Tag Archives: reviews

The Muppet Show S1 E4, E5, E6

Posted on by

Spoilers

Guest: Ruth Buzzi

Guest: Rita Moreno

Guest: Jim Nabors

Tonight, we came back to The Muppet Show for some more first season fun. Three celebrities on these shows included Ruth Buzzi, Rita Moreno and Jim Nabors. All three had songs including “Too Good to be True” (that Buzzi sung with Sweetums), “Fever” from Moreno and “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” (Nabors).

There are some weird things during these three episodes. One was Miss Piggy’s voice. I know they were not set on who was voicing her but it was weird during this first season to hear Piggy talk in her actual voice and then, the next scene, she spoke differently. Frank Oz was the long time Piggy voice performer, but there were sometimes that she was voiced by Richard Hunt.

Gopher showed up for the first time in episode 5, with an introduction. It was strange because he was in the first four episodes too. He kept using the joke about his uncle owning the theater, and using it to manipulate Kermit. Obviously, the original writing of these shows were not in the correct order.

Wayne and Wanda made their way into all three of these episodes. None of those numbers reached their conclusion.

Episode five featured a classic running joke with the backstage phone and Fozzie. The Muppet Show was notorious for their running jokes and this one was solid. Kermit even called it out so the audience understood the idea of a running joke (which they even had some people ran past).

There were a couple of acts that we see for the first time like Veterinarian’s Hospital and Marvin Suggs and his Muppetphones.

We got At the Dance in all of the episodes with the silly jokes. They deliver these lines with such a straight delivery that even some of the bad jokes turn out funny.

These Muppet Shows are great to revisit. The most iconic moment of these three episodes was the “Apache dance” routine that Rita Moreno did with her Muppet partner where she beat him up badly.

All seasons of the Muppet Show can be seen on Disney +.

The Muppet Show S1 E2, E3

Posted on by

Spoilers

Guest: Connie Stevens

Disney + gives me an option to skip the intro, but it will never be done. The opening theme is one of the best and most entertaining themes of all time. It is just like X-Men ’97, I will always watch the theme song.

The second episode the series has another classic song that I loved, which was “Lydia, the Tattooed Lady” sung by Kermit. That was the opening act in the show.

There was a running gag with Fozzie kept overhearing Gonzo asking people about his “Teddy Bear,” which is old and ratty, and Fozzie believed that they were all referring to him.

Ernie and Bert made a guest appearance from Sesame Street so Bert could sing a song with guest Connie Stevens (“Some Enchanted Evening”). Connie had sung Teenager in Love earlier in the episode with the back-up group, The Mutations, (Not the Temptations).

There was a cool version of “Ain’t Misbehavin'” sung by Floyd. I have a feeling this was one of those acts included in the British show replacing commericals.

Guest: Joel Grey

Episode three would have been the first place I saw Joel Grey, Broadway legend and EYG Hall of Famer. Grey did two songs, a version of Willkommen from Cabaret and Razzle Dazzle from Chicago. Both were great performances.

Fozzie was involved in the running backstage story again, which was that Fozzie was working on his act of telling a joke over any topic mentioned. He was becoming annoying backstage, but he wound up nailing it onstage after Statler and Waldorf tossed out the topic “anemia.”

Rowlf portrayed Sherlock Holmes in a skit about a murder. It was a cute bit.

Wayne and Wanda made their debut as a singing group, doing Stormy Weather. Wayne and Wanda would start their regular act where something horrible that wrecked their act here. Wayne and Wanda made a cameo appearance in the Connie Stevens episode but did not sing.

Love the Muppet Show and I am excited about continuing this rewatch.

Agents of Shield S5 E13-E21

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Principia,” “The Devil Complex,” “Rise and Shine,” “Inside Voices,” “The Honeymoon,” “All Roads Lead…,” “Option Two,” “The One Who Will Save Us All,” “The Force of Gravity,” “The End”

I have set a goal that I wanted to get through the rewatch of Agents of Shield this summer break, and so I sat down to finish off season today with a binge of the last 10 episodes.

A wild season that started off in the future with the earth destroyed, supposedly by Quake, the Destroyer of worlds, revealed the answer to all of that. It wasn’t Daisy that would shake the world apart, it would be Graviton.

I really loved the use of this secondary villain who has the power to be more than secondary. Graviton could control gravity and he was always cool in the comics. In Agents of Shield, I liked how they took General Talbot and made him into a decent variation of Graviton.

