse & Nolan Woodard. I have been surprised how much I enjoy this new book. I am not a fan of the Cosmic Ghost Rider, but this is a character that I have been enjoying. I also love the way we have been seeing Darkhawk and Captain Marvel.

Absolute Batman #19. “The Straw Man” Written by Scott Snyder with art by Nick Dragotta. Cover art was done by Nick Dragotta and Frank Martin. A shocking issue of Absolute Batman with the arrival of the Robins and the death of James Gordon.

Fireborn #1. Written by Curt Pires and art and cover art by Patrick Mulholland. One of the surprise books of the week. I did not think that I was going to be into the Fireborn series, and yet I thought it was pretty good. A combo of fantasy and superheroes, Fireborn has given us a big start.

Other Books this week: Storm: Earth’s Mightiest Mutant #3, Magik & Colossus #3, Inglorious X-Force #4, Ghost Pepper #10, Lost Fantasy #9, Mumm-Ra: The Ever-Living #1, End of Life #3, Where Does the Rainbow End?#4, Malevolent #3, and The Thing on the Doorstep #3.

Quick Hits: This week there was a showdown between the Titans and the New Titans in New Titans #34. I picked up a black bag NSFW, 2nd printing Suspiria Vilchez polybag variant. It has boobies on the cover. *SMILE*. Speaking of smile, Smile: For the Camera #2 came out this week too. It has done a nice job of catching the creepiness factor of the movie. More vampires showing up in Bloodland #3. I think I enjoyed Tigris Island #2 more than I did the first issue. Racer X #6 had some dark times inside. The final issue of Ultimate Wolverine #16 saw Logan get his revenge on Illyana. The Netflix animated series around Kong continues with Escape from Skull Island #3. Speaking of Skull Island, Godzilla is still running around the Marvel Universe in Godzilla Infinity Roar #3. I saw Snow Monkey #3 on the stands, and I had missed #2. So I went to the back issues at In This Issue and I found Snow Monkey #2.

Normal

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This was a movie that I had no idea about until just this past week. I had never seen a trailer. I went into the film as blind as I could. I thought this was sensational… a deft mixture of Fargo with Hell or High Water.

Bob Odenkirk co-wrote, produced and starred in Normal, as a interim sheriff taking over for a sheriff in the little town of Normal, Minnesota who recently died. It does not take long to realize that there is something really weird going in with the town.

This is a dark comedy and it was very effective. I was laughing out loud multiple times during the film, especially with some of the clever violence that is included with the film. I was engaged from the start with the mystery of what was going on in the town. There were moments throughout the beginning of the film that was just subtle enough to make you wonder if you were thinking too deeply. Maybe you were seeing things that were not actually there. No that was not the case.

Odenkirk, as we have seen in the Nobody franchise, works extremely well as an action hero. His laid back performance was quite the juxtaposition with the situation that his character, Ulysses, finds himself in. He is an easy to cheer for protagonist and extremely likable.

As I said, this movie is surprisingly violent and much of the violence is designed as the funny parts of the film. There were some clever scenes that a lot of horror movies would be jealous of.

At 90 minutes, Normal has the perfect length. It does not push things too far and has just enough time to dive into the story of the film and of this little Minnesota town.

There were fun scenes with Henry Winkler, Ryan Allen, Lena Headey, Reena Jolly, Brendan Fletcher, Jess McLeod, and Bill MacLellan.

Without knowing anything about this film, I enjoyed this one a great deal. I would venture to say that I liked this more than the Nobody franchise films from Odenkirk’s oeuvre.

4.5 stars

Outcome

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The newest Keanu Reeves movie debuted this weekend on Apple TV + instead of in theaters. Is there a reason for that?

According to IMDB, “Follows Hollywood star Reef as he is forced to confront his problems and atone for his past after being threatened by a bizarre video footage from his past.“

This was listed as a comedy on Apple TV, but there was not a lot of laughter in the film. Keanu Reeves’s character was sad and depressing for much of the run time. He was playing a huge Hollywood star who had dropped out of the limelight for the past five years. Some of the details of his past are hinted at but never really gone into deep detail about, but he is on an apology tour, claiming to be sober.

