This was a big episode, focusing heavily on the shocking cliffhanger that they gave us last week, the very much alive Bernard.
The biggest part of the episode was the flashbacks to show us how Bernard survived the fire and how he wound up not being incinerated. Of course, the man behind Bernard’s survival was Sims.
This is the first time in three seasons that I did not see Sims as the villain. Same with Bernard. Both men were given material to show how much they were forced to do what they did. That did not excuse their choices, but it helps to understand the levels that they were at.
And, as the episode’s title implies, the show was also about memory and the reclaiming of the memory by Juliette. By the end of the episode, Juliette had gotten her memories back of the other silo and the information she learned about the Safeguard. Thanks to the Pez Dispenser.
Rebecca Ferguson continues to be excellent as Juliette, playing her confusion and the slow return of her memory beautifully.
Meanwhile, a new danger is uncovered by Sheriff Billings, and it sounds really bad. Light bulbs are being stolen and they are down to just about two years supply remaining, which means, soon, they will be unable to grow their food.
We only get a little time at the very end of the episode for a flashback to the before times, but it is a big one as Daniel and Helen are driving and the car suddenly takes control and is driving itself.
Great episode this week that really built on the shock from the last scene last week. Silo has been a touch slow at times this year, struggling to get its story going. That is not a factor any more.
The second episode of The Big Bang Theory spin-off, Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, is not very good. It just feels like it is a car wreck that I can’t stop glaring at.
The new universe that Stuart, Bert and Kripke jump into is an AI-Overlord run universe where everyone is forced into happy thoughts and any negativity would lead to an electric jolt into the person’s neck through an implant at the base of their skull. This joke was used what felt like a million times in the first fifteen minutes of the episode.
I have come to the conclusion that this show is designed to show us alternate versions of all of the cast of The Big Bang Theory in weird new ways. Here we get to see Zack, as the title stated, but also Penny. I’m not sure why Kaley Cuoco would agree to “reprise” her role as Penny in this, but it was nice to see her again.
It was strange to see Christine Baranski used in a cameo as herself when she had a Big Bang Theory character already.
The episode never got a chance to get any footing under it, because after the over excessive amount of the electric shock gags, they came across the rebellion, led by Zack and Penny, and then the episode was over.
While I did not love this… heck, I could probably not claim to even like it that much… Stuart Fails to Save the Universe is a short show that does not feel like anything that is aggressively bad… or at least, bad enough to make me stop watching it at this point. It was fun to see the Big Bang cameos (including the woman who was obsessed with Sheldon). I’ll watch at least one more episode, probably.
Season six had two of my absolutely favorite episodes from the entire six seasons.
“Full Meta Jackrick” is my favorite episode of the series. The full embrace of the 4th Wall breaking with the return of Story Lord and new characters such as Miss Lead, Flash Back, Protago Nick, Connie Tinuityerror, and Mr. Twist. There was another character called Rhett Caan that made me laugh out loud. It was such a clever episode that it really stood out for me.
Following that episode was “Analyze Piss” which saw Pissmaster come to challenge Ric. However, Rick had decided, through therapy, that he would try to ignore the supervillains that come to challenge him. This led to Jerry stepping up and defeating Pissmaster. This episode had a trigger warning at the beginning about suicide because Pissmaster takes his own life. meanwhile, Rick takes his place to help give Pissmaster a happy ending for his daughter.
Both of these were just fully engaging and entertaining.
The first half of the season saw Rick lose the ability to form the portals. There was a running joke that Rick kept saying that he could fix the portal gun, but he hadn’t gotten around to it. Funny too was the fact that the dinosaurs were the ones to fix the portals.
We also got a season long arc with Rick Prime, the Rick who killed our Rick’s wife, free and searching for Rick to kill. Rick Prime killed off Jerry Prime, who we met again after “Mortynight Run” in season two.
The end of the season sees Rick, who had built a robot to replace himself, without the family knowing, so he could continue his search for Rick Prime. The Rick-Bot was programmed to give more support to Morty (22% more…) and soon became a beloved family member to the whole Smith clan.
Space Beth was around a lot this season, even though there were not too many major events with her. Of course, she did have an affair with married Beth in “Bethic Twinstinct.”
“Rick: A Mort Well Lived” had Summer at the heart of a Die Hard parody. Maybe parody isn’t the right word, since they openly talked about Die Hard and how this episode was like the movie. I do love Die Hard so the use of the allusion was awesome for me.
“Night Family” was not one of the best episodes of the year, but I did like the attempt at the horror genre. There were some imagery that worked well, but the story did not appeal to me as much.