Talbot was always a fringe character that was an ally/enemy for Shield during the shows entire run, and they did a great job of using the Gravitonium, which was a season one storyline, and circle it back into a major item in season five.

This season was set up to be the final season of the show, as you could tell with the ay they left Coulson behind in Tahiti to spend his last few days/weeks with May. I never believed that he would die from this when I first saw the show, expecting the whole time to see him survive again. It really set up some powerfully emotional moments surrounding Coulson.

Fitz’s death at the end was powerful, but I knew the solution to it this time through. Having Fitz in suspended animation somewhere out in space was a clever way to write in a death scene without losing the actor.

The team really felt splintered through the year, with them all suffering PTSD of some sort from their trip to the future. Por Yo Yo was the epitome of this as she was anguishing over what her future self had told her, and she did some desperate things in an effort to prevent that future.

The show did make some references to Thanos in the MCU timeline, but it did not have any dustings happen. I would have liked this to have happened to help illustrate it more. This is the start of where Agents of Shield separated from the MCU main timeline, I believe. The movies did not ever mention the show, but the show did mention things that happened in the movies at times.

On to season 6, which is a shorter season of 13 episodes.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #74

Posted on by

Spoilers

The Boroughs

“The Mourning After”

Last week, in episode one of The Boroughs, I commented that I had hoped that Jack survived the attack of whatever that thing was. Sadly, as this week started, we learned that jack did not.

RIP Jack.

Sam, who discovered the creature “feeding” on Jack, became obsession (as one would) with trying to figure out what was going on. A trip to see Edward at the care facility gave Sam a clue… “The key is in the lights and the owls are in the wall.”

So Sam started tearing out the light fixtures in his house.

Jack’s death affected more than just Sam as we learned that Judy had been having an affair with Jack, and his death was causing her serious grief. Judy’s partner Art apparently knew about the affair but never confronted her in fear that she would leave him.

It led Art to a bizarre occurrence with a murder of crows. A huge murder of crows that circled the sky above him and like kamikazed themselves into the ground. Weird scene.

Renee pushed for an investigation when more quartz items turned up missing. Hank came back with a fake report from Albuquerque PD saying that they caught a guy with the missing items.

F- Hank.

Clearly, Hank has some kind of inside knowledge of what is going on in the Boroughs, and he is going out of his way to cover it up. He is easily the biggest piece of crap on this show.

Only Blaine Shaw comes close. Shaw showed up at Jack’s memorial and dropped some lies about how much Jack meant to him. It was sadly obvious how insincere he was being, but Shaw knows more than he is letting on too.

Wally got more bad news about his cancer, which has made its way into Wally’s liver. It left Wally searching for a miracle. Maybe Sam has found it.

The Boroughs has had two exceptional episodes filled with great actors and a captivating supernatural mystery. I know that there will be only one season as Netflix has cancelled season two of the show. I sure how the show did not leave off on a massive cliffhanger at the end of season one, because this is a show that I am fully engrossed in.

The Death of Robin Hood

Posted on by

Hugh Jackman played Old Man Robin Hood, much like when he was Old Man Logan in the movie Logan. Except this time, he is playing the big time asshole Robin Hood, who, despite the mythology behind Robin Hood, the man who “robbed from the rich and gave to the poor,” we learned that he was anything but that person.

The film certainly wanted to deconstruct the story behind Robin Hood, and this film does a good job of doing that very thing. There was no sign of Kevin Costner anywhere around.

The movie had some very violent and brutal scenes so we could accept Hugh Jackman as this horrendous character. Hugh Jackman does a fabulous job in this role. You could see the conflict at times when Old Man Robin Hood was thinking back upon the violence that he perpetrated.

However, The Death of Robin Hood turned out to be very slow throughout the whole film, and, dare I say, more boring than not. The whole essence of the film was down and dark, bordering on depressing, and there was little to cheer for.

Faith Delaney, who played little Margaret, was a nice highlight and the few scenes we got between her and Jackman were good. I think they were supposed to help lead toward Robin Hood’s redemption, but I do not think that is what they did. However, they were pretty solid together.

The ending was meant to be more emotional than what it turned out to be, and the whole (SPOILER) death scene (SPOILER… although it is in the title of the movie) was not an awesome moment.