Matt Bomer and Cameron Diaz play his best friends who have supported him from the beginning, but who are feeling taken advantage of by their friend.

There is a strong cast besides Reeves, Diaz and Bomer. Others appearing in the film include Susan Lucci, Jonah Hill (who also directed the film), Martin Scorsese, David Spade, Van Jones, Laverne Cox, Roy Wood, Jr, Drew Barrymore, Welker White, and Asante Jones.

I am not sure much about the story, and I could’ve used more humor in the dark comedy. Jonah Hill was over the top again, although there were some moments among the ridiculousness where we see some real character in his role. My favorite scenes involved Martin Scorsese, surprisingly.

Much like the other movie I watched today (Thrash), this is not the worst thing on TV, but I did find it a little boring. It is a fine film to play if you have nothing else to do. It is not going to be a great viewing though.

2.6 stars

Thrash

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I swear I saw this movie, but it was with killer alligators instead of a pack of sharks.

That movie was called Crawl, and, to be fair, was much better than the new film called Thrash, which debuted on Netflix this weekend.

We will never be done with shark movies. There is something about sharks that make them horrifying, and the perfect killing machines, specifically on film.

There are fewer shark movies that are awesome than those that are garbage, but every once in awhile, there are some good ones made. Which category does Thrash fall into?

According to IMDB, “When a Category 5 hurricane decimates a coastal town, the storm surge brings devastation, chaos and something far more frightening: hungry sharks.“

Thrash has some decent moments, but there are some really dumb scenes that stretch plausibility to a level that just pulls you out of the film.

Phoebe Dynevor played Lisa, who gets stuck in her car as the flood came in. Lisa was pregnant. Whitney Peak played Dakota, a young lady who saved Lisa from her car. These two characters were placed in some ridiculous places in an attempt to survive. However, these two were more believable than the other main story.

Three kids, who were in a unloving foster home situation with a horrible couple, have to survive when the bull sharks make it into their house. The kids are played by Stacy Clausen, Alyla Brown and Dante Ubaldi. They were fine, but some of the situations that they were placed in were out there.

There were some questions I had about time as the darkness came and went very quickly.

Having said that, Thrash was not the worst shark movie that I have seen. I would consider it somewhere in the mid area of shark movies. Certainly it is no Jaws, but it is much better than stuff like 47 Meters Down or Into the Deep. I compared it to Crawl earlier in this review, but that movie was so much better.

I think Thrash would be a passable movie to watch on Netflix if you do not have much else to do. I would not say it does not completely suck, but that is hardly high praise.

2.75 stars

The Pitt S2 E14

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Spoilers

“8:00 PM”

It is the penultimate episode of The Pitt and Robby is having an existential crisis and his buddy Duke saw it and called him out. Dana seemed to be able to sense what Robby was feeling. He comment about being afraid that she wasn’t going to see him any more.

Robby is clearly losing his patience. His chewing out of a couple of paramedics over their failure for gender bias in cardiac care was anything but kind hearted. Of course, they deserved the cut down.

Going back to Robby and Duke, Robby actually admits that he was feeling as if he did not want to keep going. This stripped away the question about whether or not Robby was feeling suicidal and places our concerns over what is going to happen to Robby. Noah Wylie is the star of the show, but does that guarantee that he will be safe.

The Langdon scene with the man with the spinal injury was absolutely suspenseful and tense. Langdon had every pressure in the world in this scene and he crushes it. I hope that this is something that can get Robby to give Langdon his flowers. That scene with this victim was my favorite moment of the episode.

My least favorite… the tug of war rope imbedded in the man’s hand. Ugh… HATE IT! I loved that character, but every time they showed his hand with the rope in it… I had to grimace.

If that was not enough… Dr. Al-Hashimi brought Robby in to a room asking his opinion on a case, which turned out to be her… and we find out that she has a seizure disorder paired with viral meningitis and altered mental status. How is this going to affect things?

One more week of an amazing season.