Perhaps my least favorite episode of the season was “Final DeSmithation” which had Jerry get a fortune cookie that said that he would have sex with his mother. This only got stupider from there.
Sounds as if Season 7 is going to be Rick and Morty hunting down Rick Prime. I’m in.
The last day of July brings us back to EYG Comic Cavalcade. We are all the way up to #214. Wow. So awesome. Just a few more weeks of summer vacation remaining. *SAD*. I love getting these done on a Friday instead of barely getting it done on Sunday or maybe even Monday afternoon.
Saw Spider-Man: Brand New Day yesterday afternoon and it was fabulous. I am going back to see it again tomorrow morning.
I was watching the Eisner Award results coming in on X last Friday. They are always given out at the Friday night of San Diego Comic Con. I like to purchase graphic novels that win Eisner’s and this year, I purchased off Amazon Drome by Jesse Lonergan and This Place Kills Me by Mariko Tamaki & Nicole Goux. Drome won Best Publication for Teens and This Place Kills Me won Best Graphic Album–New. I should also congratulate DC Comics which won 12 Eisner’s on the back of the Absolute universe.
Comic of the Week
Feral #25
The exciting conclusion of the Stray Dogs/Feral crossover is our big Comic of the Week. The scenes in the fire is tremendous. Feral has been one of my favorite comics every month.
The foil cover of this issue, which I spied on the stand, wound up with the Bronze Medalist of the Week. The cover pictured is the B cover that is always an homage to a horror movie
I’m curious to see if some of these characters remain together as the comic progressed. Either way, this was a huge winner this week.
Books This Week:
Galactic #2. Written by Curt Pires with art and cover art by Amilcar Pinna. DSTLRY seems to be back on track with their one book or so a week. That is better than no books for six months though. This was an easier book to get back into as it has a definite Star Wars vibe to it. I find this to be very easy to read and engaging of a story. I am very pleased that DSTLRY did not fold completely earlier this year that we are able to get the ongoing story of this book.
The Dirt Beneath the Devil #1. Written and cover art by Dan Panosian and art by David Ferracci. This was a new Western book with a definite tinge of the supernatural. The devil horse is tamed by a lovely woman, but not tamed completely. This is one of those books that feels like has only just started.
Doomquest #3. Written by Ryan North and art by Francesco Mobili. Cover art was done by Alex Ross (Silver Medalist). Doom has come off of the Titanic and has found himself embodying George Washington during the Revolutionary War. How will the narcissistic Doom deal with the power of the Father of America?
Queen in Black #1. Written by Al Ewing with art by Iban Coello & Ze Carlos. Cover A art was done by Ryan Stegman & Frank Martin. Cover C art was done by Peach Momoko. I also grabbed two of the blind bags for the series (I am a sucker for blind bags) that had art by Artgerm and the other one was the black blank version. I was unsure about the Queen in Black story arc, but this number one grabbed my attention so I expect that I will be reading this moving forward.
Spectacular Spider-Man: Brand New Day #3. “King’s Ransom” Written by Dan Slott with art by Marcus To. Cover art was done by Phil Jimenez & Alex Sinclair. Mister Negative has mind control over the Punisher and Spidey is trying to do what he can to save Frank and to keep him from killing everyone. Nice branding on this since the movie came out this weekend.
The Greatest American Hero #1. Written by Don Handfield and art by Alper Geçgel. Cover A art was done by Rob Prior. Cover D art was done by Rafael Loureiro (Gold Medalist). This is basically the same story that was dropped on Free Comic Book Day which was my Comic of the Week that week. I love this book and I can’t wait for the story to move along in issue #2.
The Patron #1. Written by Christian Ward and art by John J. Pearson. Cover art was done by Christian Ward. This is a fascinating new book from Ignition Press. It is interesting that we do not really have a protagonist in this book. Instead we get a person behind the scenes to help promote a new artist… only to see that artist dead. New awesome premise that I am anxious to see play out.
X-Men #34. “Mark of Cain” Written by Jed MacKay and penciled by Greg Land. Cover art was done by Tony S. Daniel, Mark Morales, & Fer Sifuentes-Sujo. This issue gives us a look at Juggernaut and his thoughts on being a hero and, specifically, being an X-Man. It is a strong individual issue featuring an underused character from this current team. I was excited to see Juggernaut in this setting.
Mortal Thor #13. “An Endless Take of Asgard.” Written by Al Ewing and art by Juann Cabal. Cover art was done by Alex Ross. This was a strange issue as we get to see the future of Asgard with Magni assuming the throne of the kingdom. We went literally eons into the future to see how Magni reacts to the threats. Again, I am not sure how this falls under the “Mortal” Thor, but it was a fun read, even if it does not mean anything moving forward.