Overall, The Death of Robin Hood was an interesting idea, but I do not think the execution of this movie matched the potential premise. Hugh Jackman was great as always (so was Bill Skarsgård as Little John/Edward), but that upside just did not manage to maintain throughout the film.

2.7 stars

Sovereign (2025)

Posted on by

June 20

Movie 20

I’m not sure how to feel about this one.

Sovereign was a film starring Nick Offerman and Jacob Tremblay that I found after an exhaustive search for a film this morning for the June Swoon 5. Nothing was tripping my trigger until I came across this movie on Hulu. I like both of the actors of this film (which also included Dennis Quaid) and it had a high Rotten Tomatoes score so I decided to put it on.

It was a film that I had a problem with becoming engaged with as the character played by Offerman, Jerry Kane, was such a brusque, unwavering individual with thoughts and opinions that were revolutionary or conspiratorial. It was clear that Jerry had been indoctrinating his son Joe (Tremblay) into his way of thinking, even though Joe did not always seem to be okay with the ideas.

Watching these two interact with the world and the eventual results of the choices was heartbreaking and very difficult to watch. The film certainly did not leave me with a positive feeling.

Both Nick Offerman and Jacob Tremblay played their roles brilliantly. There was a raw, visceral feel around the characters. Jerry stuck in his ways and lost in himself and Joe who could see a way out, but was tied to his father.

This film is based on a true crime drama and, as I said, I am split on it. I did not find the experience of watching Sovereign an enjoyable one, but the two main performances were so excellent that I am glad that I watched it. It did not leave me in a positive mindset, but there are a lot of strengths to the creation of the film including some wonder cinematography and direction that make the film special.

It is one of those movies that I am glad to have seen but never want to watch again.

Sarah’s Oil (2025)

Posted on by

June 19

Movie 19

Today is Juneteenth and, in honor of the holiday, I watched a movie called Sarah’s Oil, which was a film that had been on my Amazon Prime watchlist for awhile now. It was on there for so long because it sounded as if it was not going to be a movie that I was not going to like.

However, it was such a great film. I was fully engaged and entertained by the story, the characters, and the relationship between Sarah and Bert. I was in on the show immediately, and the time of the film just flew by.

According to IMDB, “The remarkable true story of eleven year old Sarah Rector, an African American girl born in Oklahoma Indian Territory in the early 1900s, who believes there is oil beneath the barren land she’s allotted and whose faith is proven right.”

Naya Desir-Johnson does a tremendous job as the titular character. I loved how this character was well-spoken and intelligent and not serving any fools. She has great chemistry with Zachary Levi, who played Bert Smith, a Texas wildcatter and con man. This center relationship is important to the movie and, while it is a basic story, they fit very well together.

The prevalent racism of the time (Early 1900s in Oklahoma) is dealt with in this movie and, while it is not out front, the reach of it is felt throughout the story. It is under practically every scene, especially those with people in the town. It just felt as if that was the way it was.

The film was exciting and tense, even though it does feel kind of predictable. The biopic does a really great job of presenting this story in an entertaining way.

Naya Desir-Johnson would have made the list for the “I See Kid Actors” Award last December had I seen this. She doesn’t win the award, but she absolutely deserved to be recognized.

Descendent (2025)

Posted on by

June 18

Movie 18

I found this movie while searching through Amazon Prime (technically it was on AMC +) for 2025 films that I missed. I had never heard of this movie, but the premise sounded intriguing so I put it on the June Swoon 5 playlist.

Descendent (which is a poor title in my opinion) was written and directed by Peter Cileila, starring Ross Marquand (Aaron from the Walking Dead, as well as a voice actor for the MCU) and Sarah Bolger.

According to IMDB, “A troubled LA school guard, haunted by family tragedy, experiences strange visions after a mysterious light appears in the sky. As his wife’s due date approaches, he races to face his demons before his growing obsession consumes him.“

I must warn you that this movie, though listed as sci-fi thriller, is really more of a character study and it does drag at times because of that. If you read that summary and thought the “mysterious lights” was going to accompany a lot of sci-fi moments, you would be incorrect. There are several sci-fi scenes, but it is not the core of the story.

That core is the psychological problems being dealt with by Sean (Ross Marquand) as his wife Andrea (Sarah Bolger) was having a baby. For me, these characters, especially Sean, were very intriguing and felt as if I wanted to know about them. Seeing how the sci-fi elements fit in the story was an extra treat.