Daily Countdown: Weird Al Songs #83

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#83

Theme from Rocky XIII (The Rye or the Kaiser)

Title: “Theme from Rocky XIII (The Rye or the Kaiser)”

Album: Weird Al Yankovic In 3D

Release: 1982

Written:  Jim Peterik/Frankie Sullivan/Al Yankovic

Parody: “The Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor

Style: Rock/Movie Songs

One of the more unknown Al parodies from his second major album. This is one of the early songs to show how clever Al could be with his lyrics and yet one more song that he wrote involving food.

Lyrics

Fat and weak, what a disgrace
Guess the champ got too lazy
Ain’t gonna fly now, he’s just takin’ up space
Sold his gloves, threw his eggs down the drain

But he’s no bum, he works down the street
He bought the neighborhood deli
Back on his feet, now he’s choppin’ up meat
Come inside, maybe you’ll hear him say

Try the rye or the kaiser
They’re on special tonight
If you want, you can have an appetizer
You might like our salami, and the liver’s all right
And they’d really go well with the rye
Or the kaiser

Never eats while on the job
He heard it’s good to stay hungry
But he makes a pretty mean shish kabob
Have a taste, they were made fresh today

Try the rye or the kaiser or the wheat or the white
Maybe I can suggest an appetizer
Stay away from the tuna, it smells funny tonight
But you just can’t go wrong with the rye
Or the kaiser

So today, his deli comes first
Still he dreams of his past days of glory
Goes in the back and beats up on the liverwurst
All the while you can still hear him say

It’s the rye or the kaiser, it’s the thrill of one bite
Let me please be your catering advisor
If you want substitutions, I won’t put up a fight
You can have your roast beef on the rye
Or the kaiser

The rye or the kaiser

The rye or the kaiser

The rye or the kaiser

Source: Musixmatch

Sha Na Na S4 E19, E20, E21, E22, E23, E24

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…All greased up and ready to sing their brains out….

I finished off the final season of Sha Na Na this afternoon with the six remaining episodes I had to see in season 4. I have to say that it was a really fun last few months as I worked my way through the playlist from Pattyoc01 on YouTube. While they were not always the best of quality, they were always fun and gave me flashes of nostalgia from when I was a young boy watching these in syndication. Sha Na Na was technically the first concert I ever attended (with my Dad at the Five Flags Center in Dubuque, Iowa) so I am very happy to have had a chance to watch these again.

Again, as I mentioned in the last post, some of the songs were songs that I had not heard before (or at least did not recognize). They did repeat a couple of songs in these episodes, including Runaway, Hand Jive, and Under the Boardwalk. We got to hear Chico sing again. He has not been a featured singer in the final season. Sure he was one of the lesser used voices overall in the show, but he got more than he has this year. I wonder if that was because of the absence of Dirty Dan.

We got quite a few Screamin’ Scott performances in this last handful of episodes. It was funny, but he wore that green suit in three episodes consecutively, and they were all on the street songs. I wonder if they recorded those all on the same day.

It is also interesting how many different outfits Screamin’ Scott wore. I mean, most of the group had one or two basic outfit that they wore, but Scott is always all over the place with jump suits and bright colors. And not just in the comedy skits either.

Of the guests, the one I liked the best of this group was Scatman Cruthers. I did not know what he was going to do, but he ended up singing and he was great. He played a ukulele and sang the blues. I know he sang the theme song to Hong Kong Phooey, but I did not expect him to do it here, but he was tremendous.

Other guests in these episodes included Mary Wells, The Spinners, Billie Davis Jr & Marilyn Macoo, Peaches and Herb, and Kim Carnes.

Another surprise was Pamela Meyers singing “It’s My Party and I’ll Cry If I Want To”. While Meyers had sung songs before, she was out on the street all by her self. We could hear the background vocals of Sha Na Na, but there was no sign of any of them. I wonder if that was the first time someone sang a song without any sight of any of the group?

Sha Na Na was inducted into the EYG Hall of Fame this year in the April 1 Legends class. I had a lot of fun with the boys over these four seasons.

Grease for peace….

Goodnight Sweetheart, well it’s time to go….

Pizza Movie

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Easter Stream Binge #4

One of the types of movies that I typically do not hate are the stoner movies. Especially those that include a lot of bullying and stupid humor.