Detective Comics 2026 Annual #1. “For the Main Man Who Has Everything.” Written by Tom Taylor with art by Nicola Scott. Cover B art was done by Guillem March. Batman and Lobo team-up when the bounty hunter comes after Batman to collect a bounty. This was a fun one-off book with these two characters.
What if…? Spider-Man #1. “What If Kraven Survived his ‘Last Hunt?'” Written by J.M. DeMatteis with art by Yildiray Cinar. Cover art was done by Lucas Werneck. This latest What If..? was a well written book which dives into the story of Kraven and what happened in this context. I especially liked that they did not just leave Peter in the coffin. They had him dig himself out, but he had to deal with the mental challenges of being buried alive. Peter still was who he was at the end of this What If…? despite the chance to do something else. I like that.
Geiger #24. Creators are Geoff Johns & Gary Frank. Cover C art was done by Dean Haspiel. Tariq Geiger faced off against an army of Junkyard Joes and he winds up in chains. Little did we know, Geiger is being used as bait to attract President Griffin. Big battle in Geiger #25!!
Jessica Jones: Alias- Red Band #5. Written by Sam Humphries with art by Geraldo Borges. Cover art was done by David Mack. I love Jessica Jones, but, I have to be honest, this red band series has not been one that I am a big fan of. I am not into the inclusion of Typhoid Mary here and the whole Mephisto arc did not engage me that much. This is definitely my least favorite Jessica Jones mini series that Marvel has released.
Justice League: Knight Vision Special #1. Written by Mark Waid & Joshua Williamson with art by Miguel Mendonca. Cover C art was done by Mark Spears. This one-shot featured Batman teaming up with Lex Luthor to take on Prometheus. Batman and Lex with their banter was the highlight of the comic.
Generation X-23 #6. “Mutant Generation” Written by Jody Houser with art by Emilio Laiso. Cover art was done by Partha Pratim Sarkar & Romulo Fajardo Jr. I really enjoyed this issue of these new characters as Laura and Gabby lead them and try and inform them on how to be heroes. I liked these new X-characters and I hope they continue to develop these characters.
Black Star #1. Written by Kristin Kreuk, Peter Mooney, and Eric Putzer and illustrated by Joe Bocardo. Cover art was done by Martin Simmonds. In the 19th century fur trade, Dr. Dashiell Carlyle discovers he possesses unexpected magical healing abilities during a violent firefight.
Red Roots #4. Written, drawn and Cover art by Lorenzo De Felici. This was my favorite issue of this book so far as we finally get some idea of what’s going on with this book. The explanation of what the “Red Roots” was about was gripping. I hope this keeps getting better each issue.
Midknight Man #2. Written by Mark and Lucas Spears with art and cover art by Mark Spears. We are following Midknight Man as he searches for answers on who he really is. The mega feel of this book is great and Mark Spears has brought an enjoyable story to this character.
Predator Versus Planet of the Apes #1. Written by Greg Pak and art by Alan Robinson. Cover art was done by Stonehouse. Another fun Predator book where the Predator arrives and kills himself some apes. I have enjoyed other works with the Planet of the Apes and to see them match up with Predator.
Other books this week: Reborn: Ultimate Impact #3, Rocket Raccoon: Rocket Rewind #1, X-Men: Outback #2, Conan the Barbarian #33, Alice Forever After #5, In Your Skin #4, and Everybody Loves a Jewel Thief #3.
Quick Hits: Mad cave’s Is Ted Ok? #6 comes to the conclusion with this issue. It turned out to be quite a challenging issue and I am not sure how I felt of the end. The Horror of Godzilla #1 has some cool imagery in the book with a neat cover, but it is probably not going to be a book I pick up every month. We’ll see. With Queen in Black debuting this week, there are a bunch of side books such as Queen in Black: Hela #1 and Queen in Black: Defenders of Light and Dark #1. The second book of those was more interesting because of the cast which included cool characters such as Beta Ray Bill, Iron Man and Cloak and Dagger. Shard is back in the present with Bishop #2. Land of Never #2 is interesting as the Flying Man is being investigated and we are seeing Peter Pan in a new light. I picked Nano #1 off the stand on Wednesday. It is a new Dark Horse book with a strange future situation. I am not sure what is going on, but I do think that I am intrigued. Dead by Daylight #4 brought that series to an end for Titan Comics. Not my favorite of the books a month, but still fairly readable. The Eye Collector #2 continued to be a weird, wild book that is different than any book I collect. I do think I am going to continue with this one. Then, Pretty Hate Machine #4 gives us a major reveal about what was going on and it is a rough one. Only the Savage are Left #2 is quite the emotional issue and makes me ready to get the next issue.