Ross Marquand did a great job with the multiple issues facing Sean. He was confused and lost one moment and angry and off-balance the next. You wondered exactly what he might do during the whole film because of the traumas of his past.

I am not sure how I feel about the ending. The final shot made me wonder what was happening and disappointed that I would not find out.

This is a good film that makes a solid watch if you need something to do. I’m not sure it is worth searching out to see, but if you have AMC+ or can access it on Prime, it is worth it.

Widow’s Bay S1 E10

Posted on by

Spoilers

“We Hope You Enjoyed Your Time”

Widow’s Bay has been one of the best shows on TV recently. The Apple TV show was a real surprise with how wonderful it was. A wonderful blend of comedy and horror, Widow’s Bay ended their first season with a big twist.

All season long, I was making references to LOST with this show, and this episode drove those references wildly. We get a shot of what looked exactly like the moment when the hatch was opened and they were looking down the shaft. This was with Evan and his friends looked down the shaft. I recognized that shot right away.. it was just missing Jack and John looking down.

Another LOST allusion was the discovery of the film cannister explaining how to sacrifice people to the island. I said out loud after that scene ended that “We need to watch that again” which was a famous line said by both John Locke and Mr. Eko in LOST. This film in this episode was right out of the Dharma Initiative training.

There is also major issues about births on the two shows. On LOST, women could not successfully give birth on the Island and on Widow’s Bay, children born on the island can not leave or they would die. Just the idea that both shows refer to the Island as if it were a real person is a connection that is here.

There are times when I see things that remind me of LOST that are probably not there, or are just my own over-analysis. These are not the case. I refuse to believe that this is anything but an homage to LOST.

The whole Ruth is the final descendent of Richard Warren storyline brought us the big twist. The whole time Tom was in her house, preparing to do her in, I was holding my breath, hoping beyond all hope that he would not kill her. When Bechir left the bunker, I knew what he was going to do. The show tried to make you think that he was going to try and prevent Tom from killing Ruth, but I could see his motivation coming. I was shocked though when he shot her in the back of the head (apparently only glancing, though).

Making Ruth the “secret-mother” of Tom’s wife Lauren was a stroke of genius, which means, of course, that Evan is the last surviving descent of Warren, which immediately switches Tom’s motivation. It is probably a major storyline moving into season 2.

Ruth seemed to be able to survive all of these murder attempts, not falling victim to Tom’s tea poison and not dying after the sheriff shot her in the head. I sure hope she did survive the night, because she was awesome and who else is going to help Deidre up and down her steps?

Does that bell ringing at the end of the episode mean that the island wants 8 more sacrifices? That is sure what I took from it. I assume that Kenny was the first sacrifice, which is why the storm subdued in such a rapid fire moment.

Matthew Rhys was astonishing in this role all season, but his performance here was Emmy worthy.

I hope we do not have to wait too long for season two. The show has been renewed for a second season and no show on TV deserves one more than Widow’s Bay.

Hallow Road (2025)

Posted on by

June 17

Day 17

This morning, I watched a psychological thriller/horror film called Hallow Road, and it disturbed me. It was tense and taught, but I am not sure how I feel about the ending.

According to IMDB, “Two parents enter a race against time when they receive a distressing late-night phone call from their daughter after she caused a tragic car accident.”

The film featured two outstanding performances at the center of the story from Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys. When I saw Matthew Rhys attached to this film, I was excited as I am truly enjoying his work on Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay. I did not realize that Rosamund Pike was involved until the movie was underway.

Both Rhys and Pike were amazing as panicked parents responding to their daughter’s desperate phone call in the middle of the night. They each showed the entire gamut of emotions as the situation grew worse. Most of the movie took place with the parents inside their car, speaking to their daughter on the phone. The helplessness they felt came through with every new revelation and every unexpected twist.

When it became clear that this movie was taking a shift from compelling family drama into something more mysterious, I was not sure how to feel. While, the unnatural story beats worked as a surprise, I am not sure that it was the route I wanted to see the movie take. It was a sudden shift that, while teased, felt like it came out of nowhere.

However, the film was full of suspense the entire time and the result at the end was powerful. I wonder how powerful it could been if it did not have the twist of story.

The fantastic acting of Pike and Rhys carries this movie and they alone are reasons to see it. I found this on Hulu after a friend’s review from earlier this year.

Deep Water (2026)

Posted on by

I do love me some shark movies. Even the bad ones, which there are a lot, have their share of fun and wild moments. Deep Water, which is a return to form for Finnish film director Renny Harlin, has its share of moments and scares.