As I started to watch Disney +’s movie, Pizza Movie, after the first ten minutes, everything that I hate about those movies were dropped. I was hating this movie with all of my heart. I considered just stopping the movie. I did not know why I should continue this movie when it was making me feel this way. It’s not as if I paid money at the theater to see it.

Then something really weird happened.

The movie won me over.

I am not sure what happened, but the complete ridiculousness of the movie grabbed ahold of me and suddenly I found myself enjoying the stupidity, laughing at the antics of the three main leads.

Gaten Matarazzo and Sean Giambrone played Jack and Montgomery, roommates at college who were anything but the alphas. Matarazzo and Giambrone had a lot of chemistry with each other and their comedic timing was perfectly executed. Bullied and beat up, Jack and Montgomery wound up taking some experimental drugs they found in their dorm room that led them to going through multiple stages.

It was when they started in on these stages that the movie changed for me. Everything became so surreal and so weird that it was difficult to continue to see it as just another bad behavior/stoner movie. It took these two and made them way more interesting than they ever had a right to be.

I am not sure that I have had such a monumental shift in my opinions of a movie, especially from hating it as much as I did in the first ten-fifteen minutes to being entertained by the silliness of it.

3.75 stars

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #63

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Spoilers

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

“The Hedge Knight”

The new show on the Sunday Morning Sidewalk is the Game of Thrones prequel. I have only watched one episode of Game of Thrones (season 8, episode one… I was hopelessly confused), but I had heard that the show, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, did not require a knowledge of Game of Thrones to enjoy, so I added it to the Sunday Morning Sidewalk. There are six episodes, averaging around thirty minutes or so.

The show is an adaptation of George R. R. Martin’s novella series Tales of Dunk and Egg.

I’m not sure what I expected from this show, but this first episode was nowhere near it. That was not a bad thing. I thought the show was extremely charming. I felt a real connection to Ser Dunk as he attempted to enter a tournament. He was awkward and gawky, and anything like one would expect a knight to be. Meeting with the bald-headed boy named Egg, Egg would eventually convince Dunk to allow him to be his squire.

No bravado or arrogance as most knights show, Dunk was an uncommon character to lead this type of series. Again, I am not sure what I expected from a Game of Thrones prequel, but I really did enjoy this slice of imagination.

Peter Claffey played Ser Dunk. Dunk is an extremely tall person, especially in comparison to the others around him. Dexter Sol Ansell played Egg. I liked the dynamic between these two characters and I expect that they will be an important part of whether or not I continue ot enjoy this show.

It had a much more comedic feel to it than I expected. While not an out and out comedy, the tone of the show had that light-hearted humor feel which is, perhaps, why I did not expect this to be in the Game of Thrones world.

This was an interesting start to the next show in the Sunday Morning Sidewalk. We will see how it progresses in the upcoming weeks.

Jury Duty: Company Retreat E6, E7, E8

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Spoilers

When I started watching this season of Jury Duty: Company Retreat, I was unsure how I felt about it. By the end, I found myself absolutely lovoing it.

The last two episodes continued the storyline of the purchase of Rockin’ Grandma’s by the Triukas group and the reveal that they had a sinister motive behind the deal, giving Anthony a chance to come in at the end as a hero to stop the deal.

The Talent Show section of the show was absolutely amazing, and bringing in Sia as a guest star in the talent show was such a ridiculous, over-the-top moment, but worked so well.

Anthony Norman was such a wonderful man, and the perfect piece for the heart of the show. He was willing to take on all sorts of craziness from the collection of characters around him and he did it with such leadership and empathy. I did not think this show could top Ronald Gladden from season one of Jury Duty, but I think maybe Anthony was able to do it.

The final episode of Jury Duty has been when they go behind the scenes after the final reveal to the non-actor and it has always been one of my favorite episodes of the season because you get to see how intricate things have to be and to what lengths they take things to make this show work. Being able to see Anthony with his eyes finally open to what was going on around him is so much fun.

It also truly showed how much of a bond he had made with the actors, how connected he was with these fictional characters in real life and how much of an effect he had on them is so sweet and heart-warming. It gives you the message that if you are respectful and kind to people, good things will happen. I would be curious to see what would happen if they guy they bring in to the series would just freak out or not go to the extremes that they required him to do.