I watched the fifth season of Rick and Morty on HBO Max this morning, moving my way through the series.
The last two episodes of the season, “Forgetting Sarick Mortshall” and “Rickmurai Jack,” really flipped the show on its head with a break-up of Rick and Morty, and the revenge of Evil Morty, aka the President of the Citadel.
I have to say, one of the things I love about Rick and Morty is how they use continuity and return to dangling plot lines from previous episodes, even previous seasons. When in episode “Rickdependence Spray” they sent the Giant Incest Baby into space, I knew it was coming back around sooner or later.
It makes sense that they need to shake up the status quo on Rick and Morty as they have gone for five seasons. You have to keep it fresh and much of this season did a decent job of that. There were several episodes that seemed to me to be very complex, maybe even overly complex. The whole “decoy families” in the episode “Mortyplicity” and the whole “Amortycan Grickfitti” episode felt too much.
Lots of obvious parodies of the season including Planetina (Captain Planet), the GoTron ferrets (Power Rangers/Voltron), and Changeformers (Transformers).
The rivalry between Rick and President Curtis is revisited in a weird episode where Rick tries to get the President to pardon him by turning himself into a turkey. They also mentioned that this is not the first thing that Rick pulled this trick. It was weird because during the course of the episode, Morty accidentally opens up the giant robot hidden in the Statue of Liberty. That was a story bit that really was never fully touched on.
I did like Mr. Nimbus, who seemed to be a parody of Prince Namor, the Sub Mariner. This was the first episode, which had a weird storyline with Morty going into a dimension in search of wine and how that affected the creatures of that dimension.
Overall, I liked this season more than I liked season four. I have seen some hints that Space Beth is going to be used in a storyline which is interesting. Maybe she can do something with Giant Incest Baby, which would be her grandson.
Some fun episodes from the second season highlighted the Muppet Show rewatch today.
Starting with the Rich Little episode. Honestly, his imitations of the Muppets were fairly weak. I have heard many better over the years. I did enjoy the final number where Rich Little sang as famous celebrities songs from musicals including “Singin’ in the Rain,” “Did You Ever?,” and “I Remember It Well.”
That first episode also started Gonzo’s affection for chickens, as he was auditioning them for a dancing act. Of course, these were live chickens.
Judy Collins came next and she sang a whole bunch of songs. I guess when you have someone with her voice, you try and use it as much as possible. The performance of “Send in the Clowns” is one of the most iconic guest songs of the show. I enjoyed her version of “I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly” too. It was neat seeing her do a piano duet with Rowlf with “Do-Re-Mi.”
We get the backstage storyline with Scooter’s uncle J. P. Grosse, who is ready to tear down the theater to put in a parking lot.
The Nancy Walker episode saw Kermit at home sick and Fozzie trying to run the show. Things do not go well for our favorite furry funnyman. My favorite bit was the accidental mixing of Veterinarian’s Hospital and At the Dance. They worked very well together.
Edgar Bergen brought his ventriloquism act to the Muppet Show, which fit in beautifully. Charlie McCarthy was very smart mouthed when it came to the Muppets. It was a lot of fun.
My favorite number on that episode was the “Time in a Bottle” song where the old scientist was making a formula to turn him younger.
Then, the best episode of this chunk was with Steve Martin. They took the typical Muppet formula and flipped it around as Kermit cancels the show for the night because they accidentally scheduled it on a night when they were supposed to be having auditions. Kermit sent the audience home and they spent the time auditioning new acts.
Steve Martin stuck around to “entertain the boys” and did a bunch of fun things from his act, including balloon animals, banjo playing, doing “Ramblin’ Guy.”
Some of the new acts we saw audition included Statler & Waldorf singing/dancing to “Varsity Rag,” a little girl named Carrie Louise and friend (who was a frog, and she would sing while the frog added the word ‘ribbit’ to the songs), Baskerville the Hound and his comedy act that reminded us all of Fozzie Bear and Marvin Suggs and his All Food Glee Club.
The show had removed the laugh track since the audience was gone and we would hear just a few guffaws from, apparently, the Muppeteers.
I loved how they took the format and tried something totally different and it really was a fresh episode.
I have been a big proponent of filming stage plays and releasing them as movies, like they did with Hamilton and Good Night and Good Luck: Live from Broadway. I believe this would be such an awesome thing, allowing those who may not have easy access to Broadway plays and the such to see the magic of a stage presentation, not just a movie with the story adapted into a movie script.
So when I saw that there would be a Tony Award winner was doing this, I wanted to make sure that I made my way to the theater to see it, even though it was a play that I had never heard of before.