According to IMDB, “A group of international passengers en route from Los Angeles to Shanghai are forced to make an emergency landing in shark-infested waters. Now they must work together in hopes to overcome the frenzy of sharks drawn to the wreckage.”

There were a group of superficial characters that meant little to me, but there were some intriguing characters that I liked very much. Finally, there was at least one jerk who I wanted to become a shark-burger. Most of the characters were kind of dull, but I still found myself rooting for most of them.

I was shocked to see both Aaron Eckhart and Sir Ben Kingsley in this cast, as I felt as if this film was a B-level film at best. I still think that is the case, but it is always great to see Kingsley in anything.

There were enough interpersonal relationships between the characters to keep them from being more than juts chum for the sharks. Yes, the characters are not Martin Brody, Matt Hooper or Quint, but you can’t expect that type of writing in every shark movie.

I did think many of the shark attacks were silly at times, especially the one involving the helicopter, but their presence did create a sufficient amount of tension to keep the thin story afloat.

Harlin was unafraid to kill off characters in many different ways, and it did feel as if any of them were ripe for being eaten (or drowned). The stakes are absolutely off the charts.

Sure, there are basic story beats that you see over and again in shark movies, but they do work overall here and the plane crash that led before the sharks, was excellent.

I enjoyed this movie and the film hit me in the feels at the end, which is really should have. I think this is a solid shark movie and I am happy to have rented it on Fandango at Home.

3.75 stars

Ash (2025)

Posted on by

June 16

Day 16

Today kicks off the second half of this year’s June Swoon 5 with a sci-fi/horror film on Hulu called Ash. Directed and scored by Flying Lotus, a DJ, rapper, filmmaker and record producer, Ash feels like a mixed bag.

According to IMDB, “A woman wakes up on a distant planet and finds the crew of her space station viciously killed. Her investigation into what happened sets in motion a terrifying chain of events.“

The good parts of Ash included the lead performance from Eiza González as Riya, the woman who wakes up and is confused by the gore and death around her. González did a very strong job of expressing her confusion and fear of the situation that she found herself in.

Another positive is the look and the sound of the film. The score made the film standout from some of the other entries in the subgenre of space monster/horror. The score kept the audience on their toes and uneasy as the mysteries unfurled around Riya. The film’s special effects and imagery was also top notch as everything, especially the body horror aspects of the film, looked specifically frightening or horrendous.

The biggest problem is that this movie, story wise, does not even try to attempt something different than what we have seen before. There are scenes that feel as if they were taken directly out of Alien or The Thing or Event Horizon or Cloverfield: Paradox or many other space monster films.

The film leaned hard on cliches throughout the entire movie. Riya had amnesia at the beginning after awakening to find everyone dead. I mean… was there ever any question about what had happened here? Aaron Paul’s character Brion was very cliche as well. The only thing not cliche about him was that he spelled his name with an “o” instead of an “a.”

The film was only 1 hour and 35 minutes long, but it felt much longer than that. It dragged through the first two thirds of the movie before a fairly spry final act helped pick up the action. I am not opposed to slow burns, but there needed to be something more entertaining during that slow burn to engage my mind. This did not have it.

The film looked great, sounded great and had a decent lead performance, but there is just not enough of anything else to make this anything but a forgettable flick.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #73

Posted on by

June 14

Spoilers

The Boroughs

“Welcome to the Boroughs”

There are times when I am not happy with the concept of the Sunday Morning Sidewalk. The idea was one episode every Sunday morning for TV shows that I have not seen. Every once in awhile, I come across a show where I desperately want to watch the next episode. The Boroughs is the latest example.

The Boroughs is an 8-episode series on Netflix from the Duffer Brothers (of Stranger Things fame) and when episode one ended, I was wishing it was next Sunday right now.

Taking all of my willpower, I shut off the show, preventing myself from binging it all day long on this lazy Sunday where my schedule is fairly open.

The show centers around a retirement community called The Boroughs and a group of older characters who live there. However, there is some kind of weird, supernatural aspect to the show and, as Ed Bagley Jr. said, “There are owls in the walls.”

If you know about me, I love the evil owl metaphor. On Twin Peaks, the Owls were not what they seemed, and this certainly hooked me immediately.