I am sure they spent all kinds of time researching their non-actor, making sure they would find the strongest possible candidate. They truly succeeded in that aspect this year.

I was iffy on the show at first, but it quickly turned into one of my favorite shows. It was easy to watch, always funny and entertaining and had a fabulous message. Jury Duty ahs had two stellar seasons of TV on Amazon Prime so far. Here’s hoping for a season three down the line.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

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I went to The Super Mario Galaxy Movie today in a packed Phoenix Theater in Dubuque. As I was leaving, I was very disappointed and not entertained, but the kids around me leaving were bouncing with energy, bantering about their favorite parts and were just filled with an excitement that you could feel.

I wish I shared that same kind of feeling.

I was bored through most of this movie. I did not find anything to the story and I am not a big fan of Nintendo or Super Mario to be interested in the characters that were appearing on the screen.

According to IMDB, “Mario ventures into space, exploring cosmic worlds and tackling galactic challenges far from the familiar Mushroom Kingdom.”

The animation was sensational. The colors popped off the screen and every moment looked fantastic. The color and the imagery was another reason why kids are going to love this movie.

The voice acting was fine. Jack Black as Bowzer is great as always. Chris Pratt as Mario is fine, but not that memorable. Other voice actors included Glenn Powell, Brie Larson, Anya Taylor-Joy, Benny Safdie, Keegan-Michael Key, Charlie Day, Donald Glover, Kevin Michael Richardson, Issa Rae, and Luis Guzman.

The problem was, for me, the story was lacking. I did not find anything happening that was engaging. It felt more like a bunch of random adventures with music playing over top. It was not a competent, overarching story that worked. It had some definite strengths to the movie, but the over loaded characters did not feel as if they were given any time to develop.

BUt as I said, the kids of my theater loved what they got. So, my thoughts on this movie are coming from an adult purpose, and I am not a fan. I prefer that the animated film worked for both kids and adults, but I struggled to get through the 90 + minutes of the film.

It is going to make all the money though. I liked the first one much more than this one.

2.4 stars

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters S2 E6

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Spoilers

“Requiem”

I guess Skull Island is taking place at Jurassic Park now.

What was that opening scene meant to convey? It was a huge nothing. I guess there had not been many scenes between Kentaro and Hiroshi so the writers felt they needed something to show the audience. Or maybe they needed to throw a Kong cameo in to justify the name.

I don’t know how much more of this show I can take.

I did like how Kentaro ripped into Cate with her ridiculousness. The Cate character does the same thing every episode and it feels like they could just take her dialogue and copy it every scene.

What has been true about this show since day one is that the flashbacks are heads and shoulders above the present day material. That remains to be true. We follow Shaw in his reassignment and we come to meet his father. It didn’t make me feel much better when his father asked him why he was here, and he said was it a fight or fornication. Fornication? Who uses that word in their daily dialogue?

It was interesting to see how Lee’s flashback to his father was similar to the way Lee was thinking in the present. It is meant to show that Lee is not thinking clearly, but if he is on the opposite side of Cate then I am all down with it.

The Godzilla cameo in Kentaro’s dream was ridiculous. It was not as superficial as the Kong cameo, but it wasn’t much above it.

Then, as Lee was attempting to see if it was possible to open a rift to summon Godzilla to fight Titan X, something wonky happened and present day Lee started talking to young Lee on the walkie talkie.

Has the show added a time travel element to it? That ending was an interesting tidbit that maybe becomes something to help the show out. I have found this to be quite the sludge to get through each week, and I hope that the second half of the season would bring more to intrigue me than what it has done before.

Shrinking S3 E10

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Spoilers

“The Bodyguard of Sadness”

Woof. This one packed a punch.

It was graduation day for Alice and the emotions are all over the place for poor Jimmy, with his father departing for a deep sea fishing trip instead of attending graduation, Paul getting ready to move to Connecticut and the fact that Alice is graduating is really crushing Jimmy’s spirit.

Jason Segal gave one of his best performances of the series in this episode as he confronted Paul about a myriad of issues, some of which were directed toward Paul and others that were directed toward his own father. It was devastating to see Jimmy rip into Paul like he did, especially since a lot of the anger was actually directed to his father and his childhood trauma, the fact that everyone was leaving him, and that he was feeling alone.