Hadestown: The Musical was filmed in London and tells an updated story about the classic Greek myth with Orpheus and Eurydice. It kind of mixed that story in with the Hades and Persephone myth as well. and it is placed within the present day.
I did not recognize any of the actors involved, but they were spectacular, as was the overall presentation of the show. I loved the way they presented this story. The circular moving stage, much like they had in Hamilton, was such a fabulous tool to tell this story, especially when Orpheus was walking out of Hades, unsure if Eurydice was behind him. I heard some people in my theater gasp when Orpheus turned around.
The music is amazing. I had never heard any of the songs from this musical, but the music was fabulous.
The performances that stood out the most were André De Shields, who played Hermes and heavily a narrator of the film, and Patrick Page who played Hades. Patrick Page’s voice was absolutely tremendous as the God of the Underworld. Most of the time he would speak through the songs and it worked so well for him. He was amazing in this role. In fact, he was wearing a boot during the show and I came to find out that he had ruptured his Achilles tendon before the filming. He was able to do his performance with the boot and, apparently, a few adjustments. That speaks a lot to Patrick Page’s dedication to the show.
Reeve Carney was Orpheus and Eva Noblezada was Eurydice. Amber Grey played Persephone. They were all great. Nobody had a bad performance.
I had goosebumps after the opening number and some tears running down my face at the finale. It was able to present a classic tale in an emotional, powerhouse film.
I watched season three of Rick and Morty on HBO Max throughout the day today. I have not watched many episodes of Rick and Morty over the years, but I have seen some. This season included a few of the episodes that I had seen before.
Specifically, I have seen “Pickle Rick,” “Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender,” and, I believe, the season premiere “The Rickshank Rickdemption.” These were very strong episodes, but I remember the reason I did not consistently watch the show when it was originally on was because of the time it was on TV (Late night Sunday night).
The season long storyline of Jerry and Beth’s marriage falling apart saw the two of them planning a divorce, though they wind up back together at the end of the season. The last couple of episodes questioned whether or not Rick had cloned Beth and let her wander the universe to find herself. At the end of the finale, Rick claimed that Beth was not a clone. I am not sure I believe him. It feels like a storyline that could carry over the next several seasons even.
In “The Ricklantis Mixup” starts with Rick and Morty heading to Atlantis, but the episode did not follow them there as the show went to the new Citadel of Ricks and saw the struggles and conflicts between the Ricks and the Mortys. We see a new Morty elected president. It is another potential future arc for the show.
The “Morty’s Mind Blowers” episode was batshit crazy, using some old memories that Morty had erased from his mind. It was done as a replacement for the typically annual Interdimensional Cable episode that they had in both of the first two seasons.
One of the most iconic episode was “Pickle Rick.” I did not think that this episode, the one where Rick turned himself into a pickle in order to avoid family therapy, was this early in the overall series. I love this episode.
I did enjoy the battle between Rick and the President of the USA in “The Rickchurian Mortydate.” It was also funny how the conflict was resolved.
Overall, season three was tremendous. My favorite episode is “Pickle Rick” and my least favorite was “The ABC’s of Beth.”
I finished the first season of The Muppet Show with the final five episodes. It was an interesting group of guest stars including Valerie Harper, Twiggy, Kay Ballard, The Mummenschanz and EYG Hall of Famer Ethel Merman.
There was an extra guest star on the Ethel Merman episode. Richard Bradshaw, who did not appear on the actual show, was a puppeteer who worked with shadows. That was fun as it was kind of Muppet-ish.
My memory was that the Phantom of the Muppet Show came with Alice Cooper, but that was not the case. He was on the Twiggy episode. By the way, the Twiggy episode had a classic moment with the AA Milne poem “The King’s Breakfast” where the king just wanted some butter for his bread. It also had Twiggy singing a Beatles song. Really? She sang “My Life” which filled me with surprise and hatred at the same time.
Another classic was “Tit-willow” from the Gilbert and Sullivan’s show The Mikado, as done by Rowlf and Sam the Eagle (who did the “tit-willow” line). It’s another example of how the show took non-kids songs and such and made them for the Muppet Show. The show did Broadway show songs such as “Broadway Baby” done by Valerie Harper and a medley of Ethel Merman’s songs such as “Friendship,” “Anything You Can Do,” and “You’re the Top”, all with other Muppets.
The Kaye Ballard episode was fun as Floyd Pepper and the rest of the band wanted to quit because they were tired of playing the theme song (BLASPHEMY!). It was such a running gag that at the end of the episode, only Rowlf was playing the theme on the piano. How awesome that gag was.