I was also impressed with how quickly I was able to connect with the characters. They were all so great that, even those that did not get a lot of details, were ones I felt tied to. Such an amazing cast with Alfred Molina, Bill Pullman, Alfre Woodard, Denis O’Hare, Geena Davis, Jane Kaczmarek, Clarke Peters, Dee Wallace, and Eric Edelstein.

The supernatural mystery was not the main component of episode one. It was the introduction of Sam Cooper, played by Alfred Molina, the widower whose wife had signed the contract to move to the Boroughs. The gruff and grizzled man did not want to be in this community, and he was looking for a way out.

I have to say that I loved Bill Pullman’s Jack Willard. He was such a wonderful breath of fresh air in the episode and his kindness toward Sam was very inspiring. I really hope that the creature that was seemingly feeding off Jack at the end of episode one did not kill him.

What is going on in this community? Is there something sinister with the people who organized the community or is there something about the land? Anything is possible, and I am so in with this. As I said, if this was not the Sunday Morning Sidewalk, I’d be well into episode two by now.

Can’t wait for next Sunday.

Arco (2025)

Posted on by

June 13

Day 13

Last year when the Academy Award nominations came out, there was one film among the Best Animated Feature category that I had never heard of before. It was a French film called Arco. I placed it on the list for the June Swoon 5 immediately.

I found it streaming on Hulu and watched it this morning with the English dubbed version. I typically am not a fan of the dubbed version, preferring the original voices. However, since it was an animated film, I decided it would not be as jarring as a live action dubbed film would be. Plus, the voice cast seemed very impressive with Will Farrell, Juliano Krue Valdi (who played young Michael Jackson in the biopic film, Michael), Mark Ruffalo, Natalie Portman, Andy Samberg, Flea, and America Ferrera.

According to IMDB, “In 2075, a girl witnesses a mysterious boy in a rainbow suit fall from the sky. He comes from an idyllic far future where time travel is possible. She shelters him and will do whatever it takes to help him return to his time.”

The voice of Iris, the young girl who discovered Arco, was done by Romy Fay, a talented voice actor and singer-songwriter.

The film has several underlying themes in the story that kind of take a back seat to the lost in time aspect for Arco and iris. Some of the characters do not have the depth that they required, but they do seem to work together to form a tapestry of color and creativity. The imagery of the rainbows are lovely and the friendship between Arco and Iris is sweet, even if the backdrop of the world is horrific.

The oddball trio, led by the voice of Will Farrell, feels like something right out of anime. In fact, this reminded me of a Studio Ghibli film, only considerably shorter.

Arco was an enjoyable enough film that had a good message with some amazing visuals. I can see why it received an Oscar nomination.

Merrily We Roll Along (2025)

Posted on by

June 12

Day 12

I repeat what I said earlier this week, I wish there were more examples of films like this. Not just adaptations of Broadway plays into film versions, but the actual play recorded live and put on the screen.

Earlier in the June Swoon 5, I watched Good Night, and Good Luck: Live From Broadway, which was starring George Clooney and it was awesome to see it in the way that it was shown on the Broadway stage. Today, I added another stage play filmed as it was to the list.

Merrily We Roll Along was a Tony-winning Broadway musical from Stephen Sondheim, including Tony-winning performances from Jonathan Groff and Daniel Radcliffe. It was available on Netflix and it has been waiting on my queue for June to begin.

According to IMDB, “Spanning three decades, the turbulent relationship between a composer and his two lifelong friends, a writer and a lyricist and playwright.”

The story is told in reverse chronological order, as we start at the point where the relationship between Franklin (Groff), Charley (Radcliffe) and Mary (Lindsay Mendez) was collapsing and we travel back over two decades through the play. It was a remarkable technique as it would make every scene from the past both hopeful and sad at the same time.

Jonathan Groff was sensational as the lead role of Franklin Shepard. His voice, as we have known from his roles in Frozen and Hamilton, is sublime. I did not know, however, that Daniel Radcliffe, our forever Harry Potter, could sing like he does here. In fact, one of my favorite songs was early in the play and I thought to myself, “Well, there’s why he won the Tony.”

The story itself was woven together beautifully, as it is not just writing the story normally and then reversing it. The foreshadowing from the scene of the past take on a new life in this order, meaning even more to the audience than if it were told in a typical structure.

I want more Broadway plays to be shot on film and shown nationwide, and with the proliferation of the streaming services out there, I wouldn’t think that there would be a lack of a forum for presentation.