Harrison Ford has been brilliant in this series, and this episode was no exception. He was so subtle throughout, but you could tell how much Jimmy’s attack affected him. He sat in his home, waiting for the car to take him to Connecticut, and you can see how much he was suffering from the rejection of Jimmy, who Paul had invited for a goodbye breakfast.

The line: “I get it now. I’m not as important to you as you are to me. I just feel stupid it took me that long to realize it. I’m just not that sensitive, Paul. I’ll survive” dropped by Jimmy was like a dagger and put in words they way that Jimmy was feeling.

This was the penultimate episode of season three, but man did it feel like a finale. Everyone was finding their path over the next several months, and Jimmy was there all on his own.

It makes me worried for Jimmy as his mental health seems to have taken a huge back step from the positive areas that it had reached since the loss of Tia.

One more episode of the season next week. The finale should be fire.

Paradise S2 E8

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Spoilers

“Exodus”

What a finale.

Paradise season 2 wrapped up with episode 8 in the most explosive way…literally.

The amazing action, reunions, and new twists and redemptions.

Sinatra making the sacrifice play, did not see that coming.

Xavier reuniting with his kids was amazing. Xavier and Sinatra working together to save their daughters who were trapped in the elevator. Link and his men coming across them and jumping in to help was a wonderfully heroic moment.

Jeremy coming back with help to save Nicole Robinson, who was badly injured and who demanded that Jeremy leave her behind. He showed himself as another hero on this show and seeing him and Presley kissing at the end was sweet.

I confirmed that Sinatra’s husband, Tim Redmond, was played by Tuc Watkins, who appeared on some soap operas I watched years ago (OLTL, GH) as well as on Desperate Housewives. I thought it was him, and I Googled him to conform the role.

Discovering the identity of Alex looks to set up the next season of the show as the underground bunker in the mountain is no more. Exodus, or the evacuation of the colony was unbelievable. What will those who were in the bunker for so many years, thinking that the outside world was gone, react to the fact that the outside world is still there and livable?

Oh and, surprise, there is another bunker under the Denver airport. This seems to be where Alex is, and Alex apparently is an AI that can see the future and determine what to do from it. An AI that is thinking on its own and answering questions that haven’t been asked yet. The show always had a sci-fi element to it, but it feels as if the show has taken a bigger step into the genre.

I think I may have liked season two of this show more than I liked season one, and I thought season one was exceptional. Season two had so much going for it and it captured so much suspense and drama with the characters and the difficult situations the show placed them in. Who would have thought that Sinatra would be the redemption arc of this show?

Bring on season three!

Sha Na Na S4 E14, E15, E16, E17, E18

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The series of Sha Na Na is coming close to an end as I am in the middle of season 4. Season 4 has not been my most favorite season of this show. I think a big part of that is that they have been doing a bunch of songs that I have never heard before. Part of the fun of Sha Na Na is that they were singing songs that I recognized form the 1950s and 1960s. While I appreciate that they do not repeat songs very often, a lot of these songs did not appeal to that nostalgia. They did them fine, but I just was not engaged as I should have been.

Some of these guests were scrapping the bottom of the barrel too. See if you can figure out which one of these is not like the others: Lacy J. Dalton, Joey Travolta, The Currie Sisters, Jackie DeShannon and James Brown. Yep, I said James Brown. It was a strange performance though. He did not seem to get much reaction from the Sha Na Na crowd and it seemed to bother him. I think he probably fed off the energy of the crowd a lot, and there was not much energy in the crowd.

One of the comedy bits was with the song Istanbul (Not Constantinople) and I remember learning about that country name change from this song.

They played the song “Rock ‘N Roll Music” but it was sung by Chico. While I enjoy Chico’s songs usually, it just felt like the wrong Sha Na Na singer for this song. It was originally recorded by Chuck Barry and I think it would have been better with Donny singing it. Or maybe Screamin’ Scott. Chico’s version was fine, but it just did not feel right.

There were actually several songs that felt a little off during these episodes. I wonder if they were realizing that the end was near and that the overall energy was starting to lack a bit.