Another running joke that was a hoot was Statler wanting to meet Valerie Harper, and brought her a special plant that, when watered, grew uncontrollably. Obviously that happened.
Gonzo the Great tried to get it on with Miss Piggy. That was kind of weird, and Kermit’s non-reaction was quite funny.
The Mummenschanz were awesome too as they have a lot in common with the Muppets. They way this group of theater performers who perform in a surreal mask- and prop-oriented style. I remember them clearly from the first time I saw them on the show. They were so memorable even though I do not think I have seen them in anything since.
The first season is now down and I will be heading to season two soon. I think that it is in season two when the opening theme song changed a bit. I think it was when Fozzie was removed and they went to Statler and Waldorf.
The Agents of Shield completed their final mission together and I wrapped up the rewatch of the Marvel show this afternoon. Agents of Shield was my favorite TV show for quite a few years after LOST left the air and I was always mad that they were so disrespected among the MCU. Agents of Shield was a consistently entertaining and exciting hour of TV with some of the best characters you would find.
The whole timeline mess was handled very smoothly with the use of the Quantum Realm to travel between the timelines. Fitz’s return to the show in episode 12 was amazing and gave us that one thing that was missing in this season, which was otherwise near perfect.
The Daisy and Sousa relationship developed beautifully and made sense for both characters. Coulson’s LMD questions about himself led to his own path at the end. May becoming one with her own empathy, and then making that be the weapon that brings the conflict with the Chronicoms to a close, was a great arc for this character and she still gets to deliver the bad ass line, “The Calvary” in response to Sibyl’s question, “What comes next?” May crashing in through a glass ceiling was epic.
It was great that the finale was able to see all of the team working together to accomplish their plan.
I do love that the team ended up, supposedly, in the timeline of the 616 universe. They all could be brought back to the MCU if they wanted. Quake, Yo Yo, Coulson, May all could have roles in a new MCU.
It was also nice to see that the show did not just forget Piper and Flint. In fact, they placed them in an important moment in the finale.
The whole time travel element of this show was done extremely well, and Fitz explained it perfectly. The TVA’s absence was a thing (of course, the TVA does not get introduced until many years later), but one could imaging that time is at any point.
Bringing Kora to Daisy, as sisters, did not seem like it was going to work out, but, in the end, she was a nice addition to the team. Deke finally wound up with the respect that he deserved and, apparently, the new director of Shield in the timeline where he stayed to save the others.
I had forgotten about Fitz and Simmons little daughter and it was a fun surprise when we were introduced to the daughter, Alya.
The use of a young John Garrett was clever too, and the bullet to his head immediately after teleporting the team out of the Lighthouse was both funny and appropriate. James Paxton did an excellent job playing this unhinged version of John Garrett, who was originally played during season one & two by his father, Bill Paxton.
Watching Coulson fly away in Lola at the end of the final episode was both thrilling and perfectly designed as a conclusion.
This was such a fabulous series that does not get the appreciation that it deserved. The chemistry among the stars was one of the key components of the success and why this show worked. In seven seasons, the show went against Hydra, went to another planet, into the future, into the past, prevented an alien invasion, went into a fake world, met up with Asgardians, a Ghost Rider, and a bunch of Kree. Agents of Shield is one of my favorite shows of all time.
Another strong run of four episodes of the Muppet Show consistently amaze me. I mentioned this earlier, but the material on the Muppet Show is so far advanced for a kids program that it goes to show you that you do not have to play down to kids.
In these four episodes, we got a song from Ben Vereen, Mister Cellophane, out of the Broadway play Chicago. Rowlf played a classical piano piece by Beethoven called Für Elise. The classic song Tenderly was performed in a distinctly rock format by Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem.
Crazy Harry was all over these episodes. He was the running gag in the Ben Vereen episode, constantly blowing things up when someone made a comment connected to explosions.
Veterinarian’s Hospital was on all these episodes. This is a classic bit that the Muppet Show made famous with Rowlf, Miss Piggy and Janice. They told some terrible jokes and laughed at them all.
The Candice Bergen episode featured some of the songs I remember on here including “Put Another Log on the Fire” and Piggy’s “What Now My Love.” Candice Bergen was not singing, and I was thinking, “Oh so she is not a singer so they are not making her sing” and then she did “You’ve Got to Have Friends.”
Piggy tried to make Kermit jealous by pretending to have a relationship with Avery Schreiber, which seemed to work until Scooter let the cat out of the bag. During this, we learn Miss Piggy’s true name, Pigathias- which means “River of Passion.” Other running jokes included Fozzie trapped in a box, Fozzie doing the “I’ve got a ____ for Kermit the Frog” bit, and Hilda worried about her age and appearance.
Sweetums made several appearances in this block of episodes including where he ate Candice Bergen’s camera and had an insult-off with Sir Avery (Schreiber).
Disney has been doing live-action remakes of their animated movies for decades now, but the most recent push of this trend started with Alice in Wonderland in 2010. Since then, we have gotten Maleficent, Cinderella, The Jungle Book, The Lion King (although it is technically all animated), Beauty and the Beast, Dumbo, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Mulan, Snow White, and Lilo & Stitch. This weekend, the most recent of the animated movies to receive this treatment debuted in theaters.
Moana, the animated series was released in 2016, and just under ten years later, the live-action film was made and released.
I did not watch the original animated Moana before going to see the new live-action film, which was probably a good idea. I believe if I had watched the animation, I would have not enjoyed the live action version at all. Fact is that the Moana live action is a complete recreation of the 2016 animated version with almost nothing new, and it would have stood out even more had I watched the animated movie in preparation for the new film.
Another problem with the film is that the look of the new film is nowhere near as vibrant and magical as the animated film. This looked like they had a lot of the live action actors filming in front of a green screen or an animated background, which you can see easily. The best section of the film was in the middle of Dwayne Johnson’s song “You’re Welcome” when they animated everything.
Catherine Laga’aia as Moana was probably my favorite part of the film as I thought she was lovely and I could not take my eyes off her. Her performance was solid, and I believe she has potential to be much better in future projects. Laga’aia had a presence on screen that really worked for me.
Dwayne Johnson, who I love so much, felt much more underwhelming than he did in the animated movie. There were times when he was noticeably more thick in the waist and torso area than he was in other moments of the film making me think they did some CGI with him, or perhaps put a muscle suit on him. It was noticeable, and not in a good way.
The songs were all decent, except for “Shiny” by Jemaine Clement as Tamatoa. I thought that sounded terrible, so bad that I wondered if it was the theater’s sound system that was causing the problem. The other songs sounded fine so I am not sure why this standout song sounded so poor to me.
I did enjoy the live action dance sequences showing off Polynesian culture, especially in the opening scenes. I wish the backgrounds would have helped amplify the beauty of the dance, but it did not help it at all.
While it sounds like I did not enjoy this movie, I did like it. It is the same movie as 2016’s Moana, and I loved that movie. It does feel like the same movie, but with less of that Disney magic. If you have never seen the animated movie, this would be a sufficient remake, but if you have Disney + and have never seen the animated movie, watch that version.
I was going to see The Invite at 4 PM today at Cinemark, but I wanted to do a movie in the afternoon to watch to waste the time. The movie that fit into that window the best was a movie that has been out for several weeks, but I had not seen. It was the new film from the Wayans Brothers, Scary Movie.
I was not sure if this was a movie that I wanted to see, because it just did not feel like it was a film that was in my wheelhouse. I had nearly gone a different time, but it just did not work out. So today would be the day for me to see the film from a previous franchise, returned to the public’s eye.
I definitely found a movie to waste my time with.
I hated the newest Scary Movie. Truly hated it.
The film parodied a bunch of horror movies over the last few years, specifically Scream as they used the Ghostface killer from that franchise. However, they also poked fun at It Follows, K-Pop Demon Hunters, M3GAN, Nosferatu, White Chicks, Sinners, Get Out, Wednesday (TV show on Netflix), Smile, The Substance, Terrifier 3, and several more. The problem was that none of the parodies had any cleverness to it and the writing was just poor.
The film was just drug jokes, dropping the n-word, sex jokes, and killing a bunch of people. None of them were funny at all. The only pieces that made me smile a bit were the meta jokes or the breaking of the fourth wall. However, they overdid these too.
I did not laugh at this movie and that is a sin for a comedy, especially a spoof film that has all kinds of leeway to be ridiculous. I was hoping that I would enjoy this with the return of the Wayans, but it was clear that I was just not going to.
I wanted to give this episode its own post since my memory of it was that it was a great episode. I am underestimating it, because this is, by far, my favorite episode of Agents of Shield from the entire seven season run.
Season seven has been using some overall themes for the previous episodes. Their first trip into the past was played like an old school b-movie type sci-fi. We got the black and white noir episode. There was the 1970s action show (which had to have an influence on WandaVision) and the 1980s sci-fi type film including max Headroom (which Coulson hilariously namedrops in this episode).
This one was Groundhogs Day mixed with Doctor Who. The thing was, it was so much more than just re-using the trope of repeating the day over and again.
It took the situation and gave us remarkable humor, much of it coming from the exquisite Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson, the LMD. It gave us a fantastic mystery about who was preventing the implant from being removed from Jemma Simmons’s head. It forwards the relationship between Daisy and Sousa. And it provided the most selfless self-sacrifice I have seen in ages with Enoch’s removal of a part from his own Chronicom body, leading to his death.
The episode is featured around Daisy, who was inside a healing pod at the beginning. She goes about the process of discovering that the Zephyr was trapped in a timestorm and was in danger of being wiped out of existence. The episode was wild, and then took another major step when she went to activate Couslon, who was recharging. He filled her in that this was not the first time that she had come to activate him and that she had died.
The frustration and annoyance of Coulson was extremely funny and delivered so perfectly by Gregg. It played right into the feelings that Coulson was having last episode where his predicament as an LMD was starting to get to him. The show added the character growth of Coulson into a list of amazing stuff this episode addressed.
Enoch was another standout of the episode. We discovered that he was the one killing the crew members to prevent the implant from being removed from Simmons’s head, and there were some of the best scenes of the episode as the team confronted Enoch and he fought back in the most amazing and hilarious ways. We did not see much, if any, of the actual fight, just the aftermath with the team scattered across the floor. They added the line “Deke’s dead” in one of them and it was such a gas.
Each time loop brought the Zephyr closer to the center of the timestorm, providing real jeopardy for the team and not just the trial and error until they figured it out. They did not have unlimited time. Time was ticking away.
There were two outstanding monologues during the episode. The first was Daniel Sousa’s explanation of why he stayed with Daisy as she slept. His explanation of wanting to be near “…people like Diasy” was such an awesome character moment and made allusions back to his time with Agent Carter, who he was clearly referencing. The second monologue was Enoch’s dying words, spoken to Coulson and Daisy, after he had pulled his electrochron displacement mechanism from out of his chest. I had tears during this moment. Who knew that I would have become so connected to this robot who was introduced in season five as a Chronicom sent to retrieve the team? Watching Enoch slowly succumb was heartbreaking and painful, while providing important healing for Coulson and Daisy. Joel Stoffer brought his amazing character to life here and you couldn’t have asked for a better heroic send off for Enoch than what he got.
Elizabeth Henstridge, who played Simmons, was the first time director of this episode, which was just a remarkable feat. She provided an exciting and energetic show despite many scenes needing to be repetitive because of the episode’s hook. Every time we got a repeat scene, something new was added. I have to shout out the entire cast as well as they had to repeat lines and adjust to the situation and they all did it wonderfully well.
I love this episode and I would put it at the top of the MCU TV show episodes along with Agatha All Along’s “Death’s Hand in Mine,” Moon Knight’s “Asylum,” WandaVision’s “We Interrupt This Program” and “Previously On,” and Loki’s “Journey Into Mystery” and “Glorious Purpose.”
Episode eight of the final season of the Agents of Shield finds the team in major trouble aboard the Zephyr-1 as the time drive was not working properly. It was making jumps in time at a quicker and quicker intervals, leading to the potential of collapsing on them.
Yo Yo’s power becomes a key to fixing the time drive, so Yo Yo and May go on a trip of discovery to try and get Yo Yo’s Inhuman powers back… which meant going to Afterlife to ask for help from Daisy’s mom, Jiaying.
This episode becomes an internal story of Yo Yo, her doubts, her guilt and how she had been holding herself back. The episode uses both Yo Yo and May in a great interaction, but only the way that they could do it.
As Yo Yo was discovering her inner truth, other problems and tidbits popped up for the show.
Simmons provided Sousa with a new prosthetic leg.
Coulson was becoming somewhat down on his LMD-ness.
We find out that Enoch can keep the tempo on drums.
Daisy is slowly healing from her traumatic situation at Nathaniel’s hands.
Nathaniel arrived at Afterlife, coming to recruit Kora to his side.
Kora asked how Nathaniel knew about her and Nathaniel told her it was his new friend, Sibyl.
Nathaniel and Kora have the Inhumans at Afterlife captive.
Simmons sends a emotional message to Fitz.
Yo Yo’s efforts with the time drive did not work and the Zephyr jumped again at the end of the episode.
I chose to only do this one episode for a couple of reasons. The first one was the time available was short, but the main reason was that, in my memory, episode nine of this season may be my favorite episode of the entire seven years, and I wanted to make sure to give that episode its flowers. And since I went ahead and watched “The Totally Excellent Adventures of Mack and The D” with episodes 4,5 & 6, instead of pairing it with this one, that meant I needed to do one by itself.
With Nathaniel and Kora setting themselves up as some “big-bads” for the last few episodes, this was an important episode to connect the series to where it was going.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 